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Hey guys, Recently moved back Timaru from Aussie and have a passion for cars in general. Been playing with bimmers over the last 5 year after working on JDM for along time, Have had a few bimmers now Had an old 4.4 x5 that was a tow rig for my Turbo ls e46 330ci. (back in Aussie) Currently have a daily 2010 135i DCT FBO Also have a E46 330i that i have apart as im rebuilding for turbo conversion. ( might get a coupe to put motor and box into) I have an extensive background in fabricating and engineering. Do all my own fab work have capabilities to build cages to NZ Spec. Few old rides and fab work below. Keen to help out where i can Regards Chris

And usually 5 of them are with the NZ couriers lol

Thanks to @darren_mk I finally got a set of Startec lights to complete the aesthetic I was going for. So stoked with how they look on the car. The difference is night and day. Also had my little helper help me wash the car due to my injury and then she washed hers haha

Went to Manfeild on Saturday for a track day. Took the black manual 130i for a hoon. Went well. Unknown brake pads cooked pretty quickly and you can definitely feel the weight of the car. Good fun being chased down by the Mrs in her 200sx. They really should use these for a future race series chassis.

Dealer should be able to sort it with just the VIN code. Be prepared to fork out around $500. I personally couldn't justify that so found a DIY solution. AK90+ module off Aliexpress - $30 Blank key off Aliexpress - $10 Get a locksmith to cut the key - $30-50 Install the software that came with the AK90+, unbolt the EWS module from the car, an hour max fiddling around and you've coded yourself a new key for under 1/5th of the price. 1998 E36 should be EWS 2 so will be compatible. Plenty of easy to follow guides out there. Turned out a much easier process than I had feared. Just have a go.

Meanwhile...

Got a toot, wave and a 👌 from a Jaguar driver who pulled alongside me on the motorway when I was taking the Alpina for breakfast today, feel good moment!

There are not a lot of well sorted ones worth a premium. Many have fallen into that typical Kiwi 3rd/4th owner neglect stage like all BMW's reach. I play a game with AMG's. How many owners has it had going by it's visual condition and the type of driver. Guessed 10 as a joke for a absolutely clapped E55 AMG the other day. I was wrong. It was 14 owners...

Can vouch for this car. It is wicked to drive and I currently have it at my shop getting some paint touch ups done. What a phenomenal vehicle. All the goodies! VID-20241222-WA0004.mp4

Routeburn taxi

Stopped looking at e30's - people are crazy 🤣

Waiting for battery to charge so I can pop it back in and see what's what. Hopefully know more in a day or so.

My Techno Violet 540is sat on FB for a while, the seller was a bit old school and really hated stupid questions, once we got some dialogue going we agreed on the price. It was below $20k. Ironically about 6 months after I bought it, I was parked in Lower Hutt and a chap came up to me and asked if it was for sale, he offered $25k without promting. I declined, but he gave me his number if I changed my mind. I think that prices for a lot of cars are quite cheap now, a buyers market so to speak. That said good cars should get decent money.

Definitely consider the CANTCU route if you're intending to use the vehicle as a road car / daily.

See if you can find one with a qtc of around 0.5 which in a sealed box should be around 0.7 qts . Best combo of response and low end imho. Cabin gain will help bring up the sub bass region below 50hz can be anywhere between +6 - +10 db. Your plan for back corner are ideal as usually will play +3db louder than other locations . Important when running an 8. With QTS value if you haven’t already picked up on it a value of 0.5 is very tight bass but not so good on extension , 0.7 considered the best combo of rhythm and low end extension. 1.0 and above is considered boomy and flabby bass, but ok for hip hop genre where the overhang can work quite well. There is quite a good online simulator for TS modelling of speaker response for a given speaker Loudspeaker database. And cabin gain can be modelled via a tab in REW if your interested In going that far.https://www.roomeqwizard.com/ Edit, had forgotten about winSD modelling software, worth a look. https://www.subwoofer-builder.com/WinISD.htm

I've driven it a few times since we collected it. Full tank of Waitomo 95 before xmas day. I drove it today, into town and back... and I marvelled at how well it's running. Light throttles... making making torque and climbing hills at 50 like it's enjoying it. Running sweetly. Jon at Begley Motor Worx has worked his magic.

