Do you want to design your E36 for supreme handling for autocross competition? Do you want to enter hill climbs or drive at open track days at a road racing circuit? Maybe you just want to look great, sound great, and hit Cars & Coffee this summer; there’s no shame in that. The point is, when you know what you really want to do, you can start your plan to get there.
Whatever your goals are, your car should be built so that it functions smoothly and comfortably, in harmony with you as the driver. If you overdo one aspect of a car and neglect another, you’ll have problems. Ask anyone who ever built a really fast car and never thought about his brakes! As you consider, plan, and build your car, think about balance and the real-world driving you’re going to do. For example, if you go to one or two track days every year, but you have to drive your car to work every day, a set of track-ready coil-over shocks is probably not the best choice for you.
One of the most common mistakes people make when building a performance car is they try to make a car that’s excellent for two (or more) very different purposes. Trust me, a performance rally car isn’t going to be any good at an autocross, and a really pumped racing car makes a terrible daily driver. If you try to split the difference between two radical applications, you end up with a car that isn’t particularly good at anything. Get your vision and your budget together and build your car to do one thing really well, or build it to everything pretty well.
When you know what you want to do and you understand the rules, you can usually come up with a comprehensive shopping list. That’s where this book is designed to help you, by going over many common modifications people make and the major options on the market. You can read what’s involved in a given modification before you decide to dive in yourself, take it to a pro, or leave that part on the shelf.
Four: Define Goals and Objectives
You need to be realistic about what you can afford and what you plan to do with your car. Diving in and modifying your car always costs more than you expect. You need to double your estimate because it’ll still cost more than you expect. So make an accurate budget and realize that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will your car be done next weekend, or next month. That’s why you see so many people driving around with half-finished cars.
My suggestion is that you start with a notebook. I use a paper notebook for each project car I have. The notebook stays in the car and I use it to log changes I make and results that I notice. Some people prefer a spreadsheet or a blog; use whatever works for you. The point is to get into the habit of logging what you’ve done and the results you saw. The more objective data you have (lap times, dyno sheets, and so on) the better your log is.
For most people, the car they’re modifying is also the car they drive to work every day. There’s usually not a lot of downtime available in the car’s schedule. And some people aren’t handy with a wrench, so take this to heart: if you’ve never done serious work on your car before, upgrading the brakes or installing a turbo on your daily workmobile is a bad way to start.
Divide your shopping list into functional areas: engine, transmission, suspension, brakes, interior, and so on. This book is divided into chapters on that basis to help you. In each functional area, list the things you want to do and the price of each item you need. Don’t forget labor costs, gaskets, and fluids. If you’re doing the work yourself, be sure to account for the cost of tools you need to buy.
With a good shopping list in your hands, and a total budget that will probably surprise you, it’s time to prioritize.
Most new builders start with cosmetics. This is only natural, but I think it’s backward for a performance car. In general I like to improve handling and braking before I put money into the engine, and I leave cosmetics for last. Who wants to scratch or dent an expensive paint job when a wrench slips?
With your itemized and prioritized list of modifications, you should be able to make a budget and a schedule for work that fits your finances and your calendar. Don’t sweat it too much if you get behind on the schedule; everyone does. Right now the trick is to enjoy the journey as much as the destination.
Five: Have Fun and Don’t Overextend Yourself
One key to a successful performance build is to make sure you reward yourself from time to time. There’s nothing as satisfying in a project as being able to tell the difference when you’ve made a change. So schedule your mods to make sure that you get a noticeable goodie from time to time. Maybe that means putting in the racing seat before the urethane bushings, but that’s okay if it keeps your interest in the project.
There’s a trap out there that you have to keep in mind, because it can grab you and cause no end of pain. The trap springs when you become financially overextended in your car and then run into trouble. The world is full of cars for sale where the owner has $25,000 in receipts and is looking for $10,000 or best offer by next weekend because he has to pay the mortgage. Don’t be that unhappy person if you can help it. It’s worse if your car is half-done, because if you can sell it at all, it’s probably worth less than when you started.
The truth about building custom cars is that you’re not going to make a profit building and then selling your car. You’re not even going to recoup your cash expenditures, so don’t view this hobby as an investment. There’s no reason to think that the person who buys your car will even think any of your mods are worth keeping. For your own protection, you should view this process as building yourself a unique car that you customized for your own tastes and no one else’s.
Finding a group of like-minded people in your area can help you keep your project going. The Internet is a nice tool for learning and discussion, but folks on the other side of the country can’t help you change the brakes, or give you a ride to pick up your car from the mechanic. A local club is also a good way to gain access to specialty tools. If one member has an engine hoist, then everyone has an engine hoist, and you can spend your budget on a tool that no one else has yet. Treat your club right, and you’ll always have help when you need it.
The last thing to say about having fun and sticking with the project is that you should make sure that the car stays drivable, registered, and insured as much of the time as possible. Nothing kills your enthusiasm for a project car as fast as spending money that just disappears under a tarp in the garage. Keep yourself behind the wheel to keep the rewards of your project coming back to you, and that will keep your enthusiasm going strong.
Although BMW tagged the E36 with a variety of model codes, only a few variations are meaningful on the E36. In the United States, the E36 chassis was offered from model years 1992 through 1999. In that time, there were 4-cylinder models and 6-cylinder models. The 6-cylinder models were by far the most popular.
When it comes to the engines used in these cars, there are substantial differences between the 4- and 6-cylinder models and between engines of different model years. Yet these all fall into a few broad categories for North American cars. Internationally, BMW sold many more sizes and variations of models and engines than were imported to the United States and Canada, and those models are not covered.
In BMW history, 1996 was a watershed year for the E36 family. In this model year, every car in the lineup changed its engine, and many model designations changed as well. This was due, in part, to the change to federally mandated On-Board Diagnostic II (OBD-II) engine management technology.
The M52 engine simply carries “BMW” on the valvecover. You can also tell this engine from an M50 by the bulge for the VANOS system