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The standard system is a ridiculous amount of weight as you will know, so happy with that saving yeah. Il grab a couple of pics of the tailpipe, its basically 3" pipe with a 20deg downward turn on it to help with drive-by noise, id just run a straight pipe if I could but I don't think il get...

Exhaust all TIG'd this morning, some finished pictures.. Fitted to the car, really pleased with how its worked out and how high its managed to go without touching being a single pipe.. Then filled the engine with oil, coolant and cranked it over until some pressure came up...

Depends if all goes well once its running and no major issues - taking it to Oulton at the start of November, so ideally sometime before then to put some miles on it and make sure everything is fine etc Ive got two 328 (MS41) ECUs, one with a decent 328 map on it (raised limiter, suited m50...

So with it all in bits I took the opportunity to drop the propshaft off, clean it up and replace the centre bearing/support.. The LSD has been leaking from the back cover for a while, so dropped that off too and re-sealed everything. Then gave it a clean up and fresh coat of paint. Filled it...

Just read the whole lot, somehow missed it up until now. Good work and parts gone into it, hopefully all will go well with it!

Any stranded automotive wire thats rated to a couple of amps would be fine. I usually get rolls from a local electrical wholesaler. Avoid anything thats solid inside, stranded is what you need.

I only have a 220a MIG, would be fine welding it but I want to keep it all stainless and not use my mild steel wire. I could have got stainless wire but then you get all the dirty brown marks that MIG leaves behind on stainless. Hopefully eventually get one sometime in the future if something...

OpenMS41 for the E36 which I'm using to do read/writes and various other bits, but apparently the same set of people are working on something similar for the E46 DME/ECU from what I've read on a few forums

Good stuff, just how a BMW should be maintained. Nice to see they sorted the tank cracking issue from the E36 when the E46 was designed.... or not. NCS is great, even on the earlier models. There is some very similar software available for advanced ECU diagnostics, data logging and...

So originally I was going to take it somewhere to have an exhaust made, then decided I could probably do it myself with better quality components for half the cost. I had a few recommendations on local places, but either they were too busy or far too expensive in the end. I used five mandrel...

Taking it back to Oulton on November 7th, see how it goes then. Hopefully all will be well and more use next year!

M20 flywheel on, clutch on and aligned, release bearing fitted.. then put the gearbox on... I also cut a small section out of the gearbox bell housing to aid clearance on the rear manifold - in the past this has just sat up against the gearbox, but didn't want to risk putting too much stress...

Cheers! Manifolds have now been TIG'd. The v-band flange is on, lambda bosses added in factory locations and an additional one fitted after the collector incase I ever want to run a wideband. Exhaust is next, but only once the engine is in and mounted.

With the engine out, I really wanted to sort the M3 exhaust manifolds out properly... as #1, I hate having old flanges that never join properly, #2, the weight of the standard exhaust system (albeit modified) is just a joke, and #3, the standard flexi was damaged and needed replacing. So the...

Aux belt will be fine.

Well the old one came out today, but don't plan on the new one going in for a few weeks yet lol. Got to sort the exhaust manifolds, exhaust system and a few other bits before its good to go!

They're the same dimensions, fitting and wiring as the E36 items. To be honest I think they were used on E39 M52's, as well as the E46 M54's. No advantage really apart from being newer I guess, I've got a couple of sets of E36 ones so thought I would put these in for now - they were on the M54 I...

Camshaft gears fitted along with upper chain and tensioners, timed up then VANOS unit bolted into place. Span the engine over a few times to check the timing and the tools dropped right in. Fitted the thermostat housing with new seals, then a new front crank seal. The front pulley then went on...

As you can see here, the internal part of the tappet has a build up of old oil on both ends, which causes the moving part to stick in as above. The one on the left has been cleaned. Further disassembly reveals all the components - the actual internal parts are very small.. With everything...

Before assembling the head, I wanted to strip all 24 tappets apart to ensure they are all in good condition internally, freely moving and no springs were broken. Simply just need to hit the tappet downwards on a block of wood and the two main parts separate.. From there you can pull the...

Re: E36 Track Day Hack (v2) Hopefully the piston ring lands failing was just bad luck, not much I could have done to prevent it really. I'm going to have the injectors checked, replace the plugs and use the newer E46 coil packs on this engine, which will hopefully rule out any variable that...

Re: E36 Track Day Hack (v2) No real deadline as such, its booked onto Oulton at the start of November to see how it goes, so a while yet. Got a few jobs to sort aside from the engine before then, but nothing major. Got new rings for the M54B30 pistons, as they are thinner than the M52s, and...

Re: E36 Track Day Hack (v2) M54B30 crank degreased, cleaned and checked over. Dropped it into the block.. Before bolting it together with assembly lubricant checked the bearing clearances.. Small amount on each of the main journals and torqued the caps down on the ARP studs to spec. Then...

Still no explanation really of how it got damaged... Unless there was a bad plug/coil/injector and it was getting DET on cylinder one, or the piston was damaged before it was fitted

Re: E36 Track Day Hack (v2) Had a bit of time this evening to make a start. Cleaned the block up and gave it a coat of black, then fitted the piston oil jets and first half of the mains bearings. Decided to use ARP mains studs/nuts this time - the standard main cap bolts should be replaced...

Because thats what the ECU had on it, and point proven by the AFRs being fine with an LC1. It drove no differently and ran no different AFRs with 98/99 in. I wouldn't have posted it otherwise.

Ran my RSTuner '98RON' map on 95 fuel for 3+ years, car was always 6k+ rpm all day long (was only used for track) and never had an issue. AFRs were fine. Components fine when stripped down.

Re: E36 Track Day Hack (v2) Yeah the pin is the same for all three. The height of the pin on the piston (relative to the top) is different on all three mind. The M52B28 comes pretty much flush when assembled in stock form. There is probably another 84mm piston that would work out right from a...

Re: E36 Track Day Hack (v2) Quickly compared them earlier: M50B25 M50B25 Rod - 631.5g M50B25 Piston - 452.0g (344.5g w/o Pin) M50B25 Assembly - 1083.5g (6501.0g Total) M52B28 M52B28 Rod - 603.0g M52B28 Piston - 428.0g (320.5g w/o Pin) M52B28 Assembly - 1031.0g...

Re: E36 Track Day Hack (v2) Unfortunately using an M52B28 piston with the M54B30 crank does not work (rods being the same), the piston comes out of the block.. Other available BMW 84mm pistons, whilst they fit in the block, the skirts are too long for the stroke with the B30 crank, or come...