wrs

Found the problem with the driving lights blowing the fuse. The passenger side lamp connector had a bad connection which caused the plastic supporting the terminal to melt and the terminals shorted together. I had a spare set of driving lights in much better condition so swapped both out. Now the lamps work again and look much better.

Exhaust Update:

Last Friday I spent the day in at Kwik-Fit in Taradale doing some mods to the exhaust. I'd made quite a bad mistake using 2.5" tube in the front section of the previous exhaust design. I'd also made the pipes too long to the new resonator and the new resonator was also too long meaning I'd de-tuned the exhaust from the factory design into something that had reduced the low-end torque and hadn't really added any high rpm torque. Probably the design was also creating out of phase backpressure pulses due to the bad design...

I got 2 new 50.8mm tube diameter louvre resonators made up of 200mm length - Brent at Adrenaline will do custom builds no problem. This was to try to replicate the effect the cats would have and add additional noise reduction. The current exhaust is still quite raspy.

Matt at Kwik-Fit did a pretty good job doing the install - they don't normally do stainless work. We added the 2 new resonators in front of the dual in/out Adrenaline resonator and made up new 50.8mm pipes to connect to the bottom of the headers. The front of the 2 new resonators are in the same position as the original cats and the tube length from them to the headers is within a few mm of the original factory length.

The result is all the mid-range torque is back, there's no apparent loss of high rpm torque and the rasp is totally gone + the exhaust is much quieter. The exhaust note at the rear tailpipe is much deeper at idle too. Overall the result is excellent.

On Saturday I went to Gisborne and didn't hold back on the hills. It was all going really well until the last big hill before Gisborne when I could start to smell something burning. Fearing the worst I pulled over for a check but couldn't find anything. The burning smell was odd too - not like an any something going wrong with your car smell I've ever noticed before. So, I carried on to Gisborne with the windows down a bit to let the smell out... On Sunday I drove back home - the smell was still there but not as bad, this time right from the start of the trip though. The same smell persisted most of the week...

Today I started trying to find the problem. It did not appear to be coming from the engine bay or from under the car - phew!!! It did appear to be coming from inside the cabin - even with the car stopped and engine not running.

After pulling most of the dashboard appart looking for something frying in the wiring I finally tracked it down to the power supply in the original factory radio. Maybe the welding fried it?? It's strange it didn't show up immediately after though and took nearly 2 hours on the road before it bacame a problem. Could have just been coincidence too. I found a big charred section on the power supply board in the radio so into the trash it went. I'd been looking for an excuse to upgrade the radio - now I have it.

Here's some photo's of the exhaust changes.

The angled brackets are to stiffen up the tube to resonator connections. On the old exhaust the front of the double inlet/outlet resonator had started to fracture as all the weight sits between the mid hanger and the headers. We added an additional support just after the headers to take the front part of the exhaust weight but there's nowhere to attach anything in the middle area to help support the weight of the resonators.I'm hoping the stiffening will stop the flexing of the ends of the resonators so they don't crack and the front support will absorb the resulting additional stress the bottom of the headers would have taken as a consequence.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the result. Now I'll just have to see if it lasts without fatigue problems...

I have an ADR-021 resonator where the mixer/x-pipe thingy used to be in mine.

I deleted the cats and went straight pipe to the original factory M3 muffler and there was a huge amount of rasp and it was very noisey.

The ADR-021 quitened it down a lot and made the overall exhaust note much deeper without ruining the original characteristic BMW sound.

I can't say how well their mufflers work as I have no experience with them but if they work as well as the resonator it might work ok. Keep in mind though, the factory BMW muffler does a very good job and is very difficult to replace without a big noise increase. I tried several options years ago and they all failed badly to get a good quiet sound without impacting on performance.

I do plan to add 2 more additional short resonators where the cats used to be to try to quiet down the last bit of rasp still present.

Installed the 3.07 diff today - very happy with the drop in RPM and now only 1 gear change to 100km/h - sweet.

The old diff was actually a 3.73 so now 5th gear is like 6th used to be. Only doing 2200RPM in 6th at 100km/h now.

It's also made 1st gear usedful at last instead of just reving for nothing...

