Vass

Yeah manifold out is the next logical step for me. Will see from there. Cheers

Gearbox is out but now I'm left with more questions than answers. A good puddle of engine oil left in the bell housing but the rear main seal... bone dry. Flywheel bolts don't have any oil on them either so the sealant must have done its job pretty well. Doesn't help that the engine oil is still new so finding it hard to pin down the culprit. Only obvious place that's soaked in oil is the left side long oil pan bolt. The rest of them are all dry. Almost looks like the oil is running out down that bolt hole which is very peculiar. The area above it looks to be dry and doesn't look like anything is coming out from the oil pan gasket above, only through the bolt hole. Localised oil pan gasket failure? But then it gets weirder. Peeking in from above the engine bay, also noticed a small puddle forming just below the starter, around the crank position sensor. Was hard to get a picture in between all the plumbing but this is the area on the old engine. Judging by how caked up the whole area on that is, looks like that may be a common failure spot. Pretty peculiar for it to already start leaking after driving all of 3 km, being a brand new sensor with a brand new O-ring. Would it really produce such a strong drip? Is that the main leak that's dunning all the way down along the bolt or is it two separate leaks already? Gets even weirder still looking at the engine backing plate where in addition to the area where the sensor is, there is another wet patch above the starter. Absolutely no idea where that could be coming from. Too tight to stick my head in there to see but it's all dry on the gearbox side of that spot and feeling around I couldn't find any obvious wet spots either. Might have to remove the intake again to check. FFS. Really at my wit's end at this point. None of those look like they would produce a strong enough leak to be pissing out as it way. As a quick fix all I can think of is take out that bolt and refit it with a bunch of thread sealer but absolutely no guarantee it would hold. Looking back through the photos post machine shop work, this is that that area looked like. Naturally they managed to f**k up the edges so I filed the high spots down and made sure to put some extra RTV along the join. Also took a 400 grit sandpaper and got rid of the remnants of the old pan gasket. Thought I got it pretty tidy without introducing any deep scuffs. Fair point but how would that work exactly? With the gearbox out there's nothing holding the starter in place... Pisses me off honestly. Thought I messed up the RMS but now don't know what else to point the finger at other than the shitty machine work. Put my whole holiday brake into this, put off any trip plans we might have had, now going back to work Monday more tired than I was before and with f**k all to show for it. Honestly don't know what the f**k to do anymore other than pull the engine and source another second hand one.

Yeah definitely put sealant on the joins there, also thread sealer on the two big bolts that go all the way through. Not sure what the machine shop might have done beyond chuck it in the cleaner. Yeah I remember you mentioning resetting the springs. Think you also said they looked fine on the pictures so I just chucked it on. Wasn't sure what I was looking for with those anyway but will have to revisit and figure out how to reset. Will grab a puller off a mate. Was actually keen to keep the depress-clutch-to-start function. Good little precaution when left in gear as I often do.

On the bright side though, prior to all this I hooked up INPA and verified that it's getting the clutch switch signal, so at least that's all good. Didn't check cruise control but no rev hang so will take the small win. Might have messed up the one wire going to the EWS then. Least of my worries for now though.

Well, was fun while it lasted... All 5 minutes of it. The heatshield thing wouldn't give me peace so once again returned to Pick-A-Part and nabbed a front section of a similar heatshield and mashed together an extension. Quite pleased with myself with how it turned out. Bolted up the exhaust with new hangers and fresh braces, started her up again, bled the power steering and cooling system, topped up oil, then dropped her down, torqued up the sway bar brackets and wheel nuts, ready for its first run. Went for a quick run around the block. The clutch felt a bit weird and will take some getting used to. First time driving a manual BMW so not sure how it's supposed to feel like. Probably down to it being a double mass flywheel and the clutch not bedded in yet. Lifters ticking away as was to be expected, otherwise ran really well. Was absolutely buzzing to have her up and running again. All the good vibes got wiped away though as I checked the underside. FFS Not a small leak either. Left a good trail all along the road as well. Absolutely pissing out engine oil. Gearbox out it is... I suspect it's the rear main seal. Thinking back now, I do remember being a bit unsure about it. I ran it in flush with the housing but originally I think it sat about 1-2mm proud. Thought it'd be fine, obviously mistakenly so. Remember seeing FCP Euro mention a special installation tool in one of their videos but then again others have just ran it in using the old seal with a block of wood so went with that approach. Must have messed it up somehow. Will hopefully see the issue once the box is out. Will just get this kit if that's the issue, don't want to trust myself with that again. Bit disheartening after spending my whole Christmas break on it but it is what it is, learning things the hard way. Not giving up.

