The Barbara Chronicles

[Eagle 1662]

2 hours ago, Vass said:

Thanks for the replies guys! Some good points there.

Dropping the box is not really a job I'd want to undertake again in the near future. I've already ordered all the detents and shifter pins anyway (minus those bloody covers) so would rather address all that in one go and be done with it.

The engine came spec'd with an LF-30 though, and that's definitely in better nick than the LF-20 I have. Plus if it is a stronger unit, I'd go with that instead. One of the pressure hoses is actually identical between the two so I'd be able to reuse that and would just need to get the other one. I think money wise getting a new hose for the LF-30 or getting a new LF-20 to match the hoses would cost roughly the same so I'd rather make sure the unit I'm going with is the better one of the two.

I've read reports of the LF-30 running higher pressure and the steering being a bit easier. Prior to dismantling I did notice the steering being a bit heavy, as well as a mate of mine commenting the same after borrowing the car for a while, so the LF-30 would assumedly make that better. Although it may have been down to the LF-20 being on its way out anyway.

Interesting. A point to consider. Do the post-cats really not influence anything else beyond emissions? I'm blessed by the absence of a SAP, luckily.

Cheapest I found just now is around $500 before shipping from Spareto for all four. Not sure I'd call it cheap but yeah, fair point, worth doing now as it's a bastard to get to later on. Might look into omitting the post-cats though as alluded above.

Add on another $300 for crank sensor, two cam sensors and ignition knock sensors. Actually not as bad as I'd feared. Too far down the rabbit hole to start skimping now.

Fair point on the lack of bite, will take that on board. The clean freak in me is still a bit stubborn and refuses to be swayed by that though. How big a difference is it actually? Like is it something you just get used to over time and learn to press the pedal harder, or did you genuinely feel unsafe in certain situations / have had a few close calls? Definitely don't want to be compromising safety but if it's 10-20% difference I could probably live with that. Don't see myself pushing the limits too hard anyway.

Just read up some reviews on the HPS. Quite a few people reporting terrible noise and squealing, not even too long after installing. Plus they look to be twice the price. Will do a bit more digging.

Fair point. All those alternatives would seemingly work out to less than $300 though so worth a consideration. Again it's a give and take as to what degree would they harshen up the steering feedback...

Yeah post o2 sensor are just for monitoring cat health\emission related

I don't think the Akebone are that bad, my whole braking system is new so that probably helps over people with old hoses etc. They just lack the feel\feedback compared to the metallics. In saying that id stick with OE as im not driving the car enough to worry about dust and prefer the OE feel.

Done braided lines multiply times in the past and not really worth the premium for a normal car. Braided lines are always going to feel better coming from old original lines.

[Vass 831]

16 hours ago, Olaf said:

If HPS are found noisy, ("terrible noise and squealing"), they didn't bed them in correctly (Read: suffering from stupidity).  Have a read of my e30 project thread - I followed the Hawk Performance Bed-in procedure for the pads, and the Zimmermann bed-in procedure for my (new) rotors, and they're quiet and work brilliantly.  Same with e60, except I put them on with new Genuine BMW rotors.  

About the Akebonos:  "would not recommend" should do you.  That morning that you've not applied them a few times, and then need to stop in a hurry will be your moment of regret.  I'd recommend ATE or Textar and an Auto Glym wheel brush instead of the Akebonos, if you're not convinced by Hawk HPS.  Amazon often have competitive pricing on Hawk HPS.

Damn, I wish you weren't so on the fence on this still. Tell us how you really feel

Point taken, will look into it further. A bit ways down the line this still.

15 hours ago, Eagle said:

Yeah post o2 sensor are just for monitoring cat health\emission related

I don't think the Akebone are that bad, my whole braking system is new so that probably helps over people with old hoses etc. They just lack the feel\feedback compared to the metallics. In saying that id stick with OE as im not driving the car enough to worry about dust and prefer the OE feel.

Done braided lines multiply times in the past and not really worth the premium for a normal car. Braided lines are always going to feel better coming from old original lines.

Yeah I reckon regular OE hoses will feel much better than 20-year old rubber as well, braided lines might only make a very marginal difference for what I'm doing.

Cheers

[Eagle 1662]

Yeah ive always noticed an improvement but you do tend to flush the brake fluid at the same time. Good piece of mind regardless given the low cost.

[Vass 831]

Few more things to add to the list, before I forget.

• Really keen to switch the cluster displays from the silly km/L to L/100km that I'm more used to. Have already got the physical backing sheet/plate, will need to figure out how to code the digital display to reflect the same, whether I need to dig around the DME or the cluster itself to get there and if it's even possible. Got a tired 12-year old laptop last weekend and finally went through the trouble of setting up all the BMW standard tools on it, the INPAs & NCS Experts of the world, will start acquainting myself with the ins and outs of it in the coming weeks.
  
