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  • Vorshlag Track BMW E46 Development Thread

    Project Introduction August 31st, 2015: This forum build thread originally covered the repairs and track prep on my wife Amy's 2002 BMW E46 coupe, which we purchased August 20, 2015. This car will get track prep towards a NASA TT class (which I will discuss in more detail in a future post), but initially we will be doing some maintenance and repairs to get this car inspected and reliable, to let her "daily" in this little Bimmer. No, we're not just automatically sticking an LS1 V8 in the car (unless the engine is terminal, and maybe not even then). She wanted an inexpensive "cash car" to drive to work, and I wanted a car to test some new parts out with on track, so maybe this one will fit both needs.

    Later this thread kind of morphed into a catch-all for the a number of BMW E46 chassis track builds we tackled... a red 330 coupe, silver 328i Sedan, and later an endurance road race car. I have altered the thread title in 2019 to reflect this more broad coverage, not just one specific car.

    The real question is: Can we make a daily driven BMW competitive regionally in NASA Time Trial?

    In this thread we will also cover some tips on "How to buy an E46" and also show the "Common Things that Break" on these cars and illustrate the fixes. If you ever wanted to own a BMW E46 this might be a useful read. I'm showing the basic costs and hours spent on this build as we go, since we log everything into MyShopAssist, the service logging and customer interface software we use on all tasks and all jobs here at Vorshlag.

    Cross-posting this to these forums:
    PLEASE READ BEFORE RESPONDING

    I'm posting this little build thread on a number of forums, and some of you will be chomping at the bit to talk trash or point out past mistakes on an E46 330 build I did back in 2009. Yes, I made some mistakes on that build and was very frustrated with the oil pump drive issues that this car suffered. No, I didn't listen to several people who warned me that what I was doing (revving the M54 engine too high, not welding the oil pump nut, etc) were going to cause problems. Some of you folks were right, I admit that, and I unwisely ignored freely given internet advice.



    Before you crap up this thread with old history and personal attacks, please read the next few posts - where I will address the oil pump issues, harmonic balancer problems that car had (that we didn't know about until much later), and give my updated advice on the M54 "minimum oil system prep" to folks, learned from these mistakes (in my 2nd round of posts). That 330 was built 6 years ago, in my home garage, and I have learned a lot since then. Vorshlag has gone through a lot of growth in that period, with a lot of new employees added to our staff, new capabilities added to our shop, dozens of car builds under out belts, and hundreds of cars worked on since then.

    As always, in this build thread I will share the good and the bad, as well as track all hours and dollars spent. I might make mistakes, but we will always try to learn from them. I will still admit that I don't know everything about the E46 chassis. We work on a variety of cars, and not just BMWs. I will specifically ask for help in this thread on a few areas where others know more. So again, please read the next few posts before you chime in with your advice - your comments might already be addressed fully. Thank you for your patience.

    WHY ANOTHER E46?

    This is a tough question to answer. First, let me talk about Amy - I'm damned lucky and have a wife who not only puts up with my racing addiction, but she's a racer herself. I met her at a race, so I guess that's how you do it. She's won 3 Solo Nationals Championships, is a licensed NASA Time Trial Competitor and race winner, and we both love to enjoy many forms of motorsports. We spend 25-30 weekends a year doing autocross, HPDE and TT, and I will get her in the W2W Endurance E46 next year with us, some how.


    These are two more E46 cars I've owned. The 323i sedan (left) was just a daily. The 330Ci coupe (right) became an autocross/track car

    She daily drove the red E46 4 door 323i (above) for about a year, but it was very stock and thus remained very boring. She decided in 2013 that she wanted a "big comfy BMW", so we looked for then found her a clean 2001 740iL. She really liked that 7, but we probably only had passengers in the back seat a half dozen times in 2 years of ownership. Its just the two of us most of the time in any given vehicle, so the gigantic-ness of the long wheelbase 7 series was a waste. Even though we did a lot of repairs, restoration and little upgrades to that 740 at our shop, we don't really make anything unique for the E38 chassis... so it was useless as a "business promotional tool" or test bed for Vorshlag.


    We just sold both of Amy's previous cars, the 740iL and the TT3 Mustang, and she gets this E46 as her replacement?!

    Why does she need a car? Well back in July we sold Amy's 2011 Mustang GT, which she and I raced in NASA TT3 and other classes the past five years. That car was her daily driver from 2010 until 2013, when we got the 2001 BMW 740iL (2013-15) for her to drive back and forth to work. We also sold that E38 a few weeks ago, and had a few bucks left from that sale to spend on her next daily driver.

    But one thing kept nagging me: We have been sharing race cars for years, she and I, and if I've learned one thing about that, it is that sharing a race car sucks. You get half the seat time at a track weekend, or you end up putting twice the laps on a car during a given day (running in 2 different run groups), which is very hard on the car. It never gets a chance to cool off or any down time to make tuning changes or repairs without being rushed. Amy and I shared the TT3 Mustang and then we built the TTC Corvette (1992 LT1 Corvette, Project #DangerZone) early in 2015, and we finally had them both at the track... for one NASA weekend this year. But it was nice, since we didn't have to share!


    Separate but equal: having his and hers race cars is ideal, so we don't double-up on a single car on a race weekend!

    So when it was time to move the 7 series on down the road we discussed a half dozen options for her next daily driver, which I was hoping to ALSO use for some new parts development and rack up some more racing wins for Vorshlag. Every car we own has to "do work" for Vorshlag, and having a daily driver that could at the very least test new parts was part of the deal. We looked for a clean E30, which would be "retro cool" after a lot of restoration and mods, but clean E30s are going for big $. Then we looked at E36s, but we have done that chassis many times in the past, and they are getting a bit long in the tooth.

    She said she wanted a BRZ or FR-S, and I worked up a wicked NASA TTC track build that she was on board with, until she saw the budget. No monthly financing payments was a requirement for this next car, and even used these are still $15-18K cars (oldest is 2013 model). It had to be a cheap cash car. We thought about Subarus (too kooky), Miatas (she daily drove one before - too slow, too small), even some domestics... but nothing had the bang-per-buck aspect of the E46 right now, at this moment.

    We had some money stashed away after selling the 740, so I looked for a clean 330 for $4-5K. Nope, they don't exist unless it has 200K+ miles and an automatic. Craigslist searching (yuck), AutoTrader (pretty much all dealers), and other sources. But being a small business owner, cash flow comes and goes, and one day "poof" the cash from the 740 was used for something for the biz - paying taxes, payroll, vendors - something. So my budget was slashed and the E46 choices at this new price range started to look pretty sketchy.


    This is our cheap, 197K mile 2002 325Ci project car. Yes, we know, the Foose wheels are Fooking ugly! They will be gone soon

    I put a call out on Facebook, and once again was rewarded with a diamond in the rough. A friend that worked at a used car dealer had a lead: 2002 325Ci, 5-speed, 197K miles, $1800. It needed more work than they wanted to invest, so they were willing to let it go cheap to someone who could fix it. Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!



    This E46 we just bought is a bit rough around the edges (read below for description of problems) but since we bought it well I'm confident we can fix whatever is wrong with it. I test drove and checked the car out personally and couldn't see any frame damage, rust (Texas car all its life), it had a clear title, and it didn't run like it had a head gasket or oiling system problem (both potential "gotchas" on these cars). Everything else that could be wrong I'm not afraid to fix. Vorshlag has serviced 100's BMWs over the years and we are well versed in most of the problems and fixes of the E46, as well as performance upgrades that help these cars perform better on track and in autocross.

    whiskey dent: Dents or scratches on a vehicle due to drinking and driving or hitting an object with your vehicle while intoxicated.
    The car has a lot of "whiskey dents", small dings and bumps on the body that don't effect the function of the car, just make it a bit ugly (see the two pics above). It also had a light front end hit and another rear tap, but we will fix those issues as we go. Nothing that prevents it from being a good daily driver. The project name "Jack Daniels" comes from the Whiskey Dents, obviously. No, I don't condone drinking and driving - not hardly - but the name fits.


    These cars can get light quickly. This car lost 434 pounds in 2 hours (interior removal) and still has all the factory glass and steel!

    We like the E46 chassis, and have four of these in the shop right now. The silver E46 1999 328i 5-spd sedan above was purchased a few months back for an "employee owned shop endurance race car" project, and we already knocked a bunch of weight out of the car. This E46 328i was also well under $2K, also from a good Facebook friend lead, who had a tough-to-sell car, so it had some miles and needed some TLC. We can easily get weight out of one when we make it a real race car, as shown above. The door panels, carpets and seats on these cars are HEAVY! But this car needs to keep some of the interior, because its going to double-duty...

    DAILY DRIVER + TRACK CAR = COMPROMISES

    "Do as I say, not as I do." Normally, I warn customers that taking their daily driver and making it ALSO work as their track car is a TERRIBLE idea. It always involves huge compromises that make it a less comfortable daily driver, a heavy/slow/less competitive race car, or both. But this is what SO many people want to do - I'd say half our customers do this! - so why don't we try this "dual purpose build" for once and document what works and what doesn't? Can we win a TT race, or even set a track record, in a REAL DEAL, full interior, air conditioned, daily driven street car? We did it with two BMWs before (below), but that was several years ago - when NASA Time Trial wasn't nearly as competitive as it is today.


    We took both the E46 330 and E36 M3 above to NASA TT wins and a track record each - when both were daily driven at the time

    This 2002 325Ci will be both Amy's daily driver (she has a mild 8 mile commute, all on secondary roads with lots of stop lights) and we will use will try to make it a competitive NASA Time Trial build and let her go have some fun in TT. The goal is to make it reliable and fast, allowing her to have as much seat time as possible. We're already building a new "shop car" E46 V8 for me for 2016 (TT1), plus the Endurance car E46 for the shop employees (1999 328i for WRL), and this E46 (TTE or TTD?), so we will have three shop E46 race cars in 2016, if everything goes to plan (when does it ever?!).

