Sounds like you need some Recaro Sportsters.
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On behalf of the Pizzaman himself, who could not be here with us today, here are some details on the LiFePo4 battery he installed (and that he convinced me to buy as well).
To secure it, he created a special custom high-tech mounting solution.
Attachment 38810
You can try to use the original mounting system, but it does block the restart button which is apparently quite useful.
Attachment 38811
He also got this charger, since you need one suitable for LiFePo4.
https://www.amazon.com/CTEK-56-926-L...964491&sr=8-13
And these if you want to keep your stock terminals.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...P2NQRBZG&psc=1
Thanks man! Just found this pic too -- 50lb savings over the chonkin stock size battery!
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b3dfb03c4f.jpg
It definitely threw off my corner-to-corner balances, but less weight is almost always better.
Does a damn fine job of starting the car too. I've had to use the restart button a few times after it died on me, but that from was leaving the car sitting for 4+ weeks, usually when I left an OBD2 dongle in the port [emoji2357]
Edit: Just saw that I already posted about the battery last year [emoji2357][emoji2357]
Looks like I never posted my feedback on the Mason clutch pedal, so heres a throwback to January 2020 when I posted these pics on the now-defunct m3forum.
I had both pedals out of the car, so decided to align the pivot points and take some measurements since Mason can't be bothered to do this himself:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...56f841a4fb.jpg
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My pedal cover didn't match the curvature of the Mason pedal plate, so...
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...20badd5061.jpg
Bonk
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Beauty
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And final comparisons. Stock, sitting higher than the brake pedal:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...23ec5603ca.jpg
Mason, now lower than the brake pedal:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...32efb72e11.jpg
The throw is definitely shorter, but it's really slight. Mason's website claims a 1.5" reduction in overall throw, but I think this must take into account the lower starting point. You don't have to change the pivot points to achieve a shorter throw (that wouldn't be good for the master cylinder anyway). You can just reduce the lever arm length, which is what Mason does while also reducing the resting pedal height.
I installed it last night and immediately stalled the car on my test drive. I had the UUC clutch stop in and the grab point was right at the stop, which was bottomed out on the long threaded rod. I drove to work without a clutch stop this morning, cut/ground ~1/2" off the bolt, and reinstalled it bottomed out to the rubber. Much better.
I only have a 10 minute commute but I noted the following now that I could drive it with the clutch stop at a reasonable height:
- My left knee no longer hits the steering wheel. That's nice.
- With the clutch now lower than the brake pedal, I was able to move my seat forward a good bit. I've always struggled between comfortably reaching the wheel/shifter with my hands and fitting my legs under the wheel, so that was a huge +. This thing definitely isn't for short folks, though.
- I noticed that I now release the clutch and just twist my foot 30° to rest on the dead pedal. When it's time to shift, I just pivot on my heel back to the clutch instead of having to fully lift off the dead pedal. Another huge + for me.
- The result feels better than removing the cdv did. It got rid of the occasional jerk I would get at the end of the release due to the long engagement zone and pedal height. To me, it feels like the clutch in an e36. I dig it.
You reminded me Jeremy Clarkson. His solution to all problems was a hammer.
Also, Sreten at M539 likes hammer a lot.
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Just came across these that I don't think I ever posted. Playing w corner weights on stock springs: https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a0ba9a2463.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...2794a19156.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...3dfac52307.jpg
Corner balances look great until you add the driver and see exactly why BMW put the 60lb battery on the opposite corner:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8f7192e421.jpg
Posting a big thanks to @Galapolis for his help a few Saturdays ago. Dude drove 2.5 hrs, worked his ass off for like 7 more, then drove back. Hell I didn't even feed him.
We got my solid aluminum subframe bushings changed out to polyurethane though. I had a clunk that I don't think was the bushings now but too late.
Note to others: just lowering the subframe to swap the bushings really isn't much less work than dropping the whole thing out. Just bite the bullet and drop that bish.
