Just starting out with an E46 330ci budget track car build

[Andrew-b90y3]

helix402 said:

Dampers look great. Do the rears bolt straight to the body?

Yeah the rears bolt straight to the body, the hex key bolts go through the body and into the solid top mount! The top mounts are offset too so they bring the strut away from the body, presumably because the strut diameter is a lot wider to take into account the spring also being fitted to the strut.

I’m going to run a rear strut brace too which will also act as a strut top re-enforcer because if you look at the Z3 re-enforcement plates they’re only a round piece of metal anyway!

[Andrew-b90y3]

Ok so major major update in the 330ci track car build thread! To keep it short and sweet the build thread is still about a 330ci but is now about a pre-facelift 330ci as pictured below.....



The facelift coupe that I had was a bit tatty around the edges and had done miles which were approaching the 200k mark so when this turned up at a price I really couldn’t refuse I snapped it up!!!











Basic spec is:

2002 330ci manual coupe
Silver
105k miles
Part service history
Electric alcantara
M Sport
MV1’s

The plan with this one still remains the same as the old one on that it’s going to be a fully stripped out road legal track car, I’ve been having second thoughts about removing the aircon from this one due to the temperatures we’ve been having lately, aside from that as much as possible will be going. It’s got electric memory alcantara seats so I would imagine they will be touching nearly 50 kilos a piece each!

Got straight down to business Saturday morning and bought some of this,



Reading through many forums and build posts a lot of people mention the M54 developing a ticking when extremely hot on track and that running 5W-40 can help eradicate this so I thought I’d give it a try. The oil filter has seen better days so I don’t think it’s been changed for a while,



I got 4 pilot super sports from eBay so these were fitted to the MV1’s along with cleaning out the rear of the barrels, I was surprised at how much of a good condition the wheel were in, I was expecting flakey barrels and impossibility of stocking weights on etc...

Before,





And after, all 4 got the same treatment,

[Andrew-b90y3]

Initial impressions of the car are good, it feels a lot tighter to drive than the facelift coupe, I had initially thought it was slower than the facelift (there was an overlap when I owned both cars at once) but after changing the oil and driving the car properly it feels much more responsive than the facelift.

A couple more parts have been arriving ready for when I get some time to actually get them fitted,





These are a pair of front and rear strut braces from pgstrutbraces on eBay. They’re both solid steel bars that have been powder coated satin black. I’ve ordered these as when I got the coil overs these strut braces due to having hooped ends will act as front and rear strengthening for the turrets and also I’m going to wrap the harnesses to the rear strut brace. I did a lot of reading about strut braces and didn’t think that the alloy ones available off eBay with hinges at both ends would really do anything wereas a solid steel strut brace will definitely tighten things up nicely! Talking of the harnesses I gave those a wet vac the other day and they came up pretty well!



Sabelt 4 point 3” harnesses (not in date but that doesn’t matter as I won’t be competing in the car)

These also arrived and I’ve already fitted these to the car as the MV1’s do sit quite far into the arches, especially the rears, they’re 12 mm so total widening to the track of the car by 24mm can’t be bad. Got them for a bargain price on eBay and they came with longer bolts, they’re bimecc too so hopefully no wheel vibrations at high speed etc.





While I had a bit of time on Saturday morning as well as changing the oil and filter I did a full brake fluid change too (it was black so I’m guessing it’s probably never had one)





Gave the hubs a quick refurb too as they were tatty and rusty and let the clean look of the car down, only a quick job mind.





I didn’t take any pictures of this process but a warning to all e46 owners, I couldn’t believe how much dirt had built up on the inside lip of the rear arches, I used a stiff brush and some tar and glue and got rid of as much as possible and there was a fairly sizeable pile of it on the floor afterwards!

Fitted a spacer up,



I wasn’t very keen on the huge gearknob that the car came with and I had a spare weighted one kicking around off an old car of mine so I got that fitted up to try and make the gearshift feel a little better,





And the new weighted one, nicer gaiter too!





Eagle eyed viewers will notice that the gearstick when in neutral doesn’t return to the middle, this makes selection of gears quite difficult sometimes so it’s looking the box will have to come out before the first track day to change the detent springs in the box.

That pretty much brings us up to date for now. Need to get the car mot’d and put some miles on it so that I can highlight and iron out any niggles that it may have which I don’t know about yet. The next update should be a good one as I think I’ve got some time to get the coilovers, seats and strut braces etc fitted up!

Thanks for reading!

[Andrew-b90y3]

MOT time today and she’s not in bad company!!!

[Andrew-b90y3]

helix402 said:

It passed. 104138 miles.

Thanks Helix and yes she passed. I didn’t know whether the tester had managed to fit it in but I came into work this morning to a nice pass certificate!

