Vass

Feel like I'd only be telling a partial story if I didn't spill the beans on an assortment of mishaps I've had during the wrench-a-thon of the past month. Some might be funny, some educational but all due to lack of mental sharpness from a combination of overwork and undersleep.

Starting off light, I already mentioned forgetting to prime the front shocks when first assembling them. What I didn't mention is that when I took the springs off, ran the shocks through their full range of motion 3-4 times and reassembled them again, they came out looking like this:

Stared at them for a minute comparing shaft thicknesses (...) with the old B6's before noticing the bump stop-dust boot combo laying on the floor next to the toolkit. Apart they came again.

Then of course threw on the dust boots upside down on the rear shocks as well - just took them out the package the way they were facing for shipping and on they went.

Luckily, caught both of those things before any of the components went onto the car... unlike the previous owner. Front dust boots had crumbled old bump stops crammed into them, causing the boots to crumple up and jam up against the top of the strut mount and doing sweet f**k all to protect the shaft from the elements. Evidently, the B6's have internal bump stops so all they need is a dust boot. The rear shocks were completely shot, dust boots were put on upside down and one of the strut mount bolts was threaded on barely finger tight, which might explain the clunk I'd been experiencing when switching into reverse. Top notch craftsmanship.

As a final task one late night I got onto assembling the front hub knuckles. First one came together pretty well: cup ring - dust shield - wheel bearing - lock ring and voila. Having gotten the knack of it and all the tools laid out, I wanted to quickly throw together the second one and call it a night. Cup ring - wheel bearing - dust sh... f**k.

I knocked it all the way down to the base of the shaft before realising what I had done. The old wheel bearings had all come off cleanly in one piece so they don't jam on there too tightly. This new one wasn't as loose though. I managed to gently pry it all the way to the tip until the inner race jammed on and refused to come off the rest of the way. Felt like if I put any more force on it then the wheel bearing would separate, leaving the inner race still attached, which could potentially compromise the bearing and mean shelling out a not insignificant amount for a new one straight away. Called it a night and gathered my thoughts the next morning. Tried a few more things before coming up with the idea of putting on a bearing puller tool backwards and using it as a sort of slide hammer against the surface of the inner race. After a few tries it luckily came off still intact. Lucky escape.

Having gotten the hubs, brakes and axles assembled, I chucked on the wheels and dropped the car down for the first time. Next thing was to torque up the inner ends of the camber arms and spring perches to the rear subframe but with the suspension yet to settle and sitting quite high up, I recruited a mate to sit in the boot to bring the rear down closer to actual ride height.

I crawled under and positioned myself in place, torque wrench in hand and shouted out for the mate to "jump in". Little did I know that he would take the command too literally... Next thing I hear was a thump followed by a loud OOWWWWW.

No idea what possessed him to do what he did but from where he was sitting on the hatch sill, he just rolled himself backwards as if he was scuba diving off the side of a boat and plunked himself straight onto the stud holding down the spare wheel. Right to the middle of his spine, taking out a decent chunk of skin and leaving a nasty gash. Bloody hell dude! Didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Took a bit of convincing him to at least put a band aid on it, the trooper. Luckily nothing more than a surface level wound and the stud got bent right back into shape as well.

Then onto the dumbest and scariest episode. Late Sunday night, having slaved away the whole day tidying up the last niggly bits - putting on brakes, axles, driveshaft, heat shields, exhaust - I was really excited and keen to finally drive the car home. Dropped her down on her wheels, rechecked the fluids, bled the coolant, power steering and doing some final checks, I brought the car up to temp, loaded up as many boxes of old parts and tools that I could grab in a hurry and proceeded to head home. Having barely gotten past my mate's front gate out onto the street, the ABS trifecta lit up. Figured the sensors must have gone out of whack with everything being disconnected and the steering angle sensor needing recalibrating. Pulled over straight away and grabbed my coding computer to jump onto PA Soft. Whilst that was booting up, I casually glanced at the instrument cluster and nearly shat myself.

f**k.

After all that... had I just cooked it!? f**k. f**k f**k f**k.

Clocked the coolant temperature at 112°.

I sat there, head in my hands for a good 10 minutes, not knowing what to do. The clock had ticked past 10:30pm so nothing good was going to come from the rest of the night anymore. With the car somewhat cooled down, I decided that driving the 100 meters back into the garage won't hurt much more beyond the damage already done. Still monitoring the temperatures, as soon as I started the car, the temps dropped down to 90° straight away. By the time I rolled into the garage, they'd dropped again down to 78°. Must be an air pocket!

