What's going on in my shop currently...

[GeorgeH]

I've had a few people ask to keep them updated on various projects I have going in my shop. If it's ok with the admins I thought it might be easier to chronicle everything in one thread, I'd keep my current project threads going but just update this thread on new cars and projects that some might find interesting.

If so, here goes.

I've converted some friends from the idea that to have fun with a car it needs to be a muscle car and big horsepower. These guys are now BMW fanatics as well, between the three of us we have (8) Wagons, (3) ZHPs, (2) E46 M3s and a 330ci. One of them has a S54 powered wagon we built last year and with my S54 wagon the third guy was feeling left out.

He had been looking for a slicktop wagon, but ended up finding a slicktop ZHP. So Monday he and I flew out to Long Beach and picked it up. The car is a '05 Alpine on Alcantara with a slicktop and is stick shift. We landed in LB made the deal in the air port packing lot and hit the road. First gas stop.

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We ended up driving straight through the night to get back home. The little car did great. 25+mpg running a bit on the high side of the speed limit. Needless to say I am jealous of his find. Future plans are to marry it with the best of this:

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He is a deal hunter like I am and the plan was to buy anything and everything we could fit into the car on the way home (and/or possibly another car if we found one decent enough). The ZHP was supposed to have fold down rear seats so we were going to drive to Denver and pick-up a NB wagon interior since it was "on the way" lol. The ZHP ended up not having fold down seats and we just didn't think it would fit as is. BUT we did locate this lot of S54 items. The seller had it listed for weeks on craigslist in LA and no one snagged it. These are all S54 parts, highlights are new rod bearings and ring set, oil pan, valve cover, 6spd trans minus bell housing (might be junk then) a SS braided Vanos oil hose and a BRAND NEW Rogue Engineering M3 shifter setup ($425 on RE website!) all of this for.... $40. YES!

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[fredo]

Well done. The AW ZHP looks really sharp. That's my favorite color next to IR. :roundel

[Chaplian]

Definitely subbing to this!

Is this going to compliment the dad wagon as the Sunday car? :fistpump

[GeorgeH]

Well done. The AW ZHP looks really sharp. That's my favorite color next to IR. :roundel

I'm opposite from you AW > IR > Everything else (except some individual colors) you can tell that I'm jealous of this find and now I can't get one unless he sells it, lol


Definitely subbing to this!

Is this going to compliment the dad wagon as the Sunday car? :fistpump

Dad wag will be the hotrod/track car this will be the everyday car and he has the black wagon that may get the ZHP drivetrain.

Dad wag (Sahara Beige and The other S54 wagon)

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[fredo]

Only 41 ZHP sedans were built in that specific combo (AW, MT, Alcantara). If you add slicktop the number is even smaller.

[BADCLOWN]

Looks like a very clean base, can’t wait to watch the swap progress. I think an s54 swap is my next move as well.

Tell him congrats on the pick up

[GeorgeH]

Only 41 ZHP sedans were built in that specific combo (AW, MT, Alcantara). If you add slicktop the number is even smaller.

Wow, I did not know that.


Looks like a very clean base, can’t wait to watch the swap progress. I think an s54 swap is my next move as well.

Tell him congrats on the pick up

I certainly will. I have been trying to get him to join the forum, maybe he will introduce himself.

[Eugene]

Great idea for a thread!

My cousin has wanted a fun, stick car for a while and his thinking was something along the lines of a g8. Once he drove my car though, he started looking for a BMW, something he had never considered before. Ended up getting an 06 330xi 6 speed and loves it so far. I looove converting people into believers :)

I've had white cars since 2010 and when I was looking for a ZHP was ok with every color BUT AW and black (really wanted a blue exterior with a brown interior). So what did I end up getting? an AW - the deal was too good to pass, flew to TX, picked it up and drove it back home to NY

[squashman702]

Nice find on the AW car! Would love to be back in something like that for a daily.

[GeorgeH]

Had a very nice Competition package Carbon Black on Cinammon E46 M3 in with SMG problems. The owner really did not want to convert the car and was hoping we could find a reasonable solution to keep the SMG. Found out the Hydraulic unit had an internal leak causing it to lose the stored pressure and subsequently ran the pump all the time setting the faults. We sourced a good condition used unit and got him fixed up.

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Also working on installing an oil cooler on a supercharged E39 540/6MT. We used a kit from a reputable performance specialist but were very unsatisfied with how it turned out. Ended up removing that kit and designed a replacement that looks and function more like an OE part. BMW makes an oil cooler kit that is installed on hot climate cars in the Persian Gulf and it integrates the oil cooler thermostat into the oil filter housing. We used that component and then added to it with the custom lines and cooler. Packaging is quite tight and the only way to make this work was to run a banjo fitting off the oil filter housing, but there isn't anything that will bolt up off the shelf. I had to take a M26x1.5 to -12AN fitting cut it in half then drill and tap the internal hole to allow the banjo bolt to thread into it, making a "reducer bushing." That got us the space needed, but it is still very tight. A few random pics from the install.

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[BADCLOWN]

Love this thread especially with cool projects like the ones you’ve posted

[Will]

Very cool solution with the OE hot weather housing. Nice work!

[GeorgeH]

Quick update, SteveM3 from E46Fanatics dropped off his S54T for rod bearing replacement. His bearings were in decent shape but the way he is gonna drive this thing I'm glad we got them done. :woot:

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[fredo]

Good idea.

My bucket list includes an E90 M3. I plan to replace the RBs if needed.

[GeorgeH]

Good idea.

My bucket list includes an E90 M3. I plan to replace the RBs if needed.

Unfortunately with the S65s they all need them, it's not an if but a when.

[ZHP Dave]

I need an S54 in my life.

[GeorgeH]

I Had Gary's 328i E36 in recently for some routine maintenance. I think you will be hard pressed to find a car more meticulously maintained and wwell cared for. This car is his daily driver for the past 16yrs and has 273k miles. The wheels have been refinished, but otherwise the exterior and interior are all original!

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We changed every fluid and filter in the car including the transmission. With 273k we are not sure if that was a good idea, but decided that since he's not planning to sell the car the transmission probably won't make his ownership without it. We rolled the dice and went for the service, only time will tell I guess.

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Removed the aftermarket alarm and installed a factory alarm sourced from BRaymond141 on M3Forums.

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Replaced the seat gears provided by OdometerGears.

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Front brake lines were starting to show signs of dry rotting, they were replaced with Goodrich lines.

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Repaced the trailing arm bushings, these were installed by another shop only 53k miles ago. Not only was the rubber starting to tear, the housing was heavily damaged... installation error? We installed M3 OE bushings this time around hopefully we get double the life.

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During the test drive I got stuck in traffic and the temp started to creep, traced that down to a seized Aux fan. And while replacing the aux fan found the condenser starting to leak at its end connections.

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Lastly, we finished it off with an alignment by Soul Speed Performance a local road race oriented hot rod shop I partner with on items such as these.

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[GeorgeH]

My wife's wagon is getting close to 1/4 million miles and was due for some new control arm bushings. I have no problem trying out various manufacturers of aftermarket parts to gain data. The Vaico brand has a very low return rate with my supplier (even less than Lemforders). I ended up buying Lems and Vaicos to compare. The Lems ended up being BMW bushings with the roundels ground off, even have the BMW pn# cast into them.

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I did a bad job documenting Charles car, but it got a ton of maintenance done this go around. He's my original customer and I've been the only one to really work on this car for the last 14yrs. When we started it was a stock E39 M5 and over the years we have installed most of the Dinan catalog and a full SuperSprint Exhaust (incl headers). It is really a very nicely sorted OEM+ setup, this is car specifically is seriously one of my favorite BMWs.

For this go around it got most of its fluids changed, the ABS module replaced, console trim replaced, air filters serviced, and a new battery. Then in anticipation of an upcoming HPDE event we replaced the brake pads and rear rotors, tires installed TMS monoballs into the thrust rods. Lastly we replaced the headlight adjustment rods, these are a huge pain and I prefer not to split the housings (they are glued together) so I replace these through the bulb openings. Very tedious and long repair, but totally worth the peace of mind knowing the housings aren't going to leak water.

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My IR ZHP thread is lacking in updates, but I did a bit of work on it too. Chasing an airbag fault for the RF door bag. The fault was for to LOW resistance in the circuit. The car monitors the resistance in the circuit and if it is to LOW or to HIGH it sets a fault. The airbags have a mechanism built into them to "short" the internal wiring when it is being worked on, to keep the bag from blowing off if they somehow get voltage applied to them. Well the mechanism is opened and closed by a pair of plastic fingers integrated into the harness connector housing. Sometimes these fingers break allowing the wiring to be shorted together even when assembled. I've seen this numerous times, but the first time it happened it was a head scratcher and if you aren't very familiar with the system, it is easy to miss.

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Broken:
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Fixed:
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[GeorgeH]

Some of you may know but I also have a S54 E46 touring. I put it together late last summer and towards winter I pulled the coil overs off of it for my IR ZHP project. During that time I stole some more parts off of it in anticipation of completing the suspension swap. As the saying goes the cobblers children are always shoeless. Well that is certainly the case here too as she is still taken apart awaiting time and parts to put back together, but I am making headway. I've got the donor suspension completely torn down to nothing. The next step is powder coating everything and reassembly replacing literally everything that moves or twists.

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[johnrando]

Wow, lots going on.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[GeorgeH]

Since the last update I had the #44 and #88 M3 endurance race cars in the shop for some minor maintenance before a trackday at CoTA. Nothing to crazy just normal stuff that happens when cars get beat on repeatedly. Then I went out to the event and hung out with my friends from Soul Speed Performance who were offering support for these and a few other cars that night. It was pretty cool to see these two cars that I had a hand in building mixing it up with McLarens, Lamborghinis and Porsches (to name a few) at CoTA during their night event.

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My buddy Joe, is climbing the highest point of every state and Colorado was on his list. I sent him off with my wife's wagon and he picked up this great Natural Brown interior from Lawlence in Denver during his trip. I don't think it fits with Steel Gray so I'm not sure what will happen with it, but hopefully I'll find a slicktop in blue or white to swap this into.

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The next big project is a E39 525iTa getting a M54B30/5MT conversion. The owner bought a complete sedan donor car and was extremely lucky to find one that was a stick shift as well. Overseas you could get a 530iT so we are basically using that formula to build this one with plan being to swap everything 3L/5MT over but reuse the automatic 3.46 rear gear (manual is 2.93). From there we will install the 530 front calipers and replace all the brake pads and rotors as well as all (6) rubber brake lines for stainless steel parts.

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I applaud you guys who do engine swaps in the driveway without a lift, I've done them that way in the past, but what a miserable experience that is. I'm spoiled now and don't even use a engine crane.

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During the conversion we focused on the driveline first. We replaced any wear item and nearly every gasket, only some of the extensive parts list made the pictures.

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Everything was very grungy so there is almost as much time in cleaning as there is in the mechanical work.

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And started on the pedal conversion.

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I also have been acquiring parts for my track wagon project. It is planned to be a M54B30/ZF5spd based setup. I have a 323iT as a donor, but want the larger suspension and brake components from the 330 cars and a spare M54B30 is always welcomed. I ended up finding a donor sedan in Houston on Facebook Marketplace. It came with an extra set of M-Sport wheels, it has a black sport interior, a complete drivetrain (auto trans), HARD motorsports over fenders, M3 replica front bumper, MTech2 replica side skirts, Megan Racing coilovers and some other misc items. I already sold the coilovers and factoring in how much the over fenders would cost me, the car is almost free at this point, SCORE!

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[Will]

Something about cleaned parts (drivetrain, especially) that makes me smile. Great work, keep us posted with updates! - btw I'm so envious about the lift(s).

[Thatguy_JZ]

Awesome work!

[johnrando]

Yup, awesome!

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[GeorgeH]

More work going on with the E39 touring. The swap is basically done, just putting miles on the car and buttoning up the odds and ends.

Wiring is pretty straightforward. Wired in the clutch switches, one for starting and one for cruise control. Robbed the wiring out of the parts car and wired it in to the factory locations for an OE install. The cruise wire has to go all the way to the DME and its a bit more of a pain, but worked out well.

