Vass

Yeah purple tag. Didn't order everything in one go but pretty much sold on CMP's solid subframe bushes as well. Apparently cause next to no decrease in ride quality and especially worth doing if the subframe's been reinforced. The RTAB's I'm still unsure on. Not on CMP ones specifically but have read of some drawbacks with going monoball on those so might stick with OEM with limiters. Really impressed with their tech articles and the lengths Cayn went to when answering all of my silly questions. Dude basically wrote out a full essay when I messaged them, explaining everything from pros and cons of the bushes to what sort of welding technique and surface treatment to use for reinforcement plates. E46's are apparently the last model where the subframe wasn't rigidly mounted to the chassis, as well as having a rubber guibo in the steering linkage. Looking forward to seeing how it feels with those points fixed. Don't think Eibach differentiate between body types with springs, only the xi ones were different. Got the same ones that @adro has on his touring so should be good enough for me. Did read about the E36 M3 bump stops. I think I first ordered OEM ones and then ordered those in as well so have two sets both front and rear. Will just go with the shorter ones of the two. Might stick with the 325i exhaust then since the lack of flap looks to be the only real difference. I do recall a noticeable difference in tone between the 325i and the 330i sedan I had but that's probably more down to the engine rather than the exhaust. Did read how culling the secondary cats livens it up a bit and adds a bit more grumble but more wary of it stinking up the place way more. The annoying part are the ugly exhaust tips. I bought these ones from Schmiedmann a while back thinking they're straight slip-ons but turns out they're meant for the full exhaust setup that they offer and don't fit over the stock pipes. Might just take it to a shop later on and have them weld those in.