Disheartened but somewhat hopeful, jumped in the trusty Swift and sped off home, still trying to unpack what had happened. By the time I got to bed, I might have figured out why the ABS lights had gone off - I took out the rear wheel speed sensors when installing the axles to avoid potentially damaging them and must have forgotten to slide them back into place.

Then, already half asleep, I threw myself into another slight state of panic having all of a sudden remembered that I'd forgotten to properly torque up the wheel nuts after putting the car down from the lift, having only rattled them on with an impact wrench at the lowest setting. Turned out the ABS lights may have saved me a bigger disaster.

The next (Monday) morning (hooray for Labour Day) I went back and took a good half a day checking over everything I had touched on the car. Sure enough...

Reattached those, torqued down the wheels and rechecked all fluids.

Also discovered a hose clamp on one of the power steering hoses to the reservoir was completely loose and slowly weeping fluid onto the alternator. Another reason I was glad I hadn't driven all the way home the previous night.

Went for a second go at a test drive, keeping an eye on the temperatures throughout. They jumped up and down for a while, up to 107° then down to 90° before settling nicely between 95-99° after a dozen kilometers. Have been monitoring the temperatures every time I've driven it since - having an Android headunit helps, don't even have to hook up an OBD dongle, instead it takes them through CANBUS. Maximum it's gotten to is 101°, where it sits steadily when cruising at 100kph at just over 2.5k RPM on the motorway, then weirdly drops down to as low as 80° when giving it beans, even going uphill. Must be due to increased airflow and higher RPM's pushing the water pump harder.

Thinking back to it, I wonder whether the temperatures jumping around like that is just what happens every time without us being aware of it... The only reason my temp needle started going up was because I had coded the buffer to be more sensitive to temperature changes.

The maximum I'd caught the temperature at was 112°. With factory coding, the needle would not have even moved beyond dead center in that instance.

Think I'd rather be scared than sorry still.

Yeah the top of the touring bumper is cut back to accommodate the hatch. Not sure if there's much of a market for them so wouldn't imagine replacements are easy to come by.

Quite like how the M3 style one fits on sedans/tourings. Saw one in the flesh when I was over in Europe a few months ago, would love that on mine.

40 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Not sure what profile Dunlop uses but a different shaped tyre may also help in the future. 

Yeah I've gone with 255/35R18 at the rear. Probably should have just stuck with 245's. Figured it'd be fine since the old 17" Style 194's also had 255's at the back but the slight drop from the Eibachs must have taken them just beyond the comfort limit.

If the thicker pads don't fix it then I might actually just throw on the old Msport rear springs for the duration on the upcoming road trip and dial it in properly afterwards.

Got up to Nelson for the weekend. Went up along the coast through Kaikoura & Blenheim and back down inland through Lewis Pass. Awesome scenic drive with nice bits of twisties along the way. Ticked over 230,000km along the way.

Car behaved really well throughout, held the road really well, tracked nice and straight with no weird clunks or vibrations, an absolute joy to drive. Can't feel any noticeable NHV from the solid subframe bushes and even the monoball trailing arms don't feel too bad going over bumps or sharp edges with the new shocks. Definitely not the sportiest setup with some body roll felt in quicker corners but ride comfort was always going to be prioritised over stiffness and I cannot fault it at all. Forgot to mention before that I also threw in a 25mm Z4 front sway bar that I got off a mate. Don't think I could make out any real difference but I'm sure it also helps.

Only real issue throughout was the rubbing from the rear tyres, mostly the left side one for some reason. The rear really does look to droop a wee bit, although the side skirts sit parallel to the ground.

Ordered in a pair of 15mm ÜRO spring pads from RockAuto, should arrive during the coming week and will throw them in straight away. Whilst in Nelson, I cut up the old set of pads and threw them in as spacers to make the drive back south a bit less stressful.

Seemed to work at first but after a while the suspension settled again or the springs pressed themselves into the pads a bit deeper and the rubbing became as bad as before.

Mostly looks to be rubbing at the rear and into the inner edge of the bumper and actually managed to eat away at it quite a bit. Will try and fold the lip in a little bit more towards the rear and trim back the bumper somewhat. Might also leave in an extra spacer pad even after installing the 15mm upper spring pad. Will still probably need to tweak the camber somewhat. I hear that it's allowed to be half a degree beyond spec when going for cert so that's probably where I'll take it.