  
  
• Possible LSD conversion - will first throw in the 2.93 diff I got with the manual conversion to see whether it's as sluggish as some reports suggest. Further down the line might give this RacingDiffs conversion a go on the 3.38 auto diff in case if I ever feel brave enough to take on some track days. Reviews look pretty good and for the money seems pretty good value.
• I suspect it's fine with the speed sensors being in the wheel hubs but just to make sure - going from an auto box with a 3.38 to a manual with a 2.93, I won't need to muck about with recalibrating the speedo, will I? Might just play around and get it to show the actual, non-exaggerated speed.

[Eagle 1662]

2.93 suits the 5 speed for me, maybe the 3.15 is the ideal compromise but hard to find. I'm sure it starts to become a trade off after that under normal road usage.

 

[Vass 831]

On 7/22/2022 at 12:24 PM, Eagle said:

2.93 suits the 5 speed for me, maybe the 3.15 is the ideal compromise but hard to find. I'm sure it starts to become a trade off after that under normal road usage.

The 323's came with a 3.15 iirc? Will keep an eye out on those being parted out.

Are you throwing the LSD into the 2.93?

[Eagle 1662]

I dont recall ever seeing a E46 323i for sale. 3.15 is very rare\sort after according to KBM, no surprises there.

Yeah going into 2.93, makes the most sense and not really much to choose from  

[Vass 831]

I've seen quite a few. Here's one. What the hell is that front bumper even?

[Eagle 1662]

Looks like some aftermarket special. I think it would have to be a manual 323i. All the auto 6 cylinder ones ive seen 3.46 or 3.38.

[Olaf 3317]

31 minutes ago, Eagle said:

I dont recall ever seeing a E46 323i for sale. 3.15 is very rare\sort after according to KBM, no surprises there.

Yeah going into 2.93, makes the most sense and not really much to choose from  

PFL 323i and 328i.  LCI 320i, 325i, 330i.

Fond memories driving a colleague’s near-new e46 323i on the M40 into London in ‘99 in torrential rain.  I thought ‘this chassis is as Top Gear and the motoring comics described it at launch.  What a sorted car.’

[Eagle 1662]

I looked it up and it was the 325i manual's that ran the 3.15 (3.23 for the 325iX). The 330 ZHP ran the 3.07 along with 323i manual

[Eagle 1662]

4 minutes ago, Olaf said:

Fond memories driving a colleague’s near-new e46 323i on the M40 into London in ‘99 in torrential rain.  I thought ‘this chassis is as Top Gear and the motoring comics described it at launch.  What a sorted car.’

Yeah once everything thing has been refreshed to get them close to 'as new' performance its day and night (probably applies to any decent car)    

[Vass 831]

With the engine still a bit of a shambles, was nice to finally get some wins on the board over the weekend. Got the gearbox very much ready to drop in. Now just the small task of sorting the engine...

Spent an absolutely stupid amount of hours cleaning it all up with all sorts of drill bit brushes. Impossible to get it perfect but at least isn't as caked up and crusty as it arrived. Then refreshed all the shifter pins, reverse & 5th gear detents, new shift lever and all the shift linkage bushes, new metal clutch fork pivot as well as new oil. Also threw on a new reverse light switch. Probably didn't need to but at $7 figured I might as well.

Did a bunch of digging online, people seem to go with either 75W80 MTF, pure ATF or a 50-50 mix of the two. Read a few accounts of shifting being a bit notchy until the gearbox warms up if using 75W80. Seems to be climate dependant to some degree too. Went around BMWorkshop and B&T who both recommended ATF so I went with that. Good enough for them - good enough for me. Will see how it goes.

The set of special punches form Street Driven Industries came through who also threw in a set of plugs for the shifter pins that I'd been struggling to source. Did charge me a rather silly US$10/each but was the only place I could find them so figured what the hell. Happy to lend the punches out or sell them on if anyone wants to do their detents as I probably/hopefully won't be needing them anymore.

As is typical for these, she was clearly suffering from 5th gear lean. Reverse and 5th especially needed some effort to jam into. Pulling the 5th gear detent out, was pretty clear it had seized up and chunks of the inner sleeve it was sitting in were flaking off. Bit of a mission getting those out, literally have to destroy them before they let go but very much doable.

Got myself an E60 shift lever and ZHP gear knob from Schmiedmann, as per @Eagle's recommendation. Seems only a few mm's difference but probably does change the geometry enough so it doesn't feel as much of a row boat.

Threw the shifter linkage on to play around a bit. Rowed through all the gears, of course whilst making manly engine noises. Shifts seem much smoother and more effortless now so was definitely worth doing.

Onto more serious sh*t now.

[Eagle 1662]

Looking good. Did you do the selector shaft seal? They always seem to leak at some point

[Vass 831]

57 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Looking good. Did you do the selector shaft seal? They always seem to leak at some point

Yeah good shout! Still have a few more bits to order so will throw that in. Might do the other seals too.

Cheers

[Eagle 1662]

Input and output are viton seals I think and rarely leak.