Ho ho ho bimmerheads. Merrily having myself some festive wrenching here. With the engine rebuild near enough finished, I'm now just tying up all the other loose ends to hopefully drop it in before the end of the year. To start off, got a nice wee letter in the mail the other day. I'd asked on E46 Fanatics if anyone might have a spare manual cluster backing plate to block out the automatic gear screen and one fella gladly obliged. Bloody awesome community that. Came all the way from Pennsylvania and is a nice cherry on the cake. Had a bit of a dilemma with the power steering situation. The donor car came with an LF-30 pump that I had already pulled apart, cleaned up and refreshed with all new seals. Was prepared to bite the bullet and get a new high pressure hose from BMW for something like $400+ as those are different between the LF-20 and LF-30. Got a quote from BMW a few weeks prior and was told it's available on order from Auckland. Gave them a call to get one in and was instead told it'd need to be ordered from Malaysia and would be unlikely to arrive until sometime in January at the earliest. Looked over the current LF-20 hoses and they're actually in decent enough nick, problem is the LF-20 pump itself seemed to have some play in the shaft making an audible rattle, which left me a bit uneasy. Ended up going for another scavenger hunt to Pick-A-Part, hoping to either find a pressure hose for an LF-30 or a decent enough LF-20. Out of the 7 E46's there, the LF-20's had either been taken or they'd come with LF-30's so I ended up grabbing a pressure hose for the latter for just $16... then took it to Enzed and dropped $300 to get it refurbished. Smort. Finally got the final stubborn low pressure power steering line removed from the coil on the car that I'd given up on previously. Annoyed the hell out of me. Would not budge at all pressing the white clip in. Tried jamming in a cut up strip from a plastic bottle to no avail. Resorted to cutting it open with a rotary tool in the end. Stupid thing. Managed without any damage to the cooling coil and have a new line to go on anyway. The steering rack itself seems in decent nick and I found this engraved in it when wiping it down. It seems to say "03.15 209k" so wondering if it's been refurbished in March 2015, at 209k km? Bit weird as I bought the car at 214k km's in 2021 and it's unlikely it'd only done 5k km in the 6 years, so assume the rack must have come from some other car at some point. Anyway, tangent. Tackled the wiring looms next. Did a thorough inspection and gave everything a clean, cleaned off a few oily connectors with some contact cleaner and replaced the bits of plastic corrugate sleeving in places where it had crumbled away it. Also removed the auto transmission / O2 sensor loom from the ECU/relay box and tidied up the reverse light wiring I'd left in a bit of a dodgy state previously. Properly crimped and heat shrunk everything in place and culled or tidily tucked away the remaining automatic transmission wiring bits going into the cabin. Also found some sort of... repair someone had taken on previously? Bolted up the new dual mass flywheel and clutch kit I'd bought off @Eagle and mated up the engine and gearbox. Finally found a good use for two old bean bags my partner's been nagging me to throw away for a good part of two years now. Make a good cushy bed for the engine to take some pressure off the crane. There's two E14 bell housing bolts that are longer on a manual box than they are on an auto so I made sure to order those in (part no. 23001222894). Looking at it, the auto ones would probably do the job but wouldn't engage the threads fully so best to be safe. Got pretty annoyed when I got onto bolting on the main tensioner and it started spewing oil all over the place. Frustrating as it's barely a few years old. Bought it from FCP Euro as well so would be covered by warranty but can't imagine the return shipping costs would make the exercise worthwhile. Also discovered that I'd bought the wrong type of AC tensioner so have ordered new ones of both, should be here beginning of the coming week. Gave the exhaust manifolds a good scrub and will look to throw those on prior to the engine install. Not a fun task bolting those on in the car. Gave the whole car and the engine bay a good clean, it'd done a great job collecting pollen, dust and bird sh*t these last few months. Getting really annoyed at the horrid state of the paint now. All going well with the mechanical side of things, I suspect a full respray is on the cards in the not too distant future. Have rolled the car back into the garage finally, tidying up the last few bits and will start tackling the engine install. Plan is still to get the car up and running, break the engine in properly, go for WoF and start tackling the other missions that will knock the wheel alignment out of whack. Front subframe will get all new control arms, bushes, wheel bearings and tie rods, whole rear subframe will be refurbished and will probably throw in adjustable camber arms for good measure. With the subframe out, also aiming to tick off the reinforcement plate mission. Got a full kit from CMP as well as the weld in beam that goes along the back of the rear seats. Not sure if I'll end up going all the way with it but best to have it on hand anyway. Will also try out their solid steering coupling. Currently has a poly coupler that is a squeaky little piece of sh*t so definitely getting rid of that; more on it in a future post. 330 brakes are still waiting to be rebuilt. Some might have also noticed boxes of suspension bits on the shelf in one of the photos. Got a set of Eibach Pro Kit springs and Bilstein B4's all round on a decent deal from Demon Tweeks. Big pile of plans there but should feel brand new when I'm done with her. As far as more immediate tasks, will probably take the driveshaft to a shop to get tested/balanced. Pair extra to get the rear part of the driveshaft send over along with the manual conversion from the UK but the dude didn't mark it at all when removing so no idea how it's supposed to line up. Bit silly. Also haven't quite settled on what to do with the exhaust. Lined the 325 & 330 ones side by side and apart from the flap at the tail pipe on the 330, they seem to be pretty much identical? Leaning towards going with the 325 one if so. Am also thinking I'd like a bit more volume out of it so keen to hear some suggestions as to the best course of action, short of dropping a few grand on a full new setup. Don't want it to be stupid loud but in stock form it seemed barely even noticeable so just after a slight increase. What sort of difference would cutting out the secondary cats / resonator make? I assume deleting the muffler is sure to make it obnoxiously stupid?

Good to hear that some decent work was put into it and not a straight flip. Fair play to them on that front. Don't know if that justifies the asking price being what it is but meh. Interesting that they seem to market it being LHD as sort of a selling point? Is that a thing? Personally would have thought that it acts more to its detriment so don't really get it.

A steal at that kind of money , despite the condition. Tempted to go on a roadie actually.

