AWD E36 BMW

[Anonymous View build HERE Member since: January 1, 1970 Posts: 0]

Went down and put the side numbers on the SCoupe then thought I’d have a crack at the Bonnet Vents, they come with precise location measurements and Templates both of which were a bit off..

They also included some big black fugly rivets, decided not to use them as I like being able to unbolt stuff if needs be and they’d have 25mm of crushed rivet exposed underneath, I did some M5 countersunk nutserts and M5 stainless button heads.

[VRSenator065Participant Adelaide SAVR Senator LSx454 1960 Kombi (project) 1921 Nash Hot Rod (future project) View build HERE Member since: February 17, 2015 Posts: 5 777]

What have I missed here, what’s the deal with the SCoupe?  Bonnet on the beemer looks purposeful, I like it.

[Anonymous View build HERE Member since: January 1, 1970 Posts: 0]

One of our Club members moved to WA at the start of the year, no one wanted to buy the SCoupe so he offered it to me free, I hesitated a bit as I didn’t really need another race car but thought why not, even if i don’t use it I’ll donate it to the club for the kids..

Decided to address the main issues with it and take it to Swan Hill this weekend, it handles really well and is much faster than it should be..

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Now I remember why I don’t like Diff work, especially when it’s a non adjustable case where you have to shim it.. 4 hours later it’s”right”, my fault for assuming the factory built it correctly and machining everything the same..

I did notice when I first installed it that it was very tight, just put it down to brand new and it’ll break in, the blue bearings were a giveaway considering it’s done no work, had to shim it across 10thou to get the lash right then machined the other side multiple times to get the bearing clearances right..

Of course all of this meant the bolts on that side hit the case so I had to machine those as well, while I was in there again I’d thought about the preload pack, in my Supra I built an IRS 9″ and used a preload True Trac, as it was designed for off road it was almost locked with the 285/18’s I ran…

Had thoughts about how much a locked front axle would suck so took 1.4mm of preload out of the Belville springs, All Done now..

[vinParticipant saSL/LEE View build HERE Member since: June 5, 2019 Posts: 66]

Ah nothing like the feeling of having your preloads done

[VRSenator065Participant Adelaide SAVR Senator LSx454 1960 Kombi (project) 1921 Nash Hot Rod (future project) View build HERE Member since: February 17, 2015 Posts: 5 777]

This has got to be getting close now…

[Anonymous View build HERE Member since: January 1, 1970 Posts: 0]

Still quite a bit left to do on it hence the SCoupe, haven’t raced at Swan Hill in a year now so I need to get out for some R&R..

[Anonymous View build HERE Member since: January 1, 1970 Posts: 0]

<span style=”color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;”><span style=”font-size: 14px;”>Couple of small jobs today while I’m waiting on deliveries, mounted my windscreen washer bottle and the radiator recovery tank.</span></span>

[Anonymous View build HERE Member since: January 1, 1970 Posts: 0]

And back from Melbourne, still loving the new tyres on the Tonner, stopped at the post office and a surprise parcel had arrived, seeing as I’m shit out of alternative shocks to go in the Max Struts and 5k+ for custom MCA’s is out of the question at the moment I bought another pair though a local dealer I found, fully functional no leaks, I’ll throw em in the race box..

I have MANY 7kg springs if anyone is in need, cheap… Trip to my fibreglass panel guy, I’d rang earlier to arrange 2x fronts and 1x rear bumpers… BZZZZ got the call on my way he can only find one front…

[Anonymous View build HERE Member since: January 1, 1970 Posts: 0]

My new straight water neck arrived, lower hardpipe done, that completes the Plumbing!

[cava454Moderator 93 VR BT1 View build HERE Member since: February 20, 2015 Posts: 2 390]

You forgot the heater loop. Keep plumbing.

[Anonymous View build HERE Member since: January 1, 1970 Posts: 0]

I have a preformed exact fit hose for that!

[Anonymous View build HERE Member since: January 1, 1970 Posts: 0]

Big weekend of racing, went to Melbourne today to collect parts and materials!

Back into it tomorrow!

[VRSenator065Participant Adelaide SAVR Senator LSx454 1960 Kombi (project) 1921 Nash Hot Rod (future project) View build HERE Member since: February 17, 2015 Posts: 5 777]

How did the racing go?  Did you use the hans device?

[Anonymous View build HERE Member since: January 1, 1970 Posts: 0]

Racing was good, had to wring it’s neck to get good times but that was expected, a mate bought his A4 Audi up and sent me out for a few laps saying take it easy to get used to the car on the first couple as I’d only ever done 1 lap in it at our home track…

1st lap I went 2 seconds quicker, next lap I took 3/10 off that time, pretty damn happy after sitting out for a year!

