StriggityStrack

Not sure how I missed this haha. I'm in Milwaukee but work in Mequon and regularly borrow my parent's driveway to work on my cars since my apartment complex can get a bit grumpy about car repairs. All my friends that work on their cars aren't around here either... 
 
Side note if you haven't heard about it or been there, the brew city cruise night car show (www.brewcitycruisenight.com) is every Tuesday at 5:30 in Mequon, starting next week! I'm usually there, its a great time

Got the car all put back together and back on the road. It is running great with no horrible noises or anything you would expect with an engine that has decided to become a lathe so I am pretty confident that these shavings were related to that plastic piece in some way and have accumulated over a long period of time. I found nothing in the pan and no unusual wear anywhere that I could see. I ran a magnet through nearly the entire length of the exhaust cam and this is all I could pull out. For size reference, that is a very small magnet, probably under 1/4", I cleaned everything obsessively so any new shavings I find down the road wouldn't be residual from an old problem. 

 
I will be sending a sample of the oil at the next change for analysis (already got my sample kits from blackstone) and pulling the valve cover to reinspect everything in a few thousand miles. I almost wish I found something that was wrong but I'm glad I didn't find anything horrible. Thanks for all the help and suggestions!

Euro District is IN
Euro Werks is MN
I had Gyros for lunch
Illuminati confirmed 

I had gotten rid of the oil before I found the problem unfortunately, what is in the car now is fresh. If there were any metal pieces in the old oil I did not see them when pouring it from my drain pan into containers to take to the disposal place so any in there were minimal. But, to be fair I didn't really scrutinize it because I was short on time. There was nothing in all the random pockets around the head, it was all concentrated in the opening of the cam and some around the inside edge of the vanos sprocket on the exhaust cam.
 
Finer shavings would make sense in a normal situation, but my current theory is this: (this is what happens when a mechanical engineer is left alone with their thoughts...)
The oil pump sprocket could be loose (oil pump nuts coming off is common) and wobbling around on the shaft with the chain causing slightly bigger pieces when it gets out of alignment before the chain nudges it back straight. Here, a metal flake is born. It could be one or two flakes very rarely, maybe even a hundred miles apart, and they get carried up the main timing chain while any that are sucked up by the filter get caught there and don't get any further into the engine (I did find a few small pieces in the filter, but certainly not many or any amount that was alarming). This could've been going on for a while as the oil pump nut failures were happening as early as 50k miles and maybe even earlier (I've got just over double that), and the opening of the exhaust cam is the only place in the whole timing chain path that isn't being bathed with oil and washing any particles back down into the sump, so it could make sense that shavings could collect there. The car was never driven hard according to the previous owner who had it since 2001 and 30k miles, so its possible that the oil pump nut became loose but did not fall off thanks to the left hand threads. He changed the oil every 3k like I usually do so that may not have given it a lot of time to accumulate shavings in the pan either. Is this completely and entirely crazy and mostly for your entertainment? Yes. But after this I'm out of ideas...
 

ah nice - ran mine like that for a couple weeks while waiting for the new muffler to arrive. sounds awesome, a little too loud for daily driving and respecting my neighbors.

beautiful. the 4.0 sounds great! can't remember, any exhaust or intake mods?

Mr. Strackbein will refrain from further comment until he speaks with his attorney.

Ok, So out of curiosity I wanted to find the 'catch' or just total BS in this sweepstakes when i received it in the mail. Its for a local car dealership, you know 'come in the next 4 days to claim your price!' and was combing through the legal BS and rules and found this: (just skip to the red)
what the hell?  I cannot think of a reason why this would be helpful or necessary...
anyone?

Saw on the news, Milwaukee county residents can get rid of hazardous materials including old gas tomorrow for free. State fair grounds tomorrow 8-2 http://www.mmsd.com/household-hazardous-waste

Maybe they'll let you have a sleep over too!

Pour it in the gutter.

