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The NEWEST official E36 OT Thread!!

613K views 9K replies 87 participants last post by  drivinfaster 
#1 ·
New new version of the official E36 OT thread.
 
#4 ·
I noticed the forum was slowing down again, but I am surprised it was OT’s fault. I assumed it was a different thread, OT is not even the biggest thread in the e36 section.
 
#5 ·
Woohoo! I got the last post on the last one. :thumbup:

Does seem like this one timed out a lot shorter than the original. Tim is there a particular post count you'd like us to self regulate these threads to? I hate that we've caused performance issues for the rest of the site twice now.
 
#8 ·
Can't blame Chad for breaking the fest this time. He's never here.

I don't get it. There are several threads on other forums bigger than our second OT thread was. I'm certainly not complaining, just curious how it caused problems. The first OT thread was many times larger before it crashed the fest.
 
#15 ·
Can't blame Chad for breaking the fest this time. He's never here.
Yeah yeah yeah. Whatever. :p

Adding a baby to the already crazy mix with the girls has taken up most of my time, and I've been working a ton lately. Just got back from DC, sorry Jake & Joey we couldn't meet up.
 
#13 ·
This is a car forum, so I am guessing it will be like an odometer and roll over. The next OT will be "oldest". :rofl:
 
#17 ·
Wheel Polishing Night #2

After Acid Stripping



After 90 minutes with 220 grit



Then I did another 90 minutes of 400, 800, 1000 and 2000 grit. Then did one pass with the powerball and some white diamond polish.





Once I finish sanding the other two I'll polish all four of them again for a second time and put a couple coats of sealant on them. They're far from perfect, but considering the condition I'm starting from I'd say its a pretty good turn around.
 
#32 ·
Good Lord! Talk about a major difference. Are you wet or dry sanding with those grits? I am going to restore the BBS LM rims I kept from the MTech and plan on putting the wheels on my M3 or 128I. Most probably on my 128I.
 
#20 · (Edited by Moderator)
Buddy of mine is getting married, renovating his house, and trying to keep a Spec E46 track car in the game this summer, and is also trying to liquidate his street car collection. He's a mechanical genius but doesn't have the time or interest to do cosmetic work, and he hates selling cars, so we struck a deal.

He's putting a new motor in it, I'm handling all the cosmetic issues and I'm going to sell it. He gets the money he needs and hopefully I walk away with my pockets slightly fatter for my troubles.

So if anyone wants an E36 that grabs you by the scruff of the neck and drives you, stay tuned. I'm hoping to have it on the market in the next 3 weeks or so.
 
#19 · (Edited)
The newest OT thready haha. In other news my dad picked up 2 e36 project cars. Both are running and we drove them home. Silver 98 328is auto 152,xxx. Green 96 318i vert manual 230,xxx.
He also got a garage finally! He deserved it!
 

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#21 ·
Joey, how did your friend blow the LS1? What is wrong with the engine?
 
#22 ·
LS1s and race tracks don't mix without extensive modification. Great street engines, but when you start pulling Gs for extended periods of time they get oil starvation issues. He took it out for some event last fall and ended up putting a fist sized hole in the block. I helped him pull the drivetrain out a couple months ago and i could literally put my hand inside the engine, it was pretty crazy.

He's got a replacement all ready to go, not sure if its a 5.7 or a 6.0 (I think 5.7), but I think it has less than 80k on it so it should have lots of life left for the new owner (provided they add good oil pan baffles if they want to track it)
 
#23 ·
^Dang, I was hopping it was something fixable, so I could pick up a sl1 for cheap and fix it up.
 
#25 ·
Yeah unfortunately the old motor is scrap metal, I do think he has good heads for sale, gotta start somewhere right?

I was just looking at some comparable listings and I'm slightly less enthusiastic about it now, but then again these things only come up for sale so often so hopefully I can drum up a bunch of excitement about it locally. I'm definitely planning on taking it (and it's owner if he doesn't want me tramping around town in it without supervision) to all the local car meets, shows, dyno nights, etc. Get people excited about it and then casually mention its for sale, see what happens.
 
#28 ·
I'll hit you up when we have it all back together and get some good photos of it. :thumbup: I still need to get all the specific details for it, like whether he plans to sell it with the aftermarket or stock cam.

If LS engines have to be extensively modified to handle track use, what other things need to be done beyond oil baffles?
I may have been a little flippant with the word "extensive", I'm not sure if more is required to make them reliable for track use. He also has a C5 vette with <8k miles on it that was bought new by the previous owner with the intention of being a dedicated autocross car and it seems to be holding up alright.
 
#30 ·
I think in this iteration it's going to be sold as "A/C Ready" but wont have the compressor in it. It does have the 3.91 rear end you want for these swaps, and the power figures will depend on whether he sells it with the aftermarket cam or wants to part that out separately, haven't talked to him about it yet. I think it'd either be ~380rwhp or ~450 like you said.

Either way it's an exciting car, and project. I'm hoping to have the wheels done this week, the paint correction done this weekend, and then get the interior work done shortly after that so it's ready to be photographed and go on the market more or less as soon as the new motor is in it.
 
#36 ·
It's rough man. Like I said I've been taking them up to my living room one at a time so I can work on them with the TV going in the background and the A/C on. It's such an incredibly tedious job that you need some TV or music or a talk show or something to pass the time.

I've spent 5-6 hours total so far and I'd say I'm 40% done. Still need to finish polishing and apply some sealant to the two I've done so far. I think I'm gonna take a night off tonight to preserve my sanity. I knew I was going to make a major time investment in this car but good lord, I'm tracking to spend 10-12 hours on just the wheels. :eek:
 
#37 ·
I got the wild idea to polish the inner barrels on my wheels. Turns out two of the wheels were clear coated, and two had a grey epoxy powder coat. Lucky me I did one of the clear coat wheels first and thought it wouldn't be too bad a job. The powder coated wheels have been a real bish to get stripped down to bare metal.
 
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