Safety Wired Oil Pump Nut/ Reinforced Pickup Tube - E36 M3 Drift Car Project "Maine": Episode 5

Wooooo! Get your comfy PJ's on and your late night bowl of cereal, it's an evening upload boys and girls! In tonight's episode, I finally get the oil pan off the M3 and get the infamous oil pump nut safety wired using a Bimmerworld drilled oil pump nut. In addition to preventatively safety wiring the pump nut, I elected to follow suit of what I did on the vert, and install the Z3 2.8 reinforced pickup tube as well, which I explain the purpose of in this video. Together, I firmly believe these are more than enough to bulletproof the oil system on just about any stock power E36. While there are much, much greater levels you can go to with this system (and lots more money you can spend), I don't find it necessary to do them at stock power level, but, I am pretty well versed on what you should do in your oiling system if you do intend on building a turbo E36, or an E36 that will be used for track duty at high power levels, so if you'd like some input, just ask!
I hope you guys are enjoying this series, and are learning something along the way. I am very, very well aware this stuff isn't as fun to watch as making the M3 LOOK cool (which we will), but I firmly believe when I get this build complete we should have a drift car that is reliable under any and all circumstances.
Much love,
Griffen
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Follow me on Instagram: @gxgmusic
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Parts numbers required to do this job:
Drilled Oil Pump Nut: www.bimmerworld.com/M50-Drill...
Z3 Pickup Tube: 11411703930
Pickup Tube Gasket: 11411703947
Oil Pan Gasket: 11131437237
Dipstick Tube O-Ring: 11431740045
Additional things you'll need include safety wire pliers, aircraft grade safety wire (DO NOT USE THE INCLUDED SAFETY WIRE FROM BIMMERWORLD), red loctite, your favorite oil resistant RTV, and quite likely all of the crush washers for the power steering system.

[@zk9964]

Nice DIY. Should note for any curious the oil pump nut backs off due to harmonics from the chain stretching. VAC makes a tensioner for the oil pump chain on more race built motors.

[@griffengardner]

Precisely! I was actually having this discussion with my friend Ryan a few days ago, there are absolutely levels to how far you can go with bulletproofing the oil system on E36s. I didn’t know VAC made a chain tensioner now, I’ve only ever seen the Seems Legit one! Also I never thought about it like that but that makes total sense, I always thought the slack in the chain acted like an impact on the nut and broke it free in quick revving scenarios, never thought about the harmonics.
Also worth noting that I would also recommend VAC’s modified oil pump with a bolt vs nut and billet shaft (along with a new chain and tensioner) if this engine had big power in its future. Not to mention the option of switching to a S54 (or S50B32) dual pickup pump and pan!

[@zk9964]

@@griffengardner Good info. Thanks for showing the factory upgrade on the oil pick up tube. I think I'll do that when I tear down an M50. I like the mechanical aspect and I think you portrayed this job well.

[@Xx904assasinxX]

MAKIN MOVESSSS

[@griffengardner]

GXGWAYEE

[@dimakalinyuk6676]

love your videos

[@spencer6064]

Is this necessary to do on any e36 m3? Or are there certain situations where you wouldn't want to go through the effort. Say if the car you had was mechanically sound and you don't track it. I understand the nut can just back off but wasn't sure if some cars/uses were more susceptible than others.

[@griffengardner]

To my knowledge it is one of those luck of the draw items than can/ might fail under a variety of circumstances. All M50, S50, S52, M52, M54, and S54s are susceptible to having the nut back off, with the E46’s M54 being by far the most common one to have the nut back off. There are some factors that can increase the likelihood of failure, like lightweight clutch and flywheel setups that can cause the oil pump chain to act like an impact gun on the nut as the engine revs much faster. Tuned in hard cut rev limiters, solid engine and transmission mounts, and higher mileage engines with more slack in the chain can also lead to the nut backing off. Personally, I think it’s worth the effort of the job simply to replace the oil pan gasket. Wiring the nut is just one extra step at that point for peace of mind. That said random failure on low mileage street cars is probably unlikely, so don’t stress too much or lose sleep over it. I drive mine very very hard, so for me it was a must. Just plan on doing it if your oil pan gasket ever starts leaking, at that point it’s an easy “while you’re in there”. In the meantime you’ll probably be fine! (:

[@norphes3865]

10:34 had me like ua-cam.com/video/64IwbhFYuUM/v-deo.html lmao
Anyways, thanks for the tutorial, i'll be using it soon