E46 M3 fast road - track car

E46 M3 fast road - track car

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Discussion

e21Mark

16,205 posts

172 months

Tuesday 14th July 2015
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Possibly, yes. I'm looking at the option of running an airbox and cold feed, as opposed to velocity stacks, but am going to put a few miles on the engine first, so will probably stick with the M50 inlet for a bit. All being well it'll be up and running for the middle of next month.

PBMWsam

Original Poster:

296 posts

115 months

Tuesday 14th July 2015
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Drove over the weekend on the KW's, there sitting level now but settled bit more than I expected, so will be raising it a tad before geo on Friday



Engine bay all back together no after the vanos repair



And have just took delivery of some Powerflex black series goodies!

Went for their rear top mounts as the KW came with ones that didn't work with my rear strut brace so I had to nut and bolt them, so was a two person job to remove and install the shock which is not ideal.




And then to add even more caster and again black series, front control arm bushes



Be chucking these on after work, Tracking Friday, Sliverstone GP sunday smile

Sf_Manta

2,188 posts

190 months

Tuesday 14th July 2015
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Of note, you can run Velocity stacks inside an airbox, most OEM's do this, can't explain the absolute detail, but as far as i know, it gives the best performance as the stacks help the flow into the intake.

Loving this project by the way, inspired me with my E46. Quick question to the OP, where'd you get the gold tape from? I've been looking and so far its been either Demon thieves or Merlin Motorsport that carry it.

PBMWsam

Original Poster:

296 posts

115 months

Tuesday 14th July 2015
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eBay wink the mishimoto stuff is the cheapest.

Trtj

433 posts

130 months

Thursday 16th July 2015
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Lovely car, I may have missed, but what seat brackets are you using? Are they separate from the side mounts? Cheers!

PBMWsam

Original Poster:

296 posts

115 months

Thursday 16th July 2015
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Trtj said:
Lovely car, I may have missed, but what seat brackets are you using? Are they separate from the side mounts? Cheers!
I had these made, driftworks sell one just like it now though. The bracket is one piece per side.

PBMWsam

Original Poster:

296 posts

115 months

Thursday 16th July 2015
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This weekend just past Grant and I were invited to the Meguiar's private BBQ at the UK HQ, was a pleasure to be part of it.











Managed to get the Poweflex caster offset front bushes installed last night, quite a pig of a job without a press, but got there in the end







Also noticed some scrubbing at the top of the front arches so removed the famous screw







Have tracking booked in at Blackboots in Chesham Friday all ready for Sliverstone on Sunday, cannot wait to see how the upgrades have worked.

PBMWsam

Original Poster:

296 posts

115 months

Friday 7th August 2015
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Some big parts been going on lately

Yesterday I fitted a few parts supplied mostly by Hack Engineering, few replacement parts and a major upgrade.

New prop shaft guibo, centre bearing, paper gasket into diff, foam pad inside shifter knuckle, exhaust heat wrap, ally foil heat tape, another fresh steering wheel, dry carbon audio black (reduce glare) and most importantly and CAE shifter







Still playing with the ash tray lid as not happy with how I chopped it.

The shifter is just the bo**ox!

___________________________________

So I cover all of 3/4 tank of fuel on the KW v3's and there gone! From my short experience with them they done okay, had a lot of damper adjustment but the fall down is the length of the rear dampers, there just too long, an to ride at not even a overly low height to achieve grip you were just on the bump stops so all the fancy adjustment is doing nothing.

See how I get on with some Nitron R1's









First impressions on installing was the weight different, KW boxed up came to 32kg, R1 boxed only 17kg. Only chucked the shocks on after work and took for a quick test, need to play with ride height, front damper and dampening.

e21Mark

16,205 posts

172 months

Friday 7th August 2015
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I do like that shifter. I think I'm going to have to get one for the E30.

TheAllSeeingPie

865 posts

134 months

Friday 7th August 2015
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For the in-initiated: what's so good about the shifter? Looks like it'd be a nicer action but looks like a broomstick compared to the normal one!

ManOpener

12,467 posts

168 months

Friday 7th August 2015
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That shifter is a work of art.

Beedub

1,954 posts

225 months

Friday 7th August 2015
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without rear turret reinforcement your risking damaging things, they were never designed to take the load of a true coilover back their.

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 7th August 2015
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Beedub said:
without rear turret reinforcement your risking damaging things, they were never designed to take the load of a true coilover back their.
I'd be surprise if that's an issue, because damper (and bump stop) loads are far higher than spring loads!

Beedub

1,954 posts

225 months

Saturday 8th August 2015
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Max_Torque said:
I'd be surprise if that's an issue, because damper (and bump stop) loads are far higher than spring loads!
either the way that is one HUGE assumption from someone so intelligent....

