RedRocketTi

Loving those CF door cards! Have you done anything to the engine as far as track reliability? Oil cooler or baffled sump? One thing I noticed after tracking my Ti with the m52b28 was after a 15 min session around Ruapuna I would come in and have some tappet noise, it went away however but I noticed it mainly after coming in after a hot session. Loving that rear diffuser!!! Cant wait to see more of this build!

So while my car has been off the road for a few weeks naughty thoughts have been creeping through my mind. I want to fit my AC Schnitzer rims, but thought instead of just stretching some skinny rubber on and rolling the guards out heaps I could do something slightly different. I see that Felony Form in the US have just released a wide body for the Ti and I am in love!!! Thing is the price on the kit along with shipping will make it far too expensive for me! What I want to do is build a 1 off wide body kit for the Ti out of fibreglass. I have thought about starting using either polystyrene, sticking it to the side of the car and cutting/sanding into the shape I want and glassing over the top or using spray foam. What body experts are out there that have done this kind of thing and what is the best kind of method for going about this? I really like the E30 m3 box style flares but including the screws like the felony forms do. One thing that I want to do is be able to keep the same lines in the car and just further accentuate them out in the rear. It would be awesome to be able to hear some feedback on what works and what doesn't, cheers in advance guys!

Picked up some Bilstein front shocks with Eibach springs, hopefully they will help reduce the horrid body roll in the Ti. Will chuck them in next weekend when I swap in the new engine! Excitement is building and I cant wait to have it all going again!!! Fingers crossed a few of my clients come thorough and pay their late invoices so that I can get a new gearbox to go in at the same time!

Could be keen, and yeah I still have a lot of straight left considering I break at about 100m out from corner 1! And oh yeah could potentially be keen, really was after a 3.46 but if its the right price and medium case

3750rpm in 5th at 100kph and yeah I dont use 1st gear lol, alltho its bloody quick 0-100 and passing at 100kph you dont need to change down! Alltho with the pickup you are in loss of licence territory very very quickly. I top it out at 7k rpm at 175kph down the straight at ruapuna and that was just after the start finish line. I was coming out of the final corner at 65-70kph on screwed goodrides compared to people on semis coming out at 100kph + so with the correct ratio diff it will be interesting to see if I can easily crack 200 down the straight!

So bought a new engine for the 328Ti the other day! Also orginized some space to do the swap! So by the looks of it she will live again on the weekend of the 24-25th!!!!! Still havnt been able to track down a good 220 gearbox that isnt super expensive yet so it looks like I may have to just run my screwed box for a little longer... still I cant wait to have my POWER BACK!!!!!

Not yet got a medium case diff yet... still running the 4.44 auto small case haha. I have heard I can run a medium case E30 diff with the Ti output flanges and axles?

Does a stiffer diff bushing help prevent diff hop? I notice in the Ti under power I can get some crazy diff hop when launching and that below 100kph.

They look to be style 5 BMW wheels with missing centre caps I was talking to that same guy the other day about the 325i coupe he had

So...... I own 2 318Ti's, both are 1997 models, however one is registered as a 318i. Just trawling through trademe and I see this: http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1156903191.htm and had a little giggle, then I noticed that they had managed to register it with AC Schnitzer!!!!! Now my question is this.... is it possible to change the registration details with VTNZ? I would really like to change my 318i to what it truely is... 328ti

Compression tested my engine.... Shes long gone.... but the Ti will live again! I have found another 2.8, but wouldnt mind an s50/52 to chuck in her, also will be needing a new gearbox too.... Cylinder #5 I couldnt see the spark plug due to the amount of oil in there.... I got: 220psi, 120psi, 200psi, 180psi, unreadable, 80psi Currently Im having to daily my 2nd Ti, nicknamed 'The Nugget', I bought originally to restore up, take all the goodies from it and swap onto the good one and then flick it for a profit. I have had ideas on what to do next tho... Felony Form Ti kits I think look pretty amazing, it would be a great way to get them AC rims under the guards. Having the Msport Ti I will be taking a lot of the goodies and putting them onto this one, things such as the clear indicator tail lights, M trim and front and rear bumpers. I dad is pretty handy with creating things out of fibreglass so we may make an attempt at our own felony form style kit, also I have been thinking about creating a custom rear diffuser and front splitter for under the Msport front bumper. Here is a pic of the final run about Ruapuna, cant see the black clouds and it looks kinda good... also some pics of the crashed one I managed to pick up.

S54 would be amazing for in the little Ti!!!! But tbh Im currently a poor student so the bank account says no I am quite gutted that I blew my m52, also had my main form of income break on me with a 4-6 week repair period so it wont recover enough for me to be able to get S54 power anytime soon (Also S54 into e36 would be rather tricky as far as wiring wouldnt it?). Im going to give my blown M52b28 to my little brother for his E30 coupe as it has had a full OBD1 conversion with M50 loom etc. Re 10k E36, soooo much want!!! If you would trade 2 helrot Red Ti's, 1 m52b28 manual that has a blown engine and recked box, and 1 Msport stock one with miss matching panels atm then hell yeah

So after running the rings in my M52B28 after 3 months.... I am after a new engine for my Ti!!!! If anyone knows of any S50B30's or any E36 M3 engines that are a good deal let me know! Closer to chch the better! Also after a gearbox, my GETRAG 220 is popping out of first and third and wont change down into third without popping out of gear unless you rev match, even then it can pop out if on and off the power. So I am 100% after a new box, also if I can pick up an S5x engine for the right deal that would be awesome otherwise I will be chucking another M52B28 into the hole again. PM me if you know of anything!

