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Thanks Andrew, will do.

Spoke to BMW today, and they are trying to get my e46's done shortly. I've been waiting nearly a year, but if my car gets a free clean like others have mentioned I wont mind.

If I remember correctly, I dont think this adds power, just changes throttle response. Happy to be corrected though.

I still haven't heard back from BMW so will give them a call tomorrow.

When I made the reinforcement plates I hit them as hard as I could with a heavy hammer and they didn't crack at all. I'm up in Auckland but if I come down your way I will definitely look you up.

Wow, really kicks in well at 3500rpm. Must be fun to drive.

Great! Thanks for that.

I'm feeling rather foolish. I have not had any lessons, so had to teach myself. I set the settings on the welder with trial and error until it gave the best results. I know now that I should have been using gas, but didn't know that till today. The area was prepped very well with everything back to bare metal, although the weld through primer seemed to make it more difficult, so it will undoubtedly be incorrect welder settings (and lack of gas). I don't have any more welding to do until I get to making engine mounts and modifying the front crossmember. I will definitely get gas for that and practice more. I'm considering applying the bmw foam sealant stuff in the cavities to improve the situation - what do people think?

Awesome work! Can you put up a pic of the dyno graph so we can see the curves?

Great info! I will look into the holden astra stuff. Thanks for the advice.

I would love to use a dry sump, but I just cant afford it. Being on a tight budget unfortunately forces these compromises. I've contemplated making one, but messing with the oil supply is something I'm not game enough to risk.

Thanks for the info. I was planning on using stock e46 m3 engine mounts, as they are very slightly stiffer than e46 non m engine mounts. I will be using rubber on the trans mounts too.

I'm after a M60 or M62 transmission bellhousing or stuffed transmission to use just to line up the mounting of my v8 in my project car. Ideally cheap or free.

Thanks man. Gotta love the torque on these v8's. Thanks for the kind words. And thanks again for those templates - they were spot on.

I want the engine as far back and as low as possible. There is a 'kit' to put a m60/m62 in the e46 but it pushes the motor up and forward. Thats not good enough for me. And its $1600nzd plus shipping; http://www.parts33.com/product/bmw-m60-m62-swap-kit-e36-e46-z3-z4 I will likely be modifying the crossmember, and using an x5 sump as the pan is in the middle. Not sure how this will all work out as there is precious little information on this swap online. And yes, I will be using a smaller steering arm, but undecided on what particular one yet. I'm hoping one can be made from stock parts from other beemers, or other car makes. Headers are important on this engine apparently, as I've heard people say its the bottleneck. It will be getting custom extractors, but thats a fair way down the road.

Yea, that photo doesn't look pretty - I grinded back and rewelded two more times on all the under body plates but didn't take any more photos. I found it tricky welding with the two different thicknesses of metal. I found I could only do a small amount at a time as the thinner piece of metal got really hot and I wanted to let it cool down. I was kind of 'criss crossing' - welding a little bead in one spot, then moving to other spots, and then coming back to the first spot as it was cooling.

I spoke to these guys; http://www.advancedfueldynamics.com/ And they said the stock lines are capable of 600WHP. Of course at that level fuel pump and injectors would need to be upgraded, but I'm probably only looking at 300-350WHP

Yes I sanded back the paint coats and clear coats, some areas down to bare metal. I started with rough grit sandpaper and worked my way all the way down to 2000 to avoid scratches. I'm not a pro painter - there are others in here who can probably advise better than I can.

I have black sapphire metallic paint and I resprayed some parts of the car, like front spoiler, tailgate, interior trim and wheels. I sanded all areas back thoroughly, and spray gunned on primer. Preparation is everything. Then I lightly sanded the primer, cleaned, and then spray gunned top coats and then clear coats.

