Craig's 328i Sport - e36 Track Car Build Thread

[windy]

Craig, I had the same problem with 'melting' the powder coating off the mounting-face of my wheels at Oulton last week. I've got AP's on my E36 and I'd been leaning on them a fair bit all morning. Anyway, just as I turned into Lodge, I got the horrible collapsed bearing sound so went straight into the pits and found my wheel almost hanging off! Scary.

Had to tighten them up another 2-3 times throughout the day as I melted more coating off the back.

Apologies for the picture whoreing but this is where all E36's deserve to be these days... on the track :thumbs:

[Alex1411]

Wow!Like It!Thanks for sharing!^^

[Craig]

Nice to know my home made tool is very similar to the BMW tool, and Windy nice looking car once mines got the interior finished off the next parts to attend will be the rear wind and front lip spoilers.

Speaking of my car, I finally got round to replacing the passengers’ side wheel bearing, first things first though before any work could commence I needed a wheel bearing. Phone the dealers and got a few quotes, now the bearing comes as a complete unit; hub with the bearing pressed into it. This certainly would make the job faster, but at the same time five times more expensive.

I decided to look into other alternatives, one been pressing a new bearing into my current hub. Now fortunately for me, I remembered I still had the 328i Sport hubs sat in the garage and began cross referencing parts on the off chance they are the same... and they are, bonus!!

So before I even decided to get the car up in the air, I thought it would be best if I split down the 328i hub ready for fitting. The job in itself was simple enough if you have the right tools the main one been a 46mm socket to loosen off the centre hub.

Start with removing the brake callipers then the brake disc, next use a screw driver to prise round the outside edge of the centre hub cap. I resorted to tapping all the way round it with a hammer and screw driver to break the seal, and then with a simple twist of a large flat bladed screw driver it simply popped out. With the cap removed the next step is to loosen the hub nut which will require a breaker bar at the very least, you may even have to resort to Mr Scaffolding Pipe too if it’s not budging, don’t forget to also bend the metal locking tab back before loosening or you’ll be there all night.

With the centre hub loose the next step should be simple, slide the hub off the front upright. If it fails to move with ease you may need a slide hammer, the most effecting slide hammer for this job is fit your brake disc onto the hub backwards with the wheel bolts in by a few threads and simply ‘bang’ the disc back and forth between the hub and the wheel bolts.

You should now have the hub off, and all the following parts;



My 328i hub came off intact without any problems, so next step was to get the car up in the air and remove the same parts and slide on the new hub unit, simple, right!? No, when I attempted the task on the car which has the M3 Evo hubs I was left with the inner race off the wheel bearing firmly attached to the hub.



There is two ways in which this inner race could be removed, one was to cut a fine slot into the race with a dremel then simply split it with a chisel and a swift hammer blow the other method is to use a set of pullers with fine enough jaws to grab the machined lip on the inner race, you cannot get behind the race due to the brake dust shield been in the way. Believe it or not all my small pullers did not have fine enough jaws so I ended up resorting to this beastie which required two people (Thanks Dad!!);



I was now left with the old hub, inner race and seal off the car.



Now with the inner race off the car was ready for its new hub, I simply side the hub onto the upright, it required a few light hammer taps to get it sitting all the way on the shaft but jobs a good ‘un. Next was to fit the hub nut and torque it up to 300nM, refit the dust cap as well as the brake discs and callipers, fit the wheel and lower the car onto the ground and you’re done!

Here is my old bearing, you can see its shot inside just look at the ball bearing on the bottom of the picture. First sign of the problem came with a weird vibration which went away, jacked the car up and the bearing felt fine then it came back and got progressively worse. Upon the next check you could hear the difference between the sides, one bearing ran smooth, the other smooth but it had a grumble to it.

I also got round to one other minor task, on the way up the A19 after dropping off an e46 M3 CSL DSC unit to a guy who was in desperate need of one I lost a front kidney and the grill behind it, no idea how but fortunately I also had the old standard chrome ones which I took off.

First step was to wash it off the fairy liquid to remove all greases and grimes, next it was wet and dried down to give the surface a key and then I applied 3 coats of grey primer and 3 coats of gloss black paint. Unfortunately my camera died during this process so I only have the one picture.