As far as teething issues go, that's pretty mild in my book so cannot complain. Apart from the rubbing, cannot fault the car at the moment, couldn't be happier with how it rides and really pleased to finally have it at a point where I can just enjoy driving it. Will be eating up plenty more km's in the coming month.

In the same boat with my front bumper, all shagged so I'm looking at getting an M3-style bumper from this fella at some point - https://oscardistributors.com/collections/e46-bmw/products/e46-m3-style-bumper-to-suit-coupe-sedan?variant=40105130918022

Currently out of stock but should be more in soon. Claims to both fit coupes and sedans which I thought were different but decent value if true.

No idea on the rears. Would be keen to know if there's better options out there ordering from overseas too.

Not sure if the subframe bushes are the same on a ti but I've got a full set of OE subframe bushes as well as RTAB ones + limiters that I haven't gotten round to throwing up for sale yet if you want them. Bought this whole set before deciding to go with solid subframe bushes and monoball RTABs. Not a sales pitch but every bushing in my old subframe had cracks through them to a greater or lesser degree so you'll be glad you've done them. 

Hey I just had a thought. Can't remember if you've mentioned it but I'm assuming you're going to be putting this car through the cert process once it's all done. Have you checked with your certifier regarding driveshaft hoops? I just booked myself in for cert today and remembered the conversation I had the guy regarding the topic, was told that hoops are required if you're modifying the driveshaft or if you're increasing power by 50% from stock. I'm dodging the bullet as the power increase from 2.5L to 3.0L doesn't go near the threshold but in your case it might be a requirement. Could be possible to negotiate around it since the same chassis did come with bigger engines and you'll have the driveshaft to match but worth checking anyway. Easier to get the hoops put in if they end up being required during the build process rather than to have to dig back into it later on.

You're probably all over it seeing how thorough you are but thought it worth mentioning on the off chance it's a caveat you've missed. 

9 minutes ago, adro said:

Yeah they are ridiculously priced. Think I paid $100 from FCP. Could be worth trying the dealer.

Hahah just called them up. Would have to order them in from Germany, 3+ week wait and, get this - they cost $402+GST. Each. Christ on a bike. Even the guy in the parts department cracked up laughing at the absurdity of it.

Just found a set of ÜRO ones for $30/each on RockAuto, $100 for a pair after shipping and taxes. Might just pull the trigger on that, FedEX shipping should be pretty speedy and would be good to have on hand anyway.

Don't have any spare new ones but could cut up and stack up the old ones, at least in the meantime, hopefully I haven't thrown them out yet...

Thanks guys, looks like I have a couple of options on a solution.

Yeah good shout! I just have a stock set on. Might try that out actually, would be the quickest solution and even out the arch gaps a little bit - the front gap is still noticeable whilst there's barely anything in the rear.

What's the best place to get some thicker ones in a hurry without paying exuberant shipping fees? My folks are here next Thursday already, would be great to get it sorted by then but probably pushing my luck unless some are available locally.

Edit: bloody hell, that is absolutely mental. 80 EUR for a slab of rubber!?

Hahah will see. Might give them a call closer to the time and lock in a price for just a quick recheck and printout.

Bit concerned about the rubbing though. If it's already catching on something with the car empty then what's gonna happen with 4 people and a boot full of luggage in the next few weeks... Can tweak some more camber on but then it'll have to be back within spec for cert hahah.

Will see how it behaves on the open road tomorrow. If it's not too bad then might just put up with it for a month and a bit and sort it properly after cert. Could just be something obvious at the rear left like a bit of plastic arch lining protruding so would be an easy fix.

Just now, Eagle said:

14mm more poke in the rear is quite a bit compared to factory. Id try thicker spring pads if it is the tyre that rubbing. Problem with adjusting camber is the toe changes (more negative more toe out) so technically need another alignment. 

I just called to book in a time for cert. Last time I checked the lead times were 3+ months so wasn't expecting any slots being available this year but managed to get booked in for December 11th. Was told the requirement is to have an alignment done within 28 days prior or not to have driven the car much since having it done so I'll have to get it aligned again anyway. My WoF is out in December as well so works out perfectly.

Dropped her off to get the AC regassed this morning, picking her up soon and road trip up to Nelson for a rally event tomorrow. Let's gooo

16 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Its just 2x simple camber arms ffs, everything else is the same. Nearly 3x the price is something id expect for adjusting coilovers. Sounds like whoever was doing it didn't know what they are doing or they wanted to extract more money out of you, probably both given my experience with dealers.