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We wanted to use the automatic final drive, but the CV flange for the input shaft is 80mm on the auto and 86mm on manual. To use the manual driveshaft on the auto final drive I ended up swapping the pinion flange. I'm normally not a fan of this option as I am always leery of the different flange changing the pinion depth. I pulled both flanges and measured their thickness and both are withing .25mm so I think it's going to be fine in this application.

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One of my wagons we refer to as No Lights and No Surprises killed its auto transmission a few months ago. I've been putting off fixing the wagon because I really didn't want to spend money putting in a replacement auto trans as I have been thinking about manual swapping it. But as it would be the E39 trans is the same. I ended up putting in the E39 trans into the E46. Here is the old trans, the front pump bushing welded itself to the torque converter, killed the seal and then puked it's fluid out.

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"Phyllis" the E46 endurance race car came in for an engine swap and then swapped the Evolve plenum to the Karbonius. Sitting on the stand I wasn't into the red valve cover, but in the car I like it quite well.

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Next up an E92 M3 was in for rod bearing replacement.

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He had a blackstone labs analysis done on the oil and no red flags were found. We ended up replacing the rod bearings for peace of mind and good thing we did. These bearings only have 78xxx miles on them and (5) of the upper bearings are showing copper. We used BE bearings and their spec'd ARP rod bearing bolts.

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Also got new engine mounts and an engine ground strap

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[GeorgeH]

Well the E39 Touring is done and I must say it sure is fun to drive. Why BMW didn't import this setup into the US is beyond, it completely transformed the driving experience of the wagon. The leather was deteriorated and the seat adjustment cables were shrunk so we also took the opportunity to refresh the seat and get it back in lines with the rest of the car.

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Started prepping for an E46 M3 SMG conversion. I try to keep all aspects of the repair and modifications for any job in house so I machine the bell housings as needed for missing components. You can save some money by using used parts but the price difference usually doesn't make it worth it knowing all the parts are brand new. And we are coupling this with an Auto Solutions shifter. This one is still in process as like most things we've added to the scope of the build and are now waiting on parts.

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Next picked up a couple of parts car for future builds...

1. This is a clean 115k miles 330/6MT car that rolled out of the owners garage, down the driveway, across the street, down an embankment and blasted a tree. Needless to say it's totalled, but it's perfect for us as the damage was 100% cosmetic. It ran and drove onto the trailer.

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https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48662355818_b59ef2cd57_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2h98i1N)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48662709056_fd65f29a28_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2h9a727)


2. This is a 330/5MT slated for a wagon. When you buy a car at auction this is how they deliver it to the trailer. I've got a video on my Instagram page, but not sure how to link it here @HillPerformanceBimmers.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48662944827_37c4d5fc81_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2h9bj78)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48662709086_505433d503.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2h9a72C)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48662355728_89b53b6f36_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2h98hZf)


One of my customers and his son have a 318ti. They got a good deal on a 323cic parts car and did the heavy lifting by swapping the 6 cylinder long block into the ti. Then brought it to me to finish, big project but turned out well and rounded out with a M50 intake manifold conversion and a custom tune. This little thing rips, very fun car to drive.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48662356043_54b5124752_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2h98i5F)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48662709556_381950bb3c_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2h9a7aJ)


One of the original S54 wagons was dropped off for some refreshing. The orient blue car was built around 2010 and has been owned by Juliann here since 2011. In a weird twist of coincidence Jason was looking for a S54 for his wagon conversion (the silver gray car). We found one and when we went to purchase it we found out it was the engine from Julianns car. We rebuilt it and stuffed it in Jason's wagon and here they are reunited, lol.

https://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=826372

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48662356098_8980b23a67_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2h98i6C)

[GeorgeH]

It's been a little bit since my last update.

We have had some major family changes over the last weeks. My 88yr old grandfather passed away rather unexpectedly, leaving a large whole in everyone's heart but mostly my grandmothers as they had been together since
they were 13yrs old. He was quite an impressive man having started his own business in the 50's building instrumentation used for water quality testing. He's entrepreneurial spirit trickled down through all of his children and a few of his grandchildren who have all owned or still own their own business, me included. He was a very hard worker and I can surely attribute where I am in life to the work ethic he instilled in me at an early age. He will certainly be missed. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/statesman/obituary.aspx?n=william-garner&pid=194085507&fhid=5106

During this time period my sister married and we welcomed her husband into our family. My wife and I at the wedding, which was held a beautiful Vineyard north of town.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48891952753_a8de69f972_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2huq3bD)


But in the meantime the shop has been jamming, lots of big projects coming through the shop.

This 42k mile Carbon black on Cinnamon M3 came in for a SMG to manual conversion.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48891963566_03ac92e288_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2huq6p5)


The transmission bellhousing was modified in house and all new parts were used including this sweet Auto Solutions shifter.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48891960616_85646b6f1b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2huq5wd)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48891428123_a20a279066_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hunmei)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48891964021_e811f246ea_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2huq6wV)


Next the car got Dinan springs for a bit of sharpening in the handling department.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48892146737_9fc6e94d45_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hur2Rc)


Then we got rid of the brake caliper covers, rebuilt and powder coated the original calipers.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48891961436_9123661b13_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2huq5Lm)


And finished the car off with an alignment at our local race shop.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48892144557_d6462a77e5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hur2cB)



SteveM3 sent me his Porsche calipers for modification, this is a nice upgrade to the M3 brake system. To fit there are a couple of companies that make brackets but a few mm need to be milled off the caliper mounting surface.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48892182682_7abafc00f9_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hurdwW)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48892003546_735175e521_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2huqiho)


Click the pic for a fun video of the machining:

https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/48892012796_4723fec414_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2huqm2S)



I bought a Branick 7600 strut compressor and had some fun tearing all of my misc struts apart.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48892423937_0735e34c9e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hussfv)



Alfredo brought his F30 335i for a shock replacement. We went with the Koni FSD kit (now called special active) and deleted his EDC shocks replacing everything except the springs and put new thrust rod bushings in while we were in there. I have done lots of E series coding but not a lot of F series coding. As busy as the shop is I decided to farm this part out. Joe @ http://Facebook.com/codemyride did the remote coding for us to remove the EDC options and everything turned out like OE. Koni shocks ride great, good improvement for this car.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48891717158_4317934fa3_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2huoQ9E)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48892251581_19fd068a6e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hurz1R)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48892251781_d1efa4aea3_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hurz5i)



We had MarkSeven's, JAWillis's, Julianne's and my S54 wagons all at the shop the other day...

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48891804188_fd70d5dbe3_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2huph2b)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48892354541_baa5b5e53e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hus6C2)



I have (2) M3 tourings in the shop that need their instrument clusters modified so I went ahead and knocked out all my other clusters at the same time in preparation for future swaps. The M3 cluster will bolt right into the chassis but to be correct they need the LEDs for the rear doors added to the circuit board and then need the VIN programmed into them to remove the manipulation dot and sync the vehicle mileage. Both of these tasks require completely disassembling the clusters.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48892538407_7878c0b639_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hut3h8)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48892537972_371649fc31_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hut39C)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48891826208_2b53341738_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hupoyQ)

[Will]

Awesome work! Thank you for sharing with us.

[Cabrio330]

Sorry about your grandfather but wow, how lucky you were to be born into that family! Not only was he a big influence on you, but 88 years is a pretty long life so you clearly have good DNA!

And I always enjoy your posts about projects you have going on! Thanks for sharing those and your family updates.

[fredo]

+1. Sounds like your grandfather was a great person. May he RIP.

[nextelbuddy]

damn george.. i feel like a little bitch for feeling tired and complaining with the 4-5 cars i've been working on the past few months. lol

[ZHP_Brandon]

Condolences to you on your grandfather, sounds like he was absolutely cut from a different cloth.
Super jelly of the M3 tourings, they all look well sorted and proper with the pictures you provided. Good luck on your future endeavors, I’ve been stalking this thread for a while and always look forward to your updates! [emoji1417]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[GeorgeH]

Thanks guys, he was a good man for sure.

Shawn, these are just the exciting jobs worth mentioning... There are currently (4) touring conversion projects in various states going now, plus the normal every day cars. It's a lot of work, I live in the shop when I'm not spending time with my wife.

[johnrando]

Good updates. Sorry for your loss. Welcome to the new family members.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[GeorgeH]

The shop has been out of control busy and I am trying to keep my head above water. I am incredibly lucky to have all of these people believe in me and what I do, this is a good problem to have as long as I can manage it. I am doing my best and am already implementing changes to alleviate these issues in the future. But still the work must go on....

A future project parts car got dropped off. Semi drivers don't like coming to the shop as the roads are tight, so I met this driver at a nearby grocery store. When I rolled up the tractor was still attached to the trailer and I was wondering how they were going to get it loose (they had the tractor off before I could snap a pic). Then used the flatbed to get the car off the nose of the trailer. They couldn't get the flatbed square with trailer so it was a bit sketchy, but as the tow driver said "I've done way worse things" lol.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011643222_6bb9e10d32_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEZtZq)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011436976_556fd44946_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEYqFs)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011642987_4ac94b4cde_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEZtVn)


The ti came back so I could fix the door panels. The E36 chassis has an issue with the door panels literally coming un glued and then no longer stay attached to the doors. I repair them with a large tube of windshield urethane and lots of tape, lol.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49010926538_d259a50b1b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEVNWN)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011461691_91fcc3600e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEYy2z)


My mom has been driving a '05 X3 since '06, it was a demo car that was also a CPO, since she bought it aside from the random oil change I am the only person who has worked on it since then. But even then it was finally to the point she was going to have to spend some real money on it to get it back into shape so it was decided to get a new car. Naturally she picked a BMW and a X3 at that. This is a 2019 X3 she got from BMW of Grapevine. It is I think as loaded as one can get but because it is a ex******er car there are massive discounts. I drove there and back and the new X3 sure is a sweet ride.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011474221_76c449995c_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEYBKB)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011474391_dd224dd4e4_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEYBNx)


Cisco brought his E46 M3 in for a clunk noise. It was determined he had a failed strut mount and yes he did, the center fell out when the strut was disassmebled. We installed Ground Control street camber plates, reinforcement plates and then add a TMS front sway bar.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011490351_02caaaba31_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEYGxH)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49010956188_1fdb7eaafe_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEVXL1)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011490716_5902c5f8b7_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEYGE1)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49010956303_f7b5a80203_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEVXMZ)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011490636_4306c63026_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEYGCC)


Next is a project I have been working on since May, it is a 2000 323iT with a S85 V10 swap. I've been keeping it quiet in case it didn't turn out like I hoped as the customer has been fairly discouraged by the lack of progress over the years. To this point it has been (3) years in the making, it was running and driving then became a crank no start. After that everyone he spoke to wanted nothing to do with the project, but I took it thinking it would be simple. While the diagnosis was simple, the fix was not. The car uses a stock DME so it would be emissions legal. To use the stock DME a CAS module emulator was installed. Somewhere along the way that failed and the company who built it was no longer accessible. The company restructured and I was able to get someone to there to get it going. What they did was remove the emulator and with software they were able to program the cars EWS and Key to the DME, pretty cool stuff. Now with it running and driving again we have a large list to go through to make it a nice driving experience. More on that to follow. Here's a link to my IG page with video: https://www.instagram.com/p/B4KvRJEph6Q/

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49010991478_8af3af265b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEW9fs)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011525391_5fb3948bf3_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEYSXR)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49010991818_547121decb_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEW9mj)


Juliann, brought in her S54 swapped touring. This is THE car that started it all for me. Her car was originally for sale on the forums back in 2010 iirc. I had just bought a motorcycle and was not in the position to take out another loan or I would have bought it. Fast forward about 7yrs and JAWillis and I are scoping out a core S54 in town here and find out it is from that wagon. It had dropped a valve and she elected to replace the entire engine instead of fixing it. JAWillis ended up with the engine and it is now in his touring, how is that for small world. Anyways fast forward another couple of years and she runs across me on IG and we started chatting as she knew I was involved with her old engine. One thing leads to another and she's dropping her wagon of for some maintenance. We were going to just bulletproof the vanos but once we started looking over the car it needed a bunch more work.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011572221_a9bdd2458b_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEZ7Tg)


The RACP had started to tear so we went ahead and pulled the whole back end out of the car and installed CMP reinforcement plates. Juliann is an experienced chassis fabricator so we worked a deal for her to do the plate install and it turned out great.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011780477_7154e290cb_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hF1bMT)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011781567_39b147bd8f_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hF1c7F)


While in there, we replaced the subframe bushings and installed SDW RTA Ball Joints.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011781637_db08151b98_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hF1c8T)


Her swap was one of the firsts and was done by an enthusiast who cut a bunch of corners. The car worked ok, but it just wasn't refined. So with it apart I fixed all of the evap system hoses and connections, fixed some random wiring, coded her instrument cluster and removed the warning light "fixes" lol.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011571971_ac0cac42ce_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEZ7NX)


She was concerned about the Vanos since her previous valvetrain failure. When I pulled the V/C off to go through the Vanos system, I found she got very lucky. There was a broken Vanos pump tab and luckily it was stuck in the disc. We sourced her a new (used) hub, drilled her old disc and rebuilt the Vanos unit. Finished it up with a valve adjustment and got the engine back in order.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011038538_4380b8a6b1_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEWoeQ)


Finally, I acquired another wagon today. You may remember I bought this (https://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=1237086) was wag last year, then resold it back to the previous owner. He then later passed away and the family was having trouble selling it. They wanted it to goto a good home and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. My buddy rode down to San Antonio with me in my ZHP and we picked it back up. This bring me to (5) tourings... I think I have a problem lol.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49011000088_b7c4a13f55_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hEWbNU)

[fredo]

Interesting updates as usual. That red touring looks good, congrats. I don't think you shared that story with us before.