Gear Ratio Initial Speed Revs RPM Drop Top Speed RPM

1 4.23 0.00 0 59.4 6600

2 2.51 59.40 4400 2200 100.1 6600

3 1.67 100.10 4950 1650 150.4 6600

4 1.23 150.45 5450 1150 204.3 6600

5 1.00 204.26 6000 600 251.2 6600

6 0.83 251.25 6150 450

RPM @ 100km in 6th 2180.3372

I love it .. looks seriously agressive and you have already done the lowering etc to support the look.

I actually think you have a go at making your own bumper setup with rear diffuser. Leave the rear bumper stock and get some glass one made up (Dutchy can do this if you have a the part to copy (which you do) )

That way you can do a diffuser into the back.

EG this direction

Yeah, great looking wing - loved watching this guys races too (Georg Plasa???).

Amazing looking car - if you can get a similar look it would be awesome.

Update:

Fake M badge removed - cheap TM purchase and was starting to corrode anyway - gone for good...

3.07 diff arrived today (thanks for the good deal WYZEUP!!!) - looking forward to 1 gear change to 100km.

Will install the diff tomorrow and go for a nice drive to see what the difference is - expecting good things.

I'm still keen on the coil-overs purely because of the adjustability to set the ride height just where I want it. It seems pretty difficult to get exact ride-height figures from suppliers as they don't want to commit to guaranteeing you'll get what you pay for. I'm happy to pay a price premium to get the adjustability. Possibly the suppliers here in Napier really aren't as good as other areas too... I also wouldn't mind race-car handling on the road for the extremely rare occasion I might use it. It's always nice to take that low-speed corner at a decent speed from time to time (when you feel like giving it a squirt).

However, thanks for the contact info - will follow-up next week to see what they can offer. Yep, shipping and GST kill imports - I knew this was going to hurt when I bought the M3 Shrick cams... $1k suspension in USD would end up about $2100 inc GST landed in NZ.

And, sold to me

Sweet, I'll grab it at that price, thanks!!!

Yep, the badge is coming off - was a cheap TM one and it's starting to corrode after only a couple of months...

Suspension is still standard. Looking at a Bilstein B14 PSS Coil-Over Suspension kit and replacing all the front and rear bushes at the same time. Will allow adjustment of the ride height and stiffness and appears to be one of the best kits you can get (plus I can install it myself). The kit is available for about $1k USD. Not sure where to get the bushes at a decent price or whether to stay with the stock rubber type or go to something stiffer.

On my wish list:

3.07 Diff

LSD Pack for above

M3 Mirrors

Coil-Over Suspension (B12 Kit installed instead)

Repaired OBC (bad display)

Already Purchased and on the way:

M3 Door Trim (installed)

M3 Door Sills (installed)

Already Have and not yet fitted:

M3 Side Skirts and Sills

Black Carpet (currently mid-grey) (installed)

3.07 Diff (Thanks Wyzeup) (installed) (replaced with 3.46)

Just put a set of DS2's on my car today - look great!!

I got the new rubber for the DS2's today and got everything fitted up. Looks way different and will take a while to get used to...

Even without the tyres being run in yet they are light-years ahead of the old ones in grip. Once the shiney surface is worn through I'm expecting a pretty big difference.

Here's some photo's of the car - it's a bit rough due to a shoddy paint job done about 5 years ago. It looked good for about 3 years but then the paint finish started going down hill. There's a lot of stone chipping on the front of the car too. There's also a supermarket ding in the passenger door.

Now I need to save up for a repaint + I'm considering lowering it about 20mm all round. When it's repainted I'mm be putting on new trim all round + replacing the window rubbers.

I'll get the DS2's and new rubber on it first then take it out for a photo shoot.

The paint is a bit rough in a couple of spots and quite a few chips on the front.

The next major spend will be on a repaint...

Soon...

I haven't had the car re-tuned yet as I'm still mucking around with a few bits and pieces. I'm going to add another set of short AdrenalineR resonators where the cats used to be. They will custom make a couple of 250mm ones to fit the space. There's still a bit too much rasp - especially if the back seat are down when there's a bike in the boot...

I've also been wondering about the Vanos map in the Link ECU. At present it's set to turn the cam advance on at 2500rpm and off at 4500rpm - these appear to be the default settings. These settings are also for the M50B25tu which has standard cams. I've been searching with no luck for the Vanos map settings for the M3 S50 US spec cams as this is what I have fitted. I'm not sure if the Graham tried adjusting the cam on/off points but they're currently still stock so maybe not. If it's possible to get an extended torque band by adjusting this timing it would be good to know prior to going in for a re-tune. Does anyone here know what the cam switch on/off rpm should be for the S50 US spec cams or a place with the info?

