Straight outta Germany - Vol 2: E36 Touring

[Dr.AK]

So...

what's happening here?


A few months ago I tried getting the car to run and discovered that it's blowing exhaust into the coolant after I had dropped in an all new cooling system. Pushed it back into the shed and forgot about it again.




Now it's finally time for it to go back on the road. For the time being, I'll have a look at the current engine, see if I can get it fixed. Probably the headgasket. As soon as I get some time, I'll be opening up the engine to have a look. I had been entertaining thoughts of an engine and transmission swap, but at the moment there's just no nice parts cars on the market.

In the mean time... I needed to have my front bumper resprayed anyways, but I'm thinking I'll take this as a chance to go a different route in terms of bumpers... stay tuned.

Also, I'm building a set of RH wheels as I had a spare set kicking around and I'm building it to 9x17 and 10x17 for the E36, going for fully polished. I will of course be keeping the BBS, but I just want something else to run for at least a season as I've kinda grown tired of the look of the car on the RFs.



I hope to have it done in time for DMPD in September, but if not, it'll be ready for next year's season at least.

[Dr.AK]

Not really, no.

I've been throwing around some vague thoughts of selling it for some other project but I just can't part with it, because I'm just too attached to it. Will start taking it apart for a new rebuild once I've got the 5 done, so expect updates around spring.

I did find some rust aroudn the jacking points that needs taking care of when I swapped over to the steel wheels a few ago, though.

At the moment I'm thinking complete tear down, fix all bodywork issues, get a new engine (still undecided what route i'll go here, but i'll take my time with a decision), maybe build up another set of wheels just to change things up from the RFs. Expect it to be back on the road by 2016 at the earliest.

[Earl]

Have you spent any time looking at this lately? =)

[NathanE-94]

Just read the whole thread in like an hour and a half...doesn't take long even though that was years of your life haha!!
Phucking sick tourer dude, WAGON LOVE <3!!
Pity that the engine has had it, but you'll sort it out, I'm sure, after reading the entire thread I have every faith in you bro!! Also, I done German in school for five years and I can understand nill now...bad times!! haha

Regards,
Nath

[BennyVIP]

I vote for Mad stroker M50 in it! or turbo one.. M50 Iron block M57D30TU Crank, non vanos head +12,5CR + Enem cams, with solid lifters! make it M3 killer! M50!

Well, engine swaps in germany are expensive, especially when you want to turbo one and driving it legal.

But anyway,
you will fix it somehow!

[Exami]

I vote for Mad stroker M50 in it! or turbo one.. M50 Iron block M57D30TU Crank, non vanos head +12,5CR + Enem cams, with solid lifters! make it M3 killer! M50!

[René Poulsen]

thats bummer!

hope to soon it Again soon.

[Nagah]

Sad to hear that mate. No idea what I would do in that situation. Save the hassle and get the same engine again, or do the cool route (but waaaa~y more difficult in Germany) and get something really funny in there.

Drop a rotary in there.

[SanderZ]

that sucks, hope you keep it. Love to see it back on the road!

[h3llk1t3]

Sadface, but hey, now there is a legit reason to JZ power it!

Ooooooor time to get that Cresta imported! <3

[Dr.AK]

Back home, FINALLY.





I think the engine is shot. Drove it a few meters and it stinks like coolant from the exhaust and the engine just kind of feels weird and it has burned through at least 2 liters of oil on the trip to Bavaria.

I'll let it sit for a bit while I build my new E39 daily and then I'll do a rebuild of the whole car. Will be replacing the engine then. Not sure with what yet... I think it should run again by 2016, maybe 2017...

[Minuki]

Silly Bastien is silly!

[Dr.AK]

I **** this poo pile.

A friend asked me last week if I was game for a roadtrip to pick up a new project car for him. "Sure, roadtrips are awesome!" I thought and so I went and picked him up and we set out to the deepest corner of Bavaria, 670kms away.



Quick stop for some breakfast at a rest stop...



On the way we spotted this i8 hybrid test vehicle (said so on the stickers on the car) on the Autobahn, driver gave me a thumbs up for my Touring. My friend shot this picture with a potato, obviously.




But then... a short distance behind Munich... traffic jam.

The head started rising. But it didn't go into the red, so I wasn't too worried... then all of a sudden, my car starts spewing smoke from under the hood, temp shoots into the red. I pull over and try to let it cool down a bit... but i'm stopped smack in the middle of a off-ramp. So we decided to at least drive slowly down the ramp... noticed that the engine was making scary noises (rattling) over 1800rpm. So we stopped, let the engine cool down a bit and tried to start it again - temp still didn't go down. So we checked the radiator and voila - no more water. Tried to pour some in, but it flowed through it, it seems there's now a hole in the bottom. Also tried opening the oil filler cap and the engine was smoking heavily out the oil filler...



So we called the ADAC (German equivalent to the AAA) and the car was towed to the towing company's place.





The car will be brought to my place (660km away) sometime in the next week. In the meantime, the ADAC gave us a free rental - but we had to pick it up in Munich, so we had to backtrack a bit, riding in a taxi... Rental they provided was a Golf Mk7 1.2 TSI...







So we thought 'what now?'. Since we were in the area anyways (just 90km short of our goal) we figured we'd at least go look at the car and drove over there. Seller wasn't home anymore, but the car was parked outside so we looked at it and deemed it good enough. Rented a hotel room for the night and picked the car up the next morning.


















While driving to the seller from our Hotel, our satnav sent us straight throug Austria (just a few minutes away from where we were staying and where the car was located)





Awesome roads.






Finally got there.



The car we were picking up for my friend is a Mk3 Golf - but a rare one, a 2-door Syncro, that means AWD. My friend has been wanting one for years.




So, filling up for the way home...





But of course, what would be our trip home without problems? After 200km we stopped at a rest stop and noticed that the Mk3s rear wheel well was smoking. Didn't have any tools, so we tried driving slower and my friend tried to not use the foot brake at all and only used the foot brake in emergencys. Worked out fine.



A few more traffic jams later we were finally home - about 9 hours later. For a 670km trip... which should've normally taken us 6.5 hours.






Checking how hot the wheel got in the rear... ugh.




So... quite a shitty weekend. Once the 3 is back home, I'll take it apart and check the damage. Suspect a blown head gasket due to the smoke out of the oil filler, imho that should only happen when there's moisture in the engine. Maybe even more damage.. we'll see.

No idea yet what to do with it, but it looks like I'm keeping it... can't very well sell it with a damaged engine... I suspect I'll end up doing a complete rebuild on the car.

[Mehowski]

Amazing car, don't sell it! Us Europeans are blessed to have the e36 Touring, the Americans always say how they wish they were imported to the states haha
Very nice thread too, looking forward to seeing future updates

[Minuki]

Sell it and you die