Materials to Maintain Your ZHP IIIII Hand Protection IIIII Tools to Maintain Your ZHP
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  1. #661
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
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    Branford, CT
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    16,055
    Quote Originally Posted by 704sw View Post
    I didn’t know you could code the switches! And yes, I’ve rapidly come to learn it’s not an option lol.
    Yes, coding is possible. However, it requires modding the switches. There's some plastic that needs to be removed so that the 2nd "stage" of the switch (the auto part) can be accessed. Then, it requires coding to enable the one-touch feature. Here is a DIY on how to do the physical modding as well as the coding (with PA Soft).

    http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showt...e-doityourself
    BP
    2005 330i ZHP / 6MT
    Imolarot / Naturbraun
    2003 330iT / 6MT
    Orientblau / Naturbraun




    It's not the car you drive, it's how you drive it.

  2. #662
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Location
    Charlotte, NC
    Posts
    1,193
    Hey Spencer, I didn't know that you have two dogs. They are awesome!!!

    Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

  3. #663
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    10,244
    Quote Originally Posted by az3579 View Post
    Yes, coding is possible. However, it requires modding the switches. There's some plastic that needs to be removed so that the 2nd "stage" of the switch (the auto part) can be accessed. Then, it requires coding to enable the one-touch feature. Here is a DIY on how to do the physical modding as well as the coding (with PA Soft).

    http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showt...e-doityourself
    Yup! I did this for both mine and my father's car. Really easy.

    P.S. Your cloning looks really good, I think I can figure out where the leash was, but only if I really look, and even then I'm not sure.

  4. #664
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    Greensboro, NC
    Posts
    3,650

    Estoril Coupe or: How I Learned to Import a Unicorn

    Quote Originally Posted by BMWCurves View Post
    Yup! I did this for both mine and my father's car. Really easy.

    P.S. Your cloning looks really good, I think I can figure out where the leash was, but only if I really look, and even then I'm not sure.
    Sweet, I’ll try the coding soon.

    And thanks, it’s the front right leg on both. Snow is pretty easy to clone, paws and legs not so much lol. I took craploads of pictures when they were pups, relaxed a little bit, and now as they get older (almost 11 and just over 8) I’m going picture-crazy again. It’s helping get me back into practice for editing.
    Emma - 2005 BMW 330ci ZHP 6MT Estorilblau Individual

    Sportline 8s 18x8.5F - 18x9.5R | APEX ARC-8 18x8.5 Square | aFe Intake | 135i Brembo F/R Calipers | 26mm Front/20mm Rear Sway Bars | Z4 Mirror
    M3 Dead Pedal | Lexus ES300 Yellow Fog Light Retrofit | Koni Yellows/H&R Springs | Llumar CTX 40% | Coby Tri-Stitch Wheel & Boots

    Awaiting Install: M3 Wing Mirrors

  5. #665
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Location
    Charlotte, NC
    Posts
    3,130
    Damn I just saw your snow post and was wondering how you let those wild hooligans out in the snow off leash

  6. #666
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    Greensboro, NC
    Posts
    3,650
    Reserved for backfilling someday
    Emma - 2005 BMW 330ci ZHP 6MT Estorilblau Individual

    Sportline 8s 18x8.5F - 18x9.5R | APEX ARC-8 18x8.5 Square | aFe Intake | 135i Brembo F/R Calipers | 26mm Front/20mm Rear Sway Bars | Z4 Mirror
    M3 Dead Pedal | Lexus ES300 Yellow Fog Light Retrofit | Koni Yellows/H&R Springs | Llumar CTX 40% | Coby Tri-Stitch Wheel & Boots

    Awaiting Install: M3 Wing Mirrors

  7. #667
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    Greensboro, NC
    Posts
    3,650
    Big Update - Summer 2019 Projects Aplenty

    This will be lengthy, with lots of pictures. As we used to say back in the day: 56k Warning!

