Black & Tan 332iT

[enjoy_m3]

if you ever decide to put an autosolutions short shifter, I can say you won't regret it. My z4mc with the autosolutions shifter and custom lever extender is "chef's kiss" lol.
Uncanny to see the rear tail pipes on a narrowbody. Like a sleeper tease. lol

[Bimma360]

The interior looks sooo good! An acquaintance of mine had a 330i vert at one point, maybe still does. I never drove it, but did sit in it and shift through the gears. The one thing I vividly remember, is the shift feel. It had a very nice non rubbery pop going into the gate.

[Obioban]

Weight:
I don’t know what the mechanism is, but for sure pressure plates get heavier over their lifetime. Every time I’ve replaced a pressure plate with a new stock part I’ve noticed it.
.

[bigjae46]

On to gearbox feel, it sort of ‘snaps’ into gear like the more modern Porsches (my target) and there is near as zero slop or imprecision in or between the gates. This is all with factory NVH isolating parts too. Really nice, actually changes the character of the car. It doesn’t feel as beefy as the getrag in a way, which is hard to describe, but you don’t need to muscle it into gear at all, it just happily pulls right into the next gate. We’ll see how I feel after a redline 1-2 shift, but I’m hoping that the M3 transmission mounts will help with that.

I'm telling you...the non-M gearbox has an outstanding shifting experience!

[Bry5on]

Alright we’re not done but finished enough to get the car out for a brief spin around the block.

I ordered shift selector rods from two places and @George Hill volunteered to overnight me one. Well, UPS punted ‘overnight’ to Tuesday, I barely missed the dealer order window and that also got punted to Tuesday, and I ordered a second from FCP to replace the incorrect one and eta was Wednesday. So what happened? The one with a Wednesday ETA showed up early today. Wild!

So in it went, then in went the carbon driveshaft (for now), followed by my nemesis. The supersprint headers and cats. I hate those things. They already had fit poorly before, but they weren’t even close to clearing the trans brace. One pipe needed 1/4” and another needed about 3/4” - so out came the sledge hammer and I got to office space these pieces of expensive metal. I’ve got about 1/8” of clearance now which is decidedly not enough but will do for a test drive.

Things I’m still missing: reverse switch, gear position sensor bypass (and coding), muffler heat shield, evap system hoses + cover, and a driveshaft that I trust at speed.

So I went for a quick drive under 35mph and rowed the gears a few times. First thing I noticed was the supersprint-derived exhaust leak, which closed up after a minute or so. After that closed up, it settled in to a nice stock sounding quiet idle. The M3 rasp is back which I’m not thrilled about, but some of the lower frequency aftermarket-sounding tones from the e36 muffler are gone. Oh, and I can feel the exhaust resonance again since I don’t have a bracket to tie the supersprint pipes to the transmission anymore. Will deal with that soon.

I went with the factory BMW performance shift lever (25-11-7-528-881) which feels just a hair shorter than the stock M3 shifter did. I liked the M3 throw but I’m not complaining because man this gearbox shifts well in comparison. The lever is positioned just slightly forward and to the right of the M3.

On to gearbox feel, it sort of ‘snaps’ into gear like the more modern Porsches (my target) and there is near as zero slop or imprecision in or between the gates. This is all with factory NVH isolating parts too. Really nice, actually changes the character of the car. It doesn’t feel as beefy as the getrag in a way, which is hard to describe, but you don’t need to muscle it into gear at all, it just happily pulls right into the next gate. We’ll see how I feel after a redline 1-2 shift, but I’m hoping that the M3 transmission mounts will help with that.

My car always had a heavier feeling clutch than others for some reason. No longer. This is odd because the pressure plate the came out and went in were labeled with the same part number, and I kept the slave that was in before. The only difference is the pivot pin is now factory plastic instead of the stainless 850i one I found in there. Oh well, a pleasant surprise.

So overall it feels nice! I never would have bit the bullet if I didn’t nuke the getrag, and all the downtime also gave me the motivation to tackle the trunk floor, so in a way I’m thankful to that shift fork for sacrificing itself.

