[Aiden]

As many of you may know, I've been into drifting for a while and for a long time wanted my own drift car. Last week, one popped up for sale, almost fully ready to go, just some small jobs to sort.

Shes a '97 323i saloon, in a fairly unusual colour, Samoablau and is complete with black nearside wing and door. She has an M52B28 engine with an M50 manifold, pink injectors, remap, backbox delete and a 7200rpm rev limit.

Chassis has a set of TA Technics coilovers, poly bushed front ARB, front strut brace, welded diff and hydraulic handbrake.

It it has an M3 front bumper and lip, some sideskirts, all held together with zip ties.

Here's the pics













Jobs to do, fix the power steering (new pump arrived today), new light clusters, and a good service.

Keep an eye out for future updates! (Y)

 

[AFKAM]

Looking forward to the progress on this

How does it get an MOT with a hydraulic handbrake?

 

[Aiden]

Looking forward to the progress on this

How does it get an MOT with a hydraulic handbrake?

No idea. I'm assuming that it either didn't have it for the MOT, or the tester ignored it. Since the actual handbrake doesn't work properly I'm guessing the former

 

[AFKAM]

PM'd (Y)

 

[AFKAM]

No idea. I'm assuming that it either didn't have it for the MOT, or the tester ignored it. Since the actual handbrake doesn't work properly I'm guessing the former

Do you know someone who will pass it? It's a pretty cool thing to have so you don't really want to mess about changing it for the sake of an MOT

 

[x-Mic-x]

Looks awesome

 

[Aiden]

Do you know someone who will pass it? It's a pretty cool thing to have so you don't really want to mess about changing it for the sake of an MOT

I honestly don't think it'll pass another MOT, the idea is to get it sorted, personalised, then I'll leave it in storage over at Driftland.

Looks awesome

Thanks Michaela (Y)

 

[Nimraynn]

323? M52B28? :sus: Has it had an engine swap or is it a 328?

Looking good, careful of the E36/E46 Owners Club on Facebook, they can be a great laugh but extremely unforgiving :lol:

 

[Spence]

looks great
i'd love a crack at drifting

 

[Aiden]

323? M52B28? :sus: Has it had an engine swap or is it a 328?
Looking good, careful of the E36/E46 Owners Club on Facebook, they can be a great laugh but extremely unforgiving :lol:

Thanks Mike, yeah it's had an engine swap, I honestly can't get over just how ******* quick it is :lol:

I tend not to pay too much attention to those sort of groups, everyone's a critic. My BMW is for a purpose, and I quite like it that way

looks great
i'd love a crack at drifting

Come up here and I'll let you drive it (Y)

 

[Nimraynn]

Thanks Mike, yeah it's had an engine swap, I honestly can't get over just how ******* quick it is :lol:

I tend not to pay too much attention to those sort of groups, everyone's a critic. My BMW is for a purpose, and I quite like it that way

Cool, I was gonna say I was sure the 36 had an M52B25 like my M52TUB25 in the 323's. Any idea what sort of power its pushing? I've been tempted since day one to get an M50 manifold swap done on mine but I'm still unsure whether to do it or not.

I've only just noticed it had one M3 wing mirror and one standard wing mirror as well :lol:

You're generally safe on the Facebook groups as long as you don't have a 316 or 318. Generally just have a 6-pot and you're good :lol:

 

[Stevie S]

This should be a good progress

 

[Aiden]

Cool, I was gonna say I was sure the 36 had an M52B25 like my M52TUB25 in the 323's. Any idea what sort of power its pushing? I've been tempted since day one to get an M50 manifold swap done on mine but I'm still unsure whether to do it or not.

I've only just noticed it had one M3 wing mirror and one standard wing mirror as well :lol:

It should be around 225bhp, it's the throttle response that surprised me the most, I guess I'd gotten used to the lazy power of the Merc :lol: I'll be getting a replacement for the M3 mirror, then I'll wrap them both, Arctic camo I think.

Tomorrow I'll be changing the power steering pump, the car is far too low to even get the jack under, so I've made a ramp out of bits of an old wardrobe which should do the trick.



Suppose perks of all the radiator cowling and stuff being removed, access is easy. Here's hoping anyway.

 

[Nimraynn]

it's the throttle response that surprised me the most

It's purely cable throttle on yours, isn't it? Or are all the M52's partially fly-by-wire? I've heard mine is a cable from pedal to some sort of actuator which then electronically controls the throttle like an electronic throttle would, so it's like half-way there.

When I got mine the pedal was solid. Replaced the throttle cable and it sorted that out, but I've noticed that the revs briefly hang when I let off as if it takes a second to realise I've let go. Not sure if it's meant to be like that or something broken :sus: I've heard that because it's partially fly-by-wire you can do a throttle adaption reset that might sort it. Mind grabbing a quick video of just a few quick revs on idle if you don't mind? Been meaning to ask someone for that for a while :lol:

the car is far too low to even get the jack under, so I've made a ramp out of bits of an old wardrobe which should do the trick.

Do the 36's not have the side mounting jack? I've seen people use that to jack it up a bit and then whack a trolley underneath. I know the feel though. I can get my BMW widowmaker jack under but I can't get any of my trolleys under so I have to use the BMW one to jack it a little bit. I don't have side mounts though.

 

[Spence]

Cheers dude that's a very kind offer

 

[Aiden]

@Nimraynn - I think it's a cable throttle, mine hangs a little when changing gear, I'll get a vid for you later. For the jacking, it's got holes in the side skirts for the BMW jack, only I don't have one. I've bought one off of eBay which should come in a few days. Why is it called the widow maker? Are they that bad?

Once the PAS pump is done today, I may strip some more of the car, there's quite a bit of trim in the back that doesn't need to be there.

 

[LeeMutz]

Cracking motor. I had a 325i and a mate had a 328i. I did an inlet swap on his and it was a monster! Revs up so quickly and sounds mean.
We usedt drift quite a bit back then, on an open diff too so was a little harder but really loved drifting, got quite good too, I could slide onto a local bypass sideways :lol: would love another drift car if I could find a cheap enough e36

 

[LeeMutz]

Yeah these are throttle cable to the body (Y)

Widow maker as I for one wouldn't like to work on a car jacked up by that :lol:

 

[Nimraynn]

I hear the E36 ones are in a whole new league of terrible compared to the E46 ones... but even my E46 one, it flexes and bends like it's made of chocolate. I don't like even using it to jack it up ever so slightly to get my trolley underneath, but as it's too low, needs must :shock:

 

[Aiden]

:lol:

So, today I changed the power steering pump that I bought from eBay for the princely sum of £40.

Made a ramp out of some bits of an old wardrobe. Got her up quite nicely.



Unfortunately the new pump arrived with the pulley wheel broken, like it had been dropped. This meant I had to remove the broken one from the new pump and use the old pump pulley. It was a bugger to split, I resorted to a ball joint splitter and a hammer.

Now obviously I completely forgot to take any pics of the actual installation, but it was fairly simple, slip the belt off, two 13mm bolts, the supply and return hoses and it popped out easily. Fitting was just fine, belt on, jacked the other side up so both front wheels were off the ground and cycled the steering left and right and topped up the fluid.

In place and running.



Next task, get the rear lights working properly. Off out for a proper test drive now.