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New project: top adjustable Koni yellows
The E46 never got a top adjustable rear in the Koni yellow kit because the little bitch baby OE rear shock mounts only accept a 10mm shaft which is too small for the adjustment mechanism to fit through and Koni is too cowardly to sell a 12mm rear shock that only works with aftermarket RSM's.
That or they realized they'd lose more money on returns by idiots than they'd make selling a dozen of those shocks a year to people that actually want to adjust them idk
Anyway, I wanted Koni yellows but knew I'd never touch the adjustment if I had to remove the shock from the car. BUT one night deep in the bowels of the internet I found some dudes on bimmerforum or roadfly or club penguin idk talking about how TC Kline used to sell a top adjustable shock for the rear of the e36 m3. Turns out it was just a rebranded Koni yellow for an old Porsche (maybe - they claimed it was custom valved but some of the penguins called bs).
I found the Porsche part number and gathered enough data to feel good about trialing this bad boy:
Koni Model Part Number Price Adjustment Extended Length Compressed Length Stroke Diameter Type E46 FSD/Special Active 8245 1024 $110 None 23.4in 14.8in 8.6in 50mm Hydraulic E46 Yellow 8040 1271 $110 Internal 23.4in 14.6in 8.8in 42mm Twin tube gas E36 M3 Yellow 8240 1115 $118 Internal 24.3in 14.6in 9.7in 50mm Twin tube gas E46 TC Kline Yellow 8241 1200 $268 External ? ? ? ? ? Porsche Classic 8210 1159 $167 External 23.3in 14.7in 8.6in 55mm Hydraulic
Ordered the shocks, tucked them in a corner of the garage, and got started on the project two years later, not even remembering that I had put that data in an old email draft and going in blind, taking fresh measurements along the way:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...20a9720fb9.jpg
Ok cool, no deal breakers. The 14mm lower bolt hole sucks, but I can sleeve that unless...
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https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c9303367e1.jpg
Ohhh yeahhh. these bushings pressed right out and the dimensions between Koni and OE are the exact same, so no major issue getting the OE parts to fit in the Koni hole.
(You obviously don't want to go in dry)
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Hell yeah.
Then I lubed up a fresh OEM bump stop and mashed it onto that fat shaft:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...0798a339de.jpg
You can see here that the yellow has an extra inch of travel until you hit the bump stop, which I thought about adding a spacer for, but then saw that Koni included a bump stop that was about an inch shorter on their E46 FSD kit, so I guess they want the extra travel?
Good enough evidence to convince me to skip a step!
Next up was dealing with the 12mm shaft up top. The plan was to drill out the washers on my repair shop RSM's:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...f1760dba35.jpg
...but Koni included these bits with the shock so...
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...1cc1b1e09f.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b4b0e1b11b.jpg
Yessirrrrrr
All assembled, I threw the shock in the car and THOUGHT I was up shit creek for a minute there with the dust cover contacting the upper arm, but it juuuust cleared it once I jacked it up into place:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...13c868ac50.jpg
Yes, that's a metal dust cover. Must be a Porsche thing because the rear engine would melt a plastic one.
Note that the OE plastic dust cover does (barely) fit over the fat body of the yellow, but kind of scrapes down the side. I figured the scraping wasn't worth the few ounces I would save over the metal so I rolled with it.
Money shot:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9a100198b6.jpg
No wait it needs the knobby:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...cdef52e51a.jpg
I loved this car so much when I was younger, I love reading the updates now.
I didn't see your Mason comments until now. Honestly, so many people on E46F were like "oh man it's the best. I can't describe it but once you buy it you can't go back," but what you describe makes it sound like a much more minor update. I haven't installed mine yet personally.
Also liked to get the vehicle weights! I can't do Lithium but I applaud your weight savings.
Any reason you didn't go poly for the diff? Also curious why you went back solid subframe mounts. And my gosh, I'm shocked to see you haven't reinforced the floor, especially if you had it lowered! Props on the Yellow, Koni's, they look sexy! That's a lot of dedication but seems to have worked out. So the rears are adjustable, but what about the front?