    Odometer Reading: 132,402 Freedom Units / 213,080km

    This would become a familiar sight for (embarrassingly) close to six weeks.

    Also I can't get over how much I love these Esco jack stands.

    Cabin Air Filter:
    Replaced with Corteco. Didn’t *really* need a new one yet, but it bumped me up to free shipping on one of my FCP orders for X3 cooling system parts so why not. It would prove to be one of several FCP orders placed during June and July.

    Brakes:
    One of my rear 135i calipers had a stripped bleeder—it was something I’d known about and had been nursing it along, but it finally gave way. Aluminum caliper, steel bleed screw, unknown history of donor car, shit happens. C’est la vie.

    Unfortunately Brembo uses an M10 bleeder which is apparently as big as brake bleeders come, thus I couldn’t simply tap out to the next size up. I tried using Dorman’s thread repair kit but it dripped fluid. Frig.

    My OE rear calipers were a rusty mess and I chucked them a long time ago, so I had to patiently watch eBay for a replacement Brembo. The tricky thing is the rear calipers sit on the forward half of the E82 rear hubs, so they’re reversed on E46s (135i right rear goes on E46 left rear) otherwise the bleeder would be on the bottom and you wouldn’t be able to bleed them properly. Patience paid off and I found one for a good price. Since the car wasn’t going anywhere I took the opportunity to repaint all 4 corners. This will be the first time all four calipers are the same color since I embarked on the 135i conversion in 2017.

    The color is Duplicolor “Daytona Yellow.” Four coats of paint, baked for an hour at 200*F, applied new decals, four coats of clear coat, and baked again for another hour at 200*F.




    Clutch Slave:
    Yet another one of those situations where adding something to my FCP order bumped me up to free shipping. This time I was ordering some maintenance items for my old man’s 530i. I think it’s recommended to replace the slave cylinder when replacing the clutch, but I didn’t for some unknown reason.

    You vs. the guy she tells you not to worry about




    Power Steering Overflow Reservoir:
    Those who track their cars know the power steering fluid reservoir seeps and mists all over the engine bay. It’s not because of the o-ring on the cap, it’s because the cap has a breather hole and the sloshing from quick directional changes allows fluid/vapors to come out the top. I got tired of looking at a PS fluid-covered sock wrapped over the reservoir every time I popped the hood so I used a similar method to what @Derbo used. I didn’t use the Motorrad cylinder, but instead a generic one with a billet aluminum cover. I drilled a hole in the top and crammed the inside with some foam to dampen any vapors. The likelihood of any fluid ever making it all the way to this cylinder is extremely low, but prudence didn’t require much extra effort. The hose is snaked around the back of the airbox, under the MAF, and the reservoir is attached to one of the airbox mounting bolts. I was hoping to use the SMG fluid reservoir post on the side of the shock tower, but the aFe airbox is bigger than stock, and there wasn’t enough space.




    M3 Fuel Baffle
    I knew I was getting better and faster in my track driving, which means more speed through corners and more fuel consumed. During the last session of each day coming through a long sweeping right-hander (T1 at VIR) I was experiencing brief fuel starvation at roughly half a tank. I knew about the M3 fuel tank baffle but I put it off—well, that was stupid because what used to be a $16 part last year is now $90! “Cool, maybe I’ll start bringing gas to the track, or just pay the extra amount to buy overpriced gas in the paddock.” Then I remembered there’s a guy on E46fanatics who parts out a crapload of M3s, and for a price I was willing to pay he pulled one, cleaned it up, and shipped it to me. Certainly not $16, but a lot better than $90.



    The installation is straightforward, just as if you were replacing the fuel pump. Remove the seat, undo the (4) 10mm nuts, undo the electrical connector, hammer off the ring, remove the pump, and here’s where the additional steps come in:

    See that little black hose in the tray? Well, it needs to be removed and put into the top of the baffle.