Went to EWS coding and switched the transmission coding to manual which essentially gets rid of the need for the clutch switch to turn on. Happily started cranking away. Weird thing is, even before I did that I could have sworn I saw the clutch switch work looking at the live data, but now it does nothing. But that might have been the live data view in INPA instead. The real test will be whether it'll suffer from rev hang and fails to disable cruise control. Will see. If so then either the clutch switch has gone bad or I've messed up the wiring somehow. Anyway, cranked it for a good 10-15 seconds with the main relay and fuel pump fuse removed, then refitted them and... here we are. Didn't want to let it idle for long so shut it down after a steady 10 seconds or so. Plus the neighbours next door have barely a month old baby and this thing sounded like a bloody tractor with no exhaust on so didn't want to be a pest. Feels like the final mile of a long race. Didn't get as far as I hoped to today but touching distance now. Don't want to jinx it again so will just see how it goes. Also, don't know what people do with heat shields when manual converting but this really doesn't sit well with me. Did a quick post on FB asking what others have done and the recommended solution seems to be not to worry about it. Thinking I might pop by Pick-A-Part again, cut off a front section of a similar heat shield and tidily jam it in there somehow to fill the gap. Or, you know, might just hakuna matata.

Update. Looks like EWS is the culprit. Followed the trick in this video at around 3 minutes in - unplugged the EWS, stuck a 30 Amp fuse into the first two slots and got her cranking! Will crack on and see if I can figure out a fix.

I think it's one or the other. The clutch switch wiring on manuals is supposed to emulate the same signal as the park/neutral switch on automatics, if that makes any sense.. I'm far from an expert though.

Well, sure enough, would have been a bit weird if it had been all plain sailing. Charged the battery back up to full after doing the coding, disconnected the main relay and the fuel pump fuse to build up oil pressure, depressed the clutch, turned the key... No crank. Was definitely dreading this. So many components have been tinkered with that it's hard to pinpoint a culprit. Here's what I have to work with so far. All sorts of codes pop up with the main relay out but here's what's left after that hooked back up and everything cleared. Weird amount of ABS codes that won't go away, and do hear a click from the ABS unit area when turning on the ignition, but surely the ABS unit shouldn't be what's preventing it from cranking? Reading live data, the clutch switch is registering, whether the signal goes all the way through to the EWS though I'll need to check. I do get a chime when opening the door with the key in position 2 so the key shouldn't be the culprit. In the EWS live data, I wonder if the 'Selector lever / Clutch switch' is supposed to go green with the clutch depressed? Currently it doesn't make any difference. After a couple of tries another DME code popped up - 'Control unit self-test 3'. Not sure what that is. Suspect it's either an EWS signal issue or the starter not getting voltage. Have put the battery back on charge again. Will keep on digging and trying to diagnose, shall report back if I get anywhere. Feel free to chime in, might be missing something obvious.

Took up some arts and crafts for a change. Stripped down the scruffy looking driveshaft and bottom brace plates to bare metal and gave them 3 coats of low gloss paint. Came out quite nice. Left the U-joint part of the driveshaft untouched as I didn't want to get any of the actual pivoting bits caked in paint. Bolted and torqued the driveshaft up with a new center support bearing and that's the driveline sorted. Didn't feel like bolting on any rusty bits to went full stupid on the exhaust. Post fact realised that most of it was likely an absolute waste of time but happy to have some shiny exhaust tips at least. Onto less trivial stuff, busted out the laptop and tackled the coding/flashing part of things. All went without a hitch. Threw in the fully charged battery and got the latest 330i EU2 software installed, EGS coded out and adaptations cleared. Got rid of the gear cog from the cluster so must have worked alright. Haven't tried starting it yet but nearly at that point now. At the end of the night, went to roll the windows up by holding down the lock button on the key fob and was met with a pleasant WTF moment - along with the windows going up, the mirrors also folded in. The same mirrors that had refused to work all throughout my ownership. Absolutely no idea what the issue was and what fixed it but not complaining! Finishing touches now. Brakes and clutch fully bled through and feeling nice and firm. The old brake fluid had definitely seen some better days. Went through the underside and engine bay to double check that everything is bolted and connected up. Moment of truth tomorrow morning. Will see if she'll fire up, then hopefully go for a drive if all is looking well. Fingers crossed.

