My Auto To Emmanuel Tale

[Stebob]

Hi Guys,

 

So hot on the tale of the recent auto to manual conversion, thought it was time to tell the tale of my old girl.

 

I've had her since 2004 and wont be parted with her, shes got me out of trouble a number of times and theres nothing out there that has really ticked the boxes for me like this one.

 

It was originally imported from Japan in 2004 with only 46000 kms originally, the car was then swiftly converted to MPH and motd and registered.

 

Originally a 5spd auto life was generally good and was good on a cruise, it would occasionally frustrate when the gearbox wouldnt wake up or trying to hold a gear when having fun but i accepted it as just one of those things.

 

Fast forward to 2010 and suddenly i lost 2nd gear one day it was there, the next it wasn't.

 

A trip to the garage suggested we get another box and with it being the 5spd it was assumed it was the ZF box, right?

 

WRONG - turns out it had a JATCO box packed to the brim with unobtanium parts.

 

At this point we worked out that virtually everything was different to a standard european spec car including a radiator and oil cooler from a 7 series as well as wiring looms that only worked with the jatco box.

 

At this point the mechanic (phil) suggestion was do you not fancy it as a manual (he has an 318is coupe too), my response was hell yeah!

 

Then the hunt was on for a donor car, we needed to find an early e36 6cyl manual so that all of the running gear would match up.

 

My car had a rest in our carport for 3 years whilst the hunt was on.

 

Finally we tracked down the right car in Ellesmere port, and then the conversion began.

 

It took Phil around a week to do in between other jobs and ive never looked back since, the car is sooo much better as a manual, its like having a different car.

 

I will let some pics do the talking now.....

 

This is it coming out of the slumber, note the rad wasnt happy being woken up after 3 years!

 

 

 

Looking a bit sorry for itself here....

 

 

This is it arriving at the compound...

 

 

 

Donor car procured....

 

 

Phils coup in the background, running gear coming out...

 

 

 

Things getting messy inside....

 

 

 

No comment...

 

 

Clean up after work all done and the rest is history!

 

 

Hope you all survived the read, took me bloody ages to write it!

 

Steve

 

 

 

[holbeck]

That looks a nice car. I'm loving the colour.

 

Well worth the effort me thinks.

[Stebob]

Cheers!

 

Its an unusual color in that they only did it for 2 years on the e30 (although ive never seen one) and 2 years on the e36, its laguna green.

 

They later changed it to boston green which is a bit darker.

 

The way it drives it just as good (if not better) than the modernz stuff, and nothing really sounds like the old straight sixes these days!

 

Steve

[Stebob]

And some of the specs still suprise me like dual zone climate control in 1992, they must have spent a fortune speccing it out!

 

Steve