Estate Of The Art (Part2)

Welcome back to our Project E36 Touring, which is progressing nicely now. After its brief introduction last month, the E36 has been pressed into (very) regular service as our big chief Peter’s daily driver and all-round hack – duties it seems to be dispensing with much aplomb. However, although we can all admire any E36 in its standard form, this being THOR, things weren’t going to stay that way for long.. It was time to start the modding!

Despite a service history that redefines the word ‘comprehensive’. We weren’t about to take any chances. It’s just not our style! First job was to be a belts and braces service and a full fluid and lubricant change. The oils chosen for the task here will be known to those of you who closely follow motorsport; Synionic.

As supplier to all sorts of high-end race outfits including the STR BTCC team, Subaru UK’s Time Attack outfit and even Roger Clark Motorsport, Synionic make some fairly bold claims about what their lubricants can do, having a film strength some 50 times higher than even the highest quality synthetic and also the ability to actually bond to the metal surfaces of the engine at an ionic level. These claims have actually been proven by MIRA, with the upshot being that the friction co-efficient of the entire drivetrain can actually be reduced, prolong component life – and in most cases, actually raising horsepower and torque figures through reduced losses.

We have used the oil on many of our conversions and we were keen to demonstrate its efficacy in action. Thanks to an uber-accurate Dynapack dyno cell in house, Pete decided to strap the bone-stock Beemer onto the hub plates to record one more power run to set a base level for the day’s ambient conditions. A smooth run in fourth gear saw the 328 record a creditable 163.9 bhp at the hubs, laying the base point for what was to follow.

Draining all of the old fluids out was simple enough, with the colour of the exiting lubricants reinforcing the car’s well groomed history file. Nothing looked too heinous here. After adding the new Synionic lubricants to the engine, gearbox and diff it was time to take the old girl for a spin round the block to heat them up and bed them all in, before strapping the old girl back onto the dyno.

After no less than six repeated runs to remove any discrepancies, it was interesting to note that the power figure had risen quite significantly to 168.5 bhp. This happened consistently on each one of the 7 runs. An increase on 5.5 bhp, with a commensurate rise in torque output too. All this simply from friction reduction! Seems like all of that marketing bluster might just have a bit of weight behind it, after all…

Buoyed up by this success, we decided to try another scientific ‘back to back’ test and fitted a Pipercross panel filter from their stock. Again, six runs were done to remove any ambiguities, with the result being a not inconsequential 1.5 bhp. The total gains from the first ‘base’ runs of the day, simply from these two ‘service’ items was 7.3 bhp and exactly 6.0 lbFt of torque. Impressive stuff, particularly if you extrapolate this figure back to engine bhp.. That’s almost 8.5 bhp!

Pete also commented that he could really see where the 328’s common Achilles heel was holding it back from 5300 rpm. ‘BMW deliberately designed the inlet manifold on this engine to choke it a little at the top end and keep it away from the M3’s performance,’ he added. ‘But we’ll be changing the manifold to sort that soon enough, don’t worry!’

We also took the time to add a little of the Synionic octane booster to the E36’s 95 RON filled tank. We’ll give that time to work its way through and report back with our findings!

Next time, we’ll be sorting out some of those scrapes, dings and flat spots. It’s time to get our body beautiful! Until then.

THOR Racing can supply the full range of Synionic products.

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