Motorsports Vacation

Max_Archer wrote: Did they very carefully inspect the rear subframe mounts for cracks? I work at a another SoCal shop specializing in these cars and it's a major recurring issue, and I've seen it get missed in PPIs many times. If it has them, it'll need a subframe mount reinforcement job, which thankfully isn't insanely difficult or expensive if you've got access to a lift and can weld.

I believe so. They know the problem very well. Lang Racing does a lot of work on E46s. They had another E46 in the shop with reinforcements being welded in at the same time that we looked at my car up on the lift... so that was a good reminder to check carefully. I also looked at it myself. Will look again tomorrow when I go back to continue pulling the oil pan for the rod bearing refresh.

bL79 wrote: Do yourself a favor and put a clear bra on it before the trip. May as well try and protect the resale

I decided to wrap it to protect the paint. Ordering matte gray aluminum wrap tonight, and I'll spend an extra two days wrapping it before I leave. Probably going to start the wrap on Sunday, if all goes well this week.

The trip car in its bedroom for the week:

I also discovered today that the front wheels are 19x8.5". The ZCP competition package wheels were 19x8 but otherwise identical to the CSL wheels, which were 19x8.5. So the fronts were replaced at some point with European market M3 CSL wheels or replicas..

I spent some time on the phone with Porterfield Brakes today trying to find a set of fronts and rears with matching compounds. They didn't have anything except PFC 11, which I don't have any experience with. Hoping to get HT-10 or R4 pads. They are getting stuff tomorrow and then I will find out if I will have any more choices. Otherwise I'm stuck with the PFC 11.

Plan for the week:

Tuesday

• Finish removing oil pan
• Remove front and rear dampers and springs to prepare for Bilstein PSS10 kit arriving Wednesday
• Drain radiator and replace hoses and coolant
• Install aux jack in nav / audio system
• Order VANOS parts
• Order brake pads*
• maybe start taking the top end apart for the VANOS rebuild

Wednesday

• Install rod bearings and ARP rod bolts
• Replace oil pan and gasket
• Replace oil pressure relief valve seal
• Replace accessory belts
• Install PSS10 coilovers and Ground Control camber plates
• Install new OE rotors
• VANOS rebuild if parts arrived

Thursday

• Valve adjustment
• Finish VANOS rebuild
• Rear trailing arm bushings
• Front control arm bushings
• Reassemble car

Friday

• Get tires mounted
• Alignment
• Buffer time

Saturday

• Travel (visiting family ~300 miles away)

Sunday

• Travel home and start vinyl wrap

Target departure for the big trip is late Tuesday or early Wednesday. Depends on how fast I can finish the vinyl wrap. This will be the 4th car I've wrapped and I've been getting faster at it.

Did you check with Carbotech and EBC to see what they have?

That car is gorgeous! What size are the rear wheels? I've read that the same width wheels front and rear give the car better balance.

Lang is definitely a good shop but I'd been aware of them as more of an E30 place, didn't know they did that much E46 stuff.

What bushings are you going with, by the way? I've dealt with most of the ones out there and highly recommend AKG, if you haven't already ordered something else.

StopTech makes pretty good pads IIRC by the way. Most of our guys go straight to a BBK when they get really serious so I don't deal with hardcore track pads for OE calipers much though.

GameboyRMH wrote: Did you check with Carbotech and EBC to see what they have?

Nah, I want to order from Porterfield so I can get the 20% NASA discount, and also because I need the brake pads this week. Porterfield is a 45 min drive away from my friend's shop so I can get them the same day if I pick them up or next day (shipped).

Mr_Clutch42 wrote: That car is gorgeous! What size are the rear wheels? I've read that the same width wheels front and rear give the car better balance.

Thanks, I can't stop staring at it.. it's soooo pretty.

I believe the rears are 19x9.5. I am putting 18x9.5s on all four corners and running a square setup (probably 265 or 275/35/18). I could not find any good options for street/track rubber for the 19s.

Max_Archer wrote: Lang is definitely a good shop but I'd been aware of them as more of an E30 place, didn't know they did that much E46 stuff.

They work on a lot of E46 cars for customers and have built their own E46 race car as well. One of the E30 race cars is getting an S54 I think. They have another with an S14 stroker motor.

I've known Andrew (the owner) since college; that's why I've taken my car there and am borrowing a bay and lift so I can work on my car despite it being an hour from my home :-).

What bushings are you going with, by the way? I've dealt with most of the ones out there and highly recommend AKG, if you haven't already ordered something else.

I'm going with OE bushings for now. They are not ideal for the track but I don't want to risk affecting the noise and ride quality since I will be in this car for 8+ hours per day for next 3 weeks.