Nicely done! I'll never do this, but I'll tuck it away in my "cool things I wish I had time, money, or actual will power to do for my car" document. I remember the TC Kline modified Koni Yellow Porsche shocks that would fit the E46, but also remember there being something along the lines of an 80% price premium over the stock Koni Yellows.
As you said, I have made exactly zero adjustments to the rear shocks since I installed them and have no intention of ever doing so. Maybe the Koni Special Active (Reds) will be in my future. Did you ever have those?
I can't remember what Nate has in the front for struts now (I hadn't realized he had taken the Red Rocket™ off daily duty :facepalm). If they're Koni Yellows, then they're easily adjustable in the fronts, as you probably know.
If there are no cracks and the top has been fully reinforced, then there is no need for plates. I run into SpecE46 guys at track days every once in a while and they always tell me that solid subframe bushings + top reinforcements are all you need. They race their cars with no problems.
I thought pizza man had the vincebar installed?
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Should have noticed from the top of the shocks he has some rear shock mount that’s likely tied with subframe. My bad! I replied at like 3am because I couldn’t sleep, so just wasn’t adding one and one
I never posted about it but two years ago I dropped the whole subframe out of the car and rebuilt it piece by piece. Every bushing got replaced. I went with solid aluminum subframe bushings from partsshopmox and never really trusted them.
Not because there's anything wrong with the product, but because I had wire-wheeled the bejesus out of the pockets on the subframe to remove all the melted rubber left by the OE bushings. I likely removed a fat layer of powder coat and some base metal, so the solid bushings just slid in loosely instead of being a press fit.
I figured any tiny bit of slop would be taken up with preload from the 4 mounting points not being absolutely perfectly aligned. Afterwards I had a weird, loose sounding clunk when rolling over the lip of the garage with the clutch in. I also installed an LSD at the same time so it may just be the unloaded gears clanging around but idk it sounded like it was outside of the pumpkin. I also read one random comment on nam3f that said he had seen an instance where the subframe was able to move up and down slightly on the PSM bushings.
That comment lived in my head every time I heard that noise and I kept thinking about the less-than-press fit on those bushings and said f it I'll change them out for poly that I KNOW will be a tight fit. Haven't had a chance to drive the car yet and see if that was it.
The Mason pedal is pretty dope. The little ergonomic changes made a big quality of life improvement when driving this thing.
I didn't go poly for the diff because the consensus is that solid subframe mounts transmit little to no nvh, while any stiff drivetrain mount (engine, tranny, diff) will make your teeth chatter. Meyle HD was the choice diff bushing.
I think your other questions were answered below but I spent weeks conversing with Vince (of the bar) and others, tunneling through the rear chassis with a borescope, and drawing load path diagrams to determine the true failure mode of the RACP and how to address it.
Bottom side reinforcement is nothing more than a band aid to cover damage. The key is to anchor the subframe mount to the chassis rail by way of vincebar (best), x brace (adequate), or homemade solution (mine isn't great).
I did a mixture:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...4fc725e97e.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...63c9762f0d.jpg
I just looked up the TCKline ones and they're $268 each. I don't think they were even available 2 years ago or I may have considered it. They also look like they're using a mustang part number (8241-1200) that can be had for $165 so maybe there's a better solution than the Porsche shock now?
I wouldn't bother with the special actives. It's my understanding that they're the new version of the FSD and those just couldn't handle quick transitions.
I've had a company car for a year and a half so the red car has been driven like 1k miles in that time. In fact, it's probably spent more time on the lift than the ground :(
Had the windshield on the wife's touring replaced the other day. I was out there chatting with the installer and talking about the old racer's trick of using window weld to fill gaps in rubber mounts to add stiffness.
Realized that I already had the passenger engine mount off to install the headers, so I popped into the garage and pulled the driver's side too.
