Karter16's E46 M3 Journal

[Karter16 423]

Today I cleaned up the top front RACP points and sprayed with the e-coat matched enamel I have.

First up I masked the area around the mount (photo taken prior to clean up).

Then I used a ziploc bag as a miniature spray booth by taping it to both the RACP and the spray can. I also made sure to cover/block every other hole/exit point in the RACP so I didn't get any over spray wafting out anywhere. This approach worked really well, the whole thing only took about 15 minutes to do.

And the end result (paint is still wet here):

I have some clean up to do on a few rust spots on the seat bench, but will do this once I have the A08 in hand and can touch it up properly.

At this point though the front mounts are ready for the installation of the brace (drilling and tapping will be done at the time of installation of the brace as I need to take the subframe off to tap the threads.

[Karter16 423]

I've been going through the public XDF for the 0401 binary and sorting out some of the incorrect references. They're usually pretty easy to confirm by looking at whether the data makes sense. This one made me chuckle 😛

[Karter16 423]

I've spun up a thread (https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/special-interests/coding-tuning/287069-csl-0401-program-binary-disassembly-notes) in the Coding section which I will keep updated as I work through the disassembly. Aim is to make the info easy to find and also splits it out from this build thread.

Edited December 14 by Karter16

[Karter16 423]

Finally made it to my summer break! Did a quick fitment check of the airbox, filter and Haimus snorkel to make sure I don't get any surprises during install. I've noted others have found the hose attachments to be tight so am prepared that I might need to do some adjustments there like heinzboehmer did to get them to click in correctly.

The CSL dipstick tube is finally with the local courier for delivery, more than 6 months after I ordered it, so should get it in the next few days. The only other thing I'm waiting on is the silver replacement screws for the two halves of the airbox, but they aren't a blocker given I can use the ones the airbox came with and swap out easily later.

[Karter16 423]

Yesterday afternoon I conditioned the intake boots and clamped them to the airbox. The tool for the Oetiker clamps works out at about $100NZD however you approach it so I saved $85 dollars by using the dremel to modify some standard $15 SuperCheapAuto clamp pliers.

This worked very nicely - I'll paint the pliers so they don't rust and they can go in the toolbox for next time.

I also installed 2x new rubber isolators - Being 20 years old the rubber in the current ones is probably soft and perishing.

Plans for between now and whenever the dipstick tube turns up is to remove the LHS radiator cowl shield in preparation for installing the airbox.

Yesterday I also took the car for a drive and logged the relevant variables with TestO to get a baseline capture before I go making any changes to the car. I want to make sure I'm as prepared as I can be for moving across to the 0401 program. To that end I will also be doing another full review of each change I've made to the partial as part of v1 of my tune. It's been long enough now since I did it that I should be able to do a good review of it and make sure I haven't made any mistakes.

 

Edited December 22 by Karter16

[Cement 892]

That's some pretty pornographic carbon work for sure 🍆 I like the paint booth, about to do something similar in my kitchen 🤣 Gotta love those holiday projects hah

[Karter16 423]

This morning I removed the LHS radiator cowl. My objective with these modifications remember is that I retain the ability to return the car to stock. I therefore didn't want to cut-down or cut off the cowling. It was a quick job to detach the top radiator pipe and slide the cowling out.

Then right on cue the CSL oil dipstick tube showed up (along with the silver-coloured hardware I was waiting on for the airbox as well).

So I carried on going...

I didn't have a turkey baster for removing the SMG fluid from the reservoir, but I do have an abundance of my son's old enteral syringes and feed pump tubing 🙂

All pretty straightforward - the little connector on the bottom at the back is a bit of a pain, but all done without too much fuss.

Next up will be a quick general clean up, as well as cleaning the ICV and throttle bodies (might as well while I'm in there) 🙂

[Karter16 423]

Forgot to add as well that Dad made up a threaded guide for a long 5mm drill bit for drilling through the RACP mounts 🙂

[Karter16 423]

Boxing Day today and did some bits and pieces in between lunch with friends and playing with the kids. 

First up - I cleaned the ICV and throttle bodies with CRC throttle body cleaner. I hate to think what's in it, but it works very well. The ICV wasn't as gunked up as I was expecting, and the throttle bodies were worse than I was expecting.

