325_driver

Motor swap time. Probably looking like the n46 going to need valve guides and maybe new cats from blocked oil, and to be honest my hatred for n46 gives me too much bias. Something popped up from a donor car, so here we go. N52b25 lucky to get the entire setup, driveshaft, cas dme box diff etc While it's out going to do some seals. But motor this looks like I may have got lucky. It was a runner before removal but someone must have done head gasket and rocker cover because alot of stuff looks new

Getting ready to do a swap in the e91 Looking for Exhaust manifold to suit n52b25

at the moment the decision i was weight up is because i have a set of matching CAS DME box, long block etc for a decent price. Wish i was going to 330i but that kind of changes the budget substantially haha if i was going full hog, it's 335i, but it would be better off just buying one of them haha

haha ^ I think there was sarcasm in his comment =D well it seemed it I think it's worth doing the swap to be honest the more i think about it i think the n46 tarnishes such a great car

So the n46 is a tad smokey, no surprise so it got me thinking in the e91 i'm debating swapping a 325i motor into the 320i since i have all the required components available through someone wrecking one near me Anyone gone through this process before?

Well I'm pretty much happy with that. Glad I did the LHS C PILLAR it would have definitely bugged me with the ripple in it. Painted the diffuser black, that white was bland as hell. Before After

Is it possible to remove headers off an n46 from e90 320i without having to move motor forward or anything i'm having a look in there and steering column looks pretty tight there! anyone done it before?

What's an e90 msport rear bumper worth? (or kit for that matter)

@qube to be honest I was thinking of selling both... And crossing fingers for a msport 335i wagon. I need to feel the full extent of the driving machine ™

@balancerider thinking about it, how ever I really do like the feel of the msport on the road compared to my non msport. And those msport seats bolster you in real well. It's a tough call which one to sell haha Bumper I'm happy with, just put base coat on and the rain hit so had to rush it inside. No clear coat yet. Was running the day pretty thin on day light anyway.

Just been fixing this ding. The final ding from the scissor jack impact. Looks close enough, I'm pretty fast at arches now thanks to the coupe. Just need to primer and paint.

Using the weekend to go gun-ho on things Spent about 4 hours on the bumper today. Did what I could with the heat gun to get it near enough, cable ties in place to test fit and check it all mounts nicely. Fibre glassing took some time as I chewed through my 40grit sand paper supply Did it by hand as I didn't have an orbital with soft backing and 40grit discs Pretty happy with it, light years from what it was

Made a day trip up to Auckland to grab a door, managed to find a wrecker in Henderson with one in white even so saves me painting it. Big thanks to SE AUTO PARTS for the right door at the right price also, will use again. Tried to avoid traffic but nope ended up leaving at 3pm, so enter a 4.5 hour drive from Henderson to Tauranga, including a Thames detour past ngatea. Swapped the door over the next day, pretty straight forward minus getting that door handle allen key bolt back in. Started to give her a big clean The brake pads are brand new on it. So these must be the extra dust model. Starting to clean up real well

Lots more updates on the e46 to come as I'm doing the final sand down. But in the mean time i couldn't resist picking up this e91 msport that was days off the wreckers. The old owner had a bit of a bad run with it from scissor jack going through it at a car park and door flying open while reversing only for the coils to start dying the day after. So decided it was time to abort mission. I decided I would pop round and see if I could get it running right with a spare coil pack to drive home, How hard could it be right ? Only to find out some one the day before had gone full send removing the upper radiator hose and snapped both the radiator and the hose off. (Another hose was snapped too so I had to get innovative) Really would have preferred to get it running opposed to towing from one end of papamoa to the other end of katikati. So managed to get a Radiator hose shipped over night, and thanks to @Steveo1 in welcome bay picked up a spare radiator. Drove off forgetting to grab the drain bung but assumed the old one in car would have one, which I did. But the drain bung ended up snapping while applying the smallest amount of torque so another drive to welcome bay. Started installing spare radiator and the upper radiator hose o ring was making it feel near impossible to connect a little over the radiator inlet without causing too much flex on the tank joins. Got it on eventually and started to fill with water to check for leaks...and yeah she was cracked on the joins. So another trip to grab the last spare radiator and ended up having to take back roads to avoid 40 minutes of typical Tauranga soccer mum traffic, swapped the un fudged radiator using the old o ring this time which was slightly already compressed and fitted like a glove. Anyways, she's home now the stuffing around to get it home made for some funny laughs anyway all part of the BMW life style. Big thanks to @Steveo1 for the parts to get it home

Any one got one of those boot lights for say $40 or something?