Once again the car is back to 100%, apart from been used daily its next major outing is at RAF Barkston Heath for a sprint event, more on that later.

[Craig]

I mentioned last update that the cars next major outing was going to be at RAF Barkston Heath, well that’s been and gone which means an update is due. But where to start!?!

I’m rather new to sprint events, I really didn’t think it would take my fancy however a friend of mine put my name down for this event as one; it’d be a good weekend away with the lads and two; it was cheap, around £100.00 for two days on track and three; I think he wanted to see how I’d react in a competitive environment.

Fast forward onto Saturday, nice and early start set off at around 5:30am and arrived at Barkston Heath for around 8:00am. Pulled up at the gates and we were all escorted onto base, there was very few road car’s at this point everyone was towing a trailer with their pride and joy hidden undercover so I had no idea what the competition would be. Turned out that Saturday was a 16v Mini Owners Club track day followed by timed runs in the afternoon and Sunday was an RAF MSA event.

As everyone was unloading their Caterhams, Westfields and Mini’s with an array of engine conversions; Honda VTECs, Suzuki Hyabusas and Vauxhall Valvers I sat about wondering what the hell I had signed myself up for, and that feeling was even more pronounced when I saw the circuit... TIGHT is one of many words to describe it along with tactical, testing and challenging especially in a lardy road going BMW.

But this didn’t phase me, so I signed on and proceeded to number up the car;





First run out really did illustrate just how tight the circuit was, and the chicanes were so tight I had visions or me re-modelling them during the course of the day, in fact my first question to the clerk of the course was ‘are those white marker poles plastic or metal!?’ after all I didn’t want to risk serious body damage.

Fortunately for me they were plastic, as I proceeded to hit my first one. However the one I hit was on a small square base that wasn’t set level, so it ‘twanged’ up against the car making a neat white mark (which would later polish out) one thing it showed I was using as much as the track as physically possible, and I was consistent too as I hit it a second time *doh*.



I was obviously getting faster as the day progressed as the white lines got further and further down the wing!!

Afternoon came about and it was first of the timed runs, at first I didn’t pay much attention to the times and just used the runs as more track time and to play about with car control. However after I was informed the BMW wasn’t dead last, and in fact it was actually quiet far up front I started to take an interested and was hooked checking my times after each run, I had officially been bitted by the sprint bug.

Highlight of the day for me was also taking my friends purpose built V8 Westfield for a run, my god what a car!!

Sunday morning came thick and fast, and after a fantastic BBQ and evening with the 16v Mini Owners Club I was ready for the RAF MSA sprint. This was a whole different kettle of fish, most the cars from Saturday were competing but there was a lot more saloons and hatchbacks which made the competition a bit fairer but at the same time inside I didn’t want to be beaten. With the sign on and drivers briefing out of the way it was time to get down to business.



The course was slightly different for Sunday the last corner was a lot faster and this proved to be advantageous to me in the BMW as I could lay down some of its power. First few runs and it looked as if I had some stiff competition, I needed to switch my brain from track day mode into race day and stop worrying about getting the car home and just drive it properly. After a quick mental pep talk with myself I started to brake later and hold the power for longer and as the times showed this was paying off.

As the day came to rest and the final times were up and overall the BMW had come 10th out of 39 and in its class it was second only beaten by a really nicely prepared Subaru which looked far from standard, was I happy? You bet I was.



I also couldn’t resist getting this picture to, as it’s not often you get this kind of opportunity.



Sorry for the long post that really doesn’t have much about the build of the car, but after all its summer and this is the time where the car should be used. Next weekend it’s back out in Germany and then maybe after its return I’ll look at finishing off the interior and then planning the next moves.

[DuncanR]

Lovely post Craig, and well done on the sprint mate, but tell me, where can I get one of those flag holders for the front of the BMW ? ...do they do one slightly smaller ? :hahaha:

[Craig]

Dunc, I'll get you one in black to go with your newly cleaned car... never realised it was gloss black till today! :hahaha:

Here's a video from the sprint weekend; RAF MSA - Barkston Heath - BMW 328i Sport - June 2010

Also worth looking at the V8 Westfield video as that car is an animal!

