Tyler's 04 slicktop 6spd Silvergrey MCS/Brembo/CSL/Karbonius/Nogaros/Supersprint

[eforty6_m3]

Thanks guys!


Then I learned that the earlier cars actually got a different (non-Castrol) oil filler cap which I though looked better, plus new is nice! You can see the nice new ///M engine emblem as well:


[/SIZE]

Think I may be stealing this idea from you! I had no idea about this until seeing your post. 👍

[RoyalFlushness]

Beautiful car. I love the growl of the airbox in between shifts... so tempting.

[Tbonem3]

Still May/June 2018

A friend bought us some leather ///M gloves. It's a little dorky, but man leather gloves on a leather steering wheel make for great grip. With the huge stock seats (and no lumbar), the extra grip is appreciated!



CSL/Mini H5 Bosch battery! 34lbs vs 60 iirc



Given that I'm at 175k and there was talk of vanos issues due to weak accumulators plus the old style vanos pipe being weak with only one attachment point, I bit the bullet and replaced both with OE BMW.



Accumulator in



With the line out, it's a great time to polish the vanos! (Well, besides taking the vanos off for rebuild)





New crush washers for banjo bolts



All done



Got a brand new SS Sport (Gen 2) muffler second-hand after that huge 50% off BF sale (2017)! What a beautiful piece!




So did a friend, who let me borrow his right before getting mine



At first, I was enamored with it, coming from the stock piece, but after a while I realized it has a bit too much drone; the sound is good, but a little boring; not much character. Also, it's not very loud. That might actually appeal to many people, but from my viewpoint, I either want a quiet muffler so I can enjoy the airbox in full or I want a pretty loud muffler to enjoy. A valved sys is probably best for our changing moods lol.

I love this muffler though, really miss it. I wish I could take the 2.5", sound and volume from scorza and merge it with the quality and finish of the SS!

How can you say no to tips like these?



Yes, SS is a true 60mm OD (2.37"). It steps up to 2.5" OD at the slip fit connection to go over sect 2.

[Tbonem3]

This car makes me happy! Hoping mine can become 1/4 of what yours is today!

Thank you so much, but I saw your journal; your car is very nice and you're doing it right!

May 2018

My (front) Konis (GC coilover conversion) were getting old, so I decided to get new ones, but also to rebuild the TMS street camber plates with new bushings (poly).

Started up front. Disassembled



Disassembled the plates



Wasn't much grease left in the radial bearings, and dirty to boot, so good time to repack them. Now yes, these are cheap, you could just buy news ones for low cost, but it's fun for me to rebuild things...



Cleaned



Repack. Spread it around, wipe off excess. I love this "loctite viperlube" synthetic for non high-heat application!



Like new!



Got new hardware, and here's the new TMS bushing for the camber plate



Used a BAV (big ass vice) to pop out the old & the new one in



Donzo



All back together. Still rocking the 440lb front eibach springs at this point. I use toilet fitting gaskets (lol!) as spring pads to reduce NVH a bit.



Back in





I actually forgot to cut the new bumpstop down (for lower travel), so I had to take it apart again doh!



Moved the rears to find this:




I wasn't the original buyer of the konis, so instead of trying any warranty, I just decided to buy new dampers. I actually tried to get some Dinan JRZs where I could repurpose my GC coilover hardware, but it didn't materialize. It did lead me down the path of flat ride and koni (dual tube) vs. Bilstein (mono) and analyzing spring rates. I decided to modify my hardware to fit Bilstein HDs (B6). More on that later. To start it though, I bought rear Bilstein shocks to replace the blown konis and took care of the fronts later which I'll document.

Back in with Bilsteins. Still 550lb Eibachs.

[eforty6_m3]

This car makes me happy! Hoping mine can become 1/4 of what yours is today!

[Tbonem3]

April 2018

I found a used set of SSv1s and v1 "s" pipes with magnaflow 200 hfc welded in by Jack @ CPI from an M3F group buy back in the day. Got 18 new copper header nuts, and gaskets. I also got an OE EGR block off plate and deleted the SAP.

Down came the euro headers and cats. I loved them!









I cleaned up (wd-40 and scotch pad) the SS pipes 'cause I'm crazy. Also focused on where the pipes slip together, even chamfering/beveling the edge.







SSv1s in and new coolant hose ^ OE EGR block off and gasket v





Polished the heatshields quick and dirty

[Tbonem3]

March 2018

M3F member Donutboi (John) hooked me up with his OE front bumper that was in much better shape than my original. I did a paint correction, but was unable to completely take care of all blemishes. Luckily, the worst is down low.





