What did you do for your ZHP/ BMW / MINI today? #2

[704sw]

I guess I should also add this info too - It seems that GC plates have the same stack height as OE. Front ride height for me was unchanged

Yea I just realized I skipped a word. Meant to say “some camber plates.”

[Galapolis]

The boys and I installed the 3.38 diff that's been sitting in my corner for months. Took about 4.5h, could have been quicker but I'll take it. The difference is like night and day and the RPMs feel like exactly where they should be, which makes sense. Before I always felt they were a little low in each gear at most speeds. Very happy I didn't go with the 3.07. I swear ZHPizza's car is still punchier below 3k rpm though. Must be that ZHP magic. Guess ZHPs are special after all.

[t.er]

I swear ZHPizza's car is still punchier below 3k rpm though. Must be that ZHP magic. Guess ZHPs are special after all.

Hmmm I actually feel the opposite with my car, but that could be the high mileage. The only other E46 I've driven was a 325ci and I swear that felt punchier than mine, though admittedly that was back in 2015 so it's a bit hard to recall. On the contrary, I did drag race a 2019 Chevy Blazer RS which has a rated 0-60 time of 6.1 seconds, and I was only slightly behind. I'm sure with quicker shifting I could get fairly close to what the ZHP was rated at back in the day

[Galapolis]

Hmmm I actually feel the opposite with my car, but that could be the high mileage. The only other E46 I've driven was a 325ci and I swear that felt punchier than mine, though admittedly that was back in 2015 so it's a bit hard to recall. On the contrary, I did drag race a 2019 Chevy Blazer RS which has a rated 0-60 time of 6.1 seconds, and I was only slightly behind. I'm sure with quicker shifting I could get fairly close to what the ZHP was rated at back in the day

I might be missing it but did you ever do your VANOS seals? Replacing them made the single biggest difference to engine performance on my car, even bigger than the diff I just installed. Literally turned the car from a Honda-experience where you had to absolutely rev the shit out of it into what I'm much more familiar with with my Diesel Mondeo, where you can kind of just get on the gas at any gear or rpm and it just goes.

[t.er]

I might be missing it but did you ever do your VANOS seals? Replacing them made the single biggest difference to engine performance on my car, even bigger than the diff I just installed. Literally turned the car from a Honda-experience where you had to absolutely rev the shit out of it into what I'm much more familiar with with my Diesel Mondeo, where you can kind of just get on the gas at any gear or rpm and it just goes.

They were done, but back in 2010 or so. I thought the Beisan seals were viton so they wouldn't go bad, but it has been about 200k km since they were swapped. My car does display the symptoms - mainly, the car just feels sluggish at low RPMs, then once you hit around 4k there is definite pickup.

Perhaps I may have to order the seals, and add a VCG to the next FCP order!

[Galapolis]

They were done, but back in 2010 or so. I thought the Beisan seals were viton so they wouldn't go bad, but it has been about 200k km since they were swapped. My car does display the symptoms - mainly, the car just feels sluggish at low RPMs, then once you hit around 4k there is definite pickup.

Perhaps I may have to order the seals, and add a VCG to the next FCP order!

Beisan shouldn't go bad but who knows, maybe the previous owner didn't install them properly or something. Have you replaced your crank and camshaft sensors? They don't always throw a code when going bad and when they break it's basically like VANOS not working, so similar symptoms to the rings.

Also I should mention ZHPizza does have the Shark Tune which changes the throttle response. Additionally, our cars have electronic gas pedals. The pedal is actually very good for the era, but it's still flawed. It was extremely noticeable when I switched from the 2004 Mondeo (cable throttle) to the 2012 (electronic throttle). I thought the car was broken at first because when I pressed the gas to leave an intersection, I could press it down literally all the way and the car would barely move. It was like 5% throttle or something. Very dangerous. Almost caused an accident once because the car wouldn't move when I needed to accelerate quickly. Other times it would accelerate normally.

