Vass

Someone must have taken a piss in Grouchy Smurf's coffee yesterday. We've all been there.

Manuals should have an electric fan instead so it's not a very thorough conversion, but I'm being pedantic here. I have a general dislike of clutch fans as they sound like vacuum cleaners, are a power drain (albeit a very marginal one) and have read through one too many an account of them grenading the whole front end, taking out the cooling hoses and piercing the bonnet to take my chances on them personally. Doesn't hurt asking I guess. I mean I wish the prices were up there. Realistically though I reckon we're still a good few years away and the price seems way out of whack at this point in time.

First of all, what an absolutely mint looking car. None the less, dude must be on some grade A crack asking for $23k. Must be the most overpriced non-M e46 out there. The "professionally done" manual conversion looks a half-arsed effort at best with the gear cog on the dash and clutch fan still in place. Makes you wonder what other corners were cut. How many years away are we from these cars actually fetching something close to that money? https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/3850602716

Love how a 328i is now a 2.0L

Ordered some parts from FCP a few weeks ago. All my previous orders from them had gone through FedEx by default but this time for some reason it ended up with UPS. The tracking info hadn't been updated for a few days and the scheduled delivery date had passed by 2 days so I called them up. UPS said there'd been a delay but that the parcel has been forwarded to the local delivery partner (Aramex, naturally) 2 days prior, the time of the last tracking update. Called up Aramex who claimed they'd never received the package... Que mild panic. Sure enough the package was waiting for me on the porch that same evening, without any tracking updates and with Aramex claiming they'd never seen it just a few hours prior. No big deal in the end but doesn't exactly fill you with confidence.

Have a few special tools I'm happy to lend out locally. I'm Christchurch based. A set of punches used to install new detents and shifter pins on a 5-speed ZF S5D 310/320 gearbox. Timing tool kit for an M54 engine (also works for M52's, apparently). Won't be available until after I'm done assembling my engine which will hopefully be in the next month or two. Also have a laptop set up with PA Soft BMW Scanner, INPA, NCS etc. Happy to help out with the occasional scan or minor coding. Still learning and exploring all the capabilities so will be getting more dangerous with time.

👌

Have been following this Estonian drift crew of late. Dude has a mad E36 as his usual weapon but jumped into a mate's V8 swapped E30 for the latest event, makes for some awesome viewing. Good variety of E30, E36 and E46's in there, as well as a bloody Lada! Can ignore all the chatter but some of the videography is absolutely epic.

Where did you source it from if you don't mind asking?

Main bearing clearances checked. Looking very borderline. Spec is 0.020-0.058mm, mine are hovering at 0.050-0.064mm with a few clearly veering more towards 0.064mm. The crankshaft did get a polish so not overly surprised. Roll with it or panic stations?

33107524319 - manual transmission 3.38 ratio 33107524325 - automatic transmission 3.91 ratio https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=VA72-EUR-10-2006-E90-BMW-320i&diagId=33_1250

On the topic of real estate parasites, I was sad to learn that a mate of mine had joined the loathsome ranks recently. Kicked off his "professional" Instagram page yesterday and deary me... Strong start indeed. Seems that being embarrassingly illiterate and/or dyslexic is a prerequisite to becoming a real estate agent nowadays.

Was selling something that cost $50 brand new for $10 on marketplace. Got offered $5. f**k people.

False alarm on the thrust bearing front - I am an idiot. Took a fresh look last night after work and it quickly became evident what I'd been doing wrong. When I got onto the job Sunday night, for whatever reason I had been adamant that the thrust bearing went on cap #7 so was trying to force it onto where it was never going to fit... My brain must have checked out for the day. Of course it's cap #6, even has the grooves for the edges to slide into. Switched them round and all went on fine. Embarrassing. Boxing on.

Yeah, one slots into the other. The one attached to the hard line isn't big enough to fill the whole opening and is just left dangling around. Not sure how you did it on yours. I think I actually tacked a spare onto my order so could send one your way once it arrives if you didn't have one.

Was flicking through a build thread on e46fanatics when I noticed that grommet, this one here. Will try the dealership for those pedal rubbers, cheers.

Rattling off what I've bashed out in the meantime. New shift shaft seal - thanks @Eagle, definitely needed it. Had cleaned all the leaks up so never noticed the thing being completely shot until looking at it closely. Just a $3 part too so definitely worth doing. New foam washer thingy for the selector rod joint. Very tight going on, which is no doubt a good thing. Cut that steering lock cable off right at the base at the steering column. Still locks the key in place with it turned but doesn't get stuck anymore so works as it should I guess. This happened. Again. Couldn't for the life of me figure out how to fit the clutch hard line through. Probably OTT but wanted to do it properly. Got the carpet out and pulled the remaining bit under the heater as far back as I could to create a bit of an opening behind/under the heater core. Even still, it's hella tight, was an absolute bastard to fish through but got there in the end. Not at all surprised that people opt for custom made flexible lines instead. Also realised I missed the other grommet for the hard line. I thought it was just the bit dangling on it already but there's another one that attaches to the body, part number 21521163894. I'd looked at this stupid diagram a hundred times and never noticed it mentioned in the bottom right corner... Have chucked an order in. Removed the brake booster and DSC module to properly get the other clutch line through. Not sure if it's even possible to seat the grommet properly without doing it. Again, OTT and will have to re-bleed the brakes afterwards but wanted to do it right. I'd also stupidly pushed out the other big grommet under the brake booster, thinking that's where the hard line was meant to go originally so wanted to rectify that too. Don't be like me. Took the pedal box apart, cleaned and re-greased the plastic bushes, installed new master cylinder. I'd gotten new pedal covers as the ones that came with the conversion were falling apart, but blindly got the ones listed on FCP without checking. Turns out, the RHD pedals are a different shape to LHD ones, for some bewildering reason. The RHD ones are smaller and pointier at the bottom so the LHD ones I got don't sit tight and slide around all over the place. Stupid. Dissected the throttle pedal to get rid of the kick-down clicker. Had to get a 5-point security torx bit set to get it open but was cheap enough from SCA. As was mentioned on e46fanatics, it's just a mechanical clicker on automatics and not an actual switch. Took apart the cluster to change over the fascia to switch it from km/L to L/100km. Also installed the front cover off a 330 with the silver rings to make it more legit. At some point might get that other small fascia in the bottom right corner that blocks out the window with the auto gears completely, as it does on manuals. Some more stupid OCD stuff but with the carpet out, replaced a couple of air vents with ones I'd pulled off the donor car way back when. One was cracked all the way through and taped up, the other had a patch of glue that would not come off. Will finish up the clutch switch and reverse light wiring during the week, then box on with the engine. Picked up another shitty parts car a few weeks back, will try and rip the dash out of that before putting the interior back together on this thing. Will finally get rid of that stupid footprint if that dash is in as good a shape as it looked on first glance.