    Due to other expenses in owning a growing business, and two other race cars already designated as "shop cars", this 325 is being built on a very small budget. Not "$2000 total" like the GRM E30 we built before, but more like the TTC '92 Corvette we ran this year and has it's own Forum Build Thread. I've had customers and even people in the motorsports industry remark that those two "budget builds" (GRM E30 + Dangerzone) were some of the favorite we've done, more so than our more wild builds, so who knows? Those of you who dig that sort of thing might enjoy the build-up.

    continued below
    Last edited by Fair!; 07-27-2019, 04:40 PM.
    Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
    2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
    EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

  • #2
    Re: 2002 BMW E46 325Ci - Daily/Track Car - Project Jack Daniels

    continued from above

    BRIEF HISTORY OF BMW E46 3-SERIES

    The Wikipedia entry for the E46 is rather lacking in production numbers, but if you dig a little there were almost 4 million of this 4th generation of the 3 series built in the 1999-2006 model years, with about 800K making it to the USA. So these cars are abundant and are becoming VERY affordable. They came in many forms, ranging from the 4-door sedan (the most common), a 2 door coupe (my favorite), a 3 door hatch back (which we never got in the USA), and the 5 door estate wagon (rare here). There were convertibles, an M3 model (coupe and convertible only), and engines were 1.8L inline fours to 3.2L straight sixes, with all U.S. spec E46s cars getting a straight six (2.5L, 2.8L, 3.0L or 3.2L in the M3). I'm ignoring the E46 M3 from here on out, as it is very different and shares little with the non-M E46.


    The Achilles heal of the E46 M54 motors are the exhaust manifolds (left), but the mid-length tube headers (right) always throw CELs

    I've owned several E46 models, coupes and sedans, and generally liked them - even if I didn't particular care for the M54/M52tu six cylinder engines used in the 323/325/328/330 "non-M" E46 models. There are some quirks to these power plants, like the chain driven oil pump drive that is fairly unreliable in racing without some upgrades. The engine balancer is known to slip or fail, which can cause big problems, and this limits engine revs. The exhaust manifolds are terribly inefficient and place the catalyst very near the cylinder head - and tampering with the location of the cats for performance upgrades in the exhaust always throws CEL codes.


    These are the "non-M" E46 six cylinders we got in the USA, and I have highlighted the engine in our 325Ci project car in yellow

    Not to mention the power output of the M54 is fairly mundane, making from 172 to 225 hp on the E46. The US-spec cars (323, 328, 325 and 330) got engines from 2.5L (323 and 325), 2.8L (328 model) and 3.0L (330). The power outputs are shown above. The chassis itself is more rigid than the E36 3-series it replaced, but it gained a tick of weight so the BMW engineers put a lot more aluminum in this one: the front control arms, rear upper arms, and engine block are aluminum.


    Left: Our flared 2001 E46 330 Coupe on 18x10s and 285/30/18 tires. Right: Our 1997 E36 M3 on 18x10s and 265/35/18s

    The weights we've seen for E46 sedans and Coupes that we've owned were all around 3150 pounds, with low fuel and the spare tire + other "trunk junk" removed. That's how people race them so that's how we weigh them. That number isn't that much heavier (100-50 pounds) than an E36 of the same flavor, and the E46 is bigger in every dimension (wheelbase, length and width). The E46 has a more modern look than the E36 2-series, but I have to admit the E36 has a somewhat timeless look.

    This 325Ci will get new wheels pretty soon to replace the chrome Foose wheels it came with. When buying a pre-owned car we often have to look past the "initial ugly" or weird mods done by previous owners, and this car had some really ugly wheels on it. They won't be here for long - we're testing some new fitments now and will post the results in the next post to this thread.

    WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A USED E46

    Some of what we're sharing in this thread is How To Buy An E46 (non-M). There are a lot of things to look for, and some things you just expect to have to fix unless the car has a really good set of maintenance documents. Cooling systems, leak repairs, suspension clunks, worn brakes, and the "old car stuff" that happens over 10-17+ years of use in all elements.


    Trust me on this one - stick with the stick! The interior shot and the transmission above were from our 2001 330Ci

    Obviously if you want to have fun you should AVOID the automatic transmission cars. The slushbox saps a lot of power and ALL the fun out of an E46, but there are a lot of them out there. Don't think "well I will just swap it to a 5-speed later", because that's a giant pain in the ass to do correctly. Just buy the right car, one already equipped with the manual transmission.



    The 5-speed manual (some later 330's got a 6-speed, but don't pay a premium for that box) is pretty dang good, and generally reliable. The clutches have a finite life, as do all of the myriad bushings in the linkages and shifter. I already know we need to refresh all of the shifter parts on this car, but if you go with a solid metal shift handle and especially a lighter flywheel, be ready for some added "buzz" audible in the interior. We'll use some of our Vorshlag competition motor and transmission mounts on this one, too, to really up the NVH factor.



    If you can even find a sub-100K mile E46 325/328/330, that has been taken care of, expect to pay some $ for these nowadays. There are going to be plenty of examples of 200K mile cars, and those will very likely have the same of maladies of this coupe. But we're not going to let this one go to the crusher just yet - I think we can fix all that ails this car.

    COMMON REPAIR ITEMS ON E46 BMW

    One of the first things you will see on high mileage BMWs is engine oil leaks. They will leak from all sorts of places, but almost always the oil pan and valve cover.


    Left: Jack Daniels has a lot of leaks, so we have some work to do. Right: The valve cover gasket repair is pretty straightforward ('01 330Ci)

    The gaskets get hard and brittle over time, then start to leak. The gasket parts aren't expensive to buy, and the valve cover gasket service on the top end is fairly easy to do at home with basic tools. Order spark plugs at the same time, as these have to come off to do the valve cover work. And make sure to get all 15 seals for every valve cover bolt. The oil pan gasket service is a REAL pain, though, and I'll show what it takes to do in a future installment on this 325Ci. When you do the oil pan gasket repair, you might want to think about: welding the oil pump driveshaft nut, replacing the oil pump/driveshaft/sprocket, and maybe even adding an oil pan baffle kit - if you plan on tracking the car, like we will.


    We swapped in new seals for the dual VANOS on the 2001 330Ci (above) and it fixed some issues on that car

    The VANOS units on the camshafts (variable valve timing controllers) tend to be "done" after 100-150K miles. There are seal kits (above right) and they are serviceable, but be careful. Don't forget that the VANOS bolts are LEFT hand thread. Swapping in rebuilt VANOS units is much trickier, and requires special tools and fixtures. Look for DIY write-ups online for this. There are several suppliers for seal kits and rebuilt VANOS units (Dr. Vanos is the more famous option). When the VANOS units are bad the variable cam timing doesn't work, and the motor feels more sluggish than normal.

    Power steering lines also leak. Radiator necks crack and leak. Water pumps leak. Coolant overflow tanks crack and leak. We tend to see these parts fail regularly at 80-100K intervals. Plus all of the bushings, and the shocks are usually shot. There are underlying reasons why all of these things fail and why they are linked together, which we will cover in a future installment. If you continue reading below you will see that we already tackled some of these "common repairs" in the first week of ownership, but others repairs will be addressed in future posts.

    FIRST REPAIRS - COOLING SYSTEM REPLACEMENT + ENGINE BAY CLEAN

    When I test drove this car it was leaking coolant from more than one spot, and the electric cooling fan wasn't working. They had the radiator cap loose and told me to keep the test drive short. It was at a dealership who had a mechanic on staff, but it looked like they threw their hands up and just wanted to dump the car. I drove it around for a couple of minutes and it felt "OK" to me. No working cooling fan means no Air Conditioning and no chance I could drive it home in traffic. It didn't look like it had a blown head gasket so I took a gamble, bought the car, and towed it to the shop with our enclosed trailer...



    I was nervous about the AC and cooling system - would this be an easy fix or not?? So the day I bought the car I had Olof do an typical "track inspection" to the car and make a list of visible issues. It was a long list.

    - Thoroughly inspect car (top to bottom, front to back)
    - Diagnose fan problem; won't run with direct power
    - Lubed upper radiator hose; now system will pressurize but leak slowly
    - Can hear audible sound engine bay (exhaust leak? air pump bad?)
    - Perform compression test. Looks good.
    - Scanned CEL : Cyl 3 misfire. Cleared code.
    - New code appeared. P0365: Camshaft Position Sensor B Circuit (Bank 1)


    Pressure testing the cooling system showed a myriad of leaks (above)

    It took 2.08 hours to do the inspections, fan test, cooling system pressure check (leaks everywhere!), and engine compression test - all of the work listed above. The compression test was good, which let me know we probably did NOT have a bad head gasket. The coolant system had leaks from the water pump, upper hose junction at the radiator neck, and the coolant reservoir, but the radiator hoses themselves looked new.

    The radiator hoses are normally an instant repair item, as the "quick connect" ends on the E46 get stuck over time and can easily break trying to disconnect them. Olof soaked the junctions with WD40 before taking them off and they popped free easily, and looked perfect inside and at the ends (O-ring). No massive corrosion or deposits. The electric cooling fan was tested off the car; even though it looked pretty new, when fed 12V power at the right ports it wouldn't work. So maybe all of the cooling/AC issues really were just a bad fan and a couple of leaks? Could we get that lucky???



    We ordered a new OEM radiator (which might be replaced later with a larger capacity all-aluminum unit), coolant reservoir/cap/sensor, electric fan, water pump, and plastic thermostat housing + thermostat. Shopped around a bit, so it took a couple of days to get the parts in. It was around $400 retail in parts. When they had all arrived, Olof drained the coolant, quickly removed the old parts, cleaned up the mounting surface on the block for the pump, and swapped in the new bits. It was exactly 7 days after buying the car when he did the work, and it took him an additional 2.52 hours to replace the entire cooling system, start to finish. And luckily these parts fixed ALL of the cooling issues, and the AC now worked perfectly. So my gamble paid off.

    - R&R radiator, expansion tank, water pump, thermostat, and coolant (mostly water)
    - All old gaskets are damaged from corrosion of aluminum and coolant
    - Add coolant and water mix
    - Pressure test cooling system (no leaks)
    - Test drive and verify fan turns on, AC works, engine runs fine



    While he was removing the parts and before the new bits went in I sprayed the entire engine bay down with WD40. We let it soak while at lunch and Olof wiped all the surfaces down when we got back. This stuff is harmless to almost every material and will loosen gunk and grime, and it worked like a charm. Normally I'd pressure wash the engine bay but this car didn't need it - the dealership had done that, apparently (not the previous owner, who had really let a lot of things go). Just had some old gunk stuck to an otherwise clean-ish engine bay. The WD40 + wipe down made it look pretty darned good...


    Engine bay now looks good, but did you notice the wires holding the headlights in place? And the cloudy lenses?

