The life of Ryan's 2003 ZHP

[rkneeshaw]

Given that you had issues with the clamps, would you tell people just to weld the exhaust outright and not deal with the clamps? I saw in later posts you had the exhaust welded. Just trying to figure out the better approach.

Honestly I still have clamps holding on the rear section, but I had the front sections welded. I think welding is much better, but, if you ever plan to sell the exhaust the future then it basically means you'll never be able to ship it. I happen to have a great welding shop nearby that can properly weld stainless steel and he did an amazing job. To do it again, I'd probably have him weld the rear section too.

Just wanted to confirm this. Given the pictures here: http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showpos...0&postcount=26, there are two support/braces which attach the exhaust and the car. Both need to be modified slightly in order to fix and/or reduce noise.

Only the rearward brace needs spacers and has mounts. The front one is just a plate and it did not need spacers.

Were longer bolts required? Or did you add the washers because you used longer bolts?

I used longer bolts because I needed to use spacers for clearance. So for 3/8" worth of spacers I used a 3/8" longer bolt. You might be able to re-use the stock bolts with some spacer, I can't remember though.

[Whammy]

Honestly I still have clamps holding on the rear section, but I had the front sections welded. I think welding is much better, but, if you ever plan to sell the exhaust the future then it basically means you'll never be able to ship it. I happen to have a great welding shop nearby that can properly weld stainless steel and he did an amazing job. To do it again, I'd probably have him weld the rear section too.

Ok, thanks for the info. I'll talk with my shop to see what approach they want to do.

Only the rearward brace needs spacers and has mounts. The front one is just a plate and it did not need spacers.

Ok, but did both supports need to be modified? It sounds like the rear support needs a grinder wheel taken to the mount points, and the transmission brace needs to be bent. Is that correct?

I used longer bolts because I needed to use spacers for clearance. So for 3/8" worth of spacers I used a 3/8" longer bolt. You might be able to re-use the stock bolts with some spacer, I can't remember though.

Ok, I'll stop by a hardware store and grab stuff for the install.

[rkneeshaw]

Ok, but did both supports need to be modified? It sounds like the rear support needs a grinder wheel taken to the mount points, and the transmission brace needs to be bent. Is that correct?

Well to be more clear, there are two cross braces near the middle of the car. Of those two, only the rearward one needs to have the mounds modified and spacers installed. Then there is the transmission brace, that needs to be bent a bit to fit around the larger pipes that the magnaflow system has.

[rkneeshaw]

Made another trip to the dyno today.

First I wanted to see if the underdrive pulleys and ATI super damper made any difference.



Nice little improvement above 5k RPM.

Then I wanted to test the difference between the 83mm pulley and a 79mm pulley. My tune has conservative ignition timing and is a bit rich with the 83mm pulley, so that gives me some headroom that allows me to run the 79mm pulley without a change to my tune.



The 83mm pulley creates 10psi of peak boost, and the 79mm pulley makes about 11.5psi peak boost. Both measured before the intercooler cores, which means actual boost is approximately 1-2psi less than that.

Here's an updated NA vs TS2 dyno



Car pulls so strong in the cooler fall air. I love this time of year.

[Sockethead]

Your NA number is really good. Was that with the headers and a tune?
My car was about 30 hp lower NA so I'll probably never see numbers as high as yours with the TS2.
What gear. Are you using for your pulls?

It's interesting see where your DISA was opening on the NA run. Since the whole manifold is pulled with the TS2, there is no drop at all. This seems to support my theory that the 4K dip is just the DISA opening and disrupting the manifold volume and flow for a split second

[rkneeshaw]

The NA dyno was done with headers, exhaust, bmw performance intake, turner underdrive pulleys, and ESS tune.

Both those pulls were in 4th gear. They should have been in 5th gear, that is the 1:1 gear.

But in the dyno sheet above comparing before and after the underdrive pulleys, one pull was in 5th (the before) and the other was in 4th (after). I didn't know that he used a different gear or I would have said something. I'll be sure to check that next time I dyno to ensure apples to apples comparisons.

[Sockethead]

I wonder how much 4th gear skews the results....

[rkneeshaw]

Welcome to 2017!

Today I completed my first HPDE track day in the 330i, and I LOVED it! Here are some of my notes.

Car details for the day:
Stock ZHP suspension with some poly bushings
Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires, stock wheels, stock staggered sizes
StopTech Street Performance pads, braided brake lines, ATE Type 200 fluid, otherwise stock brakes
ESS TS2, ATI Super Damper, Turner power pulleys, headers, Magnaflow cat-back
Wavetrac LSD, stock drive ratio
Partly cloudy, 72 degrees F



First a note on the pads. I think the stoptech pads are an aggressive street pad, meaning, through normal street driving you will wear off the transferred pad material on the rotor surface that you should have from your first bedding procedure. And, that means you get good cold temp bite from the pads. But, on your first lap or two on track, you'll feel brake fade, but, it will go away. Once you re-transfer the pad material back to the rotor surface after a couple hot laps the pads will really start to work well. I had no more brake fade the entire rest of the day after the first lap or two. On the flip side, after the rotors have a nice transfer of pad material after the day of laps, that cold temp bite suffers again, at least until that transferred pad material gradually wears off. Oh, and even after a track day, I have very little dust on the wheels. I'm quite pleased with these pads.

Second, a note on the tires. I have heard it said in racing all the time that you need to get heat into the tires before they grip well, and I didn't realize how much that applied to a street tire like the Pilot Super Sports too. On the first lap out I can get the rear real loose in 3rd gear, but once I had a lap under the belt I was able to get right into the throttle coming out of turns in 3rd gear and the rear would just squat and plant and off I went. I was very happy with how well the PSS held up too. After a few sessions I had some nice scrub on the shoulder blocks but no chunking or anything ugly.



Which brings me to this e46 chassis, I really think its sweet spot is 300whp or so. With a summer street tire in the stock sizes and LSD, its just the right amount of power. The car is able to put it down quite nicely. I also think this chassis is very well balanced. I did not have any problem turning in at all (I employed trailbraking, which means the front of the car was loaded upon turn-in and it worked really well), I never felt like the front end was plowing at all, it turned in very well, went neutral mid-turn, and then rolling onto the throttle caused the weight to shift and the rear end to bite down and power out. I REALLY liked the way the car felt today.

I'm also happy to report that I didn't notice any heatsoak with the TS2 at all, and I ran her HARD today. It was a pleasure overtaking mustangs, C6 corvettes, and really everything I came across. I'm sure there were quite a few surprised drivers to see an almost 15-year old little 330i pressing in their rear view

I did however have challenges with my tune from ESS. I've had an issue where the car will buck if I ease off full throttle above 4k RPMs. And, on the track, this is downright scary and dangerous. So I'll be taking this up with ESS and demanding they address it.

At the end of the day I'm very happy with the car overall, and I can't wait until the next track day!

[ELCID86]

Happy new year ! Great report. Sounds like a fun time. Hope you get the 4K dip sorted out.


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"ZHP is a garbage option anyway- just some cosmetic upgrades with a different cam and diff to claw back some of the performance lost fitting those hideous and heavy wheels. Any 330 with a 3.46 diff will smoke a ZHP every time. The whole Mafia thing reeks of childish behavior." - anonymous E46 fanatic

[Sockethead]

Glad you had a great day in your car. Sounds like you have it dialed in pretty well. About the bucking, mine does something similar if I cycle the throttle too fast. I think it's the mechanical bypass valve. That's the first place I would look