[GeorgeH]

Interesting updates as usual. That red touring looks good, congrats. I don't think you shared that story with us before.

Alfredo, You are right.

Last summer I had been watching this wagon on CL. It had a bad transmission and the owner was asking $4500 initially. After months it dropped down to $1500 and Larry and I went down to scoop it up. Turns out the owner had been following the discussion about it on E46Fanatics and recognized my name vs my login their. He was a bit defensive because he thought we were just a bunch of vultures. We ended up making a deal on it and became friends. I brought it back to Austin and we stayed in touch as he also had an E92. Once he found out all the work I did bringing the wagon back to life he asked to buy it back from me. We made a deal and he came in got it. We continued to stay in contact and I helped him from a distance with some issues that it had. A few months go by and he unexpectedly passed away. His wife contacted me to try and help her sell it. We didn't have much luck but finally they had to do something with it. I'm not really in the position to be buying more cars right now, but the family wanted me to have it and made me an offer I couldn't refuse... so now I have (5) E46 Tourings, lol.

[RUS_ZHP]

Hey George, great projects you have in the shop! Love your comment about 5 tourings.... yeah, you definitely have a problem, but a great problem for e46 chassis fan.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[johnrando]

+1, lots of cool stuff!

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[Will]

Alfredo, You are right.

Last summer I had been watching this wagon on CL. It had a bad transmission and the owner was asking $4500 initially. After months it dropped down to $1500 and Larry and I went down to scoop it up. Turns out the owner had been following the discussion about it on E46Fanatics and recognized my name vs my login their. He was a bit defensive because he thought we were just a bunch of vultures. We ended up making a deal on it and became friends. I brought it back to Austin and we stayed in touch as he also had an E92. Once he found out all the work I did bringing the wagon back to life he asked to buy it back from me. We made a deal and he came in got it. We continued to stay in contact and I helped him from a distance with some issues that it had. A few months go by and he unexpectedly passed away. His wife contacted me to try and help her sell it. We didn't have much luck but finally they had to do something with it. I'm not really in the position to be buying more cars right now, but the family wanted me to have it and made me an offer I couldn't refuse... so now I have (5) E46 Tourings, lol.

Amazing story! Thanks for your updates, very interesting and motivating.

[GeorgeH]

I"m trying to take the day off, which turns out means I'm just at my desk instead of the shop lol. Here's an update I forgot to post here.

Updates are a bit lacking mainly because I have been working on a few big projects and I wanted to finish them before posting or let the owner post if they want to. Here are some of highlights.


I'm trying to focus my own extracuricular activities and that includes a specific track car. In the past I've used whichever car was most sorted at the time, but there was always a concern of bining my nice car, enter Eileen the '02 325iT (https://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=1265705). She was bought cheaply off of craigslist, then I got her running and started striping out non essentials.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49052503721_f72c7315cf_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hJAUoM)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49052713697_3e16c7823c_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hJBYP4)


A cheap set of coilovers, lots of camber, tire and a nice alignment.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49052501546_ff66acb373_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hJATKh)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49051990198_c6b50d0869_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hJygJW)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49051989903_1623ce0655_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hJygDR)


I then loaded her up and headed to Hallett Motor Racing Circuit with absolutely no testing... what could go wrong, lol. Luckily nothing did, the car did great and was a total blast. HMRC is a fantastic track, I can't wait to go back. A couple of BMW CCA chapters joined forces to set up this event and it was great. Highly recommend, I will be back there next year 9/18-20/2020, mark your calendars.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49052500656_b805bffeb2_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hJATtW)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49052713902_1e7dd679c2_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hJBYSA)


After that I didn't do much, just drove her around a bit and then back on the trailer last weekend to Motorsports Ranch Cresson with The Driver's Edge. This was just an easy trip, just my wife and I. The wagon was the talk of the paddock, lol, everyone loved seeing the long roof hussle around the track.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49256315473_b49fddcbed_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i3Buwv)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49256802726_4210cd4c06_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i3DZnq)


We woke up to some extreme fog, but it quickly burned off and turned out to be a great day.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49256995167_cfc6cae9a5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i3EYzn)


This is a link to a video of me chasing down a setup 330Ci, check the wagon out break him multiple times, so much fun!

https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/49257006192_c858554d79_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i3F2Rs)


One of my customers was racing a CoTA for the WRL end of season endurance race. They blew up the engine in the car saturday afternoon and decided to swap it overnight. I went out Sunday and helped them trouble shoot and tie up some loose ends.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49257032127_8561756bc5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i3FayB)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49256836666_c73c1192e9_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i3EasA)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49256880526_36130b3f89_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i3EouN)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49256394923_bbe9bdd1fe_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i3BU9k)


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49256851781_4d6dc7fab8_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i3EeXc)


Click the pic for a Video from one of the bridges.

https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/49256880341_3754271262_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i3EorB)


JaWillis, another friend and I then spent some time on the dyno testing S54 conversion muffler setups. The final info is still being compiled. (https://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=1266239)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49256915681_a1bd0b0671_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i3EyWV)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49146793526_5a67e3060b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hSWat5)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49182655102_6dff9fa6fc_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hW6XS7)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49257112642_9e3253138e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i3FzuN)


And swapped a M54B30, 6MT, and B30 front brakes and rear suspension into a Geo31's touring (https://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=1261695).

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49256926426_cf0b10bf29_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i3EC9b)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49228304433_ff9769ea19_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i18VPx)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49228769156_e3af3ce803_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i1biY1)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49256823517_0717c74e5c_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2i3E6xT)

[Will]

Fantastic update, thanks!

I'm interested to see the outcome of the muffler-shootout. I know you mentioned final numbers are still being compiled, but any surprises you could share in the mean time?

[RUS_ZHP]

Hey George, your updates are great! Thank you for sending them out.
I am glad to see so many cool tourings!


Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[johnrando]

That is living the life, what a blast. Thanks for the updates.

[GMBBS]

Damn. I was at Hallet, saw your car there. I wasn't driving but my brother was there in the green group with my Supercharged Topaz Blue 330i. Hallet is pretty awesome.

[GeorgeH]

Fantastic update, thanks!

I'm interested to see the outcome of the muffler-shootout. I know you mentioned final numbers are still being compiled, but any surprises you could share in the mean time?

Thanks Will, I didn't realize anyone replied until I got a notification this morning. I need to compile the data and update the post, but the jist is the Stromung, BMW Performance and Dinan made 315whp+/-, Everything else (incl the SS) made 307whp+/-, the 325 did made some good numbers initially but dropped off hard as we made more pulls. Stromung is loud, BMW Performance is NLA and hard to find. The ideal muffler is either the Dinan or ZHP IMO.



Hey George, your updates are great! Thank you for sending them out.
I am glad to see so many cool tourings!


Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Thanks, you'll love this next update then.



That is living the life, what a blast. Thanks for the updates.

I'm trying, lol.



Damn. I was at Hallet, saw your car there. I wasn't driving but my brother was there in the green group with my Supercharged Topaz Blue 330i. Hallet is pretty awesome.

Was it a sedan? I think I recall it, I'm hoping to come back this year, stop by and say hi.

[GeorgeH]

Another S54 wagon is done. Matt (MJWeimer on the forum here) sent me his gorgeous 2001 325/5MT for the full treatment. If there was ever a "unicorn" this is probably it. Alpine white, black interior, manual, RWD and a slicktop. And Matt has done a fanatical job of keeping it pristine with subtle mods here and there that you don't even notice unless you really look at the car. Now I have to start off with saying this is one of the nicest E46s I have seen in a long time, I don't think it is to much of a stretch to say this car is about as close as you could get to a time capsule. It was quite a honor to be a part of this cars history.

*Also note, this forum post while lengthy is still just a general overview of what we did for this car. There is so much work that goes into one of these projects it's hard to document each and every little item.

*From looking at these pics you will see that none of the body work was touched, but otherwise EVERYTHING under the car was removed (minus brake lines) and just about everything from the windows down in the hatch and just about everything windows down in front of the seats. A build like this is an extensive undertaking.

The goal for the build was to make a slightly sharper version of a S54 M3 touring if BMW was to make one. We did not stray to far away from stock where possible and added just a few touches here and there where we could get away with it. The number one goal was to make the car a pleasure to drive and so most of the parts were picked with NVH in mind. Here is the pile of parts we started with.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488197426_5b82acc932_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6WXd)


For any of these conversions to do them "right" you need a donor car, there are just to many small items that should be transfered over that would nickel and dime you to death if bought separetly. Another customer of mine put us onto a relatively low mile convertible in Houston. It just so happens Matt has family that way and they set up the purchase and then my wife and I headed down there and picked up the car.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488407147_eaf3a3eeb5_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip82i6)


And a few days later the touring was shipped in... had to pick it up with another S54 touring (JAWillis72).