It ended up being a lot. Not sure I want to say just how much because it's a little embarrasing - got a bit out of control. It would have been a lot less if I'd done all the work but would also have taken much longer to do. Likely would have been cheaper just to buy a 2nd hand M3 engine and get it cert'd... Probably could have gone down the M54 path for the same $$...

It was also interesting that with the pod filter gone it didn't feel as quick but appears to still be the same as it was with the pod. The noise must help trick your senses into thinking it's faster...

It will be interesting to see how it goes on the second dyno tune...

I'll get the DS2's and new rubber on it first then take it out for a photo shoot.

The paint is a bit rough in a couple of spots and quite a few chips on the front.

The next major spend will be on a repaint...

Forgot to add: The DS2's have arrived. Doing a bit of contract work at present to pay for new rubber and the dyno re-tune.

Ok, will post some additional pics soon.

Update: Got sick of the pod filter noise. I'd tried to muffle it by adding sound proofing sheet (used on my audio projects) inside the air box. It helped a bit but was still way noisy and I was getting too many 'dork' looks when taking off...

So, I tried the standard 325 airbox back in the car. It's way quieter and doesn't seem to be any slower on a hill-climb. I've been using a standard section of hill to check speeds from point A to point B accelerating in 3rd from a specific speed at point A and seeing what speed I get at point B. Without a dyno it seems a reasonable way to check for significant differences. I used to go from 65km/h to 100km/h between the 2 points wih the pod filter. With the standard fliter box I go from 65km/h to 100km/h - exactly the same. I repeated the test 3 times with less than ±2km/h difference each time.

Admittedly I'm only doing about 5500RPM at 100km/h so not seeing the full effect at the very top end - may show up on the dyno. I seldom drive above 5k anyway so not a major issue.

I'll leave the standard filter box in for a while and decide if I want to keep it before fitting the new injectors and getting a re-tune. Since the Link was originally tuned I've fitted a different exhaust, fixed up the vanos, and have now changed the air intake. All of these items will have had some effect on the orginal tune. I'll have to make a decision whether to stay with the standard filter box (or change to a M3 filter box - if it's better) before getting it re-tuned. I'll swap the injectors over just before the re-tune too (green top to pink top).

Does anyone know if the M3 Filter Box flows better than a standard 325 filter box?

RealOEM shows very minor differences between the two only affecting some parts and both use the same filter element so I suspect there's not much difference.

Is the window winder motor running on a bit but the window doesn't go up + it's clicking a bit when this happens too?

I've had both passenger and driver windows fail due to stripped gears on the plastic sprocket part of the worm-drive. Also, once the plastic pins on the worm-drive sprocket sheared off. Since some of the motors are difficult to find the easiest way I found to fix it is to replace the sprocket from another similar but not identical motor unit. It appears the sprockets are the same even though the mounting and motors can be different. It's quite easy to swap - the most difficult part is getting the circlip off without it flying off and hiding somewhere in the shed...

You also want to make sure all the plastic sliders in the X brace thingy are completely free with no slop in any part of the window system. The plastic pins fatigue and eventually shear off the sprocket if the window gets too much play in it due to the drag force increasing a lot...

And if you've got lot's of spare cash you can do this:

http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/53887-e36-325i-coupe-project/

Goes great - not in turbo teritory but ok for NA...

Looks like a stock 325i under the hood but goes almost like a M3 - nice.

The pink-top all in good shape. I had them tested at DSL and all injectors were between 206-208cc @ 3 Bar so a very good result. DSL also replaced the filters, O-Rings and plastic ring thingy at the bottom so they're ready to install.

I have to wait until after middle of the month for he re-tune though (monthly salary)...

One thing I have noticed on the few cooler days we've had recently is the car goes a lot better and sounds a lot better than hot days. Driving to work in the morning is nearly always better than coming home too. I'm wondering if the inlet air temperature correction map could be off a bit. As the temperature gets up round 30'C is where it starts sounding and feeling a bit off. 15-20'C isn't too bad (still needs a retune). I'm wondering if the temperature compensation is not quite right. Maybe this is normal on NA engines??

