Round 3....another M3 build

[hinrichs]

A little of my past

[QUOTE=hinrichs;1066980828]Well I am finally back, im sure none of you remember me, but here is a pic of my last m3 that I more or less sold to buy a house in 2011 :thumbsdown:



It was a lot of fun, but I stopped driving it for a while due to some issues and then decided I should sell it....man women have some power over you lol.


After going through multiple cars, modding them and always being bored after about 3-4 months and selling them I finally found almost exactly what I wanted. I was on a tight budget and this was the "best" locally to me. Its a 94 318i will a full 97 s52 swap. Im calling it an m3 just to make my life easy since it will basically become a hill climb car/ fun daily. I love the fact it has nothing inside, and is super basic. I do wish it was a real M3, but my budget didn't allow for any of the clean ones around me, plus this makes me worry less about driving it hard when time to racing comes.

m3 1 by minthinrich, on Flickr
m3 2 by minthinrich, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/r3twjm]/QUOTE]

This is how the red one looked when I sold it. Built it to be a hillclimb car and chickened out and got bored....yeah that was stupid

[hinrichs]

The day I picked it up.

How today went

Oh hey new friend. This was waiting at the painfully slow notary since it was an older style place. I didn't take any pics but they had some rad plates



Not sure how I feel about this wheel, my italvolanti like earl has will prolly go in after I decide if I want another rouge quick release which would bring it a little closer



Then my face hitting the highway. I have to say even with just cats and a straight pipe, it sounds good. Cruising isn't bad which I expected. Took an on ramp and missed the electronic tool, yeah got to the exit and had a nice $35 toll to pay to get home.

[hinrichs]

So onto the new one, passed it over a few times on Craigslist and then finally just bit the bullet and went to see it.

97 5 speed, lux package with manual vaders added, black interior. 162k on it, stack of receipts from owner before mine of course, said vanos was just changed. It has no muffler and it's loud, also riding on Megan coilovers. Came with a momo wheel and bad installed hub adapter.





Pulled the radio out, and found the nav cds it came with. Someday I'll be putting it back in to test it out. Have the receipt when it was purchase new in 2000.

Some pics today of the car

[hinrichs]

First "mods"

Well I had to install the italvolanti wheel that I want to get refinished someday. Also same time I fixed the non working hub adapter. It wouldnt cancel the turn signals, well yeah the top wasnt on top. Easy fix which made me happy. Wheel stayed on for 2 days, back to the momo now till the other gets fixed up.

italvolanti by minthinrich, on Flickr

Next threw in some floor mats since I was missing them all around. Kind of wish I went with carpet, but I park in a stone lot at work and just never see the point to having carpet anymore. These were a good deal from Bavauto

floor mats by minthinrich, on Flickr

Also fixed the emblems, which really annoyed me. Went ebay for them cuz I wasnt about to spend $35 each on the metal ones. Whatever they look good so I dont care.

emblems by minthinrich, on Flickr

[Dr.AK]

That italvolanti steering wheel is pretty cool!

[hinrichs]

So the car has a muffler delete straight pipe section, didnt sound too bad, actually kind of liked it. Well to rebuild my shifter easily, I needed to drop the exhaust and also the driveshaft. That project turned into a headache to say the least, but the exhaust is off and is being replace by a much better setup. Shifter was rebuilt with oem parts. I couldnt stand the sweet ebay kit that was in there.

Ended up needing to cut off the center section which couldnt be used with a stock rear muffler due to how the flanges were removed

exhaust 2 by minthinrich, on Flickr

High quality pipe used....well it makes sense now why it sounded terrible at full throttle

exhaust rust by minthinrich, on Flickr

Shot of the engine bay for fun

engine by minthinrich, on Flickr



So now for what I have ordered. Yesterday I ordered the first part since I will need to hammer out the broken exhaust manifold studs (cant wait its going to be fantastic). I went with the bimmerworld race front section which creates an equal length header out of the good flowing stock S52 manifolds. Today I ordered the full race system. Was hesitant but for what I really want in the end, it should be perfect. I will either add a 100-200 CEL cat in the resonated section or have another piece made that I can swap in for inspections and such.

