The latest Vladmobile (BMW E36 content!)

[VladSoilerOfCarpets]

Cheers guys! Si- luckily I've worked out that I don't have to spend my entire paycheque on the car each month, so progress will be slower but still purposeful. Going to finish off the cosmetic side, then try and get the performance side sorted out before I nip to the Nurburgring next year.

Jordan- I know right? If only my alloys were grey, then we'd be twinses!

Gee- cheers, I know you don't like BMs usually so I'll take it as an extra compliment. the BBS wheels work so much better on coupés. Tourings are a classier act.

[Matty Graham]

Looks ace! Want one of these so badly

[VladSoilerOfCarpets]

Now's the time to buy. They won't lose much more value, and the crap ones are starting to disappear!

Another little update... JDM'd my foglights, finally installed some grille mesh, replaced the fuel level sender (after I ran out of petrol, natch), had the Clutch Delay Valve removed (no more slurred shifts!) and have got a touch-up quote lined up...

Next up- decided to limit my spending, making it one 'big' item (over £50) each month.

December... M50 manifold. Hello, extra bhpz.

January... x-brace for the underside.

February... suspension bits.

[SNH]

Tried to pm you but I assume your full so.........

M50

http://www.trampdrift.co.uk/forum/topic/8002-m50-inlet-new-chizfab-hydro-rack-spacers-camber-bolts/

[VladSoilerOfCarpets]

Well, after a lot of ballache my car finally has an M50 intake manifold.

Never doing that again in a hurry. Or ever!

Difference in port sizes- holy COW! About 40% larger on the M50!

I know what I'm doing. That's why I forgot to reinstall the idle control valve.

Back on the BBS 'cuz I wore my '32s down to the canvas at the back. No idea how.

Trip to the Isle of Wight she loved it. So did I. Amazing car to drive there.

All done for now- next up, source coolant leak, plug it, ditto vacuum leak and solution, remap, enjoy circa 230bhp through the rear wheels. I'll see you all in heaven!

[@Lee]

Back on the BBS 'cuz I wore my '32s down to the canvas at the back. No idea how.

Really I noticed they put a triangular warning sign on the main road, as you turn left coming from Fair Oak. I think it looked like this;

:p

BTW, been for a spin in the Vladmobile, all can say is EPIC!

[VladSoilerOfCarpets]

Ha! Yeah they've probably had reports, I've disconnected the traction control and I haven't made a journey home from work yet where I haven't kicked the back end out on the corner by Poker's Pizza!

You should try it now Lee. It's now utterly savage at the top end, and sounds better.

[VladSoilerOfCarpets]

Right, finally, some good progress.

Spent a lot of time ripping apart various parts of the car the last couple of weeks, and I'm pleased to say that Claudia has even more of a bite to match her bark.

I dragged a thoroughly ****ed off car up to Camberley the following day, with no idle. That was fun. Only lost her 5 times, but it was still irritating and I've probably cooked my starter motor a bit. We refitted everything, and built a neat little T-piece junction for the oil separator & ICV (they share the same size pipe) to feed into. Started, idled, ran like a dream, idled a little low. Didn't think too much of it. You can really feel the torque loss at low revs, but once you get up the rev range she simply flies. The noise is a lot more characterful and open now, too.

Still had trouble with the occasional stall and, as mentioned, a very low idle. Got a can of carb cleaner and sprayed it all round where the manifold met the head, waiting for a change in engine note (temporary seal). Nothing. MAF sensor was fine. No leaks there. Throttle body and T-piece turned out to be the areas of issue, wasn't sure why until I took it all apart again!

Throttle body gasket was horribly smushed in and wasn't sealing, and the T-piece... well...

So I rejigged my crappy attempt at vac pipework, ended up removing about 12" of it in total (less is more), started her up and she ran. Properly. Right idle, smooth, clean, sprayed all the connections again to check for leaks... job done.

Today I finally changed the oil like I'd been meaning to, which was fun- the stuff that came out was a hideous colour. Also fixed a leak in the coolant system that saw the car eat through her entire complement in 6 days. Including 2 days of not being driven.