Yeah I probably looked like I could afford it hahah. To be fair, was prepared to pay a bit extra the first time around since so many components were changed so not too disgruntled. At least it's sorted and riding well. Last place I went to for an alignment didn't even give me an alignment sheet.

30 minutes ago, Eagle said:

I've never done the rings because it seems like a game of guess the tolerances. 

Yeah I'm not gonna bother this time around, will just do the seals.

Might play around with the cylinders currently in the car now once they're out and see if I can get it right. Saw a video of this Polish dude that goes through the process more in-depth than I've seen elsewhere gapping the spacer washers and how to check if they're not too loose or tight before reassembly. Have a spare cam gear thingy that I can grip in a bench vice and check for how freely the cylinder internals spin around so don't need to have the cam cover opened up whilst messing around.

Stayed up past midnight last night throwing on the new wheels and putting the interior together. Involved a lot of backwards & forwards, detaching and reinstalling trim bits and sound deadening as they go back in a particular order, under-overlapping in a certain way or using a single fastener to fix several pieces in place, like an intricate puzzle. Even remembered to torque down the wheels properly this time... Then filled the tank and dropped it off at BMW for the alignment.

I had asked what they charge for an alignment when I called to book in the appointment the day before - $125 including GST. So I was slightly taken aback when a few hours later I got a text telling me the car is ready for pickup and that the total comes to $322.90...

2.5 hours of labour.

Quote

Vehicle has AFTERMARKET suspension fitted therefore a lot more labour was required than a standard factory wheel allignment hence the difference in cost vs our standard alignment.

Would have assumed the adjustable camber arms and the fact that all the parts were literally brand new and not seized on would have made the task easier but... what do I know. At least I got some unsolicited tyre shine and a couple of tins of mints out of it though  

Took the car for a quick shakedown up Dyers Pass, through Lyttleton and along Sumner Road, then a detour onto the motorway on the way home to try her out at 100kph.

Honestly... I must've been driving absolute shitbuckets my whole life as I never knew a car is supposed to behave this way. I've grown so accustomed to tramlining, vague steering, rattles, clunks and an otherwise shaky ride that it's super weird not having any of it anymore. One or a few of the wheel bearings must have been cooked as I used to have a slight vibration doing close to 100kps that I had attributed to an unbalanced driveshaft but no signs of the issue anymore. Steering is sharp and tracking perfectly straight, sections of road that had previously been shaky are now perfectly smooth, ride height looks and feels a tad sportier but still gets in and out of driveways & parking lots without issues. An absolute dream. Mission accomplished.

Only small issue I've encountered is some slight rubbing going over bumps at speed seemingly only coming from the rear left so I might have to give the camber arms a few more turns.

The wheels were the one component I'd been most excited about. Great to finally throw them on after gathering dust in the corner of the garage for well over a year. Style 193's are up there with my absolute favourite BMW wheel styles and they just suit the chassis so well in my opinion. Absolutely in love with them. Even going up to 18" from the old 17" 194's, with the new shocks and fresh rubber the ride comfort is miles better than it was before.

The engine feels great, power delivery is nice and smooth and more is always there when you need it.

One downer in all of this is that my excursion behind the timing cover did not fix the startup rattle issue. My last remaining hypothesis is that the needle bearings in the VANOS units got tightened up excessively when I was putting in the anti-rattle rings and aren't able to rotate quite freely as the rattle seems to be coming from the top end of the engine.

A while ago I lifted a whole VANOS unit off a 2006 X3 that I'll reseal and throw on at some point. Went through 3 cars at Pick-A-Part until I found a unit with no visible scoring marks in the cylinder bores... I suspect if the cylinders I have in the car now have seized up then they would have done damage to the bores so best throw in a fresher looking unit. If that still doesn't fix it then I guess I'll just live with it.

Feels so good finally dragging this mission (mostly) over the line and being able to enjoy the fruits of the labour (and get some sleep at last). Will tally up the rough cost of all that's been done at some point, will make for some grim reading for sure.

Time to properly enjoy some road trips now.

5 minutes ago, Eagle said:

I can't remember your reasoning behind getting rid of them? not that im a fan of them either for ride quality reasons, but B4's are overpriced if they only last 25,000km like my ones.

Wasn't aware of the B4's reliability issues up until your post a few days ago.

I looked at just getting a set of B6's for the rear to match the fronts but price wise I pretty much got a whole set of B4's just for the price of rear B6's at the time. Plus from what I've read the B6's can be a bit too harsh for daily driving, which I've sort of experienced on less smooth roads, although might have had more to do with worn out bushes and control arms. Decided to opt for a more comfort-oriented setup.

