Chris' BMW Projects

[GTJeff]

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?p=12315230

Have a look at the old road and track article on page 2. I like how the S2 is the drag race winner but the M3 is the best handler.

So are you gonna upgrade that thing to Sport Evolution spec?

[loxxrider]

This car is going to stay stock except for maybe a few bolt ons. The muffler is beat, so that will be replaced, and not by a stock one. I'd like to deal with the induction path too (get rid of trap door afm) as that really hinders the airflow and throttle response, but it'll have to be low impact and reversible. I really wish I could use it as a platform to mod a lot, but this is an investment. I get a lot of joy out of "restoring" anyway, so that's OK. An S54 with buttoned down suspension would be amazing in this car.

[loxxrider]

Updates are long overdue

Hmm... lets see where I left off last. Looks like I made a motor mount for the E36, welded some stuff on the 635csi, and was making a panel to mount a wideband display in the same 6 too.

Well, I haven't had the time to finalize a new model for the new screen (they sent me blue before... I bought a red one to replace it and the size was different! Hopefully I will get back to this soon.

The motor mount has been working very nicely in the E36 now for a month or so. It does produce some unwanted vibrations at idle, but what can ya do! I may try one with softer poly next time. Otherwise I am very happy with the design.

Too much has happened since the last time I made a major update, so I think I'll have to just start looking through my pictures in chronological order and tell the story that way.

OK first off... the M5. It isn't a project, but it sure is purdy





The only thing I have done to it lately is an oil change with the hard-to-find, correct Castrol 10W60 in liter bottles. She's been very happy lately, even in the heat we've been getting already (90 F).



My friend Justin is like me in that he tends to gravitate toward the older cars... we like to think they are just better for many reasons. Feeling connected to the road, that mechanical vibe, build quality, lightness, etc. He hasn't really driven my M5 much, and most people go easy on a car when it isn't theirs, so while I think he liked it, he didn't love it. Well, the other day we were carpooling somewhere and I nailed it lighting up the tires through two gears just pegging the limiter. That raucous noise is just intoxicating. I forget his exact words, but he just laughed and said something like, "God this car is AWESOME" The ease with which it makes horsepower and torque, and that throttle response... it's to die for. That is, once you learn to deal with the electronic, rather than mechanical, linkage. Interestingly, it bothered me when I bought the car. Now I never notice it, but I don't drive the car more than once a week. I think it may be a combination of me getting used to the car, and maybe it learning more about my driving? I'm not sure. Anyway, good are always had in this car

These next two pictures are just a sunrise I witnessed one morning on the way to work. It was positively glorious. One of those moments you only experience a handful of in life. The second picture almost shows the true colors I saw. The purple and orange/red combination was striking. These pictures are completely untouched.





One night I came home to see this... my Dad did something pretty nice for me and actually designed these magnets to put on some of the cars for shows, my toolbox, etc... just for fun really. I thought it was very thoughtful/fun. Obviously the colors can be made into Audi S colors too



We also changed the 356k mile old differential in my/Justin's E34. It has been whining ever since I bought the car. The gears have failed due to contact stresses, a classic failure mode for VERY well-used gears. The new one is tight as a drum and SILENT. Feels like a new car! Justin has also recently replaced the front Konis and all new bushings/balljoints in the front since I replaced all of the arms with the cheapest crap I could when I was in college... it lasted all of one year before failing. Justin drove around on the failed parts for quite a while which destroyed the basically new tires I put on the car lol. He bought some new ones and learned a lesson the hard way (TOLD YOU SO! haha). More recently, one of the door pull cables broke and was fixed, all windows are fixed, and today Justin got the power head rests working again! Sweetness



The latest work I did on the 635csi was fixing the rust in the trans tunnel. That was the next most important structural area to take care of. After this, there is almost nothing of concern structurally. Just a one hole in one rear shock tower and some rot in one front shock tower. There is also a hole in the front passenger floor, but I'm not worried about that. I will fix it, but I'm not in a hurry.





The day I began welding in the new panels for the trans tunnel, I pulled a doofus move. I was grinding a piece of sheet metal with the wire wheel to get some surface rust off in prep for welding, grinder in one hand, sheet metal in the other. The wheel caught on a big bur in the metal and sent piece of metal right into my finger which was followed immediately by my thumb getting run over by the wire wheel! It was fairly painful and I was a little shocked, but I just kept grinding until it was finished, then tended to my wounds. There was a lot of surface area taken off by the wire wheel and a large chunk out of my finger. I bandaged them back up and got on with the welding until I ran out of wire. No progress has been made since then just because I've been busy. It is 85% done though.



