B3s Touring no. 104 6 sp Manual conversion completed 12/3/18
Well done Simon.
For the record and anyone interested.... The coolant fill is straight forward if you do it by the book. Open the heating valve by turning the ignition on and the climate temp to max. Open the bleed valve (next to the fill point). Then fill up with 50/50 until it leaks from the bleed valve without bubbles. Then shut the bleeder and suck out the excess coolant with a turkey baster. It will need a top up after the 1st run.
Hope the gearbox issues are less serious.
For the record and anyone interested.... The coolant fill is straight forward if you do it by the book. Open the heating valve by turning the ignition on and the climate temp to max. Open the bleed valve (next to the fill point). Then fill up with 50/50 until it leaks from the bleed valve without bubbles. Then shut the bleeder and suck out the excess coolant with a turkey baster. It will need a top up after the 1st run.
Hope the gearbox issues are less serious.
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Gone but not forgotten
Gone but not forgotten
Thanks just wanted to make sure as i want to check my timing as ive never been 100% thats its right since i had my vanos donesimon13 wrote:Exactly as it is there pictured so the notch is in the middle of the hole the socket went through. This is the same for the 3.3 version aswell
This hole is where earlier engines of this series fit the crank sensor, but on our B3 engines its located at the rear of the engine through the block
I got the chance to give her a well earned wash for her behaviour and her excellent response to treatment so far
Looks a treat, Theres 3000 bits of tar on her but some white spirit and a clay bar is helping no end.
Engine is impressive, driving well but more jobs to do still. trailing arm bushes an alignment are next.
I'm not sure the torque converter is locking up like it should, an oil change is on the cards but I doubt this will help this tbh but should be done anyhow
And the wife loves it and thinks her golf is crap, which was the object of the excerise!
Looks a treat, Theres 3000 bits of tar on her but some white spirit and a clay bar is helping no end.
Engine is impressive, driving well but more jobs to do still. trailing arm bushes an alignment are next.
I'm not sure the torque converter is locking up like it should, an oil change is on the cards but I doubt this will help this tbh but should be done anyhow
And the wife loves it and thinks her golf is crap, which was the object of the excerise!
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- ALPINA
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- Joined: Sun Sep 18, 2011 1:59 pm
- Location: Nottingham, occasionally S.Wales
She's so happy, she wagging her tail!simon13 wrote:
I thought you'd got rid of the 328 touring when you got the E36 B3?
1995 E36 B3.0 Convertible (rebodied)
1996 E36 B3.2 Touring No:20 - 1 of 5 made
1997 E36 B3.2 Touring No:36 - 1 of 5 made
1999 E36 323 Sport Touring
2011 E92 D3 Bi-turbo no.246 (santorini blue)
2019 Fiat Fullback
2020 Mini Countryman SE (PHEV)
Alpina, BMW and Detailing Enthusiast
1996 E36 B3.2 Touring No:20 - 1 of 5 made
1997 E36 B3.2 Touring No:36 - 1 of 5 made
1999 E36 323 Sport Touring
2011 E92 D3 Bi-turbo no.246 (santorini blue)
2019 Fiat Fullback
2020 Mini Countryman SE (PHEV)
Alpina, BMW and Detailing Enthusiast
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- ALPI
- Posts: 365
- Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 11:31 pm
- Location: UK
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- ALPI
- Posts: 365
- Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 11:31 pm
- Location: UK
your too kind!
Well the car has covered over 1000 miles now and I've changed the crappy running in oil out and put some 5w-40 silkolene pro S as recommended by SPA69. I could of gone 0w30 as per factory but, well sounds like oil usage is less on this grade. Its not quite as watery as 0w30 though
Engine seems to be fine, no issues bar during a hard drive the engine light came on! in amber colour, a plug in revealed a mis fire on pot 2 which I've put down to possibly the coil starting to go. Its not re appeared since
She looked spanky at Gaydon recently
Whats interesting is my brother in law has bought a B3s saloon up the car auctions. And comparing the gearboxes and engines. Engines seem very similar but performance is different!
His car has way more torque, which i'm putting down to gearbox differences.
I've had fault codes P0740 and P0741 recently. Both point towards either incorrect fluid level or its dirty. One code is for the solenoid that controls the torque converter and tells it when to lock up!! Generally if its not this I've read its the seals going in the converter itself. Which is a more expensive repair than a possible oil change
My TC doesn't seem to lock much at all tbh whether in D or switch tronic. It won't stay locked on the m-way, it always pops out when you put your foot down. Or even when going up a slight hill with the cruise control on! It does this in switch tronic in the lower gears also. Which isn't how the bro in laws car feels or my older e36
I guess with this issue its going to rob me of torque?! so i'll start with an oil change on the box and go from there. Which will no doubt help the economy which is hovering around the 22-23mpg mark roughly. Certainly no more! We are both enjoying the car a lot but for me I want to sort the box so its performing as it should.
Well the car has covered over 1000 miles now and I've changed the crappy running in oil out and put some 5w-40 silkolene pro S as recommended by SPA69. I could of gone 0w30 as per factory but, well sounds like oil usage is less on this grade. Its not quite as watery as 0w30 though
Engine seems to be fine, no issues bar during a hard drive the engine light came on! in amber colour, a plug in revealed a mis fire on pot 2 which I've put down to possibly the coil starting to go. Its not re appeared since
She looked spanky at Gaydon recently
Whats interesting is my brother in law has bought a B3s saloon up the car auctions. And comparing the gearboxes and engines. Engines seem very similar but performance is different!
His car has way more torque, which i'm putting down to gearbox differences.
