Leaderboard

228,000 km Not quite the same angle but pretty close.

Had a great time at the Beach hop Even though it’s mainly a Muscle car event there is still some good sprinkling of other flavours. I was happy with “Fritz” and we had a fantastic time

I'll get some video at some point once certified and fully road legal, its fairly fun as it is but suspect it will be even more so when you can drive it hard and bang through some gears etc. Went in for cert yesterday and came away with 13 things to address, only a couple that will need some thinking about ... mostly tidy-up items like heat proofing a brake line, some receipts for various bits, get a wheel alignment etc. Also, wheel bolts were 0.75 turns too short ... thats 1.1mm from memory 😂 Luckily found some UK made items from Racerproducts yuuuusssss. Hoping to get in for WoF recheck within the 28 day period but unsure if i can get all the cert items finished by then to be honest. In other progress, got the UpRev 'tuner' cable today so can try to address the wacky idle issues (noted for cert unfortunately, rats). Should be fun to do some proper data logging at last !! Also got in on the HPA Black Friday sales and got the tuner starter course for 50% off which is pretty sweet. Couple of shots from today, the lads at my tyre guys (JP Tyres, Glenfield AKL) were pretty interested and commented on how it looks beneath ... first time i have seen its belly on a hoist after starting at it from 30cm on my back for 2 years !! Still need to get some better shots before i drive it more.

Style 68 are such a simple, classic wheel and an easy visual upgrade from lower spec wheels. Lovely looking car.

We have most parts for E46s - just let us know what you need and how we can best help you!

Give it another go without the check valve. Keep an eye on the electrical wiring, fuses and relays associated with the fuel pump. If any of them get hot to touch then they are either faulty or overloaded. If you can lay your hands on a clamp meter try and get a reading on just what current the pump is drawing. The pump motor uses fuel as a cooling medium, so every time the fuel circulates thru the pump and back to the tank it picks up heat. In itself that is not a big deal unless you are racing and want to keep your fuel temperature down. That check valve is most likely intended to be used in the fuel line to the rail, possibly screwed into the outlet of a fuel filter installed next to the engine. Even so, a 1.5mm orifice is tiny, and whatever pressure drop is caused by the spring would be dropping the rail pressure by an equivalent amount while the engine is running. Personally, I would not use anything branded by AEM. Cheers...

Update: went to Conti BMW, bought the part, showed it to the local garage, confirmed it's the correct one - going in for replacement tomorrow.

Rubber support

Made it to Hamilton for Fieldays! Trip up from Wellington absolutely flawless, cluster now showing 54.3mpg which is 5.2L/100km in our money. can’t complain with that , and now that it’s had a big outing like that I feel very confident in the car ! Always a bit of a risk after sitting for that amount of time ! Only issue that will need some attention sooner rather than later is I think the center support bearing in driveshaft wants replacement, usual feeling from right where that is, not a very common issue on low power e46 but can happen on higher power and of course manual ones, and ones with nearly 500,000km on the clock !

I'm also impressed, ordered parts Friday, here Monday, can't ask for better service than that!

Hit a big milestone over the weekend which I'm super excited about. Picking up where I left off, hung the engine up from the stand to install the rear main seal. All the bolts nice and clean and put a dab of high-temp thread sealer on the two big bolts to prevent those pesky leaks. The two small plugs on the front and rear also went in with the thread sealer. Also bashed in the new pilot bearing in anticipation. The shiny new sprocket arrived so I could box on with installing the chains and front cover. Bought a brand new set of iwis Racing chains. Not exactly sure what the difference is with the regular ones but at only a couple of dollars' difference, figured I might as well. The oil pump chain does seem to have a bit less slack to it but might be wishful thinking. Got a slotted oil pump nut from ECS Tuning that went on with a bit of blue thread sealer for good measure. For whatever reason, the safety wire included with the kit was stupidly short, so short that I really struggled tying it down properly and ended up making a total mess of it. You pay something like US$18 for a bloody nut and they cheap out on you with a couple of cents worth of wire... Had to go out to get a whole new roll of SS wire and had another go. Came out much better the second time around, and now have a spare 12.8m of wire left to no doubt satisfy a lifetime's worth of safety wire needs... 1st attempt Take two Front timing cover went on, as well as the crank pulley that I ended up just rattling on with an impact wrench. Quite a crude and probably not the ideal approach but really don't have access to or any leads on a torque wrench that would handle the required 410Nm. The impact wrench approach seems to have worked for quite a few people before so good enough for me. The crank pulley looked in good nick with no visual imperfections on the rubber ring on the back so was happy enough to reuse it after a good clean, with a brand new crank bolt of course. Gave the oil pan a final clean too and that went on next, with a brand new oil level sensor and a magnetic oil plug I'd inherited. Then onto the big one - the cylinder head install. This was the part I was the most nervous about so had to ask a mate around for some emotional support. First off, checked the sealing of the valves. Threaded in some old spark plugs and poured in some petrol, then blew compressed air into the intake and exhaust sides. No drop in the level and no bubbling from the compressed air so looked all good. Installed a pair of brand new dowel pins to the top of the block as I'd managed to mangle up the old two when removing them. Then the new standard size head gasket and cylinder head after a final clean. Having read through one too many an account of the threads stripping out and recommendations to preventatively timesert the block and whatnot, I was dreading this part of the whole project the most. Turns out I needn't have worried. Applied a light coating of oil to the new bolts so that they were covered but not dripping, then torqued down to 20Nm, 40Nm and two doses of 90 degrees, all in the correct sequence. All went much smoother than I would have imagined. The resistance on the bolts felt very consistent throughout and no funny creaking or squeaking at all. Don't mean to jinx it but looks a straight line to the finish from here on. Was a massive relief getting over this hurdle successfully, now just a matter of cleaning up the last bits and bolting everything together. Was so excited that was tempted to chuck an all-nighter and not show up to work on Monday but after a few celebratory drinks, exhaustion got the best of me. Will box on in the coming days. Still harboring hopes of getting the car up and running before the end of 2022 but will see how we go.

If we didnt have the entire japanese fleet of 130s, there would be more 1Ms than 130s in NZ

Yeah you can drive mine one day to compare. Id imagine the VQ pulls much harder\stronger the more the revs build up. M54 is just ultra smooth\flat experience with decent low\mid range torque for 3L N\A. A 1.5km drag race vs M3 would be interesting. I'd bet on it edging out the M3 but it would be competitive. For a daily driver i think will be far nicer than a 370z.