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Hi, my name is Will and this is my E36 323 coupe. I have been building this car over the last 12-18 months, but things recently took a turn for the insane. Below is copied over from Driftworks:
Quick spec;
m52b25 on about 155k
M50 manifold
Remapped ecu
e46 lower arms
e92 track rods cut down
e36 track rod ends cut down
Modified hubs
ebay spec coilovers / adjustable top mounts
3.15 welded diff
full poly bush front and back
e46 328i front brakes
Awesome teal zebra vinyl for all the street cred
Rafale 17x8.5 et13 running 205/40 all round - The E46 fronts were borrowed for MOT but look the bollocks
Picked it up for £650 a few years back didn't do much to it apart from coil overs and welded the diff. Decided to drive it into a tree on my way home from work one day so took it off the road and started to build it.
First was the e46 lower arms and finding out all the other parts i needed to actually get it to fit!
So heres the 46 arms with my ebay coilovers and top mounts with an e36 rear poly bush. I had to grind down the arm to make it fit but that wasnt too bad to do. Used e91/92 335i track rods which i had to cut down a bit. No need for spacers as the ball joint were about 4mm thicker! The hubs i made up ruffly but where total shite so got someone who knew what they were doing to make me up a decent set.
Got some e46 328i front brakes off a mate for free which was nice so cleaned them up and chucked them on with the new arms hubs ect.
After all that was finished had a little test fit see how low I could run it! Turned out pretty good.
It did rub a bit but it still rolled freely!
Next i started on the back. Removing all the old bushes and replacing them with nice new poly ones! Which was a total ball ache but got there eventually!
Cant beat a lick of paint to make everything look tidy again!
And definitely wouldn't of got it all finished with out my niece as my extra mechanic!
Got it all bolted back up and test fitted the wheels with 20mm spacers
Also installed a cheap short shift and removed the center console bit to make a panel for some gauges which i am very please how it turned out
Got the m20 flywheel in with the e30 clutch.
It already had 4m skimmed off the back to clear the webbing on the block.
Used an e21 323i release bearing as it was 30mm deeper to compensate for the thinner flywheel
The box was really easy to get off, all i needed to do to get the top bell housing bolts and jack the engine up a little bit and it gives you more than enough clearance. The only thing, you need about 2 meters of extensions.
The main issue i found was changing the starter without taking the mani off, you can get to the starter bolts from under the car but you cant reach the live and earth wire to change the starter to the M20, So off came the manifold and it was sorted 5 minutes later
Also replaced the rear crank seal as that was leaking a little bit which was easy enough, just take the carrier bolts out, wiggled it off and tap in the new seal in.
After getting the box off and cleaning out all the old clutch and oil thats gathered there over years it all came out fairly nice.
Got it all back on gave it a test and it drove so much nicer, only down side the bite point is a little lower on the pedal but that doesn't bother me too much.
Bought some new fenders for the front aswell but they sat on the tyre.
So bought some fiberglass and had a play at extending the lip and making it fit a bit better. Bare in mind i have no idea what i'm doing.
Started trying to get the rough shape and went from there.
Thought it came out alright but next time i think id make up some cardboard templates to work off but for a first attempt I think it went okay.
Got some tein super streets for it aswell. They are alot stiffer than the old ebay coilovers.
Pretty sure the spring rates are 9kg fronts and 9.5kg rears.
That's about it until a month or so ago when I bought a daily, so took the car off the road. Below is part two.
Quick spec;
m52b25 on about 155k
M50 manifold
Remapped ecu
e46 lower arms
e92 track rods cut down
e36 track rod ends cut down
Modified hubs
ebay spec coilovers / adjustable top mounts
3.15 welded diff
full poly bush front and back
e46 328i front brakes
Awesome teal zebra vinyl for all the street cred
Rafale 17x8.5 et13 running 205/40 all round - The E46 fronts were borrowed for MOT but look the bollocks
Picked it up for £650 a few years back didn't do much to it apart from coil overs and welded the diff. Decided to drive it into a tree on my way home from work one day so took it off the road and started to build it.
First was the e46 lower arms and finding out all the other parts i needed to actually get it to fit!
So heres the 46 arms with my ebay coilovers and top mounts with an e36 rear poly bush. I had to grind down the arm to make it fit but that wasnt too bad to do. Used e91/92 335i track rods which i had to cut down a bit. No need for spacers as the ball joint were about 4mm thicker! The hubs i made up ruffly but where total shite so got someone who knew what they were doing to make me up a decent set.
Got some e46 328i front brakes off a mate for free which was nice so cleaned them up and chucked them on with the new arms hubs ect.
After all that was finished had a little test fit see how low I could run it! Turned out pretty good.
It did rub a bit but it still rolled freely!
Next i started on the back. Removing all the old bushes and replacing them with nice new poly ones! Which was a total ball ache but got there eventually!
Cant beat a lick of paint to make everything look tidy again!
And definitely wouldn't of got it all finished with out my niece as my extra mechanic!
Got it all bolted back up and test fitted the wheels with 20mm spacers
Also installed a cheap short shift and removed the center console bit to make a panel for some gauges which i am very please how it turned out
Got the m20 flywheel in with the e30 clutch.
It already had 4m skimmed off the back to clear the webbing on the block.
Used an e21 323i release bearing as it was 30mm deeper to compensate for the thinner flywheel
The box was really easy to get off, all i needed to do to get the top bell housing bolts and jack the engine up a little bit and it gives you more than enough clearance. The only thing, you need about 2 meters of extensions.
The main issue i found was changing the starter without taking the mani off, you can get to the starter bolts from under the car but you cant reach the live and earth wire to change the starter to the M20, So off came the manifold and it was sorted 5 minutes later
Also replaced the rear crank seal as that was leaking a little bit which was easy enough, just take the carrier bolts out, wiggled it off and tap in the new seal in.
After getting the box off and cleaning out all the old clutch and oil thats gathered there over years it all came out fairly nice.
Got it all back on gave it a test and it drove so much nicer, only down side the bite point is a little lower on the pedal but that doesn't bother me too much.
Bought some new fenders for the front aswell but they sat on the tyre.
So bought some fiberglass and had a play at extending the lip and making it fit a bit better. Bare in mind i have no idea what i'm doing.
Started trying to get the rough shape and went from there.
Thought it came out alright but next time i think id make up some cardboard templates to work off but for a first attempt I think it went okay.
Got some tein super streets for it aswell. They are alot stiffer than the old ebay coilovers.
Pretty sure the spring rates are 9kg fronts and 9.5kg rears.
That's about it until a month or so ago when I bought a daily, so took the car off the road. Below is part two.
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