[SQ13]

Oh man, I should have gotten an Estoril blue E36

[Toodaloo]

Originally Posted by westopher

Andrei! take lots of pics of the panel work. I need someone else to do the dirty work so I can learn from them and finally do mine this winter.
Car looks great and quite honestly its ****in crazy how fast you've put it together, and put it together well.

Will do! If I feel so inclined; maybe I’ll even make a writeup about it.
Thanks! Things tend to move fast when you’re surrounded with opportunities. Lift/alignment rack access and shop connections go a LONG way. Even if 80% of the recent work has been completed at home. Haha.

Originally Posted by SQ13

Oh man, I should have gotten an Estoril blue E36

You should have, It’s not too late!


One more update. I replaced the leaking power steering system with FCP’s refresh kit (all hoses, new banjo bolts, and reservoir). I figured, that I may as well replace everything. If something goes bad (and it will, it’s an e36 PS system haha), FCP will offer a free lifetime replacement which is great.

No photos unfortunately, I was too embarrassed with how grimey the front cross member was from the old leak. It was too heavy to clean after a long day at work. I’d like to go to town on the engine bay with a steam cleaner one of these days. The car no longer has any notable leaks (other than minor sweating from the VANOS line... knock on wood) so it would be nice to clean it up to my standard.

[Nate047]

Nice man, awesome update. I'm curious about the cracked wheel, how long did you have those wheels? Did you hit a big pot hole or something? I think the ARC 8 is decent as like a workhorse track wheel (especially for the price) but I have heard about them cracking a few times under not the most stressful situations.

[Toodaloo]

Originally Posted by Nate047

Nice man, awesome update. I'm curious about the cracked wheel, how long did you have those wheels? Did you hit a big pot hole or something? I think the ARC 8 is decent as like a workhorse track wheel (especially for the price) but I have heard about them cracking a few times under not the most stressful situations.

The wheels were a few years old. My friend owned them before me and put on numerous track days. I wish I could say exactly when they cracked, however I’m not sure. It happened a little less than a week after the autocross; I only noticed the pull on my way home from Monterrey. I don’t recall hitting any potholes and am the type of driver to avoid every road imperfection that I can. For example, I even take a 3 mile detour on my way to work to avoid an awful train track crossing. Lol!

At the end of the day, they’re cheap, lightweight wheels that are a great deal for the money. They’re perfect for track use and the quality is far above other wheels in their price range. That being said, so long as I’m able to stick to my plans; I’ll be switching wheels soon(ish) anyways. However I’ll likely keep these around for track use.

[Toodaloo]

First update for 2019!

Good and bad news; however, I’ll start with the good.

No photos for this one, but my dripping power steering lines were driving me crazy. I ordered the full rebuild kit from FCP Euro due to they’re lifetime warranty (We all know that it’s not a case of “if” it will leak again, but “when” with these cars). Here’s a link to anyone interested: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...-32411093461kt

Progress on the interior is slowly progressing. I have removed the dove inserts from the grey door cards (drilling out the plastic rivets in front and carefully separating the glued rear panels) and stripped off the leather from the inserts. Progress stopped just about there as I need to find the right time to use the compressor at work (large enough capacity to operate my paint gun) to lay down the DAP Landau top adhesive.



After debating between reupholstering or dying the rear parcel shelf; I chose the latter and used the “Simply spray” dye per Brett’s recommendation. It takes a bit of technique change compared to a traditional rattle can, however the fabric stayed very soft and has the added benefit of being UV stable. Can’t say that about the typical Duplicolor junk! The results speak for themselves; it looks great.





Now that the car is properly sorted; I decided to finally take it to the track! I spent most of my Saturday studying for an online class I am taking this semester, so I only got around to doing some last-minute inspections at around 11:30 the night before the event. I found that one tire was down 5psi, and after closer inspection; found a lovely nail protruding from the tread. One social media post and 15 minutes later, I tracked down a set of DS1’s with fresh Yokohama S drives for the event the next day. Drove 40 minutes to pick them up and by 2:30AM the car was ready to hit the 2hr road trip to Thunderhill. Shout out to Daniel, (@Donmonfon on Instagram!!!) for the wheels!













While I have a fair amount of autocross experience; I stuck to the novice group to get my track bearings. As the weather was pretty shotty; there was a small turnout. Perfect, less traffic!
Not only that, but there were fewer drivers in the novice group than there were instructors (typically they will lead the pack in their own cars). This meant that each of us got personal in car instruction.

