Dumb Question Thread - No Flaming Allowed

[Cubieman]

If one was to supercharge their M3 with say an ESS 575 kit what would you worry about the most? The engine, tranny, diff, suspenion, RACP, etc. would all take more of a beating than they were designed to take.

Can you run these kits without quickly ruining the vehicle? I know it would depend on how the car is driven buy it just seems as if a 575bhp M3 would get the shit kicked out of it.

Just looking for some general impressions on the SC'd E46 M3 from those that have some experience.

[oceansize]

If one was to supercharge their M3 with say an ESS 575 kit what would you worry about the most? The engine, tranny, diff, suspenion, RACP, etc. would all take more of a beating than they were designed to take.

Can you run these kits without quickly ruining the vehicle? I know it would depend on how the car is driven buy it just seems as if a 575bhp M3 would get the shit kicked out of it.

Just looking for some general impressions on the SC'd E46 M3 from those that have some experience.

If you aren't pushing your car really hard you won't even realize it is there after the first week. That is the truth. Also if you aren't pushing the car hard then you aren't doing much in the way of "damage". If on the other hand you are a track rat I would imagine things could get trickier with respect to cooling (obioban has mentioned this on many an occasion and I don't doubt him). I don't think, in my amateur opinion, a healthy S54 should have much problem with the boost in day to day driving scenarios. Same for the transmission and diff.

If you are the worrier type don't get a SC, that little voice in your head will nag at you, warning you that you are going to blow your engine up which will prevent you from enjoying the bump in power. I fall into the I don't give a "insert cuss word here" category. If I blow this car up then so be it and I'm not going to spend a single second worrying about it. Then again my driving is limited to spirited back country road runs (why I went 3.91).

I SC'd my car simply because I had never done it before. Wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Would I do it again? Probably not. That is no slight on my ESS unit, been great, car runs great etc. Just been there done that plus with where and what I drive I can't really open it up all that often.

[S3diment]

Wanted to get a pulse check on things. Did an entire cooling refresh including new radiator with all OEM parts. Water temp needle is straight i.e. 12am/pm, OBC suggests 85C to 90C - this is while doing 80mph and temperatures of 85 F. Turning on the AC only slightly moves up the temperature reading 1 to 2 C. Normal?

[E46_M3_ZCP]

Wanted to get a pulse check on things. Did an entire cooling refresh including new radiator with all OEM parts. Water temp needle is straight i.e. 12am/pm, OBC suggests 85C to 90C - this is while doing 80mph and temperatures of 85 F. Turning on the AC only slightly moves up the temperature reading 1 to 2 C. Normal?

I would say that's normal as mine behaves near identical to that but I've got the clutched fan to electric fan conversion that I've been running for several years now.

What year car and at how many miles did you decide to do your cooling system refresh?

[S3diment]

I would say that's normal as mine behaves near identical to that but I've got the clutched fan to electric fan conversion that I've been running for several years now.

What year car and at how many miles did you decide to do your cooling system refresh?

2002 Coupe with 188k miles. If I had to guess, it was either never done or at the 100k mark.

[Slideways]

Wanted to get a pulse check on things. Did an entire cooling refresh including new radiator with all OEM parts. Water temp needle is straight i.e. 12am/pm, OBC suggests 85C to 90C - this is while doing 80mph and temperatures of 85 F. Turning on the AC only slightly moves up the temperature reading 1 to 2 C. Normal?

That sounds about right for a warmer/hot day.

[m3nt0s]

My sunroof is quite busted, picked up the car this way from the PO. When I operate the switch all that happens is a horrific gear grinding noise with no movement whatsoever in the glass. I understand that I’ll likely need to do a full rebuild depending on how busted the gears are. My question does not have to do with repairing this, I can find plenty of DIYs for that.

The issue I’m trying to solve is that the glass was positioned in the slightly open elevated position directly before becoming permanently stuck. Before I take the glass off to do a proper inspection, does anyone know if I can reposition the track/mechanism to allow the glass to sit flush with the roof prior to addressing the core problem more holistically? I haven’t decided if I’d rather do a full sunroof rebuild or a CF roof conversion, however while I sort that decision out longer term, I’d like the sunroof to be fully shut. Any tips or guidance on how to lower the glass with gears that are fairly binded?

I wonder if you're get better results with using the manual closure method. There's an allen key that should live in the trunk toolkit, but this video just uses bits from a more generic toolkit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO6t9s7bZHs

The sunroof in my E39 is almost equally busted, and while the motorized mechanism won't do it, I can still manually close it with this method. E46 and E39 use identical motors AFAIK.

[Nate047]

Dumb question... Is there any way to tell from the outside, if an S54 has had VANOS work done? No codes, no leaks, runs normal, no noises etc... Just wondering if there's any way to know without opening it up.

[Cubieman]

Dumb question... Is there any way to tell from the outside, if an S54 has had VANOS work done? No codes, no leaks, runs normal, no noises etc... Just wondering if there's any way to know without opening it up.

You can check for two MINOR item without doing much:

You could remove the MCU and the solenoid block, this would allow you to see if the MCU was opened up and re-soldered, you can see along the edges if it was tampered (cut open and re-sealed) as well as checking for Beisan seals on the seal plate.

The OEM seal plate has black seals that are attached to the plate whereas the Beisan seals are put in were the OEM seals were cut out and are Red/Brown in color vs. black.

One MAJOR item the valvecover must be removed:

With valve cover removed you can see if the oil pump disc has 4 holes or 2, if it has 4 the disc has been re-drilled with smaller holes 180° apart from the factory holes and this is what your looking for.

Also, you could have an aftermarket Beisan branded disc with only 2 holes, you may be able to find the marking "BS" on it, this may require turning engine by hand which requires you to remove the fan/fan shroud.

One other MAJOR item requires you to remove the valve cover/vanos unit/hubs.

With these items removed you can check for the presence of the uprated OEM bolts or aftermarket cam sleeve bolts, unfortunately you cannot see if they have loctite applied which is kind of a big deal.


See the vanos mega thread for more info on what I barely touched on. But the short answer to your question is no, you must take the vanos off to see if it was "bulletproofed".

[Tbonem3]

If the solenoid plate to unit's flat bottom is perfectly clean, it was probably done

But that doesn't mean exh hub or bolts were done, mind. Could have gotten the specific codes and just replaced the pack and orings.

[K-Dawg]

Nothing definitive by any means, but Beisan's solenoid coil packs come with a white adhesive label on them and have obviously been opened and glued back together.

[Nate047]

Alright good looking out guys. Thanks

[zzyzx85]

does anyone have a photo of a stock MSS54 non- HP X60003 gray connector I can use as reference? I probably should have taken a photo of it before I started messing with the pins lol

[heinzboehmer]

does anyone have a photo of a stock MSS54 non- HP X60003 gray connector I can use as reference? I probably should have taken a photo of it before I started messing with the pins lol

For some reason pin 19 shows as not used on TIS, but it's definitely there. I think it's a 5V reference for the TPS? Can't remember exactly

I also do have pics of the connector if you really want them, but it's wired for a MAP sensor and CSL IAT, so some (5 or so) pins will be different to stock

[zzyzx85]

heinzboehmer much appreciated. That's all I needed.