Supernaut's Cars - E36 323i / mk3 Megane / S1 Land Rover

[paulplom]

We bought ours to pull a caravan but never bothered buying one. It's a 2.0 diesel, 4x4 auto and a lovely bit of kit though.

[Supernaut]

Decided to finally fit this Y-pipe exhaust tip I bought several months ago.

Hmm.

Well, it doesn't protrude beyond the curve in the centre of the bumper...

I can't move it further forward, it's against the rear silencer.

[Supernaut]

How about a sneak peek at the re-upholstered Land Rover seats?

Just the fronts for now.

Still need to tidy up and attach the various little metal brackets before putting them in it, but they feel lovely.

[Supernaut]

Yesterday I decided to try something.

I put the 323i up for sale / swap on a local BMW group for what I thought was a rather ambitious price.

Fair bit of interest, and I've already been offered a very tidy low mileage B5 A4 1.8t plus cash my way.

Thing is; I only actually want a 4 door E36 or just the cash so I could get something that isn't an aging German liability.

 

 

I find myself enjoying the Megane more on these twisty back roads round here. Something about a ton with about 100hp (like a Suxuki Swift with that 1.5 16v) would be nice, and would probably leave me with a fair bit of cash in the back pocket.

I resent paying out £30 per month in tax plus more insurance than the Megane for half the miles for something I barely use. Plus I already have 3 points...

[Supernaut]

Seats!

 

Also, I don't know what I was thinking.

Drove the BMW last night for the first time in about a fortnight, deleted the advert. Didn't get any serious interest in it anyway.

You just cannae beat a BMW straight 6 for flexibility and the sheer noise it makes when GLFing.

[Supernaut]

I bet you thought the Land Rover was finished, huh?

Nope. Still got the hard top to get on with.

A little bit of dismantling leaves it like this;

[Split_Pin]

Out of idle curiosity, what figure did you stick the E36 up for? Feel free to PM/WhatsApp me if youd prefer. 

[Supernaut]

3 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Out of idle curiosity, what figure did you stick the E36 up for? Feel free to PM/WhatsApp me if youd prefer. 

I did my usual thing I do almost annually where I drive it again and go "Haha, no. I'm keeping this fucker forever"

[Supernaut]

41 minutes ago, CGSB said:

Not just me then...

@Supernaut - You've said many times its the car you'd desired. It doesn't seem that much of a ball ache to live with, and you have the luxury of a nice space to work on it as needed.

If you can afford to run the multiple cars (which might be the sticky wicket), could you buy another in a few years time if you wanted to if you sell up? Seems like these are probably only going one way.

Financial pressure trumps all though, I know.

If I really need to, I can SORN it in a big shed for a while.

The next thing I need to do is learn to weld. I've got this far owning E36s without it, but I can't put my fingers in my ears forever!

[Supernaut]

[Tayne]

Surely the only way to stop your Land Rover leaking is to drain all the fluids out of it?

[TrabbieRonnie]

I was just out front topping up and checking the P4's vitals, when a topless Land Rover like yours came thundering up the lane...

Full of people, laughing and waving, looked a great way to travel on a sunny evening!  

Yours is looking great, well done from a fellow struggle-to-seller!

[Supernaut]

The 3D printed phone holder bracket is a success!

I just took the Land Rover on a roughly 10 mile roundtrip and my phone didn't even wobble. The GPS speedometer also highlights how far out the mechanical one is. 40mph GPS is 50mph on its own speedometer!

The stop leak? Not so much. The next option is to check the sump bolts.

 

I'll do that once this black paint has properly dried;

The silver steelies were looking really rough, so full shitbox mode has been engaged.

I even properly torqued the wheel bolts when I put them back on. I've owned a torque wrench for several months now, figured I should actually use it.

[Supernaut]

I crawled under the Land Rover yesterday afternoon and tightened every single sump bolt at least a quarter of a turn...

Hopefully it has an effect.

 

I've also decided to order a 90 degree elbow to go on the carb. That should point the intake forwards and allow me to attach either a small cone filter or a hose and a remote filter housing.

Either way should hopefully reduce the chronic intake NOOOIIIIISE from the pancake filter fitted directly to the carb.

[Supernaut]

A very minor update.

I replaced the rubber hose between the MAF and the throttle body on the BMW. The old one looked very sad and was about as airtight as a colander. 

It shouldn't be sucking in unmetered air now.

 

 

Oh yeah. The Land Rover still leaks oil. Of course! I think tightening the sump bolts might have made a tiny difference but that could just be psychological.

[Tayne]

6 hours ago, Supernaut said:

.

The Land Rover still leaks oil. 

 

 

 

[Brigsy]

If a landrover is not leaking oil its got nothing in. Same applies for vauxhall and renault😅

[Supernaut]

I didn't realise how unhappy the BMW was with that split intake hose until I took it out this evening and noticed how much better it drives now. Feels like it's rediscovered many ponies.

