edhardley

There's really not to much you can do without spending more than the cars worth in which case you should sell it and go for the 2.5l atleast, the 320's not designed for performance but better fuel economy, even if you do go for some more expensive mods your limited by the displacement (no replacement for dicplacement). Anway you probly don't want people telling you what you can't do. The one thing I can suggest which is inexpensive and probaly the best bang for your buck would be take out the cat. Prety much a must for most cars(some bimmers, such as the car i got actually has an almost non-restrictive cat, there real efficient and no point in removing) but in your case it should show some difference. The other thing to look at is your air-filter, unless you did a realy good job I'd be surprised if you got any gain at all(may sound louder tho at high reves), have a look through the pages under the thread about 'clutch stops' in the performance section, I posted up some pics of my CIA(cold air intake) using a pod-filter to the best of it's potential. Heaps of people will say pod filter's are useless, if you set them up right your in for good gains, one of the fastest cars in australasia(a porche turbo GT, 0-100, 2.9sec- custom modified), uses to pod-filters to suck in its air, so they can't be that much of a joke. hope that helps.

I've done the mod, no probs, performance as I expected. As people say, you loose low end torue ( I noticed it), it is more than made up past 3500reves tho. Round a track or if driving hard, it is a noticable improvement (I havn't even had a remap), If you then go for the remap, you'll get back that torque and the upperend will improve even further (your OBD takes little into consideration of these types of mods, so whilst you got those bigger runners, with the potenital to flow more air, you need a remap to tell it to suck through more air. If you don't drive fast often, or arn't planning on getting a remap, I would probaly say against it. The loss of torque is a pain, and whilst the upper end is nice its no turbo. However I'm planning on M3 cams along side a complete remap, and they realy compliment each other so the otherall effect will bring it closer to that of an m3. You won't encounter many probs, a few hoses are needed ( can make stuff up as you go, or any decent BMW performace people can do it no probs). The only possibilty for things to go wrong is if the seals on the m50 manifold you source are worn(reccomend replacing for $50 if not looking fairly new). All in all I'm happy with the mod, and it's very cheap for the potential in power gains, your looking at not much over $500 for the manifold and fittement. Don't listen to people who havn't done the mod, there just going on what other people who havn't done it say (these people also happen to not have done it), myself and people who have done it are more than satisfied. But don't do it byitself and expect to be driving a new car (you need that remap along with the other minor mods you should have already done). good luck.

I have a couple of strut braces, after importing one for myself (billet aluminium construction) to fit e36's 92-98 (non- traction controld models). These are solid strut braces that bolt straight onto the strut tops with existing bolts (as seen in pic- may differ slightly from brace pictured). They are very good in acting as a strenthening for the chassis and compliment good suspension. If you don't know how a strut brace can help your cars handling, read around. Anway if your interested PM me (selling for $100) can ship, or pick-up. cheers.

Fair enough,4 digits is a bit uncommon.

Hahaha might make it look like that, but no I think I can see the 6-channel manifold haha. Shows there are a few carjam fiends around haha.

Hello sherlock holmes haha, yea its a good site, use it alot. Yes took some letters of, no point in making the registration available to everyone and anyone to have to look up or complain about and so on. Anyway I guess you were dissapointed when going to check out all the stats haha.

Yea cheers, I've been pulled up for them once, so usually resort to the plain german ones haha, but they look nice on a dark car.

thanks for that. Yea, if thats right then this may not work in your case, although I'd be surprised if it only engages when almost hitting the floor, because you can adjust the hieght, any distance shortened improves pedal speed and therefore gear changes. Anway you could chnage them round within 30seconds, depress the clutch and see if you are able to change gear, if so great, if not nothings lost... cheers

Cheers man, yea got her looking prety tidy. Yea may do, just have to check with my mate who introduced me to this forum.

I have some clutch stops available, after fabricating one for my 328i made a few extras, got sick of the clutch bieng long and heavy past point of engagement, giving slow shifts. Read the post under 'performance' about e36 clutches, its fairly new. This is probaly the best performance upgrade for your car, money wise definately. $13.00 and $4.00 courier. As seen in photo, it screws exactly in where the old shorter one comes out, If your car has the same thread as that OEM one shown then this will also fit you bimmer. The clutch stop is fully adjustable so you can find where it best suits interms of smooth, but fast shift (screw to desired point, then use the blue bolt to fasten it.) PM or email me if interested, cheers

Heres some pics of the CIA, can't see much (the whole idea its tuked away at the bottom behind that air intake), you can see in the pic of that air intake on the body,kit, how a flap is cut and held down diverting air to the filter, have to look hard. Also included some interior pics for that other guy interested.