Some new, non-car-related developments are going on with me. This was a picture out of my hotel room. I will explain later why I was in the hotel and why the view was ironic. Give me a few weeks. Let's just say the 200 project should have no fear of running out of funding in the future



For the nerds out there, I bought a completely new in the box N64 and controller along with two other controllers, also new in the box. I spent so many hours on the N64 as a kid, I just had to have a fresh one.



There is a whole story I can tell about picking up and driving the M3 home, but that will have to wait for another day. The coolest part was getting to know the previous owner a bit. He had a very sweet garage filled with very sweet cars! I even got to drive one. P-cars are the only logical progression from here it seems... The white 968 is a very special turbo homoligation special. Apparently it is being featured in the equivalent of BMW's Roundel magazine very soon. 360whp from what he told me. Very cool! This was just two weekends ago.





Last weekend I went to Carlisle. I flew in to Baltimore with my girlfriend (that's where she lives right now) and we drove to my family's farm near Altoona, PA. We stayed the night and got a fun history lesson, then left for Carlisle in the morning. We had a great day and I really enjoyed seeing old friends and making a few new ones! I'm yet to see a build thread (as promised!) from our newest T44 brother





One of the two highlights of the show for me other than talking with everyone was taking a ride with OB (mushasho), Matt (chaloux), and Kevin (atkapod) in OB's car. We did the now project-pad-famous FO-DEEP LAUNCH / LAUNCHFACE and then went for a rip. The tire shed a tread around a corner and thankfully we were able to limp it back to the fairgrounds safely. It was all just a very fun/funny experience.

The other highlight was of course watching Jim's 07K/superHX40 4k start up and *attempt* to spit FIRE for the first time. Everyone was very excited about it and the comradery was palpable. Again, good times had by all.



Next pic... lots of E30s. Justin crashed his turbo E30 around Christmas time, so a replacement was in order. The black FO-DO which crashed has been patiently waiting to donate it's organs to another chassis. Justin just recently built up the urge to get another. It's getting really hard to get E30s for cheap, especially "is" models, so sacrifices have to be made to get a deal. The new one is a 325is in Bronzit beige (ew). The good: it is a coupe, has an LSD, and the interior is pretty nice. The bad: the exterior is not so nice, it has some rust, engine was reported to be making a bad knocking noise last time it ran.



We charged the battery and turned the engine over for the first time on Wednesday. It sounded really nice while turning over. Nice and smooth. However, when it started firing, it sounded HORRIBLE. We thought it might be one of the accessories, so we cut the belts. Still had the terrible sound after all accessories were isolated. So we pulled the plugs to check out the bores using Justin's fancy boreoscope that he has been itching for a reason to use. All looked fairly good, but one piston had some liquid on top of it. I wanted to get a better look at the piston by having Justin cranking the engine so the piston would be in a different place in the bore. When he did that, the piston DIDN'T MOVE. AT ALL. So we found one piece of the puzzle. I'm very curious about what we will find when the pan gets pulled. My prediction is that the rod is broken somewhere in the middle. It sounds so good when spinning on the starter, but terrible when the engine fires and gets up to speed. That makes me think the rod is swinging around on the crank.

OK... now on to the E30 M3. The guy I bought it from only had it for two months. He had some family issues that he needed to take care of which left no time for getting this car back up to par. I won't go into too much detail, but I will give the short list of parts I've ordered (and mostly installed) so far.

-rear brake pads (to fix the embarrassing clink I was getting over rough surfaces, the pad spring was not functioning properly)
-glove box latch
-rear bumper side marker
-BBS wheel center (was missing when I bought the car)
-trunk latch (broke on the way home! that was fun to try to rig up to shut at a gas station on the way down)
-spark plugs
-all gaskets to re-seal the intake tract from the head, to throttle bodies, trumpets, and plenum, and some misc. hoses/o-rings which also relate. (This is in an attempt to fix a rough idle issue.)
-new M badge for trunk and roundel for hood
-custom car cover from covercraft. Specifically made for extreme weather and high UV exposure (the M5 takes priority in the garage )
-M3 Sport Evolution shift knob (suede) and Sport Evo buffalo gaitor/boot (this was a little bit of a splurge, I admit, but the knob on there now is not original and is very loose)
-Rogue Engineering reinforced rear shock mounts (wow, the stock ones were frighteningly blown!)