Compression tested my engine.... Shes long gone.... but the Ti will live again! I have found another 2.8, but wouldnt mind an s50/52 to chuck in her, also will be needing a new gearbox too.... Cylinder #5 I couldnt see the spark plug due to the amount of oil in there.... I got: 220psi, 120psi, 200psi, 180psi, unreadable, 80psi

So today is a sad day... Yesterday I took the Ti to Ruapuna, this may have been the start of the final nail in the coffin for the engine. At the start of the day it was bucketing down, large amounts of standing water on the track making it hard to get traction. Took the wee beast out for the sighting lap, spun on castrol when I hit a massive puddle at 50kph. No big deal. Also noticed serious miss firing. Time for session 1, 15 mins long. Notice more miss firing. Come in after 10 mins. We decided to check the MAF, seemed like water in maf and possibly wet coils, left running for a while at idle to dry out. Next session comes along, miss fires gone! Yay! black plumes of black smoke following me. Come in early again. Decided the MAF is causing the ecu to overfuel, so running rich. Decide once again it shouldnt be too much of an issue. Third session, head out and all seems to be good, track starting to dry slightly, able to finaly get more and more heat into the tires and begin to get a little more grip. Black clouds getting pretty bad. Come in after the session, check oil. Oil is on the bottom of the dipstick, go to fill it up, take 2.5L and only just makes it over the minimum fill line. Also noticed tappet noises. Call it quits for the day. So today took it out to a meet, checked oil before leaving home and it was just below full, checked coolant and no oil in coolant, heater still works, and oil cap looks good, not milky. Still notice some smoke but not near as much as yesterday. Go to start the car to leave the meet, blue plume of smoke and white smoke. Sooooo..... This may be the end of the road for the engine that is currently in there. It appears like it could be either valve stem seals or rings. I will compression test later this week to try figure it out. I have found a good long block replacement for it, however I am not sure whether I go with another M52B28, or go to an M50B25 for the cast iron block. I will also have to do gearbox at the same time as my syncros in 3rd have gone on me. Anyway here are some near misses and moments from throughout the day, note the E36 Vert with woodgrain wheel has an M50B25 in it.

Will keep you in mind The engine had just had the head gaskits and a whole lot of stuff done, needs new front guard, nosecone, bonnet and engine mounts replacing. Someone has tried to break into it at some point too so gotta get a new rear side window. Should hopefully be able to get her all going within the week and back on the road!

I did a thing, now I own 2 Helrot Red 1997 Ti's Managed to trade my old engine and a small sum of cash for a crashed M-sport model, so will take all the nice goodies from it and transfer onto my car and fix up this one to chuck back on the road as a little bit of a daily to run about in and then to resell on.

Still got it mate Will also throw in the matching cluster for the engine too, however its now minus radiator. PM me for more info

The rotors are just the same as stock (From a 325i) and the pads are from on my donor car, but like new, Id suspect they are just stock/everyday pads and nothing too special (Bonus everything was free as far as brakes go). Last track day I did I managed to completly ruin a set of pads... the same the time before, bought brand new pads and they only lasted 2 months. Then again I knew I had all new brakes at home so kinda just went hard even though I could tell there was no pads left lol.

I dont know if this counts or not.... but my little brother sent me this from my parents driveway down home. And yes that is a 1974 BMW 2002 running 635CSI interior, had a full bare metal restore

So I have a set of AC Schnitzer Type 1's.... they are 17x8.5 et13, so provide quite a "Stance Nation" look to my car. However there is no way that the 235/45/17 tires can fit under the guards without severe rubbing. The rears are close, howevrer there is no way that the fronts will fit at all. What kind of tire sizes will be easier to fit under the guards? I am planning on pumping them as much as possible to try fit the tires under the guards but still want the guards to kinda look stock. I was thinking maybe 215/40/17? or 225/45/17? Has anyone else got similar fitment rims on their E36 and if so what size tires are you guys all running? Cheers!!!!

So I have found some new tires, going to go with some Hankhook Ventus R-S3 215/45zr17 tires for the rear, and I managed to find a nice set of Yokohama Advan AD08r 225/40/17 tires that I am thinking of chucking on the front due to running into under-steering problems. I have a track day next Saturday out at Ruapuna, and am getting the tires fitted up tomorrow, so hopefully I see the lap times drop considerably. Last time I was running worn out goodrides and the standard non vented front brakes. Opinions on running the wider tires on the front vs on the rear would be great! I will be running them on my style 97's as my Type 1's are currently with my dad getting restored. Changes since last track day include: Replaced the front shocks (Failed wof on old ones so got replacement 2nd hand ones), New rear pads, Vented front discs and calipers, New front pads, Better tires Hopefully this all comes together to help it run better times! I still need a new diff but I have yet to find one in the correct ratio (The one I thought was a 3.64 was actually a 3.9). I will chuck the gopro in the car again, kinda gutted I lost my one so am currently borrowing my little brothers one (Mine is currently at the bottom of Lake Waihola, fell off the boat while doing some powerboat racing down there a few weeks back).

Try get a set in the shadowed silver look. Never seen another set other than mine done that way but they look a million times better in my opinion than the light flat silver they seem to mostly come in.

Haha thanks man, I have a full project log on here of my engine swap too! I just need to save up enough money to go to coilovers and maybe forced induction!

Wow, so down here in Chch we have Canterbury Track Days whom run events out at Ruapuna. There is a cost of $100 per day but 60 cars (So 4 groups of 15) and there are some rules that need to be abided by. Helmets, 100% cotton overalls (Really cheap to buy), fire extinguisher and WOF standard car or to their discretion are all that is needed (All cars are run through a scrutineering process). Hearing this makes me feel very lucky for what we have down here! Then again whats stopping someone from up there from renting the track for $5k and doing what they do down here getting people along??