Lawsuit time

Embrace it

Retire early

Murica

I helped Earl out this weekend and he had a bit of a moment. So like any good friend, I decided I should probably make a ringtone. This is what I have so far.

https://vimeo.com/161527247

I helped Earl out this weekend and he had a bit of a moment. So like any good friend, I decided I should probably make a ringtone. This is what I have so far.

https://vimeo.com/161527247

Yikes, I hope my diff doesn't look like that, now I'm going to worry... 
I'd think about reinforcing the RTAB pockets if you are planning on running super stiff RTAB bushings, the extra stresses on the mounts can cause the bungs to pull out, it's rare but can happen. AKG makes a nice weld-in reinforcement plate for about 30 bucks for the pair and is good insurance while you're in there.
 
Nice car by the way! I just realized there are two Joe's with E36 M3's on here haha

These are the new regs
http://www.scca.com/pages/solo-cars-and-rules

That's why I gave up and just put whatever I wanted to on my car. They can toss me in whatever auto x class they feel like, I'm there to have fun and race against myself.

Hey everyone,
My name is Joe and some of you might know that I purchased a 1998 e36 M3 a few months ago. So far it turned out to be a good purchase but the car has it's flaws. Last fall I sheared the front carrier bolt on my differential (having too much fun) which messed a lot of stuff up so I decided to rebuild the rear end. The way I looked at was A.) I could have a moderately clean looking show car or B.) I could have a good looking (entry level) race car. I have always wanted to get into racing and with an M3 in the garage I just couldn't resist. So my plans are to start out with Autocross and keep my modifications limited to suspension so that I don't get thrown into a class out of my league. My car has been in the garage all winter but it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I decided to get my ass in gear. So far this is what I have done...
The whole rear end is out


I made a bushing extractor tool with 3" pipe and the threaded rod lasted just long enough to get all the bushings out. It worked better than I expected. Some didn't pull the metal sleeve out with the bushing but nothing a cheap hack saw couldn't fix. 

I have all the parts ready to get media blasted and powder coated but I am still looking for the best place to get that done. 

I purchased a full set of AKG 75D's for the subframe, RTAB's and the differential. I got my set of Rogue Engineering lower control arms in the mail today. I also have a set of BC coilovers coming with a custom spring rate of 12K front and 10K rear so between this, the (pretty much solid) bushings, and the control arms metal rod ends, comfort is out the window. 

Dont mind the mess...

 
when I extracted the sheared diff bolt today I noticed that the output seal seemed to be leaking a little. I decided to open her up and I am glad I did. Turns out the LSD carrier housing cover was cracked in two places. I have no clue how this had happened. I might as well throw some new clutch plates in while I am in there. 

These pieced fell out when I pulled out the guts and it seems like they have been in there awhile due to the amount of wear on the edges. I am supersized that it didn't get jammed in the LSD housing or mess up the ring and pinion.

I skimmed over a lot here so if you have any questions be sure to ask someone else... or at least buy me a beer first. 
I have a lot more planned for the rebuild and I will share more when the parts arrive.
 
Joe
 
 
 

For media blasting and coating I would check with Snap (this forum) to see what he would do for you. 
Looks like a fun project!

Hey everyone,
My name is Joe and some of you might know that I purchased a 1998 e36 M3 a few months ago. So far it turned out to be a good purchase but the car has it's flaws. Last fall I sheared the front carrier bolt on my differential (having too much fun) which messed a lot of stuff up so I decided to rebuild the rear end. The way I looked at was A.) I could have a moderately clean looking show car or B.) I could have a good looking (entry level) race car. I have always wanted to get into racing and with an M3 in the garage I just couldn't resist. So my plans are to start out with Autocross and keep my modifications limited to suspension so that I don't get thrown into a class out of my league. My car has been in the garage all winter but it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I decided to get my ass in gear. So far this is what I have done...
The whole rear end is out


I made a bushing extractor tool with 3" pipe and the threaded rod lasted just long enough to get all the bushings out. It worked better than I expected. Some didn't pull the metal sleeve out with the bushing but nothing a cheap hack saw couldn't fix. 

I have all the parts ready to get media blasted and powder coated but I am still looking for the best place to get that done. 

