Track Day Prepartion, Bleeding Brakes, Tranny Fluid Change

12/03/11

After the alignement and everything suspension wise was buttoned up, it was time to get ready for the track to see if all these changes would amount to better times. The last track I was at was Streets so I decided to go back, this time with Speed Ventures, for an apples to apples comparison.

My brakes had felt spongey after the last event so I picked up a Motive Power Bleeder from Bimmerzone. I  had not shopped there before, it was just the best price on the internet because of free shipping. I went with the black label, because I had used the original before and the swivel fitting on the head seemed more desirable. Sometimes the hose gets all twisted up with the regular version, either way, they both do the same thing.

Part of the reason for the spongy brake feel was the fluid I used before, which happens to be the same fluid I used again, pictured above. I'll take more about that later. ATE Super Blue or Type 200 (same thing in gold) is good for street and light track. Last time at the track I boiled it. I'm going to be trying something new, most likely Motul RBF600, after the most recent visit to the track where I boiled it again.

Not much to say about bleeding brakes. Pelican has it covered right here if you're unfamiliar. 

Make sure to only use organic and Kosher when bleeding your brakes.

After the bleeding was done the pedal felt rock solid or at least as rock solid as an e36 brake pedal can feel. I also decided to change the tranny fluid while I had the car up in the air flat on four jack stands. 

I used Royal Purple Synchromax because I took the forums suggestion 2 years ago when I first bought my car and read "teh bestz tranny fluid for e36 m3," and have had it on the shelf ever since. Now that I finally got around to it I figured new fluid is better than whatever was in there for the last 17 years.

Yep, it's purple. Capacity is 1.2L. I can't say I felt much of a difference. So with fresh tranny fliud, and more importantly bled brakes, I headed to the track the next morning.

E36 M3 Setting More Front Static Camber With Shims

After getting my alignment done and noticing a difference of about 0.4º - 0.5º camber from side to side I decided I would try and fix that with a shim. From the computer alignment, my left front camber was -2.6º and the right front was -2.2º. This is using the reversed 96-99 strut mounts.

I had read about different ways to dial in front camber without camber kits from this definitive alignment guide on BFc. Generally taking everything I read on the forum with a grain of salt, I was reassured that shimming out the front struts was something that's been done before successfully by the fact that bimmerworld sells a little kit for this very purpose. That kit is about $24 more expensive that just getting washers, so I headed to the hardware store.

I took my caliper and found 2 washers that were 1.19mm. According to that guide that should give me 0.5º more camber. I don't know where those numbers came from, but that's all I had to go off of. I will most likely get one more alignment with this setup and I will post to see what the change in camber is.

Before No Shim

Shimmed

Since I only wanted to correct the one side that was off by about a half degree I only shimmed the right side. It's so tiny that visually it doesn't look like it's going to change 0.5º just from that, but I will have to see what the actual camber is with this shim before trying anything thicker. And since my car mainly sees the track I don't know how this would really work for the street having permanent front camber. Then again I wouldn't really be worried about the most front camber I can get on the street. :P It's purely for the minimizing tire rollover and maximizing front grip at the track.

Mishimoto Radiator E36 M3 Impressions

So my OE Behr radiator was leaking from the plastic caps on the side after a 100º+ track day at Willow Springs this summer. I decided to go with a Mishimoto all aluminum radiator because I'm cheap and didn't want to pay $500+ for a PWR or Fluidyne etc. They have deals for "open box" items on ebay for less than $160. It still comes with the lifetime warranty, I figured why not.

EDIT 01/12/12: I took the original radiator to a shop to see if indeed it was leaking and it turns out after a flush that it wasn't leaking at all. It was most likely just the upper radiator hose not being tight enough.

A few things to note. The area on the top of the radiator which is supposed to house the rubber mounting piece to accommodate the OE BMW plastic clips is too large. I made a little bracket out of aluminum and wedged it in there. The rubber mounting piece then fit snugly.

Also I would probably use teflon tape on the threads of the drain plug and fan switch. The threads are large and I did it for extra leak free precaution.

I took it on the track and everything has worked out so far. The fit is pretty close to stock. For me the right side was kind of higher than the original radiator but you can file down the bottom mounts to make it lower. Don't forget the rubber bushings for the bottom mounts. I forgot those at first and thought it fit like absolute shit, but then saw the rubber bushings on my old radiator.

E36 M3 Alignment Perfect Auto

After all the front suspension work the alignment was all out of whack. I took it to my guys Perfect Auto for an alignment. It's about $70 which is cheaper than anywhere else I could find and they know BMWs and will let you put it at whatever numbers you want.

