Simple M3

[bwwaaaa]

Whats your rear alignment?

Whoops, sorry for the lag. Since I didn’t have anything specific in mind, they just set my rear alignment to OEM specs. I am very open to suggestions as to what would be a better setup.

M50 Manifold

I had pretty much decided I was not going to do an M50 manifold since I planned on swapping the car later. But my oil separator failed, and my big hands don’t fit well under the manifold. I figured it was probably easiest if I removed it and checked the state of all the hoses anyways, and if the M52 manifold was coming off, then an M50 one was going back on. Even though I plan to swap the car, might as well pick up some free power in the interim.

I also did an ASC delete while I was in there. Ordered the Bimmerworld boot to make things go easier, though to be honest I’m not totally thrilled with the fitment. It seems to be a hair too long. BW does seem to mention that you may need to cut it down, but that kind of sucks for the cost. I guess I’m just lazy, but I also don’t feel like I can safely trim it haha.

Fired the car up last night, everything seems happy and it idles smooth. Not a particularly difficult swap, and it’s been done a million times over, so nothing exciting either. At this point I’m looking at an RKtunes tune for the car. Partly to accommodate the new intake setup, but also to delete the SAP coding. I’ve had a permanent CEL because of my failed SAP. So I’d very much like to get rid of that, and maybe pick up a few horse puppies during the process.

Beyond that, I’m really getting down to a short list of what all needs doing. Interior needs some addressing soon, paint obviously, but otherwise the car is getting pretty close to well sorted.

[hinrichs]

Whats your rear alignment?

[bwwaaaa]

I was 99% sure the steering problem was just the car screaming for an alignment LOL glad it was, too
Are those garagistic rear subframe bushings? If yes keep an eye on them, just yesterday I was reading a thread on e36 world groups talking about those failing due to being low quality and having no sleeve for the bolt, hope they don't fail on you too.

Rear end dynamics tho are worth discussing further, your ride height is not that dramatically low IMO

They are Garagistic bushings, and I’ll keep a close eye on them, thanks for the heads up. I know AKG bushings don’t have a sleeve either, so I had noticed that when ordering but assumed it was ok. I’ve always heard about Garagistic quality issues, but I’ve never experienced any for myself after years of using their products. However, definitely a point of concern if others are experiencing failures. I’ll keep a really close eye on it. I was discussing this with some friend’s last night, it’s very likely that when I S54 swap this car I’ll pull out the whole rear end again for a second refresh to change a few things. So they just need to last until then if they are poor quality.

On the handling point, yeah I didn’t think I was too low but I’m struggling to figure out what has caused this. I’m going to have a very comprehensive post in the near future of me setting the dampening and fussing with the setup until I’m happy with it again. I may need to ask you some questions from a track perspective and see what I can do to sharpen the car up. But I’ll message you on Instagram about that later haha.

[Fruttolo]

I was 99% sure the steering problem was just the car screaming for an alignment LOL glad it was, too
Are those garagistic rear subframe bushings? If yes keep an eye on them, just yesterday I was reading a thread on e36 world groups talking about those failing due to being low quality and having no sleeve for the bolt, hope they don't fail on you too.

Rear end dynamics tho are worth discussing further, your ride height is not that dramatically low IMO

[bwwaaaa]

Pandemic Productivity

Lots of small updates lately because it’s not like I have anything better to do. First, I got the car back from alignment. If you’ve been following the thread, you’ll know I had some concerns about my steering rack and the handling of the car after doing all of that. I’m pleased to report it was just my own horrible home alignment. The toe was so far off on the front axle that it wouldn’t self steer. One fresh alignment later, and the car feels perfect. The ZHP rack feels tight and linear, and has a great lock to lock ratio (3.0). Huge upgrade from the blown stock steering rack.

Unfortunately now I’m dealing with other weird handling dynamics. I think I just discovered some flaws in my plan. The front feels sharp and direct, but the rear end of the car feels washed out and too soft. A number of problems come to mind, the narrower tires on the rear over stock, the less grippy compound that I’m running now compared to before, mostly using rubber bushings vs. poly in the front. Of course dampening settings could play a large role in this as well. So I’m going to take some time to fiddle with the rear shocks and see if I can’t improve it.

I have a feeling in the next few months you’ll probably see me change up my entire wheel, tire and ride height situation to get the car to feel a little sharper. I think I probably slammed it out a little too much.

Also, less interesting but still exciting for me, I finally got the car retinted. When I bought the car it had horribly bubbled tint on just the rear glass. I love the fish bowl look, so I had it all redone in 70% ceramic. Living in Arizona, we’ve already started hitting over 100F temps the last few weeks, so I wanted to make sure the AC had a fighting chance. I got Xpel XR Plus ceramic tint put on all the way around (minus windshield). It’s a dumb foot note on the car that I’ll never mention again, but in case anyone was wondering what a nearly invisible tint looks like, here you go.

Up next, I am still waiting on the PCV components to arrive. I need to install the ACS delete boot, as well as my intake back on, and fuss with a few loose ends in the engine bay. I’m also slowly collecting pieces for paint, I had a whole bunch of rubber gaskets/window seals arrive for the car this week. I’m just trying to collect every bit I need before I send it off later this Summer.

