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Wow, huge effort. Epic stuff! Always looking forward to the next update. Love that you are taking the extra miles on the small details.

Whilst the paint was drying, I took a small detour and... ended up here: Oops. Figured that with the control arms and suspension out and the AC degassed, there won't come a better time to drop the subframe and finally get to that stupid gallery plug at the front of the block, similar to the one that was causing the massive oil leak from the rear of the engine right after the rebuild. Turned out that getting the timing cover off requires you to dig much deeper than I'd anticipated. First, off came the whole font end with the radiator and AC condenser, front subframe with the steering rack and old control arms, then the oil pan, crank bolt to finally get to the timing cover. Prior to that and before the engine support bar could go on, the intake had to come off to get to the hard coolant pipe that runs into the back of the timing cover. I was under the impression that the timing cover was only held by the two bolts from the top of the head, under the valve cover and could be gotten to without much issues, but of course it turns out that there's also a third bolt straight down the middle, a bolt that also holds down the topmost chain guide so... the timing gear had to also come off to get to it. Brilliant. Was at least good to feel a little vindicated to have taken on such a bastard of a task when a steady stream of oil started running out through the plug as soon as the timing cover got removed. All that effort because of this little bastard. Still don't understand how 50'sKid clams to not have any leaks or issues even years later. I specifically ordered in the PTFE based sealant he'd used, even ordering it in from Aussie as I couldn't find the specific one in NZ. Anyway, thread locked the hell out of it and seated it back in. Please hold... Pretty expensive exercise with new seals, gaskets, new crank pulley bolt, oil & coolant that all had a fair bit of life in them still but well worth it if that means the engine won't grenade itself prematurely due to suboptimal oil pressure. Time will tell if this was the culprit behind the rattling at cold start. Fingers crossed. With the oil pan off, I took it as a chance to freshen things up a bit and took the spare oil pan from the old B25 engine to my mate's for vapour blasting. Almost regret doing that now as it puts the rest of the engine to shame. Came out looking unreal. With that all buttoned up, I moved on to the AC system. Revamp included new compressor, condenser, drier, expansion valve and pressure switch, basically everything bar the evaporator. Was pleased with the quality of the radiator I'd gotten from them so went with all Nissens components. Everything fit perfectly apart from the drier. The original one had a divot in the side of it that locked it in place in the plastic bracket attaching to the chassis rail. The Nissens one was solid all the way around so I had to grind down a pin on the plastic bracket that now had nowhere to slot into. Another small issue was that one of the bolts bottomed out before it could clamp down one of the pipes properly, leaving it loose and wobbly. Had to grind off a few mm from the end of it to get it to seal. Weird little oversights on their part but should still work fine. Word of advice to anyone thinking of replacing the expansion valve - DON'T. Not worth it. I probably lost a few years to stress on that little thing alone. Once the old expansion valve is off, there's nothing holding the little S-shaped backing plate in place, so when you go to thread the new valve on, it just moves around all over the place and is near on impossible to keep still. The passage is way to narrow to get your fingers in there to hold it from the back and too narrow for most tools as well. I don't even know how much time I lost on the damned thing and was lucky there wasn't anyone around to hear me yell expletives at an inanimate object. In the end, having all but given up, I somehow managed to get one bolt started whilst holding the backing plate in place with a little hooked pick tool on the umpteenth try. Never again. Before the new AC compressor went on, I switched out the old timing chain tensioner for an upgraded M3 one. Because why the f**k not at this point. I had put a brand new spring in the old one during the rebuild but did notice the cylinder being a bit scored so... That's my justification and I'm sticking to it. But, I wasn't done falling down rabbit holes just yet, so naturally... out came the transmission. Why? Funny that you ask, hypothetical person that gives a sh*t. Long after the gearbox had last been out, I stumbled upon the fact that the throwout bearing guide tube is also a wear item that's recommended to be replaced with every clutch job. Not knowing when the next time I'd have use of a hoist might be, off I went on another side quest. Sure enough, the old guide tube was quite worn, so was well worth the effort. Will that fix my clunking issue when disengaging 1st gear? Unlikely, but at least I'll feel a little bit better about myself. Also threw on a new throwout bearing just to be safe, as well as a new input shaft seal. Then I replaced the clutch pressure plate bolts with brand new ones with pre-applied thread locker, I'd completely forgotten to use any threadlocker the last time I'd put it together. Cleaned everything up and applied some proper clutch grease I managed to get my hands on in the meantime instead of some generic stuff I'd used the first time around. As a silly little cherry on the cake, put in this manual bell housing backing plate. Impossible to get new anymore so had to find a used one. Meaningless little thing but helps me sleep better at night. Finally, swapped out the stock selector rod for a DSSR I'd gotten from BMspeedShop. Pretty cool having a local fella make these, ended up going by his place to pick it up instead of messing around with shipping. Looks a solid piece of kit. Unfortunately, had to cut off the inbuilt washers off the sides of the beautiful E60 shift lever, and even grind it down a bit to make fit. Will make for a nice and tight connection though. Can always put back some of those yellow washers if I ever wanted to revert to stock again I guess. Don't know why I would want to though. Back into it again tomorrow. Finally over the hump and at the point where it's all about throwing on shiny new parts. Fun times.