    Once that’s in place, simply drop the baffle into place (it only clips in on one side), and then it’s time to put the pump back in and reassemble. My pump gasket/seal was still good, but I ordered a replacement preemptively and used it.

    To nobody’s surprise, the locking collar on mine was a rusty mess. I used a wire wheel drill bit to knock as much off as possible and then hit it with some Rust-Oleum Rust Converter (aka Poor Man’s POR15).




    All buttoned up.



    Oil Pan Gasket, Oil Pan Baffle, Achilles Oil Pump Upgrade
    I’ve been putting off a drippy oil pan gasket for a while. Like, I noticed it was seeping a little the very first time I crawled under the car after I bought it. I’ve had the replacement gasket for at least 18 months…It finally got to the point where I was worried about passing track tech inspections and decided it was time to quit pussyfooting.

    But what other items could I do while I was in there? After that time when my starter died a week after replacing my clutch I promised myself I’d never forego a “while you’re in there” item ever again. After lots of back and forth with Nate about his autocross lifter tick issues we decided oil pan baffles would be beneficial to both of us. Originally we were going to buy the Achilles baffles, but since Bimmerworld is one of the sponsors for my chapter of the CCA’s HPDE events I had a discount offer in need of a use, and I ordered us both a baffle from their supplier.



    Nate took care of welding/fitment, which ended up being more involved than either of us anticipated.

    Anyway, back to the project—I watched the 50sKid video several times while making dinner, bought an engine support bar from Harbor Freight, and got to work.

    Side note: all literature I found online suggested the front subframe bolts would be 16mm hex. Mine were E18 external torx.

    At this point I was becoming quite concerned about how smoothly everything was going. I mean, I’ve never tackled a project on this car that didn’t make me scream obscenities, slam a garage closet door, heave a tool violently back into my tool bag, or just take three times as long as it should. Admittedly, the only nuts or bolts in this whole project I hadn’t previously removed when doing something else were the (3) 13mms for the PS pump and the (4) E18 subframe bolts…but the fact they weren’t rusted rounded off nubs, and all came free without too much effort was a refreshing change of pace.

    This is how my pan looked when it came off before any effort to clean it. The power of routine oil changes, and the cleaning power of Shell Brotella.



    The underside of the engine was looking pretty good, too.



    I noticed some brown spots on a few places along the pan/bottom of the block—these spots were outside of where the gasket sealing surface was, so I’m assuming that’s dried oil, and that those are the spots from which it was leaking. They mostly corresponded with greasy/oil spots on the outside of the pan, and for the most part they cleaned off with a scraper. Honestly, the gasket still felt pliable and I didn't see any obvious points of failure, so I was surprised to see how badly it was leaking from multiple places.



    I took this opportunity to clean up the rusted bolt heads. Wire wheel, Rustoleum converter, high heat primer, and high heat clear coat. I wanted them a grey color because I thought it would make it easier to see any leaks in the future.
    So…many…bolts…



    Okay, without going into a ton of detail, I think we’re all somewhat aware of the oil pump nut issue that has plagued BMW engines since the 90s. There’s also an issue with the M54B30s creating harmonic issues that can lead to the pump shaft shearing off, or the sprocket stripping itself and no longer spinning the pump. These issues, supposedly, are only prevalent for cars that spend a lot of time close to redline.

    Enter the Achilles upgraded pump shaft and sprocket. It uses a stronger shaft, a double-d keyed sprocket, a bolt into the shaft instead of a nut onto the end of the shaft, and safety wire. Did I want to spend the money on it? No. But was it cheaper than replacing a grenaded engine? Yes.

    Once again, I watched a video from 50sKid about taking apart the oil pump, and it went pretty smoothly.

    Here’s the old sprocket—it's worth noting my original oil pump nut was still very snugly in place. It's now a paperweight on my home desk.




    And here’s the new one in place. Lol that rusty ass harmonic balancer looks so bad.



    Oily hands + tight working conditions = ugly safety wire installation…but it’s not going anywhere so whatever.