Also polished my chrome grille surrounds



Also got new OE AL corner and side lights, with stealth chrome bulbs (they flash amber).



Then I got some newer, clearer inner taillights to replace my originals that had spiderweb cracks and some cloudiness/yellowing (that I'm holding)



Replaced my old D/A pulleys with lightweight Rogue Engineering ones




Did a Mulholland Cyn (south) run with Good_M3 (old JB) & Imola_M3 (tiag) in April



In the Sunset neighborhood in my town at the right time

[Tbonem3]

So just a month later, some 4.10s showed up in the classifieds. Hot off the airbox purchase, I guess I was in "fuck it" mode. I guess I don't have any pics really, just this one of undoing the propshafts and driveshaft. Dropped with a jack stepping it down and out of the subframe. Not too bad actually.



The gears are a riot, but I started to not like them, then couldn't stand them. Made me lazy. The car was faster in general, but there were plenty of times where I was slower at first because I would have downshifted, if not for the 4.10s. Oh well, I tried it.

In the meanwhile, I swapped my og sorza with my friend for his stock muffler with eurosport 3" tips. I wanted to enjoy the airbox! At this point, I still have the euro headers and catted sect 1.




January, 2018

M3F member ARM3D came over for an Evolve airbox install in his amazing, for those who remember, Interlagos zcp.





He took some cool shots of my car just in the driveway





A Dinan muffler popped up for sale and my friend who borrowed the scorza always like them so I grabbed it. The tips weren't great so I polished them like how Marc (GTfour) did his, completely. A real PITA lol. Used a drill with polish, used sand paper, whatever; that black coating was tough.






That's Mayhem, and he'll be your friend if you scratch him.

[Tbonem3]

Yes I did. I've put them back in recently actually. It'll be a while before my journal gets there :/

Glad to see this thread back. Great upgrades and excellent attention to detail. Keep up the good work!

Thanks Gary!

[rbg]

When I was young and inexperienced I was dreaming about LSB, IR and PY m3, but now steel gray and silver gray are by far my favorite colors. I also love black but it is just impossible to keep clean.
T do you have fog lights delete on a regular bumper or I am missing something?

[WOLFN8TR]

Glad to see this thread back. Great upgrades and excellent attention to detail. Keep up the good work!

[Tbonem3]

Thanks guys!

Soon after, was the BMW Mpower decal (Ebay decal guy). I didn't put it on immediately, but it felt unfinished, so I wanted to add it:







Then I learned that the earlier cars actually got a different (non-Castrol) oil filler cap which I though looked better, plus new is nice! You can see the nice new ///M engine emblem as well:

[Steve]

Love this build!

[Mike0032]

That airbox is a god damned piece of art.

[Tbonem3]

Thank you! Yes it is!

October 2017 - now that the car wasn't a daily any longer, I decided to finally ditch the armrest for the euro tray. Entirely new center console, "short" euro tray, Coby alcantara e-brake boot & alcantara ZHP shifter boot. Awesome! Still rocking the weighted ZHP knob at that point. I liked it (with AS SSK), but it was a bit low and stiff so looked for something different later.




Near the end of 2017, Evolve was running a brexit special on their CSL CF airbox. It still wasn't cheap, but prices had fallen quite a bit so I went for it! Came home to this 😎







Instead of paying a premium for CSL CCV parts, I found some nice quality black hose and black spring clamps to make my own, re-purposing the BMW fittings.



Install







I used Turner's MAF/IAT relocation adapter to not have to do splicing and be able to revert quickly.

I already had an Evolve stage 1 tune for euro headers and was able to upgrade for free! To an alpha N tune. I figured I'd try it since my car had so much maintenance done and ran so strong (as opposed to CSL, though I knew I had an mss54hp already so that was cool).

Luckily, the first drive was smooth enough to make it fine to the gas station, but power was down. That second drive though, wow it was starting to bark and pull very well. I went home with a huge grin on my face. The third drive was THE drive. Went to some open roads at night, quiet. I started to lay into it around 3.5k-4k, and the roar melted my face!

It's intense Man, I wanted to drive all night long. Here's a video, but ofc it doesn't do justice with so much wind noise

https://youtu.be/CeB5oeY33ws - incase the quality above is too poor

I also bought a new OE INA chain tensioner. At this point, I had spent so much $ on replacing things, and at 173k, I figured I would continue replacing important things that aren't usually seen as wear items or maintenance items exactly "just because."