As some of you may know, I'm playing with somebody else's E36 325is right now, and I've been put in charge of developing the car. This includes lots of research, as well as sourcing parts. I'm just not quite up to speed as to who is reputable and who to avoid, or where to get good info.
The main thing I'm looking for is a decent forum. Something where people actually know something. And classifieds would be great. Also, any good parts sources would be helpful (I already know about Pelican ). Thanks in advance.
I might as well ask my current question while I'm on here. I'm looking to get a set of underdrive pulleys for the car. Evosport makes (or made) a set that looks good for a reasonable price, but they don't specify that it's for an M50 engine. They just say 'E36 3-series'. My question is, do the M50 and M52 engines both use the same pulley configuration, since they both came in the E36? Thanks again.
Mark D.

There's plenty of good forums. I've had a few E30s and loved them. You can always get parts from Pelican and similar outfits. As for forums you can scope out:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/
http://www.bimmerforums.com
http://www.e36-tech.com/phpBB3/index.php

I love the inline sixes.

-marcus

Send a PM to fasthonda on our site.

He works at BMW, South Carolina. He may know of internal people who have a club or know more.


dave

Try
Ireland engineering, turner motorsports , mason engineering for strut bars...

Wayne Dempsey's "101 Performance Projects For Your BMW 3 Series 1982-2000" book is a great start. I bought mine from Pelican, here.

I have a 1997 328i, and the book helped me with quite a few projects. The guys at Pelican are great to work with, their website is a great resource, their prices are reasonable, and shipping is quick.

The bimmerforums forum is unfortunately full of a lot of "drift, yo" knuckleheads. So beware of the info you get there... you'll need to sift thru a lot of garbage.

Geoff

Exactly what I'm trying to avoid! Thanks for the heads up.
Jeff, we just got the new ECU from Ireland Engineering. Seemingly good and knowledgeable guys, and they're local for us.
A little background: This is a multi-time Solo II national champion's second race car. He bought it to be a cheaper way for his family to join him racing (Street tire class). I was brought in, mostly to financially support that side of the team in Feb of last year. But of course, I've gotta tinker or I don't completely feel at home. It was pretty fast out of the box, given his level of experience prepping cars and knowing who to ask what, but there has been nobody investing in it full time, until now. It was already about 90% there, and with our 'guest driver' (a stupid-fast friend of mine) it was 5th at Nationals and the top running BMW in a class of 43! This kinda fired up the team owner about the project, so he's all for having me dive in and fine tune it.
So, starting this weekend, the 'guest driver' is going to be codriving with me full time, and it's my job to get really serious with car development and testing. Our goal is to launch a serious attack on the national series'. I basically want to take it from being a capable car, to being a dominant car. But, getting the last nth out of a car can be difficult. We are way down on power, so that's where the money is going. The suspension mostly has the right pieces. It just needs setup.
That's where the time is going.
Just rambling for anyone who cares. Thanks again for the input. I welcome any more come.
Mark D.
:EDIT: Pic
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