UPDATE. The other part of the strengthening on the rear of the e46 is the pockets in the boot. There are three spot welds on each side that are the start of the problems, and are not strong enough on their own. Access panels were cut out, and the three spot welds had the little piece that separates them cut back ready for welding. Then the whole area was welded. After that I made panels to patch up the holes. These were welded in, had weld through primer on both sides, then vht top coat, and seam sealer. Now I can start putting things back in. The brake lines and fuel lines were cleaned with degreaser, and wax and grease remover, and put back in with the cleaned brackets. The brackets I soaked overnight in simple green concentrate, then cleaned and finally buffed them on the polishing wheel. They came out pretty good considering just how mucky they were beforehand. And installed; The plan is to use an m3 rear end to utilise the large case LSD and larger axles, in preparation for more power. I got a m3 subframe for cheap and sandblasted and painted it after I had taken all the old bushes out. Then it was a case of installing all new bushes. I used all new rubber bushes for the subframe. I will be using a mix of stock rubber and powerflex bushings on the car as I want performance but not too harsh a ride. Heres a bushing going in with my homemade bushing press; I got a good deal on a m3 diff and axles. The axles were not very old but got a clean, polish and fresh coat of paint anyway. I was really happy how they came out. The diff was sandblasted in prep for paint. This turned out to be a terrible idea as sand made its way into the diff. I disassembled the diff and took it to Kayne Barrie to be rebuilt - the guy is a genius. Seeing as it was being rebuilt, I got him to change the ratio, seeing as a torquey V8 will be pushing it now. I went from a 3.62 to 3.23 which will be good for cruising. I hand polished the aluminium diff cover as it couldn't be sand blasted. This took absolutely ages. Here it is before; And how it looked after I had polished it and painted it a high quality clear, and then assembled back on the diff; Then it was installed in the subframe with powerflex bushings. And yes I painted the bolts black lol.

It looks bad in the pictures, but its totally stable in real life. When I'm under the car I have a stack of tyres under there too as an extra precaution. I'm pretty good on safety.

Yea the gasless mig is tricky to use cause I get alot of weld splatter and sometimes the beads are not overly consistent. Even harder when you are welding upside down under the car and are still learning. The mig welder can run gas, but money is tight and I'm going to wait until I'm better at welding first. For flex fuel my plans at the moment are to use a link ecu with a link flex fuel sensor. I'm not sure on hose, but my research has told me the stock plastic lines are fine with e85, and its just the rubber hoses that connect them that will need replacing. Any advice appreciated.

Yea, I've got a bunch of pictures to go through. It wont be a fast project, but I enjoy the process. My goal at the beginning of this year was to get the car rolling by the end of the year.

So after my grief with the N46 in my 318i I decided to turn it into a project car. The car is a 2004 318i auto msport wagon with 130,xxx kms. It will be getting a m62b44 non vanos v8 m62b46 v8 with a m122 supercharger It will be mated to a 420g 6 speed manual, and a m3 rear end. I'll also be upgrading suspension and brakes, and setting the car up for flex fuel to run e85. Cosmetically it will get some upgrades, but nothing too over the top. The goals for this project are; #Do as much myself as possible. #No compromises except on budget. #Make something unique. #Learn as much as I can in the process. So lets get started - heres the car; First job was to completely strip the exterior of the car. Everything came out, engine, trans, suspension, subframes, fuel tank, even the fuel lines and brake lines. Up on stands and ready to do some work With everything out I set to work cleaning the underbody. This took ages because I'm a perfectionist. I used degreaser and a waterblaster, and eventually degreaser with a rag to get the real stubborn areas. There was no damage to the underbody but because I'm increasing the power output I wanted to strengthen it. I made strengthening plates out of 2mm steel. A huge thank you to forum member @Karter16 who posted me paper templates to make them from. I bought myself a cheap gasless mig welder and taught myself to weld. This enabled me to make plates like the one below. There are 6 plates in total, 2 for the front subframe mounts, 2 for the rear subframe mounts, and two which are like spacers. Welding is really difficult, but I managed to weld in all 4 of the subframe plates. First I used a grinder with a flap disc and a drill with a wire brush, to get the places to be strengthened back to bare metal, then I coated the area with weld through primer. I coated the back of the plates in weld through primer also and then I welded in the plates. Then I used the grinder to grind the welds back. I then coated the bare metal with crc rust converter primer to protect it - I really like this product. https://www.crc.co.nz/Rust-Converter/6895-2548b7ca-2a00-4114-b2e1-17eb0e6a576b/ Then I used a Vht top coat, followed by seam sealer, and finally Septone stone shield rubberised coating. I coated the whole cleaned underbody in Septone stone shield. Its black, but looks green in the photo for some reason. The side skirts were removed to clean and paint behind and then reinstalled with new clips from Schmiedmann. The inner arches were cleaned and painted, and the cleaned plastic pieces were reinstalled. The cleaning process takes ages. Inner arches before cleaning and painting; And after; While all this was going on I was accumulating parts. All suspension and brake parts I sandblasted in my mates sandblaster. This took many days, and would have been more cost effective paying a professional, but I want to do as much myself as possible. Then they were expertly powdercoated by forum member @aja540i who really does a nice job. Here is a pic of the before and after the sandblasting; And a pic of the same part powdercoated and assembled;

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