Absolute madness. Love it!

Hot damn, that's awesome. I'd be very interested to know where you sourced that from. From what I've gathered, the US ZHP's were the only E46's that came with that box from factory. Is that where you got it from somehow? I know the newer 1, 3 & 5-series came with those too but I imagine the driveshafts and shifter linkages from those wouldn't be straight fits to an E46 and would need modifying.

Looks an awesome car. Color scheme might not be everyone's cuppa but suits it quite well in my eyes, definitely unique. Is the gearbox a 420 Getrag? And was the driveshaft a straight drop in or needed to be altered? That'd be my main concern going for cert.

Castrol Edge 5W-30 half price at $55/5L at Repco.

Not sure on the coils. I don't put anything on mine but might not be best practice. The rough idle might be a stuck idle control valve. Could definitely use a clean and a lube up after 15 years anyway. Would also clean the throttle body and MAF whilst in there. Might not be the main cause but would definitely help.

Interesting diagnosis. How hard would you have to be pushing it to crack a head?

Bit more than that but meh. Either that or ~$1000 for a new one. Add $10 for new O-rings and should be good as new.

Didn't listen to it specifically but the car made no noticeable noises in general. I did compare it side by side with the 325ci I had at the time and that had no such play. Although just checked RealOEM and the coupe had an LF-30 so not a direct comparison. Will pop by Pick-A-Part tomorrow to have a gander. Looks like I'll only find LF-20's from what's there currently. Got both in front of me right now and that looks like neither. Doesn't look like an E46 pump that. Thanks though, appreciate the offer. LF-20 on the left, LF-30 on the right.

It's a dark blueish-grey of sorts. Maybe it's turned blue from not getting any for a while... Not for long I'm sure Yeah plan is to get it up and running, with any luck maybe before the end of the year. Want to break the engine in properly and get a WoF before messing up the alignment. Afterwards I'll pull the subframe, weld in chassis reinforcements, redo the bushes, new suspension, refurb brakes, alignment and go for cert. The issue I'm grappling with at the moment is the power steering situation. The donor car came with an LF-30 pump that I've just pulled apart, cleaned up and redid all the seals. Got a quote from BMW a couple of weeks ago on a new pressure line for it and was told it's available on order from Auckland. Gave them a call just half an hour ago and was told there's none in the country so would need to be ordered in from Malaysia and unlikely to get it until January at the earliest. Looked over the current LF-20 hoses and they're actually in decent enough nick, problem is the LF-20 pump itself is rattly and I suspect is on its way out. Might go for a scavenge to Pick-A-Part this weekend. Hope to either find a pressure hose for an LF-30 or a decent enough LF-20. Only 3 6-cylinder E46's in Christchurch so slim pickings but will see how I go. https://www.dropbox.com/s/2k0pv38291m0d6p/2022-12-07 19.50.54.mp4?dl=0 Another annoyance is the new engine backing plate that goes between the block and the gearbox, wanted was after a manual version one without the opening for the torque converter bolts. FCP has it on backorder so ordered it through the dealership 3 weeks ago, was told it'd be 2-3 weeks. Instead was told today it's not due before February... Looks like I'll have to stick with the automatic one with the rubber plug. Not a big deal but wanted to get it perfect.

