Materials to Maintain Your ZHP IIIII Hand Protection IIIII Tools to Maintain Your ZHP
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  1. #71
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Location
    SF Bay, CA
    Posts
    1,266
    Lol that lumber... what the heck, why would they even add that
    2004 BMW 330CI ZHP (well, technically ZAM)


  2. #72
    Join Date
    Sep 2018
    Location
    Austin, Tx
    Posts
    295
    Long over due for an update. The shop is so incredibly busy, I have been for furtunate through all of the uncertainty going on that I am staying booked up. There have been a bunch of little and "boring" jobs that I probably won't chronicle so here are the highlights. Glenn's M3 I mentioned it in the last post. It got the full workover. What started out as a diagnosing of a poor shifting turned into a large sorting off issues from this build. Glenn bought it as is and had only had a couple times on track before the car broke. We set out to fix that and get it sorted so he can spend time using it rather than worrying about it.




    The finished CMP topside reinforcement turned out really nice.




    The car was still drivable but intermittently had a weird clutch pedal feel. The friction material had completely separated from the disc. The stock clutch was replaced with a clutch masters kit and it is fantastic. I found the slave cylinder was also leaking and then we replaced the stock shifter with a Rogue Engineering Octane SSK which is really nice.










    Just a bit of copper starting to show.




    Full Vanos refresh.




    And something I have never seen, someone went through all the trouble to replace some of the cam hub bolts, why they didn't do all I don't know.




    Installed strut tower reinforcing plates on a S54 Touring.








    Bob brought his E28 back in because he was getting a coolant leak from the heater control valve.




    We have put (3) on in the last (2)yrs. These are straight from BMW, qc has gone down hill on these! So we swapped it for an E46 valve, which I just realized I don't have an installed photo of. I cut the bracket off of a parts car and mounted the E46 bracket to the E28 and then used some various off the shelf hoses modified and it mounts up very nicely.




    We are also planning to replace everything that moves or is rubber in the E28s suspension, but we are still a ways away from doing that. Bob really wanted to see what difference the new OE BMW steering box would do on it's own so we installed it at this time too. The E28 steering box mounting brackets like to tear off the subframe and while bob's wasn't failed we still added the MWrench reinforcement at this time too. For 265k miles this E28 is such a joy to drive.












    The shop got a new compressor. I don't use air that much anymore with the invent of such awesome battery powered tools. But there has been a bit more grinding and what not going on so it was time to retire old faithful and step up our air compressor game. This is my trusty workhorse of a truck affectionately named "Ron Burgundy" (Will Ferrell, Anchorman). It was bought new in '95 by my grandfather and was handed down to me about 8yrs ago.




    This isn't sketchy at all? My buddy Jesse helping unload it. We ran the straps through the pallet then lifted it high enough to get the truck out from under and lowered it. I'm not sure what we thought he was going to do if this went bad, but luckily it was very stabile.




    Ed brought in his E46 M3 for a Vanos refresh and. That's all pretty straightforward you've seen it before, but what is interesting here is that one of the Vanos mounting bolts was broken off in the head. So with the Vanos unit off we set about getting it out and repair. It was broken off in such a manner that no easy method to extract was going to work. We ended up pulling the entire front end of the car off to gain access. But success was had and it is as good as new.




    Going back together we found #5 spark plug was loose and burned up. Surprisingly this car had no misfires and ran "properly."










    My original customer Charles brought his M5 back in for a yearly check up. I have been the only one to work on this car since 2005. It has just about every Dinan mod you can get and it is a sweet hot rod. Valve cover gasket, engine mounts, windshield washer hoses, a driveshaft guibo and a trunk shocks.










    Ryan, who owns the V10 wagon wanted to start moving a little faster on the repair work. We had been just kind of working on it here and there, but he really wanted to get it out and about so with a deadline in sight the race was on. The to do list was essentially get the cooling system operational and make the A/C work. The cooling system was originally on a keyed switch and ran anytime the key was on. I really want to do away with that so we added a dual coolant temp switch to the radiator and wired in a hi and lo speed fan relay. We tucked it up in the control module "condo" behind the fuse panel and used as much of the factory wiring as possible.