The list of jobs I’ve got to do before Oulton in November is as follows:

Fit coilovers
Rocker cover gasket
Strip interior
Front control arm bushes
Rear control arm bushes
Braided lines
Fit strut braces
Seats
Harnesses
Geo

There is a lot more but realistically I think that’s all that’s achievable for now!!

[Andrew-b90y3]

Pig benis said:

Really cool thread dude. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it and you've given me some inspiration to actually finish my E46 330ci track build.

Although my E46 has a few issues, partly a knock from the diff area whilst pulling away and when under hard acceleration in low gears. I also have an oil leak, which I think is coming from the sump. But I only paid £900 for the car, so I can't expect too much and she has already done a trip to the Ring.

Good luck with the new build, it looks like a good car.

Thanks for the comments everyone!

On this engine pigbenis it will either be the sump gasket, the gasket between the oil filter housing assembly and the block or the rocker cover gasket!! Be careful that you don’t put a sump gasket on it and find out it’s actually running out of the oil filter housing assembly and down the side of the block onto the sump!

I can’t honestly say that I’ve noticed any difference between the 5 and 6 speed boxes! The 5 speed car does seem slightly more eager to accelerate but that could be down to any number of things as it’s done half the mileage of the 6 speed car!

The estate I had didn’t owe me anything at all and I’ve never done a track day in a car of my own and only done one with a friend so I wanted to see if I would enjoy them by putting minimal amount of money into something (the e36) and buying things that were transferable to the 46 if I did get into my track days! I’ve been really lucky with the right cars turning up at the right times too for me to buy!

Cheers JB! I’m hoping that tying both the rear struts together with the solid steel strut brace that I have which is hooped at both ends will act as the necessary re-enforcement.

[Andrew-b90y3]

tombate911 said:

Looking good! Finally got chance to catch up on your thread. I see you mentioned Oulton in November... not the 16th is it by any chance? Booked myself on then in the 330.
Will keep an eye on the build thread. Any questions give us an email again if you need.

Cheers Tom will do and thanks for all the help already!! It’s either going to be the 9th or the 16th (I’ll be attending with a few other cars so waiting on other people’s availability etc yet but will keep you posted)

Thanks Georgey, I also prefer the pre facelift too, when I’ve looked at some of the photos of the 330 challenge cars there’s one facelift one I think and I’m not sure about it!

Another parcel arrived today courtesy of my better half buying it me as a birthday present!!



I thought she’d bought me a pizza at first but nope,



That’s looking a bit more like it and after unwrapping the bubble wrap,







It’s a genuine OMP Targa 330mm steering wheel. It’s a used one but after looking at the prices of what they are new I really couldn’t justify buying a new one and so was treated to this one, it’s in absolutely brilliant condition to say it’s used and seems to be the perfect size. I was going backwards and forwards between getting an OMP copy for about £50 but after seeing the horror stories of the bending etc etc I just didn’t want to risk it. I did run a dished steering wheel in my e36 but was never really keen on it, as I’ve only got short legs I’ve got to sit quite close to the wheel anyway and so a flat wheel will do me just fine ( I can always space it further towards me if needs be in the future). Just need to order a boss for it and then it’s good to go!!

On a final note I think my boys track car is in far better condition than mine ......



Looks quick too!!

[Andrew-b90y3]

Finally managed to get going on a job on the car to get ready for Oulton in November.

Whenever it warmed up there was a burning oil smell coming from the engine bay somewhere, main culprit on these is the rocker cover gasket, had a quick nosey around the engine bay and surely enough at the back corner of the cylinder head cover the exhaust manifold heat shield was black with oil. It’s obviously leaking from the back of the rocker cover gasket, dripping down onto the exhaust manifolds and burning off when the manifolds are hot!

So started with this,



(Apologies for the state of the engine bay I’ve not had a chance to clean it yet)



Took the ignition coil cover off and the decal cover over the top of the inlet manifold.



With the cylinder head cover off everything looks nice and clean in there as it should do, made sure I cleaned up all the mating surfaces nicely and applied some dreibond to the areas of the cylinder head that could be prone to causing a leak!





When I removed the old cylinder head cover gasket it was clear that this was the cause of the issue as the gasket had gone so brittle and hard it nearly needed chiselling off the cylinder heave cover in places!!



All fitted up and ready to go,



The finished article all done and dusted! Torqued the bolts to 11nm working inside out diagonally and all should be well.

Power washed the covers while they were off and gave them a wipe over with some wd-40 and they look miles better!

One less job to do!!

Edited by Andrew-b90y3 on Friday 27th September 15:57

[Andrew-b90y3]

Managed to get another little job done on the car today edging ever closer to Oulton in November!

