I decided to bypass all those stock type replacements altogether and go right to a chassis mounted shifter.
I read all about the normal short shifters where you’re basically just changing the shift rod but keeping pretty much the same shift carrier, bushings and relative architecture.
BMW E36 SHORT SHIFTER INSTALL INSTALL
In order to make my shifts easier, since I’ll be making more of them now, I decided to install a short shifter. This is a small price to pay for the urgency that my car now blows through every gear from just off idle! This was just the ticket to make up for my high altitude power loss. For instance, 2nd gear tops out at about 47 mph now instead of about 60 mph. There’s no doubt that I’ll need to shift into 3rd gear in every autocross now as the ratios per gear are so much shorter. And this is with my sticky Bridgestone Potenza autocross tires! Luckily, no issues were encountered during the swap.Īfter driving the car with the new 3.91 installed, it was a night and day difference! Where before I couldn’t spin my tires in 1st gear even if I dropped the clutch at 4,000 rpm, now I can spin the tires through all of 1st gear and part of 2nd gear. I found a used one locally through Craigslist and swapping it in was pretty easy as I had done this previously (check out a previous post for details). After researching the various E36 ratio differentials that I could simply swap in, I decided to go with a 3.91 ratio. But there’s an easy way to increase low end torque, just change to a numerically higher ratio limited slip differential. That’s just part of the expected performance delivery when it comes to a centrifugal type supercharger. Though the Vortech supercharger is giving my E36 great power now, it still lacks in the low end as I previously noted. I just had to slightly modify the Ground Control shock mounts to eliminate interference with the bar. The rear bar is just as well built as the front and was a simple install. I went with the Megan Racing rear bar as I was impressed by the quality of the front bar that I was already running from them. Since the bar is so light and I don’t have a rear cage, why not throw this in there? Every little bit helps. There’s definitely no load coming from the shock mount towers (like the front strut towers) but this will theoretically help to stiffen the rear chassis. I then installed a rear chassis reinforcement bar that ties together the rear shock mounts. Install was easy after the nutserts were installed. I found a pretty simple kit online at BimmerBum that I highly recommend, I’ll provide the link below. You’ll need 6 nutserts total installed in order to mount the front of the X-brace. The only real trick to installing the X-brace in an E36 not setup from the factory for one is the need to install nutserts into the front subframe. There are enough mounts already present in the E36 to do this. I actually went as far as installing both the original simple brace and the X-brace at the same time. Obviously, installing the X-brace will stiffen up the front chassis to a certain degree as well as offer more protection to the engine oil pan. Most models were equipped with a simple bar that connects one frame rail to the other behind the engine (as seen at the top of the picture above). Only a few BMW E36 models came from the factory with the front X-brace installed under the engine to stiffen the chassis. Installing a chassis mounted short shifter.Changing the rear limited slip differential ratio from 3.15 to 3.91.Adding more braces to the E36 to further stiffen the chassis front and rear.
BMW E36 SHORT SHIFTER INSTALL UPGRADE
This upgrade session is focused on the following areas: Quite a bit of miscellaneous items but they will all definitely impact the car’s performance. There’s just time to address a few more things before the 2019 autocross season kicks off.