I've had fault codes P0740 and P0741 recently. Both point towards either incorrect fluid level or its dirty. One code is for the solenoid that controls the torque converter and tells it when to lock up!! Generally if its not this I've read its the seals going in the converter itself. Which is a more expensive repair than a possible oil change
My TC doesn't seem to lock much at all tbh whether in D or switch tronic. It won't stay locked on the m-way, it always pops out when you put your foot down. Or even when going up a slight hill with the cruise control on! It does this in switch tronic in the lower gears also. Which isn't how the bro in laws car feels or my older e36
I guess with this issue its going to rob me of torque?! so i'll start with an oil change on the box and go from there. Which will no doubt help the economy which is hovering around the 22-23mpg mark roughly. Certainly no more! We are both enjoying the car a lot but for me I want to sort the box so its performing as it should.
Well well, after all these months i've finally got round to changing the torque converter!
Back in september i'd tried to do an oil and filter change on the gearbox. That didn't happen because the kit i got was wrong and for another type of autobox. Being alpina they don't use the standard 330 auto box do they!
So instead we just checked the level which was well low! we put in well over a litre Reset the fault codes and left it at that. It was much better, but only for a while.
I bit the bullet and bought a new torque converter from ZF via vanomatics near heathrow. They don't sell recon units any more its new ones only from ZF now. It cost a cool £400 with the VAT but thats alot cheaper than the £1000 alpina will charge you! This was in october, so wind forward to Jan and yesterday i finally had the chance with being off work and able to use a friends ramp to do it on!
I didn't take alot of pictures as its a proper shit messy job. The box weighs a bloody ton and getting the oil level back up is fierce
Box out and on the floor, new torque converter ready to go back on, ZF kindly fill it a bit with oil for you!
These sump bolts were well rusty, two didn't play ball and rounded but getting a grinder and cutting a slot in them made them come loose
All cleaned and a new filter on, its was minging. The oil was more like tar than oil. I had tiny flakes of metal on my magnets also. The box shifts ok and behaves as it should.
BMW need shooting for suggesting the era autos are "sealed for life"
Its all back together and B3s 104 has been transformed! Its defo feels like the 300bhp performance car it should be now. Amazing, its improved the way the car drives in all situations, you can feel i'm getting the engines true power down now and its torque. It stays locked fully on the motorway unless you engage kickdown. Which really shows its true power. It wouldn't even stay locked full stop sometimes before.
I'm hoping that this will bring the economy up a little now as the last tank was 230miles but to be fair it was solid town driving
If you are umming over it and you've got 100,000mile up its probably past its best!
So its had an engine rebuild and new torque converter i must be close to how these cars were when new i guess.
I was only saying to Spa69 the other say how its covered about 5500 miles since the engine rebuild and i've not put any oil in it. Well the low oil light came on the day after! teach me to jinx it. So i checked it when it was cold and it was well above the minimum mark so i added a half litre to top it up to max. But i still get the light randomly coming on.
When the car was plugged in to refil the auotbox with oil it was showing a fault code for the oil level sensor. Another job to do then along with the DSC pressure sensor. But no codes were stored for the autobox. So the previous low level must of been triggering the codes i had in the past.
Onto the bodwork next and i'm told 2004 onward bmws have a 12 year rust warranty! This car has the common front wings going and there some scabbing on the rear arches above the rear bumper so i'm going to see if they will sort it Wheels need refurb also and then some war stripes? Silver i think
Back in september i'd tried to do an oil and filter change on the gearbox. That didn't happen because the kit i got was wrong and for another type of autobox. Being alpina they don't use the standard 330 auto box do they!
So instead we just checked the level which was well low! we put in well over a litre Reset the fault codes and left it at that. It was much better, but only for a while.
I bit the bullet and bought a new torque converter from ZF via vanomatics near heathrow. They don't sell recon units any more its new ones only from ZF now. It cost a cool £400 with the VAT but thats alot cheaper than the £1000 alpina will charge you! This was in october, so wind forward to Jan and yesterday i finally had the chance with being off work and able to use a friends ramp to do it on!
I didn't take alot of pictures as its a proper shit messy job. The box weighs a bloody ton and getting the oil level back up is fierce
Box out and on the floor, new torque converter ready to go back on, ZF kindly fill it a bit with oil for you!
These sump bolts were well rusty, two didn't play ball and rounded but getting a grinder and cutting a slot in them made them come loose
All cleaned and a new filter on, its was minging. The oil was more like tar than oil. I had tiny flakes of metal on my magnets also. The box shifts ok and behaves as it should.
BMW need shooting for suggesting the era autos are "sealed for life"
Its all back together and B3s 104 has been transformed! Its defo feels like the 300bhp performance car it should be now. Amazing, its improved the way the car drives in all situations, you can feel i'm getting the engines true power down now and its torque. It stays locked fully on the motorway unless you engage kickdown. Which really shows its true power. It wouldn't even stay locked full stop sometimes before.
I'm hoping that this will bring the economy up a little now as the last tank was 230miles but to be fair it was solid town driving
If you are umming over it and you've got 100,000mile up its probably past its best!
So its had an engine rebuild and new torque converter i must be close to how these cars were when new i guess.
I was only saying to Spa69 the other say how its covered about 5500 miles since the engine rebuild and i've not put any oil in it. Well the low oil light came on the day after! teach me to jinx it. So i checked it when it was cold and it was well above the minimum mark so i added a half litre to top it up to max. But i still get the light randomly coming on.
When the car was plugged in to refil the auotbox with oil it was showing a fault code for the oil level sensor. Another job to do then along with the DSC pressure sensor. But no codes were stored for the autobox. So the previous low level must of been triggering the codes i had in the past.
Onto the bodwork next and i'm told 2004 onward bmws have a 12 year rust warranty! This car has the common front wings going and there some scabbing on the rear arches above the rear bumper so i'm going to see if they will sort it Wheels need refurb also and then some war stripes? Silver i think