I think that's it.


Still need
-front bumper side marker - NLA, someone from ECS tuning is working on getting these in production again
-windshield needs adhesive re-done

I'm forgetting a few things because it is way too late.








OK, here's a good one... since life plans will be changing very soon, I am trying to fix the very last mechanical problem on my Dad's... er... my E46 ASAP. That problem is the rear diff bushing. I hope it is anyway because it is a really crappy job to have to do without the right tools. I tried to order the tool, but it was back ordered, so I have to stoop to cutting it out and using delta temperature and BFE to get the new one in. I'm going to try to finish that tomorrow. The funny part is that when I jacked the car up to begin the work today, I couldn't believe my eyes! I can't believe I never noticed this before on this car.





YES, that is a vice grip being used to keep the failed rear shock mount from thunking. ROFL! I can't believe it is still up there. WHO KNOWS how long it's been there!


Oh and lastly, I went to the junkyard today for a 50% off sale. I found some great stuff. I got a mirror to fix the one which seems to have stripped gears for up/down movement in the E46 and new window switches for the E46 (the were sun-baked and the one in the center console which controls the rear passenger window would roll the window down and then keep rolling it down when you'd push it in the "up" direction haha. I also got some harmon kardon rear speakers for the E36. Those things completely transform the sound in that car! It actually has bass now lol. All of that cost me exactly $25.


I will be putting together something of a compilation video of some recent clips including Carlisle action.

[85oceanic]

Fantastic stuff Chris! Mad props on the M3 score. We had a very nice one in the shop the other day.





PS: I assume you scored yourself a new job then?

[WOMBAT]

Can't wait to hear about the new life plans!!

Great cars as always, I'll have to stop by next time I'm in Florida!

[EDIGREG]

LOL @ the vice grip mod. Good update dude - you have more tolerance for long typing on a forum than me

[alxdgr8]

Did you buy the M3 from Raj in NJ? His 968 Turbo was just in Excellence.
http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/9 ... tions.html

[Hank]

Jelly X10 of the m3

[loxxrider]

Ben, nice car indeed! I don't totally understand the livery on street cars, but it is definitely cool if you're in the right mood

Casey, come on over. You might not have to make quite as far of a trek as FL though...

Ed, yes I know it was long lol. I just felt like getting it all out. Hopefully it is an interesting enough read. If not, then I'm sure everyone likes pictures haha. It'll be nice to have something to look back on one day.

Alex, yep it was Raj. Really nice guy! Too busy to enjoy this car unfortunately. He told me about the magazine feature. I'm looking forward to reading it. Also, I agree with his sentiments that it is a bit slow and needs some sorting. As you can see from the parts list, it will be getting back up to par very soon. I think there is a vac leak causing the rough idle which may also be causing funky throttle response. It doesn't feel anywhere near responsive enough. Nothing like my M5, but I guess you can't really expect that. Even my 6 it's M30 tank of an engine is comparable to the M3 though, and that isn't right.

Once I get everything sorted and back to OEM spec at least, I think I want to do two mods. MAF conversion to get rid of the slow and restrictive trap door AFM, and a muffler/center section because the original muffler is a bit rusted out and the center section squishes down a lot (in stock form). I guess that doesn't matter too much for flow since it is still the same x-sectional area, but it just looks stupid!

Hank, don't be too jealous. You have one of the most badass box flared cars around! An E30 M3 with S54 swap or very high dollar S14 build making ~300 hp and well-sorted suspension would be perfection, but I'm going to enjoy this car as original as possible for as long as I can (it's going to be really tough holding out!)

[Hank]

Problem with the e30m3s is the value now. I'd have a hard time modding one and stock power levels are just not any fun, I don't care what it sounds like.

[loxxrider]

Problem with the e30m3s is the value now. I'd have a hard time modding one and stock power levels are just not any fun, I don't care what it sounds like.

Exactly... that is indeed the problem. Anything I do will have to be fairly easily reversible. Still, I think they can be made fairly fun with a few bolt-ons. It's all about the chassis and steering feel, etc. really.

[Hank]

It's all about the chassis and steering feel, etc. really.

