The official E36 OT Thread!!

Lol Franklyn....

My car is crap. I get 21.7 obc mpgs. Usually I pull 300 miles from a tank or so, so in reality I'm getting 18-19. My truck gets 15mpg and costs 1.8x to fill. Le sigh

why is the m54 burning so much oil?

Chad... Your truck is getting like 30 mpge. That's awesome.

Sorry Frank, there's no good reason for the M54 to be burning so much regardless of oil type. I think you're looking at a rebuild.

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compression test showed 150 across 1-5 and 100 on 6

rings are probably shot :/

ive had spark issues with that cylinder in the past, and have had to drive the car like that for 20ish miles one way to get to work because I had no other option

Gasoline not igniting couldve washed out the walls and destoyed the rings


barely smokes when cold

smokes heavy when hot

which indicates rings

That sucks Frank

So you think running rich is what messed up the rings?

yea It used to smoke bad all summer last year, and its been getting worse and worse.

I shouldve done the rings when I pulled the motor but I needed the car to go to school and back, now that school is over I can look at my options

le sigh

Originally Posted by Mr Gusta

Going with a thicker oil :/

5w-40 burns too quick

going to try dino 20w-50 and if that works im going to do mobil1 15w-50 if not im going to have to bite the bullet and go 10w-60 tws


if it still smokes then its time to build the motor and boost it

I hate driving with a cloud of blue smoke 3/10 times leaving the red light

That sounds like valve seals or shot rings man, I haven't. Been on lately though I have no idea what you've done with that engine.

On the trip to Amber's last week we got an actual 26.28 mpg, me driving the whole distance. 1.8 FTW in the mileage wars. When my daughter drives she consistently gets 30+.

Ken its been smoking always, Its nothing new just something I want to address....

I could do a reconditioned m50 with m20b27 rods to drop the compression and throw boost at it with a stock headgasket

and then pull my 3.0 for a build.

I have an m50 in pieces with 2 sets of b25 pistons and rods.....

I've got a good M50 bottom end if you want it, frank.

Im kinda bummed :/ I love the way this car fits together and looks, Last thing I wanted to do was pull It apart when the show season starts up

thanks cj

Ill look at my available options and see what can be done

She's ALIVE

Sorry to hear frank

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Originally Posted by noexceptions325

She's ALIVE

4500rpm redline? Is that a diesel E30?

Originally Posted by Mr Gusta

Im kinda bummed :/ I love the way this car fits together and looks, Last thing I wanted to do was pull It apart when the show season starts up

thanks cj

Ill look at my available options and see what can be done

Have you tried a wet compression test? Squirt about an ounce of 30 weight into #6, run compression again and see if the reading comes up to normal. If it does then you've confirmed rings, if not then it might be a valve issue. I had a similar issue on #5 on my 328 last year and used the wet test to confirm it wasn't rings. I Seafoamed the crap out of the engine through the intake, and my compression came back. I'm thinking I had some carbon buildup hanging on the sealing surface of one of the valves and the Seafoam got it cleaned off.

Originally Posted by Mr Gusta

yea It used to smoke bad all summer last year, and its been getting worse and worse.

I shouldve done the rings when I pulled the motor but I needed the car to go to school and back, now that school is over I can look at my options

le sigh

Sorry to hear Frank! But sometimes it can be a good thing

Originally Posted by ZeGerman

4500rpm redline? Is that a diesel E30?

That would be sweet!

So went to formula drift on Saturday. It was super amazing, and I took over 200 pictures. There we two bimmers drifting which was awesome, a Z4 and an E36. Sadly a instant won, but technically the only parts that were mustang we're the looks. I'll post some pictures up sometime soon(ish).

But on the way up there for the first one hundred miles I used a little over two gallons of gas. Like 2.34 I think it was? But basically my car was pretending to be a Prius and I was pretty surprised. I don't know how it happened but after that it was back down to around 30.

Originally Posted by Adamt166

So went to formula drift on Saturday. It was super amazing, and I took over 200 pictures. There we two bimmers drifting which was awesome, a Z4 and an E36. Sadly a instant won, but technically the only parts that were mustang we're the looks. I'll post some pictures up sometime soon(ish).

But on the way up there for the first one hundred miles I used a little over two gallons of gas. Like 2.34 I think it was? But basically my car was pretending to be a Prius and I was pretty surprised. I don't know how it happened but after that it was back down to around 30.

Sounds like fun...you get that rad in yet?

Yeah.... no m3 for me.

Done looking now too.

what happened?

The specimen i looked at was trashed.


And idk.... just like the cash in my bank account? lol

lol I was looking for the first response the second one is standard to all e36 owners.

Originally Posted by ZeGerman

4500rpm redline? Is that a diesel E30?

LOL dont diss my eta... 27 years old and still gets 25 MPG

I'm trying to write this paper, anybody want to help find information on the zf 5 speed (e36 m3) and getrag g420g 6 speed (e46 m3)

also rear diff ratio's listed from a source that I can cite