Why are you replacing the rod bearings? If they're fine now, leave them alone. I would've gone with TC Kline double adjustable coilovers and their camber plates.

Nice car. I've always hated the SMG tho. Really clunky gearbox.

Plus, tires get expensive when you shop for 35 series height tires, even if they're 18", especially for auto-x and tracking. I'm glad I have an E36 that I'm not going to put wheels on that are larger than 17". If I had an E46, 18" wheels might tempt me.

docwyte wrote: Why are you replacing the rod bearings? If they're fine now, leave them alone.

S54s eat up rod bearings. At 120k miles these connecting rod bearings often have copper showing. It's important preventive maintenance for a track car with this engine.

Regarding the damper package, I have the tools and parts to rebuild and revalve Bilsteins and I'm almost done designing my shock dyno. While the TC Kline package may have good performance (I have no experience with it) I have no desire to invest in proprietary dampers. It's just my vehicle development philosophy.

Well it all sounds wonderful to me................ a dream trip in basically a dream car. Please keep us posted of your travels, we will have to live vicariously through you.

Oh, thought you had come to SoCal from somewhere else to buy the car, now that I re-read the original post it makes sense.

AKG's street bushings are very good in terms of NVH but are a major performance upgrade at the same time. I'd see if you can get a ride in a car with them before you make a final decision. OE bushings also blow to put in, whereas the AKG ones are a snap.

Planning on tracking it locally any time soon, by the way? Hopefully I'll have my E36 out at Willow within the next month or two.

Long day. Replaced all the connecting rod bearings.. they actually looked VERY good, for S54 bearings, no copper, no scoring, just some embedded debris. I had to get in there to be sure they were good though. Peace of mind achieved. Couldn't get BMW bolts in time (dealer was out...) so I installed ARP rod bolts stretched to 0.065-0.070". Haven't heard of any people having problems with these. Also put on a new oil pan gasket (of course), and new accessory belts, and replaced the oil pressure relief valve o-ring that was leakin. The bottom end is pretty much buttoned up. Tomorrow I need to knock at least half of the items off the list or I'm going to end up days behind by the end of the week. At least all of the parts have come in!

Unfortunately it looks like I won't have time to rebuild the VANOS. I will bring the parts along and a spare VANOS in case I have to do it on the road. Maybe I'll rebuild the spare in a hotel room ;-).

Some pics from today:

Bottom end ready to get closed up:

Bilstein PSS10 kit and Ground Control camber plates arrived:

I would have preferred Vorshlag camber/caster plates but I needed parts fast. I can always upgrade later. Maybe I can even stop in at Vorshlag on my way through Texas. They still have a bunch of LSx exhaust manifolds I sent them to test fit on their LSx motor swap projects.. I want to see if they've done anything with those too.

Car put to bed:

Many things to do the rest of the week:

Max_Archer wrote: Planning on tracking it locally any time soon, by the way? Hopefully I'll have my E36 out at Willow within the next month or two.

My Fiero doesn't like the summer months with its current cooling package, so it may be a few months until I hit the track again, unless I do Auto Club Speedway with Speed Ventures in August. I guess I could do it in the M3. Depends on how the trip goes.

Congrats on doing everything the right way. Looking forward to some posts from the road from you. Great thread.

Ran into a big problem with the front suspension.. the Bilstein PSS10 springs do not fit in the Ground Control camber plate spring perches. The perches are too big. This is despite the GC camber plates being ordered with the PSS10 fitment option. I guess the springs in the PSS10 kit are smaller than the OE springs, but still fit on the stock spring perches. I haven't taken the stockers off yet to see.

I need -3 deg camber to fit the 18x9.5 ET 22mm front wheels that I'm borrowing for the trip, so I really need camber plates that work. I can't just use the stock perches, since I won't be able to get enough camber.

Decided to work on the motor some more since the issues with the suspension parts are discouraging.

I practiced removing and installing valve shims on a parts motor until I was perfect at it.. then proceeded to drop the first shim on my motor. An hour later I have recovered it with a magnetic pickup tool. Whew.

Also I cancelled my plans to go up to Northern California to visit my parents.. my sister needs help with some job stuff this weekend, which will take most of Saturday. That means I can get started on the vinyl wrap earlier on Sunday, but I won't have a "trial run" trip to make sure the car works. I guess that just makes the big trip more of an adventure ;-)

When are you planning on leaving then?

Still planning to leave by the middle of next week. If I don't have wheels/tires/suspension I'm just going to bring what I have along in the trunk and work on the car along the way.