Turns out, the computer gets overwhelmed with the data if you press down the throttle too quickly, so in order to use 100% of the engine's power, you have to press the throttle down very slowly. So depending on how fast you press down the gas, you actually end up with different amounts of throttle, even if you think you're giving it 100%. The Mondeo is an absolute piece of garbage in this regard, but our cars have much better electronic throttles. Really shows you how advanced the E46 was for its time. But the same throttle effect is still present, even if less pronounced, If I want to use 100% power from the M54b30, I have to press the throttle down slowly. Of course, the slower you do it, the less initial "punch" you will feel because obviously you are not giving it as much juice as quickly.

[johnrando]

Glad you like the Diff. Nice work re install. As for the throttle lag in our drive-by-wire cars, a Sprint Booster or Pedal Box will take car of that.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

[webster]

highly recommend Pedal Box!

[t.er]

Beisan shouldn't go bad but who knows, maybe the previous owner didn't install them properly or something. Have you replaced your crank and camshaft sensors? They don't always throw a code when going bad and when they break it's basically like VANOS not working, so similar symptoms to the rings.

Also I should mention ZHPizza does have the Shark Tune which changes the throttle response. Additionally, our cars have electronic gas pedals. The pedal is actually very good for the era, but it's still flawed. It was extremely noticeable when I switched from the 2004 Mondeo (cable throttle) to the 2012 (electronic throttle). I thought the car was broken at first because when I pressed the gas to leave an intersection, I could press it down literally all the way and the car would barely move. It was like 5% throttle or something. Very dangerous. Almost caused an accident once because the car wouldn't move when I needed to accelerate quickly. Other times it would accelerate normally.

Turns out, the computer gets overwhelmed with the data if you press down the throttle too quickly, so in order to use 100% of the engine's power, you have to press the throttle down very slowly. So depending on how fast you press down the gas, you actually end up with different amounts of throttle, even if you think you're giving it 100%. The Mondeo is an absolute piece of garbage in this regard, but our cars have much better electronic throttles. Really shows you how advanced the E46 was for its time. But the same throttle effect is still present, even if less pronounced, If I want to use 100% power from the M54b30, I have to press the throttle down slowly. Of course, the slower you do it, the less initial "punch" you will feel because obviously you are not giving it as much juice as quickly.

AFAIK the crank and cam sensors are original. I think at some point I'll get around to doing the VANOS seals, my car still runs smoothly aside from being a bit sluggish at low RPMs. If that doesn't solve it I'll look into the sensors.

Totally agreed on throttle-by-wire versus cable with respect to an OEM application, my mom's Corolla although auto has excellent response because it's a cable. And my friend's 2018 WRX has the infamous "rev hang" - shifting from 1st to 2nd smoothly means you have to sit there with the clutch in, waiting for the revs to drop for what feels like forever. Drive-by-wire isn't all that bad, in fact it's much better than cable throttles in conjunction with a standalone ECU. Traction control, rev-matching, and pedal maps are just a few of the many things you can easily implement, and the response is on-par with cables from what I've heard. The reason for having such laggy throttle response from factory are emissions, and probably the fact that your everyday driver doesn't want such a "jumpy" pedal when just driving to get groceries.

I actually misread your comment initially and thought "wtf I've never had 100% throttle feel like 5% in my car." Hard to believe the 2012 Mondeo is that bad. I'd actually like to try driving an E36. Given the similarities in platforms and powertrain, I'd like to experience one and compare with our cars. Although our cars have electronic throttles I understand why BMW went to one. Implementing cruise control doesn't require a mechanical actuator with a second cable, and I may be speaking out of my ass here, but I'm willing to bet that the DSC system in our cars is worlds better than the E36, with its secondary throttle body.

[ZHPizza]

@t.er You're spot on that our DSC is a big jump from the ASC in the e36, but that throttle cable is just amazing. It's a no-lag on/off switch and I love it. There is a lot of work involved with converting the e46 to a throttle cable setup but man that would be awesome.

@Galapolis I also forgot about the headers. Probably not much difference from stock since I put cats in too but headers + intake + zhp cams + shark throttle mapping would definitely explain the extra punch.

Oh and it's red. That's the real secret sauce.