Black & Tan 332iT

[Cronenberged]

Seeing this made me go from 6 to midnight.

[Bry5on]

These simple dual pole, dual throw momentary switches fit right into the holes designed for the heated seat buttons and are much cleaner than the e30 switches that were there before. Pushing the forward rocker moves the seat forward, and the backward rocker moves the seat backward. Very happy with this!

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/...AQkgHL4gC6AvkA

[Bry5on]

Got on the lift this week and knocked out a couple crappy jobs:
1) Swapped in the M3 brake booster and master cylinder
Pedal travel is less but does seem a bit more boosted (softer) than the non-m, which surprised me. I was looking forward to a little more pedal effort


2) Replaced both rear lower control arms
The passenger side had been bent from before I took ownership. Dropping the diff to get access to a single bolt is rather silly! Oh well, I doubt I’ll ever have to touch them again, other than alignment.


And I also got a chance to test fit some 2.5” exhaust clamps to add another bracket between the SS section 1 pipes. There’s still a vibration on elevated idle, and I can feel the pipes resonate when I put a finger on them and smack them with my hand. Hopefully this kills the last of the SS vibrations and brings it back to stock levels (it’s pretty close now honestly). Took some measurements to waterjet a quick bracket (now where did the good calipers go?!).

[Bry5on]

The matching armrest showed up, now the interior looks complete. I know the natural brown cars normally came with black armrests, but I’ve gotta say that the color matched one really completes the interior.

I also received my lock for the 1up bike rack on the roof. Re-keyed that to match all the racks on all the cars and I’m in business there too.

[puma1824]

Wow great build. Love that you have the working flap on the CSL airbox AND those seats!!!! So tempted to get the same seats. How's daily driving with the CSL airbox?

[Bry5on]

Wow great build. Love that you have the working flap on the CSL airbox AND those seats!!!! So tempted to get the same seats. How's daily driving with the CSL airbox?

Thank you, it’s such a fun car! In non-sport mode, you can really barely tell it’s not stock during daily driving. It really opens up when the valve opens at 3300rpm (most gears) in sport mode. It’s not quite as raw and raucous sounding as the box without any flap was, but to me the flap smoothed out the sound when fully open and just made it perfect. When closed, you can only tell it’s not stock at wide open throttle above 3k if you know exactly what to listen for. I definitely recommend the flap.

edit: if you need extra motivation to get these seats, I’ll send you a driver’s side Brey Krause electric seat mount if you cover a flat rate box

[Casa de Mesa]

The matching armrest showed up, now the interior looks complete. I know the natural brown cars normally came with black armrests, but I’ve gotta say that the color matched one really completes the interior.

I have to say - that armrest really does tie the interior together really well. Definitely $$ well spent. Looks like it came that way from BMW!

I also received my lock for the 1up bike rack on the roof. Re-keyed that to match all the racks on all the cars and I’m in business there too.

1UP is making the best bike rack out there right now, bar none. I have a single rear hitch with an add-on rack. Their products just kill it.

[Bry5on]

I can officially declare victory on my quest for STOCK exhaust vibration smoothness from the SS v1 headers! The bracket I initially made was a huge help toward eliminating resonances at idle and throughout the rev band, but it didn't get all of them. I recently purchased some 2.5" exhaust clamps and bolted them together with a laser cut beefcake piece of sheet metal. I can unequivocally say that the SS headers with these two changes are absolutely as smooth as stock, with no vibrations added anywhere in the rev band. All idle ranges, transitions through rev bands, and all loads at all RPMs now feel great, smooth, like the car should.

Some photos of what I did (bracket in front of cats, and at header-section 1 joint):

[Bry5on]

The v2 recaro brackets showed up, powder coated and all and I was able to get them in today. They’re millimeter perfect fitment in every dimension, and I’m very happy with the finish. Thank you sendcutsend!

Link to CAD, if you're inclined to recreate these: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/c4...d0507e4eaa81d3

Final bracket version installed:

I also installed the upper steering column trim from a late cabrio (still waiting on the OEM mic, just wired my existing one in for now) and swapped out the steering shaft flex disc. No pics of the flex disc but here’s the cabrio column trim:

[Bry5on]

So today went rather well. I broke the scales out, along with my brother in law and his bike, and we weighed both, and also calculated the CG of both the car and the bike.

For the car, with a full tank, roof rack, a spare tire, e36 M3 (heavy) muffler, and all my 'always there' stuff under the trunk, the car came in at 3606lb without me and 3806lb with me. Weight balance is damn perfect at 48/52% Front/Rear !! and cross weight (without any shimming) came in at 49.66% with me in it. Hell yeah.



To measure the CG, I raised the rear of the car, corner weighed it again, and did some trigonometry. By my calculations, on stock M3 springs and 245/40/17 tires, the CG is 21.25" off the ground and centered fore/aft at pretty much exactly my seating position. Overall really happy with the results, even if the car is a little bit heavy with my choice of things.

CG measurement in progress:

[GreyM340i]

Amazing build! Love it

[Bry5on]

I had a few hours to spare this afternoon and snuck in a couple things:
1: Popped the drivers door panel off, added a missing clip for the door handle and redid the butyl as it wasn’t sticky
2: Popped the passenger rear door panel off and repaired the blown out bavsound speaker. The dome had separated from the cone and made a buzzing sound at certain frequencies, especially male voices.
Separated:

Repaired, painted black with sharpie so it doesn’t show:

3: Adjusted the ebrake to the correct 3 clicks
4: Removed the bimmerworld solid RTABs and replaced them with factory bushings. Man oh man I’m a lot happier with the factory parts. The car is quieter at all speeds, downshifting/rev matching is smoother, and the suspension is so much smootherover all the broken pavement we have here. I did my best at approximating the alignment but I’ll have it aligned to CSL specs again sometime this week before I drive to Sacramento to pick up a Mini GP my friend just bought.
Bimmerworld installed:

Factory replacements installed:

Bimmerworlds must be trimmed so that puller tools can remove them

Anyone local to the bay want some 5,000 mile old bimmerworld RTABs? They’d be great for a weekend only driver.

[maupineda]

I did not notice any NVH when I did my RTAB from solid works design. But I do think is very noticeable to go back to stock more so than aftermarket as we have higher expectations when modding.

[Bry5on]

I did not notice any NVH when I did my RTAB from solid works design. But I do think is very noticeable to go back to stock more so than aftermarket as we have higher expectations when modding.

Totally agree. When I installed these, I only really noticed the harshness on hard impacts. Going back to stock really highlighted the NVH differences during all types of driving, especially a bit of drivetrain noise that came through that I didn’t realize. It’s subtle but does make a difference for a daily driver.

[timmo]

Hah, same - between the spherical RTABs, GC 2-ways, and all the poly bushings.... well I did build my car for track but I don't do that anymore. My friend's beat-up 320 on stock suspension felt like riding on a cloud!