I purchased a full set of AKG 75D's for the subframe, RTAB's and the differential. I got my set of Rogue Engineering lower control arms in the mail today. I also have a set of BC coilovers coming with a custom spring rate of 12K front and 10K rear so between this, the (pretty much solid) bushings, and the control arms metal rod ends, comfort is out the window. 

Dont mind the mess...

 
when I extracted the sheared diff bolt today I noticed that the output seal seemed to be leaking a little. I decided to open her up and I am glad I did. Turns out the LSD carrier housing cover was cracked in two places. I have no clue how this had happened. I might as well throw some new clutch plates in while I am in there. 

These pieced fell out when I pulled out the guts and it seems like they have been in there awhile due to the amount of wear on the edges. I am supersized that it didn't get jammed in the LSD housing or mess up the ring and pinion.

I skimmed over a lot here so if you have any questions be sure to ask someone else... or at least buy me a beer first. 
I have a lot more planned for the rebuild and I will share more when the parts arrive.
 
Joe
 
 
 

Hey everyone,
My name is Joe and some of you might know that I purchased a 1998 e36 M3 a few months ago. So far it turned out to be a good purchase but the car has it's flaws. Last fall I sheared the front carrier bolt on my differential (having too much fun) which messed a lot of stuff up so I decided to rebuild the rear end. The way I looked at was A.) I could have a moderately clean looking show car or B.) I could have a good looking (entry level) race car. I have always wanted to get into racing and with an M3 in the garage I just couldn't resist. So my plans are to start out with Autocross and keep my modifications limited to suspension so that I don't get thrown into a class out of my league. My car has been in the garage all winter but it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I decided to get my ass in gear. So far this is what I have done...
The whole rear end is out


I made a bushing extractor tool with 3" pipe and the threaded rod lasted just long enough to get all the bushings out. It worked better than I expected. Some didn't pull the metal sleeve out with the bushing but nothing a cheap hack saw couldn't fix. 

I have all the parts ready to get media blasted and powder coated but I am still looking for the best place to get that done. 

I purchased a full set of AKG 75D's for the subframe, RTAB's and the differential. I got my set of Rogue Engineering lower control arms in the mail today. I also have a set of BC coilovers coming with a custom spring rate of 12K front and 10K rear so between this, the (pretty much solid) bushings, and the control arms metal rod ends, comfort is out the window. 

Dont mind the mess...

 
when I extracted the sheared diff bolt today I noticed that the output seal seemed to be leaking a little. I decided to open her up and I am glad I did. Turns out the LSD carrier housing cover was cracked in two places. I have no clue how this had happened. I might as well throw some new clutch plates in while I am in there. 

These pieced fell out when I pulled out the guts and it seems like they have been in there awhile due to the amount of wear on the edges. I am supersized that it didn't get jammed in the LSD housing or mess up the ring and pinion.

I skimmed over a lot here so if you have any questions be sure to ask someone else... or at least buy me a beer first. 
I have a lot more planned for the rebuild and I will share more when the parts arrive.
 
Joe
 
 
 

All a guy can hope for is that one day someone walks up with a 12 pack of beer, says nothing until the first is cracked, and then immediately starts judging the quality of my work. I have had quite a lot of my neighbors stop over but some asked me if it was ok if their kids could watch and learn. They don't realize that all I can teach is how to become an alcoholic and swear like a sailor.

I wonder if this guy includes the saw needed to hack off your arm and leg? He seems like the type that would charge you for saw blade wear after. 
https://madison.craigslist.org/cto/5494142028.html

All a guy can hope for is that one day someone walks up with a 12 pack of beer, says nothing until the first is cracked, and then immediately starts judging the quality of my work. I have had quite a lot of my neighbors stop over but some asked me if it was ok if their kids could watch and learn. They don't realize that all I can teach is how to become an alcoholic and swear like a sailor.

I always offer a hand, no one ever hits me up for help. Maybe I'm a wierdo?
was anyone here at the e30 tear down at Turk's many years ago? that was one hell of a fun day