Nah didn’t take the HANS as I didn’t put a race seat and harness in as the car doesn’t have a roll bar..

[VRSenator065Participant Adelaide SAVR Senator LSx454 1960 Kombi (project) 1921 Nash Hot Rod (future project) View build HERE Member since: February 17, 2015 Posts: 5 777]

Sounds like fun though.

[Anonymous View build HERE Member since: January 1, 1970 Posts: 0]

Yeah had a blast, the Tonner was playing up on my Recce trip Thursday to drop off 21 surplus tyres at the track So I did a quick edit to the tune to turn off all the codes..

On the way up Friday it ran rough but made the trip, return trip Sunday I got about 3/4 of the way home and it was running like a sack of crap, thought it had leaned out and burnt a valve…

Monday did a trip to Melbourne unloaded to collect some parts for it and the BMW, it ran better but on the way back it was sack of crap time again, stopped at a mate’s place and thought I’d cycle the battery to clear the fuel trims, much better..

This led me to believe it’s not mechanical, it had a really bad header leak and I put it down to this screwing with the O2 sensors, pretty shocked to find missing collector bolts and nuts and that a seized bolt was stopping the entire exhaust falling off..

New bolts, sensors and gaskets flashed in my old tune and it’s back to its smooth happy self, I’m assuming it was applying some harsh long term trims and that in turn was losing power and economy, resetting the trims put it back on the base map and it’s run ok for 100km..

Lesson learnt, if someone had suggested that’s what was causing it to run that badly I’d have laughed at them, guess being run by a computer the old logic of “garbage in = garbage out” still applies.

[VRSenator065Participant Adelaide SAVR Senator LSx454 1960 Kombi (project) 1921 Nash Hot Rod (future project) View build HERE Member since: February 17, 2015 Posts: 5 777]

That’s the issue with modern electronics.  It’s only as good as the signals it’s receiving I guess.

[Anonymous View build HERE Member since: January 1, 1970 Posts: 0]

And Home, yet another Melbourne trip, the ecu for the air suspension spat the dummy in a major way this morning, my plan was a Bendigo trip to get some consumables I need to make my rear wing mounts…

Computer said no, faffed around with it for an hour or so, bzzz, fail no good so rang my supplier to make sure they had one (irony here was I collected my new compressor from the post office on the way to the place that sent it… I think from memory last time a compressor died it took out the ecu as well.. ) , couple of stops got most of my consumables but was missing bandsaw blades..

Bugger all traffic, stopped at McRonalds in Springvale for lunch NO ONE in the drive-thru, straight in and out, got my ECU in Bayswater figured it’s not that much further to Dandenong where I bought the bandsaws, got my blades.

Headed home past Albert Park, bit of a ghost town, had to mute the radio and wind the windows down to hear the cars, pathetic…

Usual collection of Mongs on the road out and they’ve managed to make the Westgate even more useless than ever, good to be home.

[Anonymous View build HERE Member since: January 1, 1970 Posts: 0]

And done!

New compressor fitted along with the new suspension ECU, fully operational now, I pissed off the supplied 10 years ago circuit breaker as it did nothing, compressor was seized solid but the breaker didn’t trip, 99% sure this is what took out the ECU same as last time, replaced them with some plain 30amp blade fuses..

While I was under there I fitted up a surplus digital fan controller and swapped out the crap fan in my Aux trans cooler that’s under the tray, the fan has been inoperable for years now..

[Anonymous View build HERE Member since: January 1, 1970 Posts: 0]

Last year I bought a carbon fibre wing on eBay, it was reasonably priced but when it arrived it had been used as a football by Achmed Post…

Contacted the seller who it turns out is China based even though he advertised as AU, get messed around for weeks with the only return option being China and if the packaging is damaged they won’t accept it but it has to be in the original packaging… SCAM

Learnt a valuable lesson from that transaction, don’t ever accept a partial refund as to PayPal this means you have no further recourse, not to mention the supplied hardware is junk and the supports are for a dwarf so he can wash the wing without a ladder..

The damage is more or less cosmetic and repairable so it came time to address the mount issue, I wanted it further back and higher up to take advantage of the leverage.

I bought material the other day in Melbourne and was going to cut them in the CNC, thought about it and it’s a shitload of work setting the machine up writing the program then cleaning up for two parts I’ll never make again..

Did them with handtools and am happy with the results, will do a bit more tomorrow.

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