Simple M3

[bwwaaaa]

Weird Flexes

So I’ve mostly left the M3 sitting. I drive it around every once in a while to keep things going, but I haven’t otherwise been doing much. Two small updates however.

First I picked up a Bonrath mono wiper conversion. A friend of mine found it on eBay Germany, sent it to me. After thinking about it for about 30 seconds I bought it. It needs some refurbishment, and I’m actually not 100% sure if it will actually work. But it would be cool to have a single wiper just like the actual STW cars. So more on that when I get around to actually fussing with it.

Second, I have a working radio! I picked up a CD43 from someone local. It came out of their Z3 Coupe, and works perfectly. For those thinking of sending their OEM headunits in for repair with German Audio Works, just don’t. I’m stoked to have an OEM headunit that works now, it may be a weird thing to insist on having but I **** the look of aftermarket radios. So this was an incredible win for me. It works perfectly, sounds great, what more could I ask for?

The car is actually going to a shop today for a few driveshaft repairs. New guibo, CSB, trans mounts, etc. Nothing I couldn’t do at home, but without a lift it’s a real pain. So they’ll be buttoning that all up for me and hopefully the car is finally mechanically sorted.

Also per everyone’s suggestion, I am now on the hunt for some comfortable but supportive bucket seats. Looking at the Recaro Profis currently, it’s just hard to commit to ordering them without testing first. Hoping to hit up my first track day at the end of October when things cool off a bit here in Arizona.

[bwwaaaa]

Like what I said to Fruttolo, I tried the Recaro Profi XL and they're pretty comfy for a fat person like myself (I don't wanna say you're fat, but if they're comfy for me they're for everyone).
They're pretty comfy for a bucket seat, but the real MVP is the inflatable lumbar support. I was skeptical at first but damn if it change your life!

Thanks! I'll keep it under consideration. I've been very big on the whole OEM+ thing, but after a certain point I think I'm willing to sacrifice some looks to drop weight in the car and not slide around on the leather haha. Though I have a few more important things to take care of until I get to that point.

Radio Woes

You may remember I mentioned earlier that I was having some headaches with my radio repair. I sent the stock unit (which was having problems) out for repair. The business I sent it to basically made it worse, refused to take responsibility, and now we're dealing with a credit card charge back and all sorts of fun stuff. It's annoying. I didn't want to buy another radio or try to fix this one again until that was resolved, but I was also sick of looking at the hole in the dashboard.

So I decided to order the OEM radio delete plate. It is not a permanent solution, I would like to have a radio in the car again at some point. But at least it cleans up the dash, and lets me pretend I have an LTW for a little bit.

[DawsonLiri]

I thought about going the bucket route, but I’ve yet to find a bucket seat I’m super comfortable in. Given the direction this car is headed, it may be my only option though haha.

Like what I said to Fruttolo, I tried the Recaro Profi XL and they're pretty comfy for a fat person like myself (I don't wanna say you're fat, but if they're comfy for me they're for everyone).
They're pretty comfy for a bucket seat, but the real MVP is the inflatable lumbar support. I was skeptical at first but damn if it change your life!

[bwwaaaa]

Paint the very red thing silver and slap a "bmw motorsport" sticker on it please
Other than that I'm with you, put my extinguisher on a year ago and it's nice to know I can at least try to do something if anything happens

Hmm, I do have some leftover Titanium silver paint from my fog light deletes. I may just do that to make it a little less obvious. Good idea!

As someone who's had a small fire onboard and used a fire extinguisher... good choice. Shit saved me from burning down my Nova once, and that was reason enough to outfit all of the "toy" cars.

Thanks! To be honest I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before now on other projects. Shit happens with old cars, best to be prepared.

Tuned

So another small update today. Yesterday RKtunes finally sent my file back for the M3. The tune, as best as I can tell, is 100% placebo. Maybe it's because it's so hot here in AZ right now (109 yesterday), but after a lengthy test drive I found myself more impressed with my ceramic tint than I was with the tune. I know you can't expect much from an old NA car with a handful of intake bolt ons, but it seems to be about the same. But that's just fine with me, because I actually primarily ended up tuning the car to code out the SAP.

