Harper

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.

Not sure where you guys are looking but https://www.eibach-shop.com/ has different spring sets available for E46 coupe/sedan/touring/compact, all with 4 cylinder and 6 cylinder variants and even x-drive where applicable. All with different rates dependent on type. Definitely not only one size fits all. That was half the reason I went for them for my 330ti. No one else makes springs specifically for 6 cylinder compacts.

I was looking at grabbing Z4M ones as well and just pressing them into my existing brackets. Surprising cheap to just buy the bushing on it's own

Eesh, that's pretty tempting. You might get a message from me tomorrow haha

Yep shipping stung a bit but it does reduce the shipping cost on the second order for all the service parts since I could move some of the bulky/heavy stuff into this one like the clutch. And tbh coming from ordering stuff like Ohlins and a Karbonius airbox for the M3, non-m parts feels like you can get so much more for your money. Doing a pretty decent refresh on the engine for a fraction of what it costs on the S54. I probably won't go crazy with bushings just yet, eventually. I might end up just chucking the main ones like the RTABs, FCAB, maybe diff bushes into the next order but I'm trying not to let the cost of this project creep too much higher than it already has.

Actually not at all haha. I had planned to cert it but was banking on it being straight forward with it all being OEM parts. As far as I know both Brent and Rays 330ti's are fully certed without driveshaft hoops and they are both originally 316ti's so that gives me hope. Would seem crazy to require them when it's just the guts of a 330 swapped over and the chassis is essentially the same. Like you say, an argument can probably be made since a 2.5L was available for the compacts.

Nothing more exciting than getting home to some big boxes of car parts on your door step. OE Clutch kit, I have a new OE dual mass flywheel too since going single mass doesn't appeal to me 3 Rear strut mounts, bump stops, spacers and extended wheel bolts, E90 X-drive strut mounts I really hadn't planned on getting these but the more I thought about it the more I realised that reusing the old tired struts and springs would really take away from the experience. I also found out that there are 6 cylinder compact specific Bilstein B8's and eibach springs which sealed the deal. The front struts are the same for any 6 cylinder E46 but the rear dampers are valved differently for the compact with less weight over the rear, and the eibach springs are specific to the 325ti with the 6 cylinder up front and the different rear. Should make for a nice setup. Other than that I finally sourced some facelift tails and installed them. Small detail but looks so much better. Engine all strapped up ready to pull, hoping to get to it tomorrow after work so I can spend the weekend tearing the motor down.

That's the best way for me to go anyway being out in Beachlands. The dodgy alignment and old tires meant I didn't peg it through the straights in Miranda as I usually would but the perfectly sealed twisty road through Kawakawa is what the E46 is made for. I had such a good time I'll probably go again in a few weeks with fresh tyres and alignment.

I used to be a little meh on the colour, didn't dislike it but didn't love it either. But the longer I own the car the more I can't imagine any colour I'd rather have it in. It just looks right in silver, nothing else shows off the shape as well.

The M3 has been a bit neglected on account of needing a set of tyres and with my compact project eating up all my spare cash. Square set of 265/35 Michelin PS5s on order but I couldn't wait that long and was itching to drive it again. Took the long weekend as an opportunity to stretch it's legs and swapped my spare stock wheels with old track tires on, and took it for a blast to the coromandal for a night. Desperately needs an alignment, but 8k rpm with a carbon airbox does do wonders for the mental health.

Ah yep, I'll leave well alone in that case. Only planning to do a budget rebuild/refresh, rod bearings, oil pump stuff, seals and gaskets etc Yep I had hoped to do the chain guides assuming they could be done without disturbing the timing to save on money for the tools and complexity. But like you say probably worth replacing them either way, the chain guides in my M3 were broken when I did that engine rebuild I'm guessing the M54 ones will be similar even though the motor has only done 140k. I have seen E46fanatics threads of how to time the engine without the toolkit but I'd rather have the tools on hand. 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. Legend, might take you up on that.

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 and rear of the block (or maybe best left alone if not leaking?) while I have my engine out.