Dan's original owner '01 dual duty M3

[01M3Fan]

I pulled the US headers out and installed a set of the Euro headers. Went with Evolve tune and I modified the Euro headers to weld in another set of O2 bungs so I could install the rear sensors.

First peak at the bundle of snakes.


Here's a picture of the porkers next to the Euro headers ready to go back in.



I stayed with the US section 1 and the car had a ton of rasp, great power - but wow, when combined with the shorter 4.10 gears the car really howls on the highway when you get on it...
So for my birthday/fathers day last year I removed the stock muffler (what a beast!) and installed a Status Gruppe Scorza muffler. Sounds glorious and I lost 25# or so on the car!!


Sound is unreal on the track - love it, but after daily driving it for a year - I'm planning to weld in a set of AR20 resonators and a pair of Magnaflow 200 cell metallic race cats to see if I can tame the rasp and quiet things down a bit.

One of my buddies welding in the new resonator




Changed my plan - welding in one AR20 resonator in parallel with factory resonator. Longer team will look to go to Supersprint setup, so trying to minimize expenses on this setup.

The AR20 was a HUGE improvement to the rasp - car no longer sounded like a 2 liter 4 cylinder with a giant muffler....

[01M3Fan]

Car has been very reliable, overall with typical problems others have encountered

Intermittent misfiring at 90 K miles solved by replacing all coil packs, found my coils had TSB but I was well outside extended warranty window

Had some issues with brakes and spongy brake pedal. First problem was I could not get my ECU to go into ABS bleed mode to purge system - Dealer, TMS and Independent BMW master mechanic could establish external communications with ABS unit. Puzzling even with lack of communication, ABS and DSC worked and no codes.... Solved by buying used ABS pump & memory for ridiculously short money from Pam Auto recyclers in North Dakota (or somewhere close), unit has lifetime guarantee and when I swapped electronics GT1 could talk with ABS unit - hurray!

Unfortunately that was not all of the problem... So I then changed master cylinder and then still no real improvement. Then, and in retrospect I should have done this first, searched this forum and I was able to piece together brake pads had a very real effect on initial brake "bite" and pedal feel. So off came the metal masters and on went the Performance Friction Z rated pads and all was right with the world! I'm sure the OEM pads would have the best overall bite for the street, but by this point I was tracking my car and wanted more fade resistance.

Had some clunking in the rear end of the car that I eventually tracked down to be torn unibody at the rear subframe mount points. I had Turner Motorsports, who are 20 mins away and awesome, do the weld repair and install their strengthening plates - while they were in there install 4.10 diff with REM polished gears, new guibo and new subframe bushings.

Biggest issue which was traumatic for me, more emotionally than financially (fortunately) was rod bearings. I'm an Engineer at a jet engine manufacturer so I am pretty good at knowing how to break-in an engine and I drive my car hard - but never until it's fully warmed and I have short, 5K, oil change interval. That being said - I dragged my feet on having local dealer do bearing recall (who knows what his training has been). Long story short - 18 months after the recall, my engine blows up (spun a rod), piston and valves meet and sadness... Then my local Service advisor after seeing my stack of maintenance records, puts on his tights and cape and comes to the rescue and BMW buys and installs a new long block as a goodwill warranty so now here I am with an 15 year old car with 120K miles on the chassis and now 35K miles on my engine - happiness is! :-)

[01M3Fan]

Around 60K miles I noticed some clunking from the rear end of the car when I got on and off the gas (no not the "M clunk") and I brought the car to TMS to have the guys check it out. Sure enough, the unibody where the rear subframe mounts was cracked... Unfortunately I can't find any of the pics of the cracks and repair from TMS... will add if I find them.

So I had them pull the rear subframe, weld up the cracks and then weld in their reinforcement plates to strengthen the unibody in that area. And I happen to ask about 4.10 rear end upgrade and they happen to have a customer with one that wanted to go back to stock - so I ended up with a low mileage Diffs On-line 4.10 rear end with REM finishing during the rebuild along with a new Diff cover. I love it and think this is the way the M3 should have been built - really wakes up the car! My diff has a little bit of an trailing throttle whine, but it's easy to manage so not really noticeable (to me).

[01M3Fan]

With about 45K miles on the clock, next upgrade was to move to Powerflex FCAB bushings and a set on TMS swaybars.

I purchased the baseline powerflex bushings and unfortunately after a few track days the passenger side (header side) bushing support housing gave up the ghost and cracked.