    Here’s where the oil pan job got difficult. Well, difficult maybe isn’t the correct word, but it was just annoying:

    Getting the pan back on was a pain in the ass. Because the engine is slightly canted towards the passenger side the gasket kept sliding off. Tried a couple tiny dabs of RTV to help it stay, but then when it didn’t slide off I’d lightly brush it against the pump sprocket and knock the gasket off.

    Why was it so difficult? Simple, I didn’t lift the car up high enough at the onset of the project. In order to lower the front subframe enough to get the pan off, it was so close to the ground that I couldn’t roll under it on my creeper. Of course at this point I couldn’t lift the car any higher because the subframe is also the jacking point, so I just had to struggle through it. My neighbor heard some very colorful language while she was outside watering plants. Oops.

    Nevertheless, I prevailed.

    M56 Valve Cover
    My CCV was starting to crack and needed replacing. I’d been casually shopping for an M56 valve cover since last year, but since I don’t care about the beauty cover and our cars don’t need the M56's wiring harness I really didn’t want to buy one of the turnkey solutions often sold on E46fanatics. Also I noticed the ones on eBay were really overpriced for just the valve cover, and often really gross. After some patience I found a good price on one, and decided to take on that project at the same time as all the other projects.

    Old CCV out. This was the cold weather version with extra insulation, and at this point the insulation crumbled apart if you even looked at it the wrong way. The foam jacket around the oil separator also made it more difficult to get to the torx screws holding it in place under the manifold. The only thing I cared about removing intact was that hose on the far left. You’ll see why.



    I cleaned up the M56 as well as I could before I ran out of degreaser, and decided it was good enough… I'm not normally a "good enough" kind of guy, but at this point I just missed driving her and wanted to get everything finished.

    See that CCV hose I mentioned earlier?


    Then I flipped it over, painted it with black high heat paint and then applied a few coats of high heat clear coat for a little extra durability. I masked off the spark plug tubes/etc., and intentionally left a small ring around the oil separator cap unpainted so I’d be able to see if any oil seeps out in the future.




    Also, my M54 valve cover bolts were nice and rusty (surprise surprise) and I just couldn’t stand the thought of putting them onto a freshly painted valve cover, so I cleaned them up with the wire brush and Rustoleum converter, then painted them using the same products as the VC.



    While all the painted bits were curing I got the M54 VC off, and admired the cleanliness of my engine. #Brotella



    Okay, here’s why it was important to get that one CCV hose off undamaged: The breather port on the M56 is smaller than the M54; however, it is the same size as the CCV connection that goes from the normal CCV's oil separator up to the air distribution rail. So I simply capped off the extra port on the hose, capped off the extra port on the back of the air distribution rail, and flipped the hose around. Best of all, it still fits under the M54 fuel rail beauty cover!



    The most active M56 VC Swap thread on E46fanatics is 58 pages long and I’ve read every post on every page. Not once did I see somebody mention this hose working there. I’ve seen where people hack up the hoses to reuse the fittings, and insert them into replacement vacuum hose, but not one person has said “hey you guys know you can just reuse one of the CCV hoses right?” The M56 breather hose, which is basically identical to the one I salvaged minus the capped off port, is like $65.

    Because I take a fair number of short trips in my car the CCV was always a concern for me, especially in winter. I still have my M54 VC, a decent oil separator, and all the vacuum fittings if I ever run into an issue with the M56 or decide to revert back to stock for some reason.

    Not pictured: oil return port on the M54 dipstick is simply capped off with a vacuum cap. I also replaced the dipstick o-ring.


    Gauge Cluster
    As mentioned in one of my earliest posts, I found a ZHP gauge face on eBay before Nate and I flew up to Toronto to buy the car. The idea being that I’d need to change from the KM/H-only speedometer to be legal in the US. As it turns out, that’s not true in North Carolina, but I’m still glad I did it because I’m too lazy to do the math in my head all the time, and the original gauge faces have lived on in Botond’s car.

