Tyler's 2011.5 Jerez Black E90 Slicktop Daily

[Tbonem3]

No, these pics are old. Still catching up.

[Tbonem3]

Well I'm not going to get a V8 and not let her sing. A friend of a friend had a "2 pipe" or a "4 pipe" (he wasn't sure) modified OEM muffler on his comp e92. I was in the E46 and we did some pulls (my e46 was faster ), but holy shit, his car (at wot, top end) literally sounded like the F1 cars from around 2010 (v8s). This was a year ago when I was contemplating selling the older E46 and getting an E60 M5 or E9x. His car sold me, just on sound alone (since I already had the best sounding induction in the E46).

Anyway, I kept my eyes open, after taking ownership of my E90, for a modded muffler. Did some reasearch and the 2 pipe was not much of an increase, unless if you were also doing primary cat delete. I knew I was leaving the cats alone, being in socal and this being my daily, so I wanted the 4 pipe. Turned out the guy I knew had a 4 pipe, not a 2 pipe. So that was that.

Luckily, found one only 30 minutes away for $250!



But I was not a fan of the stock tips. I like single wall, 3.25-3.5" diameter, straight cut or slash cut (lemans), but no rolled or double wall. It was actually difficult to find tip options that were direct fit. EAS had some nice ones, but they were NLA. Finally stumbled upon Burkhart Engineering in Germany. They had what I was looking for, in both straight cut and slanted. I already had slanted on E46, so figured straight would be better on E90. Came with rivets too! 2 day shipping via DHL, I couldn't believe it! Total cost was only a bit over $200. (no vat, no duties, just shipping)



I had already done this same thing on my E46 muffler, so this was pretty straight forward. Though on that one, I secured them with set screws. This time it's rivets, so I had to buy a rivet hand tool (like under $20 on amazon).

Oh yes



Forgot to mention - I had to have my machinist take off an inch as these are E92 length (E90's tips are shorter)

I got out the same tools I used on the E46 where I drilled the stems out and puched them through.



However, it wasn't going very quickly, and I found it easier to lift the head of the rivet with a putty knife, snip it off and punch the stem down and through.



Once I was done, I cleaned the muffler well and gave it a fresh couple of coats of paint. I went with a high temp black that had a bit of a sheen to it. Most people were suggesting flat black, but I don't like that dusty look. I wanted a little sheen for a slightly more premium/factory look, but not enough to draw much attention.



I fit the tips and orientated them to line up with the holes on the factory outlets. Fitment was absolutely perfect. Didn't need to open up any holes or anything - kudos Burkhart.



Here's the tool. Ended up being very nice. I shimmed some 1/4" rubber pad inbetween the tips' outer edge to make sure they kept their position while securing them.



Very pleased!



Here we go



Boo-ya!




With the chrome tips gone, and more aggressive tips now in place, I felt it was better to have the black license plate frame back on (just like my E46)



Sound-

Unbelieveable. For $250, I've turned the car into a veritable exotic super car. That's not much of an exageration, honestly. It sounds so fking good. It has completely ruined any desire to hear the E46 exhaust. I'll be removing my scorza and going back to stock on the E46 to just hear the engine and induction. I can't stop driving the E90 now!

Younger me would now want to delete the secondary cats (there's a youtube vid of that setup and it sounds insane), but I'll probably just leave it alone. This, alone, is extremely satisfying. I have zero desire to buy a $2k akro or dinan or eisenmann.

I'll upload some vids to youtube and paste them here later. There are also many other OEM modded muffler videos out there. I can't believe this mod exists. I can't get over the sound. DCT downshifts are like a rifle. They scare people even more than the E46 induction barking does

[Maxima SE]

that looks amazing ! Been wanting to do something similar. Are you posting sound clips soon?

[0-60motorsports]

That’s amazing! Love the way it sounds and great work on the muffler.

[Tbonem3]

Thanks bro! I love how it's still a factory sound too. It's not a catless sound or aftermarket "tuner" sound. It's just stock, but opened up. Just need a Karbonius plenum now 😏

[Tbonem3]

Just some small updates before I post some larger ones.

As I had mentioned at the beginning, I really didn't like the wood trim. After a while, I found a nice condition brushed alu set from a m3post member:



So much better! I feel like the blurple against the bamboo cut with the silver aluminum is a very pretty, but sophisticated match and something I'd expect to see in a brochure from BMW. Very pleased.

The DCT knob was in mostly good shape, but the top was strangely worn, badly, so I replaced it - yikes so expensive



Even with 48k, there was some marring on the soft touch center hvac/radio/cupholder surrounding strip pieces. Though not very bad, because my E46 has all new parts, yet is almost twice the age and quadruple the miles lol, I had to replace the parts in the E90 doh

So it was both the face plates, one around the radio that goes down to console area, the one around the HVAC, and the long horizontal strip around the cup holders. Luckily the cup holders are in good shape, esp the one clsoest to the driver seat (most important, visually).





Now the car is up to my standards, and looks like a low mileage car.

Did a little maintenance. Still need to do more like brake fluid, PS, coolant, an oil change at the end of the year.

Charcoal filters - OE is Corteco. Same markings exactly, save the BMW logo.



Old ones were dirty. I'd have to double check, but I think I saw that they were replaced once, in the dealer service receipts. A little annoying to replace 4 small ones versus 1 big one.



