Ownership Verified: 1995 BMW M3 (US 3.0L), track day car

cleaned the wheels yesterday evening.. and pulled the kidneys again to add a couple more coats so no more chrome is showing through.

tonight I did the following:
  • reinstalled the kidneys.. they look awesome
  • pulled the remaining Sparco seat and pulled the sliders off both seats (the seats are being sold tomorrow)
  • completely pulled the rear bench and seat belts
  • topped up the oil (it was down about 1qt/1L)


so right now the car has only one seat. I removed about 85 lbs/38kg today.. and will be adding about 20 lbs/9kg back in when the new passenger seat is installed.. not too bad.

I also added a 425 Motorsports sticker (local motorsports/racing parts supplier) and a Save the Ring sticker... and decided where these will go, once the car sees track time:
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tomorrow I'll wash the car and try to detail the interior as best I can (it's a bit of a mess from the previous owner).. as well as clean the engine bay up some and clean the tires.

the local BMW CCA is holding their annual "M Car Day" on Sunday.. so I'm planning on bringing the car to that. I'm hoping I have the driver's harness tomorrow.. but it probably won't arrive until Monday. :(
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my list of things that have to be done before the car can even be taken to the track:
  • fix all oil leaks
  • fix transmission seal leak
  • install oil pan baffle, replace oil pan gasket, upgrade oil pump shaft, secure oil pump nut, check/reinforce/replace oil pump pick up pipe
  • replace windshield
  • install undertray and radiator baffle
  • flush brake fluid, replace lines
  • replace flex disc (guibo)
  • install rear trailing arm pocket reinforcement plates (?)
  • new tires

and for any club events (probably won't run with any clubs until next year):
  • buy new Planted seat brackets
  • buy new passenger OMP Champ seat
  • buy new Schroth harness

Hopefully I can fix the important things in September and October.. with the first track day happening toward the end of October.
 
the previous owner sent me the new glove box latch to replace the broken one.. took 2 minutes to replace :D

broken piece:
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quickly (and finally) vacuumed out the interior this morning.. it looks soooo much better inside the car. I washed the car this morning and cleaned/dressed the tires. The car's looking pretty good right now.

I took the car to the Puget Sound BMW CCA's annual M Car Day today. I think I had the only car there that had been stripped down at all, though a couple of the cars had fixed back seats. There were a ton of E36 M3's there, and every single one of them still had the stock interior. It was really interesting to check them out though now that I know more about these cars. :thumbup:

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the rear seat bits sitting in my kitchen :p
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couple more outside pics.. this is the cleanest the car has been since I bought it.
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I also ended up deciding to buy some stainless brake lines. One of the sponsors at the event today had 10 - 20% off a bunch of UUC parts, so a full set of stainless lines was going for less than $100. I'd be paying over $140 for StopTech lines if I bought those, so I decided to pull the trigger. I'm really looking forward to feeling these brakes with new lines and with new racing fluid in the system.
 
I agree. Those wheels match perfectly the track car image.
 
I got the left side Schroth Rallye Cross harness in today. I'm looking forward to getting it installed, but I need to get access to a vise first so I can bend the attachment points.

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I also need something I can use to grind down some small metal tabs on the front factory harness bars. The E36 coupe has a bar just below the rear end of the doors that the bottom of the front 3 point belts attach to. The Schroth harness attachments will slide onto it, but only after I grind down a couple small tabs that are used to keep the bar from sliding all the way into the body work when not bolted in. So, that will require a little work.

I also figured out how to remove the rear outboard seat belt receptacles. They simply unbolt from the car, but the bolt is a little tough to get to (you have to either remove the rear side panels, or push them out of the way and force a socket in (which is what I chose to do).

So, I'll get the harness installed once I get access to a vise.. and a metal grinder.
 
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so I was skimming bimmerforums, and came across an old recently bumped thread about making your own "glovebox power adapter". http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1391902

I was reading the guy's post.. trying to figure out where this was supposed to plug in. Then I saw a reference to "the flash light". I was like.. what flash light!? Then I realized...

the glove box. I thought the light on the side was a glove box light, and didn't think much about it.
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the actual glove box light.. not working right now
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so I pulled the light on the side out.. revealing a power socket
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and the "flash light"
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so I'm still learning things about this car :p

This will be kind of nice.. because the location of the factory 12v socket is on the left side of the console in front of the shifter. Power cords just get in the way with this location.