Other gratuitous shots...

The black BBS are back on for now- going to run the tyres down to the canvas, get them sandblasted back to bare metal and refurb them in a nice, light anthracite with polished bolts. The '32s are in hiding for now...

Other news- she passed her MOT with flying colours, but will need a couple of lower arms soon. Going to get Powerflex bushes on there at the same time, and I'm building my own new front struts with some secondhand 328i struts (£30 delivered!) and Eibach springs/Bilstein B4 shocks. All in good time!

[SNH]

Looking good mate. Glad your enjoying the mixture of m50 & k&n lol.........what a difference they make. Miss mine sometimes but still enjoying the disco for now

[VladSoilerOfCarpets]

Cheers Si! Yeah it's like bananas and custard, just right. the noise coupled with the acceleration means a) I'm not doing so hot on fuel and I grin every... single... time... I depress the throttle.

Remap booked soon, managed to grab a Christmas offer price- awh yeah!

[VladSoilerOfCarpets]

Some serious work's been put in recently...

Ever since I bought the car, I've always felt that the gearchange has left a lot to be desired. Never seemed to enjoy engaging, and it used to slur fast gearchanges horrendously. A CDV delete didn't fully fix this either... and the other week, when I put my foot down in 5th, it all became clear as to why... the revs skyrocketed, the speed did not.

Ah.

This was a crucial moment. A clutch is no small operation- it can be expensive. A decision was made. Keep the car, fix for cheap, run until dead... fix the car with serious parts and make it faster... or scrap her?

This is a standard E36 328i dual mass flywheel & clutch setup. It reduces unwanted transmission vibrations, allows softer gearchanges without so much effort and generally makes the car a smoother, more refined place to be.

Yawn.

It also doesn't help that the dual mass flywheel weighs 21kg by itself. This seemed like a lot, and rather unnecessary.

I wonder what this is..?

Looks like a corresponding number that it matches up to.

Certainly not a dual mass clutch setup...

Machined goodness. The retrofit solid flywheel Valeo kit comes in at 12kg, so a pretty good saving on the standard crap. However, this one is lightened to a slightly more elfin 7.2kg... and is nicely balanced with the corresponding pressure plate too. Lovely.

Seal of approval from Kittychops.

So, there we go. Dual mass ripped out, solid flywheel fitted. Impressions are as such:

- gearchanges are more positive and more of a challenge to get 'smooth', but that's part of the fun. The fact my gear linkage was rebuilt during this operation helps a lot.

- engine feels like it's fuelled by Coke now- has a lot more get up and go.

- acceleration is harder, not by a huge amount but noticeable. Especially up the top end and initial takeup.

- clutch feel is WAY better- I can actually feel what's going on, but it's also easier to stall.

- no real noticeable increase in transmission noise or vibrations, from what I can tell.

I'm happy. The kit didn't cost too much (less than half the purchase price of the car), and a very friendly mech sorted it out for a very good price. Definitely worth it.

Next up for power: viscous fan removal and my (already booked) remap.

Next up for handling and stopping: struts have touched down, time to strip them down, recondition them, add new springs & shocks, put some 300mm E46 grooved discs on and enjoy.

Next up for looks: this...

No idea what it is but it looks good. Nice and OEM, more aggressive than standard and not an M3 bumper.

Oh, and a couple more interior & night-time shots... back on the Style 32s soon!

Bon appetit!

[SNH]

Leave the viscous on, I was gonna remove mine but everyone I spoke to advised against it.

Looking good tho pal

[VladSoilerOfCarpets]

Really? How come, Si? It's quite popular with a lot of the E36 crowd and is good to free up a few bhpz, apparently! Cheers, not doing much cosmetically until she's sorted mechanically...

[travs]

Lovely car and great reading through. I had a 328i coupe a few years back and loved it immensely. Really nice touches like the auto-dimming mirror. Also check for unlocking the OBC - you can get a few extra readouts although some are pointless and some are only in Metric. Still - shows the true roadspeed.