Also, they're f**king yellow. 

On 6/12/2023 at 9:12 AM, balancerider said:

Roof rail delete is 🔥 @Vass! That JDM front plate plinth is making my teeth itch though

Ohh, and thanks for pulling me up on it! Since you pointed it out it actually started bothering me to the point where I felt motivated enough to do something about it

Took the panel off the bumper, moved the license plate further up to line up with the protruding edge in the plastic, chucked in some rivnuts, went with 4 instead of the original pair just to be safe. Then took some hardcore pick tool and scraped away along the bottom of the numberplate creating a deep groove, then just cut my way through the plastic with a box cutter knife, filed the edges smooth and voila!

I'd have probably never even given it any thought, but it does look so much cleaner this way. Thanks! Just need to find 4 matching bolts to tidy it up further.

Another long weekend of wrenching and she's back in one piece. So satisfying leaving all the dirty jobs behind and just throwing on fresh new parts one after another.

Bilstein B4 shocks, Eibach springs, E36 M3 bump stops and E90xi top hats to replace the old combination of Bilstein B6's, Msport springs, all but crumbled bump stops and what looked like original top hats. New setup looks taller but that's because the B6's sit all the way in the steering knuckle whereas the B4's have a narrower bottom end that sticks down past it.

Painted steering knuckle, new dust shields, wheel bearings and refurbished 330i brakes with Akebono pads. The rotors I inherited with the engine donor car looked near new so I just wire wheeled them down from all the rust they'd accumulated from sitting in the shed for a year and a bit and painted the non-contact surfaces to tidy them up.

Brand new Lemforder control arms, LCA bushes and tie rods bolted on, and also replaced the Xenon light level sensor that I managed to snap when first removing the engine - forgot to disconnect it when dropping the subframe. Normally I stick with OE for all electronic components, but this being such a trivial and easy to access component that I was happy enough to put some trust in Topran. Better than my bootleg ziptie fix anyway.

Rear end got similar treatment. New dust shields, refurbished 330i brakes, brand new parking break hardware etc. Bilstein B4's with whatever the recommended bump stops were according to this thread.

Had a bunch of trouble getting the axles to go in properly. Thought I'd cleaned them up quite well way back when so just gave a quick wipe down and went to town. After a whole lot of bashing, only managed to poke them through by a few mm, just short of being able to thread the nuts on. With it getting late, and having managed to bash my thumb blue and bloody with a dead blow hammer, I called it a night on Saturday. Picked up refreshed the next morning, bashed the axles back out, went over each and every spline with a set of fine finger files and a set of wire wheels, both on the axle and in the hubs, greased them up with copper grease and slid them back in. Just a few whacks and through they went, then pulled them all the way through by tightening the nuts. Took a whole heap of time but worked out in the end.

Finally bolted the wheels on, dropped the car down on the ground, had a mate jump in the boot (literally, more on that later) to settle the suspension somewhat, then crawled under and torque up the inner ends of the camber arms and spring perches. From there on it was just a matter of throwing the diff, driveshaft and exhaust back on. One thing that I haven't seen mentioned that I was a bit surprised by is that the rear left reinforcement plate covered up one of the holes that the heat shield used to attach to so had to use a self-tapper to fasten it down.

After an unsuccessful attempt at a first drive late at night, I gathered up my ideas on Monday morning, went over everything I had touched, double checked everything, tweaked the alignment to be somewhat pointing straight, topped up the fluids and went for a first drive. With the interior still being apart, there was a lot of noise coming through to the cabin but overall, even with the alignment probably being way out of whack, she drove really well. Already noticing the harshness from the rear end from the ball bearing trailing arms when going over potholes but other than that, even the rougher roads seemed way smoother on the new setup.

Gave the car a quick rinse at a self-serve and made my way home after a long few weeks away. The suspension seems to have settled quite a bit already, looking that tad more aggressive whilst still being drivable over speed bumps and up driveways. Love it.

Will need to quickly throw the interior back together and chuck on the new wheels tonight as I'm booked in for a wheel alignment at BMW tomorrow morning. Can't wait to hear what they think of my solid subframe bushes and camber arms...

Sad but true.

Let rip the can of cavity wax, got it in wherever I could. Don't get much out of a single can though. Might get another one next time I have the bumpers off for whatever reason and pump the chassis rails all the way through.

Fuel tank, plumbing and all the plastic covers reattached. Now it's onto the real fun bit with a bunch of brand new and refurbished parts getting thrown on. Made a start at the front end with new control arms and tie rods going on. Another long night tonight and hopefully will have her back down on her wheels tomorrow.