I am going to keep this thread alive as I am very interested in your progress. Bump.

Thanks for checking in on me

The M3 is home in my garage now. I finished the front end work and everything in the engine bay is buttoned up. I also ordered tires: 255/35/19 Michelin Pilot Super Sports front and rear. This is the widest I can fit on the front wheels and the same as stock in the rear. Not as wide as I wanted but at least its square.

I installed the Bilstein PSS10s in the front with the stock spring perches / top hats. I also compared the stockers to the Ground Control plates.. They must have just sent entirely the wrong camber plates. Even the stock springs won't fit on those. Here are the PSS10 springs with the stock spring perches and GC "stock" spring perches:

I canceled my NorCal trip and am visiting my sister tomorrow on the west side. I hope to still have enough time to install the rear shocks and springs in the evening, and align it. Then Sunday is all wrap, safety, and comfort.

Interested in the wrapping part too. Any pics of that process would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Haha, so I ran into Kurt (with the 2.5RS rally car) the other day and apparently you're a friend of his? Small world.

So, how's it going out there? You must be on the road by now aren't you?

Unfortunately not on the road yet. I just haven't had time to post updates. I spent all day at my sister's on Saturday and then got back to work on the car on Sunday with the help of my friend. We spent 5 hours on rear suspension and trailing link bushings.. Couldn't find the RTAB extractor (shop was on vacation) so we had to improvise.. Then found out the warehouse sent two different bushings. They were mispkackaged. Managed to find another and press it in.

We got the rear end back together and moved the car onto the scales. This is the weight without me in the car:

With me in the driver's seat:

Fuel level:

Since the crossweight is perfect with me in the car we made no adjustments.

Then we moved the car on to the alignment rack. This Hunter laser system is awesome. You can see the effects of your adjustments as you make them. The system works by imaging these space age looking targets that clamp onto the rims to determine the orientation of the wheels.

Front end alignment was easy.. Moved on to the rear... berkeley. We missed a bent control arm in the inspection.

If you've ever replaced a lower left rear control arm on an E46 M3 you know what this means. The diff has to be dropped partway out to remove the inner bolt. 5 hours later we had a spare arm installed, maxed out the camber, set the toe, and.. Wtf? Only -0.5 deg camber per side. Can't get more. Something funky going on in the rear of this car. Here are the final alignment settings.

(Note that positive toe is toe "in". Ignore the front toe, the steering wheel was turned. It's set to zero up front.)

No more time to work on mechanicals though. At least the rear end has stabilized now that I have fresh RTABs and limiters. It also drives straight with the steering wheel straight. Maybe I'll find out something about the rear camber while on the trip.

Today I added the car to my insurance and took care of the title and registration at AAA then picked up all my tools and spare parts in Irvine and got a few more spares ordered (coils, oil, coolant hose, etc). Porterfield still doesn't have anything for the M3 except PFC 11s so I ordered HT-10s from Tire Rack and they will be here tomorrow. I thought I checked before and they didn't have them, but they are actually in stock and about the same price as Porterfield would have been with the NASA member discount.

Starting the vinyl wrap tomorrow to so I don't ruin my paint on this trip.

In other news, my UPS package that seemed to have been lost since last Tuesday showed up today with my Schroth Quick Fit Pro harness. It's a 4-point harness with Shcroth's anti-submarining (ASM) technology that uses a stretchier shoulder belt on one side to cause your body to twist in a crash like a 3-point belt does. This reduces the probability that you slide under the lap belts. The harness is designed to bolt directly into the OE attachment points on the E46 and works with the stock seat and even takes advantage of the stock pre-tensioners. It's even been sled-tested with a HANS device (video). Sounds good to me!

Max_Archer wrote: Haha, so I ran into Kurt (with the 2.5RS rally car) the other day and apparently you're a friend of his? Small world.

Yup! Small world indeed. He came by the shop last week to check out the car and give me a ride home :-) .

Almost done!! Got a few extra days off work to make up for the extra time it took to deal with the suspension issues and finish the vinyl wrap.

Mostly done packing. I went to install the aux jack so I could play tunes from my tablet on the trip and found out there was already one installed; it was just stuffed completely into the console and hidden away where noone could find it.

Swapping pads and rotors and flushing the brake fluid tonight. Tomorrow morning I'll figure out where I'm going first based on input from this thread and then I'll hit the road! Please reply there if you're doing a track day soon!

Just a few bits and pieces left to wrap tonight as well. The car is mostly done:

The rear bumper wrap got screwed up yesterday while I was working on it... a yellow jacket flew behind the stretched vinyl and got stuck.. what a bee-otch!