@boobhunter11 not sure what happened in the end, i think i ended up putting in a value that it would accept and concluding that my issue might have been a parasitic drain, and co-incidence that after i changed some values there the F1->F3->e89->CAS->Execute job (to get work files) --- Changed PSW in .TRC file -> set the ah value to something close to the battery amp hours as i believe the system will only accept 70,80,90 etc (check NCS dummy it should have values in there) saved to .MAN, then basic function read from FSWPSW -> Change Job to Code -> Execute Job ----

Have started sanding down the bonnet and rest of the car now, home stretch Did a few more long sands and guide coats sharpening up the lines and shadows on this panel too, the results are REALLY starting to show now. Its amazing how you think you have it close, and then you put it out in the light and realize things are still warped to buggery It seems obsessive trying to get that line really crisp, but if its not 100% flat and the surface below the line doesn't feather into the next countour, it REALLY shows drastically when the light hits it, a small kink makes the entire side look rippled as. Something about those arches and contours very unforgiving. Having to dig deep though and stick to the process of guide coats / right sanding blocks for the job and grind away at it, and then repeating with more primer runs. I'm pretty much signed off now on the panel work and im in final sand down stage! HERE WE GO

God, Chucked her in the light, letting the shadows show what the guide coats are even struggling to show and she needed a few more runs, nightmare! Why the hell was this panel so warped haha She's good now, moar block sands, and some 3am finishes so i could use some lighting to cast shadows on the area as i was having to move the car around the drive way to use the sun to cast the shadow haha

Outside just doing a bit of final shaping on the primer runs, the shadows really help reveal what the final result will look like. Was struggling to reveal the low spot with guide coat and sanding but the shadows from the sun directly above show it really well on the rear lhs arch Shadow feathers a bit better now And the rhs looks pretty sharp now, going to tripple check the shadows tomorrow

Did some final shaping on the quarter panels, finally sanding flat and straight along the lines and shadows starting to look crisp and symmetrical. Just re measuring those guard flare lip and Making it the right height and ensuring a crisp curve, was looking a little bulgy compared to fronts. You go no where without following a consistent process and utilizing guide coats to reveal shadows and where to sand. Fixed a few smaller door dings, so onto commencing final car sand down shortly! Finally Provided weather holds up, probably 2 weeks away before commencing painting ....

Let me know how it goes, curious on your findings. I switched to Royal Syntec oil in this change again which burned 1l in 3500km same as Edge. (But seems to quiet the lifters slightly) I'll be putting hpr back In this time to see if it reaches the same km before I need to top up. So far oils that aren't penrite seem to get drunk by the n52

Been a while but still been chipping away at trying to get it to final sand down. Started sanding down the guide coat that was on it 2 weeks ago and found these hidden Christmas presents no one in the house wants to own up to cause it was flat when I left it !! Lucky only a few hours to get that flat, bizzare no one knows how it happened, looks like a chair leg connected or something. A bit of force required to make those dents. Anyway went over the kinks and lines with fresh eyes over the holidays and realised those lines were definitely far from being sharp. Technique has come a long way, amazing to learn that with the wrong technique you'll get no where on a complex contour which this e46 has taken me on crash course for. Learning to spend more time using lighting and shadows to guide the final Sanding Ontop of Long primer runs with guide coats Got a good break of decent weather this week so provided I can sign off on those quarter panels I'll be doing full car sand down and diaaseably for paint this week.

@3pedals copy that !! Next task how to get a booking before Christmas 😅

@3pedals yeah just don't understand what might have been stopping the guy doing the alignment from adjusting the camber past a certain point. He's solid too well known locally as experienced in the euro game and doing good work so I'm a tad confused what parts may be contributing to an ability to fix that wear on an alignment. Oh well see If I can get him to put it up on the hoist again and remedy it as it's chewing through rubber a tad too quick for my liking. 15,000km tops and those rears were down to wires ....

@3pedals tyres were Bridgestone Potenzas 245/40/18 on the rears. I've been running a 245/40/18 square setup front / back. Have no wear issues on fronts and they have done same kms, still 4mm plus on them. I was hoping it's an under inflation issue but I'm pretty sure they were 38psi I had the same excessive inner wear when I was running other rims with 225/40/18 on the rear also.