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Time for another belated update. The exhaust was completed, I'm very happy with how it came together and sounds - not too loud, but still audible: I've driven the car approximately 450km over the last week and it has performed flawlessly. There's still a few more CAN translation items to sort out for full functionality, and it needs new tyres and the A/C regassed; once those are sorted it's onto the certification process. Here's a few pictures of the car out and about:

As per photo + bracket for the reservoir.

Finally joined the rank and file. F31. 2016. So far, loving it!

Welcome - love a touring. Pix please

Saving the Silver Lemon: Day whatever. Intake removed, solid amount of oil in it so will take a look at CCV. Rocker cover off, not the first monkey here as it was sealed on with rtv. Insides look pretty good, seen way worse anyway! Hydroformed exhaust cam (07 for reference) Headbolt has snapped, but thankfully the internal ones still have heads, so no major to solve it. Remains of the old micky mouse flange must have been floating around the engine bay, as found some of it under the car post wash #3.

Yeah I did a quick search after seeing that comment and that one came up... bonkers. Pointless getting a bare engine anyway, unless swapping out a dead engine in an M3, you'd really need a full donor car to do a proper conversion. Good luck getting your hands on one nowadays... best bet is probably importing a crash damaged one from overseas still, the US & UK prices still seem somewhat attainable. As much fun as a Compact M3 would be, if by some miracle I ever get my hands on one, it'd be destined to turn ol' Barbara into an M3 Touring

Good luck to you mate, the negotiations on the exact same car post Covid in 2011 was at $40k, as you very well know. Can’t see any work you’ve done to add value; but you do you. Several E39 M5’s at this level or better in NZ so that’s a misnomer as well.

I got the chance today (making the most of winter before the weather improves and I get started on house projects again) to get started on a project I've been wanting to do for a long time. The goal here is a 1:1 replica of the SMG shifter knob. Why? It occurred to me some time ago that modern manufacturing techniques present an opportunity to create a twist on the stock SMG shifter to make something a little bit unique. The plan is to have the knob 3D printed in titanium and then finish it to a polished surface which will hopefully be a cool twist on the chrome of the original item. The 4 leather pads I'm planning to do as leather-covered TPU with an ABS or similar backing (drawing heavy inspiration here from how heinzboehmer recovered the pads on his SMG). Why titanium? It is of course a PITA to finish, and it might not end up working out, but I've decided to give it a try for two reasons. Mostly because it's a cool thing to try, secondly - thermal conductivity. One of the nice things about the OE shifter being plastic is that the shifter doesn't feel ridiculously cold to touch on a winter morning. This is because plastic has poor thermal conductivity. Titanium of course has much higher thermal conductivity than plastic, but also it's an awful lot less than stainless steel or aluminium, so will help to reduce this effect. The model above as you see doesn't have the pockets cut for the leather pads, reason being I want to do a test print to make sure that I've got the internal geometries right first in case I need to change anything that affects the pockets for the pads. I'm intending to reuse the OE clear acrylic centre insert which mates the shifter with the shaft, so I need to make sure it's a spot-on fit. Anyway - first draft is being printed and will do some test fitting when I get the parts. In the meantime here are a few screen caps of the two parts:

Made it to HD, did 3x15 sessions and drove it home. 20 next year and with 224k kms. Good car, think i’ll keep it for a while. A little de-brief while it’s fresh on mind.… Likes: - Easy to drive, didn’t miss-shift and heel n toe is a breeze. - Heaps of grip and adjustability - Torque delivery. Coming from a cammed sr20ve that made noting until 5-9k rpm this was brilliant on corner exit. - When both rear tyres hooked getting on it early on corner exit Next time I’ll see how a set of b4s’s, m3 fr ctrl arms and better bushes for the gbox and rear subframe go and setup an in-car camera to catch a few laps. Small clip of some peg-legging on the up and over. 9e14946f-a840-4c96-a120-a37c88056b88.mov

At least you know this will sound awesome blasting through the HK stereo

Slapped in a set of front pads. Nothing fancy but better than what was in there. Also got some 7.6Kg BBS RK001’s in 17x8 et35 flavour. Might be a touch too much tyre so will try 225/45/17.

oops I thought i had updated the above issue. It turned out to be the top belt tensioner. Eagle and I replaced it with an INA unit from Spareto some months ago now and all was quiet.... Until I heard a similar noise from low down in the negine bay while on a road trip recently. Removing the belt to spin the AC pulley and tensioner, the lower tensioner was identified as the culprit. Once again an order was placed with Spareto, for an E39 tensioner and a bypass valve for the R53 Cooper S (maybe I should start a thread on that hmmm) AC Tensioner is a dead easy job and great to get it refreshed. While i was under there i noted a lot of fluid on the PS hoses, and the under tray. it seems to be coming from either the PS line from the resivoir to the pump, or the pump itself. I cleaned the area and will reinspect after a couple of drives.

M42/M44 hybrid is in and running, I also converted it to a rear battery setup as well while the engine was out. Looking forward to the first drive to break the new motor in. Phase 2 will be getting some ITBs on it, and installing the Bilstein b14 that have been waiting to go in.