Since I bought the car, it would throw these codes constantly. A common fault for E36s, and I wasn't really willing to spend the money to replace the pump anyways. For the same price I could tune it out and (theoretically) get a little more power out of the car.

So for the first time since I bought the car, I am now CEL free. I suppose it's nice to know the car is also appropriately tuned for the manifold now, but as far as I can tell, in our heat soaked desert, it feels the same as before.

Now I get to go back to focusing on matters like "Why does my car handle like shit" and "What is that clunking noise?"

[MommysLittleMonster]

As someone who's had a small fire onboard and used a fire extinguisher... good choice. Shit saved me from burning down my Nova once, and that was reason enough to outfit all of the "toy" cars.

[Fruttolo]

Paint the very red thing silver and slap a "bmw motorsport" sticker on it please
Other than that I'm with you, put my extinguisher on a year ago and it's nice to know I can at least try to do something if anything happens

[bwwaaaa]

Health and Safety

So a while back, when the car was gushing oil, some got on my exhaust and would smoke pretty badly. It obviously put the fear of fire in me, and I started thinking that it’d be nice to carry a fire extinguisher on board. I forgot about it for a while, and then some friends shared a video of a GT350 burning down at a track day, and it got me thinking, it’s cheap insurance to have an extinguisher on board. I rather make a mess and save the car.

I ordered a floor mounted bracket from VAC Motorosports. It’s advertised for the E36 and E46 chassis. I got it with a 2.5lb auto rated fire extinguisher from them as well, it came with a mount that lines up perfectly with the holes in the bracket.

I decided to put it on the passenger side, since I don’t often have passengers anyways. I did have some concern that it could burn the shit out of someone’s leg in the Arizona summer, but that’s a problem for future me to figure out. In the meantime, I now have some peace of mind. I’m not actually sure realistically how useful this extinguisher will be for anything other than a small electrical fire maybe. Any large fluid fire will easily out pace a 2.5lb I feel like. Also, I guess this is the only splash of color in my otherwise monochromatic car. Everything is silver and black, except this one very, very red thing.

I was hoping I’d also have the tune done by this update, but that will wait for another post.

[bwwaaaa]

Those look like some nice fun roads to drive on. Also what exhaust are you running?
Vader seats are pretty damn nice you should definately pick some up if you find some

The exhaust is a UUC system U with the DTM tips. I picked it up used off of a local part out. Sounds great in short doses, but after a couple hours of beating on the car I was pretty sick of it. I did just discover I may have an exhaust leak though, so I’ll check that out and see if it helps first.

I am firmly against vaders for driver cars, yeah they are hype af and look proper but not much more restrictive than normal seats, and they weight a metric ton each...nothing beats a bucket when you start to push it hard. A nice fixed back seat with low sides for easy in/out is where I'd go, especially with this being a sedan so rear seats would be still useable

I thought about going the bucket route, but I’ve yet to find a bucket seat I’m super comfortable in. Given the direction this car is headed, it may be my only option though haha.

I'm not a fan of Vaders in sedans. The sport seats are more comfortable than Vaders anyway. Aftermarket is probably the way to go if you want cloth.

Awesome project and cool to see this getting more and more sorted out.

Thanks!

I think if I went the cloth route I’d just have my seats reupholstered. Short of something like Recaro Pole Positions, I find most other aftermarket seats to look out of place in the E36 interior. Or at least of those I’ve seen, I need to do some more digging. Either way I think just going to cloth on the stock sport seats would give it a very LTW feel while still being comfortable/grippy.

[cblock406]

I'm not a fan of Vaders in sedans. The sport seats are more comfortable than Vaders anyway. Aftermarket is probably the way to go if you want cloth.

Awesome project and cool to see this getting more and more sorted out.

[Fruttolo]

I am firmly against vaders for driver cars, yeah they are hype af and look proper but not much more restrictive than normal seats, and they weight a metric ton each...nothing beats a bucket when you start to push it hard. A nice fixed back seat with low sides for easy in/out is where I'd go, especially with this being a sedan so rear seats would be still useable

[Graphitemk6]

Those look like some nice fun roads to drive on. Also what exhaust are you running?
Vader seats are pretty damn nice you should definately pick some up if you find some

[bwwaaaa]

Shakedown

Earlier this morning I finally got a chance to stretch the M3’s legs. I took it out to one of my favorite roads nearby, and I learned a whole bunch about the car. Some good, some bad, mostly expected though. Here were the big takeaways:

1. Some alignment changes are needed.
2. This exhaust is annoying as hell around 4-5K RPM.
3. I kind of want cloth seats.

