central3

That looks tasty - can we have (for my sake) a description please

This will be like losing a leg - I was so close to making an offer on your E46 but was too slow - where to from here dylan?

Ia Ora na - Kia Ora and Hello - photos mandatory on intro

It's OEM Calypso - painted with a $250 compressor and an el-cheapo spray gun - no pressure regulator so couldn't get a decent spray patern but it got the jod done. Calypso metalic is a sharp colour when it's in good shape - 90% of the cars seen are oxidised. Cut the rest of the paint back today - far from perfect but it's going to look a lot better than it was.

That came up real nice - good effort

My daughter is off to Aussie so the 325i is back home - it's been in the family for 12 years now - will be my work hack for a while and in need of a tidy up - re-sprayed the rear bumper top (clear coat gone white) and the front bumper (heaps of stone chips - the girl doesn't correlate following distance and stone chip risk) - came up pretty well for an open air job

Cheers Tom - my bolts are actually ok (1 x bolt diameter engagement - 7 turns to full torque). I am going to have to sweet talk my certification guy as he reckons I need 20mm engagement. I like the idea of the shipping blocks but might take a run to Auckland and kill 2 birds with one stone (run in km's and wheel alignment).

Not the best of days 1) I failed my certification due to my wheel bolts being too short 2) I couldn't get a wheel alignment because my Wanganui tyre experts (Tony's, Beaurepairs, Firestone) said the car was too low to get on their machines 3) tyres fouled the guards (rears mostly) up and down the Parapara's. Problems 1 and 3 can be solved by re-working my spacers. I knew I was being a bit aggresive with the offsets I had choosen so will now back off to 15mm on the front and nothing on the rear (car's up on stilts tonight to remove). Also I think my cert guy was off the mark as he said I needed 20mm's of thread engagment where the LVVA spec's indicate much less (i.e. one x bolt diameter or 6.5 turns - 12mm bolts x 1.5mm thread pitch) Re the alignment I need some help - can anyone recomend someone that can handle a (slightly) low M3?

Welcome back - yes to a get together - it would be great to have a "mass meet" somewhere - where do we start?

Are you going to be there both days Ray - I would like to see the vert now it is running

Cheers Tom - I used the washers ex the OEM shocks but after your comment I can see your ones are a larger diameter, will change out soon. I have the shocks on the softest setting (9) for the meantime but even at this they feel taut, looking forward to experiementing once I get a few kilometers under the belt. Thanks again for all of your help

After 3 months off the road the M3 is (almost) ready to go again. Work has included replacing the Champiro tyres with a second hand set of Michelin PS2’s (thanks Mark), fitment of a set of AC Bilstien PS9’s (thanks Tom), replacement of conrod bearings (plus ARP bolts), checking and crack testing of the Vanos oil pump drive tabs, checking of the camshaft bolts, valve clearance adjustment (4 of), oil change (including cooler flush and oil gallery purge), new plugs, new coolant, replacement of HP power steering hose (thanks Ray), gearbox oil change, fuel filter change, PS flush and fluid change, centre console replacement (with arm rest delete), OEM short shifter, new battery and wheel spacers (20mm front and 9mm rear). All went well until the first start up attempt a few weeks ago. Not good, rough idle and way down on power (limp mode). Assumed I had stuffed up the cam timing when I pulled the Vanos off so I ordered a set of timing tools from the US (cam alignment toll and cam check tool). Reset the timing but the engine fault remained. Asked Tom (M3_Power) for help and with his very generous assistance found the Vanos solenoid pack had faulty connections on the printed circuit board (refer M3F post here). I managed to get the unit apart and resoldered the joints. Cleared the fault codes and restarted. Bingo – the car runs strongly and as an added bonus the surge/hesitation problem I have been putting up with for the past year or so has gone. Now I need to get the suspension certified, get a wheel alignment and run in the bearings (TIS recommends 1,200 miles before reving over 5,000 rpm). After my “cosmetic make over†late 2011 and this integrity/performance work I have got the car to where I want it. Bimmersport, M3F and forum members (Tom especially) have been a huge resource. Looking forward to some summertime km’s now. I am having trouble uploading photos so please follow Photos

Post superceeded

Yes well of course this looks gorgeous – wouldn’t do it and couldn’t live with it (too old) but drop dead gorgeous

1990 in very nice condition - grey leather interior - these must have been awesome back in the day - in Ohakune hidden well away from any parking dent risk

What did you do to the rear subframe christian?

$455 was the price I paid

Update - con-rod bearings fitted and clearances checked. Being an earlier model the con-rod bolts were 11mm and these are not available ex BMW. I have ordered a set of ARP bolts from Turners USA. In the meantime I decided to check the Vanos pump drive tabs and cam bolts since I had the seals etc. I made up a cam timing tool (which you can see in the background). Cam bolts were fine. Vanos pump tabs were also good, I crack tested these using mag-particle and dye penetrant. Paranoia over and done with.

Nice work - looks like fun

Is there a better oil filter availabel Tom?

Yeah I have looked at putting a set of rear rims on the front but (apart from availablity) the combination of offset and wider rim makes this too radical. Cert is in the plan and they are bolted on already

Yes Tom - certainly surprised me too. There is a BMW sticker in the boot which states that the bearing recall was done in Feb-05 (i.e. vehicle 2 years and 5 months old). Looking back at the registration records the car had around 17K km's on it at this time. Talking to Ray the other day he was questioning the integrity of servicing done at some big name dealers. The NZ new log book indicates that all servicing was done on time and in full but you have to wonder whether the right oils (etc) were used maybe?

My M3 had a brief bearing rattle on start up - even though the service record was complete I suspect it could have done with more frequent oil changes - I like to change every year. I would be happy to lend you my shim tool and we could swap shims if it worked out that I had the sizes you were after. My car really only needed 1 valve adjusting - the other 3 I am doing are right at the tolerance limit and I am only doing them to get them back in the mid range. My mini-project has just blown out after I purchased a set of Bilstien coil overs and a set of Michelin PS2's off forum members. Some very knowledgable and helpfull people on here.

I am in the middle of doing this (as well as a Vanos oil pump drive tab check, cam bolt tightness check and con rod bearing replacement - see this thread - http://www.bimmersport.co.nz/forums/index....amp;pid=465164). Pretty straight forward. I brought a top end gasket set and the shim removal tool from Turner MS in the US (see below - I expect to freight these items only would be half my bill). I then pulled the top end apart, checked the clearances (3 out of 24 needed adustment) and then ordered the shims I needed through Geoff Gray (NZ$9.30 each). Look on M3Forum.com for lots of threads about how do do. 83300493743 S54 Valve Shim Installation Tool - E46 M3, Z3M, Z4M 1 $34.95 $34.95 11127832034KIT Valve Cover Gasket Kit for S54 Engine - E46 M3, MZ3, Z4 M 1 $114.85 Shipping: Priority Mail International (2 to 4 weeks delivery no tracking) $122.80

I (and other members) would be probably be interested but without details??????????????/