FIAT 131R

The centers are the exact same, the only difference between diff's is the the ring gear and pinion gear.

You would need to swap the 3.64 ratio ring gear onto the LSD before installing it into the 3.64 case (pinion gear will be different).

Setting up a diff requires someone who knows what they are doing. You can save yourself a lot of heartache by getting Kayne Barrie to do it properly so you actually get the real benefit of the LSD. To do otherwise is often penny wise pound foolish.

Same problem Geoff, also can't get in to the new site. Seems they have some issues.

Thanks Dave. As I get older I sometimes wonder if technology has become too difficult.

Been trying to upgrade to the new Mylaps site. Says my login failed. I have the login and password written in my car information book. I ask for a new password to be sent. It says it has been sent but nothing arrives. I tried to contact them but it says mandatory fields are missing ie my telephone number is wrong. I tried putting in the number in a number of formats ie international and local. I tried to send then an email to say stick Mylaps somewhere smelly. That too won't go. Was trying to see how Todd, Lance and Jack got on at Pukekohe. rather a frustrating exercise.

A friend of mine works at a scrap yard and told me he has an accident damaged 1993 e36 coupe 325i manual, black leather interior, complete car he only wants $1000 to cover the weight of the metal.

Had a slight nose to tail so headlights, tail lights, front and rear bumpers and boot lid damaged

Has no wheels so may need to supply if you want it roll able

Front lower suspension arms and front seats are the only things missing

Can get front seats to complete the interior if needed at slight extra cost.

Engine still runs and gearbox selects all gears fine, I'm told it has a ZF gearbox not sure on the diff specs

It will be squashed complete late this week. I would by it myself if I could justify it

Must be one hell of a heavy car to be $1,000. Usually $200 would cover the metal cost.

Want to get some more power out of your M52 that has been strangled with the small inlet manifold. $110 plus freight.

After pressing a few keys found this list. http://www.search.ask.com/web?l=dis&q=...3Ao%3DAPN10645A

Maybe they have improved?

Thanks for posting that link. Seems like while they may do some things right they are basically a pack a pack of pricks. I ill be avoiding them until I see some consistent improvement regardless of their prices.

From Wiki,

A different 745i was built for the South Africa market, because the turbocharger on the European-market 745i could not be installed in right-hand-drive versions of the car due to space restrictions in the engine bay (in RHD configuration, the steering shaft occupied the space where the turbocharger/exhaust was located on LHD versions). This car was fitted with the 286 hp (213 kW) dual-camshaft 24-valve type-M88 /3 Motorsport engine (with a Bosch ML-Jetronic fuel injection system) as used in the M635i, and M5. 209 of these cars were built between 1984 and 1986, fitted with either an automatic transmission or a 5-speed 'sport' gearbox. Of the 209 cars built 192 were automatics and 17 were fitted with manual gearboxes.

BMW South Africa ran one of these 745i models in Class A of the South African Modified Saloon Car Championship, the only BMW-Sanctioned motor sport application in the history of BMW 7-series cars.

I have one of these.

I think you told us recently not everything on Wiki is true.

Oli from on here has one for sale. See under items for sale.

Definately on the to do list:

Ray thanks for your timely reminders of things to watch out for with BMW's. They are much appreciated.

That's incorrect ... have a read of section 16 carefully - it doesn't apply.

To the OP - I think you are best to import one from the USA or UK - the s54 is still bloody expensive to buy locally, compared to what you can pick one up for overseas.

It's fine to say import an engine from the UK or USA, if you can do without your car for a couple of months or more. The last engine I bought in the UK was on 13 December. I expect to collect it next week. In addition there are some bloody shysters on Ebay and even if you use Paypal by the time your item reaches NZ you are outside the time limit for making a claim. I have had some good experiences importing the engines but not all the experiences are good. Just trying to provide a bit of balance to those thinking of importing. Also remember to add customs clearance and logistic fees, Destination Port Fees, Government processing fee, MAF inspection fees, NZ Customs entry fees, Origin Terminal Handling Fees, plus GST and freight costs.

I did not get charged for saying holy sh*t who thinks up all these bloody fees.

I Need a builder or carpenter to do a couple of jobs on a property, happy to pay cash, property is in Johnsonville, anybody have any suggestions?

[/quote

Give me a call. I have spoken to a builder and he is OK to do the work.

Geoff G

Well that answers that one then. Are there any other racks out there that dont do this? Atm it looks like im "downgrading" to a manual e30 rack.

Fair point but im sure theres got to be other ways out there of fashioning that spacer, as it seems to me that spending $110 on a stick of plastic is a bit too much considering the rack costs $100.

When i say minimize i mean reduce cost and effort to a safe point. With your reasoning maximize would have you making the spacer out of solid gold.

I have done a number of these and simply removed the outer cover on the steering knuckle and instead of using urethane used alloy. Make sure you use strong hardened alloy. The alloy has been threaded and the bolts go right through rather than riveted like the original part. By doing away with the outer cover you gain quite a bit of space around the manifold. About 12mm on each side from memory. This is great when you use after market manifolds and need more room. I have a knuckle I have converted for sale for $145 plus freight.