Here are some pics of the car, and engine bay for you. Ill put a couple others up showing the CIA

Heres some pics of the clutch stopper dissconected, and one with the new one installed. The longer one is obviously the new clutch stopper.

Yea it's the best in my opinion, I'll take some and post em up but because of the setup you wont see much just the pipe leading to the bottom of the car haha. I got it from an American website that makes custom kits for e36's, it was about $300 nz from memory, but with the exchange rate a bit dearer now, ill find the website and post it up. I didn't notice a huge difference by itslef, but definatly lets through more air when you need, espicialy when your doing mods that require the extra intake to get those topend hp's (the standard airbox has its limits), the sound is beautiful, and kicks in at higher reves which is nice.

Yea there not to hard to make up one yourself if you pm me I can send one to you, if you don't like it just send it back, its also adjustable, because its a screw fit you screw it in exactly how far you want it ( you can go for a drive and adjust it to how it best suits) and then a small bolt secures it at that position. \ Its got the best simota filtercone available, which is connected to the throtle body hose via a custom silicon tube that takes the filter below and behind the passenger head light, I then cut a flap in the brake air intake pipe at the bottom of the body kit and direct straight cold air right to the centre of the cone. The silicon pipe never gets hot unlike alot of metal ones people use, (which do a perfect job og heating up the air as it comes through haha), and not only is it far away from the hot engine, and getting direct air to it, as it is sitting near the ground there is an abundance of cold(or coldest air available anyway), as 3rd form physics teaches you, hot air rises(cold/ dense air falls), so for all those people with pod filters at the top of the engine bay, I would consider putting in the old concealed BMW airbox.

Yup thats rights, the US m3's have alot more incommon with the m52 engine, every now and then they pop up on ebay, ur looking round $800.00 nz shipped if you get a good deal, and instillation is fairly straight fowrd, easier than the manifold I had done which requires some fabrication or finding of various bits and pieces. Yes i'll definatly get some dynos when i get a remap, want to wait till i finished everything, even without it tho the car is noticeable faster witht he mods so far, it is true with the manifold you loose some low end torque but the gain and endless pulling at upper reves outdoes the loss, sounds nice too, and people ask well how often do you drive past 3000rpm, me personaly... enough to notice (and I'm guessing so do most people looking through the performance section of this website). I've done a few personal tests (hard to explain) but proves my car has a noticably faster 0-100 time than when stock. Anyway I'll send you through some pics of the car later. cheers

No I agree any good clutch will be heavy, the clutch in a porshe track car or similar is extremely heavy and obviously purosefuly so, but it is also short, to allow for quick gear changes. A clutch stop won't change the 'feel' of the clutch interms of weight ans so on at all, as described it's totaly seperate, but because it eliminates the uneccassary push past engagement (that is heavy and therfore requires time and effort to compress) it is much quicker. Anyway its the cheapest mod I've seen and it takes 30 seconds to change, I personaly will be leaving mine in and loving the smooth and fast throws.

Hey man, yea I'm just getting use to the site, I'll try take some picks, I've got it looking just the way I want it so ill post up some picks sometime soon. Apart from all the basic upgrades, like wheels, clutch, suspension and so on, I've had the m50 manifold and throttle body converion, CIA simota (taking air from bottom air-vent, would definatly recommend this mod, can explain in detail why over others), Exhaust(straight through pipe muffler, without resonators), and in the process of m3 cams and remap, at which point I will stop hopefully (possibly LSD to come), otherwise you miteaswell by the m3 except for insurane purposes after a right off haha. There are lots of mods out there, but from experience and other peoples experience these are the ones to go for if your looking for max power gains, and suprisingly cheaper than other mods, such as headers and exhaust that don't yield the results those 'accurate' dynos may show. After I completed this stuff I'll definatly get some dynos to show for it, but at the end of the day you gotta drive it and compare to the same car stock ey. cheers

