clarkson's e46 m3 and previous cars - lots of pics

[clarkson22]

cheers dude vids posted at bottom of page second ones after its warmed up a little

well fitted the decat today and totally gutted the back box.....wow lol
decat was perfect fit completly , only had to run a 8 mm drill through the front lamnda senser and it went in fine, now the noise..fk its drony i wont lie but thats the gutted back box but i dont care is so much fun putting you foot down , the rasp is super loud after the decat its there just after 2k like when cold but o much more louder ..as for performance, just revs a little quicker not noticed it any quicker but there isnt any flat spots either so win win , deleted codes with martyn software added pops and bangs shift light , oil temp warm up ,sap delete on cold start , all in all im super happy
some vids of cold start below



vids



thanks for looking

[clarkson22]

lol well it is too loud hahaha , on full chat its awesome pops and bangs on overun from 5k is ...awesome but the drone at low revs is stupid , im going to get another back box and modify that a little this time, a fully gutted backbox is a no no for the drone , but the rasp from the decat early on is crazy its sounds mental on full chat, ill get a couple of videos before i change my backbox , anyway can you tell what it is haa...


a trim, and couple more coats of resin looks better


few more coats

[clarkson22]

cheers dude

nearly there bit of trimming and a flat and polish


tweeter cover


sanded


flatted and lacquered




needs a flat and polish tomorrow

[clarkson22]

paint was flaking so i did the top half, but im going to do the full piece next time and redo this one as i think it will look better






heres the only problem bit


it needs flatting but it the edge where it meets the bottom plastic , im going to have a go doing the full piece on drivers side it should look alot better so im going to scrap this piece i think



did the ashtray cover



none of the parts have been flatted or polished yet im just gonna do them all toghether.

[clarkson22]

cheers man
did the full grab handle on drivers side this time





few more bits comming on

[clarkson22]

wasnt happy with the other side so making afullpiece instead of half
the weave also turned out alot nicer






the smaler pice is the lid for the cubby hole above the ash tray




im getting moaned at by my mother for getting carbon strands in all carpets ..women pfff


once the back door card handles are done im going to take everything off and flat and polish it all in one go , i must admit it makes it look alot better inside the car

Edited by clarkson22 on Tuesday 18th August 17:35

[clarkson22]

been doing a few things , got some more dash trims for free so skinning them in the matching carbon cloth and gave it a serious clean today,snow foam , caly bar vss swirl remover on orange hex pad meguris ultimate finishg polish on a black hex pad and a wax , and also have a small coolant leak from somewhere so will have to find that tomorrow







will update again soon , but needs a new topmounts, going to sort coolant leak , get a new radiator and elec fan and delete the viscous fan , remove the cdv valve, just ordered a verniar caliper and the weisco shims to do valve clearences as i know some are out , few other bits to do before the baby arrives in 19 weeks, so gotta spend now lol

[clarkson22]

well finished the other half the car and gave it a full wax all over with some poorboys wax it looks mint it feels like gloss glass everywhere
snow foam after 10 mins

clayed the other half yesterday and ths side today

the tools

the wax

done






did some more carbon fibreing
my roof one was broken so got this for free but its grey so.......


stuck with

epoxy

trimmed and sanded and lacquered




ashtray cover


letting some things dry and will finish everything off its alot easier skinning now ive done it a few times

[clarkson22]

just fitted the trims , getting rid of the cubby box above ashtray getting double din soon so wont be needed and its a bit st

need to neeten the edge up abit avove cd player

and the edge next to lights



well better than last time but needs some sorting still but happy

[clarkson22]

started to redo the trim above the cdplayer wasnt happy with it , but on the otherhand



well i had a blow from the secondary air pump , so seen as i coded it out with martyn software off m3cutters , got a blank and gasket and got rid of it, i decided to get 2 new struts for front , i could littrally push the piston with hardky any force when i got the springs off lol , and went to do my valve clearence' s first one i came to was just out , so went to get the magnet tool...and i have lost it so ordering a new one tommorow so hopefully can get on with them.
anway pics
gone



the sachs struts and topmounts



both sides done

i snapped the hose thats why its wraped in blue tape another thing on the list..just waiting to do the shims

weisco shims

well i got sick off the totally gutted back box so i bought a standard one of jason on here , ftted new gasket and clamps and robbed a battery holder off the 320 im breaking


that was with a whack from the hammer


just gotta get some more euro tips now, but went for a drive, no drone so quiet on normal driving ,maybe a little to quiet , i might take the wadding out but with the decat its alot more raspier on full chat still sounds great

[clarkson22]

well done a few things , did my valve clearences i knew a few were out from when i did my headgasket , i had to change 11 lol but it is so much quieter on idle , i droped the last shim on exhaust side and it landed between the valve and cylinder head, i was prepared to strip and take cams off, turned it over by hand held a magnet next to the valve and it flew out once i cranked it by hand caught the shim with the magnet thank ****!! but also changed the oil , filter and spark plugs , and had some fun polishing stuff with the new dremel


cleaning the filter housing

draining oil



polishing this



did half the vanos



new badges



got some powerflex front anti roll bar bushes to replace the ****e flo flex orange ones and the same for front wishbone lolipop

cheers for reading

[clarkson22]

Huh? There's no special way to put the filter lid on?its sat exactly them same as it used to......