    Unfortunately, the gauge faces I bought were for a sedan—that means they’re black instead of grey, and don’t have the italicized font. The non-italicized font never bothered me (although the italics is cool) but the plastic caps over top of the needle bases match the color of the cluster faces—sedans have black needle caps and coupes have grey ones. I had coupe grey needle caps on sedan black gauge faces and it annoyed the crap out of me. Had it been the opposite (black caps on grey faces) it wouldn't have bothered me at all.

    This past Monday I noticed my local LKQ got a 325cic over the weekend so I went and took the gauge cluster from it. I took it apart, took the faces out, and swapped them into my car. SO MUCH BETTER.



    I know I should be annoyed at the fact it shows a 6k redline, but my original ZAM gauge faces didn’t show the correct 6800 redline either, so it’s really not that different. I’m willing to sacrifice that in order to have color coordination once again. I just need to get the temperature needle oriented correctly.

    I *almost* bought the Bimmian MPH-only “M3 style” faces last week during their 40% off summer sale, but those don’t have the correct redline either, and the junkyard cluster was a third the price of the Bimmian faces. Plus I now have an extra cluster should I ever need parts from it.

    But those Bimmian MPH-only faces do look super clean, though…dammit, Spenser, don’t second guess yourself!

    Painted aFe Intake and Strut Bar:
    I have always hated the bright silver aFe intake cover. I tried PlastiDip’ing it, but the PS fluid spray (pre-sock mod, pre-overflow reservoir mod) made the PlastiDip peel immediately. So while everything under the hood was taken apart I used the leftover high heat paint from painting the M56 valve cover to paint the aFe cover and I’m pleased with the results. Ideally I wanted a little less gloss, but the clear coat helped even out the finish and it’ll make it more durable in the long run.

    I also painted the generic strut bar with grey PlastiDip and applied traditional rattle can clear coat over it. The clear coat adds durability to the PlastiDip, but I can still peel it off if/when I decide to get it properly powder-coated. Again, I think it turned out very well.



    Test Drive

    This morning I filled her up with Mobil1 0w-40 (because that's what I had on-hand), put in a fresh Mann 925/4x filter, then I took her out for a short test drive. I had the windows down to listen for any weird sounds, but it all felt and sounded good, other than the need to re-bleed the brakes.

    After I got home I parked it over a big piece of cardboard to see if there's any drips. I'll check it tonight (finger's crossed!)

    A very much needed bath will happen tomorrow.

    End of update.

    Honestly, I have no idea how @Sreten writes these novel-length updates every other week. This writeup took longer than I’d care to admit.
    Emma - 2005 BMW 330ci ZHP 6MT Estorilblau Individual

    Sportline 8s 18x8.5F - 18x9.5R | APEX ARC-8 18x8.5 Square | aFe Intake | 135i Brembo F/R Calipers | 26mm Front/20mm Rear Sway Bars | Z4 Mirror
    M3 Dead Pedal | Lexus ES300 Yellow Fog Light Retrofit | Koni Yellows/H&R Springs | Llumar CTX 40% | Coby Tri-Stitch Wheel & Boots

    Awaiting Install: M3 Wing Mirrors

  8. #668
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Location
    Chicago area
    Posts
    1,920
    Nice jorb!

    Any mayo in the face incidents with the CCV?

  9. #669
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Location
    Charlotte, NC
    Posts
    3,130
    Hell yeah brother! That's a Sreten level update right there.

    I haven't checked my OPG for leaks yet because I don't care. I'll put the car into a lake before I do that job again.

  10. #670
    Nice job! Especially with the paint...

    Must be glad to dine with it...

    And now I’m dreading replacing my OPG


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


    2006 Coupe | Black Sapphire Metallic | Natural Brown | Gruppe M Intake | Corsa TSE3 | Michelin PSS on Apex ARC-8 | Koni Yellows |

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