[bwwaaaa]

Welded

So fortunately everything is fixed with the trailing arm reinforcements. Just goes to show there's no need to panic over these, but if you own an E36 it is definitely something to be aware of.

After all of that, the only poly bushings we ended up installing were the subframe bushings. The trailing arm bushings were brand new, and the diff bushings look ok. I may go back in and do the diff bushings myself at a later date, but for now I'd prefer to leave the rubber ones in. Less noise in the car that way.

Today it got aligned, went back to that shop briefly to fix a small mistake with the speedo sensor, and was then dropped off for fresh tint. So progress is happening as best as I can while the world is upside down.

A brief question for all E36 owners: has anyone had PCV valve (oil separator) failure that resulted in high crank case pressure blowing out the seals? You may remember I had the same problem in my Miata a year ago. After facing continued oil leak issues, it occurred to me that this is only happening after driving the car hard. If I get it high into the RPM and park it, it seems to leak oil pretty badly. If I put around, it doesn't. A friend of mine noticed that a small amount of smoke was coming out of the exhaust when I floored it, which is consistent with PCV failure, but I wasn't sure if that really translated into crankcase pressure becoming so high it's pushing oil past the seals.

I already ordered the parts, but I thought I'd ask if anyone else has gone through this. It's driving me a little nuts.

[bwwaaaa]

Jesus, all these cracked e36s pictures have me worried about mine lately, hope it will hot be too late when I can manage to do the reinforcements

It's worth checking at the very least to see if they're failing already. But if you have the time, I'd definitely recommend it. Even if your car never experiences this failure, it's relatively cheap insurance. If it fails, I've seen it take out quarter panels from the wheel smashing in. I was going to do it regardless if mine was damaged or not, but turns out I timed it just right!

Sorry to see that common e36/e46 manifested on your car, but happy you caught it in time and getting it fixed.
Fruttolo, you should do this sooner than later.

Thanks! All good, I've seen cars with more severe damage get repaired, so I'm not stressing it too much. Definitely glad I caught this now before it got too bad, had it failed completely I would have had a very, very bad day.

I want to buy an E92M3 in the next year or two, but stuff like this RTAB issue scares me. For the life of me, I can't understand why BMW can't get simple stuff like subframe mounts and rod bearings right.

In my experience, these issues are mildly annoying if you catch them before they become a big issue. The aftermarket has solutions for everything, so if you find an E92 with service history on the bearings and you're willing to do some preventative maintenance to add that level of insurance, it's pretty much a non-issue.

The big issue with BMWs is buying a car with no known history and then not taking steps to prevent future damage. That's where most enthusiasts run into trouble. You'll read countless forum posts about people saying they never reinforced their E36, or never did the rod bearings on their S65 and they're just fine. And like sure, you are until you aren't. And then typically what was a "relatively small" job, suddenly becomes a full blown engine rebuild or rewelding your floor back together.

I'd say if you're in the market for an E92, don't let the rod bearings scare you off, just make sure you do your due diligence to make sure the car you get either has had it addressed, or it will be immediately taken care of on purchase.

[honeybadger]

I want to buy an E92M3 in the next year or two, but stuff like this RTAB issue scares me. For the life of me, I can't understand why BMW can't get simple stuff like subframe mounts and rod bearings right.

[gnmzl]

Sorry to see that common e36/e46 manifested on your car, but happy you caught it in time and getting it fixed.
Fruttolo, you should do this sooner than later.

[Fruttolo]

Jesus, all these cracked e36s pictures have me worried about mine lately, hope it will hot be too late when I can manage to do the reinforcements

[bwwaaaa]

Just in time

Got these photos from the fabricator today. Looks like I got to the RTAB pockets just in time.

Fortunately he’s welding in plates and fixing that all up. Hopefully more photos soon, I literally got those photos a few hours ago. As mentioned prior, he’s doing all the bushings while there, since I really have no ambition of doing another rear subframe drop on the floor again. Until I get a lift, I’m done dropping subframes

I’m thinking about celebrating with a track day, once track days are a thing again of course. I’ll need some different wheels for that though, so... time to source another set?

[bwwaaaa]

Thanks all!

Self centering issue sounds like super toed-in alignment, never had a bad rack tho so can't be sure about that

That’s my bet too. I fussed with it a little, and it seemed to get marginally better but clearly the toe is waaaay out of line. The rack seems fine otherwise, no leaks or other indicators that would point to it being bad.

Small update with no photos, dropped the car off this morning with a local fabricator to get the rear trailing arm reinforcements done. I’m also having them do all the rear subframe/trailing arm bushings while they’re at it. It’s not that I can’t do it, but I’m getting really sick of working on the ground on jack stands. Pulling the rear end sounded like a nightmare, so I’m just going to let them do that.

After that, it’s time to finally get an alignment.

[rice4life]

Great read, silver looks soooo good on e36's.

[Matt2low]

Car is looking great man!

[Fruttolo]

Self centering issue sounds like super toed-in alignment, never had a bad rack tho so can't be sure about that