Hey there, yea you're right, in general e36's dont have them, but there are a few esspicialy 97 onwards that you may find have them, these cars also require the clutch to be depressed when starting, not sure why these changes were made, its prety easy to tell, you'll feel like the clutch is kinda slipping, and particulary the gear change from 1st to second is notorious for not bieng smooth, its not hard to jack of the front wheels and have a look. The clutch stop won't have aything to do with how far the clutch comes back out, its totaly seperate and tuked up behind the clutch pedal. All cars will have a clutch stop of some sort, just to stop the clutch hitting the floor if people do push it right in. The bottom line is, if when your driving you find your pushing the clutch further in than nessasry to change gear(i.e. engaged), you could definatly benifit by having a longer clutch stop. People have done it on m3's too, not sure bout urs but i don't see why the clutch pedal would be any different from other e36's (ofcourse the clutch itself and so on is). I've driven some jap cars before so when I drive the bimmer(which I do like alot more tho) i found the clutch incredibaly long and heavy, heavy because the futher you puch it the harder it is to compress, and long because the clutch stop in short. Anyway I seriosuly found a huge difference in gearchanges after installing it, they are literaly twice as quick and it feels great not having to extend my whole leg to get the clutch in(slight exageration).

Iv'e done a fair few mods on my e36, but have always found the manual gearbox and clutch lag behind whats under the bonnet. Anyway I knew to check there was no CDV (clutch delay valve), which for some reason bmw decided to include on some models, causing slow and jerky gear changes- also adding wear to the clutch, good for novice drivers, but not for anyone looking for quick gearchanges- if you don't no about this do some research, your manual skills may be better than your bimmer shows, some people claim there car felt totaly different, and the hold in acceleration through gear changes unbelievable... this mod costs you nothing, you just have to find the CDV and unbolt it, this is more a problem on m3's and e46's as opposed to e36 though its worth looking into. After checking there was no CDV, the second step was to get a shortshifter, compared to my mates sub-standard jap cars, the throw on the e36 was still almost twice aslong. Now instead of throwing my whole arm to make a simple gearchange, it can almost be done with a flick of the wrist. (don't spend $100's of dollars, the one I got from trademe for $80 is perfect- its a piece of metal with a shorter pivot length at the bottom... no need for some piece of gold with a brandname under that gearknob.) But whats the point of having a fast gearknob movement, when the bimmer clutches are stupidly long and slow... Now to the main point, and what got me doing this write-up... A CLUTCH STOPPER. If you have a manual e36 or find the same problem Im about to describe in your bimmer, get one. The clutch in the e36 is incrediably long, if you havn't realised this you probaly havn't driven another decent or the matter any other manual car before. For some reason BMW went backwards and made the push almost twice aslong as that in the e30. There is nothing wrong with the standard clutch, infact they are quite good, and similar to aftermarket performace parts in feel (well on 328's and m3's atleast). The reason for this unnessary push-in of the clutch to change gear, is the fact that the clutch goes well beyond engagement before bieng stopped by an almost non-existant clutch stop. So after reading about other people saying this is the best performance upgrade ever for there e36 (I did'nt believe them at the time either), I decided to fabricate a longer clutch stop. It does the same job, same if not better quality(metal not plastic), the only difference is it about five times the length, reducing the pushing and releasing of the clutch by half, and therefore halving the time it takes to change gears... seriously. Go for a drive and see how short you can push the clutch in to change gear, then you'll realise how the clutch assembly is poorley designed, with uneesary range of motion and why gearchanges arn't to quick. If you didn't know, a clutch stop in the piece of rubber (in the shape of a coin) that screws in right up and behind where the clutch is pushed, to stop you hitting the floor-boards/ carpet. You should be easily able to find it and unscrew it in seconds. You coud make a larger clutch stop yourself or buy one off ebay for about $20 US, but then add shipping and exchange rate- it's not cheap, I'd still say worth it tho. I seriously believe this is the best performance uprade I've ever done( value for money it's impossible to beat), the car seems totaly different to drive, it may seem riduculous how something so small can make such a difference, but on a manual car you can not overlook the importance of quick gearchanges, with even slightly laged (and uneccessary) gearchanges not only do you loose that time where the car is for all intensive purposesses in neutral, but because you've given a few more split-seconds for the engine reves to drop, the perfect transition between gears is lost, and rather than been thrown back in your seat, you are left feeling your car is unsatsfying. Anway don't mean to go on, but after having done this myself, after all the other major mods I've done (like the manifold swop people seem to rant over alot here and so on) I realised theres little point in getting slight increases in power and spending lots of hard earn't dollars if all is then lost on a not quite perfect gearchange. For the best part of $10 I couldn't think of a better upgrade... (you don't have to have a shortshifter or CDV removal to notice the differecnce) If you have a little bit of skill and time its not hard to make one your-self, but whilst doing mine a made a few extras, because it seemed silly making only one for all the effort of making and finding the right parts, so if your interested pm or email me and I can hook you up for not much more than the cost of a big-mac. cheers, Ed