I had the M50 manifold on mine, Dave-F, remap and Surpesprint catback. Loved the straight-6 sound at full chat. From memory people either plumped for a supersprint which was a subtler option of an aftermarket or a Scorpion if they wanted loud.

I also did the vicsous delete too. 320i Thermostat, latemodel 318is auxiliary fan switch (assume air-con is a given) and away you go if I remember right. It wasn't so much the power but the throttle response was brilliant. Mid-gear from static speed - put your foot down and the pick-up was really noticeable. Didn't notice any problems with cooling and had it like that through a couple of summers too.I think you also put in a coolant additive (forget what its called).

The other options that I would have loved to do onit was US-M3 camshafts. The US-M3 was a much tamer vehicle due to emissions - was essentially a tuned 325. No individual throttle bodies or anything like that. You can get the camshafts delivered but you have to be careful to have the lobes measured as I think I remember reading that theey looked exactly the same as the US 325 cams even down to the part number.

Lastly, I don't remember if it ever happened, but there were people talking about buying bottom-end parts from a UK 330 and stroking the engine to 3.0. Would have given a healthy dose of torque I'm sure.

Another popular thing was to change the pulley size for things like the aircon to save weight on the engine. Similar to the viscous delete. I didn't bother though - that I think had some bad press about what the effect would be.

Anyway - good to read and good-looking car there too

[VladSoilerOfCarpets]

Travs, that's brilliant, cheers! I had heard about the US M3 cams, but am reluctant to spend £400 on them. the 330i stuff is interesting- would love to be able to badge it as a 330i! If it's cheap I'll consider it.

I've already saved a lot of weight on the engine by changing the flywheel! That was a silly saving. I'm trying to keep it usable as a daily, but still fun enough to keep me interested. The flywheel has made it very ferocious!

I'm interested in the computer tricks, I love that sort of thing. Still don't know whether to mess with the exhaust or not...

[travs]

A friend of mine had a 3.0 M3 around the same time - that engine was a work of art by the way. He went the Scorpion option option. Sounded great, and it's always good to have the walk to back-up the talk.

I didn't want that though - at one point I was looking for just a set of tailpipes to smarten up the end.

I. Took the plunge and went for the super sprint as a nearly new one came up on a forum for a good price. Brilliant thing. Hardly notice it when it's cold, and after you've warmed it through, it just sounded a bigger boomier sound but without any harshness to it. Definitely recommended and I don't want mine sounding too racy.

Another mod you can try in the meantime, get on your back under the rear bumper. There is a pipe that plugs into the side of the rear exhaust which uses vac from the inlet manifold. Closes the internal flap on the right-hand tailpipe when on low throttle etc. plug it off and plug it and tuck it away (think I screwed a screw I to the end), flap stays open and give you both tailpipes open at all times. Sounds a tad meatier at idle and low revs. Very marginal but I thought I noticed.

[travs]

Here's the info for the OBC unlock:

To determine if your OBC is eligible .. press 1000 and 10 together.

you should see TEST NO . -- or something like that.

Now, some of the functions are locked out -- I do NOT recommend messing with them and you do so at your own risk -- that said ...

To unlock all functions .. press 1000 and 10 and at the TEST prompt enter 19 using the keys .. press SET/RES .. you should see LOCK:ON or something similar ... press the DATE key .. (today you'd see 01.24) and add the two numbers (day and month) together (today 24)

Now enter the number you just calculated and press SET/RES. TADA .. you have unlocked the secret functions ...

To lock them back up .. press 1000 and 10 then enter 19, SET/RES now press SET/RES again .. it should show .. LOCK:ON again

In general when I show a test enter it by pressing 1000 and 10 together then enter the number of the test with the numeric keys and press SET/RES to actually execute the test ...