Also, made an extended socket (BMW Special Tool #24193531) for installing the front subframe mount studs out of the otherwise useless imperial sockets that came in the toolkit, although not sure if there's a torque spec given for these at all.

52 minutes ago, Eagle said:

What do they cost?

Uhhh, I wish you hadn't asked... $210.88 + GST 😬

17 hours ago, Eagle said:

Never come across that, where was that stated? I've seen them all sort of condition on lots of different makes and models, they would have to be extremely worn to cause any obvious clutch issue. I've replaced them on a few BMW's because OCD\feel good factor, but we lucky we can still buy new parts like these for old cars unlike many other brands.

I think I said it before but I'm certain you got the best mechanical condition E46 in the country. 

Thanks mate, I'll wait until she's back up and running without any clunks or rattles before I pass judgement on that

I think this video is where I heard that bit about the guide tube, from about 5 minutes in. Made sense, and I'm glad I did it looking at the condition of the old one. Cost $80+GST from the dealership. I did have a bit of a squeaking noise when pressing down the clutch previously, pretty faint and nothing to be overly concerned about but now with the new tube in it's perfectly smooth and quiet. The DSSR also seems to have gotten rid of some slop in the linkage, the shifter used to have more side to side movement when in gear, noticeably reduced now.

Bit more progress from last night. Engine bay and front end all put back together and buttoned up. New oil filler cap - was cheap as chips, and not repping Castrol anymore.

Also, finally replaced the front air duct that had been missing ever since I got the car, although it "didn't need one" according to the PO...

Impossible to find these in good condition second hand or at wreckers nowadays so got a brand new one through the dealership. Having that extra bit of access did come in handy at times but does make the front end look more complete without a gaping hole right behind the bumper.

Front subframe also got a bit of rust treatment and a few coats of paint whilst being dismantled, tidying up the underside quite nicely.

Suspension reassembly next, finally.

3 hours ago, Harper said:

If I commit to disturbing the timing is there anything else worth replacing - valve seals? I'm guessing they're tricky to do without removing the head.

Should be doable but would be quite a tedious job, I think 50sKid had a video on how to replace stem seals with the engine still in the car. The seals themselves are ridiculously cheap but up to you whether it's worth the effort. Not too common an issue on M54's I don't think, nowhere near as common as on N42/N46's anyway.

Other stuff, depends on how far you want to take it really.

I'd probably replace the chain sprocket that sits behind the crank pulley - has rubber bits built in that I'm assuming act as dampeners of sorts, were all cracked and deteriorated on mine so swapped it out for a new one.

Chain tensioner for the topmost timing chain, the one that sits on top of the central bolt going down into the timing cover, and the topmost chain guide as well.

The other chain tensioner that goes into the side of the head, or at least the spring that lives inside of it.

Other potential items - crank pulley, hydraulic lifters, reseal the oil pump?

I ran a separate thread specifically for my engine rebuild that could have some useful tidbits in it. There's a picture of the top of the timing cover at this post, lifter cleaning, chain tensioner spring and a bit of a rundown on the use of the timing tools.

2 minutes ago, Harper said:

Can the timing cover come off without disturbing cam timing? If so I'll definitely replace my chain guides and the same screw plug on the front of the block while I have my engine out.

Unfortunately no, I don't think it's possible without disturbing the timing. The bit that needs to come out is one of the bolts that holts the chain guide just under the tensioner there. To get to it, you'll need to remove the two sprockets with the front most timing chain and the tensioner. The guide itself can stay in place, you just need to remove the longest bolt that goes all the way through into the middle of the timing cover. I can post/send you a photo of the top of the spare timing cover I have to give you a better idea of where exactly the bolts are placed. There are also two pins that you'll need to knock out for the timing cover to come out vertically downwards in order to disturb the head gasket as little as possible. Some of the rubber sealing will still get somewhat damaged so I smeared a bead of RTV all around the sealing surfaces when reinstalling.

The screw plug I wouldn't even touch, I don't believe they ever leak unless disturbed. I only had mine out when I took the block to the machine shop to get worked on and washed through, there's no real reason to replace it unless you're fully rebuilding the engine.

I'd still do the chain guides if I were you, they're sure to be well brittle by now, if not already broken. The timing does get disturbed but it's not too daunting a task resetting it, plenty of detailed guides and videos on the full process out there. I've done it a few times now and experienced enough to race through it pretty quickly.

