E36 Compact Build

So I bought this E36 Compact a few years back with a hole in the engine. Around Christmas I proposed a deal to a friend, Dave Brown, that was undecided on what to build. I'll supply parts, he does all or most of the labor and he can drive the car in the Colorado hill climbs this year. Brought the car down to shop just after the New Year. Working on it on Tuesday nights and Saturday days for past few weeks. Some delays while I ordered parts.
Starter car: 1996 318ti Compact - Purchased for $1800. Sold $350 off it. Has $1800 KW Variant 2 road suspension that is getting sold or going on road race car. Also a carbon cold air intake. Has wheel stud conversion done already.
Donor car: 1997 328i - Wrecked but running and driveable bought at auction for $175. Fees and delivery made it $400.
Engine fired up today. Have a few issues with the EWS system (built in anti-theft) that I thought would be avoided by swapping all the components including ignition from the donor. Going to send ECU off for EWS delete for $100. Otherwise a very simple plug and play affair. Removed oil pan and welded the oil pump nut. Block off plates on heater core feed and exhaust pump to reduce complexity and failure points. Samco intake hose to smooth airflow and remove traction control throttle body. Stock air box will get a high flow filter eventually.
AKG bolt through poly engine mounts and transmission mounts.
Sachs/FX1 lightweight steel flywheel and clutch/pressure plate kit
Aluminum t-stat housing and new t-stat.
Z3 quick ratio steering rack installed today.
Mishimoto radiator, Spal fan, and Mishimoto radiator hoses going in on Tuesday night.
We will probably start on cage in the next week or so. Skid plate is already built and sitting ready to install. Need to build fuel line protection eventually.
I have a 4.1 E30 medium case (188mm) LSD sitting on the shelf that will go in once I make an effort to source the correct half shafts and . Have a rebuild kit here to so may disassemble and shim the diff to make it a little tighter, possible replace some of the plates if too worn. Not a huge priority.
We will probably put new Zimmerman rotors, Porterfield R4 pads, and braided brake lines on as well.
The cool thing is that Dave Brown has no experience working on BMWs. He's an aerospace engineer and doesn't have a huge automotive background aside from some off road truck stuff and Subaru rallycross. With a little advice from us and Dave Kern and the internet we completed the swap and started the car in a very short amount of time. Time lapse coming soon. Here's a few pics for now.

Quick video of first start.
https://www.facebook.com/RallyBuild/videos/568486823315160

---

Grant Hughes

Gonna be done in time for Idaho?

Quote
aj_johnson
Gonna be done in time for Idaho?

Temple Canyon Hill Climb on last weekend of April.
No stage rallies for this year unless we get a new Colorado area event going. I might make the car available for rental in 2017 for 100AW or Idaho. I'm not likely to compete in stages for a few years. Focused more on local promotion of shop through racing in NASA GTS, SCCA ST4, SCCA Rallycross and CHCA hillclimbs.

---

Grant Hughes

Cage slowly coming along. Lots of not obvious stuff happening, but some cool new pin stands.

---

Grant Hughes

those pin stands are awesome! are they surplus from the russian space program?

Irish Escort rally program, so pretty much the same thing but more successful and longer lasting than the Russian space program. They're like $500 for a set.
They aren't quite the right angle in the BMW pin receiver so are a bit sketchy and don't sit flat.

---

Grant Hughes

Did some work outside and on cage today but these are only pics.

---

Grant Hughes

First event in two weeks. Getting to crunch time, big time.
Compact needs cage finished and about 150 smaller things ranging from skid plates/fuel protection to seats/belts to extinguishers to pads/rotors to fluids everywhere to vinyl to cat back exhaust fabrication. It might be one of those, still working on the car at the event type events.
Then we've got a GD STI that has aspirations of doing the same event. This one benefits from having been a highly prepped rallycross car and could probably go do the event once we finish the cage and he gets his harnesses in. It has a main hoop only so far.
Then I've got the Goose BMW that I haven't touched since parking it after final event last September. I need to reinstall skidplates and might try to change the oil and stop the p/s fluid leak but likely I'll just get the plates back on and go race.

Anyhow, here's a picture of me looking fat and sassy while welding tabs to hold the moonroof skin on the car. One of those few things that I will weld. If it's crucial, I make Scott weld it.

---

Grant Hughes

Suspension on, cage almost done. Rental fell apart so going to stop on it for now and focus on the Goose.
Few little things to button up before it'll be ready to drive, but starts and runs. Few fun things like Z3 rack, 4.26 LSD, chipped ECU, etc.

---

Grant Hughes

So the Compact got paused for racing. Currently leading 2WD championship. Last event had but if an off and motivated me to ditch brake booster and abs and rebuild the shifter finally.
17 lbs lost with brake kit. Another 20 #s lost switching to smaller tires that aren't Lassa.
Mostly wanted to post the pic of dual masters. Gotta design and print a few brackets for stuff but will have this as a bolt in upgrade for under $1k!

---

Grant Hughes

so you hated the booster that much? I probably never got the brakes set in quite right on the Rx7 but i was less confident in the dual masters for modulation than i was for the boosted setup.

---

First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

I always hate boosters. I was trying to leave car as stock as possible for test purposes. Booster or ABS failings led to hard pedal and lack of brakes. Combined with worn out shifter not being able to find 2nd and my off was mildly worse maybe.

---

Grant Hughes

Quote
Gravity Fed
so you hated the booster that much? I probably never got the brakes set in quite right on the Rx7 but i was less confident in the dual masters for modulation than i was for the boosted setup.

Was the less confident due to it just being so different from a boosted setup. I love that in a manual system the modulation is by pedal effort instead of by pedal travel distance.
I'm not looking forward to having to set my bias pretty much at the event but no time for real testing. I've identified a few forest roads in a nearby national forest that might serve to at least get an initial setup so I don't back it off the road on the first corner. Took car for first drive this morning, about two blocks, seemed a little rear heavy but that was also on a very steep downhill, opposite of what we are racing this weekend.

---

Grant Hughes

might be the development of leg muscle. Even with a moved pivot point, the amount of effort required to get the brakes to really engage translated to a loss of finesse so i didn't trust that i could slow to a turn from the same speed as i did with the booster. The funny thing was i could lock up the brakes easier though.

---

First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023