Messaged CMP a couple of weeks ago, Cayn told me the subframe bushes should be back in stock early Jan so hopefully not too far off now.

Yeah did seem a bit suspect, from what I've read up on the M54 there's not much extra you can squeeze out of it without bolting on some aftermarket mods, and even then the gains are pretty limited. Unless it's a turbo or supercharger... Thanks! The headunit is an Android one that bluetooths to my phone pretty seamlessly so happy enough with it. Don't think I'll bother with PDC, will fit a reverse camera instead. Already routed the cables through to the back seats whilst the dash was apart, will wire it all in when I get onto repairing the boot elephant trunk wiring.

That looks absolutely mint man. Did you paint it yourself? What sort of paint did you use? Going to be doing mine soon but no idea what products to use yet.

I've found vin decoders unreliable when it comes to gearbox type, often see factory manuals claiming to be autos. Looking at the few photos, I dare say it is a factory manual. Usually, a dead giveaway is the lower right part of the cluster where the auto gear monitor usually resides, on this one it's blocked out as it is on manuals. On most conversions this is a minor detail that gets overlooked as it's purely cosmetic. Another quick giveaway would be any dodgy looking wiring going to the fuse/ECU box under the hood, or remnants of any blue plugs in the box from the EGS/transmission module.

Not sure, might just sell the second one and mod the main one? Got offered $350 for the full set of cats - manifold + secondary so yeah sorry, got my wires tangled up, your numbers are closer to the truth for just the secondaries. Hmm...

Popped by Uniweld to ask for advice on what I could do with the exhaust system and to gauge what sort of money to budget for. Replacing the secondary cats with resonators as recommended by @wrs would run $400 a side so $800 all up. Could then sell the cats and recoup maybe $200-300 which isn't too bad. Something to look into later on. He also put me onto Autopassion to see if they offer any ready made exhaust options for the E46. They don't but whilst I was at it, asked them about the chip tuning service they offer and claimed they have a tune for the 330i that increases power from 231hp to 262hp and torque from 300Nm to 345Nm at a cost of $895. Does that seem legit? Haven't really looked into chip tuning before so not sure if there are any downsides to it?

