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Front end finished up with poor man camber\caster plates aka E36 M3 Evo strut mounts. Certainly nothing new about these for E36's, not much info about using them on E46's apart from being the same fitment. Unfortunately the OE and OEM brands now appear to be NLA, so its either a genuine set at around $600 or one of the numerous aftermarket Taiwanese brands for around the <$200. I went with these B&E ones from Amazon and Rockauto. Doesn't appear to be much different between them apart from the bearing design and i think the prices reflects this. They are probably all made in the same factory. These mounts are firmer with less rubber isolation and you feel it over certain bumps. Height wise are 5-10mm lower than my previous Lemforder mounts so more inline with the original OE design i think. The studs are also obviously longer which is good if you are installing a strut brace. I did have some slight rubbing of the spring on RH strut tower, the spring was rubbing seam sealer when the wheel was turned in a certain spot, but that has cleared up after some use. E36's appear to have a bit more room in the towers when comparing with my Ti. I originally had them swapped left to right (more camber over castor) but ended up with too much camber for street usage, was something around -3-3.5° total according to my diy gauge. Installing them normally yielded an additional around ~-0.8° of camber and ~2.5° of castor. I had the Z4M FCAB's still installed so ended up with 8.4° of castor. Not worth going into too much detail on it, but the weight jacking along with the vastly increased steering effort was dangerous in certain corners and at high speeds. I swapped back to Meyle HD bushings to bring it back down to degrees 7.5°. Having tried all the castor ranges from 5-8° this feels to the best in my setup (the M3 runs 6.5-7.5 i believe). No obvious extra steering input needed and combined with the extra camber for front turn in\grip, the car is now very close to neutral in the tighter corners. I picked up at least an extra 10kph on my test corners and around about with very little understeer compared to my previous settings. I dont know it would be like without the other mods ive done, but its a massive different in grip\turn in for very low cost. The camber settings below are maxed out front and rear on Eibach's. You should be able add back ~+0.7 front camber via strut slots, which puts you around -1.0 degrees depending on your spring choice. I don't see any real disadvantage of running this amount for improved handling if your toe is around 0. Tyre choice and how you drive the car will probably dictate whether you should run it these or not. CMP Monoballs - I've done over 100km on all sorts of crappy NZ B-roads and these are exactly as advertised. Rear end now much more stable\planted\composed, it does not jitter around noticeably and bump steer is reduced on all road surfaces. With my current setup i can now counter steer mid corner without the feeling like its loosing grip. On smooth seal at high speeds its a similar feeling. The extra camber, castor and chassis braces have probably helped to a degree but i think its mostly the new RTAB's at work here. They certainly are controlling the rear alignment like they claim to do. Even quite noticeable under normal road road driving, much more relaxing with less steering wheel movement. Long service life and much easier to bolt up the trailing arm bracket with no preload or alignment make these i must have IMO. They are expensive for what they are but you are getting good benefits for a few hundred. Makes me wonder why BMW didnt use them in the CSL. Only disadvantage which is widely reported is driving over sharp bumps - square seal patch edges, reflectors, sharp curbs etc produces a rear end whack\thump similar to stiff bushings. May not be the best mod if you driving a lot on crappy roads or want max comfort\quiet, but the benefits easily outweigh that.

How prophetic that was.

I'm running a M50B30 stroker with M54 internals. With M3 US Cams, 3.5mm over-bore on a M50 throttle body, 100mm inlet, MAF delete, pink top injectors, S50B32 Euro headers, no cats and custom dyno tune on a Link G4+ it made 299HP/220kW (@6800) and 343Nm (@5500). With standard cams, cats, standard throttle body it might make 250-255HP with a dedicated tune but unlikely with a tune chip (maybe 240-245). A local guy here got 264Hp on a similar M54B30 engine configuration to yours with S50 headers, no cats (race exhaust (Loud!)) and a Link G4 Storm (same tuner).

Hi everyone, Pete from West Auckland here. Just getting the ole BM back on the road again. Been sitting with Reg. on hold for 5 years now (outside). Amazingly, no rust. Have started from the Fuel tank (with a purge of 3ltres old fuel after jumping the fuel pump relay) and am working my way forward. All DIY thanks to forums like this and youtube. So far; fuel filter replacement stuck idle control valve solved by carb cleaner (no more idle surge) DISA checked out ok MAF is ok but some of the plastic from the MAF web has disintegrated Have dumped coolant from the block and radiator and now looking forward to jimmying up a water pump pulley holder tool to get the fan off (have ordered the proper tool and happy to lend out to other members). Replacing water pump and thermostat next..... Lots of things left on the to-do-list, lots to learn and having lots of fun getting there. Cheers

Mines a UK import and 99% rust free, I put it up on a hoist and checked it before handing over any money! The 1% is from stone chips incurred locally!

