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1995 318i, boring to roaring in six weeks (v8 inside) CHANGES UNDERWAY SEE POST 61!!

74K views 321 replies 60 participants last post by  Fazda 
#1 · (Edited)
It starts with an idea.

"A v8 e36 would be fun"

It's an idea. It sticks in your head, but you've got a family, a mortgage, and no free time so it stays that way.

Then, your side income of flipping cars throws a basket case Monte Carlo SS at you.

Restoring it and reselling would be the smart thing.

However, for the first time in your life you decide to throw financial gain out and do something for yourself.

A junkyard bound $600 e36 stumbles into your path and things start falling into place.

It's late June, and Bimmerfest is just six weeks away.

A few phone calls later it seems possible; Small Block Chevy E36....build it in just a few weeks. Drive it two hours to Bimmerfest.

From here on out, photos will tell a story.

This car was built by Myself, My twin brother, Our Uncle, Our younger brother and the joint efforts of a handful of lifelong friends.

The goal was obviously to complete the car, and get it to Bimmerfest.

The idea came from the desire to blend our love of Bmw, and the e36 body with our uncles love of American muscle together into a car that we can all enjoy.


-June 17 2011.


Facebook post:

"When life gives you lemons, build a v8 e36"


-June 18, 2011


The car arrives, and as you can see it's seen better days.





Tearing the car down and mocking the v8 up... one sleepless night.







After looking at some ls1/ 5.0 swap mounts we drew something up and here's what we came up with:







Final Mounting:













The next several weeks consisted of taking care of various things:

-Shifter; stock E36 auto shifter with linkage customized to shift the Chevrolet trans

-Drive shaft; The local drive shaft shop had no idea what to do for me since I was using a BMW rear on a Chevy Trans

After much trial and error I figured it out....The Chevy rear has the same amount of splines as the BMW (luckyyy) I removed the flange from the Chevy rear and it slid right into the BMW rear.

Perfect. Except one small detail. The outer diameter was much smaller than the BMW flange.

Solution: I had a friend machine a ring to press onto the GM flange to make it the proper diameter so the rear would not leak. Shorten Chevy driveshaft 6" and we're in business.

The body and paint were just plain awful, so that was addressed.

The interior was borderline not sanitary.... removed it all, replaced some parts, cleaned what we could, and re-installed it after paint.

Rear: the stock 318i rear can't handle the v8. We swapped it with an auto rear from a 93' 325i. Also swapped the axles to 6 cyl. axles as they are beefier.

Trans Cross member, was mocked, and fabbed, and modified until it worked as we wanted.















Headers/ Exhaust.

Headers are Block hugger shorty headers. This was one of my brother's masterpieces.

He cut the collectors off, extended the headers and re welded the collectors so that there was easy access to the collectors and that the steering shaft wouldn't be in the way.

A custom dual exhaust set up to exit like an other BMW was made by him as well.









Other loose ends:

Wiring.

Wiring a carbureted V8 is simple, a few hours and everything was hooked up, a few switches inside and she fires right up.

Ecu and ecu wiring were removed, all other electronics are factory, and work.

Speedometer works off of the rear so it works as it should.

Fuel gauge works as we eliminated the factory pump and replaced it with a flexible hose. The factory Chevy mechanical pump then draws the fuel and things work well.

Cooling

The radiator from a Fiero fits between our frame rails, so we used that.

A trans cooler from an e36 M3 keeps the trans cool.

A factory Ac fan does the secondary cooling.

factory windshield washer reservoir was converted to a coolant reservoir.

Suspension

Bilstein Shocks and H&R sport springs hold the car up

Braking:

Abs was eliminated and fresh lines cut, flared and hooked up to save space...and simplify the car.

continued....
 
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#119 ·
I haven't forgotten about this guys...

The car is torn down for many changes, hopefully the next time you see it the V8 is accompanied by a snail-like object under the hood :)

I'll post some photo updates when I get a chance to organize and upload some stuff.

Can't wait for Bimmerfest 2012!
 
#122 ·
My vote is for a staggered dual turbo/dual supercharger set up. We need 4 digit horsepower numbers here!
 
#123 ·
Likely a large single turbo, I really don't even have room for that under the hood so twins will be even more complicated and remote mount just isn't cool.

As far as horsepower goes, this is still a car built on a budget with mostly parts I've acquired over time so it's likely not going to see four digits but i'm hoping to get it in the 4-500 range this year if all goes well.
 
#124 ·
OK we'll set up a fund here. If everyone pitches in $10, you'll be set :thumbup:
 
#130 ·
If you leave your car parked outside where I live, people will come by and do this FOR you! :rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
#134 ·
#137 ·
She's looking a bit depressing right now...no worries, things are coming along nicely.

While a big single turbo is definitely coming, It might take a bit longer to get accomplished than I'd like.

The suspension/brakes need some upgrading and I think that'll take priority right now. If I can pull some money out of my ass it'll still get boosted before spring, if not I hope it will be by Bimmerfest 12'

 
#141 ·
There are companies that I can send my carb out to to be rebuilt to work with a turbo setup. I'm going to try to use a few write ups I've found and rebuild a spare as a "blow through" style carb as many people have had success with that.
 
#143 ·
Many, many changes underway for next year: Shaved and tucked engine bay, interior overhaul, new wheels, suspension etc....



Refinishing these wheels took forever. I'm usually good at getting things done fast but this was a long slow process....Definitely pleased with the final product though.







Relocating fuse box under driver's dash... not a fun process but a worthwhile process!



(zipties for mock up only)







 
#147 · (Edited)
wow that's a lot of work...:yikes:

as for turbos with a carb, meh, not a fan. of course this goes back to the days of the firebird turbo 301...:eek:

since you're going all out, wouldn't a tpi setup work out better even without forced induction?? :dunno:

still, mad crazy props. hope to see you @ b'fest east '12!! :thumbup:


edit::rofl: @ article in link about turbo'ing from en ebay source...:rofl:



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