[Vass 831]

Yeah might skip on those, they're like US$35 each.

Did a bit of snooping on the topic and apparently BMW also classifies the clutch pivot fork and throwout bearing guide tube as wear items that should be replaced with every clutch job... Of course they would I guess. Seems a bit excessive.

[Eagle 1662]

Yeah they would have to be pretty worn. Ive done a guide tube once but that was more my ocd rather than performance issue

[Blackie 510]

Very jel of the ZF you have there. Trying to get one myself without giving up an arm and a leg. Then add the detents, shifter refresh, clutch master/slave (because why wouldn't you?) on top of the 1k worth of clutch it's a very expensive exercise just to choose your own gears.

[Blackie 510]

On 7/22/2022 at 10:52 AM, Vass said:

• Possible LSD conversion - will first throw in the 2.93 diff I got with the manual conversion to see whether it's as sluggish as some reports suggest. Further down the line might give this RacingDiffs conversion a go on the 3.38 auto diff in case if I ever feel brave enough to take on some track days. Reviews look pretty good and for the money seems pretty good value.

These have a long and chequered history, better known as a "Phantom Grip" if you want to do some research on them.

[M3AN 4016]

Barbara is set to take on new significance as a name soon, perhaps more so in Tāmaki Makaurau than Ōtautahi, but it will be pretty awesome wherever you live in Aotearoa. 😉

[Eagle 1662]

Mfactory helical is money well spent and works very well with reprogrammed DSC, would be hard going back to the open diff. Only problem is the factory seats feel like the weak point even more so now.

[Vass 831]

18 hours ago, Blackie said:

Very jel of the ZF you have there. Trying to get one myself without giving up an arm and a leg. Then add the detents, shifter refresh, clutch master/slave (because why wouldn't you?) on top of the 1k worth of clutch it's a very expensive exercise just to choose your own gears.

Yeah this whole thing stopped making any sort of financial sense a long long time ago. I'm afraid of keeping a tally of how much has gone into it so far, already beyond what I originally paid for the car I'm pretty sure. Will probably add it all up when / if I get her up and running. Will make for some grim reading I'm sure. 

17 hours ago, Blackie said:

These have a long and chequered history, better known as a "Phantom Grip" if you want to do some research on them.

Did a bit of googling out of interest. There do seem to be some differences between Phantom Grip and RacingDiffs, mainly the added friction shims that seem to reduce risk of metal shavings from the plates. The latter does seem to have a whole bunch of positive reviews although under abuse some people have managed to wear them out, seemingly without any catastrophic consequences though.

That said, don't think I'll bother with it in the end, might just save up and go for a "proper" LSD, eventually, as Jared suggested. Way way down on the priority list though.

16 hours ago, Eagle said:

Mfactory helical is money well spent and works very well with reprogrammed DSC, would be hard going back to the open diff. Only problem is the factory seats feel like the weak point even more so now.

What needs doing on the DSC front? Just coding it out completely?

Speaking of seats, I got a lead on some X5 heated leather seats from a guy up in Nelson that's got a yard full of about 50 bimmers. Heading up that way for a rally event at the end of October so will grab them then. Should be largely plug & play, apart from wiring in the heating function and switching over the seat belt buckles. The button panels seems fairly abundant on eBay as well so should be doable. Don't expect them to do much better at cornering but should be heaps more plush and comfortable otherwise. Last missing piece from my interior leather conversion.

16 hours ago, M3AN said:

Barbara is set to take on new significance as a name soon, perhaps more so in Tāmaki Makaurau than Ōtautahi, but it will be pretty awesome wherever you live in Aotearoa. 😉

Not sure I get the reference. Is it to do with that tunnel or something?

 

Pulled the brake calipers apart the other evening to check whether I need new pistons added to the next parts order. Rears look fairly good so thinking they're fine to reuse. The fronts have a bit of scoring and some plating finish starting to flake off on one of them. Otherwise the internal surfaces look pretty good. Wondering if that bit of scoring on the fronts is enough to warrant getting new pistons or should do fine? Not awfully expensive those but don't want to be throwing money at something that doesn't need it either.

[Eagle 1662]

DSC gets recoded to M3 CSL settings which tells the DSC the car it has a LSD and disables the e-diff, then adjusting the parameters allows higher slip limits before intervening. Its mostly for stage 2\single press of DSC button which mimics M-track mode.  DSC works as normal otherwise.

Pistons looks ok to me. Ive polished up and re-used much worse. Guessing they weren't leaking or binding before you took them out?.

[M3AN 4016]

2 hours ago, Vass said:

Not sure I get the reference. Is it to do with that tunnel or something?

I didn't expect you to, don't worry, it's not public yet but nothing to do with a tunnel, much cooler than that. I'll post back in this thread when I can make what I know public.

I agree with @Eagle, pistons look fine for reuse as long as they weren't previously leaking or binding, I've seen much, much worse that were still perfectly functional.

Edited September 15, 2022 by M3AN