LSx E36 M3

I’ve been enjoying the car, breaking the car, letting the car sit around the shop, and finally today fixing the car.

Ok so I have been MIA for the last week or so. a LOT has happened in that short time.

Friend’s LS1 powered S13 240sx burned to the ground, we stripped it and were shooting to get it rolling by the end of the weekend… There was a drift event put on by Traction Optionalwww.tractionoptional.com and was held at Memphis International Raceway. First drift event, but it was great track time.

Observations:
* The car needs power steering, I’ve been against it from the get go for some reason. Finally got some sense knocked into my shoulder. Powersteering will be on this weekend. Just need to source a BMW high pressure line and I’ll be good to go.

* I need to get more seat time! But the car is FASTER and handles BETTER then my WRX ever dreamed… and this is stock M3 suspension and worn out bushings.

* Bent the stock rear lower control arms on my 5th run because I decided to have some fun and had a little off road excursion. I have SPC adjustable lover control arms sitting in my shell. Going to pull the subframe to make sure it is straight.

* Engine, Trans, and Cooling were PERFECT! Didn’t miss a beat, plenty of power on tap and oh so smooth. Driving the car on the street is one thing, but FINALLY able to get some track time in made be absolutely love the car even more.

*I think I could benefit from a 3.90 rear gear as I felt like I was between gears way too often.

*Suspension is getting an overhaul and the car is going into Race Car/Street Car mode ASAP. Not ready for a full cage but it needs at least a roll bar, suspension, and some other bits. It’s been a long while since I’ve had track time and I’ve been bitten by the bug again.

Pics:

Pre Broken… Excuse the lack of moldings… just finished some buffing and didn’t have new clips.

Broken…

While the car was down for the count… I still had my e30! A friend and I bought this a few months ago after it was firebombed and the front end burnt up for a song. 2.7 SETA with I head, Ground Control Track/School, and some junk 15″ wheels and tires. Needless to say we had some fun with it till my friend put it into the wall on his last run. Cheap good fun!

Then…

For some reason that’s all I got… Anything off course was muddy and grassy.

Josh after wrecking our car:

The car then sat for a long while until today. I finally got the rear suspension fixed and added some SPC adjustable lower control arms, I do have some UUC arms waiting. Then swapped in some LCAB from Treehouse Racing in the front.

Needs an alignment but I still drove it for a bit, still love it…. But it needs more power and a 3.91 gear badly.
Here are some pictures of the clearance:

Ok guys, time to pull together and get Chris back running again. It wont be as pretty, but I think he’s helped each one of us all out at some point and time (and has such chiseled features doing it…). Only a handful of things on his car were salvageable and we already have a list of people I’ve contacted contributing parts and willing to donate some funds. I’m working on getting all the front suspension parts at wholesale costs, and I know there’s some guys already ready to donate a few of the parts he needs. Thanks to IPS, we already have another coupe shell for Chris so its a good start within a few hours from this disaster.

WE ALL KNOW CHRIS ISNT GOING TO ACCEPT HANDOUTS NOR LIKE THIS FUNDRAISER BUT TOO BAD!!!

I’ll have a bucket to pass around or at my booth for cash donations at the event this weekend, so please spread the word and reach out to everyone you can! Otherwise if you want to donate via paypal, send payment togriproyal@yahoo.com and title the payment CHRIS FUNDRAISER or just something so I can distinguish it as chris related. THIS MONEY WILL BE GOING TO PARTS IMMEDIATELY!

Also if you dont send direct paypal payment, share this link for the store, and you can checkout on the store and submit online payment that way : http://griproyal.bigcartel.com/product/ … fundraiser

After changing the plugs YET AGAIN and verify the gap as well as ANOTHER set of new plug wires… She runs GREAT!

This is for my 4″ intake piping

Spectre 85mm MAF Adapter to 4″ Tube – SPE-9774
Spectre 4″ low profile elbow SPE-9781
Spectre 4″ Coupler SPE-9771
Spectre 4″ Intake Tube SPE-9724
K&N 4″ inlet 5″ long Filter KNN-RU-2520

Those are Summit part numbers, so drop the prefix to get the manufacturer’s part numbers.

I got the exhaust on Saturday and got in hanging properly on sunday… I decided it was past time to get a video of it moving under it’s own power…

My Cellphone was on the tailgate of my truck and didn’t focus properly…

The car as you can tell was not running properly, the console was in the way of the shifter and so I missed 2nd gear.

Alas, here she is!

UPS dropped some stuff off today!

Spintech Muffler 3"D/25"d 3" Summit x pipe kit

Looking forward to the install, I can see now that I will have to work on the x pipe a little bit but that shouldn’t be a problem with the Miller by my side.

Speaking of ghetto fabrication, my clutch line gave me fits…

I first tried a braap modified line which ended up being incorrect for a ’99 M3. I also figured out that there are now 4 different master cyl configurations…

• Early e36 threaded line
• Early e36 with clip
• 96-98 e36 with clip
• 99/late production recessed master inside firewall with clip

Because of those issues I then took a -3 an to 10mmx1.5 adapter and welded it to the original master cyl fitting.

Ghetto Fabbed Clutch Line

This thing works like a charm!

Another issue I ran into along the way was the fan shroud that I ordered does not fit well with the LS motor…

Fan clearance is not optimum...

So with that I am still hunting ideas and am using the stock shroud at the moment. I have my eye on a few oem cooling fans that look like they might fit the bill quite nicely.