Honestly I just hope it fires up, getting increasingly more nervous the closer it gets to the time to turn the key Got the front end back together, great to have it back looking like an actual car again. Reattached the sway bar with new bushings and slipped in the strut tower reinforcement plates, will leave the rest of the suspension untouched for now. Got onto swapping out the diff. Decided to put in the auto 330 diff (3.38) from the donor car for now rather than messing about swapping over the input flanges on the 325 auto diff (3.46). Want to give the manual 2.93 diff a fresh lick of paint and new fluids before putting it in for good with the rest of the refurbished subframe later down the track so left it out for now. Good chance to try out the different ratios as well. Was a bit of a mission wrestling it in and out but got there in the end. The exhaust gaskets arrived yesterday so got onto attaching the manifolds. Absolute PITA of a job, started early afternoon and finished around 1am. Fitted new pre-car O2 sensors and blocked out the post's with nuts from Redline delivered overnight. Then got onto the fun part... Honestly, not sure if it's even possible to fit them in without removing the exhaust side engine mount arm. Gave it a quick half-arsed effort but quickly resorted to slightly jacking the front of the engine up (having removed the engine mount nuts on both sides prior) and took the arm out. That opened up enough room to wrestle both the cats past the subframe but was still a balancing act holding them both in there and trying to thread on a few bolts, at the same time trying not to knock the gaskets off the studs. Got there in the end but then made a bit of a misstep. Got the Bank 2 manifold bolted and properly torqued up and jumped onto Bank 1. The right thing to do would have been to at least roughly throw the engine mount arm back in place and reattach the small bracket to the block that holds onto the Bank 1 manifold right after the cat. I only realised my mistake after fully torquing up both manifolds. Of course the engine mount would not fit back through with the manifolds in the way. No way I was going to remove them again so instead I unbolted the power steering hoses (luckily I hadn't filled the system up with fluids yet) and LCA bushing that allowed me to swing the control arm out of the way enough to manoeuver the arm into place. Then I discovered there's not enough room between the block and the manifold to fit in the top bolt for the little bracket (seen in the photo below). Not sure if it serves much of a purpose but wanted to attach it regardless so I ended up cutting the top bolt about 8mm short that gave just enough room to thread it on. So far I think that's the first (and hopefully only) shortcut that I've had to resort to so won't be losing any sleep over it. Reattached the steering linkage and that should be that in the engine bay, short of fitting the beauty covers and cabin filter housing. Had to rotate the plastic guiding tab thingy on the steering rack input shaft so that the steering wheel and the wheels themselves are pointing (seemingly) straight. Prior to that also replaced the top section of the steering linkage with one I stumbled upon at Pick-A-Part. Wouldn't have bothered with the effort but someone had done all the work of removing the thing so it was just laying there looking pretty in the engine bay of one of the cars so I couldn't walk past. I knew the old one had been subjected to some serious abuse in its past life so just another small thing to tidy up. Things to do still: Sort out the driveshaft Fit exhaust Fluids - bleed brakes & clutch, cooling system, power steering Coding - have never done it before but with some awesome guides out there, hoping it won't be too messy an affair. Not sure if the order matters but will first update the DME to the latest EU2 330i software following this guide. That should code out the post-cat O2's so two birds with one stone. Then, code out the EGS module following this one and that should be that. Hopefully. Famous last words. If I was a bite-my-nails type of person, I probably wouldn't have any left at this point. Exciting times.

Engine went in without issues and have been busy assembling everything around it. First thing I did, of course, was attach the shifter linkage and have a jolly good time shifting gears whilst making racing noises. Really happy with the E60 shift lever and ZHP knob combo as per @Eagle's recommendation. Well worth the investment. Engine bay is beginning to look pretty much complete now. Just waiting on the exhaust manifold gaskets to arrive and can finish the last bits off. Fuse / ECU box is also looking nice and tidy now. Tied in the reverse light wires quite well so that they're barely noticeable and the one remaining auto transmission plug is also tucked out of the way. The new tensioners arrived and got bolted on, as well as the rebuilt DISA, new intake boots and MAF, aluminium water pump and power steering pulleys, power steering reservoir and hoses and also a fresh new dipstick, just because. Gave the steering rack a good scrub and bolted it back onto the subframe. Kept the old tie rods for now, will chuck new ones on when doing the new suspension, brakes, rear subframe etc. Remembered the old PS pressure hose having a groove worn into it where it was rubbing against the underside of the engine block so chucked on a rubber sleeve on it to prevent the same from happening to the new one in that spot. Washed all the cooling system and intake components and threw those on. The radiator and associated hoses are barely two years old from when I first bought the car, the engine donor also came with a near new genuine expansion tank dated 2020 so happy enough to reuse that for the time being. Made sure I got the manual radiator bracket along with the manual conversion so it all looks as it should and doesn't have the blocked off auto trans cooler dangling off the front. Remembered to switch over the radiator plugs from auto (left) to manual (right). Filled the engine up with oil and turned it over a bunch of times by hand. Going with Penrite 15W-40 special running in oil for the break in period. Have heard good things about it so am sure it'll do the job. Will then switch back over to Castrol Edge 5W-30 that I've built up a decent stockpile of. Am also just using straight distilled water in the cooling system to start with. Just doing a tonne of cleaning and tidying up small annoyances like missing/broken clips and other imperfections that I have easy access to still. Not sure what sort of environment this car used to be in back in Japan but am noticing some weird items wearing away that I haven't noticed happen on other cars. The latest example being the hood latch cables, the plastic/rubber sleeve on which had completely crumbled away. Went for my ritualistic scavenge to Pick-A-Part and none of the cars there were suffering from a similar disease so was an easy search for a replacement. Luckily an easy task replacing the cables themselves as well without having to change the lock mechanisms. Gave those a clean and dash of grease whilst having the whole thing apart. Hoping to receive the parts package this week still so can finish things off in the engine bay. Will put the front end back together in the meantime.