I talked to Fruttolo some this morning, and he suggested I add some camber and go to 0 toe up front. Based on what I’m experiencing, this seems like it’ll be a good first step to get it feeling a little less lazy. I also was getting a fair bit of rubbing from the front on tight hairpins. I’m hoping the camber will help some with that as well, because under load on tight turns, if the wheel is turned enough it hits the fender. I can stiffen the front up some, but I don’t want to go too far with that to correct this problem. So it definitely needs some adjustment.

On the exhaust, it really is annoying for most of the drive. Unless you get high into the RPM, it just drones and drones and drones. On the street I haven’t noticed so much because I’m usually under the level where it drones. But in the canyons, with it bouncing off the walls, it’s hard to ignore. I wish I had ear plugs half way through.

On the seats, I’ve been looking for Vader’s for a while now, but after today’s drive I’m thinking about just having these redone in cloth. Similar to the LTW M3s. These get really hot, and you obviously slide a lot, but they’re otherwise comfortable for cruising. I figure the cloth would breath a little better, and hold better just based on the added friction. Anyone do this before? Any suggestions on material?

Finally, I’m having some radio woes. I sent my radio off to a company called German Audio Tech in Long Beach to have it repaired. They also had a service to add an AUX port, so I went for it. It got back late last week, I plugged it in and nothing. They also failed to return my volume knob, and so far they’ve been pretty rude in their responses. I’m hoping I can get things resolved, but if anyone else is looking at preserving their OEM radio, I’d suggest not sending it to them. Just on customer service alone.

So I’ll close it out on that note for now, I have a long list of stuff I want to change now. I have some cool parts in the mail, I’m looking at ordering some other pieces to make further changes to the car, but at least I was able to get out and drive again today.

[Fruttolo]

Oh yeah cutting the intake is just so much fun. Glad to see you got the M50 on without much trouble. I think I have pulled mine about 8-10 times now for other issues and you get kinda good at it lol. I need to find my alignment specs but I think its -3 camber front, 0 toe, -2.5 rear and 1/8 total toe in. Its whatever the m3forum says to run lol

Not quite the same car but I run -3° front, -0.04° toe out, -2.5° rear, +0.05° toe in. Makes for a really predictable car, and saves up tyres. I mostly drive twisties and my tyre wear is perfect. Rear end is "kinda loose" as in real happy to walk out of tight turns sideways but never snappy like it wants to spin, slides a bit but still mantains direction and speed. I trail brake tho so that also matters. Also my antisquat is fucked up big time due to being too low I had it at 0 toe front and back and it wasn't good, way too much oversteer from the rear, and front wanted to walk a lot on me when driving straight over 100-110mph. I'll probably give it a little more rear toe in but waiting on a trackday so I can actually push it and feel the needs.

[hinrichs]

Oh yeah cutting the intake is just so much fun. Glad to see you got the M50 on without much trouble. I think I have pulled mine about 8-10 times now for other issues and you get kinda good at it lol. I need to find my alignment specs but I think its -3 camber front, 0 toe, -2.5 rear and 1/8 total toe in. Its whatever the m3forum says to run lol

[bwwaaaa]

Cut to Size

Remember how I said the Bimmerworld boot was too big? It was. Hilariously so. They say “It may need to be cut” as if it’s going to be close. It was 30mm too long. So I started chopping.

For anyone who stumbles across this thread searching for information on cutting down a Bimmerworld silicone ASC delete boot, it’s really not that hard. Mock everything up in car, mark where the cuts need to be (be aware that it’s not at the ends of the MAF, but at the lip where it seals), get some sort of ruler/straight edge, make marks all around the boot equally from the base, use tape to create a “no no” zone, use razor blades and scissors to cut. Take. Your. Time. It’s super frustrating to work with and trim.

End result is a boot that actually fits. Test drove the car some, seems to like the M50 maifold and the new oil separator seems to have mostly solved my puking oil under load issue. So we’ll call that two wins.