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Great drivetrain but I can imagine the ‘dog taking a sh*t’ silhouette might limit the market somewhat.

Fuel pump and filter.

Got everything assembled and bled after getting the correct retaining springs ... have ordered some retrofit pins also which take a R clip instead of having to be smashed in. Hopefully they arrive soon and ahead of (re)certification. Got out for a drive to bed everything in, feels pretty good ... would like a firmer initial pedal so will likely do the M3 master cylinder swap at some point.

Drivers seat all done. Welded lower base as per previous post, welded one of the tabs that the backrest screws into and recovered the seat in brand new fabric. Still need to put in the new seat shocks but the seat feels fantastic. Hopefully the passengers seat doesn't involve too much welding!

Yep thanks to @Vass for buying these. Lucky (or not) he bought them and had sorted them to save someone the expense and headache of doing it. The LHD versions probably would of been cheaper to modify especially using the slim joint. Malian Exhaust / Kage Trading are easily the worst and most scummy company ive ever dealt with online. Finally got some money back a few days ago from credit card dispute after they stuffed me around in various ways for months. Too bad we didnt have a proper invoice in time to make them pay for what they really owe.

Considering selling my genuine bmw m performance short shift kit out of my 2008 135i. Complete with shift boot and knob. only selling to go to a chassis mount shifter as it’s mostly a racecar. these are discontinued and no longer available from bmw. Very hard to find. note, shift carrier has been professionally repaired/reinforced, doesn’t affect function and is not visible at all. Now NLA looking for around $750 considering how rare they are

I relayed this and my wife simply said "he is correct though.." lol

Alright fella's, I popped my cherry and got my first BMW, probably hum drum to y'all but kind of exciting for me. Only other "performance" car I ever owned was a MK1 Golf GTI (1800), that I used to rag around London in, until I hit a tree and wrote it off, so this is quite a step up. But I recently got a e82 135i N55 DCT. No mods, just a tune from autopassion. Looking to do the chargepipe soon and the down pipe at some point, but what I would really like to do is accentuate the exhaust note, and if anyone has any advice of what can be done by way of exhaust mods that will really bring the exhaust note into its own I would love to hear about them. Glad to be here, nice to meet you all, and thanks in advance for any help.

Sorted out today by Elite Wheels (thanks @Gaz!). 5 stars - would recommend. Dropped off this morning, picked up this arvo. Just need to get some new rubber on now (not related to pothole - just old and shagged).

Haha, I don't code for a living, but I have coded since I was about 14. I did a BE majoring in Mechatronics (which is marketing for Robotics and Embedded Systems Engineering), and worked in that space for a period of time. So I have a reasonable grasp of embedded systems (which is what DMEs are), assembly language, etc. I would describe myself as someone who has some background in this space, rather than an expert. I certainly don't have any prior experience with disassembly, so am figuring it out as I go (although tbh understanding the concepts and being able to read technical documentation are pretty much all you need anyway). Ghidra as a tool is super-impressive at what it can do and makes a lot of it significantly easier when it comes to identifying patterns, likely function entry and return points, etc. which saves a lot of time.

This one is far from new, 270,000km. Required quite a bit of love to get it be a 'nice' car. We're some of the way through building a revvy motor for it. M44 bottom end, with M42 head, ITBs, lightweight flywheel, all rotating assembly balanced etc. It's all going to the machine shop this week. The short block I got from a scrapyard for $200 with 90,000km on it.

SOLD, coming back up North

I went for the Toolshed own branded 1/2" and will be getting the 1/4" this week. Not flashy but the selling points for me were: Nice Nm only scale Legible 0-9 units around the twist barrel Comes calibrated, with certificate https://www.thetoolshed.co.nz/product/15319-toolshed-torque-wrench-1-2in-dr-30-210-nm <--- Pretty sure i didn't pay $219, would have gotten on a special 👍

Score, Decent poly capacitor on the tweeter and good power handling, tweeter on a gimbal so you can align them better in relation to front. .Looks like a quality coaxial speaker.

