Herbmiester

Matt, I can see where your coming from, its a lot of cash if it goes pear shaped again. I was keen to make my old E46 a track-day car until I read a journal about a guy who did just that, the M54 failed on him twice, oil pump and something else I cant remember. His conclusion was buy an M car that's what they are designed for.

Yes I bought them.

Your heading down the right path, spark plus maybe the culprit and as they are a maintenance item fresh ones wont hurt.

https://williamsperformance.co.uk/products/bmw-f-series-n55-sump-baffle-plate?_pos=1&_sid=a89c58fdc&_ss=r&fbclid=IwAR3CFOmm4KfG07_JhSLDyjNKcORJlUeUe57DZ827qMCgfCXZH90PLov2Y_E Solution for N55 track days.

I had this done 3 years ago and got charged $300 for it. The guy did it with solvents and brushes, I think it was an ok job but not perfect. There are plenty of vids on YT showing solvent and walnut home jobs and I think its a 2 to 3 out of 5 for difficulty. $1000 does seem to be the most common number I hear and is what a tuning outfit in Welly quoted me. I just cant reconcile that number with the time and parts involved. I will do it myself next time with basic blaster kit and some fine grained walnut shells. I expect the kit and gaskets will cost me less than $500, I can then re sell the blasting kit and get back $250. This video from the N54 tragic's at 0 to 60 goes through it including the mistakes they made and the simple fixes to those mistakes.

Not yet, but the weekend is coming up.

A very tidy E36 328i coupe.

This is the end result after a visit from Hutt Valley Wheel magician. I am quite happy with the finish, it took him 4 hours to do all 4 wheels. Will get some new rear tyres next week.

Kind of an apples vs oranges comparison. The M3 is pretty much track day ready out of the box and the S55 has the cooling systems for hard track work, early one s could do with a shock/spring upgrade. Drifting mods can run counter to track day setup so you may want to investigate that a bit more, my understanding is a track car can do some nice power slides but its not really a drift car, not enough steering lock for a start. As to the M135i its primarily a road car and a quick one at that but the N55 probably wont cope with lots of hard track day work without some cooling upgrades, a few weekends sure but I believe they can run into oil starvation problems with sustained high G cornering. I am sure someone sells a baffled oil pan. You will likely not be able to pull big power from a N55 with some major upgrades but 300kw and 550nm would be entirely reasonable.

I am unsure just passing on what he said worked. Clutch switch seems like a solution to me.

I have some info via a chap in the US who said that part of the issue with M52 cars is the ICV. His theory is that if the throttle shuts air can still get in via the ICV. He said Mustang drivers have a similar issue and restricting the airflow to the ICV solves the problem. He said dont cut it off but restrict the diameter of the tube that comes from the Throttle Body boot, start by reducing diameter by half. He glued in a smaller piece of rubber hose. He said also make sure that there are no air leaks like a torn throttle body boot and he disabled the flapper valve vacuum that went to his exhaust. Basically you cant have any vacuum leaks as this contributes a lot to the rev hang issue. Now this is someone else's work not mine so just passing it on.

Great I will try that.

Its bloody gorgeous.

I will be in the same boat soon, so really keen to see how this gets resolved.

I need 2 center caps for my Style 23's. Just had them refurbished and they are looking good.

Didn't know about that as an option, I will have to find out who does it in Wellington.

I bought some Style 32's that have been plasti coated and it looks like they have spray paint over the plasti stuff. Whats the best way to clean this off? there is a small amount of curb rash but otherwise they seem pretty good. Would probably suit a full refurbishment as it seem like an uncommon wheel set.

Nice to see another N54 owner. these cars have a lot of untapped potential, plenty of info here if you choose to go down that path.

There's some volume in there.

I dont mind 4 doors and in some case e36s can look ok, but coupes and Tourings look so much better.

That sounds interesting, be good to see more on that. I just got new diverter valves for my N54, no real power increase but better response as the plastic valves can be a bit slow, I guess I will find out.

Yeah I would say its an $8-10K car but being a 4 door it will have a smaller market.

I had to google Delphine. Well presented E30s look great in that color.

I like it, put some pics up when you do it.

A wee bit bored at present so I thought I would ask what peoples favorite BMW paint choices are? Top 3, I will start with mine. 1 Techno Violet 2 Estoril Blue 3 Hell Red