Of note is that I decided to use reusable screw-type hose clamps on the ICV - I intend to make cleaning it a semi regular exercise so decided screw clamps made sense given they are hidden anyway.

I swapped the oil dipstick tube out for the CSL one.

Connected the CSL SMG reservoir (and annoyingly split some CHF-11s in the process - best laid plans...). The final design of the bracket is still to come, I'll get to that once the airbox is fitted and I can play around with it.

And installed the CSL secondary air rail

Mr 3 and I came back from lunch a bit earlier than my wife and Mr 7 as Mr 3 had expended his socialization fuel tank. So I spent some time getting a nice finish on the 3D printed adapter for the MAP sensor. The adapter is printed in PETG-CF which comes up beautifully with a wet sand and then polish with some cutting compound and the polishing disc on the Dremel. The key is to go slow and not heat up the surface of the plastic too much.

It came up beautifully - the photo doesn't do it justice, it's a very nice finish indeed and matches the sensor well. I've epoxied the sensor to the bracket and will get some photos of the finished product when I install it tomorrow.

Lastly I spent some time this afternoon getting the MAF connector end of my extension wiring loom done. Because I don't want to hack up my wiring loom, etc. and want to retain the ability to return to stock I'm taking the approach with the wiring for the MAP and IAT sensors of making an extension from the MAF sensor connector which splits out and runs to the IAT and MAP sensor respectively. I'll follow the trunk that goes from the distro box by the ECU box across to the distro box underneath the ICV, and from there to the sensor locations.

In terms of the pinouts - all I need to do is to de-pin X6003 pin 1 (MAF signal) and re-pin it to X6003 pin 18 (MAP signal). I'll put a warning label in the ECU bay to note this so that I don't forget in the future and have an easy reference to return to using the MAF sensor if so desired.

Tomorrow the plan is to do a mockup routing of the extension loom, a test fit of the airbox, determine the final lengths for the extension loom, remove it, attach the connectors at the sensor ends and then reinstall. From there it's then on to the actual installation of the airbox, and then flashing the DME.

[Karter16 423]

Yesterday morning I completed the install of the airbox.

First up I took the wiring loom and laid it out in the engine bay to work out the best way to route everything (note the red ties temporarily holding it in place).

Once I'd done that I then temporarily installed the TB half of the airbox to get the position and orientation of the IAT sensor just right. I made sure to mark on the loom the orientation of the loom to the connector so that it sat just right. Then I uninstalled the airbox, removed the loom and attached the connectors for the MAP sensor and IAT.

The finished loom

I then installed the loom for real, cable tying at appropriate points:

And here's how the MAF connector end looks:

With that done the only wiring left to do was to relocate Pin 1 of the X6003 connector to Pin 18 which was a quick job:

Then it was back in with the first half of the airbox for reals this time. All of the hoses and connectors fitted perfectly - I didn't run into any of the issues heinzboehmer did - maybe Karbonius have refined since? The only annoying thing was installing the 10mm nut for the rear  vibration isolator - there's not much room to get in there.

I clamped up the throttle body boots and moved on to installing the MAP sensor. I'm super happy with how the MAP sensor adapter has turned out - it's worked out exactly how I envisioned it would (I've got more to say about this which I'll do as a separate post).

Filter in place:

Various top-side connections done:

Then it was a quick job to install the front half of the airbox and the snorkel:

And finally with the rest of the engine bay back together (you'll have to excuse the dirty car - I'm in the middle of significant landscaping and renovations at the moment at home and it simply isn't worth me spending much time cleaning anything up as the clay dust gets everywhere:

Then in the evening I flashed the Terra 0401 program binary to the car (after taking read backups of the current prog and tune) and then the partial binary with what I'm calling the "base modifications" to make the 0401 work with non-CSL cams, code out the DTC for the flap, etc.

This morning I started the car briefly to confirm it would start and there were no major issues. A bit later today Dad is coming round to (a) come along for the first test drive and (b) hold the data-logging laptop while I drive. The plan is to take it for a run on the "base modifications" binary, log and make sure things are working as they should be and for me to get a feel for what the base CSL tune is like (my exceptions are for it to be rubbish like everyone says). Then I'll flash V1 of my tune and do the same thing and cross my fingers that it's an improvement.

