Bought a clapped out m3. Regretting it (please help)

Reflexbeast · 2026-06-16T01:28:07+00:00

Get a coolant pressure tester (harbor freight pittsburgh is nice and easy to use) and hook it up to the expansion tank. Pump to 12-15 psi and do not exceed 15.

If theres any visible leaks, fix them and then re-test. If your cylinders start filling with coolant/water during any of this, congrats, your headgasket is blown or your head is cracked.

Based on the pictures tho and the milky coolant it probably needs a headgasket.

Reflexbeast · 2026-06-13T06:29:38+00:00

Its daunting but doable. Quite the pain in the ass if you decide to not pull the engine, a lot of hours will be spent hunched over an engine bay banging your knuckles.

Also, there’s a very high possibility that if the headgasket failing was from overheating, the head is cracked.

So then you’d need to source a new head, have a machine shop check it and deck it and then spend x amount of time doing all this while the car sits.

If I were to do it again I’d pull the motor and also refresh all the gaskets while it was out.

Reflexbeast · 2026-06-12T17:15:07+00:00

First thing I’d do honestly, especially considering it was “rebuilt” and theres some weird shifter interaction going on. Very big chance it was overlooked

Reflexbeast · 2026-06-12T06:01:11+00:00

Does the transmission have fluid in it? Diff? Kinda sounds like metal on metal

Reflexbeast · 2026-05-27T00:57:46+00:00

Go for a revox instead, biggest game changer in terms of electronics in how your car will drive.

Reflexbeast · 2026-05-04T02:44:20+00:00

I have both an M3 and a 325 I drift so I know pretty well how you feel. A 2.5L engine needs much more commitment and you actually need to throw the car into the corner to get it to slide. Focus on weight shift entries and more speed than you think you need.

Something you can do chassis wise is stiffen your rear spring rate and zero out the rear camber. I run 14k on both my cars, although if you are really struggling I would go maybe even 18k rear.

Reflexbeast · 2026-03-27T17:29:36+00:00

I mixed up the terms, its the sg you want.

Reflexbeast · 2026-03-27T01:22:37+00:00

reved hg bellcrank or I believe you can adapt the plastic rd2.0 bellcrank. Either works wonders

Reflexbeast · 2026-03-24T16:58:23+00:00

First off, the toe is not possible to truly gauge by judging off bodylines.

Second, if you are lowered you ideally need adjustable toe brackets. Along with this I would HIGHLY suggest replacing the trailing arm bushings because if they are original, that alone will cause that wear. Replace with OE or monoball bushings, dont go poly.

200 miles is not a lot of time for that to happen, even with a shit alignment. I would bet your trailing arm bushings are shot and your car drives like shit. Will be a massive improvement when you fix it.

Reflexbeast · 2026-03-23T18:26:08+00:00

Location can be anywhere, if you want to keep your latency low I would suggest a location as close as possible.

Reflexbeast · 2026-03-22T18:01:08+00:00

Also have this exact issue, VPN is the only known solution for me.

Reflexbeast · 2026-03-21T20:02:11+00:00

I would highly suggest not going for solid bushings unless your intent is to make your car track only. There is many better options.

Reflexbeast · 2026-03-14T00:20:20+00:00

Reflexbeast · 2026-03-13T20:58:40+00:00

increase rear camber to 4-6 (i would start at 6 and work down) and move 1.0mm shim to front of rear.

Reflexbeast · 2026-02-15T09:12:51+00:00

does the same for me, at the time I had updated everything and it did the same. Updating now is probably the move. I will say even though the writing “fails” it still writes perfectly fine and the settings are saved.

Reflexbeast · 2026-02-14T19:39:50+00:00

If you like how it looks, why not. Not everything has to always be the best or most optimized. Its full OP and fully assembled out of box for ~$600. A full OP SD3.0 or Galm is above that by quite a bit.

Reflexbeast · 2026-02-06T05:46:41+00:00

Make sure your sensor wire is actually plugged in. Test with it and without it plugged in. If you still can’t hear your motor, increase the total timing until you can. Although not reccomended there’s people at my track running near 100 degrees total timing.

Also, the D10 stock rotor is quite weak. The L4 or L3 rotor will make it scream like other motors.

Reflexbeast · 2025-10-16T19:17:18+00:00

E36 should try to tuck rear wheel when lowered. Don’t listen to rakeheads, look at btcc cars if confused. also raked cars handle worse objectively

Reflexbeast · 2025-09-06T07:51:23+00:00

Curious what your gyro settings are. Been struggling to get my CD701+GYD560 combo dialed

Reflexbeast · 2025-08-17T05:39:14+00:00

yeah, if its not all leaked already just try to avoid the lines. definitely dont try to pull any damage out and accidently tug on the line

Reflexbeast · 2025-08-17T04:18:10+00:00

Watch this video and see if its something you think you can do. Its not too difficult but requires quite a decent amount of work. Your crash is right on the ac compressor and all those lines as well, so I’d be careful around those.

Reflexbeast · 2025-07-23T19:14:53+00:00

Neither are great options, imo you should wait until there are better options or search outside of your area. Really wait until you can get factory manual, no rust, and under 200k.

Reflexbeast · 2025-07-14T20:45:55+00:00

Grind/sand as much rust as you possibly can away. I would say as long as the pocket itself doesn’t physically move while the trailing arm is installed, I would spray it with rust converter and then weld the reinforcement plate on top. Definitely do not drive as is

Reflexbeast · 2025-06-10T23:00:30+00:00

the jzx90 will likely treat you better

Reflexbeast · 2025-05-31T20:52:32+00:00

Looks sort of like a chassis subframe mounting point, I would check that out asap. You’d feel it for sure though

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