My E36...

[X5X]

Love the calipers!

[BenKoflach]

With our track evening tomorrow I thought the weekend just gone would be a good one to get the Touring ready... nothing like a last minute rush!

Aside from cleaning it, it was in need of a bit of love. It's been misfiring very occasionally recently and I knew the plugs were due for a change, so that was my first job.



The old plugs had definitely seen better days!



Still, they're all consistant in colour and wear, and it looks like the engine is running pretty sweetly, as you'd expect.



I also drilled my towing eye cover so that I can run it with the eye attached, just looks neater and I have a spare at home so I can swap it in after the track day.



Made some other key changes too but more on that next time

[BenKoflach]

So yesterday was my first track event in the Touring - Brands Hatch for the PBMW track evening in fact! I haven't got many pics for now but despite a dying diff and a few doubts on my part, the car performed flawlessly

Had a touch of understeer but hopefully a decent alignment session might help sort that, and it was nothing that couldn't be steered with the throttle. Overall the handling was very balanced and grip broke gradually when it did (which took quite a bit of trying!) - very confidence inspiring and a doddle to drive!

The new brakes were just awesome as well, I think I could have braked much later if I was feeling a little braver, but I was still out-braking pretty much everything with no dramas. Even overtook an E34 M5 a couple of times, and several track-prepped 328s etc, getting quicker and quicker during the evening.

The Touring seemed to absolutely love it - literally the only things that went wrong were that towards the end it suffered a touch of fuel starvation round Graham Hill and that randomly my rear windscreen washer seeped out a bit of fluid every now and then. I was doing 7-8 laps at a time then a cooling down lap, before bringing it in for a rest. I think I did about 8 of those, so quite a few laps!

I've only got a couple of photos for now but more will come later. Pics are by our work experience guy James Heaney-Mitchell.













Absolutely hooked now... So I shall be looking into some more track time soon!

[Anonymoose]

Good stuff! So gutted I can't see your pics at work and that we don't have internet/computer at home, nice reading the ton of stuff your always doing to the touring though

[BenKoflach]

Good stuff! So gutted I can't see your pics at work and that we don't have internet/computer at home, nice reading the ton of stuff your always doing to the touring though

You'll have to come see it in the flesh in September! We're doing a huge show and track event with Forge Motorsport and PVW/Retro Cars/Banzai etc, should be a pretty huge event.

Not much more to come on the Touring front really, starting to feel (dare I say it) nearly finished!

[Razch]

Can you add a direct link to those angel eyes of yours? Cant seem to find them...

And what an unreal touring! Was about to go get a e36 coupe as my first car, but this car made me think ^^,

[600whp s4]

loooove tourings e36 wish we had them in the states

[BenKoflach]

Can you add a direct link to those angel eyes of yours? Cant seem to find them...

And what an unreal touring! Was about to go get a e36 coupe as my first car, but this car made me think ^^,

Best thing to do is email Hidesh at CPD (http://www.carproductsdirect.com/)

Haven't updated this for a bit! Although nothing much has happened, I've been spending my weekends helping do a Ford gearbox conversion on this:



Also, I've realised I never posted any shots of my new seat. Here it is, all dusty where it had been sitting in my room for about a year, and I hadn't fitted the seatbelt yet.



And from the back, sorry for the Instagram pic.



Blair (of Dynotorque/LS1 E46 fame) also sent me an oil pressure sender so that I could get my last non-working gauge wired up. I needed one of these to fit it:



So I took the oil light sensor out



Fitted the remote sender block



Wired it up



And hey presto, just got to earth the sender body and it's done.



Also, in all the rain/flooding recently, I've somehow lost my front plate, so I'm relying on an old pressed plate that got damaged, which I've stuck in the front windscreen. The new trim panel was £25 from the dealers - ouch! Just need to order up a new plate and it's done.

[BenKoflach]

Trying to get my Static+ sorted out.



Unfortunately there's an air leak somewhere and I can't for the life of me find it, but I will!

Also this weekend I panted my engine cover cracle black, unfortunately it's come out very glossy so may have to give it a coat of matt, then I want to do the raised bits in yellow to match my brakes. Any opinions?



Also, thanks to ripping my bumper off, it was held on with cable ties for the last couple of months. It's now attached with all new clips from BMW, just need to do the arch liners etc but will probably have the bumper repainted first. For the same reason I won't yet be fitting my M3 splitter (also brand new from BMW).





Small updates, my new plates came through last week so I fitted the front straight away (on the new trim piece from BMW... the local dealers are sick of the sight of me!), then replaced the rear on Tuesday night and also gave the Touring a quick clean and polish for Prept on Wednesday.

No pic of the front, it's been lost in the bowels of my phone somehow, but here they are.



And the rear fitted - I cleaned off all the old sticky stuff, was a complete pain in the arse, but did it then degreased the area behind the plate and applied the new one.



And finally, I bought this and will be fitting it soon - once I've had the fitting bracket machined down a bit.



I had an oil catch can laying around at home so thought I'd fit it. The M50manifold.com conversion kit, as it's catered for US cars, left my coke canister solenoid/breather hose with nothing to connect to, which isn't really a problem, but I thought I may as well hook that up to the catch can for now to see if any fluid comes out. If there's no need for a catch can on that, which I don't think there should be, then I'll hook it up properly in between the oil breather and intake.

The clear-looking hose came with the catch can, here it is hooked up to the coke canister solenoid.



The catch tank came without any kind of bracketry for fitting, just a huge jubilee clip, so I decided to mount it to the back of my induction heat shield.

This meant drilling a hole (there was already one, so just needed another) for the jubilee to pass through. Not as neat as I'd like but it'll do.



Gave it a lick of paint then mounted up the can. I cut up a bicycle inner tube and placed strips under the clip and between the can and heatshield, just stops things moving about and also stops them scraping eachother.



And finally installed.

[stinkinrich]

Great updates as usual Ben, loving the track pics too! Good to see a fellow S/W member getting into it!

Whats this big event coming up you speak of?

[BenKoflach]

Great updates as usual Ben, loving the track pics too! Good to see a fellow S/W member getting into it!

Whats this big event coming up you speak of?

Where? Lol

And thanks

[stinkinrich]

You'll have to come see it in the flesh in September! We're doing a huge show and track event with Forge Motorsport and PVW/Retro Cars/Banzai etc, should be a pretty huge event.

[BenKoflach]

Ah I see, sorry.

8th of September, Castle Combe. We're doing a huge all-day event in association with Forge, so will include lots of space for static show car type stuff, track time etc etc. And will bring the whole UK modified car scene together, apart from the crap stuff hopefully

[Dr.AK]

Love your Tourer, mate!

Esp. the recent track-stuff... might be going a similar route with mine next year... or more likely a different wagon which I'm planning to buy for daily duties next year, would do that up for a bit of track-ability, as I feel the Nürburgring calling me

[BenKoflach]

Love your Tourer, mate!

Esp. the recent track-stuff... might be going a similar route with mine next year... or more likely a different wagon which I'm planning to buy for daily duties next year, would do that up for a bit of track-ability, as I feel the Nürburgring calling me

Thanks! Yeah do it, so much good fun. I miss being low but being able to drive it hard makes up for it.

The Nürburgring is calling me too at some point