    Now the 325 has a brand new cooling system (doesn't leak a drop of coolant) and the engine bay is pretty darned clean - doesn't look like it has 197K miles now. I love clean engine bays, and we will get the car up on all fours and power wash underneath the entire chassis soon. A clean chassis shows any leaks perfectly, and I'm sure there are plenty left to track down (engine oil, etc). But the emergency stuff - a bum cooling system - was fixed, which was a good first step.

    continued below
    Last edited by Fair!; 09-10-2015, 09:07 AM.
    Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
    2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
    EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: 2002 BMW E46 325Ci - Daily/Track Car - Project Jack Daniels

      continued from above

      WINDOW SWITCH REPAIR

      Now that the cooling system works we could concentrate on the last few "emergency" repairs and turn the car over to Amy to start daily driving (so she can point out what else is broken). We already know the suspension is pretty much shot; It needs lots of suspension bushings, a rear subframe reinforcement/subframe and bushings, new dampers, the top mounts are shot, etc. But one thing that was broken that couldn't be ignored were the power window switches... 3 of the 4 switches were busted. Did that mean the window regulators were also broken? Another gamble...



      Both the left and ride side window switches (above left) had one or more broken "tabs", so the windows wouldn't go up or down. Luckily the "endurance car" ('99 328i) is getting all of the OEM door and rear glass replaced (with fixed Lexan), so I borrowed that car's console mounted window switches (below left) temporarily to test and see if this 325's window regulators even worked. This is a super easy job: pop the leather shift boot up (see above right), then unscrew two Phillips screws at the back, and the shift cover comes out for easy access.



      The E46 sedan has the same passenger side window switch, which popped right into the slot in the shift cover and plugged into the wiring harness. Both the right side door and rear quarter glass power action worked, whew. The driver's side switch also plugged in and everything again worked, but the "child lock" button for the rear window control lock-outs (not included on the Coupe) makes the switch housing too long to fit the slot on the Coupe's shifter cover (below right).


      Left: The switches are held in "hook" at one end and snap into the other end. Right: The left side Sedan window switch is too long

      As you can see (below) the replacement window switches aren't expensive, and this is a super common thing to be broken on an E46 - the little individual window switch "paddles" snap and break off. I found some under the seat when we swapped that out (below).


      After I tested that the two door windows and two rear quarter windows worked with the borrowed E46 Sedan window switches, we ordered the correct switch for the driver's side for an E46 Coupe. There's a third variation for the Convertible as well. Confused yet? Welcome to German cars.



      The correct part (BMW p/n: 61316902175) showed up a few hours later from our BMW dealer. I then popped the cover out again and swapped in the correct switch, for a completed job with the right parts. This is a 5-10 minute job at most, and we spent less than $45 to fix it. Easy.

      DRIVER'S SIDE POWER SEAT REPLACEMENT

      This car was a Premium car, with Harmon Kardon stereo and power leather seats on both sides - when new this was a high end car, but time takes it's toll. Both front seats were both torn/worn/ripped at a couple of leather seams, and the fore-aft power actuator on the driver's seat was broken. Luckily the seat was stuck where it fit my driving position (so Olof and I could do our initial test drives to prove the cooling system repairs) but it didn't fit Amy, so she couldn't drive it.


      The worst part of Jack Daniel's interior are the shift handle (see pic above), front seats (torn) and the steering wheel cover (worn).

      Long term plans include installing two fixed back racing seats with a driver's side slider, and make it fit Amy's driving position perfectly. The seating position really makes or breaks a track car for her. With too many unknowns left to check on this car before we go dumping expensive racing seats into it, for the short term I once again borrowed parts from the Endurance car car. The power front drivers seat from the 99 328i Sedan was pretty ugly but the power actuators all worked, so I just had hoped it would fit the Coupe...


      Reduce. Recycle. Re-use. We're keeping it green on Jack Daniels by "borrowing" the front seat from the 328i

      The stock seats in the Sedan were in pretty rough shape but I just wanted something functional to use temporarily until I could either find some NICE black leather factory E46 seats or until I could convince Amy to just let me install some of the dozen or so racing seats sitting in our lobby... She's thinking "daily driver" while I'm always thinking "race car", heh.

      Since the 325's driver's side power seat was dead, the seat was "stuck" in a weird spot. This made access to the old seat's 4 mounting bolts tricky. The front bolts were easy to get out but the rears were half covered up, but Olof fought it and got it unbolted, then we tossed the dead seat out back. The recyclers grabbed it before I had a chance to weigh it, but its one heavy mug. We will weigh the Sedan's power seat when we take it out next time.



      Oh there was some nasty junk hidden under that seat (retch!)... sticky coins, a dirty comb, fossilized french fries, plus all sorts of crumbs and soda spills. Olof got all of the left side carpets vacuumed and shampoo'd quickly and it looked 100 times better. The other side was strangely clean and Amy vacuumed that side out a few days later, when I cleaned all of the leather, vinyl and plastics on the weekend.


      The 328i Sedan seat is ugly (grey) but the power functions works, so its being used for now

      The '99 328i Sedan driver's power seat bolted in easily enough. The plug for the seat was correct and everything worked, but its now throwing a "seat belt" code, so there must be a wiring difference internally. It does not have the "tilt forward and up" back seat access feature of the Coupe's front seats, but oh well. The ugly gray leather Sedan seat will work for now, as all power functions operate, but its temporary. We will get race seats in here...


      These are the Cobra seats and Momo wheel we used in the '01 330Ci, and they are what we will likely use in this 325Ci... soon?

      All told this seat swap and half carpet clean-up took about 0.5 hours and cost $0 in parts (borrowed seat).

      WHAT'S NEXT?

      If you've read one of my many build posts you know its wrapping up when you see that subtitle. I like to give clues to what mods we have in store next time. Here are the highlights.

      This 325Ci needs new headlights to pass inspection, as the original units were both damaged in a light front end hit at some point. The housings are all busted up, the lenses are cloudy, and they are held in with bailing wire. I have done a LOT of looking (there are a lot of variations between the Coupe/Sedan/M3, with pre-facelift and post-facelift for the coupe and sedan) and found some ~$200/pair OEM looking halogen projector style light assemblies, which I have on order. Will get those in the car pretty soon, then try to chase down the last CEL (Cam Sensor is a common flaw on the M54) so it will hopefully pass inspection.


      Ryan made custom full length headers for this LS3 V8 in a tick over two days... why not make a better E46 header than what eBay sells?

      After that we need to tackle the exhaust, as the rear muffler hanger is gone and it has a good exhaust leak behind one catalyst in one manifold assembly. I really DO NOT want to buy $800+ worth of factory style replacement manifolds/catalysts, so we might fabricate something there. I'm most definitely NOT buying the crappy eBay header for this car, like the blue 330Ci got (two sets were purchased for that car, to get something that fit). Should we make a new, proper full length header for the M54? Is there a market for this, when the $100 eBay junk has been the standard for some time? I'm going to do a business case for this and see - it wouldn't be that hard to make, with our in-house fabricators.



      Once we determine the header solution, the after-header exhaust will be custom made from 3" stainless tubing and Magnaflow mufflers and cats, when it gets replaced. We've done a system like this before (blue '01 330Ci syste, shown above) but since then we had a development break-through and have picked up BIG numbers while becoming quieter. There's a muffler from Magnaflow that made that happen, along with an unusual routing. We could see if that worked on this car, with the full length header. Very tempting, and it could make for a new product - which is why I pushed Amy towards another E46 in the first place. This car has to DO WORK FOR VORSHLAG.


      One possible track setup is this 18x10" wheel + 265/35/18, which we did to the '01 330Ci (pre-flares)

      Replacing the wheels and tires are a VERY high priority, and as I mentioned above I hate the Foose wheels with a passion, and after Amy's first long test drive one of the tires got really low on air pressure. I'm looking at 17x9.5" Forgestar F14s for street wheel set first (see below), with a better offset made exclusively for the E46 non-M - with no spacers needed. We have done 18x9 and even 18x10 (above) before, but they all needed spacers and the 10's needed LOTS of fender rolling and camber to fit. Even then we were limited to 265s on the rear, until we flared the 330. We'll tackle something similar for track use (depending on which class we go to, which might limit tire choices/mod points). This car has a base NASA TT class of TTF, so we still have a lot of "mod points" to play with in TTD or TTE.



      The various body dings and scratches will all be addressed in good time. This 325 also needs a new front bumper cover, hood, and rear bumper cover - and we will see if we have class points to do M3 bits for the front and rear. The old brakes are also shot. Depending on NASA classing points, we might steal parts off of my white 2001 330Ci in the shop and use them on this car: the hood, bumper covers, even the larger 330 brakes would take only a few hours to swap over. We'll see how the class build shakes out - there's a couple of ways we can go for a TTE or even TTD build.


      This was a weight we took with low fuel but the full sized spare, jack and other trunk junk were still in place

      Last but not least, no build thread of mine would be complete without the initial weighing! We were in a hurry so we didn't take out the spare wheel/tire or the jack. This porker came in at 3256 pounds, but considering the trunk junk and what these Foose anchors weigh, I shouldn't be surprised. We will knock the weight down by around 200 pounds, I can assure you of that. (base classing: BMW 325 ('01-'06) (2.5L184 hp) = TTF**, min wt 3197 pounds w/ driver) This 325Ci one will be kept for a while, and Amy is already driving it to work, so we will have some fun with this one. Check back next time to see a few more repairs and hopefully some upgrades!

      HOURS & COSTS SPREADSHEET

      As a former mechanical engineer and project manager before I started Vorshlag, I used spreadsheets every day. Some habits die hard. When I was writing the second set of posts for this forum build I went ahead and broke down the costs and hours spent on each round of work. These are normal street prices for the parts we used, in the brands we prefer, but I supposed you can hunt long enough and find a better deal. The hours are logged in our MSA system and are accurate.



      In this little spreadsheet you can see hours spent, the actual cost I paid for the car (with Tax), and the approximate prices for the parts used in this First Round of mods. I will do this for each round of mods and keep a running tally for the total dollars spent - so you readers can see what the real costs are for owning a high mileage E46 Coupe, as well as prep costs for a NASA TT build.

      Cheers,
      Last edited by Fair!; 09-10-2015, 09:35 AM.
      Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
      2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
      EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Vorshlag 2002 BMW E46 325Ci - Daily/Track Car - Project Jack Daniels

        Project Update for September 8th, 2015: We just had a few hours to tackle some additional work on Amy's daily driver and soon-to-be track prepped E46. The shop crew finished a few more repairs, did one of the first upgrades, and are inching closer to being able to switch from "fix mode" to "upgrade mode". This was supposed to be a "quick update" but then I started planning the NASA TT build, and things got complicated. Why? Because little changes done now could alter the end classing down the road. Read below to see what we tackled in this update.