An 8HP is an awesome trans and I have driven, and owned a few cars that have it. However, it's quite a bit more expensive to buy, and there is no simple "how to" guide to fit it. I dont know if I will need new driveshaft, what trans mounts will work and the fact the Cantcu controller is $2k. The 6HP is a simple bolt-up and the DME talks to the TCU with no programming needed.

HPR 5 half price at SCA, finally. https://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/p/penrite-penrite-hpr-5-engine-oil---5w-40-5-litre/14911.html?cgid=SCN8006450

... and in a similar fashion, this one here : https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/volkswagen/auction-5073349607.htm

Been slack on here again recently. Has been a busy time. Finally had my graduation after completing my practical work hours, so I am officially a mechanical engineer now, Ive become a New Zealand citizen and Ive signed a contract to start a new job in the new year. Not a whole lot has changed with the car to be honest. Ive had the car back on the dyno at work just to check the tune again to make sure all is still well, changed oil, the usual stuff. Car is happy and running well. Ive installed a RTD motorsport chassis mounted short shifter. Ive made some changes to the radio delete plate and cut a hole in it to install an OBDII scan gauge. This is a much better solution than MHD monitoring as its permanently installed in the car, doesnt require charging, turns on and off with ignition, and has been set up with Audible alarms should oil or coolant temp exceed set thresholds. Wrapped to plate in some alcantara/suede to eliminate glare, quite happy with how it turned out. Now need to make something similar as a shift surround for the new shifter. Also bought and sold a few cars in the meantime, traded the 123d hatch for a v6 tdi touareg, sold the touareg, bought another v6 tdi touareg but this time a facelift one in much better shape with all the options (minus a sunroof, dont trust those) and full dealership service history. Fantastic car and in my opinion the perfect daily driver. Incredible comfortable, spacious, smooth and quiet with sufficient power and surprsingly good fuel economy. Plus it can tow 3.5tonnes.

Potentially looking at selling my wagon before I spend a whole lot of money on it. very hard to find diesel wagons here in nz particularly nz new ones. 2006 330d: Nz new, Black leather interior, electric seats, parking sensors, cruise control (I think will have to confirm), sunroof (functions perfectly). 18 inch optional wheels. current wof and rego, 16x,xxx kms. RUC will be up to date. Drives great only considering selling as I’ve got two other cars and don’t really need a third, and I know if I keep it I’ll spend a bunch of money on it doing m sport conversion, tune etc etc. these are very very hard to find, similar spec 335d albeit lci is listed for 14-15k, so price is roughly based off that considering it’s not lci and it’s a 30d not a 35d. located Auckland north shore, welcome to view, overall fairly tidy car but obviously has some marks here and there as you’d expect. $9000 Ono.

Any other goodies? I was tempted to go have a poke around this weekend, and then come up with an argument for the missus about why 4 is the right number of cars. Looked like a good bargain, the brakes on mine cost over 50% of the asking price of that....

Someone like @promo may be able to assist?

Less money than E46 330i's, which have higher km's and significantly lower performance. Half the price of a 3.0 Z4 (significantly more Z4 3.0 and 3.0si's built than 130i's!) which share most of the parts and same performance as a 130...

Most of the ones on trademe look pretty average price wise. I dont really follow pricing but 5-6k for an auto and 7-8k for manual is what ive always thought the average ones was worth?. The white manual looks the best bet, but would need the usual cash injection to sort it no doubt.

I remember buying mine for $3,200. LCI with style 216 wheels and in Le Mans blue. 2 keys and pretty tidy but far from perfect. Had 250,000km which I'm sure would have scared most people off. Was a great car though. I think I ended up selling for $4K and then the new owner crashed it. That was an insane amount of car for the money.