Had last Friday off and got a good 3 days of 12-13 hour shifts in over the weekend. Disassembled all the lifters and spent a good half a day cleaning them out. Some of them didn't look in too good a shape. Contemplated using the lifters and trays from the 325 but unfortunately managed to mix them up when removing the head. Apparently they wear to the individual cylinder they sit in and it's not good practice putting them back in randomly. The 330 ones I managed to keep in the correct order so stuck with those, although they did look worse for wear. 330i with 161,XXXkm on the left vs 325i 226,XXXkm on the right. This is probably the worst one of the lot but clearly see the difference regular oil changes make. Will do for now but new lifters is on the list of potential future maintenance items. My Aliexpress timing kit worked well and setting the timing was generally quite a straightforward affair. Only gripe I had with it was with the timing chain sprocket alignment tool. It doesn't space the sprockets far enough apart to lose all the slack from the chain so leaves too much room for confusion. Luckily I had a second set of sprockets from the 325i that I zip-tied together when removing and used that as a template. Here's how a correctly aligned set sits on the tool. I cleaned and reused the timing chain tensioner but replaced the spring. A couple of mm difference in height between the old and new. VANOS installed. Turned the engine over a few times, all rotates smoothly enough and stays in the right alignment. Then spent a silly number of hours cleaning out the valve cover. The waffle pattern is an absolute pain to clean and next to impossible to get perfect. Managed to get all the chunkier crud out and it took at least a good 10 flushes for the water to stop coming out all brown. Valve cover installed followed by new spark plugs and coils, cam, crank, knock and temp sensors, oil filter housing and whatever else I had access to. Pretty much at the point where I'm happy to mate it up with the gearbox and drop it in the car. Will need to tidy up the wiring loom and possibly hook it up prior. Will leave the intake manifold install for when the engine is in the car to avoid it getting in the way of the lift hooks. The intake manifold got fully disassembled and properly cleaned inside and out with a variety of brushes. New O-rings on the tested and cleaned injectors and air distributor rail, new temp sensor, CCV and hoses and vacuum caps. Thoroughly cleaned out the throttle body and ICV, lubed up the latter as per the guidance from this thread. Ready to throw onto the engine with just the rebuilt DISA to install after the intake boots are fitted. Getting there.

Wouldn't think it'd make much sense given it's a 320. The issues of those engines are notorious and well documented. Even if you fix the gearbox, you're still left with a ticking time bomb. Not a great starting point either way. Best cut your losses.

Keen to know if and what of the e46 stuff you guys might hold? Might give a go next time I need anything in a hurry.

Hit a big milestone over the weekend which I'm super excited about. Picking up where I left off, hung the engine up from the stand to install the rear main seal. All the bolts nice and clean and put a dab of high-temp thread sealer on the two big bolts to prevent those pesky leaks. The two small plugs on the front and rear also went in with the thread sealer. Also bashed in the new pilot bearing in anticipation. The shiny new sprocket arrived so I could box on with installing the chains and front cover. Bought a brand new set of iwis Racing chains. Not exactly sure what the difference is with the regular ones but at only a couple of dollars' difference, figured I might as well. The oil pump chain does seem to have a bit less slack to it but might be wishful thinking. Got a slotted oil pump nut from ECS Tuning that went on with a bit of blue thread sealer for good measure. For whatever reason, the safety wire included with the kit was stupidly short, so short that I really struggled tying it down properly and ended up making a total mess of it. You pay something like US$18 for a bloody nut and they cheap out on you with a couple of cents worth of wire... Had to go out to get a whole new roll of SS wire and had another go. Came out much better the second time around, and now have a spare 12.8m of wire left to no doubt satisfy a lifetime's worth of safety wire needs... 1st attempt Take two Front timing cover went on, as well as the crank pulley that I ended up just rattling on with an impact wrench. Quite a crude and probably not the ideal approach but really don't have access to or any leads on a torque wrench that would handle the required 410Nm. The impact wrench approach seems to have worked for quite a few people before so good enough for me. The crank pulley looked in good nick with no visual imperfections on the rubber ring on the back so was happy enough to reuse it after a good clean, with a brand new crank bolt of course. Gave the oil pan a final clean too and that went on next, with a brand new oil level sensor and a magnetic oil plug I'd inherited. Then onto the big one - the cylinder head install. This was the part I was the most nervous about so had to ask a mate around for some emotional support. First off, checked the sealing of the valves. Threaded in some old spark plugs and poured in some petrol, then blew compressed air into the intake and exhaust sides. No drop in the level and no bubbling from the compressed air so looked all good. Installed a pair of brand new dowel pins to the top of the block as I'd managed to mangle up the old two when removing them. Then the new standard size head gasket and cylinder head after a final clean. Having read through one too many an account of the threads stripping out and recommendations to preventatively timesert the block and whatnot, I was dreading this part of the whole project the most. Turns out I needn't have worried. Applied a light coating of oil to the new bolts so that they were covered but not dripping, then torqued down to 20Nm, 40Nm and two doses of 90 degrees, all in the correct sequence. All went much smoother than I would have imagined. The resistance on the bolts felt very consistent throughout and no funny creaking or squeaking at all. Don't mean to jinx it but looks a straight line to the finish from here on. Was a massive relief getting over this hurdle successfully, now just a matter of cleaning up the last bits and bolting everything together. Was so excited that was tempted to chuck an all-nighter and not show up to work on Monday but after a few celebratory drinks, exhaustion got the best of me. Will box on in the coming days. Still harboring hopes of getting the car up and running before the end of 2022 but will see how we go.