The rear of the z4m/m3 platform was never designed to take the additional loads of a full rear coilover conversion, unless properly reinforced this will cause a head-ache you don't you OP. We are not talking about assumptions here we are talking fact as proven by numerous people on both platforms, whats more the stock rear configuration of separate damper / barrel spring isn't a hinderance anyway so it seems silly to move to a setup that will eventually lead to the very thin sheet metal failure. If you saw the piece in question in person then factor the new linear spring rates that are much higher that anything bmw intended failures WILL occur. OP some sort of reinforcement is needed for that rear.

http://www.cslregister.com/forum/showthread.php?t=...

e21Mark

16,205 posts

172 months

Saturday 8th August 2015
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I was aware of the same issue with my E30 M3, when I swapped to KW true coilers, so fitted Z3 strengthening plates. I also run Millway Motorsport rear top mounts, as they afford enough offset to allow the springs not to foul the turret wall.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-Z3-rear-top-mount-re...

http://www.millway.se/bmw/3-series/e46.html?limit=...

It appears Thorney Motorsport developed a bolt-in brace to help with this issue, where non caged cars have swapped to true coilover rears.

Edited by e21Mark on Saturday 8th August 11:20

PBMWsam

Original Poster:

296 posts

115 months

Saturday 8th August 2015
quotequote all
e21Mark said:
I do like that shifter. I think I'm going to have to get one for the E30.
You will not be disappointed with it!

TheAllSeeingPie said:
For the in-initiated: what's so good about the shifter? Looks like it'd be a nicer action but looks like a broomstick compared to the normal one!
Its spurn loaded to return to neutral and has a lock to reverse. Super short shift and precise.

Beedub said:
either the way that is one HUGE assumption from someone so intelligent....

The rear of the z4m/m3 platform was never designed to take the additional loads of a full rear coilover conversion, unless properly reinforced this will cause a head-ache you don't you OP. We are not talking about assumptions here we are talking fact as proven by numerous people on both platforms, whats more the stock rear configuration of separate damper / barrel spring isn't a hinderance anyway so it seems silly to move to a setup that will eventually lead to the very thin sheet metal failure. If you saw the piece in question in person then factor the new linear spring rates that are much higher that anything bmw intended failures WILL occur. OP some sort of reinforcement is needed for that rear.

http://www.cslregister.com/forum/showthread.php?t=...
I have the Z3 plates and a rear strut brace, but will be getting a cage welded into it over winter.

e21Mark said:
I was aware of the same issue with my E30 M3, when I swapped to KW true coilers, so fitted Z3 strengthening plates. I also run Millway Motorsport rear top mounts, as they afford enough offset to allow the springs not to foul the turret wall.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-Z3-rear-top-mount-re...

http://www.millway.se/bmw/3-series/e46.html?limit=...

It appears Thorney Motorsport developed a bolt-in brace to help with this issue, where non caged cars have swapped to true coilover rears.

Edited by e21Mark on Saturday 8th August 11:20
That's brace is made by safety devices, think Thoney just sell it.


PBMWsam

Original Poster:

296 posts

115 months

Saturday 12th September 2015
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Nothing too exciting has been going on as of late, just a few little bits.

Went from some so call "uprated" rear drop link bushes back to OEM, can see how utter poor the orange ones were, from time to time the drivers side one would completely pop off the rear ARB.



Finished off and finally happy with my CAE install, relocated my cig lighter to the glove box so could make a nicer blank and managed to trim another stick surround to keep it in one piece, was going to paint it back but quite like to contrast in the grey.





Tweeked the Nitrons and installed a even bigger front screen sun strip









Done a evening at Snetterton 300 in extreme wet conditions, on these cut slicks my car was like a chocolate tea pot, couldn't even build up to full throttle, couldn't brake remotely hard let along cornering. Even pondering along it was on the limit, cars were spinning on the siting laps it was that bad.



Changed a few seals that had small oil leaks. Chain tensioner guide and CPV





Going to soon be making my own flat front door cards in prep to make way for a cage with door bars.



Last of all have a solid steering coupler to go in when I source a shorter rack.



Edited by PBMWsam on Saturday 12th September 11:15

e21Mark

16,205 posts

172 months

Saturday 12th September 2015
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Nice work. Car looks stunning.

Are you @ Santa Pod at end of month? I'd really like to see it and maybe grab a pic or 2?



qwertina

113 posts

197 months

Saturday 12th September 2015
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Continually impressive work. Getting on for perfect E46 IMO.

iacabu

1,348 posts

148 months

Saturday 12th September 2015
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Wow.

Absolutely fantastic, the effort you've put in really shows