You can check out my project to see what you can get from a NA M50B25nv turned into a M50B30 (M54B30 guts) + S50US Cams + Link ECU + M3 Headers + M50 Manifold:

Everything just swaps in and bolts up. The only machining required was to the alternator braket from the M52 to fit the M50 alternator.

http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/53887-e36-325i-coupe-project/

Only mistake was not using the M52B28 pink injectors. I'm going to swap to these injectors soon when the car goes in for a re-tune. It appears the bigger exhaust and fixing up the Vanos has stuffed up the original tune a bit so a good time to fix the injector issue too...

Fantastic, thanks for that link. It helped confirm the 0280 150 440 pink injectors are what I should use. I think I can get a set of these off the M52B28 donor engine I have for the Vanos conversion on the M50B25nv. Should probably have used these to start with... I was sitting on the right injectors all along!!!

Cheers!!

Due to a few changes since my car was originally tuned I need to get it re-tuned on the dyno again. It's not running right any more with a few flat spots and it doesn't sound or feel right above 5k RPM. The 2 changes are new bigger exhaust and getting the Vanos fixed so it works properly. It's possible the valve timing is slightly different now too since the Vanos was removed and refitted.

The original build is here: http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/53887-e36-325i-coupe-project/

During the original dyno tune it was discovered the 325 green injectors ran out of putt above 6k RPM.

So, since I'm going to get a re-tune I may as well do the injectors just prior...

I have the M50B25 Non-Vanos manifold so need injectors that will fit.

There seems to be very little info about which injectors fit which manifolds.

So, does anyone know which injectors will fit the manifold I have? (do all M50/S50/M52/S52 injectors fit the same manifolds?)

There also seems to be a little confussion over which injectors have which flow rates and there seems to be a few different colours available.

Green (325, seems to be some S50's (maybe US))

Pink (is there more than one type)

Light Blue??

Dark Blue??

M54 Injectors???

Which is which?

Does anyone have suitable injectors to sell?

Time for an update:

I took my car in to get the vanos looked at and recon'd. The guy at the shop decided to take a shortcut and didn't fit the cam timing blocks prior to taking off the vanos - just marked them with a pen. Needless to say it didn't go too good once put back together - wouldn't idle and conked out a lot. There was a very bad noise as the vanos came in at about 2500 RPM - a very loud vibration coming from the top of the engine. This was about 1 week before Christmas and they said they didn't have time to look at it prior to Christmas. Obviously since it was their stuff-up I'd expected them to drop everything to fix the problem but no... Anyway I kinda had to accept it in the end but expected some form of compensation at the end of the job which was forthcoming... So, the car was off the road over Christmas.

I decided it was also a good time to look at the clutch problems I've been having with the D1 racing kit as gear changes were like a game of roulete. In other threads I've posted about problems with the clutch engaging only 5mm off the floor and a lot of issues with grinding the gears due to the clutch not releasing properly. I got KBM involved in sorting out a solution and ended up replacing the clutch disk, pressure plate and release bearing with a standard M3 gear. I kept the D1 racing kit flywheel as it seems to be fine. The new clutch bit arrived from KBM during the week of the 11th Jan and the car was fixed on the 18th.

Now my new clutch starts to engage with the pedal 25mm off the floor and never has any problems with gears crunching. It's a whole new car to drive and I can change gears freely with confidence and without gritting my teeth every time I want to make a gear change. I can relax again and just enjoy driving.

Once the cams were re-timing properly the engine worked again fine too. There seems to been no valve contact so the guys at the shop got lucky and didn't have to supply new valves...

Now I can concentrate on other tidy-ups on the car.

I have some DS2's coming and looking at Bridgestone Adrenaline RE003 tyres 225/45/17 on the front and 245/40/17 on the back - thoughts...

I'm currently running Toyo Nanoengery 3's, 205/60/15 - I let the guy at the tyre shop stupidly talk me into trying them. They're barely ok - fairly quiet. However they are very unpredictable and twitchy - never behaving the same way every time on the same corner. Have been too chicken to see what they're like in a light drift...Won't ever be buying these again!

I guess my only concern with the Bridgestone's is whether I'm good enough to drive on them. I'm concerned the additional grip and then the let-go characteristic might be more than I can handle. Usually as the ultimate grip on a tire gets better, the let-go characteristic is far less forgiving and you have to be that much quicker at responding to keep it under control.