Tom's Track Car - BMW E46 -Engine Number 3

Great work Tom, so quickly too!

Also I can't remember if I mentioned, but on the E36 I put an Z3M shifter on, it's much quicker and a quick google says it also does the same for the E46 /

Thanks for taking the time to write all that down but I've actually placed an order for a full shifter kit frkm RTD which looks a great bit of kit, just waiting for it to be made as there was a 6 week lead time on them.


Nice to see the progress!

I drove a friend's modded E36 328 yesterday, had coilovers, semi slicks and a m3 cam. Absolutely wonderful car! Its got me tempted to sell the Clio and hunt one down...

They're certainly fantastic cars. The 3.0 engines sound amazing. Keeping the power mods at bay for a while except releasing some extra BHP with breathing mods mainly with manifolds then being able to rev it higher.
Be interesting for a few people to meet up at a track day when I've got to grips with it and see if I can convert a few more people to make the steps. But yeah modding is a different game with these compared with the Clio's.
 
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Thanks for taking the time to write all that down but I've actually placed an order for a full shifter kit frkm RTD which looks a great bit of kit, just waiting for it to be made as there was a 6 week lead time on them.

Jealous, the RTD shifter is lovely! Which height did you go for? Did you go for the DSSR also? This car is going to be amazing!
 
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Jealous, the RTD shifter is lovely! Which height did you go for? Did you go for the DSSR also? This car is going to be amazing!

Yeah I've gone for the V0 with Race Shifter with the 360mm length with the DSSR too. Thanks mate! Hopefully it will turn out well.
 
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Few more hours on it again tonight.
Carrying on from Yesterdays discovery of the cracked subframe rear mounts I decided to crack on with repairing that as a priority.
Start off making paper templates of the area I wanted to plate over.
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Once the paper templates are fine tuned to fit perfectly. I've transferred the outlines onto some steel plate and cut out.
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With some shaping, rounding and pressing the plates are made to the correct shape to fit around the rear box sections on the underside of the chassis, just need to drill holes in them and they can be welded into position at the weekend. Really happy with how these turned out for a few hours work.
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Finally one of the big parcels I've been waiting for to arrive from America...
First of all left to right.
Upgraded oil pump shaft and cog - £250
ARP Rod bolts - £180
King Racing Rod Bearings -£80
Fairly hefty parts bill for the engine which no one will ever see and won't give any performance benefits what so ever but piece of mind and the ability to rev it a lot higher than it's designed to.
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Few more hours on it again tonight.
Carrying on from Yesterdays discovery of the cracked subframe rear mounts I decided to crack on with repairing that as a priority.
Start off making paper templates of the area I wanted to plate over.
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Once the paper templates are fine tuned to fit perfectly. I've transferred the outlines onto some steel plate and cut out.
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With some shaping, rounding and pressing the plates are made to the correct shape to fit around the rear box sections on the underside of the chassis, just need to drill holes in them and they can be welded into position at the weekend. Really happy with how these turned out for a few hours work.
View attachment 125992
Finally one of the big parcels I've been waiting for to arrive from America...
First of all left to right.
Upgraded oil pump shaft and cog - £250
ARP Rod bolts - £180
King Racing Rod Bearings -£80
Fairly hefty parts bill for the engine which no one will ever see and won't give any performance benefits what so ever but piece of mind and the ability to rev it a lot higher than it's designed to.
View attachment 125993
Ah that’s the pulley foxy should’ve had originally isn’t it? I still can’t believe that it did next to fuck all damage with zero oil pressure in his at Cadwell!!
 
Have you drilled the ends of the cracks to release stress and prevent them from growing further (under the reinforcement plates)?
 
Ah that’s the pulley foxy should’ve had originally isn’t it? I still can’t believe that it did next to fuck all damage with zero oil pressure in his at Cadwell!!

Yeah! It's the same design as what he's running now. I guess you learn from other people's misfortune, want to make this engine as reliable as possible, also ordered an MTX-D oil pressure and temp gauge. Firstly to monitor the oil pressure and I'm sure I'll have temp issues on this engine without running a cooler so I can keep and eye on them and back off when needed. Need to find a s54 oil filter housing.

Have you drilled the ends of the cracks to release stress and prevent them from growing further (under the reinforcement plates)?