Nice stuff. Wish I had any sort of welding experience, will have to bribe a mate to give mine the treatment. What was the reason you went with MK over CMP's subframe bushes?

Sorry to hijack a bit but what are people's thoughts on HPR 5? Have always stuck to Castrol Edge 5w-30 but seen a few jump ship. Any reason to go for one over the other or just what's cheaper at the time?

She's in!

Ended up having no luck with the exhaust manifold gaskets. Pulled one apart but the indent pattern is different between the two so gave up. A few more shops should be open tomorrow so will try my luck but pretty much resigned to dropping the engine in without them attached. Put that to the side and got onto fixing up the steering coupling. Somewhere along the line it got gifted with this masterpiece from Ireland Engineering. Can appreciate the intention behind it but what an absolute piece of sh*t it is. I suspect it would be around 4-5 years old but already very soft and insanely squeaky. Video: Ireland Engineering Steering Coupling Compare that to the stock 20-year old rubber one from the engine donor car that still feels solid as (the cracking is coming from my wrist...) Video: Original Rubber Steering Coupling If anyone thinking of doing this "upgrade" ever happens to see this - DON'T. Got the parts nicely cleaned up, put a dash of white lithium grease on the pivot points and bolted the thing up. Did have to drill the holes a size bigger to fit the M10 8.8 bolts. Was going to put the heatshield back on to make it a bit less conspicuous but that was just too mangled up to be of any use. Haven't looked into what the cert/WoF verdict might be on it but can easily throw on the original spare coupling if they deem it an issue. Otherwise, the freshly cleaned heat shields all bolted up, pretty much set for the engine install. Have a mate coming around tomorrow to help with the manoeuvring. Really regret not getting the AC system drained prior to this whole endeavour as that'll be a bastard to dance around but... will manage. Tomorrow is the day.

Actually, just dropped the old set by accident and the heatshield and gasket just came apart. The gaskets themselves look identical. Will see if I can tidily separate the new gaskets and just clean up and reuse the old heatshields instead. Fingers crossed 🤞

The Eibach ones are a bit cheaper, look somehow beefier and tidier as well, to me anyway. But either or really. I wouldn't bother painting the RTAB's if I were you. They're tucked away in the pocket anyway, don't think you'll see much of them even with the car jacked up. Would probably scratch the paint off installing them anyway. I won't be bothering with the subframe mounts either. Send me a list of what you're after, will put in an order on a set tonight. Spareto has them in so will go with them, although not sure if they're priced each or come as a set/pair. Just spent 2 hours driving around town checking all the Euro shops. Even the ones that are supposedly meant to be open according to Google Maps, Facebook etc. are all closed up. Not even a printout of their holiday schedule taped to the front door or anything on any of them. How bloody hard is that to do? A few are supposedly open tomorrow, as well as BMW themselves so will try my luck finding something locally still, but worth having a set on the way as backup anyway.

I'm thinking of these for the camber arms. I know the Hardrace ones are known to have no trouble going through cert but asked my cert guy about the Eibach ones, said they'd need to inspect the welds but overall should still be up to standard. Willing to take my chances, not really keen on introducing all sorts of silly colors. Was one of the reasons why I also opted for Eibach springs and B4's instead of the blueish H&R's and yellow B6's. Will be painting the brake calipers straight black as well so will be nice and clean. Boxed on with tidying up the engine bay. Took off the steering rack and dropped the front subframe to get a bit more wiggle room to the engine install. Cleaned off all the grime I now had access to as well as the transmission tunnel. Installed the new heater valve with brand new heater hoses. Gave the heat shields a good going over as well. Freed up and reinstalled the exhaust manifold studs that had come out along with the bolts. Wanted to get onto bolting up the exhaust manifolds and then ran into trouble. Didn't think to check beforehand but of course I got the wrong gaskets/heat shields. The head gasket kit I got came with the US-spec gaskets that are a different shape. Could probably make them work but really not keen to start cutting corners at this point. So will be frantically running around tomorrow trying to locally source a pair in a hurry. Not sure how highly I rate my chances. Otherwise it's another order from overseas and another week's wait, and of course the unenviable task of installing the damn things with the engine in the car. Not a fan.