We'll find out 🙂

 

[Karter16 423]

Well the initial couple of drives have been very successful. Couple of one time codes on first start up related to TPS and 1 misfire code, which I think was the engine being mad at the change of program plus blowing out the carbon from the throttle body cleaning. No repeats of any codes in the two 20 minute drives I've done since.

First impressions: the base CSL tune was not as bad as I was expecting. The warm up was rubbish as expected and lots of idle hunting, etc. going on. Once the SAP turned off things settled down. Driving around at slow speed was much smoother than I was expecting. The up and go was a bit muted, but tip in with the SMG was exactly the same as before and there wasn't any jerkiness under light/moderate acceleration. I presume that the reason for this is that my car is a Euro car, which differs less from the CSL than a US spec car does. I know that the US and Euro tune vanos maps differ significantly in places, so that would explain why the standard tune is worse on a US spec car. The car was quite reasonable to drive in the various conditions I tested it in.

Given this I wasn't entirely sure how much of a difference I would notice with v1 of my tune (which I must point out again is simply me making my own version of the approach which Bry5on has pioneered). I loaded it up and the improvement was immediately noticeable. The CSL tune wasn't rough driving around the neighborhood and it wasn't enormously noticeable that it lacks in peppiness under those conditions, but when you bring the peppiness of the standard M3 tune back at those low load, low speed conditions it is immediately noticeable as an improvement. I've logged the run in TestO and will go through it later. I need to adjust a couple of the timing maps in the 3300-3900 rpm range (I haven't quite got the crossover lined up right with the VANOS maps crossover and need to adjust slightly, but it's not off by much).

Extremely happy with how this has all gone. No installation issues, no programming issues and a good success with v1 of the tune!

[Karter16 423]

To Bry5on's point I need to make sure I understand the theory of cam timing well. I understand the individual concepts, but where I've been struggling is putting it all together and visualizing what it means in different scenarios. To this end I decided that some spreadsheets would help (spreadsheets always help).

First up I took the interpolated AVAN and EVAN tables for both the Euro M3 and CSL tunes and calculated the cam overlap for each for each point on the tables:

As you'd expect we have low overlap at idle, high overlap in the midrange, sloping down to high RPM.

So how does that work out as a difference between the two?

The CSL generally runs more overlap everywhere apart from high rpm low load, and particularly in a few different islands in the low and mid ranges.

However - we need to remember that the CSL cams have somewhat greater duration than the standard M3 cams. For the purposes of comparison then we should account for this.

That's cool and all, but what it still doesn't tell us is whether the Euro M3 tune and the CSL tune differ in where the centre of the overlap occurs (e.g. before or after TDC) which is also important information in understanding the differences between the two and why.

So I calculated the centre of the overlap for each of the tunes

And from there we can compare the difference in overlap centre between the two:

Interesting stuff to look through anyway - I feel now with this view I can better visualize and understand the impact of the various tweaks etc. that I'll make. I've only just put these together and haven't worked through them in detail to look at various areas of interest but will update here as I do.

Edited 4 hours ago by Karter16

[Karter16 423]

Ok I think this approach is helping my brain. Here's another interesting view - this is the difference between the Euro M3 tune and CSL as it pertains to the crank degrees at which the intake valve is completely closed.

And correspondingly for when the intake valve opens:

Arguably the point at which the intake valve completely closes is the most important of the 4 (intake close, intake open, exhaust close, exhaust open), so I wanted to isolate that and examine the difference between the two maps. The intake open difference is directly related, plus an offset to account for the extra duration of the CSL cam.

As could be expected we can see that at higher RPM the CSL is configured to to close the intake valve later (by between 5-10 crank degrees) than the Euro M3 tune which will drive more top end power. we can see at low load between 4300 and 6300 RPM that the CSL closes the intake valve earlier than the Euro M3 tune. I presume this is to keep drivability decent with the bigger cams, as presumably is the other island at low RPM thru mid and high load.