Test numbers for E36 OBC

Test no. Description

1 Display Test .. all LCDs and LEDs activate

2 Current Consumption in l/100km

3 Current Consumption in l/hour

4 Average Consumption (used to calc. Range)

5 Current Range

6 Not used ..

7 Average Fuel in Tank (l)

8 Current Speed (km/h)

9 System Voltage at terminal R

10 Country/Language

11 Units/ AM.PM

12 Average Speed (km/h) for calc. ETA

13 ETA

14 Date of software/mask of OBC

15 Production Diagnosis (??)

16 Production Diagnosis (??)

17 Display Vehicle Specific Data

18 Alarm Changeover (continuous v. intermittent)

19 LOCK/UNLOCK all functions

20 Correction Factor for OBC Fuel Consumption (SEE BELOW!)

21 Reset all defect codes, date and time ... activate by pressing SET/RES

Note on test #20:

The factor is used to correct the OBC Avg Fuel Consumption figure to reality. If your OBC is off a bit: fill UP totally, run tank down and refill; then calculate your Actual MPG. Now enter test 20 to get the old Correction Factor.

NEW CF= OLD CF *(OBC MPG/Actual MPG)

Enter the NEW CF using the numeric keys and hit SET/RES to store. PLEASE record your OLD CF so that IF you screw up you can always go back to what it was.

[travs]

Also - this is also coll (the first time you watch it):

With the ignition key at position 0 (full off), press and hold the trip

odometer reset button. (The trip distance will not reset.) Whenthe

distances appear, turn the key to the position 1 (accessories on).

Release the reset button and watch the show.

First the DME will display the contents of six internal registers. Next

all the gauges on the dash will cycle from zero to full scale deflection

and back again whilst all the warning lights illuminate.

The registers displayed are

1. Vehicle identification number

2. Number for BMW internal use

3. Number of wheel rotations needed to make up one kilometer

4. Software version

5. Hardware version

6. Index of changes

[SNH]

Updates?!

I should be in a drift spec touring by the end of the month

[VladSoilerOfCarpets]

Updates?!

I should be in a drift spec touring by the end of the month

Sorry mate, neglected this slightly! Lots been done though!

Update from late April:

Little bit of progress before next week, when all hell will be breaking loose!

First up, wheels. The black finish was **** anyway, and I have a few little bits that need sorting out on the wheels. Purchased an Oakey Paint & Varnish Remover drill-mounted sanding disc, and a super-aggressive one, this is how we're doing so far...

Kittychops joins in the fun again. He's quite a useful cat.

The drill-mounted demon thing.

Two whole wheels and some of a centre cap done. This thing utterly rips up manky paint, and also leaves a beautiful finish- some 400/800/1200 emery paper will help me most of the rest of the way.

Haven't worked out what I'm doing with the black centre areas yet, but as the lips/centre nuts are going highly polished and the centre parts are going Mercury Grey (old Peugeot paint colour), I'm not sure it'll matter so much. Either way- love the look. It has unearthed a problem- the pleb who owned them before me sort of neglected to mention that I have 3 RC041s and one RC042. Arse. Now I'm in searching for either a '42 or a '41, any help?!!

Now, what else have I been up to... oh yes...

That'll be some painting, then. next week my buddy should have these all sorted out in time for me... front bumper, front strips, side strips (MTech upgrade too, woo!) and rear strips all going to be silver. As far as I know, you don't see many colour-coded E36s... so this'll be a welcome change. The new bumper's awesome too- just a standard prefacelift one, but with some hench lip added on- anyone know what it is?

Apart from that, I've got an LSD coming next week too (standard 328i Sport one, like my revs as they are!) and a remap in the near-ish future. Then we're on to fitting the AC Schnitzer M3 suspension I picked up for a song off eBay, a couple of braces, then she's pretty much sorted mechanically... until I get bored and decide to drop a V8 in there.

Fitted these...

And a couple of gratuitous shots now she's back on '32s.

