I'm a planner. I like to have a full list of what I need to do in order to complete something successfully. It's just the engineer in me. Swapping an S52 engine into my E36, in place of the M50, is fairly straightforward but there are still quite a few parts that are needed to …
Continue reading BMW E36 S52 Engine Swap – Parts List and Valvetrain Selection Discussion
I just came across a deal to good to pass up and I'm now planning to swap in the 3.2 liter S52 motor (157k miles) from a 1997 BMW M3 in place of my current M50 (2.5 liter) motor! The compression numbers tested very well for this S52 with less than a 10 psi variance …
Continue reading BMW E36 S52 Engine Swap – Long Block Strip and Planning
Yet again I attended the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion in Monterey, California at Laguna Seca Raceway for my birthday present to myself. I truly believe there is no better automotive event in the US for a true "car guy". Where else can you freely walk in the paddock amongst multi-million dollar racecars, from brand new …
Continue reading Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion Pictures and Tech Overview – 2019
There have been a couple of recent autocross events where long and sweeping right turns have been part of the course. This is when an E36 is susceptible to fuel starvation due to the fuel pump being located on the passenger side of the car. Centrifugal forces send all the fuel to the driver side …
Continue reading BMW E36 fuel starvation elimination kit install
My "to do" list has had a lightweight catback exhaust on it for quite a while now and it's finally time to check it off. After researching many different catback options on performance parts websites, Ebay, and forums, I saw that there was a huge difference in price between the top line and budget level. …
Continue reading Manzo catback exhaust install and review on my BMW E36
The Rocky Mountain SCCA Solo summer series is finally getting underway after a very long break (for me at least). It was time to get my E36 out on the track and see if all these performance improvements were really going to make a difference! I've thrown a lot of things at the car over …
Continue reading Event 1, 2019 – My BMW E36 is way faster than me now!
There's just time to address a few more things before the 2019 autocross season kicks off. Quite a bit of miscellaneous items but they will all definitely impact the car's performance. This upgrade session is focused on the following areas: Adding more braces to the E36 to further stiffen the chassis front and rear Changing …
I'm still in the process of finishing up a few projects on my BMW E36 over the winter but not quite ready to blog about them. In the absence of one of my normal posts, I thought that I would let you know of several sites that I regularly visit to look for new parts …
I was able to spend a day at the Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca again this year and saw some amazing cars! This blog post is going to be focused on the pictures that I took with just a short description for each. Being a mechanical engineer, it was great to get up close with …
The sunroof cassette in a BMW E36 is an easy target for "adding lightness". It's nearly 40lbs of weight at the highest point in the car. So removing it will not only reduce overall weight in the car, it will also lower the center of gravity. Another easy addition to aid handling in autocross is …
Continue reading BMW E36 sunroof delete and larger sway bar install
Brent Ford Racing 