How did the front feel as far as weight and steering response? Car looks good in the pics, nice attitude thru the corners.

Wife had a '90 535 with close to 200 k on it and gearbox was butter still. So they must be pretty tough.

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john vanlandingham
well maybe a simple gate for blocking 1-r gate---wait is it dogleg so 4-5 is straight back?

And no comment on the suspenders might be taken as good news; No snooze is good snooze and all?

Standard transmission...none of that dogleg nonsense here, I've seen what can happen on Top Gear. Looking at power curves, it looks like I can have useable power from 3k to 7k RPM and in 3rd & 4th that gives me speeds from 30-90mph. With the shifter I've got in there, that's a nice quick up & down, so hopefully will cut down on chances for the dreaded BMW money $hift.

Suspension felt good, but ride heights are wacky because of an oversight on my part regarding brake lines and rear trailing arm movement under compression. Lower spring perches will hit the brake lines at anything more than about 13" fender to wheel center gap. OEM ride height is about 12.5 I'm told, and I think I wound the perches up so we were closer to 17" whereas my hope is that we'll end up near 14.5-15.0" all around.

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heymagic
How did the front feel as far as weight and steering response? Car looks good in the pics, nice attitude thru the corners.

Wife had a '90 535 with close to 200 k on it and gearbox was butter still. So they must be pretty tough.

No sway bars on the car at all so was expecting it to feel a bit weird and boatish like my GTX did, but thinking back on the time in the car this weekend, I don't really remember it feeling out of the ordinary. So much was new, it was more of a "soak it all in" kind of day.

My motor/trans package had ~75k on it, so was hoping that all was good. Guy who sold it to me didn't remembert anything awry with it, but said he was a constant rev matcher. I'm not wild on the pedal spacing right now, so I wasn't really doing much heel/toe in the car this weekend.

Dave



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2011 12:23AM by DaveK.

Great build Dave.

Only thing I can suggest for the tranny shift issue is to maybe try Redline 75W90NS if you're not already. http://www.redlineoil.com/product.aspx?pid=47&pcid=7

I worked on a ex works Subaru Legacy (Candadian) car that was baulking and grinding pretty bad (especially on the 3 - 2 downshift) and the Subaru mechanics advised to try the redline diff oil to get us through the next rally which was a week later. If there's anything left of the synchro this oil might be enough to get to shift.

Simple oil change and the tranny shifted awesome with the new oil and it did ~4-5 more rallies without ever needing to come out.

I now use the stuff in all my Peugeot's and it makes for an exceptionally smooth shifting car. It also helps lock up clutch type diffs real nice too.

Rabin

Love that last action shot!
Weight is almost identical to my Merkur, but I only had 51% front bias.
I can help out Wednesday or Thursday night if you decide to pull the gearbox. Man I wish we had a lift sometimes...

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bean
Great build Dave.

Only thing I can suggest for the tranny shift issue is to maybe try Redline 75W90NS if you're not already.

Thanks! I put Redline MT-90 in the gearbox...or was it MTL. I think the container said 75w90 on the back. The thing that seems odd to me is that I only have this problem going from 4th to 3rd, every other up/down shift is totally smooth.

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NoCoast
Love that last action shot!
Weight is almost identical to my Merkur, but I only had 51% front bias.
I can help out Wednesday or Thursday night if you decide to pull the gearbox. Man I wish we had a lift sometimes...

Me too, that's my favorite from the day. I may have access to a lift at another shop tomorrow night, but don't have a trans yet. Would actually like to get the diff fixed and try to go do some launches in the parking lot to see if I've got any clutch slippage issues. If yes, then time to drop more $$ on a new one, and when we R&R the trans, it'll be easy to slap a new clutch in there.

Since nobody seems to rebuild these gearboxes, I'm guessing an extra test session at CORE next weekend just buzzing the crap outta 3rd will be ok...as long as I have a good box lined up to put in before heading NorthWest. FWIW, my buddy Chris (a BMW mechanic) says its ~30-35 minutes from wheels up on the lift to having the transmission on the ground. Maybe there's something to this RWD thing afterall...

Dave

I'm not familiar with the BMW boxes, but lots of Miata folks have issues after putting super-slick synthetic GL5 oil in their transmissions. Using a GL4 allows the syncros on older designs to work correctly. I've switched to Amsoil GL4 synthetic and it's been GREAT compared to Mobil1, Redline, Torco and a few others.

