Sketchy E36 M3

[bdesmarteauej205]

I ended up just pulling the motor and trans. My goal is to just reseal and clean everything. Ordered a bunch of seals and gaskets off of Pelican, so hopefully this thing won't leak for a while. Its a 90s bmw, so I'm sure it still will.


The selector shaft seal has always been pissing fluid since I've owned the car. so i replaced that and power washed/scrubbed the trans with a scuff pad. Good enough for me.


Removed the harness, degreased and pressure washed the motor


Everything up top is still looking good. Ive never messed with vans or the cam gears before, so hopefully i don't fuck it up putting the motor back together.


As i was loosening the head bolts, the longer bolt that goes into the timing cover snapped off, so thats cool. i drilled/ re tapped the hole, so hopefully i can snug that bolt down without any issues


Im pretty sure this may be why my car has always been a bitch to bleed. i don't even know how any coolant was getting through here. The fact that this motor hasn't popped yet honestly amazes me. Literally almost every coolant passage looked like this


This pretty much brings it up to date. I put the oil pan on today with a fresh gasket. I'm just waiting for my head gasket to get here, then i can start putting everything back together. Whoever "resealed" this motor last pretty much used rtv for everything, so its nice knowing that there will be legit gaskets in there now. I sold the model 5's and ordered skrimz from VR. This thing should be the best performing/looking its been (imo) after its back together.

Also, my friend surprised me with this film photo from summer time. Im super stoked on it and regained some motivation I've lost on this thing.


Thats it for now, ill be back soon.

[Miroteknik]

glad you didnt give up, looking forward to seeing it come back!

[xxcody2130xx]

Love this car, pics are not working for me though. Keep up the good work man!

[DawsonLiri]

That roller is fire!

Nice head gasket

[bdesmarteauej205]

Got the car up and running again. For some reason my photos won't work on my computer, so this update will be lacking. Since the last update, i got the car running, but put the clutch disc in backwards, RAD. pulled he trans again, re installed it correctly. After letting the car get up to temperature, i noticed a puddle of fresh oil on the ground, RAD. Noticed it was dripping off the primary chain tensioner. replaced that crush washer, still leaking. found that it was leaking from the timing cover area of the head gasket, RAD. Start removing the head, AGAIN. While I'm doing that, the clutch blows up in my daily, RAD. At this point, I'm having a slight melt down cause i have no running car and life keeps shitting on my chest. I figure i can get the M3 driving faster, so i pull the head off and replace the headgasket AGAIN. The reason for the leak was my fault, i didn't know RTV is supposed to be applied on the timing cover before laying the head gasket down...live and learn i guess. I threw that shit back together and had it running within 24 hours. Been running good so far. ill probably check the head bolts again after i put some more miles on it. i got my frond bumper/ lip painted, rear lip is at paint now. Although the car vibrates so much more, the solid trans mounts and shifter have made a huge difference. i still need to address some little things here and there, and theres still some stuff i want to do, it feel so good to drive this again. Now I'm just impatiently waiting for warm weather and driving.

heres the 2 photos that will work for me, ill have more soon. sorry for the novel, and I've given up on trying to resize photos lol

[Miroteknik]

lmao @ all the RAD stuff in your last update. Sounds hectic. Glad to hear its back on the road, that last pic is vibes.

[Graphitemk6]

Props for getting it running. Nothing worst than putting your car back together and realizing it's still broke ��

[xxcody2130xx]

Love this car, really makes me want to get a kit for my e36 now that I have legit wheels on the way

[bdesmarteauej205]

lmao @ all the RAD stuff in your last update. Sounds hectic. Glad to hear its back on the road, that last pic is vibes.

it was a shit show haha, but I'm chilling now

[bdesmarteauej205]

Love this car, really makes me want to get a kit for my e36 now that I have legit wheels on the way

Thanks, i appreciate it! tbh I'm kinda over the BN style stuff, but i think it looks aright on my car, so ill run it till i blow it up again, then go with something else lol.

[bdesmarteauej205]

Props for getting it running. Nothing worst than putting your car back together and realizing it's still broke ��

thanks! yeah it sucked, but oh well. everythings good now

[xxcody2130xx]

Thanks, i appreciate it! tbh I'm kinda over the BN style stuff, but i think it looks aright on my car, so ill run it till i blow it up again, then go with something else lol.

I hear that Huxley is coming out with a one piece front bumper setup so I am waiting on that. Hit me up if you get over to villains, would love to see your car

[bdesmarteauej205]

I hear that Huxley is coming out with a one piece front bumper setup so I am waiting on that. Hit me up if you get over to villains, would love to see your car

i was in eastern washington this weekend, man that shit is deeeeeeep haha. I'm not sure if ill ever take my car all the way out there lol

[bdesmarteauej205]

Small update. not much has been going on as far as the car goes. I got dome little dtm style mirrors as i was tired of the stock m3 mirrors. My friend got a cool roller heading to cars and coffee a weekend or two ago


met up with some friends and ate cheap burgers


Finally went drifting. i didn't get to drive nearly as much as i was hoping. i had cooling issues all day. After stuffing it last year and making a huge mess of coolant on the front straight, i decided that i was going to use water, but i guess that the car got hot enough for the water to still evaporate? I'm not sure. my water temp sensor is in the upper hose, which is the hot side. i was seeing temps of like 250, which seems way high to me. but maybe thats cause there was no coolant left in the system? I'm not sure, but it hasn't blown up yet so I'm chilling. Later in the day my clutch decided to peace out and slip like crazy. so i called it a day since i still had to drive home.


at least i was able to get a couple good runs in



since i had no coolant left, i had to stop and fill up with some of Washington's finest river water


thats pretty much up to date. i pulled the thermostat and radiator out to inspect it and make sure that everything looked okay. i ordered a cooler thermostat, so ill be putting that in. ill also be doing the clutch next week so i can get that broken in and do some more driving. till next time

[Miroteknik]

cracked windshield gang checking in