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487702523_f683660e24_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4pQp)


Most all E46s have Takata airbags in them which are mostly under a replacement recall. Matt's passenger side needed the airbag replaced and so I worked with BMW and got that done for him as well, the drivers was the newer style already.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488199071_aa1fb29a34_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6Xrz)


The convertible had been seen for an extended period of time, just because no real reason it appears. It was a bit dirty and cosmetically it was pretty rough, so no tears were shed when it's fate was determined, certainly a worthy
candidate for the swap.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487703488_c4f0fd4dca_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4q83)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488408282_266494048c_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip82CE)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488408187_6e74a59c67_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip82B2)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488408117_9efb56dcfb_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip82zP)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488198481_c9a36b2fe7_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6Xgp)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488198311_5a588dd099_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6Xdt)


M3 engine bay aftermath:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488412407_1217e1502a_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip83RM)


Engine is disassembled to a shortblock for cleaning and maintenance.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488198186_61bf4669c0_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6Xbj)


And cleaned up.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488198011_8a3d314554_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6X8i)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487702138_dfeb3b919e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4pHL)


Bottom end coming apart for new rod bearings. Unless we have history of these being replaced recently (not just for the recall) then these get replaced, this is a must for any of my swaps.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487708843_20a68ec4da_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4rHn)


And this is why:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487708428_b2b181859c_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4rAd)


Oil pump disassembled, cleaned and inspected, no damage found so it got put back together and installed.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488413762_262b03782c_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip84g9)


Next is the Vanos, this is another item that is not negotiable, they get sorted out as part of a swap. There are a multiple issues with this part of the engine.
1. The bolts the attach the timing chain sprockets to the cams can loosen, the fix is new hardware loctited in place
2. The high pressure oil pump in the Vanos is driven by (2) tabs on the exhaust cam hub. These tabs can break off and the theory is there is to loose of a tolerance between the hub tabs and the bores of the oil pump. The accepted repair is to drill new holes in the pump for a tighter clearance to the tabs.
3. The upper chain guide breaks, Beisan Systems which is the pioneer behind fixing all of these Vanos issues makes a chain guide replacement.
4. The Vanos oil accumulator line can fatigue from vibration and crack, BMW implemented a new design with multiple mounting locations.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488204496_8ee4d35c25_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6Z47)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488204156_4ed2be2172_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6YXf)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488413527_a1ec8e95d1_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip84c6)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487708928_a5c3b07409_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4rJQ)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488407352_e313a2401e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip82mC)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488494152_4c000403d5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip8tab)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488203886_5edf729555_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6YSA)


The engine went back on the cleaned subframe which got new control arms and bushings. From there the Euro headers were installed, RMS replaced and the JBRacing lightweight flywheel and stock clutch pulled from the donor were reinstalled.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488203706_d0fb7b1bd9_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6YPu)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488413227_ec69cec10a_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip846V)


Next was the rear suspension. This was mostly good to go, so the only things we replaced were the subframe bushings and RTAB/J.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488413022_8f64a1d9dc_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip843o)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488203461_5663ea490b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6YKg)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488203311_dbe57c975d_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6YGF)


Ball joints in place of the RTAB is my new favorite modification. I will not install poly bushings or limiters in these locations so its stock rubber or ball joints. They really seem to sharpen the rear of the car, these particular ones are from Syncro Design Works. David the owner is a very helpful guy and even has a E46 Touring track car!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487707693_d0a875f51b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4rnx)


The final drive was removed and all bushings were replaced, along with all of the seals and gaskets.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488412722_59f347d4d4_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip83Xd)

[GeorgeH]

Now into the touring phase, rear end coming apart.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487707408_a3167514da_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4rhC)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487707298_7ece4b3cee_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4rfJ)


And after a good power washing.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487707173_d4ab5d25d2_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4rdz)


And going back together with the M3 parts.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487707008_b0256ebf6b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4raJ)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488201771_6d70e2a975_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6Yf8)


There are lot's of heat shields and insulation specific to the M3, all of these were transferred over, even if the difference was just a "M3" embossed on it, it was swapped.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488412527_9cb18817f3_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip83TR)


S54 in the touring.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488197826_4045d2b12a_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6X57)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488411762_34e4b273e4_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip83EE)


Front suspension and brakes assembled, Koni M3 shocks and struts with Dinan M3 springs. Calipers painted black, Stoptech rotors and Akebono pads with stainless steel brake lines.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488202281_b5dd5ba1b3_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6YoV)


Euro Cats installed. Wiring was completed using the Euro transmission wiring harness and wiring looms. (1) of the US O2 sensors had to be modified as it is to long.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488200286_7d050f86f4_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6XNw)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488409547_7c4f0d9025_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip831t)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487706593_e1e8a4b86a_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4r3z)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487704598_cabae5e635_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4qsb)


Matt's wagon had the electric fan setup and we decided to keep it as opposed to installed the aux fan in front of the core support and mechanical fan on the engine. The tourings electric fan is to "tall" for the M3 radiator and oil cooler
setup, so I modified the electric fan shroud and expansion tank bracket and it turned out quite well.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487704263_70d5825e82_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4qmp)


Starting on the wiring. I used to pull the entire body harness from the donors, but that is just to much work, lol. So now I cut the front carpets at the seats and then cut the harness there and remove the entire front section.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488197856_e7366d65d5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6X5C)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488407517_77fb6d0b8f_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip82pt)


One of the subharnesses I had to assemble. The '01 while it has a MK60 DSC it uses the old style separate DSC sensors. So we converted it to the new style sensor and wired it in.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488201116_0151d37c8b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6Y3Q)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488407462_5893d03553_n.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip82ow)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487706693_aa3f12af80_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4r5i)


During disassembly of the touring I observed it was low on refrigerant, this doesn't get discussed as much as other items but in Texas it is much more common and just as costly to remedy as the Vanos or Rod bearings (if doing as
preventative). So I inspected the A/C system and found the evaporator was leaking, which is what I expected from experience. This job requires removing the dash to pull the heater case out to get at the evaporator. We decided this
was the time to do that and it would allow a more proper routing of the wiring.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488410957_ac2744ec7c_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip83qM)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488201226_d9962b5991_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6Y5J)


It's hard to photograph but in the middle of the evap you can see discoloration and debris, that is where the oil from the refrigerant builds up on the core and traps dirt indicating a leak.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488411162_940f50c24a_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip83uj)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488201491_5119eb30fd_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6Yai)


With the dash out the wiring was completed, which included running wires to the instrument cluster, SZM (switch center in the console), fuse box, IHKA and DSC sensor (under the drivers seat carpet). I also removed some old wiring
for a radar detector.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487705708_7a10687222_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4qMj)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487705468_9659d6808d_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4qHb)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488410482_a8ac0e97fa_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip83hA)


It also allowed for an easier time routing the wires into the E-box. Most just go through the vent opening, but I pulled the cover and routed the wires through the loom with the original wire set.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488200651_c4ffcab81e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6XUP)


This is ready for assembly. If you look closely you can see some of the wires I ran as the loom is wrapped tightly in spots and I try not to disturb the factory wrap is possible.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488410202_fd84d3807d_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip83cL)


And the E-box all back together with the MSS54 DME installed.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487705103_ec04ace408_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4qAT)


Interior going back together.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487704973_1c80a10466_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4qyD)


Next was the hatch area to swap out the shocks. Rear shock mounts were installed to facilitate removal from the bottom so this should never have to happen again, lol.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487704138_c6b663e5f3_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4qjf)


VIN, Correct mileage and M-Track mode coded to cluster (which was also modified for the rear door indicators, not shown).

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488409327_90c9b39493_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip82WF)


And then last minute we swapped the original 325iT bezel on after Mark (MarkSeven) suggested it for his touring.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488199311_5df95d2ac4_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip6XvH)


Engine bay is just about done here. We chose the Dinan CAI as it is a clean modification but then allows us to use the non-M3 headlight as the Xenon control module is in the way of the M3 airbox. The donor headlights were not in as good of shape as the tourings. Note: the BK E36 washer tank solution. Matt requested this as i would generally have pushed for the M3 tank since he has the MTech2 bumper. But after the install I am happy with this setup and would
certainly install one again.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487702393_428ec924d8_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4pNa)


On the alignment rack with my old wheels to ensure the AC's don't get scratched.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488409272_ae743e9663_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip82VJ)


This build wasn't without issues. We had a few crop up. There was some noise from the transmission at low RPM and with the clutch pedal fully released, sligth pressure would make it go away. I pulled the transmission back out and found the throughout bearing had some defects. I normally apply a very slight amount of grease to the throughout bearing (even though BMW says not to) and this time I assembled it dry as per BMW. But after seeing the bearing I put a new bearing in it and went back with my old grease method and no issues.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487704073_f1627b2e87_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4qi8)


Secondly, after a bit of miles were put on it I discovered a an odd clutch operation issue only at high(er) RPM. It turned out to be something in the clutch/flywheel system. When we intially assembled the car Matt and I decided to reuse the LW Flywheel but after some time of driving it and now this clutch issue we decided to go back to a DM Flywheel. But since we suspected something in the clutch, the transmission came out again and this time we replaced the clutch and flywheel and that fixed the last of the issues. Considering how much work went into this build I am ok with that being the worst of the problems and otherwise has been extremely trouble free. And now headed back home.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487703933_a7478eba21_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4qfH)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487703733_371d118539_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4qcg)


Matt sent me this picture with the car home with his wife's ZHP.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487702263_451e46efb5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip4pKV)


I'd like to wrap this up with one last picture.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49488407182_4d1e76f810_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ip82iG)


I was going to go out on a Sunday morning cruise with some guys from the area CCA chapter. I had a couple of car options, but still wanting to put shakedown miles on Matts touring I asked if I could take it out. He without hesitation said yes (and it would have been fine if he had said no). When I met the guys there was a lot of interest in the touring because it is so clean, then someone said "What's under the hood, that doesn't sound like a M54." I showed them the car and we all started talking. I mentioned this was a customers car and they all looked shocked like I can't believe a customer would let you do that.

As the morning drive progressed I thought about that last statement and as I think about all of my customers, there is not a single one that I wouldn't ask and expect to get the same reply. When I left the dealership to open my own shop I would not have imagined to be where I am now. I am very fortunate to be allowed to work on these cars but more importantly am glad to have met so many people I would call friends and appreciate the relationships I have formed with them. This build just highlights why I am doing this and am thankful Matt gave me the opportunity to be a part of it.

[fredo]

This is amazing, I always enjoy your updates. Great pics and detailed info. Just curious, where does Matt live ? I don't see TX registration stickers on his cars.

[johnrando]

Def awesomeness going on in here.

[Overboost]

So much drool on my keyboard right now :drool

Well done George! :applause

[Will]

Fantastic update! Thanks for the photos, details, and captions. Very cool!!

[GeorgeH]

This is amazing, I always enjoy your updates. Great pics and detailed info. Just curious, where does Matt live ? I don't see TX registration stickers on his cars.

Indiana, he was able to drive it home from the rendezvous with the delivery truck and once since then, but not the roads are all nasty and he can only look at it for a few weeks. :(


Def awesomeness going on in here.


So much drool on my keyboard right now :drool

Well done George! :applause


Fantastic update! Thanks for the photos, details, and captions. Very cool!!

Thanks guys!

[Overboost]

Just out of curiosity George, what data and video systems do you use in your track projects?

[GeorgeH]

Just out of curiosity George, what data and video systems do you use in your track projects?

I'm just using an AiM SOLO DL, no video. Racecar customers are usually run AiM products as well. HPDE guys are generally running Harrys or TrackAddict and cell phone camera.

[Hoonin88]

I'll be on the lookout for Matt's car. Hope he lives in the Indy area. Such a BA build.

[GeorgeH]

While Matt's car was in process I also had some other projects come through the shop.

A few months back this M3 came in to get a 6spd conversion (from SMG). He had a bunch of warning lights on and was complaining about poor shifting and thought it had a SMG failure. I diagnosed it to just be missing a fuse in the DSC which was causing the poor shift quality. After that was fixed he was delighted with the outcome and we focused our attention else where. I did the vanos lock down a while back, but we also found a couple cracks in the RACP (rear axle carrier panel or sometimes called subframe).

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49506915778_4d9301ab1f_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2iqKTgq)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49507423231_3bc812ae85_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2iqNu7B)


RF mount crack.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49507638557_ab19b64474_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2iqPA88)


Stop drilled and welded.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49507419756_f194f0eb65_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2iqNt5G)


Ground down and ready for plates.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49506912803_de333ecacc_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2iqKSo8)


My goto, CMP Auto Engineering plates going on.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49507640097_8fc664712d_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2iqPAzF)


Formed and burned in.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49507641037_439e3c1c1b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2iqPART)


Primed.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49507422406_b687040c1f_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2iqNtSo)


And undercoated.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49507641637_5b6b969e83_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2iqPB3e)


CMP RTAB/J

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49507642417_28c8747aaa_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2iqPBgF)


Subframe bushings were replaced with BMW bushings along with a new Guibo.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49507423041_528e6edb41_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2iqNu4k)


And getting lined up.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49507423681_9c5ce4e75a_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2iqNufn)



Guillaume brought in his carbon black M3 for replacement of a final drive mounting bushing. When I was inspecting the car it was found he had quite a few cracks in his RACP, so our bushing replacement turned into a full blown RACP repair. We did the usual, CMP plates, RTAB/J, Guibo, diff bushing and brake lines all around.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49512412822_f913515803_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2irf4m3)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49511632183_ca641b87e4_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2irb4hK)


RTAB's dead.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49512142426_2704460500_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2irdEY3)


Crack in drivers side arch.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49511633703_b0b2e729ee_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2irb4JX)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49511634313_f9a9bb6421_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2irb4Vt)


Popped spot welds.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49512191246_b279ce9b43_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2irdVtL)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49512191611_ab9249d9e6_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2irdVA4)


Cracks in the subframe attachment areas.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49512192656_cdd25ef93d_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2irdVU5)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49512419752_1dc272ff83_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2irf6pw)


All disassembled and prepped.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49512372862_990c702d7d_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ireRt5)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49512146066_1dae65d031_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2irdG3N)


Welded and seam sealer going on.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49511670878_9a25917eb9_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2irbfMU)


And back together and getting lined up.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49511674783_b94da1d296_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2irbgXe)



Mike brought in his SpecE46 for a little bit of strut tower modification.

