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So managed a few hours on Sunday. Yay. I bought a turbosmart oil pressure regulator. Why? With ball barian (as my son says) shaft supported turbos of late, there is much increased need for oil pressure control. Please google why so you don't blame me. Installed it. It requires an oil return from excess oil pressure bled off from the supply into the turbo oil drain, adding a further hose or three. Since I haven't added any further cooling capacity apart from the change in the BMS oil thermostat which Im in two minds about (operating range far too wide, from 70degC to 120degC), I'm working on a much bigger oil cooler in its factory position perhaps running a better aftermarket thermostat. This requires much bumper off bumper on action to make sure the cooler is mounted in the correct position for the 1M air feed. I've bought the parts to run another cooler on the pax side albeit a touch smaller. Start with a new replacement drivers side and see if she's works better. So says engineering, that hp and heat output are closely related, which only goes south toward heat as you throw more fuel n boost in. So says engineering... Time to strip the old wiring add ons to the existing loom and add to the fresher loom. if all else fails RTFI. read the fuggin instructions. So bought and put together the BMS short shift kit over the BMW performance version. I chaged out all the bushiongs at the gbox end for delrin (aka hard as f*ck plastic) and the rear with a stock BMW but new. Ready to go in. So looking at the PS and radiator tanks, there is plenty of room to the East, so a few lines made up and she's there. Otherwise we are getting there slowly.

There are quite a few baggy e36s around for sure but for that reason tidy ones stick out like dogs balls. I have seen a few slammed E30s in the last few months and they just scream flat peak, no idea numpties.

Hey Team Just a small update. Did a little road trip up to Auckland over the weekend and picked up a 2nd hand set of XYZ 6pot 330mm brakes. Thanks to Raymond for giving me a great deal. But the high light of my trip was when i went to buy some fruit for the trip home around Greenlane. Saw this beast that caught my eye. I'd have to say the mintest 750i possibly in NZ. I was lucky enough to catch the owner while putting his grocery's in the boot. Donny is his name, brought this back in 96 brand NEW! at $270,000 haggled down from $300,000 WTF. has all the bells and whistles as he got to pick what add ons he wanted. Having AC Schnitzer body kit and 18inch mags made it look stunning. Custom two tone leather, T.V , Phone Sunroof etc. And heres the kicker for a 21 year old car Donny's only done 90,000kms in it. Had a good old yarn with him and took some pictures. I said this will probably be the only time i would see this. Bloody awesome

I guess its never too late for a weekend post.... I picked up a new sedan, 318i NZ New and factory manual! It still has the original ownership book and keyring from Christchurch BMW!!!! $200 was too good to pass up with a fresh wof a little over a week ago and rego! A couple of new engine mounts and a clean and she runs mint! Its got a bit of a nasty repair job on the rear panel that hopefully I can tidy up, also a good excuse for a respray! After a through wash... Then I thought, I will use this as my daily and decided to swap the rims from my old daily onto this, improving it a hell of a lot! Im not the biggest fan of the SAMOABLU and I feel that respraying it in Yas Marina Blue (Same as the M4) would be pretty awesome!

Commodore brake upgrade? Is that where you use an A frame to tow the latest Commodore around and the weight slows you down for every corner??

Not bad pricing, Def Koni street over KYB How many k's has the car done?, are you doing them for a WOF? Should be able to tell if front shocks have been replaced or not. Shocks are ones of those things you really want to replace all at once if worn otherwise the rear end will tend to show up how bad the front is, vise versa.

Good chat. Happy motoring!

Whoa! Don't get me into this Nick......sheesh!

KYB dont do front gas shocks for the E46 from memory but there gas shocks are reasonable, that said I would go Koni. I have had the STRT shocks on my E36 and they matched the factory M sport springs nicely.

Just what long weekends are for . . . 2013 F20 M135i 315bhp of fun

ARP head studs, rod bolts and send it. Plenty of race engine specialists out there, get the Google and phone out. I wouldn't be playing the 600 hp game on a hypereutectic piston without e85 though, they hate knock

All I can say is, double your budget and aim for 600 crank, not wheel hp.

Being an owner of all three (e30, e36, e46) I feel really confused. Our e30 coupe cost 3x as much as the e36, is way "cooler" alot quicker, manual and fairly timeless but I'm drawn towards the ugly duckling, the e36. As a consequence that's where the attention has been going. I like the lines. The cleanliness of the interior and engine bay. E46 is definitely a the least favorite child sitting in in the rain.

Paint me a sceptic. I don't believe there's any way you can come out ahead (economically speaking) buying a brand new vehicle. Unless you're particularly unlucky you could never spend the equivalent of depreciation on maintenance. Isn't the rule of thumb - 10% as soon as you drive it off the lot, 15% once you've hit 1,000 km's and 20% in the first year? And apparently 50% after 4 years (https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/news/89145417/new-zealand-has-highest-car-depreciation-rate-in-the-world-says-study). By the time depreciation slows to a reasonable level the warranty has expired and you're paying for maintenance anyway. Maybe I misunderstood some of the previous posts?