I've not plated it yet, will be a job for the weekend, will drill the end of the weld to prevent further stress cracking. Going a v down the crack line. Weld through/full penitrate the material will weld, grind back flush. Zinc primer the whole area and then seam weld the outer perimeter of the plates and also around the bolt holes area where it's cracking to tie it all together, will be on the next update.
 
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Yeah! It's the same design as what he's running now. I guess you learn from other people's misfortune, want to make this engine as reliable as possible, also ordered an MTX-D oil pressure and temp gauge. Firstly to monitor the oil pressure and I'm sure I'll have temp issues on this engine without running a cooler so I can keep and eye on them and back off when needed. Need to find a s54 oil filter housing.



I've not plated it yet, will be a job for the weekend, will drill the end of the weld to prevent further stress cracking. Going a v down the crack line. Weld through/full penitrate the material will weld, grind back flush. Zinc primer the whole area and then seam weld the outer perimeter of the plates and also around the bolt holes area where it's cracking to tie it all together, will be on the next update.
I’ll ask at work if anyone’s got one mate. There’s a few there who play with them.
 
Another weekend another update. Making progress, the car still looks like the same old shell on the driveway on axle stands but progress is certainly being made.

First job was Saturday morning to run up to Preston to the Powdercoaters and get the subframes, suspension and wheels picked up.
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All 8 wheels have been done anthracite to change it up a little, normally I go for gloss black but wanted something different with the black car.

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Full day Saturday gets front and rear subframes built up. All new bushes, wheel bearings, rose joints, new disc shields, engine mounts and camber arms. if it can be replaced it has been on these.
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Later on in the evening I started doing something a little less labour intensive. With the plan being to change the oil pump and knowing i'll probably have temp issues with this engine along the way I've opted to go for an MTX-D Gauge from innovate which displays both Oil Temp and Pressure.
Make up some AN4 braided fittings/lines to space the oil pressure sensor off the engine and fitted both the Temp and pressure sensors. I've grounded out the pin on the standard pressure switch so no light on the dash.
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Next job is a few jobs that no one will ever see. But needs to be done right should I want to keep using this shell in the future.

Most of you who has been keeping up with the updates will have know about the cracked rear chassis mount. Did a bit more work on that. Drilled the end of the crack to stop it spreading further and with the whole area ground back to clean metal painted it all with Zinc primer.
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Then welded up the crack before grinding back before another coat of primer.
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Welded in and more primer.
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Sealed in for life around the edges to prevent any ingress of water and then painted over.
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Second big job which no one will ever see either.
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Sump, baffle plate and oil pump removed.

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Split open to remove the gear from the middle and the oil pump shaft.
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First step is to press the gear off the old shaft and then press back onto the new shaft in exactly the same position. Another job for the hydraulic press.

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Pump all put back together, now time to replace the rod bearings and bolts.

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Bearings and ARP's fitted.
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All done and back together. It was then a case of refitting the sump with a new gasket and new o ring on the dip stick housing. Then spent the evening doing a list of other smaller less interesting jobs as well as prototyping the manifolds but more to come on that soon when I've got some photos and made some actual progress on them.

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For now I think that pretty much covers it and brings and end to what as been another had weekend on the car with a total of aorund 28 hours spent Saturday and Sunday working on it, plus a few hours Friday evening too. Lots to do this week as it needs to be a rolling Shell Saturday afternoon.
 
Mid week progress continues, few late nights after work this week trying to keep up the momentum.

Wheels and tyres balanced up, sticking with the trusty combination of Rainsports and RSRs
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Had to do some work on the manifolds which meant starting with cutting off the old flanges, getting some pipe flared to the right dimensions to then add in a Y piece after the manifold ready to have a new rear section made up.
V band added to the end of it also an additional boss before the V band for a wideband sensor to support coming mods in the future... Pulled in a favour with a welder from Compbrake to get it welded up in an hour.

Nice to be able to do all the planning and preparation on this myself though and then just get a professional welder to finish it of when it's all tacked in position.
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Tuesday night started with building back up the suspension...
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Everything on the underside, cleaned, serviced, rebuilt.
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Diff then dropped into the rear subframe with a few modification. Swapped out two of the bushes in the strong flex kit for rose jointed bushes on the rear arms. Drilled out the threaded bosses in the diff and replaced with longer bolts and nuts.

