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UPDATE. The other part of the strengthening on the rear of the e46 is the pockets in the boot. There are three spot welds on each side that are the start of the problems, and are not strong enough on their own. Access panels were cut out, and the three spot welds had the little piece that separates them cut back ready for welding. Then the whole area was welded. After that I made panels to patch up the holes. These were welded in, had weld through primer on both sides, then vht top coat, and seam sealer. Now I can start putting things back in. The brake lines and fuel lines were cleaned with degreaser, and wax and grease remover, and put back in with the cleaned brackets. The brackets I soaked overnight in simple green concentrate, then cleaned and finally buffed them on the polishing wheel. They came out pretty good considering just how mucky they were beforehand. And installed; The plan is to use an m3 rear end to utilise the large case LSD and larger axles, in preparation for more power. I got a m3 subframe for cheap and sandblasted and painted it after I had taken all the old bushes out. Then it was a case of installing all new bushes. I used all new rubber bushes for the subframe. I will be using a mix of stock rubber and powerflex bushings on the car as I want performance but not too harsh a ride. Heres a bushing going in with my homemade bushing press; I got a good deal on a m3 diff and axles. The axles were not very old but got a clean, polish and fresh coat of paint anyway. I was really happy how they came out. The diff was sandblasted in prep for paint. This turned out to be a terrible idea as sand made its way into the diff. I disassembled the diff and took it to Kayne Barrie to be rebuilt - the guy is a genius. Seeing as it was being rebuilt, I got him to change the ratio, seeing as a torquey V8 will be pushing it now. I went from a 3.62 to 3.23 which will be good for cruising. I hand polished the aluminium diff cover as it couldn't be sand blasted. This took absolutely ages. Here it is before; And how it looked after I had polished it and painted it a high quality clear, and then assembled back on the diff; Then it was installed in the subframe with powerflex bushings. And yes I painted the bolts black lol.

So after my grief with the N46 in my 318i I decided to turn it into a project car. The car is a 2004 318i auto msport wagon with 130,xxx kms. It will be getting a m62b44 non vanos v8 m62b46 v8 with a m122 supercharger It will be mated to a 420g 6 speed manual, and a m3 rear end. I'll also be upgrading suspension and brakes, and setting the car up for flex fuel to run e85. Cosmetically it will get some upgrades, but nothing too over the top. The goals for this project are; #Do as much myself as possible. #No compromises except on budget. #Make something unique. #Learn as much as I can in the process. So lets get started - heres the car; First job was to completely strip the exterior of the car. Everything came out, engine, trans, suspension, subframes, fuel tank, even the fuel lines and brake lines. Up on stands and ready to do some work With everything out I set to work cleaning the underbody. This took ages because I'm a perfectionist. I used degreaser and a waterblaster, and eventually degreaser with a rag to get the real stubborn areas. There was no damage to the underbody but because I'm increasing the power output I wanted to strengthen it. I made strengthening plates out of 2mm steel. A huge thank you to forum member @Karter16 who posted me paper templates to make them from. I bought myself a cheap gasless mig welder and taught myself to weld. This enabled me to make plates like the one below. There are 6 plates in total, 2 for the front subframe mounts, 2 for the rear subframe mounts, and two which are like spacers. Welding is really difficult, but I managed to weld in all 4 of the subframe plates. First I used a grinder with a flap disc and a drill with a wire brush, to get the places to be strengthened back to bare metal, then I coated the area with weld through primer. I coated the back of the plates in weld through primer also and then I welded in the plates. Then I used the grinder to grind the welds back. I then coated the bare metal with crc rust converter primer to protect it - I really like this product. https://www.crc.co.nz/Rust-Converter/6895-2548b7ca-2a00-4114-b2e1-17eb0e6a576b/ Then I used a Vht top coat, followed by seam sealer, and finally Septone stone shield rubberised coating. I coated the whole cleaned underbody in Septone stone shield. Its black, but looks green in the photo for some reason. The side skirts were removed to clean and paint behind and then reinstalled with new clips from Schmiedmann. The inner arches were cleaned and painted, and the cleaned plastic pieces were reinstalled. The cleaning process takes ages. Inner arches before cleaning and painting; And after; While all this was going on I was accumulating parts. All suspension and brake parts I sandblasted in my mates sandblaster. This took many days, and would have been more cost effective paying a professional, but I want to do as much myself as possible. Then they were expertly powdercoated by forum member @aja540i who really does a nice job. Here is a pic of the before and after the sandblasting; And a pic of the same part powdercoated and assembled;

Hello guys, I'm peter, since 5 years owner of a Z3 2L automatic. When I bought it I rather wanted to have a manual, but I fell for the low K\s (32.000) and it was only for sale 2 k's away. And I like the color, Siena rot. I did some moderated mods, I changed my shocks for the Bilstein B12 kit with Eibach springs and changed all of my bushes for red strongflex bushes. The fitters on my work welded a ireland kit in for me. My rear wheels had about 3.20 degrees camber on them, and I was wearing out tires faster than I could afford them. After the mod, the aligner guy was able to bring it back to 1.9 degrees. I also put angel eyes in in the headlights (and gave misses Species 8472 an heart attack with the lights in the oven). And I detangonized my front blinkers and placed 2 color leds in them. The whites are now my daylight driving lights. I am a Dutchy, and came in 2008 in New Zealand for a better life. Yes I have clogs, no I don't wear them. Yes weed is legal in NL, you are alowed to have 5 plants (sorry, off topic) 2 weeks ago my autotranny crapped out. Only 85k on the counter. I'm an moderate driver, but I had a speed contest between an other car two years ago on the Napier-Taupo road. But I didn't pull it over the red line. Maybe it ruined it, who knows...I hope I can use the expertise for this problem on the forum, but I shall open a separate topic for it.

