Black & Tan 332iT

[karter16]

I've very recently learned that perhaps the entire heater core/HVAC unit needs to be swapped. So maybe this is more trouble than it's worth...

Ah that would be disappointing. From memory when I looked into this a few months ago, the connector profiles are the same between the two units, and as far as I could tell the only other HVAC system parts that were different were the wiring harness, and the presence of automatic AC sensor. I reckon it would at least be worth swapping control unit out and seeing what breaks.

[Bry5on]

Nice! I quite like the simplicity of the knobs as well - it's a straight plug and play swap right? (The only time it's not is if you get the non-AC version of the knobs I think?)

I've very recently learned that perhaps the entire heater core/HVAC unit needs to be swapped. So maybe this is more trouble than it's worth...

[karter16]

I also managed to find uncut rear fender insulation and the knob HVAC panel. For some reason I like the knobs.

Nice! I quite like the simplicity of the knobs as well - it's a straight plug and play swap right? (The only time it's not is if you get the non-AC version of the knobs I think?)

[Bry5on]

A couple recent repairs worth documenting, otherwise working well.

The BavSound driver's side woofer failed, the rubber surround tore and would buzz at certain frequencies. These were installed when I got the car, so I contacted BavSound and they were super cool to sell me just a pair of replacement woofers. The woofers are a newer style with an inverted surround that appears like it won't have the same failure mode. New style on the left, old style on the right (repaired temporarily with black RTV):


A while back I'd been struggling with a ticking/clicking noise in my steering column. After putting in new lower bushings that sound went away, but recently a new clicking sound appeared, and this one was louder and came with feedback through the wheel. I figured it was wear at the spline joint of the bottom of the steering column, as everything else is new or rebuilt by me, so I decided I would take this opportunity to do the final part of a manual swap. Not relevant to the M3 guys, but automatic e46s have a shifter cable that prevents you from removing the key if the car is in gear. This makes the key tumbler harder to turn and always bothered me because I knew it wasn't right. So this morning I headed to the local junkyard and lucked out to find a manual e46! Taking out the steering column with the wheel locked was tricky but doable by separating at the tilt/telescoping joints. I then had my way with an angle grinder and managed to remove the ignition tumbler without a matching key but still leaving no damage to the column itself. I swapped my tumbler in and away we went. Clicking problem is solved.

I also managed to find uncut rear fender insulation and the knob HVAC panel. For some reason I like the knobs. There were two black e46 tourings (one an '06!) with black interior, and one was a slicktop. I resisted the urge to take the headliner and pick up a very large project.


On the top is the manual column, bottom is my automatic one:


I took the best of parts and hybridized them into one column:


Hard to drive this way:


I also took a video of the Mullet tune in action. This is reversing from idle up my driveway, which is uphill, at a temperature that should have had the car operating in the regular (not cold start) map. You can get a sense of how easy it is to take off from a start with the tune, and this will most likely look unfamiliar to you if you have an s54 with stock cams and a CSL airbox:

https://youtu.be/hAV2H8qVOMA

Bonus shot of the car taking advantage of my extra-clearance M3 suspension setup:


I guess this was a bigger update than I expected.

[Bry5on]

Replaced a dying ignition coil and washed it. Thought it cleaned up pretty well for 230k miles.

[Bry5on]

Well look at that, rear 18x8.5 style 135 wheels will clear the front 996 brakes with a 3mm spacer. That makes a perfect et47 front offset. If only there was an 18x9.5 et45 or so to match in the rear for a CSL 235/265 stagger. Barrel clearance is the same as my 17” Apex wheels.

[0-60motorsports]

One of the tunes was done remotely so yes it is an option!

Awesome!!! Thanks for doing this.

[Bry5on]

Oh Thats great! That means us others are looking lucky right now if you were to do this for us LOL. Cheers.

One of the tunes was done remotely so yes it is an option!

[0-60motorsports]

I tuned my car that has the OEM CSL setup and SSv1s and downloaded the tune to the two M3s without any changes. My WOT tunes also target different interpolation RPMs to get the flattest AFR curve I could after several iterations with the wideband O2 sensor and CAN datalogging (both faster and higher sample rate than Testo). Timing and knock sensitivity are not quite as aggressive as some of the aftermarket tuners, I’d rather have less risk of damaging the motor than 5 extra horsepower.

Oh Thats great! That means us others are looking lucky right now if you were to do this for us LOL. Cheers.

[Bry5on]

Did you tune two M3s with the OEM CSL setup and SSV1's or just one? if two were there differences in the tune between the two? Im guessing yes if you were custom tuning both.

Great work on the tuning.