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Mounted up into position under the car, drive shafts painted and bolted back up into position.
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Spent a few hours on the car today, got new braided lines made up to run from in front of the rear subframe and made up copper lines to go from the subframe forward to the engine bay. Sadly rain stopped play tonight so will continue tomorrow and take some more photos.
 
Ah that’s the pulley foxy should’ve had originally isn’t it? I still can’t believe that it did next to fuck all damage with zero oil pressure in his at Cadwell!!

Told Tom not to bother buying a car with this engine, or going anywhere near a track without that oil pump done properly. The rod bolts and bearings are a given for the price whilst apart. Unfortunately the M54B30 crank is horrendous with harmonics after 6500rpm, the only way to really get around revving 'high' is a SuperDamper.... but not convinced Tom to drop a grand on that just yet :tearsofjoy:
 
Told Tom not to bother buying a car with this engine, or going anywhere near a track without that oil pump done properly. The rod bolts and bearings are a given for the price whilst apart. Unfortunately the M54B30 crank is horrendous with harmonics after 6500rpm, the only way to really get around revving 'high' is a SuperDamper.... but not convinced Tom to drop a grand on that just yet :tearsofjoy:

Hi f0xy :drunk:

It's Suj (from every forum I am on nearly lol), miss reading your threads of the E36, i'm gonna have to do some digging and see how it's evolved from last time I read it.
 
Hi f0xy :drunk:

It's Suj (from every forum I am on nearly lol), miss reading your threads of the E36, i'm gonna have to do some digging and see how it's evolved from last time I read it.

Its been a while! A lot has changed since I updated any of them. I'm just in the middle of another re-shell (to FIA/MSA spec)...

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I may update one of them at some point when I get some time...!
 
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Its been a while! A lot has changed since I updated any of them. I'm just in the middle of another re-shell (to FIA/MSA spec)...

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I may update one of them at some point when I get some time...!

Bloody hell haha, good work, if you do update any of them send me a PM with the link, be a good evening read and catch up, I hope you have been well.

Sorry Tom to go off topic haha.
 
Bloody hell haha, good work, if you do update any of them send me a PM with the link, be a good evening read and catch up, I hope you have been well.

Sorry Tom to go off topic haha.


No worries. It is a great car Jordans, Shame there isn't a build thread for it all for people to read. I'm lucky I get to see it most weeks as it progresses.

Anywayy... Bit more progress on it this week. I've worked on it 5 days this week and a full Sunday. Took Saturday a for a bit of chill time and had a lazy day. It's coming together now!

Main big jobs this week started with tidying up the mess of corroded brake lines to the rear of the car and the complicated BMW steel clutch lines.
Ran a brained clutch line into a piece of copper wire into the slave cylinder to tidy it up. No more rubber lines in sight.
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Had some custom braided lines made up to run from the calipers, through the rear subframe, over the fuel tank. From there to the front of the car I then made up copper lines to the engine bay. Nice and tidy job now compared to how it was before.
With that done it was time to put the fuel tank back on and handbrake cables.
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Rear handbrake mechanism on the E46 is actually inside the rear disc, like a drum brake, reassembled all of that mechanism with new springs and fitted the old discs and pads for now with the calipers painted and the new braided lines. Brake update to come soon.

Rear shocks test fitted and bolted into position, will have to be dropped down for welding the strut top but at least they're on and I know they fit

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Next job was to finish off the rest end. Driveshafts are in and all the rest assembly is together now. looking much smarter.

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Onto starting to think about what needs finishing off to get it running...
Filters had already been changed when I was working on the engine, but still needed some oil. Over 6 litres of...
Look at that engine sitting in there! Nervously can't wait to hear it running again.
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Then the horrible jobs this afternoon, spent another few hours with a grinder inside the car removing some final brackets and taking a flap disc to any ground areas to get them smooth. Finally sprayed some primer on the areas of bare metal. The shell will be fully painted inside once the cage footplates are welded in finally.

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Spent an hour chasing and cleaning all the threads in the hubs and fitted studs to the hubs. While I was there I couldn't help test fitting a wheel to see what they looked like. I'll let you make up your own minds...
Only about 4mm clearance between the tyre and the shock body, but that's enough, still need to set the ride height but there isn't much droop in this suspension set up judging by where that wheel sits without any weight on it...
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That bring this weekend to a close. Only a few little jobs to do this week, little bit of wiring and hopefully pick up the custom one off designed flanges for the manifolds and test them ahead of the exhaust being made on Monday next week.