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Hi Guys, I will be writing one quick post (possibly a day or so) with the upgrade and a picture where possibly. Today's "episode", the introduction: First of all I'd like to mention that I am originally from Argentina. Back there we have cars which are Left hand drive, hence, some of the nicer things in europe, can go straight to market and in this case, I am talking about the E36/5 323 ti, which I had the pleasure to own for a couple about a year in 2012 after some japanese cars. It was a 2000 model with the M52B25, 5 Speed manual and if I don't recall incorrectly, pulled 168 HP, in a very german titansilber. Sorry I don't have any picture. I've always loved that shape so when I got to New Zealand, I bought the closest I could get, hence, my first 318ti just 3 days after arriving here. Bear in mind that I paid 12.000 USD for the 323ti, but for the 318ti I paid 1500 USD, so, it was a lot of bang for the buck which I didn't expect. That was just a blue 318ti with about 230 something thousand kilometres, sunroof, automatic and nothing further. Just to take you from A to B. Some time went by, other BMWs went by (E90, E46) but a Compact in blue estoril was always in my mind, which didn't happen back in Argentina with the 323s but it did here with the M44 engine.. until a day in May 2018 I found him. A 1998 318ti in blue estoril with sunroof. Everything I wanted was there, waiting for me, and so I went. Paid 4000 NZD (Which I know, way too much) but with only 72.00 Kms, and pretty well maintained, I went for it anyway. Here he is as he was bought... I'll continue later with the first mods.

Gracias Olaf!! There are a couple.. the major, M54B30..

Thanks @hqstu for the sandpaper ‘hot tip’

Car has been sold today. Thanks

https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-2694436066.htm Well worth a look-see, these must be pretty close to the bottom of their depreciation curve, if the current upswing in previous generation M3 prices is any indication. Love the Mineral White!

Oh the good times.. Had the Merc, the boat, but that is all gone now. Just the bimmer and the nissan leaf. According to the Auckland Council forecast, I am already living in 2035, as they expect that in 15 years, the average household would have 1 electric car and 1 petrol car. I gotta say, I'd happily change the leaf for a Tesla Model 3 or a Jaguar IPace, but the bimmer will stay. (Edit, I follow a couple of Electric car blogs and I have to say, I F**ing hate when they refer to the Tesla Model 3 simple as "M3", hell no, Call it Mod.3 #3, but not M3, M3 is just another thing... Sorry for the rant) After another couple of months, the mirrors were the next mod... I just couldn't stand to see those beautiful wheels (yes, the curbing will be addressed sometime) but the rectangular mirrors... they HAD to be the M3 ones, but being a compact, only Sedan and Convertible works if I'm not wrong, not the coupe, so, quite tricky. Again, some time later a pair appeared, they were some sort of black and after an afternoon of sanding, priming, panting, sanding, painting my hands, painting the mirrors and so, finally, M3 mirrors in a fairly decent termination for it to be a home made work by a non paint professional.. By the way, some context, I work on IT now but I went to a science school, not sure how it would be here in NZ, but when I was 13 (26 years ago) we were taught how to use a lathe, electricity, and some welding, plus we learned the very first things on CAD, so, I get around with some craftmanship. With the mirrors, this started to look way more nicer. I'll follow up with the first time he "ran" Hampton downs.

Ok so, after I got it, I enjoyed it a little bit but of course, the 1.8 in auto, is just a slug on wheels, so my mind was already racing on what to do... The option I liked the most was the N55, which I saw a guy from the US that did it, but he had to hammer the frame for the turbo to fit... of course that would be a big no from the certifier here in NZ. Budget and technology made me go with the M54B30 which is already done, but that will come later on. The first modification was an easy one. Wheels. Got myself a nice set of Sunflowers 2 and put them one day in October 2018. I got them from a guy who had an e36 Turbo M3, and he had the same but had them painted in Gunmetal grey. Boy they looked awesome, but I decided to stick with the factory grey. That made a massive change in the car. Below the Before and After

ISTA Is a bit of pig with real virtual com ports, I can imagine it being even more of a pig with virtual virtual com ports