His negative camber was limited due to the struts hitting the strut tower opening. The passenger side had already been opened up, but the drivers side was stock. The strut towers were like you would expect from a racecar, they had lived a tough life, so I started by getting them all flattened out properly. He already had reinforcement plates installed but I riveted them to the tower (just to keep them from moving during servicing the alignment, struts, etc). Then traced out where I needed to cut and let the metal fly, the goal being to only remove enough material to not limit adjustment and still reach all the mounting hardware. I cleaned up some of the wiring and clearance the B+ terminal to allow access with everything assembled. Hopefully he can get the camber he needs otherwise we'll have to slot the factory bolt openings for more.

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[Overboost]

Is that a GT3RS in the background?

[GeorgeH]

Is that a GT3RS in the background?

Probably. I'm no expert on all of the Porsche body designations but their shop usually has loads of Porsche GTxxx and McLaren's.

[BADCLOWN]

Is that a GT3RS in the background?

that it is

[GeorgeH]

It's been a little bit since the last update, but I'm taking a break from wiring and figured this was as good a time as any.

A customer blew up a S54 at CoTA a few months ago and I took apart the dead one to see what is salvageable, not a lot, but there are still some parts...

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Next, I had a customer bring in an E39 525iA that now has a ESS supercharged ZHP M54B30/6MT. The car had been sitting over a year due to a no crank or start (along with a host of other electrical issues). I found the chassis ground terminal was corroded and causing a poor ground connection on the engine. The ground point was also used for the heat exchanger coolant pump. Because of this and the poor ground there was electricity backfeeding backwards through the engine into body harness causing all of the elctrical issues. Fixing that ground fixed all the electrical issues. I sorted a couple other issues with the car and returned it back to the owner as he is a DIY guy and would address the needed maintenance to get it road worthy again.

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Took (2) of the S54 and the M54B30 swapped tourings to Cars and Coffee at CoTA

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Sold a tired M3 that had been waiting for something to happen to it. I had pulled some parts off, but had to put it back together and clean out the unregistered guests.

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Another M3 in for Vanos and Final drive oil leak repairs. This was supposed to be a pre-emptive Vanos overhaul, but once I got in there I found we caught it just in time. The engine got the usual Beisan full work to the vanos, new (used) hub, cam bolts replaced, upper chain guide rail, vanos refresh, drilled disc, rebuilt solenoid pack, accumulator line and then the valve lash checked/adjusted.

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After that we sorted out the back end, fixing final drive leaks and replacing the mounting bushings.

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Went to the recently re-opened Eagles Canyon Raceway with Eileen. I usually stay at the track in the RV so I got to walk the track Saturday night.

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Lately my focus has been on BMW conversions and road track events, but I started out with a passion for drag racing. Hot Rod magazine does an event every year called Drag Week. It is basically One Lap of America but for drag racing. I've talked about doing it for years and decided I needed to just go for it. So while at ECR I setup and registered, this is no small task. They limit registration to (400) cars and it sells out, last year was sold out in less than (5) minutes. This year it sold out in just over (4) minutes, luckily I got in at registration number (199) along with Paras (Chaplain (http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showthread.php?22219-Chaplian-s-Touring-Build-Maintenance-Log&p=593097#post593097)). The goal is to take my Mustang, but the backup will be Eileen the track wagon.

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Finished the shop's S54 Touring conversion and sent it off to it's new home in Indiana.

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Had another E46 M3 in for a complaint about poor A/C performance, found to be low on refrigerant due to a leaking evaporator core. Also replaced the blower final stage resistor while in there as it was the old style and starting to fail.

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And then an IR ZHP owned by Alfredo (Fredo (http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showthread.php?15710-Fredo-s-ZHP-Project)), getting some suspension refreshening. Everything new in the front struts (except springs), everything in the rear shocks, rear spring pads, engine mounts, sway bar wear items, front wheel bearings and steering coupler (not all parts are new pictured). I've worked on his F30 in the past, but this is the first time for the ZHP. Always a pleasure and really fun to collaborate on these projects with him.

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And since I have a IR ZHP, had to get a picture of the pair together, mine is the dirty one in the back, lol.

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And that pretty much brings us up to today. I have a couple other big projects in the works, but they'll probably get their own thread before I mention them here.

[johnrando]

Love it

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

[Will]

Thank you for another great update. I wish I were local to you for the subframe /RACP repairs.

[danewilson77]

Amazing work and update.

Sent from my Note 9 using Tapatalk

[delvin]

Very nice!

Now how about that fox I saw on IG [emoji6]

[GeorgeH]

Love it


Thank you for another great update. I wish I were local to you for the subframe /RACP repairs.


Amazing work and update.

Thanks guys!


Very nice!

Now how about that fox I saw on IG [emoji6]

Soon :) hopefully in the next couple of days I'll have an update on it. It's going to be a bit different, not your average fox build for sure.

[fredo]

Hey, George. It was good to catch up with you. Outstanding work as usual. Thanks for taking the car to alignment and airbag recall. I will keep my eyes open for details on your current project.

[GeorgeH]

Lots going on in the shop right now, as usual, I have been very fortunate to be relatively unaffected by the ongoing Covid-19 situation.

Some of you have seen some posts about a project I haven't been making much note of, but it's been consuming a bit of time and deserves some mention. I usually don't post about these big projects while they are in process but this one needs to be mentioned. A forum member here asked me to build them a E91 S65 Touring. That project has been a monumental task. The amount of work needed to adapt the two cars in the way I do here is incredibly intense, the work can't be put into a single post here so I'll add an additional post or maybe start it's own thread (even though it's not a E46 some info will carry over for those wanting to S65 sway their E46).

But moving on I've also been working on a S54/E30M3. The car came to me and has been sitting here for a bit, but we finally got it together. It was previously a running and driving car but I was told there were some errors in the previous work which led to a complete engine failure on track. The engine got pulled and then the car was never put back together. We finally got a good donor S54 and I sorted out the swap to the customers liking.

The engine had the rod bearings and vanos previously done, but the vanos disc was supposedly not modified for smaller tab holes. So that was on the list, but luckily it had been done already.

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There are a couple ways to install a S54 in this chassis the main (2) options being to modify the S54 dual sump pan and cross member or use an E34 front sump oil pan. This car was setup for the E34 pan and while swapping it over discovered the baffle kit was in need of a bit of repair.

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Engine cleaned up and about ready to set on the subframe.

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Tilton race clutch going on, I had to source the correct flywheel bolts and Tilton was fantastic to get that sorted out, very pleased.

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Engine in.

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And running.

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Pretty much done, just waiting on an air filter.

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Cleaned up and just about ready to go back home.

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We had a storm a few weeks (months?) back and our big Ash tree got strut by lightening. Ended up deciding to take it down.

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Juliann's Frankenwagon was back for some more sorting out. The car has always had a battery, since the car was built always. I finally decided I was going to figure it out at all costs lol. After seting the car up for a battery draw test I confirmed the car was pulling nearly an Amp of power when turned off. After some diag I found the DME main relay was staying energized. After a bunch more testing I discovered the DSC was involved in the issue as it would turn off the relay if the DSC was unplugged. Her car is the definition of a Frankenstein, body harness form a MK60 touring (her's is a '00 MY), LCM from a coupe, Cluster from a LCI M3, EWS/DME from a early M3, etc etc. Ultimately the problem was the car was not coded properly. Fixing date codes in modules told the DME to look for a MK60 DSC instead of the MK20 it thought was installed. Such a simple fix caused a huge issue. This process took about 20+ hours of diagnosing to figure out! Next up she has a rebuild final drive en route from DiffsOnline to be installed next week.

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Next, I have an M3 in for a clutch job that turned into a full blown sorting. As part of that I found the RACP had been poorly repaired and needed to be gone over. I found it had plates installed already but it was a very weak attempt at fixing the issue. The plan was to get everything apart and assess the state of the car at that point. The car has a blower on it and is primarily a HPDE car so we need to make sure it was as solid as we can get. Once apart the plates seemed to be installed well enough that it would do more harm than good to remove and replace. So I fixed some welds for them and then repaired a ton of cracks, stitch welded the spring perches and RTAB pockets. Every common place and then some had damage, wheel well arch, spring pocket, popped spot welds, cracks, etc.

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The topside was reinforced using the CMP AutoEngineering Top Side and Frt Ext Kit. This is a significant amount of work, but hopefully will be the last time he every has to think about a RACP issue. The previous repair was such a sad attempt. They missed lots of cracks, popped spot welds and then I think they glued this lumber down to hide that, IDK?

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This project is still on going but should be wrapping up soon.


And now what everyone is waiting for, lol. As you may recall I have entered DragWeek 2020. The plan is to take my Mustang, it's recently appeared in the background of some of my pics. I bought this mustang back in '07 I believe. At the time it had a supercharged 331ci SBF and a T5. It ran low 11s with a bad 60' and I drove it a bunch, then hurt the motor. I lived in an apartment at the time, then moved a bunch and had nowhere to work on it. Once I built the shop I started on it again with a Pontiac engine. That project fizzled out when I decided to open the business and needed the cash so I sold the engine to pay for a fence.

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Fast forward to this year and I made a commitment to myself to do #dragweek this year and the only "fitting" car I have is the Mustang. So it was just a rolling chassis and needed a powerplant. I still have the SBF but didn't think it made sense considering my current enthusiasm for BMWs. The only option that makes sense is a BMW engine. I went back and forth between a few options including a single turbo N54, but settled on a M52B28, which came from an E36 328i.

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Now that on it's own wouldn't make enough power to do the Mustang justice, so I am adding a turbo to it.

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Next for a transmission, I really didn't want a manual for no other reason than I just didn't. BMW autos aren't a good fit for this option and a 4L80e would work but is a bit clunky. The only choice that makes sense is the DCT out of a E92 335is.

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I really wanted to do this work myself, but I am way to busy with customer work. Aside from that my fabricating ability is not as strong as my BMW ability and it would just take to much time. I am going to be pressed for time with this project anways so I decided to farm this work out. Another customer hooked me up with a chassis builder in town here and we hashed out a plan. The car is currently at his shop getting the engine and trans mounts made, full exhaust including down pipe and then all the turbo plumbing in and out of the intercooler.

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[johnrando]

Love these updates.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

[fredo]

Oh, boy. That was a close call, good to hear your house was not damaged. And yes, we are ready for some details about your e91 s65 project. :thumbup

[t.er]

Lol that lumber... what the heck, why would they even add that

[GeorgeH]

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.

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The finished CMP topside reinforcement turned out really nice.

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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.

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Just a bit of copper starting to show.

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Full Vanos refresh.

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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.

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Installed strut tower reinforcing plates on a S54 Touring.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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And with his buddies full S54 conversion IR ZHP.

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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.

[Will]

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

[fredo]

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/s54-powered-bmw-330i-zhp-6-speed/

[GeorgeH]

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/s54-powered-bmw-330i-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. :)

[dannyzabolotny]

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.

[GeorgeH]

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.

[GeorgeH]

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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

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

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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.

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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
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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!

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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.

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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.

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[johnrando]

:thumbsup

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

[BMWCurves]

Every time you post I'm struck by the quality work you and your shop does.

[GeorgeH]

Every time you post I'm struck by the quality work you and your shop does.


:thumbsup

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

Thanks guys!

