Harper

A weekend of set backs sadly, to be expected with a big project like this I suppose. Plumbed up the cooling system with all new parts in the cooling stack With the cooling system and belts on I could run the engine for more than a minute or two at a time. Unfortunately became obvious when running the engine a bit longer that it had a rough idle. Bounces between 600-1200rpm and eventually dies. Pulled the intake manifold off in search of a vacuum leak. Pretty much everything on the manifold is brand new and I couldn't find any obvious leaks so reassembled carefully but no change. I've ordered a smoke tester but that's a couple weeks away. Could be a bad MAF but that was working before the swap so a vacuum leak seems more likely. The more disheartening discovery is an MTF drip from the bellhousing on the gearbox. Can only really be coming from the input shaft seal so the gearbox is going to have to come out. The front end is still all disassembled so I think I'd rather just pull the engine and trans out together rather than pull the gearbox underneath the car which is never fun.

I think white might be the E46's best colour. Looks ace

Nothing more exciting than a first start up. Everything cleaned up like new, really helps starting with a nice original chassis that hasn't been messed with before. This car had all it's original paint markings on the bolts.

Big progress this weekend. First start up. Took today off so that I could have a 4 day weekend this week and get stuck into the compact. Pulled the N42 out. Cleaned up the engine bay a bit Few things fitted while the engine was out. CMP solid steering coupler, clutch hard line, smaller heater valve from the 330. Had to adapt the EVAP purge line from the larger OD pipe on the compact to the smaller OD pipe from the M54. Made a fitting that looks pretty factory and just clips into the original connector. Put in a third pedal. I'm super picky with wiring and hate when it's not tidy so a lot of time was spent making sure everything looked pretty original when wiring in the clutch switch. Power and ground from the brake pedal and the DME wire runs under the dash with the factory loom. I omitted the EWS wire and opted instead to just code out the need to press the clutch to start, it's not needed and tidier. When swapping from a N42 you have to wire in the AC compressor as well since it's part of the engine harness on the N42 and part of the chassis harness on M54 cars. Instead, since I'm deleting SAP which is in the same position as the AC compressor wiring, I just cut and changed the SAP connector to the correct one for the AC. The SAP wiring goes through a relay behind the glovebox so I bypassed it and moved the SAP pin at the DME to the chassis connector for the AC. No new wires needed, a much better solution than running a new harness all the way across the car IMO. My reverse switch was wiring in line with the factory harness while I had the engine out so the only additional wire running into the ECU box is the clutch switch wire, everything else utilizes the factory wiring. New clutch and flywheel on. Gearbox with all detents replaced, new guide tube, pivot pin etc. Started on the first crank. Snapchat-1404950484_1.mp4 Still lots to do. Waiting on some parts to finish rebuilding the rear end. Cooling, AC system, front end etc. Can't wait to drive it.

Dropped the rear subframe to replace all the bushings and ball joints and swap to the 330 diff. I decided to paint the diff as well since it looked pretty brown and scabby. Came up very nice. I also installed the front bilsteins and 330 front brakes.

The vin decoders are pretty intermittent, sometimes they stop working for weeks and then start working again.

Pretty sure they are M3 specific so quite hard to find. MirrorJohn used to sell them but looks like they are out of stock. Might be worth sending him an email to see if he's getting any more. https://www.mirrorjohn.com/BMW_M3_e46_M5_e39_Alarm_LED_Cover.php

Basically this, never intended on going as deep as I have. Started as a budget daily build but I got carried away with 'while the engines out' jobs. Before you know it I'm replacing all the suspension and bushings etc. Taking the head off seemed a nice place to stop since doing it properly adds another ~$1500 at least. Photos like that piston make me second guess my decision though.

Probably, from what I hear from others that rebuild M54s often it's pretty much a given that the block will need to be time-serted but maybe it's different in the states where the advice is coming from. And I don't like the idea of going that deep and not machining all the surfaces, I know some people slap it back together but it feels wrong to me. Agreed I tend to change oil 7.5-10k km, I don't do that much mileage and almost none of it motorway driving so if it gets that far I'm happy. I'll report back on it's oil usage once it's on the road, I'm hoping in the next couple months.

I might regret not going that extra step if I put it back in and it starts the typical M54 oil burning but ultimately it becomes a full rebuild once you take the pistons out and this project is already way over budget. Motor wasn't burning oil when removed so I'm hopeful given its low mileage, O2 pilot mod, new ccv parts, should be alright.

I didn't really want to separate the head. Would mean time-serting the block most likely, along with adding a lot of machining cost. Went through all that with my S54 and had to wait months for the bores to get honed and block and head surfaced. My goal was refresh as much as possible without having to outsource any machining work to avoid that. Still a pretty low mileage engine so oil consumption should hopefully be fairly low.

Some pretty good progress over the holidays, most of it in the last few days as parts showed up. Got the crank bolt out with a 6ft bar on my breaker bar. All timing gear removed and cams out, then cam buckets out Front timing cover removed I started doing the rod bearings, but was stopped when 4 of the 12 in my pack were damaged. They had rotated and gouged each other in their packaging so I had to order another set. While waiting for the second rod bearing set to arrived replaced all the valve seals. Created a basic tool to compress the valve springs with the head in place. Finished replacing the rod bearings once the replacements arrived, and put the oil pump together with all new parts and new chain. I opted not to wire tie the oil pump nut and just use red loctite. Maybe I'll regret that. Front timing cover and oil filter housing back on with new guides, seals, water hoses etc. Cams back in and timed up, new top tensioner and guide and the main timing chain replaced Sump on Intake manifold on, all new ccv parts, pretty much everything rubber replaced, new waterpump/thermostat, pulleys Pretty much up to date here with all the remaining new and refreshed parts fitted and main engine harness hooked up. Last thing I'm waiting on is the Beisan vanos seals along with the DISA rebuild kit which should arrive next week, and then I can seal up the top end with a new valve cover. I have a new crank hub bolt to go on but I'll do that once its off the stand and can lock the the flywheel properly. Not pictured but the ZF 5 speed got all new detents, guide tube and other parts. And rear trailing arms rebuilt with new wheel bearings and bushings everywhere. Getting very close to swap time, I'm sick of having boxes of parts everywhere in my garage.