That’s cool, my dads an auto electrician of 43 years and he said if there are issues, we can repair them... there are known issues, we have the list and pricing. My positive spin, I love bmw and repair and maintenance is part of it.

Parents owned one for 5 years without an issue. I’ll remain positive

No offence intended James, but you are not lucky owning a BMW with an N46 motor and I would also suggest you forget doing mods for more HP and concentrate on trying to keep it on the road from a mechanical/maintenance perspective. And I really do know what I'm talking about and I'm not a copy and paste school kid that gets his information from the facepalm forums

This would be a good start

Gotta agree here enjoy a tidy coupe but there are so many ratty ones round. E30s are just straight cool but in reality the 46s are much nicer for much less.

I see you have met our resident Forum Troll and made friends. How nice. Don't feed him, it only encourages... otherwise, "Ron gunna Ron". Be warned it may take a while for him to realise you are serious now he is on a roll. He is capable of sharing genuinely useful information and ideas (no really) if you are prepared to stop being butthurt and engage intelligently with him. He may even draw you a spreadsheet! Good luck.

In all honesty they weren’t stupid mind dumbing questions, I was merely after advice and pointers in the right direction due to tuning not being my strong point, and your we’re just being a patronising unhelpful arse hole. You do that and all the best. Some ppl here have helped but other forums have been so much more. It’s a shame, I thought forums are meant to bring people together who share the same passion, obviously not this one.

If you’re not going to be helpful, f**k off. Tbh you come across as a middle aged prick, fed up of asking this forum for advice if some of you are going to be no help or give me pointless and unecessary advice.

Most E30 guys will even tell you that from a mechanical point of view the E36 is the better car. But the interiors suck, the doors suck, the cooling system sucks, and it just looks like a dated 90s car, doesn't look like a classic

The topic was set up in a rush and in a nutshell. the car will not be tracked it’s my daily. The reason the previous engine went was due to leaking injector leading to a scorched conrod. Autosure provided me with a replacement block and cylinder head, which is currently running stock in the car. i now have a spare block, cylinder head and flywheel. I would like to build on what I have strengthen and forge it so it can handle 600whp. I have no idea on what is needed and what’s has to be done to achieve this apart from forged rods and pistons, hence I asked on here. However half of you guys have been no help what so ever. i have bought many things to help stay on top of preventative maintenance, it’s not a car I just want to thrash, it’s a car I want to modify and obviously take care of in the process. So please can I have a little more help, rather than stupid links and pictures. Currently I take the car to bm workshop for service and all preventative maintenance work to be done! My goal is 600whp use is a daily driver Recommendations, advice and help would be much appreciated

I went onto the NZKW site and couldn't find any N54 specific parts, your probably better off sourcing a made to fit intercooler from one of the bigger US outfits. I would look at a decent intercooler and charge pipe first; at that level your all set for MHD stage 1+. At some stage you may wish to address the PCV with either an RB turbo valve and/or a catch can

Yea the fan can go, but more often its on the e39's for some reason. Electric fan conversion for the win.

Hi all My name is Subhash.I am really happy to be a part of this esteemed community. I have been a non-member follower of this forum for the last few weeks and have gone through many threads containing loads of useful information. My love for BMW started a few years back, when i had a chance to test drive a BMW 3series. I had fell in love with car at first sight. The sheer driving pleasure,the comfort and the build quality amazed me and made me a fan right away . Even though i couldn't afford a BMW at that time i never missed a chance to drive it whenever i could. After all the wait finally i now own a BMW 320i 2007 model for myself. I imported the car from japan and got it delivered last week. Here are the few pics of my car:

Interesting take about the E46 vs the E9X models John I came from a E46 325 before I got the 335i , tho my E46 was pretty much just standard so for me the experience was a big upgrade going to the 335i The stock suspension / runflat tires on the 335i is pretty weak imo , scared myself a few times when I was running a tune/upgraded power and a trackday at hampton showed me the glaring weakness of the setup , its probably a fine setup at stock power levels WIth the M3 suspension parts fitted (all apart from the rear M3 sway bar) with KW coilovers, LSD and sticky PSS , I think it handles well now for the power level its at It sucks with the model/year of your 335i john that your auto transmission doesn't support the transmission flash (XHP or Alpina) , to me that was a another big upgrade Also when you run a ethanol map on the car, you'll notice how different the car is , that TQ life These engines are surprisingly strong , quite a few people in the USA have been running 600RWHP+ (with single or upgraded twins) on the stock engine The take from the community is that above 650+RWHP on stock block is when it will go at some stage I've nearly put on 100,000km from my 4 years ownership of the car in my rear mirror ?

I use the E85 gull force pro fuel when doing track days / weekend fun runs Pros 45+HP and 90+Nm TQ over my 98 map Cooling properties of Ethanol that helps with keeping temps down How angry my car sounds + backfires /flames out of the exhaust Cons Few places in Auckland to get E85 at the pump (Hampton, Puke, Hillcrest) Bugger all mileage Don't run it normally for DD as I am lucky to get 300km out of a 60L tank verus my 550km usually on 98