First, I want to say thanks for having me!
So I originally joined this site to find a ZHP 6MT sedan. Instead, I found a ZSP Auto Touring which I couldn't turn down. I figured I might as well make a build thread for it and attempt to update reasonably often. Well, onto the wagon/touring itself: It's an 03 Hellrot Touring with a black interior. It has ZSP, ZCW, and ZPP, and even had factory nav! It's a one owner car from Clearwater Beach in Florida, and actually had some maintenance done to it according to Carfax. I picked it up with 113k miles, and had it shipped to lovely Chicago (don't worry, this will be a summer/weekend only car that is stored in winter) in an enclosed trailer. Fun fact, I found the car browsing CarGurus on a Friday morning, and by lunch at work, I had put a deposit down on it. (This may be the definition of an impulse purchase.)
Here it is at the dealer before it was loaded up:
Had the car shipped in an enclosed trailer, where it was loaded up the next Friday. I actually used Chris from Supreme Auto Imports (great guy to deal with) and the car arrived way quicker than expected. I was actually in Dallas that weekend, and I only beat the car back home by about two and a half hours. I meant to grab pics of it coming off the trailer, but there were 45-60 mph winds and it was about 30 degrees, so I wanted to get home ASAP. The car was unloaded about a mile from my house, and it actually came off with the left rear tire flat. I had to run home, borrow my neighbor's battery powered Ryobi handheld compressor (damn you Ridgid for not having anything similar), and then run back. Luckily, the tire held air and the drive was fairly uneventful. Here it is happily tucked away in my garage next to my '95 Impala SS:
The body of the car is a 8.5-9/10, it's actually better than pics they sent me, I don't think it's ever had any sort of bodywork done on it. Got all four keys with it, and the owner's manual! The NAV unit has been swapped out for a Dynavin N7 with a crappy rear camera install (only seems to work when you slam the tailgate shut a few times.) The backlit buttons don't turn on, so I need to pull it out and splice the wiring according to a doc I found online. Don't know what I'm going to do about the rear camera. The pillars are peeling, as is normal, and the rear trunk carpet panel that clips into the tailgate has broken clips so it falls off when you close it. Other than that, the interior is pretty mint.
Mechanically, the car needs a bit of work. When I got it, it was hunting at idle, and there was a delay/hesitation on acceleration. The intake boots have been replaced, so I rebuilt the DISA and cleaned out the ICV. Car seems to be running a lot better, but the idle still isn't as solid as my other E46. The CCV is definitely suspect, and I can't decide if I want to retrofit the SULEV valve cover onto it, or just bite the bullet and replace the CCV. I will explain my reasoning for this a bit later. The ET was supposedly replaced at 95k miles along with the hoses and the idler pulley, but I'm just going to redo all of it anyway. I also have a fuel pump on order. The engine mounts are shot, and I think I can occasionally hear the mechanical fan hit the shroud, so that has got to go/be fixed.
Suspension wise, the FCABs were replaced around 20-30k miles ago, and I have a feeling the control arms were also done, but I will eventually redo everything there too. The front struts are dead, so those are going to be changed very soon. I just can't decide if I want to do struts/shocks and springs and leave the control arms and tie rods alone for now, or just get it all out of the way at once. My bank account is already very unhappy with me, and my last minute decision to not sell my other E46 is definitely affect some of the fun money. The steering coupler is definitely shot, so that's on order also. Front brakes pulsate, so I have a set of 330i calipers and carriers with EBC red pads already sitting, just waiting for stainless steel brake lines and rotors to arrive. I'm also doing the front wheel bearings since I'll be in there anyway.
Now, you may be wondering what my goals are for the car. As of right now, there are the following: A nice, summer weekend car I can drive on long road trips, daily if I want to, and autocross/hit the occasional track day. Suspension wise, I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do. I just can't decide what I want to do drivetrain wise. There are three main options I am looking at:
1. Keep the 2.5, slap on a supercharger, and 6 speed manual swap.
2. Swap to a 3.0, eventually supercharge it, and 6 speed manual swap.
3. Go all in and build the wagon that BMW should have, and swap in a S54 and 6 speed.
Option 3 is probably the best, but I am a bit (read: very) hesitant about the wiring and coding since I have never really touched any wiring/coding beyond wiring repairs/coding with PA Soft. If anybody has some guidance on that, that will be greatly appreciated. I think engine swaps are at least 1-2 years out, but the manual swap is my radar for the end of this year or the beginning of next.
I welcome/love comments and discussion, and I will try to get some more pics of the car/some of the fixes I am going to do.