BW_Magnaflow_E36_YPipe by minthinrich, on Flickr
BW_Magnaflow_E36_Race_TN by minthinrich, on Flickr

[hinrichs]

Front section of the exhaust shows up today, tomorrow the rest....getting excited for this weekend. Need to gear up and get myself ready for drilling out the stock manifold studs however which I am not looking forward to at all.

[hinrichs]

Got the front pipe yesterday, really happy with how fast the shipping is from bimmerworld being in VA. Welds look great, should have it installed tonight when I get the other 2 studs drilled out.

bw race 3 by minthinrich, on Flickr
bw race 2 by minthinrich, on Flickr
BW race 1 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Also a pic working on it, yes I have jack stands under the car as well as the blocks (I get paranoid and double up)

wokring 1 by minthinrich, on Flickr

[190Evan]

That 02 bung weld looks kinda funky but other than that looks like a solid setup

[hinrichs]

So yesterday I had a half day at work, so went home and kept drilling to get the last 3 studs out of the manifolds. Went easier than expected. Threw on the front pipe and then waited around till 6:30 for the rear section

race 4 by minthinrich, on Flickr
race 5 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Then this showed up, its light weight, stupid easy to install with the v-band clamps, and it sounds amazing. I didnt get any installed pics but I will this weekend.

catback by minthinrich, on Flickr

Also I installed a bimmerworld rear 02 sensor simulator during all this as well. Plug and play. Now I go to drive the car.....yeah it revs up fine while sitting, but when you go to drive it, you cant give it full throttle or it bucks and hesitates but then comes back but keeps doing it. Cant figure out the issue.

[Steven_318ti]

Being from the UK I still find it hard looking at that engine bay and calling it an M3 when we have the 320bhp engines over here, looks like a great car, loved the white E46, Magnaflow exhaust will sound class

[190Evan]

My lexus did the same thing after changing to a cat-less mid-pipe similar to yours, I haven't installed my simulator but it seems to fall on it's face when I try to get on it under a load. What's weird is regardless of the cats being deemed "faulty" they shouldn't cause your car to do that.

[hinrichs]

Well thought I took a picture of the full exhaust, yeah guess I forgot. Looks really great on the car just sitting in my driveway

Went to the local yard, bought a new clutch return spring since I broke my setup since it wasnt installed right on the pedal, will be going back to the car as I think it has a s50/52 swap

clutch spring by minthinrich, on Flickr

Had my friend come over, we threw on my old straight pipe section together with his stock muffler to make a bolt on piece. Took way longer than it should have but we also decided to cut apart his stock muffler. Wow its a dumb design.

cut stock muffler by minthinrich, on Flickr
Brent m3 by minthinrich, on Flickr








Now for an update on my car and how its running. I threw in the stock 02 sensors, with drilled out spacers, same old issue with it not revving up fully and it would die under power. Drove it around a little and forced it through the issue and then all of a sudden its running perfectly again. Turn the car off for a few, leave the house again and back to same shit problem.

M50 manifold and install kit on the way, talking to a few tuner company's about a tune currently.

[hinrichs]

M50 manifold will be here this weekend, install kit comes today so I can start on getting the asc removed at least and the new intake elbow on. Threw on a new fuel filter last night and cleaned the MAF....no change.

Bought a code scanner today, shouldnt have waited. All kinds of fun, but I think my issue is mainly from my throttle sensor so ordered a new one of those, cam position, and also a brake light switch which I think is failing.

Soon I will be taking the car to Kessel Performance for a dyno tune once I get the manifold installed.

After that I can start to look for wheels and tires and figure out what I want to run this time.

[hinrichs]

Still waiting on the sensors I ordered, hopefully they ship today so I can attempt to drive the car this weekend.