More than happy to lend you my timing kit if you pay for return shipping, or order one in if you don't mind spending a few hundy, could be worth having around. This is the one I got, works well enough with one small caveat of the chain sprocket alignment tool being incorrectly spaced out, but that's easily mitigated by zip-tie'ing the chain to the sprockets when removing them to keep them aligned properly.

Whilst the paint was drying, I took a small detour and... ended up here:

Oops.

Figured that with the control arms and suspension out and the AC degassed, there won't come a better time to drop the subframe and finally get to that stupid gallery plug at the front of the block, similar to the one that was causing the massive oil leak from the rear of the engine right after the rebuild. Turned out that getting the timing cover off requires you to dig much deeper than I'd anticipated. First, off came the whole font end with the radiator and AC condenser, front subframe with the steering rack and old control arms, then the oil pan, crank bolt to finally get to the timing cover. Prior to that and before the engine support bar could go on, the intake had to come off to get to the hard coolant pipe that runs into the back of the timing cover. I was under the impression that the timing cover was only held by the two bolts from the top of the head, under the valve cover and could be gotten to without much issues, but of course it turns out that there's also a third bolt straight down the middle, a bolt that also holds down the topmost chain guide so... the timing gear had to also come off to get to it. Brilliant.

Was at least good to feel a little vindicated to have taken on such a bastard of a task when a steady stream of oil started running out through the plug as soon as the timing cover got removed.

All that effort because of this little bastard. Still don't understand how 50'sKid clams to not have any leaks or issues even years later. I specifically ordered in the PTFE based sealant he'd used, even ordering it in from Aussie as I couldn't find the specific one in NZ. Anyway, thread locked the hell out of it and seated it back in. Please hold...

Pretty expensive exercise with new seals, gaskets, new crank pulley bolt, oil & coolant that all had a fair bit of life in them still but well worth it if that means the engine won't grenade itself prematurely due to suboptimal oil pressure. Time will tell if this was the culprit behind the rattling at cold start. Fingers crossed.

With the oil pan off, I took it as a chance to freshen things up a bit and took the spare oil pan from the old B25 engine to my mate's for vapour blasting. Almost regret doing that now as it puts the rest of the engine to shame. Came out looking unreal.

With that all buttoned up, I moved on to the AC system. Revamp included new compressor, condenser, drier, expansion valve and pressure switch, basically everything bar the evaporator. Was pleased with the quality of the radiator I'd gotten from them so went with all Nissens components. Everything fit perfectly apart from the drier. The original one had a divot in the side of it that locked it in place in the plastic bracket attaching to the chassis rail. The Nissens one was solid all the way around so I had to grind down a pin on the plastic bracket that now had nowhere to slot into. Another small issue was that one of the bolts bottomed out before it could clamp down one of the pipes properly, leaving it loose and wobbly. Had to grind off a few mm from the end of it to get it to seal. Weird little oversights on their part but should still work fine.

Word of advice to anyone thinking of replacing the expansion valve - DON'T. Not worth it. I probably lost a few years to stress on that little thing alone. Once the old expansion valve is off, there's nothing holding the little S-shaped backing plate in place, so when you go to thread the new valve on, it just moves around all over the place and is near on impossible to keep still. The passage is way to narrow to get your fingers in there to hold it from the back and too narrow for most tools as well. I don't even know how much time I lost on the damned thing and was lucky there wasn't anyone around to hear me yell expletives at an inanimate object. In the end, having all but given up, I somehow managed to get one bolt started whilst holding the backing plate in place with a little hooked pick tool on the umpteenth try. Never again.

Before the new AC compressor went on, I switched out the old timing chain tensioner for an upgraded M3 one. Because why the f**k not at this point. I had put a brand new spring in the old one during the rebuild but did notice the cylinder being a bit scored so... That's my justification and I'm sticking to it.

But, I wasn't done falling down rabbit holes just yet, so naturally... out came the transmission.

Why?

Funny that you ask, hypothetical person that gives a sh*t.

Long after the gearbox had last been out, I stumbled upon the fact that the throwout bearing guide tube is also a wear item that's recommended to be replaced with every clutch job. Not knowing when the next time I'd have use of a hoist might be, off I went on another side quest. Sure enough, the old guide tube was quite worn, so was well worth the effort. Will that fix my clunking issue when disengaging 1st gear? Unlikely, but at least I'll feel a little bit better about myself. Also threw on a new throwout bearing just to be safe, as well as a new input shaft seal. Then I replaced the clutch pressure plate bolts with brand new ones with pre-applied thread locker, I'd completely forgotten to use any threadlocker the last time I'd put it together. Cleaned everything up and applied some proper clutch grease I managed to get my hands on in the meantime instead of some generic stuff I'd used the first time around.