        At this point I had already fixed a leaking tire by stealing two of the E46 sedan wheels/tires

        The complete cooling system replacement from the first round of repairs has been working great and there have been no coolant leaks or other issues with any of these parts, which is great news. But we aren't out of the woods yet. Amy and I have driven this E46 a half dozen times, and from that we know there are still a number of problems that need to be fixed before we can really call this one "safe to daily drive", much less pass state inspection.

        The original headlights are really busted up and don't work (one was unplugged, the rest of the bulbs were burned out), the turn signals don't work up front, we found that the horn doesn't work (and I use a horn like a NYC taxi cab driver), the exhaust leak seemed to be getting worse, there was a terrible "shimmy" at highway speeds, and one of the tires kept leaking down. I couldn't stand looking at the flippin' Foose wheels any longer, too, so we found a temporary wheel and tire solution that fixed a couple of problems.

        EXHAUST MANIFOLD REPAIR

        We knew there was a leak in one of the factory exhaust manifolds but it seemed to be getting louder. I drove the E46 to work a couple of times and it was beyond my level of acceptable annoyance, so I went looking for a replacement set. Problem is these manifolds also include the catalyst, and each one (there is a pair) are $300-450/each new. No way was I spending $900 on new exhaust manifolds that looked and performed as poorly as the OEM units did!


        The right flange could be wiggled more than an inch once it was detached at the rear. Straight busted!

        I really wanted to just get the car inspected, then get a baseline dyno pull done on the stock manifolds/stock exhaust, then try some proper racing headers. We actually have a couple of things we want to test first, but I'll get to that later. So I went looking for some used M54 manifolds, and the guys at Clown Shoe Motorsports had a pair they sold me cheap ($100 = scrap value). Thanks guys!


        Left: Old exhaust manifolds were oily and one was broken in half. Right: New exhaust gasket set

        After I had picked those up Steve order the gaskets, and we put the E46 back onto our shop schedule on Friday, September 4th. Olof got the car on the lift and when he pulled the aft portion of the exhaust system off, he came and got me from my office. He showed me how busted one of the manifolds really was and we laughed pretty loudly. Check the video below to see what I mean...


        Click above for a short video walk-around during this round of repairs

        So yea, the rear manifold was broken at the junction to the catalyst, and the only thing that was keeping the rear section of the manifold from falling out of the car was the heat shield. Good grief, that's bad. Of course the manifolds were also covered in oil, as this engine still has a wicked valve cover leak. We'll tackle ALL of the oil leaks at once, next time. I have a reason why we're waiting.



        The replacement manifold set (above) was far from new, and had almost as many miles (190K), but they came off a similar car that was NOT throwing a CEL - which is a good sign. Olof got these installed with new exhaust gaskets at the cylinder head and the rear exhaust, plus added a new rear exhaust hanger we picked up from BMW. Now the car had a working, factory stock exhaust with no leaks. Yay.



        4.58 hours were spent on this exhaust job, but some of the studs and nuts fought coming off - even when soaked in penetrant. 197,000 miles of use means these parts have seen a lot of heat cycles. Getting the manifolds out of the engine bay requires securing the engine at the top (hanging it from a bar), removing the passenger side motor mount and stand, removing the entire exhaust system, then fighting with the little fiddly nuts and exhaust studs on the cylinder head. Olof removed all of those studs (to be able to clean the exhaust gasket surface properly) and cleaned them up off the car, as they were pretty crusty. Should have just ordered replacement studs and nuts, oh well. At the time of this writing I hadn't driven the car yet... hopefully these used manifolds don't suck.


        Exhaust system repaired with replacement factory E46 manifolds + new rear exhaust hanger

        DRIVELINE REPAIRS

        Both the guibo and the center bearing on the stock 2-piece driveshaft needed some attention, and with the exhaust off it was much easier to get to these parts this time around. Olof had noted the cracks in the "flex disc" that attaches the driveshaft to the transmission last time, and now was a good time to fix that.



        These are a common failure item and virtually all BMWs have to replace these over time. As you can see below, the old unit had a lot of cracks in it, but I've seen much worse. They tend to crack, then fibers start to come apart and they slowly explode over long enough time period. It is usually very visible to any mechanic that is looking under the car before it lets go. This is a $35-60 part to buy new.



        Another strange thing that he found when he was looking at the driveshaft was aft of the center support bearing. Someone had replaced the center bearing recently (another common wear item on all BMWs), as it looked new. But whoever did the work somehow left a threaded cap for the rear section of the driveshaft loose? This needed to be lock-tited and tightened to reduce the chance of it coming apart and tearing the threads of the shaft up.


        Left: You can see the threaded cap that is loose in this picture. Right: It has been secured, loctite added, and a stripe paint marked

        Olof got both the Guibo replaced and the center bearing screw-on cap re-attached in .59 hours, which was quicker than normal because the exhaust was already out of the way for the manifold work.

        CAM SENSOR REPLACEMENT

        This M54B25 has variable valve timing on both the intake and exhaust valves. This means it needs two separate cam position sensors. As I mentioned in the first post, this car kept throwing a Check Engine Light (CEL), which turned out to be the position sensor on the exhaust camshaft. This is a ~$40 part that takes very little time to replace.



        Steve sourced a new Meyle cam position sensor (above left) and then Olof took .28 hours to replace it (above right). We will see if that's the last of the CEL problems on this car. The E46 is known for having some tricky to diagnose CEL issues, so I'm not holding my breath just yet. As long as it stays off long enough to pass inspection, we're good for now.

        HEADLIGHT REPAIR & UPGRADE

        In our first round of repairs we noted that the headlights were all jacked up (technical term). The lenses were cloudy, the housings were busted up, the mounting tabs were broken off, and they didn't work at all. This car had obviously been in a light front end collision and the headlights took the brunt of the damage. The hood is also tweaked and front bumper cover is beat up - both need to be replaced eventually.

        Since most of the pictures I took last time were from my cell phone (aka: #potatocam), the crappiness of the headlights is hard to see. But trust me - they were smashed up and the lenses were cloudy, so they had to be replaced.


        Click on the images above to see how cloudy the lenses were, and the right pic has a "new vs old" shot that really shows the difference

        The old headlights are shown above, and after the bailing wires attaching them to the chassis (?!) were cut, they were easily removed. The corner lights were literally falling out and had been held in with tape. What a mess - these were just junk. Yes, you can buy new replacement clear lenses, and even replacement parts for some of the busted black plastic on the housings, but its easier and cheaper to just replace the entire assembly.


        These replacements still have protective packing film stuck onto the headlight lenses

        There are tons of OEM replacement options from the normal suppliers (Depo, Hella, etc), but I wanted something better here. Time for a slight upgrade, instead of just a boring "stock replacement" repair. I researched this a bit and found the correct pair of projector style housings shown above. And I bought them from my least favorite source - FleaBay - and they are made in Taiwan. To avoid the known reliability issues with cheap Chinese Xenon lights, I went with the basic halogen bulb assemblies.


        Left: Olof needed to brush up on his Cantonese to read these instructions. Right: Some small crash damage made headlight install tricky

        This pair has internal projector lenses for the (outer) low beams, and "angle eye" LED halo rings around both the high and low beam bulbs. The internal housings (the area behind the lenses and bulbs) often come in "chrome" as well as the factory style "black", but I kept it simple and went with black (the chrome was too blingy for my taste). This kit came with matching parking/turn signal housings, which have a smoked clear lens, not orange tinted lenses like some early E46 OEM options.



        There are a ridiculous number of factory E46 headlight options (see above), with changes for Coupes and Sedans based on their pre- and post-facelifts (2004 for Coupe, 2002 for Sedan, the M3 was never facelifted), plus the E46 Compact (the 3-door hatchback, which we never got in the USA). Some came with Halogens others Xenons, some models had projector lights others did not, and they came with and without headlight washers. The shape of the headlight assemblies dips into the front fenders and bumper covers as well. The facelift extended out back with unique bumper covers and taillights as well. Since the 2001-06 BMW 325 is all on the same base classing line for NASA TT, we could do the facelifted fenders, hood, lights, and all of that and be legal - if we cared. Luckily we don't. If it doesn't make an impact on daily driver use or track times, we aren't doing it. If you care about this stuff, this video shows an early E46 Sedan/Wagon with the details to do the full "Facelift" upgrade.

        continued below
        Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
        2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
        EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Vorshlag 2002 BMW E46 325Ci - Daily/Track Car - Project Jack Daniels

          continued from above


          this 2001 330Ci had factory projector headlights and clear lenses

          My old blue 2001 E46 330 Coupe (above) was a Canadian car, and it came with a KPH speedometer and factory projector style lights and headlight washers, whereas this 2002 325 Coupe had regular non-projector lights and no headlight washers - and these are both pre-facelifted Coupes only one model year apart. There are lots of OEM headlight variations, and I don't know when all the changes were. Throw in the aftermarket headlight options, and you can lose hours chasing down all of the options, costs, reviews, and sources.



          There was extra wiring required to power the halos, which we used a fuse tap to power from an "ignition on" source. While we were first testing the lights one of the LEDs on the LF headlight halo burned out, but hey, that's Taiwan parts for ya.



          The rest of the install was fairly painless, and the low and high beam connectors plugged right into the original harness. There were some fitment problems but we traced that down to front end crash damage. Upon closer inspection (see below) it appears that the radiator support is tweaked on both sides, especially the Left Front. So that headlight mounting hole isn't used for now. We will order a new bolt-in upper radiator support soon and put that in, but since the whole damned front end has to come off to get to all the bolts for this brace, we will wait until the new harmonic balancer is here, which needs lots of access to remove it (read more about that below).



          Again, these new Taiwan special angel-eye projector style headlights came with new bulbs and corner lights, ready to bolt in, for $210 delivered. Hard to beat that price, and with regular OEM headlight replacements at $240-600/pair, non-projector, and without new corner lights... I went with the cheaper Taiwan specials. I might regret this in short order - one LED burned out in the first minute of use - so I will follow up here about long term use results.