Second round of updates:

Neil brought in his M3 for a RACP repair. We did a used vehicle inpsection and are knocking out the items on the list he does not have time to DIY. We did the usual, stop drilled and welded all the cracks, then CMP plates were installed. After that we stitch welded both upper coil spring and RTAB pockets along with the wheel well seams. We've seen so many cars that have been "reinforced" already and have this spots separating. I don't know if it was just missed during the reinforcing and happened after but it is becoming a standard part of our RACP repair. Then new BMW subframe and trailing arm bushings along with Rogue Engineering shock mounts.

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Next, rod bearings, we got quite the surprise when pulling the oil pan off.

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Doesn't look like it caused any damage though. These don't appear to be the original bearings but with 186k miles it was peace of mind to know they are fresh.

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And with the pan off we addressed the drain plug, it had been stripped and had a "pan saver" type plug in it. We correctly installed a time sert and then surfaced it to give a perfect sealing face.

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Sold my Imola ZHP.

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And then quickly spent the money on an M3 (probably) parts car. The guy said it needed a clutch (SMG), but from the short drive I took in it I think the transmission might actually be broken. It's in really good shape overall but it has a pretty decent scuff right on the RR wheel well opening which I think is going to make it to much investment to fix (at least the way I would want to). So it will probably live on in a sedan or touring swap.

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It did have a check engine light on and Vanos faults stored, I popped the valve cover off as the first thing I did and wouldn't you know, broken tab...

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Adam was back for a SMG conversion, we did the usual with the AutoSolutions SSK and he provided us a manual plenum to really round out the underhood change.

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And now for a different SMG conversion. We swapped out the SMG for a ZF320 5spd, Tilton twin disc clutch and flywheel with a CAE shifter.

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We didn't have the correct clutch alignment tool for a twin disc setup, but luckily we did have a broken ZF...

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And then we also "bullet proofed" the Vanos.

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[fredo]

Hey, George. What is this stuff ?

36985

[GeorgeH]

Hey, George. What is this stuff ?

Alfredo,
I think that is a generic blue shop towel that people like to use. Somehow it got into the crankcase and sucked into the oil pump pickup. :facepalm

[ZHPizza]

OIL PUSHED THROUGH THE WIRING HARNESS TO THE DME WTF

[GeorgeH]

OIL PUSHED THROUGH THE WIRING HARNESS TO THE DME WTF

Yep, I've seen it a few times, never on a M62 thought.

Years ago the M62s had issues with the thermostat housing leaking coolant through the pins. It would short out and pop a fuse in the E-box. If you just replaced the fuse (without replacing the t-stat) often times the thermostat would catch on fire... saw more than one car get the fire extinguisher in the shop. lol

[fredo]

Alfredo,
I think that is a generic blue shop towel that people like to use. Somehow it got into the crankcase and sucked into the oil pump pickup. :facepalm

Oh, boy !

[GeorgeH]

An update is long overdue! The shop has been so busy with big projects I generally like to wait until a project is done or near done to make updates so that's had a bit to do with it. I also because making these posts are a bit of work, but I do enjoy doing it and seeing how life in the shop progresses as we grow.


A buddy who owns a shop in Houston is thinning out his herd of projects and since we are touring fans he thought this was up our alley. It's originally a 530/auto E34 touring, but it's pretty much just most of a body that rolls. His plan was to make it kind of like a "ring taxi" with (4) bucket seats. Right now it's a bit down the road, but I'm thinking we will continue that idea with the first iteration of the engine being a S52/5MT, then either it'll get a big turbo or we'll swap a more powerful engine into it.


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The original S54 touring was back in the shop with a broken transmission. She had known this was going to be a future repair as it had been acting up, but it finally let go. We helped her source a used SMG transmission and then swapped her bell housing onto it and replaced a bunch of wear items and then back together. As a fun science project I disassembled the trans to see what happened. It was quite the challenge to get it apart and while I did, I don't think I could put it back together lol.

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Next a quick job of lowering springs on a F80 M3. There are a bunch of manufacturers of springs and complete coilover kits. I do my best to spec out something that is not only functional but aesthetically pleasing too. This is the first time we used Emmanuel Designs springs and they are fabulous, highly recommend this setup.

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Eric hit a giant pot hole in just the right fashion that bent one wheel, cracked another and then the car deployed all of the LH side airbags. I've seen this years ago, but very rare. What I think happens is the car thinks it is flipping over.

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Insurance tried total the car, but luckily he was able to stop that from happening and we went to fixing it. e took this time to replace all of the shocks and struts and went with Dinan springs on Koni shocks/struts with Rogue Engineering rear shock mounts and OE strut mounts.

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Fixing the airbags required pulling the headliner, this was a good excuse to recover that and all of the pillars in Alcantara. We have a shop in town here that we use for this service and unfortunately I didn't take any pics of it completed.

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After that we decided to tackle replacing the rod bearings. The car only had 95k on it, but it was on his mind so now was as good of a time as any. Nothing horrible, but definitely glad we did them.

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And all back together

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-------------------------------------------------------pg3



I've been lucky to get to the track a few times the last couple of months, CoTA, MSR Cresson and Hallett Teching in at CoTA for a NASATX HPDE

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Rainy weekend

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My buddy's 330/5MT swapped touring. He'll just laugh it off and say he just doesn't car about his car as much as the next guy but he's a really good rain driver, embarasses a lot of really fast cars when the track gets wet.

This is him passing the Camaro on the outside (Advanced run group).

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50432584098_77fc9a8cd5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2jQybd3)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50432584938_ec0289b33c_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2jQybsw)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50433276976_f78cbf2410_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2jQBJbd)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50571983178_16b7dbbfba_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2k3SCGs)


Heading to Cresson for a single day event with my buddy in his S50 swapped E34 touring.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50432587483_b8e8a89867_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2jQycdp)


Back at Hallett for a (3) day CCA event, didn't take many pics other than this sunrise.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50433451787_73b604fa59_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2jQCC9c)


Then a couple of misc items for Chris's M3 to prep for an upcoming HPDE. StopTech BBK, Rogue Engineering shifter, parking brake adjustment and oil leak repair. Unfortunately I didn't get many pics of this job, the pics I did take more than make up for it, this car is gorgeous!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50575416938_3ddf97be74_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2k4berd)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50575416583_2535c4c9ec_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2k4bek6)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50576147166_b591a38114_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2k4eYvm)


-------------------------------------------------------pg4


Mike brought in his M3 for an issue with the A/C cooling poorly. We found the evaporator had failed and was leaking refirgerant, very common issue with the E46 chassis. The oily dirt and debris on the evaporator is a smoking gun as to it leaking, but this car had previously been injected with dye making the diagnosis process even more conclusive.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50575429473_127a214c71_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2k4biak)


Next, he had a parking brake that intermittently wouldn't lock into place. Turns out the teet had worn off, something new to me. Usually we see other failures for this complaint, but easy enough to just swap out the handle while the interior is disassembled for the evaporator replacement.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50575429673_25f5bf550f_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2k4bidM)


Next, he has an issue with the transmission intermittently popping out of gear or grinding when shifting. The shifter had been previously refreshed so he feared it was an internal transmission failure. We decided to pull the transmission and inspect before moving forward with a trans replacement and we ended up finding the clutch was well past its prime. Not only was the clutch overly worn, almost every thing else in the bell housing was past due and to top that off the slave cylinder was leaking. With everything replaced the shifting is now back to normal.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50575431838_3f99696fe4_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2k4biS7)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50576303017_d4b470e272_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2k4fLQr)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50575433933_d6d7ab4a25_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2k4bjue)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50576303607_f173faec51_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2k4fM1B)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50576161721_6da6916ba2_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2k4f3Qi)



We've been still chipping away at the V10 touring project. We found that with the A/C on the car wanted to overheat. We relocated the oil cooler to the LF brake duct area and that has made a huge improvement and fixed our issues on the highway.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50045467868_886e464e62_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2jfm73h)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50576342082_909e28779c_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2k4fYrY)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50575473668_a4d59cfc26_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2k4bwij)


That pretty much brings us up to today. There are a couple of projects in the works right now, so hopefully I'll have some updates sooner than later next time.

[Chaplian]

Great update as always, George! Love seeing how the shop is developing and that have a great issue of having a lot of work/projects on hand!


Sent from my iPhone 11 Pro using Tapatalk

[t.er]

+1 love reading your updates. Also, damn that top-down view of the esses at COTA is mesmerizing

[Will]

Great updates, I always love following along. Thanks for documenting and sharing.

[fredo]

Great updates and pics here. Do you know the price to replace the headliner with alcantara ? My A / B / C pillars are in good shape.

[ZHPizza]

Great updates and pics here. Do you know the price to replace the headliner with alcantara ? My A / B / C pillars are in good shape.Good discussion on it over here

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic?url=https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/main-forum/e46-2001-2006/55267-alcantara-headliner-or-stock&share_tid=55267&share_fid=2212386&share_type=t&link_source=app

[GeorgeH]

Great update as always, George! Love seeing how the shop is developing and that have a great issue of having a lot of work/projects on hand!


+1 love reading your updates. Also, damn that top-down view of the esses at COTA is mesmerizing


Great updates, I always love following along. Thanks for documenting and sharing.

Thanks guy!



Great updates and pics here. Do you know the price to replace the headliner with alcantara ? My A / B / C pillars are in good shape.


Good discussion on it over here

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic?url=https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/main-forum/e46-2001-2006/55267-alcantara-headliner-or-stock&share_tid=55267&share_fid=2212386&share_type=t&link_source=app

Alfredo, I will send you an email with his contact info.

Re: Alcantara vs OE. I'm conflicted here. I had alcantara (but honestly most of the aftermarket coverings are not alcantara brand but a suede) in my wagon and I really liked it. One thing to note here though is the alcantara/suede is thicker (even in non foam backed) and that makes it much trickier to cover the A-Pillars correctly and allow the screw cover to fit securely.

We've spec'd OE for a ZHP project and for another slicktop touring project and for those cars I think it was the right choice. I don't think I would mix alcantara headliner and cloth pillars.

[johnrando]

Def great updates!

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

[GeorgeH]

Time for another update.

A new customer brought in a car he just bought and wanted to address some concerns with the goal of bringing it up to his expectations on how a nicely sorted M3 should be. This is a real Imola slicktop ZHP that has been swapped with a S54 and had the body modifications to match it. We looked the car over and we made a list of things to take care of and then we started looking closer, it became a situation of "while we are in there" and that kind of snowballed into a huge refresh of the car. *As I was going through all of my pics, I realized I did not do a great job of documenting the before AND afters of this job.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774057517_110f889471_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJjmM)


First step the exterior trim. Both of the drip rail mouldings were loose and once pulled off to replace we found they had been real shoddily installed. The clips were broken and so they just double side taped the trim back on. We cleaned everything up and installed new clips and trim. The cowl end trim was missing so we installed that and installed missing clips in for corresponding trim panels. Then we installed and replaced various other trim clips that were missing and/or broken.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773955751_903195164b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmHN7c)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774006316_72f59aa2b2_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJ491)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774006631_29c4871b3e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJ4er)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773256858_7de703819e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmEdmj)


Next, interior trim. The console was pretty rough, but the armrest had been recovered with a Napa leather like material. Napa black armrests are NLA from BMW so we had to source a Montana black leather armrest and the switch the leather from the old to the new. At the same time we replaced all of the console pieces.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773200178_f33e5603e4_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmDVv5)


Then the seats had been very nicely recovered in MTexture, but the seat belts and buckles were old and tired and really clashed with the seats. New buckles and belts were installed for the front.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774019071_08fb262c00_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJ7VV)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773954611_42b63e8559_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmHMLx)


The front seats are heated and the heated wiring was routed incorrectly and showing in a way that really detracted front the seats so that was all corrected as well.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773278758_98e7c9dc7f_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmEjRU)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773202758_308e4d7fb2_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmDWgy)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774028056_385b3bccb6_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJaAQ)