Obviously camber is set, so the first thing I noticed is that with the 96-99 strut mounts I'm at -2.6º on the left. The right side is at -2.2º. The caster also increased to 7.9º and 7.1º. This cross camber/caster was noticed before when my car was stock. There must have been some accident at some point. I'm going to try and shim the right strut to adjust the camber and see if the caster evens out. Best scenario is camber plates, but they're also expensive. So for now this is how it is.  

I told them to set the front toe at 0.0º or a little toe out. I ended up with - 0.05º toe out which is cool. On there rear I should've left it at the factory settings of 0.21º toe in, but for whatever reason I said to put it at 0. They left is at 0.03º on one side and 0.07º on the other. So with less toe in the rear will be a little twitchy or maybe not at all. We shall see how this setup does on the track.

A lot of this is just trial and error for me. It would be nice to have the ability to change everything on the fly at the track and dial it all together, but I guess that will come with time and money, lots of money.

E36 M3 Oil Change LubroMoly 5w40

Date: 11.06.2011
Mileage: 148,163

I'm trying Lubromoly synthetic 5w40. This is more just reference for myself. 5w30 was way too thin for the track.

E36 SSI Under Panel

I picked up an SSI under panel from bimmerworld for like $100 last year around Christmas, but never got the chance to install it. There are a couple underpanels on the market. One being SSI and the other being an aluminum one from Motion Motorsports. I went with the SSI because of the sale and I thought the black plastic would be lighter and match better. The aluminum from MM can't weigh that much less or more and they do the same thing.

Not much to DIY here, just follow the directions. If you don't have the directions call bimmerworld and see if they have them. If that still doesn't work and you're here because you want to know how to install this thing, comment below and I can go over the instructions.

Here is what the texture looks like.

It's pretty basic. It's held in by 5 screws in the front and 3-4 more screws on the sides that hold the inner fender liner in. Mine were pretty busted up and the OE underpanel was long gone. I had lost my brake ducts twice on the track and now everything is buttoned up pretty tight. I replaced that duct and also swapped out the fog lights for blanks.

Another advantage is that the duct for the radiator relies on some flat panel underneath to force air up from the lower center grille. Only gripe I have, obviously, is removing it to drain the radiator or do anything up front. Takes about 10 minutes.

 

e36 M3 Front Suspension Overhaul Part IV: 96+ M3 Strut Mounts, Sway Bar Links, X-Brace Install

So the final chapter to the suspension overhaul includes swapping out the strut mounts for reversed 96+ M3 mounts. Throwing the sway bar back on with new sway bar links and installing a new x-brace.

A little background information. The 95 M3 strut mounts and 96-99 M3 strut mounts are different. The 95 M3 is offset for more caster but is centered for no camber change. The 96 M3 is offset for the same reasons, but is also offset side to side so when you switch the left side to the right you get -2.5º camber!

Having about 0º camber and tearing up the outside of my front tires, I decided to give this cheap mod a try. Here is a comparison of the two mounts. The 96-99 on the left and the 95 on the right. The 96-99 mount also seems to be reinforced a little better. The red stuff is grease.

96-99 M3 Left vs 95 M3 right

And here is the difference once installed. I got an alignment afterwards and my camber was at -2.6º. Maybe not great for street but getting better for track. I've read -3.5º for track in the front is optimal.

95 M3 Mount

96-99 M3 Mount

96-99 M3 Mount

While I was down there I decided now would be a good time to buy and install and x-brace. If you have an M3 you should already have the threaded nut-serts installed in the subframe. You basically only need 4 screws for that and 2 screws for the rear mounting points. There is a write-up on understeer.com which I followed, but isn't really necessary if you have an M3.

Last thing to do was re-install the sway bar and replace the sway bar links. I went with Meyle HD. I typically wouldn't really rock Meyle, but the HD parts seem to hold up well.

They use an internal hex thread like the struts to immobilize them as they start to spin when you torque them down. I don't know if this is better or worse than the Lemforeder brand since it's easy to strip out an internal hex thread.

Impressions so far are pretty intense. The solid mounts in the engine and tranny make the car "roar" throughout the powerband. It's actually somewhat quiet at idle not much NVH. But upon acceleration it sounds like a race car would inside the cabin. Heel toe and downshifting are really nice and off/on acceleration is super responsive.

The delrin control arm bushings with the z3 rack make the car pretty darty. I'm not totally used to the setup and we'll see how it fairs on the track. I can't really feel the camber yet, will be more for track. Also I'm not sure where the x-brace improved handling yet since so much was changed at one time. Feels solid that's for sure. The knock is definitely gone, I would've benefitted from any set of new mounts let alone solid ones. We will see, it's for sure no luxury BMW anymore. ;)