[Supernaut]

My tame mechanic has just pressure tested the Megane's air conditioning.

It seems to be roughly as air-tight as a colander. It needs a condenser and a section of pipe at an absolute minimum.

 

I don't think I'm going to bother. I'm 30 miles north of Aberdeen, I can open the windows if it gets to the heady heights of 20 Celsius outside! 

I also just know that I'll be regretting this decision next summer if we get another super hot weekend like we did at the beginning of July.

Parts on Autodoc seem fairly cheap, perhaps if I get some monies coming in at some point I might do it.

[artdjones]

20 hours ago, Supernaut said:

My tame mechanic has just pressure tested the Megane's air conditioning.

It seems to be roughly as air-tight as a colander. It needs a condenser and a section of pipe at an absolute minimum.

 

I don't think I'm going to bother. I'm 30 miles north of Aberdeen, I can open the windows if it gets to the heady heights of 20 Celsius outside! 

I also just know that I'll be regretting this decision next summer if we get another super hot weekend like we did at the beginning of July.

Parts on Autodoc seem fairly cheap, perhaps if I get some monies coming in at some point I might do it.

Get a complete set of o rings while you do it. And do it quickly, the longer it's empty the more of it that will be ruined.

[Supernaut]

14 hours ago, artdjones said:

Get a complete set of o rings while you do it. And do it quickly, the longer it's empty the more of it that will be ruined.

I've owned it since last April, and it's never worked in my ownership so...

[Supernaut]

I've continued to fuck around with the Land Rover's air intake.

I got hold of an intake stub from the SU carb on a Rover V8.

It seems to be for a 2" intake carb rather than the 1.75" on there. However a bit of filing out the mounting holes got it to go on.

That's just a test fit.

I've since painted it black and got longer bolts for it.

I haven't properly fitted it yet, as now I need to find some hose and some sort of filter.

 

Funnily enough, the entire intake system on the Siromer tractor here looks about the right diameter...

 

[Supernaut]

I decided to buy some cheap pink LEDs from ebay for a laugh. 

Ones that fit commonly used bulbs inside cars...

 

The photo doesn't do it justice. It's hilarious in the dark.

 

[Supernaut]

Not sure where else to post a shameless beauty shot.

I took this the other day as I was opening a gate, not staged in the slightest.

I had a bunch of tools and a trailer wheel in the back, using it as a work vehicle as it should be.

[Supernaut]

I have been faffing about with the BMW's intake recently.

I wanted more noise.

It's really not as dramatic as I thought, but I suppose it's way off at the front left corner of that long engine bay.

It has a nice growl at about 3 grand though.

I know, I know, hot air intake and all that. Don't care, it makes fun noises.

 

 

I still need to find more parts for the Land Rover air intake though. I basically need a 65mm internal diameter flexi hose for that. For some reason 65mm hose is twice the price of 75mm hose. At least on eBay...

[Split_Pin]

Id love to fit an intake to the Saab but insurance take the piss

[Supernaut]

The BMW is already on the insurance as having a modified intake because I said to them I had a non standard filter in it and they just wrote "modified air intake" or somesuch.

So yeah, it's definitely modified now!

 

Honestly, it's not super dramatic. The most dramatic change I made to it was a while ago when I simply unclipped the wee resonator tube inside the standard air box. It still sounds very similar to that, but maybe a teeny tiny bit louder. Hard to tell, really.

[Supernaut]

I r enjinear.

First, I fitted the intake stub from an SU carb on a Rover V8. I had to file out the mounting holes a tiny bit to adjust them.

Then, I bought a chinesium generic "performance air intake". 

I painted over the carbon effect air filter cover with some matte black.

I then fitted it, complete with a bracket that rotates on a bolt to provide access to the battery.

Adding as many bends as possible to the flexi hose has really calmed down the intake noise. It's no longer utterly deafening at full throttle. It's actually quite refined... For a Land Rover.

Of course I still kept it at a good height because Land Rover.

 

[Supernaut]

So, what does one do with a ground-up restoration of a 70 year old vintage Land Rover?

Why, use it to tow 700L of water across a field to put into a newly installed septic tank as ballast.

Had to use low range for that!

 

I've also gained a field car, it seems.

It's been advised not to go for another MOT due to having subframes basically made of bran flakes.

So the right thing to do is drive it across rough fields at speed, while using the handbrake to line it up with gates...

[Lacquer Peel]

On 24/08/2025 at 09:33, Supernaut said:

The BMW is already on the insurance as having a modified intake because I said to them I had a non standard filter in it and they just wrote "modified air intake" or somesuch.

So yeah, it's definitely modified now!

 

Honestly, it's not super dramatic. The most dramatic change I made to it was a while ago when I simply unclipped the wee resonator tube inside the standard air box. It still sounds very similar to that, but maybe a teeny tiny bit louder. Hard to tell, really.

It sounds great with the intake especially in the mid range.