Said no one ever.


Good one.

[loxxrider]

lol I forgot I am among the biggest group of hoons on the net

[EDIGREG]

LOL

[loxxrider]

Here's a vid as promised. Best viewed with headphones on for best sound goodness.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIRU8HX3ZEk[/youtube]

[EDIGREG]

lol @ 15,000 rpm e34

[loxxrider]

I've got a few updates, but I was waiting to post until I could get some more pictures, etc. However, I just had to share this...

Today I was talking to my friend Justin about how I need to balance the throttle bodies on the M3 (to potentially cure rough idle). I was just going to make a manometer instead of buying a motorcycle carb tuning thing, but he suggested something else.

A few hours later he e-mailed me to tell me he wrote a program and set up an electronic system to synch the throttles LOL

throttle synchronizer.jpg (44.12 KiB) Viewed 37325 times

throttle synchronizer program.jpg (32.34 KiB) Viewed 37325 times

[Hank]

#nerdyengineersareawesome

[themagellan]

Fuck obi's car was ripping.

Oddly enough I just picked up a National Instruments as an Enterprise level client last week for work - what a co-winki-dink!

They have some INSANELY cool stuff.

[loxxrider]

It seems this thread could use a few updates!

First, I'd like to say that there probably wont be much project action going on in the near future. The cat is out of the bag now. I'm in Western PA working in drilling (Logging While Drilling Engineer). The last few weeks have been a whirlwind. I didn't even know I was taking this job for sure until three weeks ago. I gave notice to my employer, bought a "truck" for work, and drove up with my most important belongings (tools) in a uhaul trailer between then and now. My M5 made it up too with the help of my Dad. He was pretty happy to have that to drive up instead of his E36 or [my] E46. He was going to come up here anyway as we have a family farm here and he needed to take care of some business.

This new job will require me to be on call literally 24/7 365. I still haven't decided where my home base will be, but my tools are at the farm for now. It doesn't much matter as I will probably be home as most 5 days a month... probably more like 3. That brings me to the most relevant point in this discussion. I won't have almost any time to work on these cars because when I do have time "off," I will probably want to be visiting family or friends. For that reason, they will all need to be stored for the time being. I should be able to get around to driving them all once a month hopefully.

Anyway, I need to figure out a storage solution for these things. I think I could fit them all (M5, 635csi, M3, and hopefully the Audi at some point) in "my" half of one of the barns. It has a paved floor and is finished off with drywall, but it isn't critter-tight. I think it is probably because of the big sliding door. My thought is that I could either rennovate that to be super nice or build another building on the property which would consist of a first floor dedicated to storing cars, and a second floor or loft for living space. My Dad is pretty excited about that idea as he's a contractor and has always dreamed of doing something like that.




So I needed a vehicle for use in the field, towing, etc. and of course I bought the most practical vehicle possible! A Porsche Cayenne Turbo S.

Here are some cellphone pictures of it and the M5 at the farm. The Cayenne is pretty dirty from the trip up and is in LOW mode. It gets pretty damned high when in spec offroad mode!











I'm not a big fan of the wheels to be honest, but they are a bit of a blessing because I don't care if they get chewed up, the tires are cheaper (19 instead of 21"), and they use a tire with a bigger sidewall which is obviously better for off-roading. Plus, they look kind of crappy which should help with the "stealth" look I'm trying to get portray (see below).

I think my lust for this "truck" made me delusional. I wasn't thinking about the consequences of driving such a vehicle in this new environment. Sure, Cayennes are incredibly capable vehicles for towing, offroading, and of course going insanely fast for their size, but a Porsche in rural PA, in the OILFIELD to boot, is like taking a peacock to a cock fight.

The locals may not like it, but going to a rig as a 25 year old wearing a green hat (required as a new hire even though I'm not new to the business) driving a vehicle which had an original sticker price of ~$139.5k is asking for trouble! Not to mention, I'd like to not trash the thing with dirt, mud, and oil from the rig location.

Hence, Project Inconspicuous Cayenne I guess I need to change the thread title now...



My plans are the following:

Cosmetics:

1) Black out rear emblem with plastidip. I'd prefer not to debadge it, just want to make it less conspicuous. I love that plastidip is so easy to remove if needed

2) Remove or black-out front hood emblem. I ordered this emblem on ebay



I guess I could have just plasti-dipped the emblem which is already on the car, but I bet it'd be a pain to get off in the future when I don't want it black anymore. Only problem is that it is actually a huge pain to replace it on the Cayennes. I'll try to do it without removing the bumper. If that doesn't work, I'll probably just spray the one that's on there now.