          The RF headlight "lower trim panel" (above right) was also shattered in the front end hit, so we had to track one of those down. The LF trim piece was fine (above left) Again, lots of options due to the many changes in headlight shapes and headlight washers. A new RF trim piece was ordered from BMW and the unpainted part was about $35. We will repaint this piece body color and install BOTH lower trim pieces AFTER we figure out what to do with replacing the torn up front bumper cover (M3 vs 325Ci bits) and/or front fenders (M3 or leave stock). The bumper cover is sufficiently misaligned that the new headlights and lower trim pieces don't fit together, at the moment.


          In full daylight you can see the front end damage - it still needs a new bumper cover, lower headlight trim and side marker light

          All told Olof spent 2.94 hours replacing these headlights, wiring in the halos, and repairing the shredded horn system wiring. It would have been a much quicker install if these had been just plain jane OEM replacement lights (no halo wiring) and if the front end wasn't tweaked like it is.

          TEMPORARY STREET WHEELS AND TIRES

          This wasn't at all what I had envisioned for the final street wheel and tire set, but a giant bolt sticking through one of the 325 Coupe's tires forced a quick if temporary wheel and tire upgrade. And those Foose wheels... wow, they were ugly. Glad those are off the car.



          Once again I went to the shop Endurance race car E46 sedan to "borrow" some parts, namely the wheels and tires. When we bought this 1999 328i from a fellow racer in Austin it had the original 17x7" 7 spoke "style 44" cast aluminum wheels, which were in decent shape. The tires were all 245/40/17 sized rubber in the Dunlop Direzza ZII Star Spec model. The rear Dunlops were B-A-L-D but the fronts had some tread left (the shoulders were worn off). The owner of that car autocrossed it in Street class and these tires were the go-to option back then. 245mm is about all you'd want on a 7" wide wheel, and the compound was good.


          I found this $10 set of 7 aftermarket "carbon fibre" Roundels, including the four 68mm center caps

          So I figured we could put these on the front temporarily until we decided what to do about the permanent street and race sets of wheels. But upon closer examination the remaining rear tires on the Foose wheels were 18" diameter, dry rotted, and some nasty "Nexen" (?!) brand. And they were mounted to these hideous Foose eye sores. Amy liked the Style 44s well enough so we went ahead and bought 4 new Dunlops in 245/40/17 and we will use those on this car - temporarily. They WILL go back on the Endurance race car and will likely be used on the initial track shake-down events for the team. Thanks to UPS never delivering on time, these were not here by the time I published this update (4 days late and counting, UPS).

          I still want to go with a 17x9.5" Forgestar F14 for the street wheel sets, and either another set of those or 18x9.5" wheels for the final Hoosier set for TT... but we are still working out the final TT letter class build plan. The time it takes to have a set of Forgestars custom built (4-6+ weeks) is longer than we can wait for now, so these Sedan wheels will work in the short term - and remove the ugliest part of Jack Daniels, the Foostasticly chrome blingstars. Check our clearance page to see these things for sale, if you have incredibly bad taste.

          REAR CONTROL ARM REPLACEMENT

          The original rear lateral lower control arms were likely bent by some wrecker driver (they reach under the car to hook their chains and these arms seem like an easy, if stupid, place to tie down a car), which is a common occurrence on BMW E36 and E46 cars. I thought briefly about an adjustable, tubular lower lateral arm, which we have used in the past on other E46 builds... but the TT mod points (+4) were just not worth it. So the bent lower arms needed to be replaced with OEM parts.



          I learned a lot this past year with our TTC prepped 1992 Corvette, and when the TT rules say you can replace a suspension part with a new "stock replacement" part, it really means it needs to be the exact same part, brand, and part number as the factory installed. So I had Steve do some searching and he found the correct Lemforder (the original manufacturer for most BMW suspension parts) rear lower lateral control arms for about $45 each, shown below.



          These control arms went in relatively painlessly and Olof knocked it out in .95 hours. We could have saved $90 and stolen the 2001 330 Coupe's original lateral arms, as they are identical, but with the new parts so cheap it was worth it to get the new arms. There's a bushing on the inboard side that does wear, so these new arms will refresh that. Trying to re-use old, used parts almost always turns out to be a bad idea.

          MEA CULPA + HARMONIC BALANCER & OIL SYSTEM RELIABILITY UPGRADES

          One of the things we fought with on our 2001 BMW 330 Coupe back in 2009-10, and which more than a few snarky internet expert types like to keep bringing up over and over and over, were oil pump and high RPM reliability issues. Let me say this one more time: I made a mistake, ignored sound advice, and paid the price. Others clearly knew more about the frailty of the M54 engines' oil pump drive, so shame on me.

          I still stand by the comment I have made many times: "The M54 has a terrible oil pump design", because it is the truth. We were also revving the stock M54B30 engine to over 7500 rpm (after a local tuner raised the redline for us), in an effort to minimize shifting to 3rd gear on typical autocross courses. Also a mistake. And we were doing this (unknowingly) with a "slipped" OEM harmonic balancer the entire time, along with a flywheel that was half the weight of the stock unit. I also knew better than to not tack weld the oil pump nut in place, but was lazy and didn't do it either.


          The chain driven oil pump drive shaft retaining nut can fall off or the shaft can shear clean through, both of which makes the oil pump stop working

          All of those mistakes - which were 100% on me - made for an epic fail. Yes, I killed the oil pump drive on that M54 - twice - which quickly wiped out the rod bearings both times. If you need to send some more "I told ya so's", just PM me, and but please don't crap up this thread with more of that. I won't make those same mistakes again. The first oil pump setup on my old 330 was bone stock, with the nut just screwed onto the oil pump drive shaft at the factory (the nut came loose). The second failure was after we replaced the oil pump + shaft and had tack welded the nut in place (it sheared the shaft off). Both of those failures caused the chain driven oil pump to stop working, and the clack-clack-clack of the bottom end knocks started very quickly.



          After those two failures with the original M54 engine, we sourced a stock, low mileage 2005 BMW 330 M54 engine (which itself had a slipped balancer at only 54K miles) and swapped that in before we sold the car. We also lowered the rev limit back to the stock 6500 rpm level, added a brand new OEM harmonic balancer, and a VAC heavy duty oil pump driveshaft and sprocket when it was going in, and tack welded nut to that as well - which is probably why its still intact to this day.

          This is what I consider to be the minimum track prep for an M54 engine: new balancer + VAC oil pump drive + tack weld the nut to the shaft. That 330 Coupe has been running smoothly since this replacement motor + new harmonic balancer + VAC oil pump drive work was done in 2011, and has been tracked several times a month by the new owner since we sold it in early 2013. Zero engine issues.



          Lesson learned: M54 oil pump drives are problematic, and high RPMs tend to kill them earlier than normal.

          We also learned, a bit too late, that the OEM harmonic balancer is a ticking time bomb. These regularly fail with track use or even normal street use. They are easy to inspect if you know what to look for, so I'm hoping that some of you see this and go check your factory balancers and look for the same issues. Click on the image below for a higher rez picture, which shows what I'm talking about. You can also look at the crank pulley when the engine is running and sometimes see the wobble they get when the outer damper portion has slipped relative to the crank.



          As predicted, the original M54 harmonic balancer (behind the front drive pulley) on this 325Ci has slipped. You can see above that the outer steel ring has shifted and the rubber isolater is poking its head out. After seeing too many of these failures, and reading too many horror stories, I'm convinced that ALL of the M54 engines do this.



          The solution? Typically, when you build a car for any higher than stock RPM use or extended track abuse you just buy a quality SFI rated aftermarket harmonic balancer. For some reason (low volume) the aftermarket has not embraced this engine platform yet, or the problematic OEM balancer for the M54/S54 engines, and there is but a single supplier of aftermarket SFI balancers. They can and do charge whatever they want, in this case $949 for the ATI balancer (+$99 add-on for the AC pulley).

          Dropping $1048 on a harmonic balancer is kind of nuts, and still causes sticker shock to me even after losing two bottom ends on a previous M54. That amount could pay for a complete, replacement 3.0L M54B30 engine. I'm used to paying $250-300 for a quality SFI rated harmonic balancer for domestic V8s that make 3-4 times the power. It boggles my mind how expensive this ATI unit is, but they make so few of them it probably isn't a big money maker. Being a manufacturer myself, I understand production costs, and super low production numbers can impact costs dramatically.

          A new OEM replacement balancer is $180-440/each new, which is still a bit tough to swallow. But the unit on this 325Ci has obviously failed, and we have to do something before we take it on track, where it will see higher RPMs for extended periods. These are not fun to install and require special tools to do so, without damaging the crank. Be wary of doing this as a DIY job.


          When we replace the oil pan gasket we will also add the VAC oil pan baffle kit, as shown above

          The leaking oil pan gasket leads me to my next upgrade planned - a new oil pump, an upgraded VAC oil pump drive/welded nut, and adding a VAC oil pan baffle kit. These are super important for these M54 motors, and we have done these baffle installs for customers in the years since I had my "bad experiences" with my first M54 powered BMW. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I won't make the same mistakes again, and we will go overboard on oil system upgrades on this car.

          Stuff like this make up my least favorite parts of owning an E46, but it is just part of the "BMW experience", heh. I've heard it said that since "Germans make cuckoo clocks" that making things overly complicated (like this crazy chain driven oil pump drive) is just part of their culture.

          continued below
          Last edited by Fair!; 09-10-2015, 09:56 AM.
          Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
          2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
          EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Vorshlag 2002 BMW E46 325Ci - Daily/Track Car - Project Jack Daniels

            continued from above



            What is still strange to me is how well the S52 (above left) engine did in our 1997 M3. We ran it in at least 100+ autocrosses, often with 3 drivers per day (me, Amy, and the previous car's owner) and always touching the 7500 RPM redline, for over 6 years. All that was done was a welded stock oil pump nut to the shaft. That's it. Stock balancer, stock 100K+ mile engine, and it was tracked several times during that period as well. It has the same, goofy chain driven oil pump as the M54, too. Maybe the E36 M3 engine just had some better mojo than the non-M E46 engine? Again, I think these oil pump issues were more "old balancer failure" related than just "oil pump drive" or "too many RPMs" related. But I'm not taking any chances....

            LOOKING AT NASA TT PREP

            I have been alluding to prepping this car for a NASA Time Trial class, and there are a number of choices we can make now that effect the build down the road. Do we want a "BIG" tire with no aero, or a narrower tire with aero added? Our 2001 330Ci was built around a 285 tire and stock aero, and it did all right - but that was back in 2010. And the work required to fit those tires (flares) was extensive...