And now the big issue. The front seats originally came from a coupe and the seat belts mount to the chassis on the coupe and on the seat rail for the sedan. The sedan rails were not retrofitted to the coupe seats and then the seatbelts were just hastily fastened to the mounting hardware. We replaced the rails with the proper sedan rails to ensure the belts were safely mounted.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774148197_9a7aeddbaf_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJMje)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773285823_6d1968a459_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmEmXH)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773201763_c4e67e5b19_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmDVYp)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773201613_5f57a465ee_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmDVVP)


The car had some drivability issues where it would intermittently stall and the cruise control didn't work. First, the clutch switch was not even wired let alone properly to the DME and secondly the clutch switch was the wrong one. M3s use a different switch (orange) than all the other E46s (black). New switch and correctly wiring the switch got the cruise working and fixed the stalling issue.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774068547_d41d7cf7f5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJnCX)


More wiring, neither the oil pressure or charge indicators were working in the car. The wiring was routed for the oil psi light and the alternator indicator was turned on with coding. Then the LED indicators for the rear doors were added to the cluster so the cluster now functions fully.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773970181_5ae2d38d8e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmHSoZ)


The E-box fan was damaged and while under the dash a new one was installed.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773965406_ee3095821f_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmHQYE)


Moving under the car we found the RACP had some popped spot welds so we pulled the rear subframe to address those. The car already had RACP plates installed we checked them out and it looked about as good as we could determine without cutting it apart. But the front spacer plates were only rtv'd to the chassis so we removed them and properly welded to the chassis.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774070152_3f25b25cca_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJo7C)



With the back end apart we went ahead and refreshed everything. New subframe bushings, adjustable lower control arms and all remaining bushings and ball joints were replaced including ball joints in the RTAB location. We then replaced both outer CV shaft boots and had diffsonline rebuild the diff. Lastly we wrapped it up with a Bilstein PSS10 coilover kit.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773956711_2fec4a5eb0_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmHNoK)


Moving to the front suspension we didn't stop there and replaced everything in the front as well, new control arms, bushings, steering rack and tie rods along with the wheel bearings. Bilstein PSS10 kit up front with TMS camber plates. We had a terrible time we the camber plates as they were out of stock and kept getting delayed. Luckily we found a used set and refreshed them to complete the install.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773207433_79da821841_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmDXEa)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774074257_cf068b1588_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJpkp)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774211642_be43413320_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmK7b7)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774091332_6bdb117fd4_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJupN)


The brake lines were dry rot cracked and with everything apart we found a couple caliepr piston dust boots were faulty. We took the opportunity to rebuild the calipers, replace the lines and hit them with some black paint.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773212843_6c9c42bef7_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmDZgr)


After that was all sorted we took care of a couple items with the engine. Euro headers and cats we installed along with the proper euro header transmission/O2 wiring harness (pictured above).

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774072032_4793112957_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJoF3)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774073107_2fa588c3de_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJoZz)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773210513_12d973798a_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmDYzg)


The AC compressor was noisy so it was replaced while we were in there. P/S pulley was cracked and alternator pulleys were tired.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773963406_343fb08948_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmHQob)


A new one on me, I have never seen this plug leak nor did I even know it was removable. Giving it a 1/4 turn got it secured and stopped the leak.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773217333_4f836e09c3_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmE1AR)


Lastly we replaced the oil cooler and lines with a good condition used part.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774213047_c3a3cc1125_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmK7Ak)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774100766_040918f1b2_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJxds)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774213462_f330641741_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmK7Hu)


And on the alignment rack with my set of SSRs so the ARC-8s don't get scratched.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774079827_8ce5f7c720_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJqZr)


This car is now a blast to drive, it really is nice combination of pep with a composed suspension inside an eye catching package.

[fredo]

Well done. I remember that car from BaT:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/s54-powered-bmw-330i-zhp-6-speed/

[GeorgeH]

This car turned out really nice, here are a couple more pics of the underside.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774084647_17d03e334f_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJsqx)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773220703_8c19529e93_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmE2AX)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773220503_f11461e088_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmE2xv)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773971921_b32717110e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmHSUZ)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773971791_ed84650cf1_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmHSSK)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50773220003_4c816611a2_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmE2oT)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50774088957_c16cd99f17_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kmJtGR)

[Vas]

How come there is no rear v brace?

Crazy though it still needed work and that some corners were cut.



Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[GeorgeH]

How come there is no rear v brace?

Crazy though it still needed work and that some corners were cut.

The mounts for the V-Brace to the chassis don't exist on the non-M3 cars. We don't add them to our conversions but the next one we might look into it, it's just not simple option at the moment.

[BMWCurves]

"Just a couple of things" - Nice work!

Also, I get a weird fizzy sensation like James May every time I see M-Tech covered seats in an E46

[BADCLOWN]

I feel bad that the owner paid the price he did for that car and the shoddy ass work was found. Owner just dumped a ton of good money into that car, no doubt its a night and day difference. Love that car/the interior on it

[GeorgeH]

Ok, been a little while. We've had a bunch of big projects come into the shop and quite a few little jobs that aren't that "interesting" so this is the reason for the extended update as you all know I usually don't like to present a car until it's done, we just have a few of those going now.

The V10 wagon is "done." It got delivered back around the beginning of December. Last I recall we had changed up the oil cooling system and think we have a handle on that. The next step was getting the AC operating. We wanted to have an OE look inside the cabin and as it is the AC system is a bit of a standalone in that it doesn't interact with the DME or IHKA at all. We had been controlling it with an external on/off switch but it was just out of place. So I had seen where the E39 LS guys were using the LED from the AC button to control the compressor relay. We attempted to mimic that setup, but I don't know if the E39 system is different or they just get lucky because it was much much more complicated to make it work. Believe it or not but the LED for the snowflake button is actually pulse width modulated over a small voltage window and is even influenced by the photocell for the instrument cluster auto dimming. Luckily I have a buddy who is a retired electrical engineer and he came over and helped us build a circuit off the LED to control the compressor relay.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956764752_2349917425_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCSJRw)


With that sorted out I spent a bit of time driving it around and shaking it down and it was fabulous. So the "last" item before giving it back to @RyanS was to address some cosmetics. We had fitted a "ZHP" bumper to the car but needed to address the fog light/brake duct openings. The wagon is originally a no fog light car and with the oil filter housing on the RH side and the oil cooler on the LH side there was no space for brake ducts. I wanted something OE so we took another center grille and chopped it up to fill out the brake duct openings. BUT with the OFH on the RH side it was a bit unsightly so we add a solid panel behind the grill and it gave us the exact look I was after and hid all the unsightly items.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50719517621_c1c8a40ca4_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kgUMxK)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50719517531_6bb8ff2d2f_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kgUMwc)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50718780793_fbb99964f1_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kgR1vP)


And then we added a grill to the backside of the porkchop to exhaust the air from the oil cooler.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50955958148_ef58c69cca_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCNB5y)


Ryan has been driving it now daily and enjoying the car a ton, I think I might have to build one of these for myself some day....



@TangerineDream sent us his 3.0 swapped and ESS TS supercharged touring all the way from West Virginia because it was having some drivability issues and we were

thinking about swapping the auto trans to a DCT. After arriving we drove the car a ton and made a to do list for it which we started chipping away at.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956813322_5d27a8bf39_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCSZhW)


A bunch of warning lights were on due to aftermarket lights and components installed, those were all corrected with coding.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956809572_4ea17a05b2_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCSYbh)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956713081_ca838c865e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCStuD)


The DCT project was shelved because the aftermarket software to control it is just not where it should be at this point so the decision was made to swap a S6-37 6MT from a ZHP in it. Marc got a complete kit shipped in and we replaced a bunch of wear items and converted his wagon to 3 pedals.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956710161_9bd055a527_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCSsCi)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956710636_cd4b6d5b2a_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCSsLu)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956810642_8805f2878f_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCSYuJ)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956811547_5cc569148f_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCSYLk)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956713431_f3e57860e6_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCStAF)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956006773_b16c2967f9_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCNRwV)


Next, a long time customer sent a S54 for us to go through and have ready for a back-up to his endurance race car M3. It had been sitting awhile and generally what we do for him is tear it down to a long block. Go through all of the Vanos, replace the rod bearings and address any other minor things that need to be done so he can just throw it in the car and go when the time comes.

As we started taking it apart we found a little creature had been living in the coolant passages of the engine. I didn't get a pic of everything we removed but it filled a plastic solo cup up about 2". We ended up pulling the head off to clean everything out.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956837907_73b7a9f811_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCT7AP)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956035188_46700904fd_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCNZYQ)


Someone had already been into this engine before as there were head studs installed, which made pulling the head a much quicker option. But they had also left behind some shoddy work. Instead of replacing this coolant pipe o-ring they just slathered on a bunch of black rtv which severely restricted the coolant flow.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956735236_22523d9151_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCSA5C)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956032038_e7071b571b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCNZ3w)


And then they had re-drilled the vanos pump disc, but it was still much to large. The stock holes were in excellent shape and the redrilled were starting to wear ironically. The customer had a turbo toy hub in his pile of parts so we installed that and re-used the original tab holes.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956734611_035dd8d30e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCSzTR)

[GeorgeH]

Pt2
We've also started on a ZHP/S54 conversion, we've just been disassembling, assessing and cleaning parts so far. This is going to be a really extensive build. New everything in the suspension, all the maintenance, euro exhaust, CAI, tune, etc. It should be a real nice driving hot rod.

Disassembly of the M3 donor, you'll note almost everything under the car is removed as there are a bunch of small items that are M3 specific that often get overlooked with these swaps.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956060043_76f0558be7_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCP8nn)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956764616_4e2cda4db1_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCSJPb)


And the donor car was a SMG that had some intermittent gear position sensor faults so the preivous owner had bypassed the all the failsafes and was directly hotwiring the starter to get it started. LOL, but it worked.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956060773_30ced2a198_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCP8zX)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956060563_4dbcce8ca5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCP8wk)


I met up with some guys who a starting a company to offer some more products for the E46 platform. One of these is a new take on replacement shifters, I can't go into any more detail than that, but it looks like it could be a very cool product. During our conversations I found out they were wanting to 3d scan a S6-53 6MT transmission (what would come behind a E9x N54) and I had one loose for another project so I offered to let them scan mine. I've never seen the process in person and it is so cool to see this technology in work. They used a Faro ARM and it was so precise you could read all of the casting information in the model, very cool tech!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956784181_a947e73ae3_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCSQCv)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956884357_c138aa0480_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCTmpF)


This is a video....

https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/50956788771_37aebd0256_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCSRZD)


I bought a new (used) trailer for the shop. We had been borrowing a buddies, but I was borrowing it more and more and then I stumbled upon this one and I jumped on it.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956103153_4bebe35032_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCPmbD)


My truck with the trailer. This is "Ron Burgundy," he was purchsed by my GrandPa new in '95 and was passed down to me when he stopped driving about 9-10 years ago now. It's funny to see how things have changed and all of these new 1/2 ton+ trucks (and even the ranger/s10/etc) trucks blow this thing out of the water on paper. But it's such a good truck and pulls well as long as you are mindful of the load, it just can't be replaced.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956809236_af8e255e54_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCSY5u)


Then new tires for RB and the trailer (along with some for a buddys SBF swapped Volvo wagon).

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956908827_5bd7b4ea86_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCTtFz)


Along with mobile mounting and balancing.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956909557_88888b41eb_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCTtUa)


Machined another batch of SMG conversion bell housings.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957066676_bc3ac4394b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCUhB7)


A friend of the shop happened to be at the junkyard and posted a pic of a ZHP, I saw it still had a shifter and... the complete transmission. It was to late in the day, but we were there first thing in the morning the next day and scored big. Almost everything was there that made it a ZHP. It was a bit precarious as the car had been pillaged a bit already, but we made it happen without incident.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957193292_e11db92ac5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCUWf9)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957197397_7594b22905_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCUXsV)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957094366_7b010ba7e6_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCUqQw)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957198137_ba3ca2e23e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCUXFF)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956394598_a073eff68d_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCQQPy)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957095401_7aaac837a9_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCUr9n)

[GeorgeH]

Pt3

I needed to change the oil level sensor on one of my own wagons. It had recently had an oil change so I didn't want to drain and refill so I used this trick that I was taught a long time ago. First, you have to make sure there are no vacuum leaks, if you so you are about to have a mess. You insert the suction line of a shop vac into the oil fill hole and seal it tightly. Next turn on the vacuum and you can unbolt AND remove the oil level sensor without draining the oil.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957198086_8168209229_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCUXEN)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957197741_c75d5a11e2_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCUXyR)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957197896_e6035e4df3_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCUXBw)

This is a video....

https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/50956498588_d61dc81492_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCRnJu)


I've been hoarding M3 donor cars, but ended up finding two of them a forever home. I pulled the parts I needed and sent them on their way to a new life.

