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So I've recently picked up a E46 330d to drive around the country over the summer. The car has a thorough service history from BMW, so I really wasn't expecting to do much - but the service book doesn't mention whether its had the swirl flaps removed. So I thought I better check by removing the manifold. Couple of hours later - heres what I've found : The swirl flaps are still there - 1 barely!!! The shaft had snapped, but the flap itself is still lodged in there - Very lucky!!! Given its only 1 more week til xmas, I really needed to get this sorted. So I spent the next day making swirl flap blanks. While I was at it, I gave the EGR a clean too! Got it all back together this afternoon and took it for spin. All is good Currently I'm getting around 8.7 L / 100 km, its quite a bit higher than my mates tuned 320d - he gets 900+ km in a tank. Does anyone know whether mines running normal? It sits in traffic most of the time... Andrew

Hi all, New to the world of BMW's. Have a mate at work who's been hounding me to buy one so finally gave in! Picked her up on the weekend and have absolutely fallen in love! It's an 87 325i in manual. The plan for the time being is to recover from the initial expense then a few of the basics, suspension refresh, exhaust, and eventually a respray.

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$3950 Nice tidy 98 323i factory manual Motorsport Plenty of good service history lots of new parts etc Staggered alloys Full leather interior incl sport seats and leather door cards Newish hood lining shocks lower control arms brake hoses tyres Wof Special SA engine spec cast iron block (factory) Rear sun blind Built April 1998 Check all the photos In papakura 021433600

Without the cam work, the idle was mint. With cams, the ICV was struggling to keep the idle level and it hunted. Currently sounds good, can definitely tell they're not factory!

A few little cosmetic projects on the go with MTOY at the moment. I stripped and repainted the wing struts last week in prep for a rally and dialled in another few degrees on the wing. Added some subtle decals underneath to match the front . 5 by Christian Taylor, on Flickr 1 by Christian Taylor, on Flickr 6 by Christian Taylor, on Flickr I've had this Strassentech-style front splitter that I bought from Greg way back in 2012, a mate drove my car shortly after I'd fitted it and hocked a curb. It's been gathering dust in my garage ever since waiting me to get my a-into-g. I repaired it today, currently painting. Check out the split..! Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Few more layers before clear, then polish, refine & paint protection film application to match my other lip. I've got some struts on order that'll fit in nicely on this front; my goal is to have it swap-able relatively easily (like the boot). Chances are I'll just keep the carbon one-piece lip for when I fess up for another bumper cover in the future.