Its actually me that selling it, forgot to post here earlier! https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=5015937568 Its a monster of a thing. Only selling as Im hoping to put money towards an i8. Full service (plugs, oil, filters) and new rear, premium (Arnott) air suspension. No reserve, accepting bids form $17.5k.

Sold

I've also had rather extended stocking times with Schmiedmann (3 months in one example, currently have another order approaching 2 months). For genuine parts, I've had much more respectable stocking times (3 days, where Schmiedmann showed 20 for the same part) and better customer service with Hubauer Shop.

To be fair the 320Z is a pretty desirable gearbox, more so than the getrag 5 speed that came in most E36/46. The ZF came in the E36 M3 and E46 330 etc, it's pretty bulletproof and has one of the nicest gear changes of any BMW box imo. Going rate is 3-4kish depending on what's included. You can get a getrag 5 speed for $1000.

DM me if you want. I live in Rotorua and have an E30. Keen to see what you've done with the conversion as well.

Yea i wasnt sure either after googling so i got under it and looked. has the metal flat pan and a sticker saying its the GM one. my 530i e61 has the plastic finned pan ZF trans

yes. diesel crank needs the nose machined up - shortened - and a keyway, I think. All the M42/M44 mods seem to require $$ machine costs, for moderate increases in power/torque.

Castrol Edge 5w30 is half price in Mitre 10 Botany of all places at the moment. Not sure if it’s just there or all Mitre 10s.

Decided not to put in a rear console / back seat USB BMW port. But I did put in a universal pd / usb charger. This one has up to 65 watts for USB c and 18 watts on usb b. Handy for rear passenger for charging devices and also will charge work laptop if needed. Was going through BMW TIS wiring diagrams and this is what I’ve learnt. Terminal 30b feeds all 12 volt outlets. 30b is enabled when the car is considered occupied and will run until car is either locked or will stay active for 8 -20 mins if the car is left unlocked after parked. After that it powers down. Was thinking about this as don’t want parasitic power draw from usb charger. For the rear console charger my car didn’t have a rear 12 volt outlet. In the factory wiring the rear outlet ifs piggybacked off the front hidden 12volt outlet. However with the f30 / f80 wiring looms there is almost no provisioning of wiring for accessories that went in the cars original build sheet. I needed to run wires for this. So , got some 1.5mm2 wire left over from adding the boot 12 volt outlet. Wrapped it in Tesa tape and rather than pull console apart to route I just used curtain wire to feed it from rear of console to dashboard. I popped the rear console trim down, drilled a 30 mm hole and mounted the charger. Works well for quicker charging of phone / tablets / laptop.

Been putting the engine loom back on the e23 as I took it off to have it checked prior to selling it 3 and a bit years ago. Now she won't fire up. I'm thinking one of the relays have gone bad or I put a connector on wrong. I cannot find any wiring diagrams for this car. It cranks but has no spark and no voltage to the crank and reference sensors. May be ECU related so I will pull the ECU apart tomorrow and have a look. The wiring is in a pretty poor state of affairs. I am looking to maybe make up a whole loom or just convert the old motronic stuff to the facelift motronic stuff.

this is soooo sick bro!

yeahhh buddy!!!

Lovely! Timeless. If only it were manual. GLWS

*many* might be pushing it @elias. There’s hundreds of thousands of the N57 out there between 3-4-5-6-7 series and X3-4-5-6. The timing chain is a bit of a weakness on the n47 but less so on n57, just a pain if it does need doing as it’s on the back of the engine against the bulkhead. Bearing failure if it happens is usually fatal to the engine due to the aluminium block and the hardness of the bearings ruins the crankshaft. IMO the N57 is one of the most reliable BMW engines though.

No mention of the pinned up headliner in the ad description either @Vass. - speculative pricing still clearly on display

Haven't come by this thread before. But this is one bad ass looking M3. Low key and mean looking (exactly how I'd have it if I was lucky enough to have one of these).

