Harper

It took about that many oil changes on my S54 before there was no material in the oil. Just as I was starting to get worried that there was still glimmering stuff in the oil, the next oil change was clear.

The biggest compliment. So nice when the vision finally comes together.

Thank you bro, if you weren't on the other side of Auckland I'd be there. I'm sure I'll get to have a look around your E30 at some point. Fortunately my local shop is pretty good and I'll get them to sort the alignment at the same time.

Unfortunately long gone, or I'd let you have at it.

Super happy with the suspension. Just the right amount of firm but very compliant and comfortable. Looking forward to seeing what difference the FCABs make. I still have the rear section from the donor 330 so I'll cut into that one and see how easy or difficult it is. I really only want it to be maybe 10% louder, just enough to know that it's something special but I still want it to sound stock. Hopefully gutting the resonator gets me what I'm looking for but will report back. You're a legend mate, I'll gladly take it. Happy to pay for shipping plus some. The ones I've come across so far at the junk yard are usually damaged in some way. I actually like the look of the blank steering wheel panel but losing out on cruise control is a bummer. Maybe one day I'll fit a Z3 CC stalk. Cobywheel. Reasonably priced and they use genuine grey 9002 alcantara to match the bolsters. I've seen the wheels and some other bits done by coby and they've been average quality but the boots are really good in my experience. They just copy the pattern from the genuine bits so fit like OE. I just removed the old leather and glued them onto the frames with some contact adhesive.

Very productive weekend. New input shaft seal for the gearbox. Was super careful putting this one in, made sure it went in as square as possible and tapped it just barely below flush. Didn't take many photos since I was really trying to get the car driveable for this week. Motor back in, cooling stack in. I installed a new MAF sensor, O2 sensors, fuel pump. But I still had a rough idle. Eventually discovered it was the MAF connector itself. The female pins were quite loose which meant that with the airbox off and the intake tube moving around with the engine the contact was not good. I squeezed the pins tighter and fitted the airbox so everything was solid and the idle was perfect. A quick look at the fuel trims in INPA suggest they are perfect but I'll do a proper log later and see how things look. Front end taking shape Back on the ground, first time seeing the final ride height (will settle a bit) with the new bilstein B8s and eibach springs. Pretty much perfect for what I was looking for seeing as it will be my daily. Cabin filter and new windshield cowl fitted. Unfortunately I'm still missing the front air duct that feeds the airbox. The one of the donor car was broken so I'll have to make a trip to the scrap yard to get one. Interior assembled with a few nice new parts, I'm still repairing the driver seat so I have temporarily fitted the driver bucket seat from the M3. Sorry Olaf, this ones getting a badge. Car got a much needed wash and out for it's first quick test drive. Absolutely stoked with this thing. It's very quick, corner to corner it's not really any slower than the M3. Not quite as much zing as the S54 up top but much smoother and torquier low down. Still a few details to finish it off: - Driver seat - AC re-gas - Air intake scoop - Exhaust hangers, the 325ti has unique hangers which I didn't pony up for resulting in the tail pipes not sitting quite centred - It's too quiet. I like my cars quiet but at idle you wouldn't even know the thing is running. It has a fully stock 325ti exhaust, so I think I'm going to open up the small centre resonator and gut it and see what that sounds like. - Z4 FCABs - Alignment - Tyres, the Chinese ones on it are not up to scratch for the B30 torque - Custom plate I think, this one is a keeper I love it too much already.

Still much cheaper to get from schmiedmann. 167usd shipped from ECS, 98usd shipped from Schmiedmann. They are almost always by far the cheapest for genuine parts like this in my experience.

https://www.schmiedmann.com/en/product/6216-new?product=25-11-7-896-886 97.67USD shipped from schmiedmann

My recent FCP and spareto orders have arrived to my door inside a week, pretty impressive.

Roland actually has a complete 6 speed kit. You might be able to swap the rear half of your auto driveshaft onto this and you're good to go. I'd go this route personally. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/7438401319514971/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp%3A4aec2e64-4072-4f26-b9f5-e2f331e6f959

The cross member is cheap to buy brand new as well. https://www.schmiedmann.com/en/product/e61382-new?product=22-31-1-096-811 Just the have to find a 330d driveshaft

330D uses it's own manual gearbox/driveshaft etc which might be a bit harder to find. Not sure they are interchangeable with a normal 330 manual box. Assuming you can find the parts for a 330d, manual swap probably costs 3.5-4k if you do the work yourself.

The engines back out sooner than I had hoped.. Fortunately with the front end already off it took <2 hours to get it out. Love how easy the E46 is. Split the gearbox in search of the leak from the bellhousing and as suspected it was the input shaft seal. I replaced it while the box was out the first time since it was weeping but it was leaking a lot of fluid now and the seal wasn't happy. Couldn't see anything wrong with it, so I tried my luck and tapped it in a bit further. No luck. Had to bite the bullet and remove it and get another one ordered. $60 seal, ouch. I could see the slightest imperfection on the lip of the seal once it was out but have a hard time imagining that was causing the drip, hopefully the next one has no issue otherwise I'm out of ideas. Took a bunch of photos but lost them somehow so here it is removed. . In the meantime I've reassembled the rear end. subframe and arms in with all new bushings, ball joints, and bearings, 330 diff, 330 rear brakes, new brake lines all round. 330 cluster rings and manual cluster panel panel added. Technically since this is a coupe it should probably have the grey dial faces but I actually prefer the look of the black ones. The smoke tester arrived, it works good. No complaints except for the smell of the smoke, and it gets everywhere, on your clothes hair, skin etc. I tested with the motor removed and just plugged the purge valve and sucking jet pump but it revealed absolutely zero vacuum leaks. The thing is air tight. Pretty much only leaves a brake booster vacuum leak, bad MAF sensor, or bad O2 sensors, as my rough idle issue. I will have a look at the fuel trims once the motor is back in the car and see what the next step is. Tempted to just order a MAF regardless since it's nice to just rule it out and have a fresh one, I already have O2 sensors on order but they're not due until the end of march.

Yep cleared all adaptations but I think the idle is too rough to just be the DME relearning fuel trims especially since it stalls and dies after a few minutes. I had codes for bank 1 and 2 lean condition (also suggests vacuum leak) but cleared them and they haven't come back yet. I checked the ICV when I had the manifold off and it's clacking like it should so I think that's alright. I ordered the cheapest AutoLine Pro that I can hook up to my compressor (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XHRBKTM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1). Has good reviews and funnily enough their marketing video is on an E46. I'll report back whether it's any good.

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.