When I was initially looking into what was required to make a car half decent on track back when I had my E36 the main themes that popped up were brakes and tyres. Off the back of this funnily enough I purchased a set of 330ci calipers (which had just been refurbed) 330ci discs and carriers with a barely used set of Pagid RS 29 brake pads. I also bought some braided lines to go on the E36 but never actually got around to fitting them so I basically had a nice front brake upgrade ready to go for the 330!

Firstly very rusty standard non refurbed caliper with oem pads,



Brakes are brakes but popped the braided lines on and fitted the painted calipers and carriers that I had and the Pagid RS29’s have gone in too!!







Next update will hopefully be getting the coil overs fitted up which I’m mega excited about!!

[Andrew-b90y3]

Quite a lot has been happening on the car recently, Oulton is less than 2 weeks away now so I’ve managed to get quite a lot of things sorted out and pretty much get the car to a point were she’s ready.

First things first, got the coilovers fitted,

Went from this,



To this,



They’re not the best pictures but the coilover fitment went without a hitch really. Only took about 20 minutes a side, the only minor headache was that the Gaz don’t have the locating pins to locate the strut into the hub so that the drop link tab is in the right place so I had to do this by eye but everything worked out fine!

Whilst doing the coilovers I thought I may as well fit the braces too,







Fitted the rear brace too,



I hadn’t done the geo at this point but I set the front top mounts to maximum camber and caster and this was the resulting camber on the front wheels,

[Andrew-b90y3]

The MV1’s with the pilot sports on are only for wets and driving to and from the track really so I fitted the team dynamics up just to see how they were regarding clearances with 12mm spacers and everything was fine.





One thing I have noticed is that the coilovers hardly droop at all when they’re off the ground!









I’ve followed some settings for ride height that I’ve found during my hours of research regarding e46 wheel alignment and optimum settings so I’ve set it to those heights and it sits really well, it’s not too low and it’s not too high. Most importantly when you go underneath and have a look the control arms are totally parallel to the ground which I believe will be optimum for track use.

[Andrew-b90y3]

After id got the coilovers fitted i thought I’d move on to sorting some of the bushes on the car! I’ve had some solid Z4M rubber bushes in my toolbox for ages so I went on with getting those fitted,



I think the old control arm bushes had seen better days,





And fitted, very castor offset,



The old ones were that knackered that I put a screwdriver in the bracket to try and twist them off and the outer of the bush was turning and the inner was staying where it was so they’d completely separated. They were causing a knock on braking too so that’s now gone!!

While all the trays and brace were off I gave them a quick power wash and clean up, I’m trying to clean things up as I go rather than all at once!!



With the trays fitted back on,



I’ve not driven the car far at all yet but the steering feels much more positive and precise so I can only imagine what they’ll feel like on track.

[Andrew-b90y3]

With all the suspension work and bushes fitted and out of the way I needed to get the geo done. Ideally I wanted to get the rear control arm bushes fitted prior to this but I’ve not got the time or the parts for that matter so I’ll just have to redo the rear axle when these have been fitted over winter or something!

I’m really lucky in that I’ve got access to a Beissbarth machine at work and can do all my own alignment!

So got the initial setup done,





I inputted all the ride height, tyre pressures, tread depth and wheel size and then got on with the actual alignment totaled! Again I’d been reading up online on what would be best in terms of settings and tried to get as close to these as possible!

Settings at the rear axle before adjustment,



And after adjustment, a little bit of toe in and as close to -2.2 degrees camber as possible,



Camber on the rear looks much better now,



Settings on the front before adjustment,



Again not far off really just the toe to adjust to 0 toe and pretty much keep the camber as is,



Front camber looks nice and aggressive now,



The end results,



Geo is obviously something that depends a lot on driving style, technique, car setup etc etc but I can easily change things if they don’t work out so this is a good base to start with I hope!!

[Andrew-b90y3]

One last little thing that I managed to get done was just to beef up the back of the car a little bit more. Now I know you should t fall into the trap of putting shiny things on a track car but the rear exhaust tips were so pitted that all the autosol in the world would not bring them back so of all things I purchased some B8 Audi A4 tailpipe trims!!



Only took approximately 3 years to arrive from China, the back of the old girl went from this,





Much better now,





Last jobs to do are seats, harnesses and steering wheel, coolant change and I think we’re all ready to go for Oulton, fingers crossed!

[Andrew-b90y3]

helix402 said:

Good update. Shame the alignment doesn’t show castor to see the difference the Z4 bushes make. I’d like to see how they change the driving experience.

It is a shame really because it would two fold on the castor side as I’ve set the top mounts to maximum castor adjustment as well. I don’t know about other geo machines but the one I’m using is quite an old Beisbarth machine so it definitely doesn’t have a castor readout.