Looks mint (literally). Get well soon bro!

LLL parts is another one ive started to try for genuine. Yep BMW dealerships.

Looks a clean example @elias! As you say not many on the market, especially NZ new and without the emissions equipment tampered with. They are probably at the bottom of their depreciation curve now, so maybe 8-9k to the right buyer. I think the E91 facelift 335d touring went for about 12.

That's Aramex for the most part, your lucky if get an item delivered within a week nationally.

Yeah FCP aren't as good as they use to be in general, seems hit or miss if they update you if a delay occurs. If its not shipped within a few business days then emailing them is probably a good idea, they do respond in timely fashion i will give them that. Spareto covers most of your typical wear items for the best value and fastest shipping, then Schmeidmann and NZ dealers for genuine only parts. FCP will sometimes fill a brand or stock gap the others have missed, but generally i dont see the point of using them these days.

Mission Bay

I though plate was “are you nuts” referring to his price point

237,000km oil + filter + VCG. The 02pilot mod seems to have taken care of the oil consumption issue. 7000km with no topping up required. Gave it a quick clean.

That's an 18k car haha

Thats pretty cool. What happens when you charge the battery up, will it discharge rapidly when sitting or actively discharge when driving (which is definitely the alternator)? Would it get onto a trailer?

You'll likely find this interesting - I've been fiddling around with similar on my M3.

To Bry5on's point I need to make sure I understand the theory of cam timing well. I understand the individual concepts, but where I've been struggling is putting it all together and visualizing what it means in different scenarios. To this end I decided that some spreadsheets would help (spreadsheets always help). First up I took the interpolated AVAN and EVAN tables for both the Euro M3 and CSL tunes and calculated the cam overlap for each for each point on the tables: As you'd expect we have low overlap at idle, high overlap in the midrange, sloping down to high RPM. So how does that work out as a difference between the two? The CSL generally runs more overlap everywhere apart from high rpm low load, and particularly in a few different islands in the low and mid ranges. However - we need to remember that the CSL cams have somewhat greater duration than the standard M3 cams. For the purposes of comparison then we should account for this. That's cool and all, but what it still doesn't tell us is whether the Euro M3 tune and the CSL tune differ in where the centre of the overlap occurs (e.g. before or after TDC) which is also important information in understanding the differences between the two and why. So I calculated the centre of the overlap for each of the tunes And from there we can compare the difference in overlap centre between the two: Interesting stuff to look through anyway - I feel now with this view I can better visualize and understand the impact of the various tweaks etc. that I'll make. I've only just put these together and haven't worked through them in detail to look at various areas of interest but will update here as I do.

My read of the thread is that a motor and trans with 120kms was installed (along with the M5 goodies) in 2019 - the car had travelled 270kms at the time of the swap. So, lower km engine/trans than what the chassis is. Was really impressed with this build back in 2019 and still am, other than the red interior :-(. e39 540i Tourings don't come up that often either! Non-vanos = probably one less thing to fix haha!

Hi looking for m54b30 engine does not need loom or comp or any bolt ons as have that on race engine. Look for spare one

Your thinking and logic is good. I have my 8s doing most of the bass range as they do it well and articulate the bass lines nicely with a reasonable amount of authority.

Ghastly thing. Red interiors are never great but combined with a bright blue exterior 🤮

it's okay mate, heel-and-toe double de-clutch downshifts with blips when I'm pedalling a manual 😁

LPSR purple tag - The used one he send me had a preload issue so he gave me a discount on a new rack with his rebuilt one. CMP front brace - Was debating whether to install it but ive never used the fold down seats since owning the car so i figured why not. Haven't really pushed it hard since installing as i need a alignment but it appear to give at least a subtle improvement in rear end feel. Meyle HD bushings - Only found out recently looking in the Bentley manual that there is a distance spec for these to be fitted (~289mm +\-1mm from inner ball joint to rubber bushing). Mine had been re-used which wasn't ideal and weren't pressed on near enough. I made a similar tool to proper ones to ensure i got them on properly this time around. Ive always felt the car wasn't as stable and lacked steering feel it should have and this was very likely the main cause. Even with the wheel alignment off its day and night especially combined with the above tweaks.