[Bry5on]

Almost buttoned up. I'd argue it's not fully done until the hat has been reinstalled

Hahaha hilarious. But you’re right, that’ll be the sign of completion. The hat currently resides in the jag

[karter16]

And finally buttoned up the trunk!

Almost buttoned up. I'd argue it's not fully done until the hat has been reinstalled

[Bry5on]

Very cool. Just for inverse comparison. My wagon currently still has my good running m54 with a 420g clutch/flywheel/transmission to match my m3 3.91 rear end. Planning to rebuild an s54 to drop in eventually. So can confirm they are interchangeable between m54 and s54, no modification. All bolt on.

Funny, the proper inverse of my car

Today I logged a couple evening hours before dinner.

First, test fit the valance support brackets that printed while I slept last night




Then grabbed a good scan of the gearbox and shear plate installed for the header, or any other future, project:
https://s.digital3dcloud.com/space/f...3-ceb742a4a44c (downloadable)


Then spent some time trimming the trunk storage tray to work with the M3 floor


And finally buttoned up the trunk!


We're now just waiting on parts:

• Shift selector rod
• Electrical connector for jumping the GPS and extending the reverse switch wiring
• Rebalanced driveshaft
• Muffler heat shield and brackets
• Evap bracket, lines and cover

We'll see how far I can get on a full design for the valance support and hitch opening in the meantime.

[enjoy_m3]

Very cool. Just for inverse comparison. My wagon currently still has my good running m54 with a 420g clutch/flywheel/transmission to match my m3 3.91 rear end. Planning to rebuild an s54 to drop in eventually. So can confirm they are interchangeable between m54 and s54, no modification. All bolt on.

[Bry5on]

Some ups, some downs today. First, added some light insulation to the floor and used @George Hill's sweet stud puller tool to install factory coarse threaded riv-studs for the trunk floor support. I'll use these same studs from underneath the car to add the mounting points for the evap system cover once I have that in hand.


Then we moved along to the shift components - something doesn't look right here..




I was sent a 330d shift selector shaft in a bag labeled with the 330i selector shaft part number! That'll prevent the driveshaft from going in and getting the car rollable - carbon or otherwise.

Then I hung some really damaged evap parts to test fit the stud placement. Fortunately that all worked out great and the harness is the right length without needing extension or shortening. Pretty slick.



Next up I ground out the existing non-m muffler mount studs (they're too short for M3 hangers) and installed some larger M8 bond-in studs similar to the evap studs.



While that was curing, hung the muffler for a final test fit and reinstalled the trunk plastics. Really happy with the placement of the muffler with the brackets and drill templates that all came from scans! And it's starting to look like a car again.

[Bry5on]

Can you circle it in the pic? I see one small dent in the tub area in the mold. Not sure if that's what you're referring to.

That’s the one - it’s right near where the mounting stud for the evap cover will go

[bigjae46]

Driver’s side of the trunk floor. You can see it in the shot of the fancy studs. I wish I thought it was that one!

Can you circle it in the pic? I see one small dent in the tub area in the mold. Not sure if that's what you're referring to.

[Bry5on]

Are you talking about the dent in the middle of this picture? I'm pretty sure that's just how the part is.

Driver’s side of the trunk floor. You can see it in the shot of the fancy studs. I wish I thought it was that one!

[bigjae46]

I had a 2004 330Ci that was supercharged to 300ft/lb of torque from 3k rpm. It was the UUC kit with the street clutch which, IIRC, was just an OEM clutch disc or something very similar. Never had an issue with slipping or excessive wear.

Are you talking about the dent in the middle of this picture? I'm pretty sure that's just how the part is.

He told me he noticed a dent...I thought he was talking about a different dent 🤣 I'll shut my mouth now.

I think that is part of the floor. I remember thinking that's a weird place for a dent.

[heinzboehmer]

Are you talking about the dent in the middle of this picture? I'm pretty sure that's just how the part is.