Help: E36 steering rack and M60

[MJCRO]

Picked up a remanufactured E36 rack off eBay to replace the "bus" steering of the stock rack. I'm having some issues with clearances though. I'm not sure whether it's the actual thickness of the rack I ordered that's bad or if I have my mounts setup incorrectly. My stock rack was barely touching the oil pan as it was.

Anyone care to shine in on their E36/M60 steering rack setups? There's very little information on r3vlimited regarding them.

I was checking out Jack N Coke's thread and how he flipped his mounts and shifted the motor forward. But I think it's different for me since I'm using Garagistic and Revshift motor mounts, or maybe not?

The motor is jacked up in these pictures. Lowered, the rack would be getting squished from all sides. Does the subframe need to modified to fit this rack?

Here's a picture of the mount position. (Farthest I can go back)

[JGood]

The e36 rack requires spacers between the mounting tabs since it is thinner in that area. I had to put the spacers on the top of the rack, which moved it down far enough to clear the oil pan. I'm not using Garagistic mounts, so I'm not sure how much lower/higher they make the engine. You may need to run spacers on the engine mounts to get the clearance.

[dirty30]

I have shims on my motors mounts to clear my E36 rack but like Justin I am not using garagistic mount arms either.

[MonkeyMadness]

I'm using the same setup as JGood. Spacers on top.. works well...

[MJCRO]

Yup, used some spacers and played with until it sat nice.

[alco]

What spacers are you guys using? I see nothing in the RealOEM catalog for steering rack spacers. I presume it's a third party part?

[JGood]

What spacers are you guys using? I see nothing in the RealOEM catalog for steering rack spacers. I presume it's a third party part?

The upper and lower mounting tabs on the e30 subframe for the steering rack are too far apart for the e36 rack... it's thinner. You need to put spacers in between the rack and the tabs to take up the extra space. Depending on where you put them, top or bottom, it will change the position of the rack.

The spacer is just a spacer, whatever you want to use. A stack of washers would even do the job.

[garagistic]

Figured we should chime in here. How tall are the mounts? We designed our mounts to be used with e39 525TDS motor mounts. (part number: 22111094248 ). Although others can work, some mounts tend to "settle" (especially if they were not designed for the weight of the v8 ).

Also if we recall correctly the e36 rack was bigger in diameter to the e30 rack (but we did make the mounts to accommodate this since our test e30 had the e36 rack as well).

[slammin.e28]

Why, exactly, the mounts from an M51?

Just curious, since they are not available from WorldPac or SSF, so I assume they would be a dealer only dealio.

[garagistic]

Why, exactly, the mounts from an M51?

Just curious, since they are not available from WorldPac or SSF, so I assume they would be a dealer only dealio.

Bluntech and ebay are also another source.

Couple reasons for this:

They are not offset studs like m60 motor mounts, they fit perfectly within the e30 frames, and are a bit taller (7cm in height). Even after settling they did not touch. They also put up with the v8 weight and all the abuse we gave them track side.

The e32/e34 rubber mounts are lower and customers in the past have needed to grind a tiny bit away for the oil pan for them to work or space the mounts with washers as stated if they run an e36 rack. Although that will work, we recommend the motor mounts above.

Send Blunt a PM. He is a great supporter of r3v and has great prices.

[slammin.e28]

Bluntech and ebay are also another source.

Couple reasons for this:

They are not offset studs like m60 motor mounts, they fit perfectly within the e30 frames, and are a bit taller (7cm in height). They also put up with all the abuse we gave them.

The e32/e34 rubber mounts are lower and customers in the past have needed to grind a tiny bit away for the oil pan for them to work or space the mounts with washers as stated if they run an e36 rack. Although that will work, we recommend the motor mounts above.

Send Blunt a PM. He is a great supporter of r3v and has great prices.

Cool, was just wondering. I did not know this when I ordered mounts and just got normal 540i mounts. Def want to use what you recommend for the arms. Plan on an e36 rack later on anyways.

[MJCRO]

Just to help others, the revshift mounts didn't work. They settled and the pan started to lay on the subframe. Ordered E39 525TDS mounts so I'll come back here and post the results when they're installed.

[Jean]

Good info on the mounts. So we need something thats about 7cm in height is that correct?

I was actually thinking about getting revshift mounts as well as I went through oem mounts every few months with my m30 swap and then swapped to the bolt through poly mounts and had no issues.

[JGood]

Just to help others, the revshift mounts didn't work. They settled and the pan started to lay on the subframe. Ordered E39 525DTS mounts so I'll come back here and post the results when they're installed.

Weird. I have 10k miles on my revshift mounts and they haven't budged. Still have the same 3-4mm clearance between the pan and rack as I did when I installed them.

[MJCRO]

I guess it all depends on the mounts you have. Even when I dropped the engine the first time on these revshift ones, it was dangerously close, if not laying on the subframe. Not a big deal since I got these from Frank for cheap when I picked up his exhaust. I would say at least 3mm of clearance is needed.

If you're going with Garagistic's pre-fabbed mounts, best option is to go with what they used. Thought I could get away with using these revshift ones but oh well.

Not certain how these E39 mounts will be different but I'll take comparison shots and confirm my results once the mounts arrive tomorrow.