Boosted E36 Build: Upgrading the Fuel System
E36 fuel system overhauls are no walk in the park, but YouTuber Jimmy Oakes and crew make it look a little less daunting.
The fuel system is the target of YouTuber Jimmy Oakes‘ crew in his latest E36 build series video. The fuel rail, filter, regulator, and lines are all getting replaced with some bangin’ new parts courtesy of DeatchWerks.
With fuel finished, Oakes and his team will move one step closer to finally seeing the E36 start. We can promise you, you’re not the only one getting impatient here.
Picking Up Where They Left Off
“We’re back on the E36 turbo today. Now I’m dying to get this thing finished,” starts Oakes. “As you guys know we made great progress real quick. A lot of it came together real easily… But we’ve still got some work ahead of us.”
Obviously, the goal for Oakes and his team is to get the E36 up and running as soon as possible. The next step in that process is upgrading the fuel system. To do so, the team will be putting in a DeatchWerks ethanol fuel system. The kit they get has adapters to get everything working properly, so it’s literally just plug-and-play.
Oakes explains that he’ll be using an M50 fuel rail in the build. The beauty of going with this particular fuel rail is that it has no built-in regulators, just a feed and return. After installing the rail, Oakes gets his fuel filter and pressure regulator assembled. Now it’s time for the install.
Fuel Component Mounting Locations
“I think the most annoying part is, honestly, trying to figure out where you want to put your regulator,” says Oakes. “What makes it really annoying on this chassis, is there’s no thread holes on any part of it… BMW tends to put everything on the engine, so there’s nothing for me to bolt to without having to drill through something. And I don’t wanna do that. It’s too pretty.”
Oakes and co. are left with no other options, so they elect to chop up and re-fab the provided bracket to work with the intake manifold. After a few quick cuts, welds, and a trip to the painting station, the bracket is ready to install.
At this point, Oakes takes us on a quick detour to the Nissonda. But that’s not why we’re here, so back to the E36.
Oakes installs the regulator and finds he actually likes the way it looks. As with the wiring harness, he opts to route the fuel lines underneath the intake manifold so as to keep them out of sight.
“So now we have two ports coming out of it,” says Oakes “One goes to the rail, and one has to go to the return line on the chassis.”
E36 Fuel System Lines
In order to route everything properly, he first needs his fuel lines. Oakes gets right to work on securing the AN fittings to the braided fuel lines and viola. E36 arteries complete. Next, Oakes makes a quick-return line that runs from the regulator to the hard-line on the chassis. In between, the ethanol content sensor has been spliced in for measuring… you guessed it; Ethanol.
Next is the feed line. Oakes preps a line to go from the chassis hard-line to the fuel filter. The filter, like everything else, gets stashed away under the intake manifold. From there the line travels up to the rail. And with that, the deed is done.
“The fuel system is done. We gotta do the fuel pump. But, we don’t need that to start it, so that’s pretty exciting,” says Oakes “Now, the last thing we need to do is put fluids in it, hook up the power cables, hook up the ECU. Put a base map on it, and… Vroom. It’s gonna start first try. It’s gotta do it.”
On to the Next One…
To say this segment of the build went smoothly is an understatement. This was like A.C. Slater smooth. “The DeatschWerks stuff, such a pleasure working with it. Everything clicked into place, everything fits amazing. Everything looks amazing. Couldn’t be more thankful to have them, to have their support with this build.”
Pretty soon, this E36 will be up and running. And we can’t wait to see and hear it.