Great project, and that's some excellent work on the diff! but I've got concerns that welding is not ticking the 'no compromises' boxes. Sticking metal to metal is just one part, the join should be uniform and not create any sharp transitions which will create stress raisers and lead to cracking... Whether it is just academic or actually going to be a potential issue is beyond my experience, I'd suggest you get in touch with your certifier asap.

bang on

For steering shaft us e30 guys for a cheaper alternative a steering shaft for a holden astra....could would or for more clearance i used flaming river uni joints and DD shaft but that is a little more expensive. Beware with mounting allow room for the coolant & heater pipes at the rear of the motor. One thing i didnt have enough room for.

Given any thought to using a dry sump system and get the motor lower although the cost of it could negate that.

Thanks for the info. I was planning on using stock e46 m3 engine mounts, as they are very slightly stiffer than e46 non m engine mounts. I will be using rubber on the trans mounts too.

That kit isn't worth it at all, might not even pass NZ cert standards too. Nolathane engine mounts are something to avoid too, using OEM rubber ones is the way to go, I've experienced cars with nolathane mounts then rubber ones - the difference are night and day so aiming for rubber oe type is the best way to go. Headers are prob the most annoying aspect with these swaps. Further back and low as possible makes it harder still. Of course using a non OEM steering shaft needs to be certified on top of the other things so avoiding that route is always a plus. Steering mods and such are always the major ones for cert guys given what can happen if theres a failure. In my car I had about 4mm of clearance from the header to stock steering arm, had to CAD up the headers so I could get the best profiles cut, worked out well but there was NO room for error. Heres some pics of the clearances once finished

Yeah stock fuel lines would be fine. It's only a mid range 4.4 V8, not a 1500hp drag engine Thought much about what you will do with the headers? As you prob remember I put the Toyota 1UZ V8 in my e36, nearly the same clearances on a M62 block (I drew up both in cad to compare) and it's relatively similar in the e46 engine bay. The drivers side steering arm is prob the main thing to look at changing, stock one is very fat with the crumple ribbing, Vorschlag USA make an E36/E46 smaller adjustable arm to suit their LS1 conversion kit, not cheap but saved a lot in space.

Yep, without being critical. I too am dubious of the welds - there doesn't look much penetration. Loving what you are doing though...

Got my E39 running again thanks to Gabe79, new keys coded and fired right back up. Then proceeded to drive E39 to workshop to replace the pair of front thrust arms, PITA job btw. Slight shimmy at 80kph now gone. WoF tomorrow.

Have you given any thought about the diameter of the fuel lines both to and from the tank plus the pipe for fumes returning to the carbon canister..

Busy readying my replacement N54 longblock. Shiny new turbos bolted up today. I'd really hate to do that job with the engine in situ. Not too far to go before I can shoehorn it all back into the E91 :-)

Wow! Looking awesome Nathan!! Great work and loving how clean everything is So glad you've got a build journal now and I can follow along!!! Keep up the great work!!

Maybe ghetto but does the BMW cap (which has a valve) fit on the Audi tank? You'll need good thread engagement. Alternatively maybe a suitable Audi cap?

Where are you getting pressure release from with that reservoir? Doesn't look like that cap blows does it? Fits well though.

Is this code for "my wife won't stop hassling me, please help!"

Yeah don't think you can use them on the track either, so that may be another job for when I run out of things to do. I struggled with putting the ECU in the hole due to the coolant resivor being in the way and found that with the intake on I'd have no room for charge pipe to enter the manifold, so I found one on an Audi A5 that was perfect to my needs tall and skinny and gave me the extra space to put ECU in with ease and space for pipe. Mounted the bumper and lowered the car on the ground, removed the tinted windows seen as I had done a lot of detail on the inside and hiding it with tints makes it look like every other e36 from the outside.

yeah , all i needed to know bro ! thanks so much. I'm not a pro painter either, done plenty of resprays pretty well, but was just checking to see if there was anything out side of the norm. Good luck with your V8 project!

WOW! making me want a v8 in my e46 coupe or atleast a 335 twin turbo!

That's a beaut E36 Lucan!

It looks bad in the pictures, but its totally stable in real life. When I'm under the car I have a stack of tyres under there too as an extra precaution. I'm pretty good on safety.

Washed the e46 and I'm currently in the middle of swapping the e28 fuel filter and putting the exhaust back on. As you can see it was definitely due for a change.

nice work, Greg! I'll award you the 'best of both worlds' prize!

I like Blurple.

Buy a 6 cylinder. If you do get a 4 cylinder completely avoid the N42 or N46 motors as they will empty your wallet and still leave you stranded.

I have a 335i N54,i have had it about 5 years. Especially when cold I would say yeah it a noisey engine and similar to diesel. But it goes hard so I suck it up and ignore

Started making a thing...

It fitted ok, some of the measurements were off, so some holes needed slotting this time. Overall I'm happy with the fit and look of it, will see about getting some thick brush on plastidip for the edges... Anyway, here's the pics.

Still keen...