    Next step was to make the A/C work. The car's A/C was supposed to be operational, but that was not the case. The S85 uses a compressor that does not have a compressor clutch. Instead it uses a swash plate, it is essentially infinitely variable as opposed to and on/off like an E46 clutch. Studying the wiring diagrams I found the IHKA on the E60 controls the swash plate, but since we don't have the E60 IHKA that wasn't going to work. o off came that compressor and we installed a compressor with a clutch. The DME controls the clutch on the E46 but with out MSS65 DME that wasn't an option either. So the first version is the compressor is just individually controlled by a rocker switch. We installed a trinary switch (a hi and lo pressure cut off, which also activates the cooling fan) and everything works great. All new lines were made and an E36 condenser was adapted to work. In the shop we are getting 43* and driving around it's blowing ice.








    This lead to opening a can of worms. The P/S hoses were assembled in a rather obtuse fashion so we threw all of that away and made new lines that are much cleaner. And then we replaced both of the aftermarket oil cooler lines as they had some poor quality fittings and were leaking.






    The car is originally a 323iT with low options. After the initial test drive we found the car is starting to overheat in traffic. The car has a bunch of coolers on it and the stock bumper is not very wide open so we pulled the bumper and went a drove it around. It was much better so we threw on a ZHP replica bumper and that helped, but ultimately isn't the solution.




    Ryan picked it up and made it out to CoTA. The car still has some quirks to work out but it is running really well considering it has very little miles on it. But not only that it is really fast, doing almost 160mph indicated on the back straight. And I must say I've driven it about 150 miles on the street and I never would have guessed how much fun this car is to drive, there really is nothing like it, so much fun!








    And with his buddies full S54 conversion IR ZHP.




    There's a couple more projects going and some videos I need to upload to Youtube, but I think this is going to do it for tonights update. I'll try to update this soon as we have some other big jobs in progress and of course lots of shiny things getting installed on the Mustang.
    Current Garage... '00 R11S, '09 HP2S, '12 R12GSA, '00 Black 323iT (wife's), '02 Alpine 325iT (Eileen, Track Wagon), '02 Japan Rot 325iT

    Instagram @ HillPerformanceBimmers
    Email to George@HillPerformance.com

  3. #73
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Irvine, CA
    Posts
    818
    Great work, George! That compressor looks like a beast - same with the v10 wagon.

    Oh how I wish you were located in socal; or I lived near your shop

  4. #74
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Austin TX
    Posts
    7,606
    That E28 with 265k miles looks really sharp. And i think the IR on the last pic is this one from BaT :

    https://bringatrailer.com/listing/s5...i-zhp-6-speed/
    2005 IR / black / 6MT
    157,000 miles

  5. #75
    Join Date
    Sep 2018
    Location
    Austin, Tx
    Posts
    295
    Quote Originally Posted by fredo View Post
    That E28 with 265k miles looks really sharp. And i think the IR on the last pic is this one from BaT :

    https://bringatrailer.com/listing/s5...i-zhp-6-speed/
    Alfredo, it really is sharp. He's owned it since '92. Upcoming plans are a S54/6MT swap.

    And yes good eye, that is the car.
    Current Garage... '00 R11S, '09 HP2S, '12 R12GSA, '00 Black 323iT (wife's), '02 Alpine 325iT (Eileen, Track Wagon), '02 Japan Rot 325iT

    Instagram @ HillPerformanceBimmers
    Email to George@HillPerformance.com

  6. #76
    Man, your shop is just goals. The amount of good work you do is a huge inspiration to me— I've got a little shop here in Phoenix and I'm hoping I can get to working on some cool projects at some point. Craziest thing I've done so far was an S50 swap into an E34, which was fairly straightforward.
    2003 Slicktop ZHP 330i - Maintenance Thread

  7. #77
    Join Date
    Sep 2018
    Location
    Austin, Tx
    Posts
    295
    Quote Originally Posted by dannyzabolotny View Post
    Man, your shop is just goals. The amount of good work you do is a huge inspiration to me— I've got a little shop here in Phoenix and I'm hoping I can get to working on some cool projects at some point. Craziest thing I've done so far was an S50 swap into an E34, which was fairly straightforward.
    Just keep it up. Focus on the quality of the whole project and be honest, you'll get there. I've been doing my own thing for only 2yrs, but I have been working on BMWs professionally for 16yrs now, just takes time.
    Current Garage... '00 R11S, '09 HP2S, '12 R12GSA, '00 Black 323iT (wife's), '02 Alpine 325iT (Eileen, Track Wagon), '02 Japan Rot 325iT

    Instagram @ HillPerformanceBimmers
    Email to George@HillPerformance.com

  8. #78
    Join Date
    Sep 2018
    Location
    Austin, Tx
    Posts
    295
    As usual, lack of updates because the shop is slammed.