I used a rack from a Z3 1.9 litre and the lock to lock is 2.7 turns on my conversion. They are not easy to find and bought the last two from the UK.

Whoah there Big Fella! That's a pretty serious statement. Have I missed something in this thread, where did this idea of cars being mis-represented by dealers spring from??

Car dealers JTP as opposed to BMW dealerships.

I was interested in what determines an M badge. I've got nothing against cars having the badge if they have Msport equipment but I think it's a bit naff to badge a car with a car it's not (i.e. badging a 520 with an M5 emblem). Will stick to my 528i badge on mine!

I agree it's bloody naff but so are about 95% of the responses on this topic. It looks like a number of dealers are misrepresenting what they are selling and could be charged with fraud. It's the equivalent of winding back speedometers. I know some wannabes change badging on cars but for a dealer to knowingly do it is fraud and should be taken up with the motor vehicle dealers outfit.

Hi Paul,

That is an excellent write up.

I'm overseas atm and will be tackling this when I get back early Dec.

(Was thinking of buying ~$500USD shim kit but if individual shim costs $9.30NZD, I might do that too)

Looks like we are doing similar mods.

I've ordered Autosolutions SSK and it's own it's way to NZ as well. Will be good to share some ideas and could even save on ridiculous shipping cost in the future mods if we split the bill.

FOR the connecting rod bearing prob, as far as I'm aware, it's only affecting 2001-2002 model m3s?

Although it wouldn't hurt to check, I wanna avoid it if possible.

Most if not all the models with those bearings were recalled. Should be easy enough to check if your car has had the bearings changed.

I have a shim kit on the way to me now. When you go to BMW you need to know what sizes you need. As I have a number of E46 M3 engines I bought the whole kit.

Welcome, Wanna see pics of both cars

I was working in Little Rock AR last week and shopping in Tractor Supply Company (for kiwis, thats a Mitre 10 Mega for the rural Agricultural sector) and got chatting with a girl who worked there who had a 328 (from memory). I told her about the wealth of info available on this forum so hopefully we might see her and a few other Americans on the forum in the future. What stuns me is the cheap price of BMWs in the US.

Pity the steering wheel is on the wrong side.

If that steering wheel was moved to the other side there would be even more BMW's in our race series. Mind you there are a few of the lefties racing already.

I don't suppose it ever dawned on you that the car might not be with the engine. Just in time thinking before posting is as important as just in time manufacturing.

I am curious to know why you need to know when an engine is made? With modern Just-in-Time manufacturing, it can't be far off from the car's manufacture's date?

With E46 S54 engines how do I get information about the engine history, date of manufacture etc using only the engine number. I have spent many hours trying to track down some method to do this all to no avail. There are heaps of sites which purport to provide information using engine numbers but they are all fcuking useless.

Neither of us will be unfortunately but i'm sure he'd be more than happy to freight them to you. As for fitment, i'm not 100% sure but I think the steering knuckle is in the way so they'll have to be cut and modified a bit to fit correctly. Haven't tried to fit them myself but pretty sure that's the issue

Sometimes you can modify the steering knuckle to allow headers to fit. I have a knuckle that I have modified and it's considerably narrower by about 20 to 25mm following the modification. Let me know if you are interested in the modified knuckle.

Talking of crap. Do you by any chance have a clean ring. I have heard there is a specialist ring cleaning outfit in the north.

I saw that on the day it was listed on their website but haven't got around to getting up there. Will go grab some bits tomorrow in my lunch break.

Judging by the interest in it today an early visit might be a good idea.

Hey guys, I ventured into wellington pickapart today and stumbled accross a red 325i manual e30. The complete manual conversion set up is still there so some lucky chap will get a mean deal! Even has the battery in the boot (minus the tray as I scored that).

Also has mtech 1 steering wheel, most of the motor and interior is still there but the dash is cracked. Has what looks like king springs in it and all susp is still there but I scored the diff.

Id remove more out of it for myself but ran out of time and have to go back to christchurch

I thought someone may be interested in it

Turoa

Thanks for the heads up on the car being there.

There was a rather large hole in the sump could have been courtesy of a forklift tine. Two early birds beat us there but we have swapped contact numbers for the future. I got the front bumper and valance plus some other parts so your heads up was great. Might have got the conversion but a guy who only works 20 hours plus a day building his white number 222 and helping me with my car decided to sleep in till 8am.

Rear seat was OK but the front was not good at all.

Early birds got the steering wheel but it was not high quality.

Sorry we didn't have a big enough socket or spanner for the rear suspension.

Yes Mummy but I do get sick of people asking about things they want to achieve and some stupid dickhead rubbishing their wishes.

Why bother?

Typical stupid comment we see on forums these days.

Borrowed it from a friend, not powered but the car is balanced enough that you can rotate it by yourself.. It's worth it's weight in gold.. And it's heavy...

I have seen the car and it's far, far better than Oli's spelling