Poked around under the wheel arches while sweeping the garage. Most of this is from the rear left arch, not the first time I have cleaned it, amazing how much dirt can build up. Saw the first e30 at pick-a-part for a while, 2.5 manual! Unfortunately in the 7 days it was in the yard before I got there it was nearly completely stripped. Might be a good thing knowing my spare part collecting habit. Got the piece of plastic trim which runs along the boot as mine is all cracked + a bunch of plastic clips etc New cambelt + waterpump Tested the injectors (purchased rebuild kit from ebay a while ago), jumped fuel pump relay to make sure none were leaking, tested resistance = ok. The first time I put pressure to the fuel rail it appeared my feed hose clamp was leaking but it still leaked after I tightened it, closer inspection revealed the fuel hose was cracked, lucky I noticed. THIS IS THE FUEL HOSE I REPLACED ABOUT 2 YEARS AGO: I assume the problem here is a google search tells me SAE 30 R7 is not suitable for 'Fuel Injection' you should use SAE 30 R9. Why is it labelled 'injection hose' then? Seems to mainly be the outer layer which is cracked. The hose is codan brand, a google search tells me codan is good, a google search also tells me people have had 'R9' hoses crack after a couple of years, even 'Gates' brand R9 hose. Then there is a question of whether those people received 'genuine' 'Gates' hose or not. Substandard parts are frustrating, can't trust anyone anymore. Purchased some SAE 30 R9 hose, replaced the feed line, still have the original return hose on the car (not cracked), holding off replacing it as currently I trust that 27 year old hose more than the new stuff. Sending injectors away for a flow test / cleaning seems to run about $200 - $250 so I came up with a backyard solution. You need something to pulse the injectors because if you hold them open for too long it might damage them. Below is an 'em276 injector tester' cost about $40. I jumped the fuel pump relay and ran the injectors for 30 seconds each timed against a stop watch. If you do this I suggest a fused wire with a switch to jump the pump relay (be careful with sparks around fuel vapour!) Some empty bottles allowed for observation of the spray pattern All even. A 60 second test is probably better for the bottle size. Decided there was no reason to rebuild them but then I tried cleaning the pintle caps with degreaser which was a mistake as the dirty degreaser got stuck underneath them. So I replaced the pintle caps and decided I might aswell use the rest of the rebuild kit aswell, the basket filters looked clean when I pulled them out, new orings etc. I don't think I gained anything doing this as the injectors were already working well. but anyway, rebuilt, re-flow tested and reinstalled. Degreaser did not do much while trying to clean the inside of the intake manifold but sca throttle body / card cleaner did. New 'rein' 3 way heater hose to replace the original with bulging end. Annoyingly the bit by the overflow tank is about 1 inch longer than the original for some reason, still usable but doesn't sit properly (doesn't fit into clamp in the back of air box). New intake gaskets, it seems they commonly get oil soaked from the valve cover, maybe why they fail, so I tried something different. The outer edge of the gasket seems to be raw cut (doesn't have any coating) I assume this allows oil to soak into the gasket easier. So I put a FINE layer of silicone on the outer edge. I didn't use silicone on the gasket face itself, personally I am not a fan of silicone gasket goo, if bmw didn't put it there neither do I. Too many times I have seen / heard of it separating and ending up in the wrong place. I have seen people say torque specs are only for wheel bolts and head bolts. Each to their own, generally if I can find a torque spec I use it. Deleted more of the silicone hose that was on the car when I got it. This is the t-stat to throttle body hose, as mentioned before, I prefer the molded hoses, the silicone ones seem more trouble than they are worth. This one has yellow tape around it because it didn't sit properly and kept rubbing on something. Maybe the original hoses are molded for a reason. Motor is back together and running, haven't driven it yet as there are other things to be done...

Went to a drag day over the weekend. Finished second in DYO, broke out in the final by 0.6 of a second. Car was running super consistent, I just need to sort an over heating issue when the car is not moving. It starts getting hot when sitting in line and especially during burnout, but once moving it cools back down. Might need a better fan. Set the fastest time so far, 15.75. Not bad I think for a stock M30B35 with 3.07 diff.

Thought it was a fantastic build and was shown over the car last year. The rear arches being a highlight. Was also talk of e90 M3 v8 transplant at the time Price reflects opportunity and hard to compare with e46 M3 pricing which has bottomed out. Give it a few years and these will start heading north again.

dream on pal...id keep my sedan over a convertible especially any day....coming from a toyota is a cheap shot.

For sure it's effectively a custom car and therefore price can't be compared to a normal M3, that's not reasonable. Edit: seen the cert, it's good.

Interestingly, theres been quite a lot of negative facebook commentary about the price the current owner is asking. I think people forget it takes killing / using a damaged M3 to make one of these, So automatically it's at least 25k worth going by regular M3 coupe prices. A decent E46 late model touring is generally close to 10k worth, rougher ones are cheaper of course. Then you have the time to sort the M3 body panels and paint them, that looked to be very well done and would have cost a fair bit of coin if you were to try replicate it. Electrics, coding, and fine tuning of everything transferred over to the touring chassis isn't a 5 minute job, especially to get everything working like it's a factory car. Other stuff like the physical work changing parts, subframe work, exhaust work, all the suspension installed, certification too. You need to have experience with BMWs to do such a build properly, not many people in the country could pull it off. It's up to the owner to find the price they want anyway, given the above I think he'd get close to the asking price with the right buyer that sees it for what it is.