She's now also got a trip to the Nurburgring to train up for in August, so I've got plenty to get done by then- ideally I want her mapped, LSD'd, re-suspended, rebushed and re-lower-armed by that time. Once that's done, she's ready. LSD will be end of this month, as mentioned... remap will probably be May... going to get the suspension, bushes and lower arms done at the same time (not sure if I can handle that, I'm good with spanners but not good enough).

[VladSoilerOfCarpets]

Update from early May:

The dropping is coming! For now, though, my latest bargain...

Some quality time vacuuming before popping something in...

Awh yeah.

Electric, too!

And a black leather rear bench/seats from my breaking one until I find a tidy grey one from a Touring.

Next up- collect painted parts on May 18th, fit LSD, apply new suspension, new exhaust, remap, finish BBSs. Then she's pretty much ready for the 'Ring.

[VladSoilerOfCarpets]

And my update from earlier this month:

Been a busy old month.

First up, saw these on eBay and (shamelessly copying vsonix), I had to have them... they've got different centre caps, but are ultimately the same wheels- Hartge Design Ds. Not an easy find, although since I bought them I have since found another set on eBay... typical. :hehe:

Next up, Sport rear bumper finally fitted. This was a labour of love and STILL isn't sitting right! I'll get there though... it looks good.

Next up- some quality rust-stripping/proofing, courtesy of the trusty paint/varnish/rust remover tool I bought a few pages back and a tub of silver Hammerite (perfect colour match for Titan Silver?!). Also stripped the exhaust of its black finish, purely because the Sport rear trim made it... 'disappear' a little bit.

Now on to the interesting toys...

Bilstein B10 Power Kit. Buy cheap, buy twice. Sold the second-hand AC Schnitzer M3 suspension, and went for this handsomely-priced set of new suspension that a chap hadn't fitted to his car.

The results are below...

The crime scene for the day. A very good friend has a tidy E36 cabrio that he's already done the suspension on. I jokingly mumbled on Facebook about holding a gun to his head and getting him to do mine... you can imagine my surprise when he chirped up with, "Don't forget your suspension tomorrow!" (Me: "Really? Are you sure? SA-WEEEEEET.")

Old versus new. It was the original suspension- 14 years old- all the shocks were utterly fubared! Although, bizarrely, the top mounts were in perfect nick. Be having them, in that case...

One of the lovely new struts, built up and ready to be popped in. Bubblegum blue and sterling silver- a good blend. They're Bilstein B8 shocks, with Bilstein's 'own brand' springs...

Snug as a bug in a rug.

The rears were pathetically easy to do- the hardest part was pulling apart the cargo bay to get at the top mount bolts in the back!

We ended up with something that looked a little bit like this:

While I was there, I collected my newly sprayed parts that I've been banging on about...

Before:

After:

Also, little bits- bagged a rear wiper from a 406 Estate and fitted that (Aero look), thus removing the spindly nasty mess that it used to have but retaining practicality. And here's the exhaust tips in context...

I've also rebuilt the cargo area as there was quite a lot of trim missing. I won't bore people with photos, but it all actually fits together now. Simple things.

Few photos with James and his utterly lovely E36 Cabrio- he now has my old Style 32s, so is well covered for gorgeous wheels on his car!

I know you're reading this mate, thanks again for all your hard work and help- he sprayed the new front bumper, new side strips, rear strips AND helped me change all the suspension on the car. Friends like that simply don't grow on trees.

What's next? Well...

These came in the post, so I guess I'd better fit them. Converted to fit the E36 (with some slightly dodgy-looking brackets), they came with grooved/vented 325mm discs and new pads. I've bought the relevant E36 M3 Evo master cylinder/servo/reservoir and done a test fit on the breaker car, should be relatively simple.

Apart from that, ECU will be changed for a mapped one before I nip to the 'Ring, then a tidy exhaust, then just the niggly bits- grey leather rear seats, refurb the Vaders, repsray bits, rust-proof. Well happy.

Plenty done, not much left now!!

[@Lee]

Loving how Claudia looks now, Sam I need to take her for another brisk drive

[SNH]

Good progress pal, looking good

[Babs]

Very impressed, looks awesome!