Dude let me borrow his goop gun and 5 minutes later I had basically turned my relatively new non-m mounts (fluid filled rubber w air gap) into m3 mounts (fluid filled solid rubber). Gave them a few days to cure before reinstalling. Free upgrade!
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...1044645089.jpg
Never updated y'all on my exhaust adventure from a year ago so here we go:
The plan was to make the Schmiedmann equal length headers mate up to the Borla catback exhaust system. I knew it would as going to be a headache with Schmiedmann doing their own proprietary flange and mating point to their exhaust system (which in hindsight I should have just bought that too and been done).
Anyway, first steps first, let's get these beautiful headers on the engine...
Flange is flat and clean. That's nice. I had to put a lot of work into the eBay headers to get a flat mating surface. This should be easy!
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...f8f35d8dd3.jpg
First problem: the headers are contacting that little square protrusion on the bell housing.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...72252ee77e.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a6f16b78d5.jpg
Welp...
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b4f7cfcabf.jpg
See ya...
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...7a36d1513b.jpg
Fit em up again and I'm still getting contact
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c59db763f2.jpg
Changed over to the flap wheel and ground down the side the bell housing some more whatever
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...69d094131c.jpg
STILL RUBBING DAMN
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...406428321d.jpg
At this point I'm out of material to remove on the bell housing, so it's time to focus on modifying the headers themselves.
I fit them up several times trying to locate the exact point of contact and finally got smart:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8f26547c53.jpg
Covered the whole area in question with marker, set it in place, and rubbed it around on the bell housing. The marker was scratched off right where I needed to focus:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c772a70ef5.jpg
I started out thinking I could get a precise shape with it cold, but that didn't do much
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...3ff61f4273.jpg
TORCH TIME
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b37fe3833a.jpg
MOAR FIE-YUH
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My inner city garage was like a blacksmith shop with all the flames and hammering coming out of there but by god I made a fricken dent in that collector
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LOOK AT THAT CLEARANCE
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Thank you Schmiedmann for making some beautiful, heavy walled headers that don't really fit a 6spd.
Wow, that's some commitment. Can't wait to experience them in person. :)
Next up was to figure out how I was going to mate the headers to the rest of the exhaust. Here is what I was looking at:
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Large gap [emoji3581]
Different spacing [emoji3581]
Different flanges [emoji3581]
Flanges also off by 90deg [emoji3581]
The first thing I did, which was dumb, was cut the flanges off the headers.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...5e6e3f4d08.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a04feb2926.jpg
I couldn't find a good adapter to mate to the cone seal that Schmiedmann used, so I cut it off and sanded the flange flat so I could use OE gaskets.
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Side quest!
When I get stuck for while on a frustrating project like the exhaust, I tend to find a smaller side project to dive into. It gets me back into the flow of working in the garage and reminds me that I am a strong and capable man.
So this one was swapping out the OE washer fluid tank (which is large and mounted towards the front of the car) with a small tank that I could mount back near the firewall.
This one actually: https://a.co/d/9mwDYCf
I took almost no pictures of the process, but I have this one with my original plan: use rivnuts in the firewall to mount the bracket for the tank (green marks where I was thinking about drilling)
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...907a1134dd.jpg
I didn't feel great about drilling into that area as I wasn't sure what was behind it. I also didn't love the fitment of the tank there since it's kind of an angled wall, so I went with mounting it on the side of the bin with some through bolts.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...d1c23e559e.jpg
I don't remember a ton of the details but the hose routing was pretty easy (it runs down from the hood right along the fender - you can see where I diverted it in the bottom of the pic). The wiring wasn't a problem either and I think I knocked out the whole project in one evening.
Weight savings is idk but it opened up the engine bay to give you a good view of the headers and that's what matters kids.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...544f4670d1.jpg
After a several month hiatus, we're back on the exhaust project. What was I doing in the meantime?