            Do we want to stick with the 325's M54B25 engine or go to the more powerful M54B30 from the 330? What about the larger 330 brakes? We can convert this car to a real 330 fairly easily - we have a 330 in the shop that could donate the front and rear brakes, the engine is an easy internet search + a day of labor to swap, etc. But the engine swap is not likely to happen, because it would require more parts to be swapped to be considered a "base trim level" 330, and would require a new initial base classing. So let's ignore that for now and just think "E46 325".



            There are a lot of ways to build a given car for a specific NASA TT class, and you can change mods down the road if you want to try a different setup and stay classed the same. Let's take a quick look at how NASA Time Trial "Letter Classes" work, because this might be new to some of you. First, you look up your car's "Initial Base Classing" starting on page 19 of the NASA TT rules. I have that broken down for the E36 and E46 BMW models in the chart below.



            The TT rules have one giant listing for all cars that have ever been given an initial base class. If you look at the list of BMWs, they are sorted very poorly, so I took out the basic E36 and E46, M and non-M cars, resorted them, and created the graphic above. That means our 325Ci is classed in TTF with two stars (**).

            Next we make a list of the modifications we want to do and tally up the points assigned to each mod, also shown in the TT rules, starting on page 29. We use a custom spreadsheet that we have created and it automatically sums all of the "mod" and "base" points. There are also a lot of "zero point mods", which are upgrades or changes allowed across all classes without any mod points. Camber plates, lightweight flywheels, upgraded brake pads, upgraded motor and transmission mounts, etc. Those are all listed on page 35 of the 2015 TT rules, and we will utilize many of these "free mods" for sure.

            Next we look at the total points and see if we have "bumped up a class", which is explained below. Since we're starting with 14 penalty points in TTF, that means we only have 5 points left to stay in TTF, which isn't a lot. We will obviously be modding this car beyond that, and go to at least TTE class if not TTD for the final build.

            8.3 Up-Classing System (TTB-TTF only)

            Modifications and Point Assessments: If a car accrues 20 or more points it will be bumped up in Class. There is no limit—a car with a high level of modifications might move up several Classes.

            20 thru 39 points - Up ONE Class
            40 thru 59 points - Up TWO Classes
            60 thru 79 points - Up THREE Classes
            80 thru 99 points - Up FOUR Classes
            100 thru 119 points - Up FIVE Classes

            One (1) asterisk * on a base class assignment denotes a 7 point initial assessment, and two (2) asterisks ** denotes a 14 point initial assessment that is added to the total number of Modification Points to determine the final competition class.
            We usually do this a little backwards when starting a new build. The first thing I do for any car we might prep for NASA TT is look at the base classing, base minimum weight, any penalty points (* = -7, ** = -14), and the base tires and power-to-weight ratios of the initial and final classes. I figure out what final class I want to be in, then figure out what mods I can do for the points allowed. These TT classing calculations involve many variables, and we usually make a dozen or more calculations to get to our initial "class build-up".

            I think the final build will end up in TTD, so that means 59 points worth of mods. Then take out the initial two star (**) penalty of -14 points, so we have either 5 points of mods we can use and stay in TTE or 45 points worth of mods for TTD. That's a pretty good number, and we should be able to do all of the suspension, tire, exhaust, cold air, and aero mods we want for that and stay in TTD with a reasonably competitive car. I guess that's what we shall see!

            We have made a pair of detailed build plans, and which one we choose will depend on the results of the early upgrades, which are in both plans. We have to know "where we will end up" because so many items that need to be repaired have to be done with either stock parts or upgraded parts depending on the final points tally, and hence the final TT class build. Here's our initial TT running points tally with the current Dunlop 245mm street tire package (Not what we have planned for the final TTD setup, but its just an example of what we've done and what points the car has accrued).


            With up to 19 points we could have stayed in TTF, 20-39 points is TTE, 40-59 points is TTD. 23 points now = TTE legal

            If you look at the initial classing of the 325 vs 330, the 325Ci has a better (aka: lower) base class (TTF**) than a base trim level 330Ci in (TTE) as well as a lower minimum weight (3197 pounds for the E46 325, 3285 pounds for the E46 330) but not really if you look at it's base class "base tire size" (TTF = 215mm, TTE = 235mm). Both the 330 and 325 would likely end up in the same class no matter how you build them, and the 325 Coupe will have one single, solitary point advantage over the 330, if we build them the same way. And still strapped with a smaller displacement engine (184 hp vs 225 hp), all due to the TTF** base classing. So we have some number crunching to do, to see if we should stick with the 197K mile 2.5L inline-6 and small 325 brakes or "base upclass" and make this car into a 330Ci, with the larger brakes, more powerful motor, and TTE starting class's larger starting tire size (235mm).

            There are also some year-to-year upgrades that we will try to find - like the points free 1996 model brake upgrade we did on our TTC 92 Corvette, since they lump all 1992-96 LT1 Corvettes into the same base class. Again, we are using a 2002 325Ci, which is lumped in with all 2001-06 325 BMWs. So we can mix and match major parts from the Base Trim Level 325i or 325Ci models for any of those 6 years, for no points. Or if we upclass this to a 330, we can use the BTM parts from those year 330Ci or 330i cars. I doubt there's a super secret ringer part within the 2001-06 325 or 330, but we shall see (haven't found it yet).


            330 brakes are a cheap upgrade for the 325, but they cost +2 mod points (the same as a real BBK)

            The big question is do we want to make this a small tire/aero build or a larger tire/stock aero build. I know the big tire build worked before, but we've learned a lot about aero since 2009, too. I need to figure out how many points the M3 bumper is going to cost me. The 330 ZHP has no base class, so using the ZHP bumper or 235hp engine is verboten, without taking points. I will talk a LOT more about bumpers next time - I wrote a lot about that already, but this post got too long.

            HOURS & COSTS SPREADSHEET

            Just like I (retroactively) did in Round 1 of posts and work to this car, I have tallied the costs for this second round of mods and repairs. I am beginning to regret buying a car with so many problems, dents and miles, but I suppose that's the case with any used BMW you buy that has problems.



            Virtually all E46 cars you are going to find will need much of this work, especially the guibo, cooling system and worn bushings here and there. We've still just scratched the surface of needed repairs, and there are many leaks to fix, bushings to replace, and tuning issues to work through. I have yet to even test drive the car after the cam sensor and manifold replacement, so who knows if those even worked?

            WHAT'S NEXT?



            There's plenty of other parts to fix: old transmission shifter feels as loose as you could imagine, the motor and trans mounts are shot, the rear diff bushings are clunking, the front strut mounts are gone, the sunroof is stuck, and it badly needs new front lower control arms and LCA bushings. Not to mention the rear subframe bushings + chassis repair it will surely need at the mounting points. Pretty much all of those "Repairs" will be taken care of during the track upgrade preparations.

            So Round 3 will have some more exciting "Race parts" instead of these boring "old car problems". I wrote a bunch more but I will save it for next time, as it has to do with classing choices and such. There are a few parts I am going to order now that will dramatically change our path forward with this project, so tune in next time. Much bench racing to do... which is half the fun of building a TT car.

            Until next time,
            Last edited by Fair!; 09-10-2015, 10:14 AM.
            Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
            2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
            EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Vorshlag 2002 BMW E46 325Ci - Daily/Track Car - Project Jack Daniels

              Terry, I apologize if I'm not supposed to post here, but I'm definitely following this thread, in particular looking for updates on whatever headers you build with race cats installed. In my opinion there is a serious gap in the marketplace for good flowing headers with cats. The only options out there right now are the OEM style "saucer" collectors, or catless ebay headers/supersprint reps.

              I don't like how loud my car is with the catless headers, but don't have the guts to give up the performance gain and go back to OEM style... I want my cake and to eat it too A well flowing header with race cats would be ideal IMO...

              Great thread, I love all the pictures, its very well documented

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Vorshlag 2002 BMW E46 325Ci - Daily/Track Car - Project Jack Daniels

                Originally posted by rkneeshaw View Post
                Terry, I apologize if I'm not supposed to post here, but I'm definitely following this thread, in particular looking for updates on whatever headers you build with race cats installed. In my opinion there is a serious gap in the marketplace for good flowing headers with cats. The only options out there right now are the OEM style "saucer" collectors, or catless ebay headers/supersprint reps.

                I don't like how loud my car is with the catless headers, but don't have the guts to give up the performance gain and go back to OEM style... I want my cake and to eat it too A well flowing header with race cats would be ideal IMO...

                Great thread, I love all the pictures, its very well documented
                No worries - we welcome the feedback here.

                Yes, we have seen the total lack of E46 non-M full length headers in the aftermarket and hopefully Vorshlag will be filling that need soon.



                Lots of little things repairs and upgrades still going on with our E46 in the background, and when the next round of mods are done I will make another project thread update post (next week, I hope). Should have a baseline dyno run in the next few days as well, then we can start on the new headers + exhaust.
                Last edited by Fair!; 09-28-2015, 01:29 PM.
                Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
                2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
                EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Vorshlag 2002 BMW E46 325Ci - Daily/Track Car - Project Jack Daniels

                  Project Update for October 22nd, 2015: Our shop schedule has been full as post season demand hit, but Olof had one free spot for half a day this week while parts were incoming for several jobs. That's the perfect time to work on a shop car, and this time it was old Jack Daniels. Which was good, because a front wheel was about to fall off. We replaced the front suspension wear parts, got a good baseline dyno pull, planned out more of the TTD build, upgraded the front brakes to 330 bits, put new tires on the car, and ordered the upgraded front bumper cover. Read on for more.

                  You Get What You Pay For

                  When we were looking at E46 candidates to buy we (aka: my wife) chose the cheapest one, and that isn't always the smartest plan. This car was rough and needed a LOT of work, and it keeps snowballing. Whoever owned this car "drove it hard and put it away wet". The dirty and dinged up chassis said a lot about how they cared for the car. They hit every pothole on the road for 200K miles, ignored leaks and noises, and let this car really go downhill. We can and will fix everything, of course, mostly because I'm stubborn - but it wasn't the right car to start with, I'm sure of that now.


                  Sadly this is how it looks AFTER some repairs and new headlights

                  So if you learn anything reading this, it should be the obvious: never buy the cheapest, roughest candidate for a car you are looking at. We should have purchased a 330 and we should have found one with fewer miles and/or in better condition. Something taken care of by an enthusiast who can avoid curbs and potholes. In the end we'll spend as much in repairs and fixes to get this 200K mile 325Ci to function as well as one with less miles and less damage, but oh well. Live and learn.



