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

[clarkson22]

lol cheers man ill be fked if im paying 1500 quid for someone round her to do all the work, i might have considered redish if i was closer but that still expenisive cost me around 600 to do all this my self so its not bad and i know ive done a proper job and will last for many years

[BlackST]

Great read I'd love an E46 M3.

[JamesD1]

nice work, always good to see a car getting this sort of treatment. seems every e46 m3 requires this work done, which does put me off of them. your certainly a braver man than i.

[clarkson22]

[U]UPDATE - WOOO ITS DONE[/U]

well got off my arse today, and got this finished in the loveley sun (burnt) , started up then died, started, died, started died, realised no fuel, lol so left it at that but its not getting drove till next month, fresh mot, tyres, tax , had a expensive couple of months but its worth t anyway pictures talk better than me:muttley:





need new hangers droops abit



wash time , polish and wax



took grills of to glue clips back on lol


must get a washer cover


polish and wax time













back hurts, beer time - happy as, all ive heard all day off the neighbours is it finally finished then? but yeh happy

[philmots]

That's a cracking effort mate. Nice one.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Nice work.

I knew about the boot floor issues with the e46 but are they all this crusty at this age? Are all the bushes knackered on all of them?

[Beedub]

darreni said:

That is some amount of DIY to do on axle stands on your driveway.

Impressive

incredible to be honest..... i wish i had it in me still, sadly i don't.

[clarkson22]

cheers lads, most m3's and e46's ive seen are that crusty underneath, i live right next to the sea so there bound to be bad with the rust , but its all down to previous owners, if id have had the car from new you would nevert see rust anywhere but some people to just get in and drive, and to be honest the the diff and subframe bushes wernt that bad, id rather change them for powerflex so i dont have to worry again plus the subframe was out anyway, and its not that bad on axle stands i did a turbo conversion for my mr2 swapping engines on axle stands(theres a build thread on here somewhere) , and i can never be arsed paying garages to fk up , i know most dont but ive seen some really bad work in the past .

but anyway thanks again guys will keep on updating as i go along

[_Nathan_]

Great rebuild !

[Track_Cit]

You've done a great amount of work dude well done - looks awesome so far!

[mustdash]

I am always impressed by people like you who have the balls / stupidity / knowledge / skills to do this sort of stuff (you clearly fall in to the latter two) to a car like this! Well played sir!

[clarki]

Good skills fella, enjoy the car, looks superb.

[clarkson22]

mustdash said:

I am always impressed by people like you who have the balls / stupidity / knowledge / skills to do this sort of stuff (you clearly fall in to the latter two) to a car like this! Well played sir!

lol go and read my r6 enginged quad bike thread, ill fall into the first to aswell haha cheers mate

going to order some euro tips soon and sort the bent exhaust tips out lol

[clarkson22]

just thought id update everyone, well got diff fluid changed, brake fluid all changed for ate super blue, been driving around and enjoying it for once lol just get some pics up at last i almost forgot how everyone stares at the car when i go past!

lol was fun trying to level the car to put fluid back in


alignment done, what a massive difference






been spraying and fitting msport kit to my mates 530d , just lowered it all round and yes ive told him hes a gay with that m badge





anyway so yeh its been fun driving it , no wierd nosies feels tight as and all the polybushing has made a massive difference...so happy and can start modding again lol

[C.A.R.]

Looks fantastic. Fair play for doing all that work on your driveway too.

How comes the rear lights ended up so grubby? Are they not properly sealed from the factory? I see this on a lot of e46s on Autotrader too so it's interesting to know it's easily sorted.

[Bolognese]

Looks great. Wish I knew how to DIY to that extent. Going to have mine serviced and checked out in a couple of weeks.

[clarkson22]

cheers lads im not to sure, i guess the sealent used on the lights is basically....st haha but very easy sorted thankfully

[DoubleSix]

Nuff respect.

[clarkson22]

thought i might aswell update this, tackled the headgasket on my drive....


tools for the fan clutch





and your gone






thermostat off






throttle bodies off






oil leak from the vanos area


2 bolts left nearest the steering coloum will tackle them tommorow its too cold now




alll the parts in the boot


goodnight


wasnt as hard as i thought to get here , just waiting on the timing tools to come in post and going to get head off , its honestly not that bad everything has been easy so far no bad rusty nuts unlike my old mr2's ha
anyway timing tools came today so cracked on with it



set at tdc


inlet cam locked



started removing vanos bolts



seals were flat and rock hard




exhaust cam retarded and locked

vanos off


no cam bolts were loose or threads damaged oil pump tab is fine, marked up for later




at this point i dropped the stupid washer behind the first cogs it dropped to the bpottom of the timing chain 40 mins later it was out so ive given up for today next is cams off then head
got the head off today , gasket gone in one place , lol found a piece of timing chain guide , soo lucky tht didnt get caught..anyway pics



it says set timing 30 degree left from tdc to remove cams when chain is off so


cams out

broken top guide




headbolts bye bye

top guide off


head off



sanded with 240 then 400 on a flat block to clean the surface after scrapping with a flat blade


going to hoover out the bores tommorow

where is went on head doesnt feel to bad




hole






hopefully my gasket comes anytime soon

couldnt wait started putting head toghether and cleaning bits

doing it in my bedroom , my mum wasnt happy lol

some bolts had loctite on them when i took them out soooooo




shims and rocker clips back in

thats all till my gaskets turn up now


well got the engine back toghether today most of it done, i swear to gof hardest part was new gaskets for exhaust manifold what a pain in the arse!! any way pics
all the bits

no rain


selfie in the gazebo



film of oil on headbolts and washers

headbolts being torqued

torque angle gauge for the 90 degree turns

my helper cleaning cams

cams going in..who needs special tools

cams torqued up



dinner

vanos on

throttle bodys on

getting there


well got it started today, exhaust gasket must of come off blowing loud haha had a bad misfire, plugs must of been bad put my old ones back in, alot better but still a misfire eml lights on, lamba will be going west with the manifold blowing and need to recheck valve clearences, oh one coolant leak but no nasty grinding or knocks thank fook!!!
i didnt have any jubillee clips on airbox to throttle bodys not sure if that will affect idle..most likely lol so still abit to do

oil and filter change

coolant going in..thn out of the leak lol:muttley:


well got it started today, exhaust gasket must of come off blowing loud haha had a bad misfire, plugs must of been bad put my old ones back in, alot better but still a misfire eml lights on, lamba will be going west with the manifold blowing and need to recheck valve clearences, oh one coolant leak but no nasty grinding or knocks thank fook!!!
i didnt have any jubillee clips on airbox to throttle bodys not sure if that will affect idle..most likely lol so still abit to do

oil and filter change

coolant going in..thn out of the leak lol:muttley:


well it works fine put 2 hundred miles on it since, only fiished it last, so far so good, time to get modding

Edited by clarkson22 on Tuesday 19th May 19:21

[Beedub]

op you are a beast.... seriously impressed with your driveway repairs, they border on heroic! lol!