An E36 Investigation

[Rekpoint]

I have a few sets of E36 stock headlights if you're interested.

[GunMetalGrey]

This thing is cool, and has stuff on it that I didn't realize right away.

@Rekpoint shoot me a pm with pics and a price shipped to Appleton. 
Thanks!

Moved the car into the storage unit until I get some other projects out of the shop!

[GunMetalGrey]

^ that cracking seal annoys me. Will be replacing the surround as it looks to be very easy. 

Poll time. 

I am thinking about bringing it back to as original condition as possible.
I'm in the process of obtaining a set of wheels that are original to this car; BBS RC041 / 042 
That being said, is it worth my time to pull the S52 out and put an M50 back in, like the car originally had? 

I'm thinking yes, and considering the current motor doesn't run (could be an easy fix) I think that swapping in a an M50 will remove any of the potential wiring issues that someone else messed up. 

Thoughts?

[Jdesign]

I think that you should see if its an easy fix first. If its more cost effective fix then leave it. Technically its an improvement, and I doubt it will hurt resale as you wont be putting a "numbers matching" motor in anyways.

[Jdesign]

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1994-bmw-325is-mtechnic/

Also I would register it accounted for here if it hasnt been somewhere in this thread already.

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1442294-1994-325is-M-Technic-registry/page7

[Rekpoint]

Personally Id leave the S52. Its a special car. But the m50 that came in it originally wasn't very special.

[Earl]

Rekpoint said:

Personally Id leave the S52. Its a special car. But the m50 that came in it originally wasn't very special.

If he had the original motor it would be worth leaps and bounds more with the m50 back in. At this point the only benefit of an m50 would be an easy way to get it to run if basic trouble shooting doesn't work.

[Jdesign]

Rekpoint said:

Personally Id leave the S52. Its a special car. But the m50 that came in it originally wasn't very special.

I agree, and honestly these cars were built prior to BMW offering the M3 here. So they built 150 of them with everything but the power plant. When they finally offered it all the luxuries this car had, wasnt availble in the M3. Its kind of a best of both worlds.

[straight6pwr]

Called it!

I don't know why you'd delete horsepower for originality, this isn't some $1,000,000 Ferrari concours car. It's a better car with the ///m powerplant

[B C]

Put sugar in the gas tank

[patsbimmer1]

Leave the s52.  Like everyone else said an m50 may be original but wouldnt add any value to it where the s52 adds value and driving pleasure.

[Earl]

patsbimmer1 said:

Leave the s52.  Like everyone else said an m50 may be original but wouldnt add any value to it where the s52 adds value and driving pleasure.

But for this car it didn't add value. The value to who it matters was lost once the m50 left the building and the wheels were taken off. This is one of those cars that's worth a ton to collectors but at this point (mileage and condition) it's not something a collector would even bother with. Now it's just a clean e36 with an ///M swap and happens to have been a special package (even though that really does nothing for what this car is worth anymore)

[ChrisO]

Got more pics of the car or is it a secret rn? Still have the M cloth interior? Rusty? These things are sweet and I’d take one over another cosmos M3 haha

In my opinion I think that many will appreciate its rarity regardless of a s52 swap. I don’t think that the fact that the original motor exploded or whatever is going to completely discredit the fact that it’s a 1/150 M-technic car. Clean it up, source the special interior and exterior bits and it’ll pull a premium. I’ve seen LTW’s with motors that have been replaced, they don’t just become average priced m3’s. Same concept on a smaller scale? Honestly these cars came with much more desirable bits then the M3’s did in the US, and I think they are respected more then just being a trim level for a 325is.

[patsbimmer1]

Earl said:

But for this car it didn't add value. The value to who it matters was lost once the m50 left the building and the wheels were taken off. This is one of those cars that's worth a ton to collectors but at this point (mileage and condition) it's not something a collector would even bother with. Now it's just a clean e36 with an ///M swap and happens to have been a special package (even though that really does nothing for what this car is worth anymore)

I understand that the value as a collectors item is lost but putting another m50 wouldnt add resale value but having an s52 adds resale value as its a more desirable engine.  Just like an e30 with a non numbers matching m20 isn't worth as much as an e30 with an s5x.  The s5x is more desirable and thats the value.

[Earl]

I'm saying the only m50 that would repair the value is the original numbers matching motor. At this point there is no way the car will ever be worth that price. The s52 in it still doesn't make it worth anywhere near what it would have been. That's why I'm saying it's just another clean e36 with an ///M swap and it just so happens to be a mtechnic car.

[Rekpoint]

Bless us with pictures ?