Car#1, 10yrs ago vs when I got it vs now. It is getting a Ford Coyote engine and going to become a dedicated track car.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957215631_3a44df4bd1_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCV3Ti)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956517258_7d36c672ec_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCRtho)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956521088_fcc921e45a_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCRuqq)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957326067_2b3991f72a_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCVBHn)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957329857_b5224968dd_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCVCQH)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957324237_87cbb29e41_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCVBaP)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957323632_5707daf0f6_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCVAZo)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956528753_0b7e49e8dd_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCRwGz)


Car#2 is getting a LS and will be a street car.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50202625816_99fe71184e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2juezC5)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956533853_46c2768720_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCRydv)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957338862_c1f3d87040_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCVFvY)


And to wrap up this update, I got Eileen over to the dyno to see what her little 2.5L makes. I was pleasantly surprised at 171whp.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50956551743_4f51850c5e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCRDwX)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957245766_207e40213f_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCVcQS)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50957250391_4db3c99c2e_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCVedB)


This is a video...

https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/50957357582_7aef62310a_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCVM5J)

[t.er]

The V10 wagon is "done." It got delivered back around the beginning of December. Last I recall we had changed up the oil cooling system and think we have a handle on that. The next step was getting the AC operating. We wanted to have an OE look inside the cabin and as it is the AC system is a bit of a standalone in that it doesn't interact with the DME or IHKA at all. We had been controlling it with an external on/off switch but it was just out of place. So I had seen where the E39 LS guys were using the LED from the AC button to control the compressor relay. We attempted to mimic that setup, but I don't know if the E39 system is different or they just get lucky because it was much much more complicated to make it work. Believe it or not but the LED for the snowflake button is actually pulse width modulated over a small voltage window and is even influenced by the photocell for the instrument cluster auto dimming. Luckily I have a buddy who is a retired electrical engineer and he came over and helped us build a circuit off the LED to control the compressor relay.


Why, BMW, why... I guess it probably works though. If it wasn't there I bet I'd be complaining about never being able to see those green lights on a bright sunny day, or having having a bunch of little green beacon distractions that are brighter than the orange when driving in the pitch black


Pt3

I needed to change the oil level sensor on one of my own wagons. It had recently had an oil change so I didn't want to drain and refill so I used this trick that I was taught a long time ago. First, you have to make sure there are no vacuum leaks, if you so you are about to have a mess. You insert the suction line of a shop vac into the oil fill hole and seal it tightly. Next turn on the vacuum and you can unbolt AND remove the oil level sensor without draining the oil.

This is a video....

https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/50956498588_d61dc81492_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kCRnJu)



Oh damn that's pretty nifty! Today I learn...

[GeorgeH]

Why, BMW, why... I guess it probably works though. If it wasn't there I bet I'd be complaining about never being able to see those green lights on a bright sunny day, or having having a bunch of little green beacon distractions that are brighter than the orange when driving in the pitch black

Ya, we thought it was going to be simple and then we hooked up the oscilloscope and realized it was going to be a challenge.



Oh damn that's pretty nifty! Today I learn...

It's a fun party trick for sure.

[Will]

Awesome updates, George.

How long before we start seeing horror stories online as people try your oil level replacement trick?

[GeorgeH]

Awesome updates, George.

How long before we start seeing horror stories online as people try your oil level replacement trick?

Years ago one of my coworkers at the dealer tried to swap the sensors without draining the oil by going real fast, you can imagine how that turned out lol

[Chaplian]

As always, awesome updates! I wonder what some of the details are on some future projects.

Hopefully the weather there in Texas isn’t impacting you guys too much!


Sent from my iPhone 11 Pro using Tapatalk

[fredo]

Congrats on the trailer, it looks very nice. Many good ZHP parts found at the junk yard, well done.

We will wait for updates on the ZHP/S54 conversion.

[cakM3]

Love the work that's been going on here :thumbsup Amazing updates!

[Will]

Years ago one of my coworkers at the dealer tried to swap the sensors without draining the oil by going real fast, you can imagine how that turned out lol

LOL!!! Sounds like an instant regret.

[GeorgeH]

As always, awesome updates! I wonder what some of the details are on some future projects.

Hopefully the weather there in Texas isn’t impacting you guys too much!


Soon we'll see a red wagon on here :) weather has been gnarly, we've gotten by pretty easily, we've been lucky.



Congrats on the trailer, it looks very nice. Many good ZHP parts found at the junk yard, well done.

We will wait for updates on the ZHP/S65 conversion.

*S54, this is Larrys AW Slicktop car.



Love the work that's been going on here :thumbsup Amazing updates!

Thanks.



LOL!!! Sounds like an instant regret.

Instant regret for him, a lifetime fond memory for everyone else. :applause2

[johnrando]

Good stuff!

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

[GeorgeH]

As usual the shop has been jamming away on really cool projects.

We had an E46 M3 come in so we could address some RACP issues. The car had previously been fitted with plates, but they were not welded and prepped after the fact as we would like and there were some popped spot welds and cracked seams that were not repaired.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51136154735_a6152775f7_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUJafg)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135044771_a05ea18d6d_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUCthX)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135824809_96000640ab_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUGtaT)


We started by stripping all of the old undercoating off, identified what need to be done and finished the welding for the plates. Then we stitch welded the wheelwell seams, trailing arm pockets and upper spring perches. Then seam sealed and painted.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135188538_13d17022e7_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUDd2G)


Next moved up top and added bracing from CMP auto engineering.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135826224_bc7ea219dc_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUGtAh)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51136156640_fc5bdf39a2_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUJaP7)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135826399_8e0827a771_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUGtDi)


Then reinstalled the subframe with some upgrades including a very cool 4.10 gear diff from diffsonline.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51134969491_2a88e9a8e0_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUC5V2)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51136156490_29ba4bb5b2_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUJaLw)


And lastly added new wheel bearings with Core4 Motorsports press-in studs.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51134370477_fa90f403d8_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUz1Rc)


We left off with Eileen on the dyno, the reason for that is she is getting a new heart. I loved that little M54 and it was a seriously good engine that gave me 0 issues but it just didn't make enough beans for these long straight tracks. Now that I've been tracking a bit more I usually run in the advanced or so groups and I just can't keep up with corner speeds alone. Now it's not a race but at CoTA I will get 116/117mph on the back straight but other cars in my group will do 140+. SO, there is only one choice ... S54.

Out with the M54. It's incredible the exhaust didn't fall off, literally half the manifold studs/nuts were loose or missing.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51134365432_93085c9b25_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUyZmd)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135039791_fe0bec8fd0_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUCrP6)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51134364767_2feb99b4f6_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUyZ9K)


I prepped one of the S54s I had on a stand. Vanos rebuild and a set of rod bearings later its ready to go in.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135819864_92e048d1f4_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUGrGC)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135256468_e5960ea8da_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUDydU)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51134365552_d9559cb216_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUyZoh)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135257353_b06bb0bfc5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUDyua)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135820749_9f99f15a2d_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUGrXT)


So I kind of lied a bit, there were other engine choices that made sense for this build, but I have a set of these Kromer Kraft headers I pulled off a customers E36. We installed them on his S54/E36 build but found they just were to hard to work around in the heat of the moment at the track (the car is an endurance racer), so we traded labor and I kept the headers. This car had the most incredible sound and I fell in love with them. So because I had these headers sitting on the shelf that is really the primary reason for this build, that's really it just to run this exhaust. Lol

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51136168885_579a1cff54_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUJese)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135256973_ddb50f5aa0_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUDynB)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135040096_d8ceef9b6c_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUCrUm)


Next, I've found that with our swaps often times unless someone is a S54 fan they don't realize the car isn't stock so I wanted to do something fun to highlight the swap. Liam provided a file to 3d print an adapter to mount the stock plenum velocity stacks to the ITBs and I decided to give it a try. I know that everyone is going to say the heat soak is real, but I want to play with some different ideas and see what we can come up with. If it truely kills a ton of power we'll swap to a Karbonius V1 plenum I have here.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135820089_d69de103fc_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUGrLv)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51134364867_51d1742f10_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUyZbt)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135820534_657471cb65_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUGrUb)


SMG harness thinned of excess wiring.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51134364032_5c683cf2e7_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUyYW5)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51136150010_d9d9b926e8_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUJ8QN)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135256333_1a6baeba2b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUDybz)


Normally I wouldn't pull the front end to swap the engine but I knew the headers were going to be a bit of work so I did it to help facilitate that.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51136150295_619c18567f_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUJ8VH)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51134365767_04e559503b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUyZrZ)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135256253_bdda3ec268_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUDyac)


The headers were designed to use the E36 support arms which would work on this setup, but it would also move the engine back. Which normally wouldn't be an issue but I wanted to keep the engine in the stock location to try out a GS6-53 (E9x 6MT) swap kit we are working on. So we had our fab guy make an engine support arm with the E46 pickup points but the E36 form factory and that got it all where it needed to be.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135071256_689edb2635_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUCBaA)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135288183_365f6dd679_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUDHDH)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135822459_4d1c2d20ce_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUGstn)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51136150900_7b135f5510_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUJ979)


Custom driveshaft for the GS6-53 conversion.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51136149590_720797c033_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUJ8Hy)


And running albeit with some details left, but at least she moves under her own power again.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51136150070_1505d71471_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUJ8RQ)


While I liked the Harlequin theme it sure made the car stick out, but it was time to be all one color again.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135041506_c348f7f1e1_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUCsjE)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51136152165_cf3fd688cc_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUJ9tX)


Also, swapped doors with a street car project. The street car had a crunch door and while I don't like Eileen having a beat up door, I'd prefer that car to have the nice one of the two. I should have just painted another door when I was doing the paintwork, but it didn't occur to me until later, lol.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51134366807_070ea48e78_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUyZKV)


Getting there...

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51135041801_eff465cbb8_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kUCspK)


This post is getting pretty long, so I'll wrap it up and continue on at a later date.

[fredo]

Good to see the progress made on Eileen. In for more details. :thumbsup

[fredo]

More updates on George's e46fanatics thread, last one is from 07-Oct-2023. :thumbsup

https://www.e46fanatics.com/threads/whats-going-on-in-my-shop-currently.1256645/

[GeorgeH]

https://www.e46fanatics.com/threads/whats-going-on-in-my-shop-currently.1256645/

Thanks Alfredo for bumping this, I should spend some time updating this thread.

Side note, I am not getting notifications to threads I am subscribed to even though I have that option turned on, anyone have any ideas on that?

My current "daily" driver, Billy Idol, ZHP engine powered, NB interior swap with silver cube trim. Black headliner conversion in progress and then will likely get a 6MT and 3L suspension plus body work:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53248078266_118801f403_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2p8mjwW)

[fredo]

That's a great looking AW touring! I like the progress so far. :thumbsup

Two ideas about your notification issue. I receive mine using this setting: "Instantly, using email."

1) Did you check your Spam folder? The sender is: forums@zhpmafia.com
2) Go to Settings then click on Subscriptions. What do you see there? I see a list of threads that I subscribed to:

40088

[GeorgeH]

Alfredo:

1. Nothing in Spam
2. In settings: "Default thread subscription mode: Instantly, using email"
3. Bottom of the thread --
40089

[fredo]

I don't see the above screen on my side. Are you using Tapatalk? This is how I subscribed on the desktop version:

1. Open thread
2. Goto Thread Tools > Subscribe to this Thread
3. This screen shows:

40090

[GeorgeH]

That is how mine is set too. I actually got locked out of my account messing with some settings yesterday. Dane got it reset this morning and maybe thats fixed the email notifications too.