(updated interior shot)
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I also took a photo showing the ancient'ness of the tires (manufactured in 2006):
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and I realized last night that the two fog lights in the car are not the same. One is ZKW, and one is Hella. The insignias are hard to see in the photos, but you can easily see that the internal construction is different. The light patterns are noticeably quite different.. and I kind of like the pattern of the ZKW better (thankfully it's on the driver's side). I won't bother making these match any time soon.. they both look good and are both OEM brands, so whatever.

yes, I killed a bug
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I got the left side Schroth Rallye Cross harness in today. I'm looking forward to getting it installed, but I need to get access to a vise first so I can bend the attachment points.

You don't REALLY need one... just do what I did: thread it in finger-tight and then use muscle to bend it! Since my mounted to hardened seat-belt points, I had no worries about damaging anything.
 
Well, I also need to grind down some metal on the factory belt slider bars so I can slide the new harness on there as well.

I'd rather do it right.. I'll be using these things a lot
 
got the harness installed today. I had to grind down a couple small metal tabs on the slider below the door so the belt attachment could slide on, and then bend each attachment point so that it was angled correctly for the belts. I'm now more uncomfortable in the car.. which means it's more hard core, or something :p

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Oh god... the us center console with the cupholders....

they are completely 100% useless. The rear "cup holder" can hold a 355mL can well enough, but the front one can not (everything is loose and just falls over as soon as the car moves). Plus.. they get in the way of normal shifter use. I end up keeping things in the open space behind the cup holders more.
 
the real fun begins..

I bought some parts today:

UUC red isolated transmission mounts with UUC mount reinforcers
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UUC braided brake lines
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Euro driver's mirror glass, and UK driver's mirror glass
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Motion Motorsports under panel (replaces several smaller plastic pieces that fall off easily, and like to fly off at speed. My M3 is missing them anyway.)
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Motion Motorsports radiator baffle kit (directs air to the radiator. My M3 has had the radiator fan removed.)
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I already have the lines and trans mounts.. the local BMW/Mini shop Broad Stroke Associates carries UUC stuff. They'll be installing these for me next Saturday morning, along with replacing the current ATE Super Blue brake fluid with Motul RBF600 fluid. The Motion Motorsports stuff should be here next week, and the mirror glass won't be here until later in September.

I'm also expecting to replace the windshield some time this month. I also still need to try and fix the oil leaks at the top of the engine. I'm hoping it's just a couple o-rings. I need to clean a bunch of the engine bay as well, so I can catch any further leaking.


Next month I'll be buying tires both for the wagon and M3, so I'll just do that at the same time. I'll also change the oil in the M3 next month (need something like a 20w-50 rather than the standard 5w-30).

Once that's all done, the M3 should be good for some test 'n tune events the last couple of weekends in October, at Pacific Raceways. I'm still concerned about the oil pressure, but overfilling by half a quart and keeping off the red line will keep any problems from occurring, unless I already have things breaking right now (unlikely considering this car has had no problems for 193k miles). The parts I want to replace and install inside the oil pan will cost almost $500, and the work to just get into the oil pan is pretty intensive, so that will be happening after I get back from Texas (F1 in Austin). I just need to feel the car out right now so I know where it needs to go handling-wise, so I want to get it on track as soon as possible. The rest of the winter and early spring will be spent working on the car (and hopefully doing a few things on the wagon as well).
 
Noob question: Why remove the radiator fan?
 
the fan clutch for the radiator fan is a known failure point on E36's. It doesn't just stop working.. it explodes. So, bits of metal and plastic fly everywhere. Some people replace with an electric fan of some sort, but for track purposes it's just not needed, unless you're running the car in the pits a lot. These engines don't really have problems keeping cool, so I'd only be worried about sitting in stop & go traffic for a while. Besides.. it saves a little weight and removes a small amount of power drain from the engine :)
 
the fan clutch for the radiator fan is a known failure point on E36's. It doesn't just stop working.. it explodes. So, bits of metal and plastic fly everywhere. Some people replace with an electric fan of some sort, but for track purposes it's just not needed, unless you're running the car in the pits a lot. These engines don't really have problems keeping cool, so I'd only be worried about sitting in stop & go traffic for a while. Besides.. it saves a little weight and removes a small amount of power drain from the engine :)



Ah, I see.
Thanks for the explanation. :)
 
ordered a set of track map stickers for the local tracks. The first one should go on next month :D
 
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