3) Black out all other emblems on the exterior which is mostly just the wheels. I think I'll leave the text on the brake calipers as I don't think plasti-dip will hold up there. The kinda stick out with their size and... redness though lol.

4) Possibly black out the trim, not sure on this.

Protection

5) Possibly 3M clear-bra-style coverings for the front bumper/hood area to avoid rock chips and scratches, headlights (lamin-x) for scratch and sunlight protection, maybe the 3M stuff down the sides of the car too if it isn't cost prohibitive (to protect from getting keyed haha). The alternative to the 3M stuff is to just wrap it or plastidip the whole thing. I think a really good wrap-job is going to be too expensive though.

6) Weathertech floormats, the ones which are laser-formed or whatever. I'm not happy with what I've heard of their quality and customer service lately, but I haven't found much else which compares in terms of protection. I also like that they are made in USA. I like that they go up the sides of the trans tunnel, door sills, etc. to make a little "bucket" for crap to collect in. I only ordered fronts for now, I'll get the rear ones if I like the fronts. I already have some rubber ones, for the front and back anyway. The Cayenne also came with a nice plastic liner for the rear hatch area, so I'm covered there.

7) Seat covers. I'm looking at those Hawaiian ones. Wet Okole is the brand. They do nice form-fitting covers available in normal colors (like black) and are made in the USA. High quality stuff. They are waterPROOF too which is nice. I think these covers and the floormats will take care of most of my interior worries. A few things like kick panels and pedals may need some custom treatment to keep nice. We'll see.

8) Windshield reflective cover thing. That's self-explanatory

9) Full size spare. The spare that comes with this thing is weird. It is collapsible or something. I don't get it. I want a full-size spare and a provision for mounting it in the rear hatch area. This will have to be custom.

10) Fire extinguisher mount. Fire extinguishers are required by my company. I don't really have a good place to put one, let alone a place where it is easily accessible, so why not get a sweet quick-release mount for it and an extinguisher which wont destroy the vehicle's finishes if it needs to be used? (like Halguard vs regular dry chemical). I also have to carry around other things like reflective triangles and jumper cables, but I'm sure I can find a decent spot for those.

11) Luggage compartment cover. This Cayenne did not come with one... I'd like to keep my things out of sight.

OK, I think that's all for protection for now. I'll add more when I think of it.

Performance

OK, this part is not really part of being inconspicuous... but then again, maybe having a loud V8 exhaust is just what I need to blend-in in these parts. Plus, we all know it isn't possible to leave a car unmodified.

12) EVOMSit software

13) Secondary cat bypass (for awesome hotside turbo sounds and a little more bark... plus they are a pretty significant cork and help with power and spool quite a bit when removed).



14) EVOMS intakes (for awesome coldside turbo sounds... and a little power I guess)

15) Other accessories to hold the power like stronger bypass valves, boost y-pipe/"plenum" (prone to splitting), etc.

The three major mods above are supposed to get this thing in the ballpark of 620hp AND 620 ft*lb torque.

OK, that's all for this car at the moment. I will make another post for the other cars later.

[Aktapod]

Congrats on finalizing the position in PA!! On a related note, congratulations on the new Porsc - ahem.. inconspicuous SUV. What is that now, like, your 1000th car? I don't know if I could maintain that many, even with no other obligations to attend to, but considering how well you consistently manage to complete several tasks in a short period of time, I'm sure you'll do splendid (and that goes for the new job too!).

Only saddened that your Carlisle route no longer goes by me. TN needs to see a good high powered 200 and I'm not going to fill that role anytime soon.

[Mcstiff]

[alxdgr8]

If it's anything like the Touareg full size spare carrier, it requires a unique rear hatch (and maybe quarter, I forget). And it wasn't available in the US so you have to ship from overseas.

[alxdgr8]

If it's anything like the Touareg full size spare carrier, it requires a unique rear hatch (and maybe quarter, I forget). And it wasn't available in the US so you have to ship from overseas.

[Mcstiff]

A camo wrap kit from http://www.camoskinz.com/truck-camo-wraps.htm is about $800