Dave, just solid mount that diff. I have the BMW diff solid mounted in the XR, and very minor noise. I had the same diff solid mounted in my street XR and I could not tell the difference in noise between stock and solid mounted. That Toyota diff has an iron case same as the stock diff right? I don't think it will bother you at all.

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phlat65
Dave, just solid mount that diff. I have the BMW diff solid mounted in the XR, and very minor noise. I had the same diff solid mounted in my street XR and I could not tell the difference in noise between stock and solid mounted. That Toyota diff has an iron case same as the stock diff right? I don't think it will bother you at all.

I've replaced the bushings in the evo with aluminum ones and flat out hate it from the noise perspective. In every one of the videos I've posted on the Evo at least one person asks "what kind of dogbox are you using"...yep, its that loud & noticable. Knowing that if things go well I'll be spending lots of time in the BMW, I wanted to avoid that.

New harder bushings are already in the mail (thanks JVL!), so that'll be my first fix. If for some reason that doesn't solve the issue, I may look at solid mounting. FWIW, the diff is solid mounted at the front mounts onto the rear beam, but the beam is isolated via urethane bushings. Figured we'd do the same at the back to isolate it a little bit from the trunk area (aka echo chamber).

Dave

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DaveK

I put Redline MT-90 in the gearbox...or was it MTL. I think the container said 75w90 on the back. The thing that seems odd to me is that I only have this problem going from 4th to 3rd, every other up/down shift is totally smooth.

The other Redline (Manual transmission) oils won't cut it - it has to be the 75W90NS. NS = No slip and it doesn't have the super slippy modifiers, and is designed to make the syncros work better. I was told explicitly by the works Subaru guys that we had to use the NS to have a chance.

Daniel - was the NS specificly mentioned? NS is the key - if it doesn't have the NS then that's when I've heard of it being an issue.

I've witnessed it in the Subie rally car where that 2-3 shift was a total bitch (baulking bad, and if shifted hard it would grind bad) to it being butter smooth all the time. I was sold on the stuff after that.

With my own car I can easily grab first gear in my Peugeot quite easily on downshifts, where before there was no chance. It was almost as bad as a Subaru tranny for grabbing first while moving, and now it's pretty damn slick. I also use it in the diff, and it locks it up the point that the inside tire scuffs pavement on tight turns.

If the synchro is gone though - it won't help - so it's a $15/liter experiment to see if it'll work.

Rabin

Jason & Rabin - thanks for the info about GL4/5 and the "NS" products.

The BMW transmission is a bit of a strange strange bird too. Early models of the E36 call for ATF oil in the gearbox, but in about 1996 or so they changed the recommendation to MTL. From my readings on BMW forums, nothing in the gearboxes was changed, so you should be able to swap from one fluid to another.

I've managed to source another gearbox that I'll be picking up as either a spare, or something that'll get swapped in sometime next week. Going to try some different fluid first to see if that'll solve the issues. In any event, spares are good!

Dave



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2011 03:51PM by DaveK.

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DaveK
The BMW transmission is a bit of a strange strange bird too. Early models of the E36 call for ATF oil in the gearbox, but in about 1996 or so they changed the recommendation to MTL. From my readings on BMW forums, nothing in the gearboxes was changed, so you should be able to swap from one fluid to another.

But if noone ever rebuilds them how do they know that they didn't change anything.

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NoCoast
But if noone ever rebuilds them how do they know that they didn't change anything.

Well, they can be rebuilt but I was hearing estimates in the $1k-$2k range. Found a used one from an E46 328 for $300. All that needs to be done is to swap the output flange for the M3 one and its a bolt in affair.

Just had another question pop into my head - most clutch systems have a stopper for the pedal. On a car with floor mounted pedals, how you you determine where to set the clutch stop?

Dave

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DaveK
...most clutch systems have a stopper for the pedal. On a car with floor mounted pedals, how you you determine where to set the clutch stop?

You create an access hole in the bellhousing to measure the airgap of the clutch and adjust the stop so the clutch engages the correct amount.

I'd suggest comparing the distance the slave extends on a stock car clutch fully depressed, then use that same distance on your car's slave, and set the stopper there.

This of course assumes your slave is external, or that can see your slave if it's internal. (And a stock BMW to measure.)

Rabin

You got a wicked pissa pedal set that's adjustable. I'd say make sure it engages and disengages and call it decked.