    Gabe brought in his gorgeous Alpine on Cinnamon E46 M3 as he was having issues with the SMG shifting properly. Ended up having a bad gear position sensor but at this point he decided he'd rather row gears himself so we converted it to a manual shift. All the usual work including an Auto Solutions SSK and a new clutch.




















    During the inspection of the car we found the radiator was leaking. It had a Mishimoto rad with a lifetime warranty. We snapped a couple of pics and without much effort Mishi had a new one on the way, pretty darn good customer service.




    Bryan brought in his M3 for poor A/C performance. We found it had a leaking evaporator which requires the dash to be removed for replacement.




    At that time he had been acquiring parts to convert the interior from Gray to Cinnamon so we decided to go all in and do the interior conversion at that time as well. Lots of little detail work extended this project out longer than I had initially anticipated but it turned out awesome, the transformation is dramatic!










    His original seats had adjustable lumbar and side support so we combined those options with heated cinnamon seat covers.






    And found some damaged wiring and poorly executed previous repairs that were fixed correctly.






    Bob brought the Supercharged 540i in for some more enhancements. First was a SuperSprint seat of headers that we installed and then commissioned Walker Pro Motorsports to fabricate the connecting pipes to the stock cats and Dinan muffler. The sound of this setup is incredible and the fab quality is second to none.










    Next we want to add some instrumentation. A boost gauge in place of the fog light switch is a common mod, but often times I see people add in a random autoparts store switch in the blank spot next to the original location to control the fog lights. I have always been disasitisfied with this idea and ended up getting a euro mechanical headlight leveling switch which I modified to run the fog lights.

    This is a video



    Next we added a custom gauge set made by a forum member that incorporates oil pressure and AFR into the center vent. It turned out really slick!







    Next we are working on a little revision to the Dinan tune the car has been running. The first part of the process was to read the data out of the DME. We acquired a second DME to use for all of the testing and modifying so there is no possible harm to the first DME/Tune. This required installing the second DME into the car, when doing so we found oil in the DME/Harness. After a bit of head scratching the problem seems to be a vanos solenoid failed allowing oil to get pumped through the connector and into the wiring harness. This sent oil throughout the wiring and ultimately to the DME. The DME was able to be cleaned, but we ended up replacing the harness, both vanos solenoids, the thermostat and crank sensor.








    The Mustang suspension is all assembled and mocked up into the car (save for the anti-roll bar). Dragweek got cancelled so while the project isn't sidelined it is no longer THE priority so updates will be a little slow for it for a few months.











    Current Garage... '00 R11S, '09 HP2S, '12 R12GSA, '00 Black 323iT (wife's), '02 Alpine 325iT (Eileen, Track Wagon), '02 Japan Rot 325iT

    Instagram @ HillPerformanceBimmers
    Email to George@HillPerformance.com

  9. #79
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Southern California
    Posts
    18,064


    Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk
    Randeaux/Rando/John/jr - '06 Cic ZHP; Southern California
    "ZHP or not, I still like you"


    ZHP Performance Package, Cold Weather Package, Leather, Jet Black/Black/BlackCube, NAV, Anthracite Black "my individual" interior trim
    ESS Stage 1 Twin Screw Supercharger, Sprint Booster, BMW Perf Intake, Magnaflow Exhaust, Dinan TB & STEP S/W, UCC Sway Bars, Apex EC-7 18x8.5 ET38
    Suspension: AST 44100 dampers, Bimmerworld front adjustable end links, Swift springs (8K front, 10K rear), Vorshlag camber plates
    Dynavin D99+, Hardwire V1 (w/V1 Connection), BSW Stage 1 Speakers, Kicker Amp/Subwoofer
    BMW Performance Strut Brace, Orion V2 Angel Eyes, No-holes License Plate, SMG Paddle Shift Mod, Besian VANOS, Gold DISA, Fan Delete, M3 Side Mirrors
    Note: Actual car no longer resembles signature picture

  10. #80
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    10,243
    Every time you post I'm struck by the quality work you and your shop does.

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