The first session of the day was WET and the track was very slick. Not only that, but I wasn’t used to the added roll tendencies of the same size tires I run; but on a 2 inch narrower and heavier wheel. Not being familiar with the configuration/line; I went into ABS on turn 11 apexing far earlier than I should have (yeah, it’s a little tighter than I had expected). Brought it down to roughly 5mph and hopped off into the grass/mud (oops).



The rest of the day went very well. The car ran great without a single hiccup! My instructor didn’t have much to say minus the recommendation of unwinding sooner and getting on the throttle slightly later out of corners. He hopped out of the car after the second session and recommended I move up a group. I stuck with the group as It was a bit less crowded than low intermediate, and by the end of the day had vastly improved my skills. I did a few runs with Harry’s lap timer to get an idea of my times and averaged a pretty consistent 2:23/2:24, with my fastest lap being 2:22. This was a session after cooking my brakes, so my pedal was very inconsistent with pretty much zero initial bite, not to mention the all season tires... ha!
If I were to carry more entry speed into T1, and hold WOT in T8, and refine my line slightly-**combining this with fresh fluid/pads and the tires I typically run; I know I can shave off an additional 10 seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXCCOquHLqc

Aaaaaaaand here’s the bad news.

Last Friday on my way to work I turned onto the main road and accelerated to the next light. At around 4500 RPM, the CEL came on. I didn’t think much of it (probably an O2 sensor or something, I’ll check it once I get to work). Until about 30 seconds later. I turned the music down and noticed the exhaust note was off and the car was running rough; A lovely misfire.

No big deal, probably just a spark plug or coil pack. Drove about 10-15 minutes to work and pulled out the scanner to find the obvious P0305 code. Swapped the coil pack to no avail. Then swapped the plug, noticing it was soaked. Ordered new plugs (those things are SO cheap at $2/per, and had them by noon thanks to Worldpac). I then swapped the plugs… Then the injector… Still the problem persisted. I threw in the towel and came back the next day to compression test the motor. Cylinders 5 and 4 were down to 70 and 75psi, while the rest looked (sort of) normal.





I say sort of, because they were all reading almost exactly 170psi. However, it tested 190-200psi across all cylinders on a known-good gauge: when I bought the car just 18k miles prior. I believe this has to do with this Matco gauge; as it read low last time we used it on another car. I have seen this happen in the past to a Snap-on tester, so it wouldn’t surprise me. Just in case, after I tow the car home, I’m going to test it with another gauge just to be sure.

Anyways, Cylinder 4 and 5 are way down on pressure. Looks like the head gasket blew between cylinders. Not cool, but also not the end of the world. I’ll start tearing it apart in the coming weeks and start ordering parts. I’m hoping the head isn’t damaged, but it’s hard to say due to how hard the misfire was. I’ll find out shortly.

So, here’s the question for you! Should I resurface the head and slap a gasket on her - call it a day (assuming no other damage)… Or, should I add some cams to the equation while I’m at it? I will likely do a bunch of preventative maintenance while I’m at it (replacing rubber hoses and wear items, cleaning up any corrosion or nastiness I find, etc.)

Thanks for your continued support guys!

[Nate047]

Look into the BimmerWorld TE:AL TA16 wheels... They are forged and only $400 per corner which is not really that much more than the ARC-8. Anywhoooo... SUcks about the head gasket but like you said, not the end of the world. People like the Schrick cams if you do a M50 manifold, headers, and a good tune...

[JitteryJoe]

Originally Posted by Toodaloo

First update for 2019!

So, here’s the question for you! Should I resurface the head and slap a gasket on her - call it a day (assuming no other damage)… Or, should I add some cams to the equation while I’m at it? I will likely do a bunch of preventative maintenance while I’m at it (replacing rubber hoses and wear items, cleaning up any corrosion or nastiness I find, etc.)

Thanks for your continued support guys!

If you do cams then you should look at doing the valves and springs.
You don't say how many miles are on the engine (or I missed it).
If I had the head off, I would do the valves and anything else related (guides, etc.). Really comes down to budget.

[Ajcanadian]

I was in a similar situation like you not too long ago. I got a new head as my previous one was trashed. I then had a machine shop go through the new head. I rebuilt the vanos unit at the same time. I also added headers at the same time. I basically replaced all the rubber hoses or any hard to reach items at the same time. I bought the elring headgasket kit since the VR don't seal properly. My only mistake was not adding cams but at the same time I didn't keep the car long enough so.... If I'm not mistaken you are looking into S54 swap your car in the near future... I'd say if you can find a good deal on cams go for it if not then forget it.

[M spec]

Incredible build!

Makes me really miss the 128/Lake Beryessa drives from years ago.

[T3AMFiSh]

seriously makes me wanna get my estoril up to this standard... but i have 2 more doors..