Biggest issue for me would be the used auto box gamble. You'd probably do a service, mechatronic seals etc and probably a few drain and fills so that's another $700-800 on top. Then you kinda have to hope the rest is ok because they do have quite a few potential faults that can occur. Getting one from a damaged working car or something the you can at least test drive, check adaption values and fluid condition would be good, or even having it inspected\rebuilt.

Not all E39 M5’s are created equal in this - todays market . When there are only circa 45 examples in nz , the condition and mileage are greatly varied . This one appears to be pretty rough and the seller isn’t doing it any favours by presenting it this way . The photos , car and write up are actually laughable .

Been a minute... very busy time. Engine is back in the car, everything is connected back up. Cut and welded the chargepipe and throttle body for a wiggins style clamp, bonnet latch got zinc coated and a few other bits and pieces tidied up. Downpipes are back in also, very painful job, o2 sensors back in and new exhaust is almost finished. Full stainless 3inch exhaust from the downpipes back, with a single adrenalin r louvre baffle resonator. All thats left now is the oil cooler setup, parts are on the way, fresh aeroflow oil coolers and all teflon line and fittings. Also will be putting in a check valve and a tee to allow for an accusump to be fitted at a later stage. Parts should arrive soon and then it will be ready to be fired up and dyno tuned. Will try and keep this updated more often.

Has been a busy few weeks but have managed to get a fair bit done. Took advantage of the long weekend (Auckland Anniversary) and pulled to old motor out the car. Wasn't too bad of a job, a bit messy with all the coolant and oil that keeps spilling out and a few bolts that were a little tricky to reach but not too bad all in all apart from the downpipes that put up a real fight. So, old motor is out, most parts stripped off it. New motor is mostly assembled apart from the hot side. Turbos will be getting dropped off for a rebuild and slightly different CHRAs tomorrow. Have since installed a VAC sump baffle in the new motor, put on the sump with a new gasket and new bolts torqued to NEWtis spec of course. Valve cover is on, also new genuine gasket, same with oil filter housing vanos solenoids etc etc, all new gasket the whole way round and new bolts where applicable. Injectors are in again new seals and decouplers. Front main seal going in soon, wiring loom is half on. Waiting on turbos before i install water pump and thermostat. Then inlets and outlets will go on and the motor can go back in the car. I have cleaned the entire empty engine bay subframe steering rack etc and installed new Condorspeedshop engine mounts, have matching ones for the gearbox also. Have also stripped and cleaned the inline oil thermostat to ensure there are no metal bits in it and reassembled it with a 93C insert instead of the 85C insert to help car reach operating temp when street driven. Some photos below. Front end of the car coming off Engine coming out Sump baffle going in New motor with baffled sump installed New genuine gaskets Inejctors getting new seals and decouplers Engine bay being cleaned up Valve cover and injectors on the new engine New engine mounts Loom half on Oil thermsotat rebuild

Just finished making up my bait launcher canon proto type. Fired it tonight at 100Psi and achieved approx 200m outside the house with a lemon mounted in the barrel. The barrel length / pressure needs to be fine tuned. I know alot of these are for sale and have been made., but mine can safely be used at higher pressure due to the materials I have used and the way I have modified the sprinkler valve firing mechanism. I've made it to breakdown for cleaning and easy storage and so far it's hand held but will be building a launching pad/ rod holder and bait station. The barrel is 40mm and will have frozen bait bullets to include, sinker 2 baited hooks, traces and berley to make the bullet. Safety systems are built in and all gear apart from the barrel are 200psi rated. The safety valve is 150psi