I was gutted I missed out on the red one down the road from me, I was the second highest bidder but was already paying more than I had told myself my maximum was. When this came up cheap I just grabbed it. My only spec requirements were manual and no sunroof, boston green was a bonus. I'm not super worried about the motor, it will probably get a lower mileage M44 swapped in once my dad gets his hands on it. I think the head design is better on the M42(?) so maybe we'll swap that onto the M44 block.

bought a daily driver so I don't have to daily drive my M3 while I'm building my E46 compact daily driver, so I don't have to daily drive my M3. Boston green manual E36 318is coupe. It's rough but I don't really care, I got it for cheap. My dads been wanting to build a M42/44 with throttle bodies and a lightweight flywheel so he'll likely start tinkering on it once it's not needed for daily duty.

I'd have to re-watch the video but from memory the biggest thing was not touching the front of the motor much. Left the front main seal, left the timing cover on so didn't replace the chain guides etc. I think he was on a time limit in order to make a drift day or something though so maybe he will go back and do that stuff. I had my fingers crossed he was going to do a full rebuild on the B30 before it went in since it would be useful timing for me.

I noticed the same on his 330 touring project, but I guess that was meant to be something of a budget track build. He also seems to replace a lot of parts that could almost certainly be used again which is supremely satisfying to watch but kind of wasteful. I still watch every video, his recent S65 rebuild is stuff of dreams.

What a ball ache. Not looking forward to certing mine.

To be fair that was almost 7 years ago. The running gear alone is worth close to 7k these days, but $15k is steep. Probably why no one has taken it yet. The total cost of building mine is around $15k but I've got pretty carried away replacing and upgrading stuff.

I'm enjoying the slightly smaller fuel bill while it lasts which is about all the n42 has going for it atm. I think the extra $10 a tank is worth it for an m54. It doesn't deserve anything other than the cheap stuff. Throws an oil light every 1000km and the auto box sometimes refuses to change out of first gear, so the rational solution is to rip it all out and put a b30 in right?

Also swapped over the rear hatch. Absolutely miserable job. The wiring harness and rear wiper fluid feed tube is probably routed through the hatch before the rear glass is bonded on from factory. Feeding all that through the tiny passage took an entire weekend. I wish I was joking. But I did eventually get everything through. I wired in a new loom at the same time for the FZV module that runs to the GM5 so I can convert it to use a radio frequency key. Some cleaning: And all back together. Old one for comparison, very subtle difference but I prefer it: Wiper deleted at the same time. But went through the trouble of routing the wiring and feed tube through just incase I ever change my mind, its a simple bolt it back on exercise. The hole is temporarily plugged with a hideous black generic one while I wait for the factory delete plug which will be colour matched. A lot of work for something only I would ever notice, but now that it's done I'm glad I did it.

Way behind on updates on here. Main development is the engine is out. Because I'd already done all the prepwork in the weeks prior, the actual pulling the engine out part took maybe 15 minutes. So easy pulling it out the front. Started stripping things off. Going to be replacing just about everything. Quite a lot of perished rubber/vacuum lines/o-rings. 90% of these are probably driving around with pretty significant vacuum leaks. I wish there was a decent RHD catless header option for these that wasn't $3500. Every time I see them it hurts and these are the EU2 version which is probably the best iteration. Compared to the S54 headers these just look so lame. Took a look at the bottom end bearings since I will be replacing the rod bearings. Most of them looked about the same. Had a look at the top end. Surprisingly clean. Vanos will get rebuilt and valve seals replaced. Cleaned up the block and sump a bit. Modified the auto trans harness by chopping the connectors off and stealing two of the wires for the manual reverse switch. Spliced the other end into the relevant connectors so the reverse switch is all wired inline with the factory harness. I haven't spliced in the gearbox connector yet since I don't know what length it will need to be, I'll have to do that underneath he car. Loads of parts on order and lots of cleaning to do. I was probably hopeful with the before Christmas goal but I think early next year the engine should be in and running.

100% agree. I have had multiple people ask me what the pole positions in my M3 are like on longer drives, and my answer is significantly better than the stock ones. If I was going on a long drive in my compact I would probably go through the effort of swapping the recaros into it because they are that much better.

At that point I think they just end up being worth more to keep. Just ticked over 190km in my M3, if I were to sell it I think the mileage would put most people off despite it likely being mechanically one of the best. Engine fully rebuilt, almost everything in the suspension replaced at least once. I can't imagine selling it any time soon. There is nothing close to as good as an E46 M3 with a carbon airbox in the same price range.

I buy Michelin because they have the sexiest tyre wall

Yeah looking at the spec sheet it does seem that all the E2067140 kits come with the same springs except the compact. The black hellbm 330ti that was for sale recently had a set of regular E46 eibach springs in it and the rear ride high was monster truck high so it makes sense they need a different spring. https://eibachshop.com/download/E2067-140.PDF Although it does list alternatives for the sedan and coupe but that's not what they list as included in the set on the US site.