                  Also, the cheapest part is rarely the best option in the long run. The $200 headlights burned out one of the LEDs in the first 30 seconds of use. I knew better and "went cheap" anyway. Driving home one night in front of Amy in the 325 I saw her side by with another E46 that had aftermarket projector headlights with the same halo lights. The other car's owner did NOT cheap out and his lights were 3x brighter and didn't burn out the LEDs in the halos. "You get what you pay for."

                  First Drive After Exhaust Repair + 2nd Cam Sensor + New Tires

                  So in my September 8th update I hadn't driven the car after the badly leaking exhaust manifolds and gaskets were replaced. Well my test drive didn't go so well - I made it about 500 feet and the car died when the clutch went in at a stop sign. It threw a CEL and ran like crap from then on. I had to keep the engine running every time I stopped in traffic and the engine ran like it had lost 100 horsepower.



                  Our guys ordered the Intake cam position sensor (intake and exhaust cams both have separate sensors, since this is a dual VANOS engine), because that's what the CEL said again (Code P0365). I brought it back in the next day (9/9/15) and Olof swapped that one out in less than 15 minutes.



                  After that replacement the engine cleared up and ran remarkably well - like it had all ~185 hp back from the factory. The CEL came back again, of course, because German cars hate me for all the crimes I have committed against them. Its the same code - Cam Sensor Bank 1 - but we'll track it down eventually. At least it runs better now.



                  The day after my September post, the new set of 245/40/17 Dunlops also arrived. The car would at least be on new, full tread, fresh rubber. We had a lot of tires show up that day and the 245s for Jack Daniels surprisingly weren't the smallest!



                  That 225mm set of Rival-S tires at the far right in the tire picture above were for a dedicated track Miata we were building for a customer to run in TTE (above). This was a bone stock car we stripped, caged, prepped and got ready for track abuse in a 17 day period, and it has performed very well on track so far. I need to write-up that build in its own project forum thread, as it was really slick.



                  Anyway, I've always noted how a new set of tires seems to ride better than an old set. Maybe its psychological, but this definitely improved the ride. Olof got the 245 Dunlops mounted to the Type44 E46 sedan wheels and balanced them like all of our track customers' wheels - securing the stick-on weights with aluminum tape.



                  Of course we were going from 18" wheels and tires to 17" wheels and tires, so the sidewall increased a tick. That always improves ride - and sometimes handling - and it definitely looked better off of those hideous chrome wheels. I was so happy with the change that I washed this car at home, for the first time. At this angle and light level (above) you can't see all of the dents, dings and scratches.



                  While Olof was mounting the new Dunlops I stole one of the wheels and put it on our digital scale in the Order Build Room. Wow, that 17x7" wheels is stupid heavy at 26.5 pounds bare, but that's to be expected on almost any OEM wheel. We could easily loose 8-10 pounds per corner in wheel weight with an aftermarket 17x9.5" wheel. I will weigh those when they arrive and verify the numbers, but I expect 40 pounds to drop off the total weight with a 2.5" wider wheel upgrade.

                  Brief Test Drive + Baseline Dyno Pull

                  I have a couple of brief videos that I shot with the #potatocam on my phone, and the first one below shows this E46 being driven on a private test track in Mexico. During that drive I talk about some remaining issues - the worn shifter, the thumping noises from a front wheel bearing that is about to fail, and show a brief acceleration test. I also predict the chassis dyno numbers that this little 2.5L would make with 198,000 on the clock...


                  In-car video from private test track - hear wheel bearings, see the shifter, acceleration pull

                  As you can clearly hear, the wheel bearing is getting to be very audible, and they get this loud right before they take a dump. This car has "ones of days" left on the road before it is replaced and Amy is aware that this is a part about to fail. She is avoiding highway speeds until we can sneak the car onto our shop schedule and get that and many other parts replaced in the front end (see more on that below).



                  The second video for this round includes the baseline dyno pull performed at True Street Motorsports in McKinney, Texas. After scheduling the appointment about a week in advance, I went up there when they opened on Oct 1st and we strapped the E46 down on their DynoJet chassis dyno.



                  First Sean did a pull in 5th gear, which is 1:1 and technically the right way to do it. But it was taking a LONG time and wheel speeds were getting up there around "ludicrous speed", so that pull was aborted a tick early. He immediately made a 2nd pull in 4th gear. That worked better and wheel speeds weren't as berserk this time, so he took it to the 6500 rpm redline for that pull.



                  It actually made more than I predicted at 161.63 whp and 149.0 wtq. I was a bit surprised, but wasn't that far off in my "butt dyno" estimations of 150 whp. After 2 pulls I was ready to take this car off their dyno and get to work, so we unstrapped, I paid my bill and off I went.

                  Another Headlight Replacement?

                  OK this is a little embarrassing. After the new headlights and turn signal corner lights were all replaced, I noted in my last post that they didn't fit very well. This is because the entire front core support is bent and the mounting holes for the headlights are all mis-aligned. I told Olof not to worry about it and to secure the headlights in temporarily, until a new core support parts arrived.




                  The corner lights normally snap in place against the headlights. Of course the clips didn't line up well because the headlights are all in there janky, and eventually one of the corner lights popped off during Amy's drive home one night, smashed off the road surface, and bounced off into a ditch. It was dark and she couldn't find it, so that was lost.



                  I ordered another E46 corner light made by light manufacturer Depo, which was $15 shipped to my door. I thought I had ordered the correct "smoked" color to match the other side - the picture online showed it smoked - but it arrived "clear".



                  This was replaced in under a minute but it didn't match the other side at all. So that was a $15 mistake, but it works as a turn signal/light for now. For the short term I taped the light in place until the correct smoked unit arrives. This car just gets better and better...




                  At the same time I researched the replacement core support part. The RealOEM price is $330, but the cheap fleaBay price was $54 shipped. How do they sell stuff this cheaply? Oh yea, its made in a sweatshop and the quality is poor. Well it arrived and it looked pretty good, and we even installed it on a race car E46 M3 chassis we are building for a customer (below). I took it along with that chassis to my paint guru, Shiloh at Heritage Collision Center - who does all of our paint and body work - and they said it fit perfectly.


                  The new front core support was delivered with this E46M3 chassis to the body shop - and it fit great

                  Sometimes these dead simple import parts do work, but at $54 I figured if it didn't I'd just toss it in the recycle pile and chalk that one up to experience. Since this $54 import core support worked on the other E46, I ordered another (for our car) and this will go on #JackDaniels when it's apart for the engine's harmonic balancer replacement. The radiator and a lot of other parts have to come out of the way to replace the OEM balancer, so we'll just snatch the whole front of the car off and replace the core support + front bumper cover + balancer all at the same time. Look for this in my next post.

                  Front Suspension Repairs + 330 Big Brake Upgrade

                  We had been amassing parts for an upcoming break in our shop schedule to get some of the biggest problems fixed on this E46 - such as the wheel bearings, bushings, and control arms - as well as an upgrade to larger 330 disc brakes front and rear.



                  On October 21st we finally had a window of time and I brought Amy's E46 in for some front end work. We had a lot more parts on hand than we had time to install, so some of the bits shown in the big pile above (rear wheel bearings, 330 rear brake rotors/calipers/pads, valve cover gasket, oil filter gasket, and more) will be done next time.



                  Olof got the car up on the 2-post and started yanking off the old front Lower Control Arms, LCA bushings, hubs, and brakes.



                  The spindles were inspected but they looked fine.



                  Everything else removed was nasty, worn and read for the scrap pile.



                  He used a 2-jaw puller to separate the LCA bushings from the control arms, but normally I just pull these off by hand. The OEM bushings on an E46 are absolute crap when new, and after 200K miles they are literally falling apart. The RF LCA bushing was already 100% separated and allowed a lot of movement between the bushing retainer and the control arm, under braking. Every bump on the road made an audible THUMP! so I couldn't wait to drive the car after these were new and improved.

                  continued below
                  Last edited by Fair!; 10-23-2015, 09:33 AM.
                  Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
                  2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
                  EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Vorshlag 2002 BMW E46 325Ci - Daily/Track Car - Project Jack Daniels

                    continued from above

                    The original LCA "lollipop" housings had the old remnants pressed out and in went 2-piece Powerflex polyurethane "race" bushings. These have an inner and outer liner which rotate against each other, and if properly greased they are silent yet remove virtually all bushing deflection under bump, braking, and cornering loads.



                    Olof added a threaded grease zerk to the lollipop housing and modified the outer bushing, which should give us squeak free use. Per our procedures he also torqued the mounting bolts to factory spec and paint marked the bolts in red.



                    The new OEM replacement E46 non-M, non-ZHP, base trim model control arms went on next. The old ball joints (two per arm) were all sorts of shot, so that will tighten up the slop and reduce more noises.



                    Next up were new wheel hubs, which were badly needed. The old bearings was falling apart and very near a "total failure". Then 1" larger Centric Premium OEM replacement brake rotors from a 2001-06 330 were installed, as well as OEM replacement rebuilt Centric calipers and mounting bridges. In went some Centric Ceramic street pads, which are quiet and dust free - but we will swap in proper Carbotech pads for track use.



                    I showed more detail on the size differences between 323/325 rotors and the larger 330 rotors in my last post. These are going to be a +2 point upgrade, until and if we convert the car to a 330, at which point we will get those 2 points back. For now, we'll take the 1" larger rotors and the +2 point hit.

                    We didn't have time to install the rear wheel bearings, rear rotors, calipers or pads. The front brakes were shot, as were the wheel bearings, so only those were replaced. To help the car pass inspection Olof managed to get the horns working as well. He stole a pair off of a 2001 330Ci race car chassis in the shop, as the original 325Ci horns were junk. How do you break a pair of horns? The previous owner managed to!



                    During the cooling system swap Olof had swapped in a good, used OEM aluminum undertray from my old blue 2001 330Ci. As you can see (above left) it has a good bit of oil residue on it from gasket leaks at the engine - which we will tackle next time. The steering rack boot on the RF (above right) is also trashed, so we will replace those + inner/outer tie rods next time as well.



                    We are planning on MCS TT2 coilovers, Vorshlag camber plates, and Vorshlag spherical RSMs in the next round as well. Just gotta save my pennies and get the shocks ordered. This round of mods will cost us +5 points and put us squarely in TTD, but that's for another day.