[alexk]

Craig well done mate !
Your car is very nice, you have improved it very well.
It's a perfect example that you don't need to have a tuned 997 GT2 to have fun or be fast on a track.
:thumbs:

[Craig]

This thread is long overdue an update, although not too much has changed I’ve just spent the last few months enjoying the car and making the most of the Summer / Autumn months.

First up, the Kumho V70a’s... I managed to get 8,000 miles out of the front tyres, and 11,000 miles out of the rears which to me is pretty impressive given that their track day tyres. Not to mention the fact that the car is used on track on regularly and driven spiritedly on most outings. As you can see from the pictures below they wore pretty evenly too, a sign that the geometry is correct.

Would I use these tyres again, yes without a doubt!!

At this very moment in time though, now the bad weather is here, I have a full set of Falken 452’s fitted and I also rate these, exceptional wet grip and feedback and pretty good in the dry too. A great ‘all year’ tyre which again I’d recommend.





The rear brake pads were finally up for renewal, upon changing them I noticed some cracks in the rear discs however the camera hasn’t really captured them.



I managed to get outstanding mileage with the Mintex 1155 front and 1144 rear set up, the fronts far out lasted the rears and still had 50% life left, but I changed them anyway due to the fact the front discs needed replacing.

Other than that, the only other work the car has had is another oil and filter change its still going strong at 177,000 miles.

[Sailorbaz]

Nice one Craig, this thread is long overdue right enough.

I've put a E36 on the road for the winter... shame it's a puny 318is though. It feels weird being back in an E36, even moreso when it's not an E36 M3. Nice place to be though.

Top work.

[Craig]

This next update is one not normally associated with a track car; paintwork restoration. I decided in August that the BMW was starting to look a little ropey for my liking due to all the tar, rubber and road grime so one weekend I set about cleaning it.

Now this won’t interest most but I started with washing the car, moved onto tar removing then the clay bar. Once these steps were done the paintwork was corrected with Meguires Polish #83 and Speedglaze #80 using a Kestrel DAS6 random orbital polisher with a mixture of Meguires, 3M and Lake County pads. The final steps were to treat all the black trims and give the car two coats of Dodo Juice – Purple Haze wax.

Below are the final results.









Couldn’t resist these two shots!!

[Sailorbaz]

Could I have seen these photos on another forum somewhere Craig? If it was back in August, it's quite likely right enough.

Looks well mate, good work.

[Craig]

For awhile now I had planned to do track days at both the Nurburgring and Spa-Francorchamps, in April I was lucky enough to do the first Destination Nurburgring and now, after many visits to Spa as a passenger or additional driver I finally bit the bullet and booked for Monday 4th October through Circuit-Days.

The trip first involved a few days socialising at Nurburg, from the moment I left the house till the point we arrived in Germany it like been stuck in India during monsoon season! I feared that it was going to be a wet weekend, but the weather gods were on our side and as we rolled up at Adenau the weather was damp and foggy but the rain had eased up. The weekend just got better from there, on Saturday I was sat in a queue for fuel and the temperature gauge read 26.5 degrees in the baking sunshine!!!

Monday came, and we made it to Spa just in time after a few minor detours. Signed on, completed the drivers briefing and then after a few sighting laps we were good to go... they say pictures speak a thousand words;























The day was not without drama, we decided that the latest we could leave for the ferry port was 15:30 in order to make it in good time. I decided at 15:10 to do one last session, famous last words I guess but at 15:24 I saw the coolant light creep and amongst a lot of swearing I pulled over to find that the car had burst a coolant hose!!!



Panic set in, but fortunately the whole group chipped in and we managed to by-pass the hose that went from the block into the heater matrix valve using one of the existing pipes, this would leave the car without a heater but still least it would get us home. We had to make another sacrifice, the scuttle panel cover had to be cut off as we could not get the wipers to release, but this is easily replaced. Work complete the car was filled with coolant (read: tap water) and it was time to go, we left Spa at 15:57 and had some time to make up, but fortunately made the ferry with 6 minutes to spare!