Thanks guys, I picked these up last weekend from the same guy listed above, seems he knows wreckers and sells on Recaros that come up, doesn’t ask the earth for them either, got these for $500 no rips or bolster wear

Had some time today, so swapped in the rest of the coils. Seems like it's running a bit smoother, and pulling more through the rev range. Might be placebo effect ? Old coils I tried to date and looks like they were not originals but definitely at least several years old from what I could get from the manufacturers numbers on a couple of them. The rubber boots on the new coils were much softer and flexible so a sign they had been in there a while. I also took the time to clean the engine bay plastics since I'd been in there a few times in the last month or so, hopefully this is the last time for while that I'm in there. I only took a photo of the engine cover which I cleaned first, the back half that's normally covered on it was particularly bad, cleaned up quite nicely.

Date: 10 Jul 2020 Distance: 261xxxkms 1. Cluster Service. It's fun removing the cluster from the car; even more fun stripping it down. Remember which screw goes where. Brake Pad Warning Lamp Re-flow soldered the contacts on the cluster circuit board that causes the Brake Pad Warning Lamp to go on intermittently, or stay 'hi'. Barry had kindly hidden this with some black tape as a temporary blind; it was time to fix it. If you want more details, a handy guide is here on e30 Zone. Odometer Gears. Barry had done this before, so I held the tools and assisted where I could. We replaced the gears just in time, they crumbled as we disassembled it, and installed a new set of Garagistic metric odo gears for the VDO cluster. Naked cluster, packet of Garagistic VDO km gears awaiting install. Old gears crumbled in our hands. Tacho retro-fit I attempted to fit a tacho in place of the clock, but found my povo-spec cluster lacked the right contacts. I also tried putting my speedo into the spare (earlier) cluster board, and then putting that into my own casing - but they were incompatible. The spare cluster had been damaged in transit (note to self: always inspect freight when it arrives!)... so I ended up re-fitting No tacho contacts there, then! I had to run to REPCO for some 5-minute Araldite to repair my lower dash panel above the pedals - I'd missed the 'middle' snap screw. Reinforced it with araldite, just like a bought one. Big shout out to @Autoglym, we had fun applying these fixes. 2. M42 Prep. I picked up a big box yesterday, M40 upper and lower oil pan and pickup, engine supports, dipstick and tube. Today I unpacked them, sprayed on a s#!t ton of citrus degreaser, and then steam-cleaned them. Flash eh? M40 parts after a scrub and steam clean. Lower Oil Pan (left), Upper Oil Pan (right), M40 engine support arms, and (Enis) the dipstick. After steam cleaning, 3. M40B16 experiment Prep. Most will file under 'why would you bother', though Jon and I have wondered aloud a few times if running the M40B18 intake manifold, throttle body, (and boot), might elicit just a little more 'go' from the 1600cc M40B16. The larger-bore throttle body might help with HP, and the longer runners might help with the torque. It's worth a crack, anyway. These parts were included in the big box of M40 parts. Should I do it? Well, when you've only got 102hp (assuming none have escaped over the years), a few more would be most welcome! I'll have a try soon. Big shout out to Cam @Southerner, legendary Bimmersporter if you're trading, and he packages very well - thanks mate!

That's ^ almost too good to be true. I'd jump on it. If you do go down the SR4 (Evo IV) route, not sure about fit for others, I have these original inserts in M Rain pattern, new.

New windscreen cowl and replaced the windscreen seal with a new gen bmw one. Wipers got some paint too.

I spent about $7K all up when I had mine done, including a few other bits and pieces, which I thought was pretty reasonable for the peace of mind you have after it's done!

Have been meaning to make a replacement set of headers for the e36 for a while now, and finally got started on it, it will be good practice for when i do the same thing in the e21, Laser cut flanges, U bends and donuts, all 44mm OD. Jig to hold flanges in factory locations homemade former to shape the ends of the primary tubes primary tube pressed over former to shape end first 2 cylinders... all 4 started, test fitted at this stage, clears steering shaft (just) welding up each pipe individually before welding to flanges... will post more photos when i make some more progress.

Sucks to see another one off the road ?