Eagle

Check all the components that run off the belt with your ear to a screwdriver, pry par or something long and metal. It will be obvious whats the cause with a sound that loud.

Well neglected, must of run impure water for awhile.. Id probably use a wire brush and\or scotch pad. Lube the oring and bore with vaseline, rubber or silicon grease when installing

Yeah lots of genuine only bits for anything quality so expensive no matter who supplies it. Local dealer pricing isnt too bad, eg $~400 for a cam shaft sensor, Schmiedmann $350+shipping.

Only gripe with these engines are certain parts being very expensive - timing stuff and sensors mainly. Some of the M42 stuff is NLA too iirc.

Dont know what the quality of gear is like to justify a 4-5k price tag given the car aint worth more than 4k.

Yes I believe the heads swap. No doubt you need to mix and match various parts to make it work. Don't know anyone personally who's done it.

Earlier M42 is the easier swap as no modifications needed to fit (in\ex manifolds come to mind). Id say the M44 has more advantages over the M42 if leaving stock, but they are much the same. Finding a good M44 is likely easier.

Yep check the grounding nut and solder joints on the back of the instrument cluster first. You can resistance test the sensors and circuit easy enough on these cars. Nothing wrong with Penrite green HOAT (or most other equivalent brand products).The Penrite stuff is fully licensed and a warranty approved G48 coolant. Some people are just clueless to specs, or just see green and equate it to the old IAT\OAT type green coolant.

All that work not to replace a gasket, hopefully your oil pickup ok. @hqstu would probably have an idea on the covers.

Its a bit hard to tell from the video but it looks it on the tensioner pulley or maybe be its baked on oil, only you can determine that. As above these are easy to cook, may pay to get a leak down test done if you didnt shut it down right away.

Water pump bearing about to fail completely, probably leaking badly. Looks like your cooling system has been running straight water with all that staining everywhere After replacing the pump get it pressure tested for leaks. If no leaks then re-fill with coolant.

Ah forgot about those. Yeah don't know the ring gear. Might be the same with different flanges if you lucky

Those ratios would have to be X3's, probably the 2.5 which is common as muck. Bear in mind X3's likely use the inferior standard roller bearings vs much superior taper ones found in most E46's. Id assume the crown and pinion are still the same dimensions so they can be interchanged, someone like Kane Barrie would know for sure.

Ive seen people claim they are ok and have them lasted years. To me it doesnt mean much without knowing the particulars, no way they would do anywhere close to what the original arm did. What i can say is anything claiming to be quality, advertising ISO specs etc on the description is usually inferior, typical non name asian style product marketing. No name Taiwan\Chinese rubber quality isn't very good, usually starts to fail after the 1 or 2 year warranty period, around 30,000-50,000km if i had to put a number on it I bought E36 Meyle HD set from Spareto for just under $500 shipping . They usually arrive in 4-6 days. Not much more and at least you getting something of known quality. Meyle also supply the inner and outer ball joints (and bushings of course) which you can replace if you have the tools which ends up being much easier as you not buying the the whole arm Pretty sure ive got spare set of genuine arms with fairly new Meyle ball joints and Febi bushings that id sell you for less than the price of those arms.

You'd want to run the the 323 diff if its the manual 3.07 ratio. Should be able to use swap 330ci output flanges into the 323i diff.

Been done plenty so should be plenty of info on it, 5 vs 6 speed is pretty much the same process, not hard to do but you need a laptop and software to do the coding side of it. Auto and manual share the same body so all the mounting point and holes etc are there. You should be able to swap everything over easy enough, but bear in mind your 323i will have a weaker drivetrain than factory manual 328i or 330i. You want a 240mm flywheel and clutch rated for 330i power, plenty of single mass options available.

Got its own rap song too - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYaIFvRqv2k

Id add some stuff having owned both for at least 6 years- E30 tax(obviously), all E36 front end benefits - 5 lug\wheel selection, plug and play steering racks, M3\vert underbrace, camber washers, easier to work on and generally far more part options available. Rear end is easier to work on due to more space and the inner brake lines are way easier to change. E30 benefits that i can think of - factory medium case diff and axle setups if you doing a engine swap\power upgrade. Some interior stuff is higher quality - door cards, headlining etc. Proper spare wheel. Old style sport seats and no airbags (preference). Possibility the having a stiffer body due to rear seat bulkhead. Great engine which suits both chassis with a manual box. Always wanted to see it in a drag race - M44 vs M20B25, i reckon the M44 would do ok.

If it weren't for the 4wd system id agree, shame they did make a rwd version as its pointless for most people.

Yeah M54's in the X5 are sluggish and are always revving out to get moving. Amazing how much better the M54 goes in the E39 and E60 M54 with the 6 speed auto.

Not defending, just proving you completely wrong.

As above pretty much. Waste of time\money getting 2nd hand ones as they will likely be very worn original items with torn boots at the minimum. You can get aftermarket Meyle upper arms for around $250 shipped from Spareto (usually arrive it 4-6 days) https://spareto.com/products/meyle-track-control-arm/316-050-0054 & https://spareto.com/products/meyle-track-control-arm/316-050-0055

I pity the fool who thinks compact practicality is nil

Ive taken apart an E39 one which id class as a stepped tandem master cylinder, presumably the E46 would have the same design but M3 one may vary in diameters compared to non m. Have you looked at the price on an M3 master cylinder?

You have to book well in advance and have them fitted\balanced? How much cheaper were they compared to the usuals?