Vass

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.

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.