840 + 6-speed is the bees knees! but the 850csi is the holy grail of the e31!! I was told that there were six NZ new manual 840's (excl the converted one), one is de-reg and at least one is now in Oz. So having two of four remaining is pretty 'rare' in my book - if you find one, I would be keeping them, ah I mean it!! 😎

That looks superb @Tobias01

Was wondering when a thread about this one would pop up... Pretty disgusting state of affairs when dealers are asking $20+k above market value without even wanting to spend a few hundred on a new shift knob or getting the steering wheel, leather seats properly treated. Close to zero effort and investment yet are asking a premium. Probably looked at that blue one listed at $90k and figured this one is a bargain at 60, not realizing the first one is horrifically overpriced by 2x. Pretty sure there have been much better examples listed for less very much recently. Not sure who would in their right mind would fork out $60k for it when there's a like 5 E60 M5's to choose from all at under $40k.

It’s a June 2000 production car that has been owned by a member of the NZ E39 M5 Facebook group’s father. It’s actually Oxford green 2, and is a pre LCI car ( a fair chunk of NZ cars were pre LCI) so has the older steering wheel and sat nav screen. 1/4 in Oxford in NZ ( known of) and the other 3 have caramel leather. The asking price is kind of commensurate of dealership prices in recent times. I think we can all remember how a cheap one a few years was around low $20’s and a minter was $40-$45. Sadly, those days are gone.

Never been happy with the way this car shifted gears but after perservering with different gearbox oils and knobs I am pleased to say I am now happy. Turns out the final piece to the puzzle was a gen ZHP weighted knob, I am sure I probably have worn bushings in there but it's much much better. Would not have thought a knob would make such a difference. Also if anyone is considering Wipertech blades I can report I am happy with mine.

Amazing thread. Joined the forum just for this! The level of work and varied nature of the jobs is highly respectable. Hi from the UK 👍

Just sold the F30 335i to a fellow up North - has been a brilliant vehicle and I hope he enjoys it

235,xxx km New Phillips D2S xenon bulbs. I replaced both so they hopefully colour match better. Also replaced the rear badge with an OEM I got with the last parts order. Out with the old. The fishing line trick really works wonders New one: Still checking the oil level since doing the 02 pilot mod and it might have burned a smidge it’s not low enough to warrant a top up so very happy. Scored some brand new Meyle HD sway bar links off FB marketplace. The front left boot on the links I pulled out had been damaged i found (maybe from when the garage replaced the leaking shock).

Update: I love this car.

I got my brake lines, supplied locally via https://nz.helperformance.com/ ... if you're in need of tasty braided lines I recommend 👍 Last week also got the misc items from Spareto (front caliper pin kit, basic pads and M3 parking brake shoes). Have yet to pull the trigger on the custom brackets and hats due to cost ... hopefully will order on pay day 😬 Then only need to arrange the remaining cross over pipe for rear caliper I stuffed up.

This thread is so next level, thanks for sharing!

Got my ITB's for my stroker build. Pretty excited 😊

Bled clutch and brakes, fitted d shaft, heat shield and exhaust. Once you jump in and out a few times...it's quite awrrite. Another feeling altogether sitting in this car. It's like the Ls was meant for a race spek like this.. 3.9 ratio diff in this one, with thicker shafts...last one was 3.15...so ...😳

Do they always do a half day for the national track vs full day for club also ? Was curious about that one. Thankyou Caught me by surprise when i saw the thumbnail in my recommendations, initially i thought "woahhhh somebody else did the swap !!!" hah. Hows about those stone chips on the front that the camera seemed to really hone in on 🤣 Looks a LOT better now with the new plate, stone chip touch ups and black grill. Here is the Kiwi Car Life review:

Keen to see how you go with it. Not that I need bigger brakes on mine but keen to take on a similar project eventually. My plan is to go with a simple 135i setup, mostly because it's tried and tested, adapters are readily available and the brakes themselves are relatively easy to come by locally. My main fear being that shipping on such bulky items will be the biggest killer, not awfully keen on dumping several grand on brakes alone. Wonder how 135i brake performance compares to the setup you're going with. Pretty sure all non-M E46's had the same master cylinder so your 318i one will be the same as on a 330i. From what I've read on the 135i conversion the master cylinder and booster should hold up just fine with the bigger brake setup, so long as they're in good working order. Pretty keen to know whether there are any out-the-box upgrade options out there though.