I drove the car to the petrol station this morning just to clean the brakes off really. Not driven it in anger yet but the main things I’ve noticed are that it feels very eager to turn in and feels nice and sharp on turn in. Also it’s hard, very very hard and noisy with the rear ended stripped out. Should be great fun on track though.

I also do have a light knocking noise from the OSF area, I’m not sure whether this is a characteristic of the solid top mounts or not!!

[Andrew-b90y3]

After work I managed to have 5 minutes on the car and sorted the knock on the OSF. When the coilovers came they came fully assembled from Gaz but with the top nuts loose so I used an Allen key to keep the piston from turning and nipped up (or so I thought) the coilovers to the spherical bearing top mounts! Checked these after work and with the weight of the car on the OSF now I managed to get a fair bit more tightening done so this will be the knocking sorted.

TheDukeGTi said:

Looking good!

Any more details on the above please? Links or resources would be great. Thanks.

There’s isn’t really much info available on the non M chassis but obviously a huge wealth of info available on the e46 M3 platform. Logically I thought the M and the non M cars are a very similar chassis, rear wheel drive, high powered. Obviously they both have different track etc but a rear wheel drive BMW is a rear wheel drive BMW at the end of the day so I researched on e46 M alignment and applied it to my non M car.

As far as articles go this is a very helpful website I found:

https://thebuildjournal.com/tech-guides/e46-m3-ali...

The rest of my info where screen grabs from M3 cutters etc as there seems to be a lot of knowledgeable/helpful people on there. Hope this helps!

[Andrew-b90y3]

So I managed to get a little more done before work this week!

The front of the car went from this,





To this,



Ordered some high tensile bolts and side mounts,



The carpet needed a really good hoovering under where the seats had been as I don’t think it had ever been done before.

The end result was this,





I think I’ve got the seating position spot on for what I want. Legs slightly bent with little to no effort needed to depress the clutch and the brake and with my arms outstretched I can rest my wrists on the top of the wheel giving me a slight bend in my elbows.

Still need to fit steering wheel and harnesses which will hopefully get done over this weekend!

[Andrew-b90y3]

Pig benis said:

Love the seats, they look fantastic.

I don't suppose you might have a link for the seat mounts and bolts please?

My 330ci build is now at a point where I would like to install some decent seats, and yours look great

Edit: Don't worry, I was being lazy. I've found the mounts on eBay

Edited by Pig benis on Friday 1st November 09:02

Thanks Benis, I’m really happy with them.

The bolts are M8 x 35MM high tensile bolts and washers. I’ve just looked at my eBay and the seller I got mine from must no longer be selling them as I can’t open the item, these are the same though,

Ebay item no: 141657800366

Also with the side mounts I bought these ones,

Ebay item no: 223474582604

The seller was extremely helpful and answered any questions that I had for him etc so id really recommend him!

Get some pictures up of your build mate!

[Andrew-b90y3]

Figuring that football would be off this morning I managed to get a couple of hours done on the car while my mini me was asleep!!

First off I got my new steering wheel fitted which my OH purchased for me for my birthday, she’s a goodun!!

Old bus type steering wheel,





New to me OMP wheel and boss,







I’ve not wired up or fitted a horn button as I’m on limited time at the moment so that’s a job that I’m going to be doing over winter. Initial impressions are good, the wheels 330mm so is smaller than the factory wheel, it needs a good clean but other than that I think it will give a nice positive steering feel to the car.

Next job on the list was to fit the harnesses into the car. First off I laid them onto the floor just so I knew what was going where Once they’re in,



And fitted on both sides,





I did run into a couple of issues with these, firstly I know that the shoulder strap angle isn’t ideal as they’re at quite and angle to the seat (I’m going to wrap them around the rear strut brace to address this)!! Also the side belts on the inboard I’ve fixed them to the car with these brackets I’ve made up,



Drilled and tapped high tensile steel with M10 x 1.5 harness eyelet bolts, I thought for the outer lap belts I’d be able to use the oem seatbelt bar but it’s too wide for the harness clips so I’m going to have to make a couple more brackets. Other than that all is good and it’s looking quite purposeful now!

Another little issue I ran into was that the when changing gear I was banging my arm on the armrest because the seats are so low so I quickly whipped out the arm rear and just reinstalled the center console!

[Andrew-b90y3]

tombate911 said:

Coming together nicely now mate.

What long term plans have you got for the car?

Thanks a lot pal!

Long term plans at the minute are just get as much seat time in as possible now (which will be next year after Oulton this weekend).

The cars at a point nearly where I’m extremely happy with it and also my mini me means that time isn’t exactly plentiful for me.

Plans in the future will more than likely include a cage (probably the same as yours) a klarius exhaust and total strip of the interior and repaint.

I’m really aiming for a 330 challenge spec car!