Then an engine air filter just cause. I also took the opportnity to clean the dirty airbox. Like the E46 I believe, Mahle is OE for air filter (same markings save BMW logo):

[Tbonem3]

Despite liking the 219M wheels, in reflex silver, and preferring 18" for handling, I wanted 19"s on this car after going back to 18"s on my E46. I was fairly set on waiting for a good condition genuine M359 set to pop up on m3post or whatever, but I saw that Avante Garde had redesigned their M359 rep wheels to now be flow formed instead of cast, which sheds a lot of weight. They also look really close to genuine; one of the best reps I've ever seen. I also love the 13mm offset up front so you don't need spacers. Rear is same as genuine; 10et25" iirc. Found a vendor who lowered the price for forum members, and bought a set. I should have gotten PS4S, but figured I could save a little $ getting Conti's new ExtrememContactSport (PS4S competitor) since this is a daily I don't push the limits on. In hindsight, saving less than $200 wasn't worth it, though the tires are great - I just love PS4S. I went oversized with 255/275 which is a better match to 9"/10" imo, plus I love the beefier look and like that it's 35 profile, not 30 like E46 rears (19").



Really impressed with the paint on these. They actually look more like the fancy glasurit metallic paint of the CSL 163 wheels more than the M359's more subdued hypersilver imo.



Here's a comparison someone on m3post made between the two (AG is left, w/ black barrels). They're about 10lbs lighter total iirc, somewhat significant.



Certainly much prettier than the plain BMW "reflex" silver on the 18s (though, yes they're dirty):




First tried10mm spacer just for fun, but it was too tight, and I will not cut the fender liner or pull metal or anything. E9x fenders are already thinner than E46.



Went with a 5mm in the end, max I could go without rubbing. Nothing up front!





Very happy! The car is coming along!

[0-60motorsports]

Wow, Looks perfect! Enjoy.

[Tbonem3]

Even with only 50k, the stock shocks were not too thrilled about being paired with the Swift specR lowering springs. Autozone had a 25% off sale that, surpisingly to me, applied to Bilstein B8s (sport/lowering), so I decided to try that to hold me over until I get Ohlins (or whatever setup I decide on). I know, I know, I should just do it right the first time, but I guess I just like to have something to do, IDK.

To go with the new B8s, I got new spring pads and for the rear mounts, I went with Monroe (lol) of all brands, because they made this Dinan copy of shortened RSMs (gives back a little travel) with a tougher rubber versus the OE foam.




Luckily, I caught that the nuts supplied with the RSMs didn't match the pitch of the B8's threaded shaft. I don't know if it was american (sae) or if it was something like 1.25mm versus 1.5mm, but it was off, so I had to pry out the nuts. Luckily they weren't spot welded, just held in, so I replaced them with some good quality ny-locs I usually have on-hand that match the m14 x 1.5mm of factory (iirc). Maybe it's 16mm, can't remember.



The B8s are like B6 (sport), but shortened a bit. You can see the differnece here. The RSMs give a little more as well. There's a trick you can do up front for more travel as well that I'll touch on later. Like E46, with Billys, you need the bump stop in the rear, but up front, the bump is internal to the billy damper.



I don't often use power tools, but the hardware on the E90 seems to be about as twice as many and twice as long as the E46!




Damper in, bolt through, but not tight yet as I will pre-load it. Getting the wheel hub back into the lower arm is trickier than E46, but of course, the e9x chassis is superior to e36/e46 so fair trade off



Made sure to compress the suspension before tightening the bottom bolt as the billy has a bottom bushing that should rotate versus a ball joint like on some coilover sets.



Fronts were pretty easy because once you have lowering springs, you don't really need any spring compressors (if you're not a complete retard).



Since I'm reusing the mounts, and because the springs are short, I just left them in place. I have the right socket for the 21mm nut on my E46, but E90's was 22mm (7/8"), but luckily, there was enough room, with an angle, to use an end wrench to tighten it. I like that the front allen was a 6mm not 5mm, as the smaller 5mm ones have rounded more easily on me in the past.



All done!



The car immediately felt better, but it does still feel a little too bouncy up front, so there's one more "hack" I can do to hold me over until I spring for a coilover set: you cut down the stock mount's bushing. This shortens the "stack height" like we do with E46 by getting thinner camber plates. New mounts aren't cheap, but at 50k miles, and since I'd want them with a future Ohlins setup, I figure I should get new ones, and I can modify them to return a little more travel and stay off the bump stops.

[0-60motorsports]

That's awesome work brother.

[maupineda]

Yes, you can cut the front bump stops. unless they are already short, but typically they are 65mm long, you can shorten them to 40mm, which seems to be the height of the OEM. I think this will give you the travel to make the primary ride feel much better.

[Tbonem3]

I'm talking about cutting down the front mounts, not bump stops. This is to increase travel with no real trade off versus the trade off of a shortened bump stop (less progressive increase in spring rate)

[maupineda]

I'm talking about cutting down the front mounts, not bump stops. This is to increase travel with no real trade off versus the trade off of a shortened bump stop (less progressive increase in spring rate)

without data you are shooting in the dark. you need to take measurements.

[Tbonem3]

without data you are shooting in the dark. you need to take measurements.

I think you're confused. I've done what Dinan does to factory e9x mounts which is also similar to what camber plates achieve- reduced stack height aka more travel without change to ride height.

[akshon]

How's the ride with the b8's compared to stock shocks on swift springs.