Continued assembling the block but stumbled onto an issue with the chain sprocket. Noticed that the rubber/plastic parts on it are visibly cracked and chipped away. I assume they serve as additional vibration dampeners so don't feel comfortable reusing it in this state. Have put an order in on a new one that will hopefully arrive beginning of next week. Will get onto other tasks in the meantime. Picked up this cheapish ultrasonic cleaner from Jaycar on sale that I've been using for cleaning up all sorts of bolts and smaller parts. Works a treat. Not industrial grade by any means but does the job. Using it with warm water and Simple Green concentrate for 5-8 minutes at a time. Eats away all of the lighter stuff and the rest of the varnish comes off easily with a little scrub. Time consuming process but well satisfying. Will put the lifters through the same treatment and get onto cleaning up the intake manifold whilst waiting on the crank sprocket.

Picked up this tool cabinet from SCA yesterday. Just about the only decent deal that stood out.

I do like the alcantara but did end up picking up those X5 seats I mentioned. Do look a bit worse for wear so will need a good cleanup, a lick of paint on the rails and probably some repair before they go in. Way down the list of priorities for the minute. Did also buy the row of buttons for the centre console off eBay. A heap of wiring will need to be run to make the heating elements work so the console and all will need to come out again. Can't wait...

As I'm not that well versed in electronics, I took my sweet time sorting the wiring. Wanted to make a tidy job of it and pretty happy with how it turned out. Started with dissecting the EGS wiring, using the donor car harness as a guide to what's safe to cull. Cut off the plugs going to the old transmission and got rid of the excess wires by pulling them through the tubing, leaving only a few that I reused for the reverse switch wiring. Crimped on a generic plug that I'd lifted off a temperature sensor and shrink wrapped it in place. Took me a while to figure out the fuse box side of it. There seemed to be two different ways of doing it - hooking up the two reverse switch wires to Pins 2 & 6 of X6325 according to this guide OR tap into the black/brown wire (Pin 4) and ground the other as shown in ShopLifeTV's & 50skid's videos. Had to educate myself on how relays work to figure out that both ways will work. Decided to go with Pin 4 and ground, retaining the relay so as to not run the main current through the light switch. The black/brown wire was the last one remaining on a EGS plug after getting rid of all the wires going to the transmission so that got spliced together. For ground I just plugged into the one of the other abandoned EGS plugs. Will do for now, will tidy the remaining loose ends after I've gotten the car up and running. On the inside I ended up also removing the steering column as I noticed the steering angle sensor being a bit too loose for my liking so wanted to check it out. Not sure how much play is normal but did notice the plastic bit on the column where the end of the pin is held in place was slightly cracked. Strengthened it with a bit of epoxy which seems to have solidified it a bit. Also fixed the annoying orientation of the column where the positioning slots on the end of the column and the steering wheel would end up on opposite sides. PO's attention to detail is a joy to behold. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ec2uskchmfbs6w9/2022-11-04 12.11.18.mp4?