- travelling all over the US
- wrecking work vehicles/getting a new work vehicle
- buying a house and preparing to move
- teaching myself how to weld (stick weld of course, because I'm a psychopath)
Looks like I took ZERO pictures of the whole welding/fabricating process, but hey just pretend you skipped ahead in the video to see the results because it was a TON of fitting, trial, error, welding, leak testing, re-welding holes, grinding, more re-welding, cussing, etc. It was honestly an insane amount of work. I'll never do it again.
Anyway, headers are back in the car!
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So the original plan was to modify the headers so that they would mate up to any standard e46 exhaust. If you look close in that last pic you'll see that the flanges are welded back in their original location after I realized that the pipe that Schmiedmann used was (1) slightly larger diameter than your standard 2in stainless pipe and (2) made up of some very complicated bends that I couldn't replicate by piecemealing angled cuts of pipe together.
So I abandoned the idea of keeping the Borla exhaust as-is, put the Schmiedmann flanges back to where they started, and went full bore into a completely custom exhaust. Great.
(Here's where we skip through the insane amount of work and jump right to the results)
LOOK AT THAT BEAUTIFUL PIPING
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I literally finished this up the morning that we had to move and rolled the car out of the garage (for the first time in 6 months) to make way for loading the truck. Very typical of me. Very stressful for my marriage. Don't be like Pizza.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...fc17c7a4b9.jpg
lol nice work and commentary. I'm reading it like it was me that did the work since it's like how I would describe shit :rofl
Purdy headers ya got there
That's some seriously awesome work on your headers and exhaust. Looks amazing!
Looks good! I'm sure the performance gain is worth the struggle. I went through numerous similar issues when I was trying to fit up CX racing headers to my LS1 in my E36. Lots of missing parts of the T56 and dents in the headers by the time I was done.
Props on teaching yourself stick welding first- makes it easier to learn TIG for sure. I learned MIG first, then did a tiny bit of stick, then back to a lot of MIG, then learned TIG last year at a class at a vocational school.
Any pictures of the bay? Would like to see what it looks like with the SAP delete and washer fluid tank moved. I think I bought the same tank for my LS1 E36 and mounted it in the trunk above the battery. Never had any issues with the pump.
Lol, I'm just picturing you working on the car while the wife is frantically packing :rofl
Hope your new place has a larger garage? Post some pics!
Good job, man! And welcome back.
Thanks guys! Definitely not worth it lol. Should have either stuck with eBay headers and bolted on the Borla, or bought the full Schmiedmann exhaust. I didn't do the latter because I read some reports that the midpipes would need to be cut/welded/extended to fit around the 6spd tranny and I wanted to avoid that headache...and here we are.
The goal was to keep the project as simple as possible, so when welding became unavoidable I got a cheap little stick welder on Amazon, thinking that it offered the best mix between the startup cost and flexibility for future projects. I was also able to weld stainless filler with it, which I don't know that you can properly do with mig, and obviously wasn't about to pony up for tig.
I'll try to grab a pic of the bay the next time I see the car. After the move, I signed the title over to my father and parked it at his house. We do have a larger garage but still no room for it at the new spot and the wife is adamant that it's not returning due to the absurd amount of time I poured into this thing over the years, with the cherry on top being this massive project when I should have been prepping to move.
@slater knows the situation very well
This thread is alive, so is the pizza men!
Amazing work and dedication.
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Being a deadbeat dad somewhere. Went out for cigarettes a few years ago and haven't seen him since. WHAT IF WE LIVED IN THE SAME CITY AND NEVER HUNG OUT LMAO
@squashman702 I picked up the car tonight and grabbed some bay pics 4 u. Look at all that room for activities!
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hoooooooo boy, yes i do. we are cut from the same cloth.
fortunately, after 5 years, lots of self-growth and marriage repair, things are better. and i know not to that kinda thing anymore. :)
(just catchin' up here - laughed along with the "so i bought a welder" bit, because, LOL, i did the EXACT SAME THING a few years ago)
Great updates! I read it with the Benny Hill music in the background. lol.
Just got this car back so I could start prepping it for sale. Had to grab a pic in direct sunlight because RED
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