All in all had a fantastic weekend, already planning to do some more days at Spa it’s a great circuit and gives a different ‘buzz’ to the ‘Ring, I’d happily drive both most weekend and not get bored!

[Craig]

Well winters well and truly arrived, had a planned outing at Mallory Park booked for the 28th of November but that got cancelled due to the snow and the cars barely moved a wheel since then!

I managed to pick up a Rover 400 cheap, which very quickly got nicknamed Snover R400, to use through the snowy months... that is if it lasts that long, its verging on the edge of the dreaded head gasket failure and the massive mounds of snow I’ve rammed it through have started to pull its exhaust off at the flexi-pipe!

Anyway, less Rover talk; I now need to decide what to do with the BMW whilst it’s off the road. Do I leave it as it is, keep using it till it dies then let its soul rest in scrap heaven or do I spend some money on the old girl? To get the car exactly to how I want it to be, at the bare minimum would involve replacing the suspension (again!), fitting a roll-cage, fitting a different steering wheel, fitting a GT splitter and spoiler, replacing a rusty wing and maybe sort a few bodywork niggles out before the tin worm starts to spreads. This all costs money and that doesn’t take into account the worry that the car is now on 182,000 miles and could be due a clutch / gearbox / engine at any moment.

Decisions, decisions... What I do, like, no LOVE about this car is the fact that its stood for 4 weeks under a huge mound of snow and all I did was clear the snow, turn the key in the ignition and it fired straight into life as if it has only been run the day before!

Its moments like these that make me want to stick it out, keep the car and turn it into my vision of a perfect e36.

[mattCSLnut]

Well winters well and truly arrived, had a planned outing at Mallory Park booked for the 28th of November but that got cancelled due to the snow and the cars barely moved a wheel since then!

I managed to pick up a Rover 400 cheap, which very quickly got nicknamed Snover R400, to use through the snowy months... that is if it lasts that long, its verging on the edge of the dreaded head gasket failure and the massive mounds of snow I’ve rammed it through have started to pull its exhaust off at the flexi-pipe!

Anyway, less Rover talk; I now need to decide what to do with the BMW whilst it’s off the road. Do I leave it as it is, keep using it till it dies then let its soul rest in scrap heaven or do I spend some money on the old girl? To get the car exactly to how I want it to be, at the bare minimum would involve replacing the suspension (again!), fitting a roll-cage, fitting a different steering wheel, fitting a GT splitter and spoiler, replacing a rusty wing and maybe sort a few bodywork niggles out before the tin worm starts to spreads. This all costs money and that doesn’t take into account the worry that the car is now on 182,000 miles and could be due a clutch / gearbox / engine at any moment.

Decisions, decisions... What I do, like, no LOVE about this car is the fact that its stood for 4 weeks under a huge mound of snow and all I did was clear the snow, turn the key in the ignition and it fired straight into life as if it has only been run the day before!

Its moments like these that make me want to stick it out, keep the car and turn it into my vision of a perfect e36.

Stick with the 328i Craig :thumbs: U've done a great job with it so far and you're just inches away from the perfect E36 Track Toy :smokin:
Now could we have some pix of the Snover R400 :whistle: Pleeeeeeeezzz :hahaha:

[Craig]

I don't think I'll ever be posting pictures of the Rover online, lol... if you're that interested search 1998 Rover 416i with Regatta interior in google, its lush! Ha!

In a bid to motivate myself into finishing off the car properly I decided to give it a good winter once over to remove any of the salt that might have been sat feeding the tin worm. Not much of an update, just any excuse to post a picture I guess... ohh and my brother was dying to try out his new fish eye lens.

Cleaning the car also gave me the chance to see how the shell is standing up to the winter conditions, to be honest its fairing up well if I was to be fussy there’s two small chips on the doors that are slightly starting to bubble, and one of the rear arches looks like it’s getting a trace of bubbling on the inside edge. Driver wing is shot, but I knew about that as this was the only flaw with the car when I first bought it.

I think if I go ahead and finish the car off I’ll have to seriously consider either leaving the bodywork be (after all, it’s a track car!) or going the whole hog and getting it all sorted at once!