[clarkson22]

C70R said:

I love to see people getting hands-on with the mucky bits of quite complicated cars, so hats off to you. Not everyone is so brave.

However, as someone with the same interior, that carbon looks incredibly tacky compared with the original 'carbon look', particularly on things like the cubby-hole covers. But, to each their own, of course.

Edited by C70R on Thursday 14th January 12:42

to be fair mate they were st, i have redone everysingle piece and they look hundred times better , i was just using a file and saw to trim them i now have a dremel and it makes them alot easier to trim and look neater i will upload some pics soon

[clarkson22]

hi been doing some **** to it again, front controll arm nushes had some **** flo flex ones in they were crap i litrally pulled it out the lolipop with pliers bought ome powerlex ones but they sent me the bigger size so eurocar parts saved the day with some black series ones and fitted my front anti roll bar powerflex bushes as they aslo had ****ty flo flew:muttley:




little clean


still got to do the solid steering coupler

[clarkson22]

It was hard to open the door from outside
sometimes , sometimes couldnt and had to use passanger side, so i replaced that yesterday and what a world of difference!!
old one on left

back in place


now it was easier to remove the door lock then slide it back in one the actuator was bolted back in every video i watched they p*ssed about wrestling it in to position , this was billion times easier, bolt for door lock unbolt then slide it out

polished my tips with dremel
50/50



and a few pics after a wash









my month old boy sporting some m3 wear


going to get the steering wheel re-trimmed soon its a bit knackered...

Edited by clarkson22 on Thursday 14th April 21:00

[clarkson22]

little update:




i need the trumpets out the inlet i bought!

going to go with stacks , but i aint paying 1200 quid for a kit , that lot cost me 150 quid all together can be cheaper if you use your own inlet manifold to get trumpets but i wanted to keep mine incase , and i already have alpha-n from martyns software but will be going with a map from him instead of using alpha-n, im just making a carbon fibre heatsheild for it all , should be on the car next weekend

will update soon

[clarkson22]

, anyway got some more done , not fitted the kit but have everything now , i think im going to try to put the m54 dipstick on with the extra hose soi can plumb up the oil catch tank back to the sump , im so excited keep watching videos of stacks , im going to try to fit it saturday, made a carbon fibre sheet to go under the stacks just need to trim it down get it the right shape anyway pics



i went with titan silver for the stacks same as the car



just need to make a bracket to mount the iat

That's where I'm up to going to try get it done Saturday

Edited by clarkson22 on Thursday 14th April 21:01

[clarkson22]

carbonblack said:

Very interested in how you get on with the stacks - I've seen the kits for £1000+ and it appears you've pretty much exactly the same setup from the photos

I recently went down the carbon airbox route but if stacks are a good alternative I think I'd be swayed as I bet they sound insane!


Is there any concern in the filters on the trumpets? Are they are good as the OEM filters do you think?

What are you doing for the crank hoses and stuff?


Nice M3, silver looks great on them.

A few people have done it on m3cutters already dude and don't get me wrong the kit you can buy is very good I was going to buy it but can't justify costs with a newborn lol so a bit of research and some money I found the items , the only breather is the top off the rocker that goes to airbox that goes to oil catch can and you can either vent to atmosphere or run it back to sump , I might try the m54 dipstick it has a return hose I think extra so can route it back to there , and for the foam filters they are better than the paper ones from standard I'd even say there better then mesh type filters (k and n etc) at keeping crap out , ive only watched videos of stacks but there never like real world noise so I'm trying to get them done Saturday and will post a video hopefully

[clarkson22]

got my stacks fitted today and wow the noise is insane truly. i thought it would be loud but my god its super loud, i put the alpha n on but its got a **** flat spot under 3krpm but once its past that its goes and the noise is incredible, im going to sort a proper map of martyn in a couple of weeks , but it was a mission sorting it out running back and forward to the car shop making a heat shield to hold everything , if you have the money buy the kit deffinatly , i spent weeks reading before deciding to do it my self, anyway pics
im glad it has a catch can because the oily **** that was in the airbox was horrible, and i ended up pluming the catch can back to the sump.



catch can back to the sump


little heatshild, holds the iat and idle controll valve filter



thats the cold air feed to the back 3


i blanked the bottom of the airbox feed off and drilled and put the second cold air feed to the front 3, im going to do it alot better over time but will do for now,


so so happy

[clarkson22]

Hey man there's a guy called martyn on m3cutters who made a program that let's you tick boxes and upload to your car like csl warm up lights , instead of them going out with water temp they go out with oil, sport button memory if u go cat less you can delete the lambas and the alpha n map all for just 20 quid mate but it's a good tool to have , search mss54 binary tool m3 cutters on google and have a read , im going for a csl cloned ecu to run the map sensor and that costs about 375 but it's worth it , alpha n map is st