I also found that one of my front swaybar mount brackets cracked - always a good idea to investigate those unusual noises...



The folks at Bimmerworld were great and helped address the premature failure and get me into the upgraded powerflex race level FCAB bushings and I haven't had any issues with them since. I was tempted to go to the TMS FCAB with spherical bearing with grease fitting - but last time I pulled and re-lubed the new ones (no pic), they have been fine.

[01M3Fan]

Next updates was trying to improve the braking performance and reduce understeer.

I didn't have the cash to complete a BBK - so I upgraded to the BMW euro floating rotors and CSL front disks. With a pad update to Performance Friction - 008's for the track and Z-rated pads for the street, I've been happy with the performance.

I removed the front and rear backing plates while I was at it and had intended to add brake cooling ducts, but I haven't found that it was an issue yet for my skill level on the track.


I remember there were a lot of cutting tools involved and a lot of swearing - in retrospect, I would recommend not doing this unless you need the clearance or are running force fed cooling to the rotors. I haven't had any issues with this setup on the street in cold or wet weather.

[01M3Fan]

Trying to recreate my old build journal from the M3Forum.net days... With the passage of time, multiple computers and phones – there are a lot of holes in this, but bear with me. :-)

My car:
'01 Jet Black M3, Imola interior, executive & cold weather package and sunroof

My general approach has been to keep the car as well maintained as I can, when I am replacing wear items or address problems then I can look at potential upgrades. Goal is to keep the car comfortable (for me) and fun on the street and also make it predictable and as close to worry free as I can on the track.

Here's a list of my current mods for my M3:
Autosolutions Ultra 30% SSK
F10 BMW M5 shift knob
UUC Clutch Stop
BMW strut tower reinforcement plates
TCK Koni DA coil overs
- 300#F/550#R springs - Flatride!
- GC street camber plates
- RE street RSMs
- Vorshlag articulated adjustable rear spring perches w/reinforcing plate
TMS Front upper stress bar
TMS adjustable rear lower control arms w/rubber isolators
TMS aluminum pedal set
TMS floating brake caliper bushing kit
TMS SS brake lines
TMS M3 front sway bar 30mm full stiff
OEM rear sway bar
TMS Power Pulleys
TMS subframe reinforcements
TMS aluminum rear subframe mounts
TMS 12.5 mm rear wheel spacers
TMS race wheel studs 75mm F/90mm R
TMS black oxide lug nuts
Powerflex aluminum/poly FCAB
Syncro Design Works spherical bearing RTAB
Ground Control adjustable front sway bar links
CSL brake Upgrade
- CSL rotors, drilled, floating
- PF Z-Rated pads (street)
- PF 008 pads (track)
- F&R brake dust shields deleted
- Motul 660 RBF
Evolve Tune
- cold start delete
- SMG shift lights
- EGR delete
- 8,100 RPM redline
- speed limiter removed
- sport button memory enabled
- Tune for euro headers - turn down aft O2, turn off EGT EGR Valve blank off plate
Supersprint 63.5mm stepped headers & high flow cats
Stock US section 2
Status Gruppe SCZA muffler
4:10 Diff w/stock LSD
Apex ARC-8 18x9.5" ET35 wheels F&R
265/35-18 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S

My PM Schedule:
Oil & filter change every 5K miles
Brake fluid flush every other track day or annually
Cooling system zero timed at 90K miles
Coolant changed every other year
Transmission & Diff fluid changed annually when tracked, 30K otherwise
Caliper bushings cleaned & lubed after every event or annually
Tires rotated after every event or 5K mikes

Next:
Vanos overhaul & reset valve clearances
Turner Motorsports CSL Intake (on hand!)
ECU update to MSS54HP
MAP sensor
HTE "box" then Dyno tune


Now to how I got here....
I bought my M3 on May 18, 2001 from Jake Sweeney BMW in Cincinnati. I had planned to order a carbon black M3 and was able to test drive a Jet Black over Imola Red M3 at the dealer. The saleswoman called me just after my test drive and said that the deal had just fallen through on the Black M3 that I demo’ed – so I wasted no time and picked it up. I just looked at the bill of sale and the car had 45 miles on it when I bought it - it has ~ 125K now




I remember my 1st mod to the car was adding a UUC clutch stop from Turner Motorsports - really helped smooth out the shifts!

My next mod was a set of Koni single adjustable struts/shocks and a set of springs from Dinan. To this day, I think that is one of the nicest all around suspensions for a daily driver.

Then a friend invited me to my first track day and the slippery slope...