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/bmg6ngv6po6y1h8/2022-11-04 13.04.49.mp4?dl=0 Clutch switch wiring was pretty straightforward. Also did the reverse light dip wiring as per this guide. Reused the discarded wires from the auto transmission looms. Had two to play with so managed to string longer runs together with matching colours. Also disconnected the previously run cruise control wire to route it more properly. Fished the wires along the factory wiring routes wherever possible, using an old wire coat hanger to route the wires through in behind the heater core. Blue - cruise control to DME Pin 27 Green - clutch switch Pin 2 to DME Pin 23 Yellow - reverse dip X11176 Pin 7 to X428 Taped together the loose wires previously going to the auto shifter and cable tied them out of the way. Also tidied up other wiring where the tape had come loose over time with some new OEM-looking cloth electrical tape. The shift cable hole got plugged with an OEM blind plug (Part #07147140849 but and 35mm plug should do) and threaded some short bolts I found to the other shifter mounting bolt holes. Figured out why the wiring around the steering column had looked pretty hectic previously. While digging through the newest parts car I noticed the black plastic channel bolted to the side of the steering column - on Barbara it was missing completely. Lovely. While in there... I also took out the heater core for a thorough flush and some fresh O-rings. Getting the pipes back in is an absolute prick of a job, would recommend a second set of hands when tackling this. Ripped out the dash from the parts car that, underneath all the filth, looked in better shape than the old one. Gave it a good thorough clean with a steam cleaner and applied 2 coats of Aerospace 303 protectant to make it look nice and crisp. No more footprint or phone holder dildo smack in the middle of it. Love it. Dug out the armrest-less center console bit and set of cupholders I'd picked up from the wrecker's some months ago and spent a good few hours rubbing off the scratched up rubberised coating to expose the clean plastic underneath. Those also got a couple of coats of 303 to freshen them up. Cut a hole in the underside dash panel for the clutch pedal and pretty much put the interior back together. All that's missing is the shiftknob. Three pedals at last.

Had an ex-engine builder mate come round one evening with his set of micrometres to check over the bearing clearances. All seem to be sitting towards the upper end of the spec. Not ideal but she's also not a drag racer so happy enough. Main bearing clearances sat around 0.050-0.055mm - spec is 0.020-0.058mm. Con rods were around the same. Also rechecked them with plastigauge later on and all sat bang on 0.050mm. These are the piston rings I ended up using, as recommended previously, complete with M52TU-style bottom rings. Checked the ring end gaps with a feeler gauge and to my great relief no grinding was required. Spec is 0.20-0.40mm, both top rings were bang on 0.40mm in all 6 sets out of the box. The oil control rings were between 0.60-0.75mm but they're also a 3-piece instead of the stock 2-piece so probably fall under some other spec. Gave the block a last clean and blast through wish some compressed air, wiped down the bores and got to installing the crank. Bearings went in with a little coating of assembly lube. Sacrificed a brand new detailing brush to oil duties and painted a bit of oil on all the journals as well. Main caps went on and torqued to spec - 20Nm + 70 degrees. Made sure to remember to put the brace plates on the first time around after watching 50skid step on that rake. Piston rings got clocked to different sides and not to match oil openings, brushed on some oil onto the bores, piston & ring compressor and gently tapped the pistons in place. Caps torqued to the same spec as the main caps, with brand new oiled up bolts. All turns over beautifully without much effort. Happy to have gotten to this point. Called it a day at nearly 11pm on Wednesday with a great sense of accomplishment. Best sleep I had all week. Another weekend of wrenching ahead, hoping to get her up and running before Christmas ✌

Tempted to become a hairdresser looking at that. Looking mint, good buy.

That's him here ain't it?

Would rather this than an E90 M3 tbh.