                    Driving the car yesterday after the front end parts were replaced was a nice change. ALL of the wheel bearing noises were gone. ALL of the front suspension "clunks and thumps" were gone. Amy drove it home and she commented that it rode like a new car. The brakes were smooth and silent, the horn worked, so its almost ready for state inspection.

                    The next two sections are talking about planned upgrades we will do in the near future...

                    SUNROOF DELETE PANEL

                    The factory sunroof is busted on this car and stuck in the "almost closed" position. It hasn't leaked any water in but its just dead weight in the car right now, since it won't retract or close completely. Luckily one of the many things we can do in the "No Points Modifications" rules section within NASA TT/PT classes is a sunroof delete.



                    Why do this? Three reasons.

                    1. The sunroof in an E46 weighs about 33 pounds, and its weight up at the highest point of the chassis.
                    2. With a factory sunroof, the headliner sits about 1-2" lower, which makes headroom tight for me*
                    3. The sunroof motor is busted on this car, and the glass roof panel is sitting just slightly open...

                    * Yes, while this car is being built primarily for my wife Amy, who is 5'7" tall, she and I are on a registered NASA team. That means either of us can drive the same TT entry if we register as a team, which we always do. We often enter multiple cars (pay multiple entry fees) as a team, too. So either driver can drive any car paid for and entered as a team. So I might drive this car.



                    From previous experience, I don't well fit in an an OEM sunroof equipped E46 (or virtually any car with a factory sunroof) with a helmet on. You can see that in the images above, from our blue 2001 330Ci. I ran with the sunroof open on that car early on, but the edge of the glass panel is just about in the middle of my helmet, so I had to "slouch" down in the car, lean the seat back, etc.



                    I managed to fit with a 1-piece racing seat, but only when it was bolted directly to the floor (inches lower than the stock seat). When she and I both drive a car it needs a seat slider, which adds about an inch of height to the seat (and makes it easier for Amy to see out of the car). Then my head is in the sunroof/headliner again. The only SCCA class-legal fix on our old car was a complete factory roof swap. That was a giant PITA!

                    Pictures of the E46 roof swap: https://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Instruc...E46-Roof-Swap/



                    Getting the old headliner, interior panels (A-, B-, C-pillars), and the sunroof cassette out was the easy part - and for Project #JackDaniels we will have to do this same steps shown above. To make the sunroof swap legal for SCCA we had these additional steps: spend a couple thousand on a new exterior roof panel and headliner (both imported/shipped from Germany), add the extra roof cross bow, and finish the install exactly like BMW built it from the factory. This work meant we had to remove the front and rear glass, drill out every spot weld around the roof perimeter, count the number of spot welds, and use the same number of welds at the same locations to attach the new roof panel. I did this job myself, and it was a bear.



                    This 325 is NOT being built around SCCA Solo rules and we can just use a relatively painless-to-install "sunroof delete panel". For BMWCCA road racing, it has to be metal, but NASA don't care - so we will use a fiberglass or carbon fiber sunroof delete panel - like these options from s2r tuning (see above). This panel is a lot nicer than the eBay crap we used to have to settle for. It has a proper flange & mounting holes.



                    Once the panel is in place a new "no-sunroof" headliner from BMW (~$400) finishes off the interior and gives you the extra 2" of headroom. We will likely recover or replace the A-, B- and C-pillar trim at the same time, since its all falling apart. After we source the non-sunroof headliner, then we can paint or wrap the s2r panel we already have, then do the swap. Will show that next time.

                    M3 FRONT BUMPER COVER + M3 FRONT FENDERS?

                    As I mentioned before (first image in this post) the front bumper cover is pretty beat up. It is functional but just plain ugly, and will have to be replaced at some point. Since we are thinking of NASA TT-letter class legal upgrades we have to keep those rules in mind. We could upgrade this 325Ci to 330 ZHP (M-Tech II) or E46 M3 front bumper cover, but either one would cost "points" in NASA TT letter classes. Anything other than the plain old E46 325 cover is "mod points", which we need to keep an eye on.


                    Various E46 front bumper cover pictures shown side by side

                    Why does an OEM cover from another E46 model cost points? These cars are classed as the Base Trim Models (323, 325, 328, and 330, all separately). The 330 ZHP is not even the BTM model of the 330 entry, and of course the E46 M3 is a different model altogether. There could be and likely are aerodynamic differences between the "base model" 325 front cover and these other two options, shown above.

                    Both the ZHP and M3 bumper covers have a longer bottom section, which is considered an "air dam" when you compare it to the "BTM" 325/330 bumper cover. Either bumper cover upgrade would be at least +3 points - see the NASA TT rule 8.3.G (see below). The ZHP has little forward facing lower spats, which could even be considered canards (+2) and/or a splitter (+3). The M3 CSL front end (not shown) could take the same hits for canard and splitter upgrades as well.

                    G. AERODYNAMICS:
                    1) Add, replace, or modify front fascia and/or air dam +3 (except as provided for in I.c.3), I.f.3), I.h.14) of the No-Points Modification list) The air dam must be vertical (5° tolerance) and must not protrude from the side of the vehicle or it will be assessed an additional +3 points. Additional points must be assessed below for any component of the added, replaced, or modified fascia or air dam that performs the functions of G.2) and G.3) below.
                    Don't laugh - I've seen a base S2000 upgrade to the factory S2000CR front bumper cover and get +11 points thrown at them (+3 air dam, +2 canards, +3 splitter, and +3 for added width). It retroactively cost the owner several NASA wins and track records when this ruling came down, which was all the way from the top. So we need to be smart and decide which way we want to go on this car - either a wide tire setup or a narrower tire (245mm) + alternate aero mods - before we change the front bumper cover, front fenders, etc. Decisions, decisions.

                    From what I can see the entire model run of the E46 M3 shares headlights with the pre-facelifted 2000-03 325/330 Coupe, so we will go with the E46 M3 front bumper cover. The M3 front bumper is also a better basis for brake cooling and splitter addition, if we "go for aero".



                    We might add M3 front fenders as well. Do they fit? Yes they do. We did the M3 front fender upgrade (but not front end) on our blue 330 Coupe (above left), which fit 285mm front tires. Initially we ran the blue 330 with the unmodified M3 front fenders, which were more-or-less a bolt-on (we used the M3 fender liners, which are longer, to line up with the outer fender lip). It took a little tweaking to get the 330 front bumper cover to line up, but we made it look seamless (above right). The M3 bumper cover fits even better when used with the M3 front fenders, as you would expect.



                    To make these legal as "flares" for the SCCA class we raced in with that car back then (also needed for zero-point TT-Letter legality), we had to make them look like an E46 Coupe fender "with flares added". To do this I covered up the M3's unique "side vents" on the upper section of the fenders, so it would be considered a "fender flare" change. Alternatively we could just cut the outer M3 flare portion off and graft that to the 325 fenders (its just more work).





                    More pictures of the E46 fender rolling and M3 fender conversion here: https://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Instruc...ender-rolling/



                    The M3 front fender flares allowed the E46 non-M to swallow 285mm front tires on 18x10" wheels. We used that size for NASA TTD later in its life and it worked well, and we could do the same on the 325Ci here... but the tire size bump from a base 215mm tire (+70mm of tire = +19 points) eats up a LOT of our class modification points, and pretty much precludes any aero work. And, well, as much as I like "big tires on everything" we have lately had great luck with adding "all the downforces!", too.


                    Full aero upgrade or massive tire upgrade? That's the big question

                    Its an expensive thing to "just do both and test", of course. Adding massive tires will take extensive body mods. Adding a splitter/airdam + rear wing will also take a lot of time and money. Which will work better? We will have to see....

                    What's Next?

                    First off, here's the tally of parts and hours from Round 3 of upgrades and mods.



                    Good grief how have I already spent $4622 on this car already?!? There's a number of additional replacement parts and plans we have for the 325 but I need to see if it makes sense to continue with a 325 vs a 330. There are plans to build a custom exhaust header that we have been acquiring parts to build, the rear subframe needs reinforcement and repair (0 point mod), the rear subframe and differential both need firmer poly bushings (already acquired), but all of that takes time.



                    One safety upgrade we have in mind is the seats + harnesses + a 4-point roll bar. The two Cobra seats above were used in a previous project, so those will go in the E46 when the timing works with our shop. The driver's side needs a slider and custom brackets to fit Amy and me both. We will likely wait until the roll bar is built before installing these, to get them all to line up together.



                    The old steering wheel is nasty and has a massive hole in the leather cover. Getting a steering wheel "re-wrapped" is an expensive affair ($375+) and all of the places found only have patterns for the E46 M3 wheel. So an easier solution would be to take this E46 M3 steering wheel above and slip that onto the column of #JackDaniels. The wheel rim is a different shape and has a slightly different airbag, but the steering wheel controls are identical and the leather cover is perfect. Maybe it will just bolt right up? I've seen it on the interwebs so it must be true.

                    We still have plenty of safety, reliability, and car prep tasks before this car takes to the track, but hopefully before the end of 2015 we can take the 325 onto a road course and get some initial lap times. Fingers crossed...

                    Thanks for reading,
                    Last edited by Fair!; 11-17-2015, 03:35 PM.
                    Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
                    2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
                    EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

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                    • #11
                      Re: Vorshlag 2002 BMW E46 325Ci - Daily/Track Car - Project Jack Daniels

                      Looking forward to the future update when you give up and get a lower mileage 330Ci.
                      -Sean Martin
                      2009 Pontiac G8 GT

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                      • #12
                        Re: Vorshlag 2002 BMW E46 325Ci - Daily/Track Car - Project Jack Daniels

                        This thing is going to be better than a lower mileage 330Ci by the time Terry is done with it

                        Looking forward to when he gets to working on the headers

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                        • #13
                          Re: Vorshlag 2002 BMW E46 325Ci - Daily/Track Car - Project Jack Daniels

                          Originally posted by Redwood View Post
                          Looking forward to the future update when you give up and get a lower mileage 330Ci.
                          We have been quietly searching for this, actually....



                          Bought this Hellrot red 2001 BMW 330Ci 5-speed last night. Already working on it. Will update this thread with this change shortly...
                          Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
                          2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
                          EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

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                          • #14
                            Re: Vorshlag 2002 BMW E46 325Ci - Daily/Track Car - Project Jack Daniels

                            -Sean Martin
                            2009 Pontiac G8 GT

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                            • #15
                              Re: Vorshlag 2002 BMW E46 325Ci - Daily/Track Car - Project Jack Daniels

                              Hey that thing will need quality headers too!

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