[ChrisO]

2nd on the pics and story behind where the car came from

[GunMetalGrey]

It's sitting in the storage unit right now, and will be there until a friends car is out of the shop  (Christmas deadline)
At that point this thread will become a bit more active, and I'll type up the info. 

I still need headlights tho lol @Rekpoint

[Rekpoint]

GunMetalGrey said:

It's sitting in the storage unit right now, and will be there until a friends car is out of the shop  (Christmas deadline)
At that point this thread will become a bit more active, and I'll type up the info. 

I still need headlights tho lol @Rekpoint

Shit. My bad. I'll pm you right now.

[GunMetalGrey]

Story time! 

I'm laying in bed being lazy on a Sunday, browsing on Facebook. I see someone had posted an ad for a white E36 from craigslist, and I had just told myself not to buy more cars, so I shoot the guy a message 25 min after he posted the ad. The car looked clean, and the interior was cool, that's about all I knew about it. I told myself if the dude wasn't free that day I wouldn't bother, and then he texted me back saying he was free. Cool. I pick up Mike and we go look at it after pulling money from the ATM (ATM dance game) and I intentionally pulled less than he was asking, because I shouldn't be buying more cars. We show up and look at it and find things to be questionable, but largely very clean. The ad said it ran, but he could not get it running for us. This whole time the guys phone is blowing up with messages and such and he was getting annoyed, it was obvious he had owned it for quite some time and never had it working, and he had finally decided he wanted it out of his driveway. He looked at me and said "Well, make me an offer and lets make this happen". I told him that I would need to get a trailer, and didn't have access to one right then and there, so I proposed giving him half the money now and the other half when I picked it up, and I would take the title. We quickly realized that wouldn't work out safely for both of us, and he just agreed to pull the ad and take my word to show up the next day. I had offered him a large percentage less than he had it posted for and he was fine with that. I ended up being able to grab a trailer same day and went and grabbed it, he helped us get it on the trailer and load it full of the many boxes of parts that came with it. Just like that he had more space in his driveway.

Taking it off the trailer was amusing, because the thing felt the full force of the early 2000's car scene. Fully chrome headlights, clear corner markers, chrome inserts in the grilles (wrong grilles) and fully white painted trim. It was a sight for sore eyes. (sorry for the poor pictures, it was quite dark out)

In his ad he stated that this car was 1 of 150 ever made, which I largely passed off because I don't know E36 things and it felt like a sale tactic. I knew it had a cool interior and a motor swap. Mike alluded to the fact that the car was more special than I realized, and pointed out the BMW Motorsports door handles which I hadn't noticed while looking the car over. Shortly thereafter I ran the VIN to look at the options and posted the results here. It was a fun day of realizing what I had stumbled across without ever realizing it. 

Fast forward quite a ways and we come to this weekend, the first time I have truly put forth any effort into working on it. 
I checked for fuel pressure this weekend, because when the guy was trying to start it there would be an occasional pop or other noise, so something was happening. 
Fuel pressure checked out and the car had tried to run during the test, so without connecting the MAF I gave the key a turn and my surprise it fired up and ran butter smooth. Super weird. Plugged the MAF in while it was running and it stumbled for a second then continued to run smooth. The good news is that the motor is completely silent and is one of the healthiest sounding motors I've heard in awhile. I shut it off and tried to start it again, nothing. Unplugged the MAF, tried to start it again, nothing. Confusing. 
At this point Mike pointed out (once again) all the points for major vacuum leaks and I knew pulling the manifold off would be required to address what was going on with this OBD1 conversion. I found a handful of odd things, and tons of major sources of vacuum leaks. 

I also identified what motor is in it, and am frankly quite confused by it. The car was advertised as being S52 swapped, and the motor is indeed OBD2 with the M power cover, but upon further review I find it is an M52. I tried to peek at the back of the head to read the vin tag, but instead found a different type of paper tag. 

Just legible enough.
So either the guy that bought the engine was duped (unlikely given this tag) so when he sold it it was sold as an S52 with no quick easy way to check. 
The block has the 2.8 stamp on it for displacement so I'm certain that it is indeed an M52. 
Which brings me to the question, why the heck would you swap an M52 into a sub 100k mile car? It's an incremental power gain, and a fair bit of work. 

Anyway, someone did a bunch of dumb stuff to it and swapped parts around, so I plan to get all of that sorted out (small details) and get things like the seat sliders working again. The trunk needs some alignment help, and the car overall needs a bit of a cleaning. 
I've got new headlights, will be ordering new grilles, and am on the lookout for stock corner markers to bring this back to its original glory days. 

Until next time!