Not really on an E61, I would just have the ABS pump checked for corrosion as it lives behind the wheel well. Any good PPI would pick up rust issues if it was present.

This is pretty bad, I would be burn down car dealership angry if this happened to me. https://i.stuff.co.nz/motoring/300780384/man-who-lost-100k-on-stolen-jaguar-failed-to-recover-money-from-auckland-dealer

Machinery house do a pretty reasonable kit that comes with some inserts, the tool has heads for rivnuts and normal rivets as well. https://www.machineryhouse.co.nz/n001 The tool can be a bit fiddly to use, the head has a habit of unscrewing itself, but you just need to keep an eye on it and nip it up if it starts coming loose.

I got a couple from AliExpress, extra inserts also came from AliExpress. But you can use a bolt with a nut on it to tighten down the insert so the tool is not strictly speaking needed. Pretty sure enco fasteners in east tamaki sell these, but cheap ones from trademe will do the trick. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/building-renovation/tools/hand-tools/other/listing/3942308129 This looks like a good deal and comes with the alloy inserts.

Exactly like that. Brilliant piece of kit, i love mine and have stocked up on alloy inserts. Avoid the stainless inserts with the cheaper handsets as they are typically beyond the capability of the tool and designed for the pneumatic versions. If you haven't used one before I would suggest a couple of test runs in a spare metal plate to get used to the feeling of a well seated insert.

Ayyyy Congrats brruu!!!

That was with me in, 84kgs, and below half tank gas.

This thing is getting so dialled in!

I definitely read about the money pit part of this before buying one, I thought I was an exception but it is coming back to bite me in the butt :(. However, I have a vision and plan to make it an investment / long term car.

I think you made a great choice - F31 is a great base and 328i is a good mix of performance and economy. I added wireless Carplay / Android Auto to mine which is a cost effective upgrade to bring it into the current decade too.

Hi team Ray here just bought my first BMW , a nice and tidy 2013 F31 328i Luxury - so pleased always wanted to take the plunge - been Holden all my life , and just sold my Holden Opel ZB to buy the BMW - best move ever be prepared to answer list of well intended dumb questions 😂 cheers ray

Just stick a popcorn tune on it and be done with it 🤣

I see, yes the gold paint does look much fancier, if anyone is after a set I will have a used set for sale soon

Yep the BMW Performance calipers are the same as 135i's. But fancy yellow gold paint!

Looks fantastic! I may be mistaken here and slightly off topic but are those callipers the same as found on a stock 135i? Look remarkably similar.

And we now have WoF and rego 🤠 Hopefully I get a windscreen sun visor for Christmas and some window tints hah. Where shall I legally drive to first ?!?

Hope to get it started over the holidays and then move on to getting it moving itself. my next major headache is getting it to stop, I have next to no firewall space and I’m considering mounting a willwood pedal box with the master cylinders mounted in the cabin, anyone whose done this to a road driven car- I’d love some advice. Some more random pictures and a picture of my motivation for this build (yes it’s low- will be converting the BC Coilovers to air suspension)

Ta daaaaaaaaaa ... WoF booked for tomorrow then rego and then ... sheeeeeit, not sure what then !?!! I guess I can actually drive the thing ... like a real car ?! How odd 🤯

Yeah they are great money pits for sure, but i dont think anything beats them at their price point.

Bit of an interesting one today ... got the car onto a set of corner scales to see how it looks. This was with minimal gas in the tank, maybe 1/8th and no driver. With me sitting in there it was quite well balanced left to right at the front which is cool. So its a 52/48 split front to rear ... full tank of gas (lets say +40kg) makes it 49.4% rear give or take. Would be really interesting to see some numbers from a 330 and M3 in RHD to compare !!

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.

Project_11-16_4K_MEDIUM_FR30_(1).mp4

Back on the arts 'n crafts jobs now ... reeeeeally hoping a nicer flow through the MAF sensors sorts out the throttle response / hang and idle. Decided to mount the factory plastic MAF tubes inline with the new tubes to keep things simple and have the diameter / sensor readings match what the ECU is expecting. Have taped the tubes ready for wax and composite ... located a chap with some carbon sleeves also which will be awesome as I can get two layers of flat cloth on then fill and sand etc then two layers of the sleeve to finish.

And here is the money shot video folks ... no exhaust and a F1 'idle' to sort but no fundamental problems !! 2 years on stands and we are super close to being back on the road. I can almost taste the fossil fueled fun 😆