Yesterday I installed the new silicone intake boot, and pulled out the un necessary ASC system (need a resistor so the abs works) and I am glad its gone, such a stupid system with the extra throttle body. Get ready for some terrible pics. Also a shot of the whole intake which I was going to try and sell, but honestly its not terrible it just needs a new filter. Nice thing I have the original invoice for it so I know what it is, and what filter to buy.

intake 1 by minthinrich, on Flickr
intake 2 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Got a surprise today when I stopped home for lunch, my M50 manifold showed up much sooner than I expected, so I may start on that tonight if I have some free time. It came with the M50 fuel rail (not sure if I can use that) and also the needed mounting clamps and also the brackets. I also went with the Bimmerworld install kit.

m50 1 by minthinrich, on Flickr

[hinrichs]

Last night I hit the manifold swap as soon as I got home, really wasnt too bad to do. Still have some stuff to finish up tonight and the pics of the manifold on were before I finished the crap underneath and mounted up the throttle body. May end up ordering a new intake temp sensor tho so the whole thing may end up coming off again actually.

Crazy how much larger the runners are.

M50 COMPARISON by minthinrich, on Flickr

M50 INSTALL by minthinrich, on Flickr
M50 INSTALL 2 by minthinrich, on Flickr

[hinrichs]

Another boring update

So over the weekend I finished the M50 manifold swap, had a huge vacuum leak, it was fun. Still extreemly annoyed as I never had any shipping issues with german auto parts before. Yeah tomorrow it will be a week and I dont have my needed sensors. Typically its next day or 2 day delivery.

So I washed the car finally, really **** the stock wheels but when they are clean they arent too bad.

CLEAN 1 by minthinrich, on Flickr
CLEAN 2 by minthinrich, on Flickr

[hinrichs]

Starting to **** this car, new tps and cam sensors, yeah same issue with the tps. Plugged in it idles perfectly and runs great but you cant drive it. Un plug the sensor and you can drive.

So here is a pic of the engine once again but missing its cover. Also ended up bending a damn hood strut

I just want to get this fixed so I can start making this thing my own and picking wheels and shit before I decide to dump it and find another one.

MISSING COVER by minthinrich, on Flickr

[hinrichs]

Since I cant seem to wait to install anything, decided to tackle the freshly delivered sai delete last night when I got home from work. Yeah that was stupid working on a hot motor. Anyway look at all the room I have for activities now.

Pulled this crap

sai 1 by minthinrich, on Flickr
sai 2 by minthinrich, on Flickr

[190Evan]

Have you tried tackling the TPS wiring by chance? There's a chance there is Signal circuit resistance if it's un-driveable. I would test the Feedback circuit from the sensor to the PCM. Also BMW TPS's don't have an adjustment do they?

[hinrichs]

Have help this weekend so I am going to test the harness and a few other things.

Last night I drove to philly to grab another Kirk 4 point roll bar however....you know just the thing I need right now

cage by minthinrich, on Flickr

[hinrichs]

Had a plan to install this over the weekend and respray it....yeah all I did was move it outside.

cage 2 by minthinrich, on Flickr

I did move my tool boxes around tho and start to reorganize my garage which is long overdue.

tool box 1 by minthinrich, on Flickr
tool box 2 by minthinrich, on Flickr

[hinrichs]

Last night I finished the one side of the garage a little more, and threw the car in. Forgot how good an e36 fits depending on which side your working on. Ended up pulling the intake manifold again to check some wires but its back together.

garage by minthinrich, on Flickr

Didnt really do much else other than clean the bay a little

dirty 1 by minthinrich, on Flickr
dirty 2 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Ran home for my lunch break today, headlights showed up, threw one in. Went with depo ZKW with speed nipples. Couldnt stand the cracked lens anymore that came on the car. For new a new lens set at $80 to have them maybe not fit right, I just decided to get a new set and ditch the angel eyes.

Ignore my faded bumper

headlight 1 by minthinrich, on Flickr
headlight 2 by minthinrich, on Flickr
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[190Evan]

Any news on the harness?

[hinrichs]

Any news on the harness?

Pulled the intake manifold last night to trace wires and everything looked good. Still having the same issues tho. I think this car had this issue before I purchased it since Im 95% sure that the tps was disconnected. I may try another ecu soon to rule that out (read somewhere it could be an issue).

Car started to smoke on start up tho which has me really worried. I have had really bad luck with cars recently.