Most of the cloth seats I've seen are ripped, where as only the dried out leather seats have cracked. I think better off focusing on seats in good condition instead of what type.

Got my partly broken x5 it’s own partly broken x5.

Cheers mate, I'll give them a ring and see if the price is reasonable.

That big brake kit 🤩

Drivers Review - 140i War Hammer Last week I pick up the phone at work to Ray on the other end for our once a month catch-up. He enthusiastically said 'waddya doing this weekend'. My reply, not tons planned but bout time for a visit. He said, good cause I have something for you to try out. The 140i is on the road. Not batting and eye lid I said good ill be there with bells on. Roll on Saturday and a 45min commute from green lane up to silver dale. We arrive and sitting in the driveway was a stout little 1 series. Only hint of what is going on is the quad exhaust sneaking through the rear valance. After some chit chat .. He handed me the keys, the missus and I jumped into the car and prepared the usual check mirrors / belts / anything loose that would end up on the floor etc. Fired the little thing into life, which soon made me realise with the s65 shoe horned under the hood and modified pipes that this aint no 1 series any more. I locked the DCT transmission into reverse and eased the car back onto the road. Checking all the normal stuff I popped it into first and moved away ... with a quick pop of the paddles I was in second and gave it a medium sqeeze on the throttle, immediately we were both pushed back into our seats and I realized we were over the speed limit with the car showing small hint it was tapping at the tranction control. Giving the car a bit of a warm up I took it easy up to the open road and drove it down to my favourite testing ground run .. the sprint to stillwater. I pulled over to let the car finish its warm up of the oil and water to operational temp. Looking down I pushed the 'Power' button and changed the DTC settings to '6'. Now lets stop here for a second to look at its spec. Here we have a 120i Motorsport shell with e92 m3 sub frame components, DTC 7 speed gear box, e92 M3 diff and suspension, Mperformance brakes, newly refreshed s65, free flow stainless exhaust, Tuned MSS60 ECU and m3 GTS software loaded onto the gearbox computer and Mdynamics DSC traction and stability control. Back to the drive, I stomped on the loud pedal and plucked 2nd, 3rd , 4th, 5th redlining all the way. The sound was ammmmmmazing. But what trumped that was the amount of time it took me to break the legal and beyond. I see our first corner coming up at a great rate of knots. Look down and see a 2 with a couple of zeros .. hit the picks and dive into the first corner. It just soaked up the corner and the bumps. Accelerating out of the corner I pop the paddles and within a blink of an eye im through some more gears. The GTS gearbox software has come a long was since the SMGII days. Dual clutch transmission are the playstation generation. You cant get it wrong and it just builds confidence as the car isn't un-settled between gear changes. Up comes the next corner which is the start of a set of s bends. Complete with Rodney Council's finest b road bumps can throw at me. The car didn't flinch. I hit the down change and in comes the rev matching and throttle blips. holy crap I say that sounds awesome. At this stage Im giggling like a little girl while punching it out of the corners ... traction control is letting me know that its keeping the rear end in check. We get down to Still Water and take pause to figure out what the combination is and how something so potent can be so solid on the road with this power to weight combination. I jump out and the missus jumps in. She gives it the potatoes on the way back and reminds me I dont make a good passenger. We get to the open highway, and I jump back in the seat. And do the airfield run. I get a real chance to open it up. Pulling a big over taking manoeuvre past a local tourist. Up pops the stop sign to local highway .. The speedo is well past what would be considered sane. In come some braking performance .. bang bang bang down through the gears .. it pulls up with a face ripping gforce to the local highway. I get a honk honk and thumbs up from the tourist haha .. We complete our cool down run and return to HellBM. I get out of the car and walk up to ray, Ray: 'Whaddya think" Josh "Well that wasn't sh*t" Its given me the big hurry up on my plans for my next car. I own a e30 s50b32. I take on a car that was to put great power into something that I though needed it, at the time it was ground breaking.' This 1 series hatch with the s65b40 and DTC just brings into perspective what the new level is in badassness. This hatch is king. I have driven a lot of builds, with power and handling. Including some amazing factory cars. This takes the cake on all of it. Its really that good. Well done HellBM, this is the future of modding and its bright.