Aye cheers, might hit you up about it later on. I only ended up stripping back the 5cm for where the beam plate welded in, there's none after the front beam, it dips straight into the rear seat area. All of that sound deadening has long since deteriorated but I don't think it's the same type stuff as in that boot area. Late nights, paint fumes and bonus missions. Rear beam top plate welded in and my mate worked some magic to butcher the old cover plate and weld it in well enough that it doesn't look too much of a disaster. Had to trim the boot plastic trays to fit around the new beam, and the old panel had to be carefully aligned so that the two studs fit correctly with the holes in the plastic bits. Don't have those issues on coupes... Small frustrating thing is that the central trunk cover won't align properly now. Had the top beam have been just 5mm shorter it would have fit perfectly, but as it stands, the inside face of the cover hits the back of the beam and won't sit properly over the studs. Will see if I can trim the holes a bit bigger and make it work or will have to cut off those flanges altogether and screw the front of it into the plastic somehow. Primed, seam sealed, primed again and painted with some gloss black I had from fixing up a small rust patch on the rear door sill. Looking back, should have just kept it primer grey as the gloss black sticks out like dog's balls back there. Luckily, it won't be too visible and the main thing is that it's protected. Onto the underside, test-fitted the subframe to check alignment, all looked fairly good. Ground down any remaining high spots, primed, seam sealed and enamel coated. The colour match turned out to be miles off but will be mostly covered and should provide good enough protection from the elements. Pretty satisfied with how the wheel arches came out. Managed to lay on the seam sealer thick enough to almost match the surrounding rubbery underseal texture. After some primer and enamel top coat, the whole thing looked horridly out of place and with this area being more visually exposed, I popped over to Supercheap for a couple of cans of black underseal and gave it a few coats. It went on well to the rest of the arch but wouldn't stick to the enamel properly, even after some rough scuffing effort. Took a few times of going over it to get a decent finish but ended up with tidy black arches that I'm quite pleased about. Forgot to take a photo of it though.

This is a used imported part that I got into the country from England . It’s now not needed as the technician made a mistake in his advice as to what was needed . This part is the correct part for my yr 2000 E46 330ci cabriolet. You can check if it will fit yours by referencing the part numbers in the pic . The key number for my car was that number that ran as 358 375 444 …. I fitted the part and scanned it . It has no embedded faults and also reported ( correctly) what my fault was . ( a solenoid) Heads up …. These ecu are actually fairly reliable, if you have a roof fault it’s likely something else playing up . Having told you that . It’s still worth buying as a spare , cause you won’t get another anytime soon if you do need one . I know this as real world experience The trademe price is 200 dollars If you are interested , contact me , or make an offer from your phone in the mobile TM application . cheers les

That was going to be my next step. Fortunately all it took was a big f'n press and $30 for my closest shop to do it

Catless Downpipes I have catless downpipes, got cheap ones, work great. MHD 2+ tune I had the opportunity to do some emmissions testing on a few vehicles as a part of a research project, so I slotted mine into the test group. Was done at a VTNZ station & they checked the cars over. Noone noticed the lack of cats in the downpipes (they are fairly buried and the secondary cats are visible, so it needs someone knowledgable on these cars to pick it up). Long story short, mine was a little "dirty" on its emissions when cold, but once warmed up, it was as clean as any other car tested. If challenged, take it for a strop round the block & tell them to stick the sniffer up a tailpipe. They will give up & pass you as your car won't fail unless it has other issues. I was worried that the MHD tune might over-richen it, but no issues at all. Vibrations My car has a very slight vibration noise just above idle, then sweet as. one of the pipes is just very slightly contacting an unidentified bracket & this makes some noise. Get the car up on stands, start the engine & go looking. Ideally get someone in the car to vary the revs up & down until you hear the vibration & follow the noise. Welding gloves highly recommended for this exercise btw Pops and Bangs Nope, have none, but have had experience in a variety of cars. The most likely cause is an air leak in your exhaust, most likely the joint where the downpipe comes off the turbo. The closer to the exhaust port of the cylinder, the more likely to pop and bang. As a younger hoon, I used to deliberately make my car exhausts bang, but as a more refined gentleman I do prefer to fly under the radar a bit more

I got VRSF ones delivered for under $400 nz from their website. Keep in mind that the mechanic fee will likely be upwards of $4-500 depending on how easy it is. They are c**ts to put on. I paid 8 hours labour to get mine installed with some sparkplugs . do it yourself if you can be bothered. I could never hear my rattly wastegates but as soon as the downpipes went on I could here them really loud on idle and cold start. The reason for running catless downpipes is so you can up the boost and run MHD stage 2 or higher. With a stock exhaust there is basically no difference to sound, definitely no pops and bangs or anything. It's just a slightly deeper sound with them on, but not louder with stock exhaust. You do hear the turbos spool abit louder with catless dp's. You can flash burble mod if you want pops and bangs - at your own risk. If all your after is pops and bangs you don't need downpipes, just flash the burble on aggressive. You'll likely mess your cats up pretty quick and some people argue it's terrible for your turbos. If it sounds like my view on the downpipes is negative, it's not, they are great bang for buck and really open up the car for tuning potential. I just don't think there is any point in them if your not going to run MHD 2/2+, or a custom tune. Putting that much boost through the car WILL show other weaknesses if there are any.