Yeah, not sure what's going on there. My mate that used to be in the trade also mentioned he'd heard a few negative grumbles about them of late. I know Paul's been going through some health troubles of late so that might have played a part. In my case, I suspect they heavily prioritise corporate fleets and small stuff like mine gets thrown to apprentices to have a bash at, and bash they do. It is what it is. Over it. Manged to get in a good few shifts in the garage after having been away a few weekends in a row. Got the oil pump put back together, fully cleaned, lubed up and with a new O-ring on the pressure regulator. Bit of a mission getting it back in. Had to enlist the missus' help, me forcing the spring together while she slotted in the circlip. Definitely helps having an extra set of hands. Sprocket will go on with a slotted nut and safety wire eventually. Got the VANOS unit assembled with new Beisan seals and rattle kit, a clean and new O-rings for the solenoids. Pretty straightforward job, just a long time spent cleaning everything up. Next got onto the block. Tidied up the high spots from the chipped edges with a little nail file, went over the oil pan surface with a 400-grit white sandpaper in a couple of rough places, and brake cleaner with a plastic scraper and a rag throughout. Went over all the passages I could get to with nylon brushes, cleaned up the rusty coolant drain opening with a wire brush bit with the vacuum going at the same time, then thoroughly blew everything through with compressed air. All the journals on the crankshaft also got the nylon brush and compressed air treatment. Was hoping to get as far as checking the main bearing clearances today but wasn't to be. Installed the cleaned up oil sprayers with blue thread sealer on the bolts. The new main bearings started going on but ran into trouble with the thrust bearings. The fitment is very, very tight, if not too tight and I didn't want to resort to excessive force before making sure. The bearings I got are part number 11211706847 from Glyco, which is seemingly the OE set. Comparing them side by side with the originals, the design is very different though. The Glyco ones are one piece whereas the originals are a 3-piece design with the side walls/skirts having a bit of wiggle room. They're still very tight going on but nowhere near as tight as the new ones. I'm starting to think I got a wrong/faulty set. Doesn't come across as well on the pictures but the far edges of the side walls look like they're bent inwards, and even still, it almost looks like the caps and the seat in the block might actually be wider than the inner width of the bearings. Just wondering if this is normal? I know they're meant to be as tight as possible but it just looks like there's no way of forcing them on there without risking damage. The machine shop actually suggested way back when that the main bearings were good enough to reuse but I figured I might as well get new ones as they weren't terribly expensive. Could just reuse the thrust bearings and use the new ones on the rest of them if I can't get these to fit? Granted the clearances working out of course.

Yeah, sure is. My inner grandpa got a bit excited seeing it none the less though.

$4k seems very cheap to me but will surely go up another couple k, even if it is a Getrag conversion. Pretty tidy overall too, dash mat and all, haven't happened to see one on an E46 before.

I heard they're going for Wata Kotastrophy

3 days? Of course. That's the whole point of buying from a dealer and not for half the price from a private seller.

Haven't fitted them yet but will be running Style 193's on mine, staggered set, ET34 front, ET37 rear. Should work just fine, they're exactly the same offset as my current 17" Style 194's that sit quite well. Can pick up a decent enough set for well under $1k. Quite like the wheels you're running. I was tossing up going for Style 135's but the 193's happened to become available first.

Thanks Pretty chuffed with how a few of the shots came out. The flying Ford you mean? I think that's Breen. Bertelli had less of a... pronounceable slogan on the back of his car.

Absolutely epic stuff. The bloody rain was the main protagonist throughout the whole event but made the experience all the more memorable. The top guys are just absolute weapons, unreal the speed they carry through, especially in those conditions. Epic effort from the team that built the Jack's Ridge track, what an arena! Hopefully the weather is a bit more lenient next time. If there is a next time... Whilst being a great turnout by NZ standards, I don't think it's anywhere near enough to guarantee this magnitude of events coming here on a consistent basis. The cost of logistics is probably the highest out of all the events on the calendar and when you compare it to other venues in Europe that consistently pull 300k+ spectators across a race weekend, we sadly don't even come close to making it worth the effort. We caught up with the main organiser of Rally Estonia at one of the stages, dude's been to every event on the WRC calendar this year and out the blue remarked that he was shocked by how few spectators there were. We were taken aback a bit, looked around and were rather impressed by how many had trekked through knee-high mud to sit through downpour after downpour to watch a few cars whizz by, but he's obviously got a wider perspective. So whilst there's definitely a market there, on a global scale it looks to be magnitudes behind the main players. I just hope it's not another 10 years before we see them back here.