As a silly little cherry on the cake, put in this manual bell housing backing plate. Impossible to get new anymore so had to find a used one. Meaningless little thing but helps me sleep better at night.

Finally, swapped out the stock selector rod for a DSSR I'd gotten from BMspeedShop. Pretty cool having a local fella make these, ended up going by his place to pick it up instead of messing around with shipping. Looks a solid piece of kit. Unfortunately, had to cut off the inbuilt washers off the sides of the beautiful E60 shift lever, and even grind it down a bit to make fit. Will make for a nice and tight connection though. Can always put back some of those yellow washers if I ever wanted to revert to stock again I guess. Don't know why I would want to though.

Back into it again tomorrow. Finally over the hump and at the point where it's all about throwing on shiny new parts. Fun times.

On 10/12/2023 at 6:40 PM, Eagle said:

Ive got some genuine BMW sound deadening pad spare if you ever want some to fill in gaps. Guessing tourings have more of it after that pictured front beam?

Aye cheers, might hit you up about it later on. I only ended up stripping back the 5cm for where the beam plate welded in, there's none after the front beam, it dips straight into the rear seat area. All of that sound deadening has long since deteriorated but I don't think it's the same type stuff as in that boot area.

Late nights, paint fumes and bonus missions.

Rear beam top plate welded in and my mate worked some magic to butcher the old cover plate and weld it in well enough that it doesn't look too much of a disaster. Had to trim the boot plastic trays to fit around the new beam, and the old panel had to be carefully aligned so that the two studs fit correctly with the holes in the plastic bits. Don't have those issues on coupes... Small frustrating thing is that the central trunk cover won't align properly now. Had the top beam have been just 5mm shorter it would have fit perfectly, but as it stands, the inside face of the cover hits the back of the beam and won't sit properly over the studs. Will see if I can trim the holes a bit bigger and make it work or will have to cut off those flanges altogether and screw the front of it into the plastic somehow.

Primed, seam sealed, primed again and painted with some gloss black I had from fixing up a small rust patch on the rear door sill. Looking back, should have just kept it primer grey as the gloss black sticks out like dog's balls back there. Luckily, it won't be too visible and the main thing is that it's protected.

Onto the underside, test-fitted the subframe to check alignment, all looked fairly good. Ground down any remaining high spots, primed, seam sealed and enamel coated. The colour match turned out to be miles off but will be mostly covered and should provide good enough protection from the elements.

Pretty satisfied with how the wheel arches came out. Managed to lay on the seam sealer thick enough to almost match the surrounding rubbery underseal texture. After some primer and enamel top coat, the whole thing looked horridly out of place and with this area being more visually exposed, I popped over to Supercheap for a couple of cans of black underseal and gave it a few coats. It went on well to the rest of the arch but wouldn't stick to the enamel properly, even after some rough scuffing effort. Took a few times of going over it to get a decent finish but ended up with tidy black arches that I'm quite pleased about. Forgot to take a photo of it though.

40 minutes ago, Harper said:

Hadn't seen that. I was almost mad, would've saved me a lot of work converting mine to facelift, but it does look a lot more rough, no xenons either.

Didn't even know ti's had a facelift version. What are all the differences exactly? Must be pretty subtle, looking at that one and yours side by side I can't seem to pick out much at all. The bootlid is one but would never have noticed it had you not pointed that out and don't see what makes one better than the other. And are the red taillights the facelift ones? I actually prefer the look of the clear ones that you have already. What else is there?

9 hours ago, Harper said:

It was a good feeling to go through every part you mentioned and already have it in my order list haha, I've spent far too long on realoem in the last couple months.

The trans tunnel plug I had the same part number as you mentioned initially but after looking on a factory manual car that was being scrapped at a pickapart the correct plug appears to be 51712258519. I was going to order both and see which fit better.

I know that feeling, RealOEM is life

Just checked my order history and I did get the 07147140849 plug, fit in perfectly. I didn't have a manual car to check on so measured the diameter and went with one that matched off this schematic. But yeah only a few $ each, best to be safe.

Don't know if you've pressed in the rear hubs yet, but if you wanted to freshen up the dust shields at all, I found these Febi ones (1 & 2) for around $20 each on Spareto. Was going to repaint mine but not worth the effort when new ones are as cheap.