I tuned my car that has the OEM CSL setup and SSv1s and downloaded the tune to the two M3s without any changes. My WOT tunes also target different interpolation RPMs to get the flattest AFR curve I could after several iterations with the wideband O2 sensor and CAN datalogging (both faster and higher sample rate than Testo). Timing and knock sensitivity are not quite as aggressive as some of the aftermarket tuners, I’d rather have less risk of damaging the motor than 5 extra horsepower.

[0-60motorsports]

Did you tune two M3s with the OEM CSL setup and SSV1's or just one? if two were there differences in the tune between the two? Im guessing yes if you were custom tuning both.

Great work on the tuning.

[Bry5on]

Well we've now got a total of 4 cars (two 332it wagons, two M3s) with the Mullet Tune and so far the feedback from the 3 with OEM CSL setup and SSv1 headers is that it's working quite well, no more funky low RPM or throttle blipping behavior. Next up we'll get another 332i sedan setup with stock M3 headers (same as the second 332it) and we can make sure the tune works just as well on those cars. Very pleased with this, it's no longer the end of the world if you catch yourself at low rpm and need some torque.

Here are a few pictures of the car being enjoyed as it should be (among friends)!



I can't stress enough how much of a blast it is to blast down some trails on the mountain bike, then hammer on the car through the mountain twisties on the way home. Having the bike on the back really helps it hook up on the throttle, a little bit of that 911 feeling. The bike and hitch are about 90lb together and give it a 46.5/53.5 F/R weight balance (49/51 without) (a 991 Porsche 911 is 42/58, and a cayman is 47/53). It's the absolute greatest.

The AVIN head unit crapped out on me, so I bit the bullet and ordered an XTRONS. The XTRONS is significantly better and easier to use, more polished (although not perfect, it's much better). Since this has a nice EQ, I broke out the UMIK-1 microphone and REW (Room EQ Wizard) to correct the frequency response. This car has BavSound speakers, so if you're looking to grab these settings, be sure to make sure you have a wagon with HK and BavSound speakers first!

On to the data:
Frequency response of the system set (both 1/3 and 1/6 smoothing shown):
- Flat with HK off (red)
- EQ applied with HK off (green)
- EQ applied with HK on (purple)
RT60 Decay response (after EQ):
Spectrogram plot that highlights in-cabin resonances (after EQ):

And the EQ settings:

Plus a little rear bass bump (not included in any of the EQ plots above) because the woofers in the wagon are on the rear channel, facing the tailgate:


Overall happy with the XTRONs unit now, and I prefer all of the response tweaks that the HK system adds even after EQing with it off - it really does appear pretty well tuned to the e46 cabin and speaker placements.

[puma1824]

Well, the Mullet Tune is an absolute resounding success! This morning, I removed the stock airbox, added some extra foam where the filter didn't seal well (there was sand behind the filter!), then reassembled with the CSL airbox. I also measured the length of the trumpets in an effort to calculate any shift in peak power resonance. The trumpets in the stock airbox and the CSL airbox are nearly identical in length, so I had even more positive reinforcement that the Mullet would be a likely success.





After that, I uploaded the Mullet Tune and went out for a drive. From v1, I only had to make a couple corrections: pull a degree of timing out from 1900-2200rpm at WOT, and tune the exhaust cam advance around 3700-3800rpm under mid-throttle. I haven't touched the fuel maps yet, but it's just about on the money as is.

It works exactly as expected, smooth like a stock M3 down low, and rips like before up top. Downshift blips are doing just what the pedal asks for, super repeatably and responsively, there's no lumpiness in the rev band under 3k anywhere, and you can go WOT at any time without pinging. I had a good long 6th gear uphill WOT pull from 1200rpm to 3100rpm that was smooth sailing the whole way. Tip-in is smooth and not jerky, making shifting a little smoother and easier. I was enjoying driving around at low revs nice and quietly, and finding excuses to downshift from every perceivable rpm just to get the satisfaction of solving the CSL tune issues. So this is the hot ticket for a bolt-on CSL conversion! This really increases the jeckyl/hyde nature of the car even more, it's so docile and smooth around town, but when that valve opens at 3300rpm, the game changes. A solid fix!

wow! Is there any way to do the tune remotely? I'm in dire need of assistance.

[Bry5on]

Is the MSS70 in your scope :P. This is very cool an methodical approach as it should, and if fact, as is done in product development.

Oh man, that would be a cool project - I'd love to have a Wideband O2 sensor in-the-loop conversion for the e46 chassis. But no, not in scope

The tune is pretty well dialed in now, I'm hitting 14.7 +/-.3 AFR (2%) in pretty much every cell in the map and I've got WOT holding steady around 12.5:1, trending down to 12:1 at redline. Cold starts and idling is nice and smooth. All said, it didn't take much to make it perfect after all of the other map work!

[maupineda]

Is the MSS70 in your scope :P. This is very cool an methodical approach as it should, and if fact, as is done in product development.