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Hi all, I finally bought my first-ever BMW: 2008 130i. I've been wanting to get a manual BMW for years and I'm stoked to finally own one. I'm sure I'll be posting a lot of tech help posts in near future Dan

I’m sureThe admin person will reply to this when they see it

Congrats man! Great car and the probably most popular platform on Bimmersport - enjoy the dedicated 130i thread:

Hi all, Bit of a gamble but I was wondering if anyone would be keen to share/ has inside storage for a car? Keen to store the bimmer inside away from the elements. Preferably on the north shore but open to anywhere in Auckland. Cheers

Was just looking at some VQ37 engine info on the net and noticed the E46 got a mention in the swaps area, what a funny surprise 🤣 Definitely had to do a double take there ... https://www.drifted.com/vq37vhr/

When doing my rebuild, was told that pressure testing is an awful lot of hassle and not commonly done. A hardness test usually gives enough of an indication on whether the head is good or not, and that's just a quick 2 minute test. I'd get that done and get the thing hot tanked at a shop. Potentially, get the shop to install the stem seals whilst they're at it as well, also check the valve seats for pitting and correct that if needed. Valve lapping isn't really a thing on modern engines apparently. Removing the collets and springs with a punch could damage the valve guides so unless you have a special valve clamp tool it might be best to leave it to the pros.

Taken a month of pulling teeth, but think Ive gotten somewhere. Got in touch with recaros Marketing Manager in the US, who got in touch with the VP of Recaro Japan.. and things happened. All the Recaro minions, like Recaro Aussie rep, were much less than what would be considered helpful. Documentation with the cert man... hopefully I have an LVV cert shortly.

Early F20 116i,118i,120i all use the N13 engine in various states of tune. 116i model tends to be the cheapest although option not too well optioned. I've had one of these 116i for a year as a daily with a stage 1 tune to take it from 136 to 200hp. My real world average economy is 8.7L per 100km, however easy 5s on a road trip.

The balance of the components arrived today from RS and I got a board assembled as much as I could. One of the resistors was in the correct bag but the part was of the wrong value So held up until thats resolved, and of course it was the one weird value which came from the UK. Have to drill a missing hole in the board before I can at least test fit it and check the LED brightness etc.