Karter16's Silbergrau E46 M3 Journal

[karter16]

Well the initial couple of drives have been very successful. Couple of one time codes on first start up related to TPS and 1 misfire code, which I think was the engine being mad at the change of program plus blowing out the carbon from the throttle body cleaning. No repeats of any codes in the two 20 minute drives I've done since.

First impressions: the base CSL tune was not as bad as I was expecting. The warm up was rubbish as expected and lots of idle hunting, etc. going on. Once the SAP turned off things settled down. Driving around at slow speed was much smoother than I was expecting. The up and go was a bit muted, but tip in with the SMG was exactly the same as before and there wasn't any jerkiness under light/moderate acceleration. I presume that the reason for this is that my car is a Euro car, which differs less from the CSL than a US spec car does. I know that the US and Euro tune vanos maps differ significantly in places, so that would explain why the standard tune is worse on a US spec car. The car was quite reasonable to drive in the various conditions I tested it in.

Given this I wasn't entirely sure how much of a difference I would notice with v1 of my tune (which I must point out again is simply me making my own version of the approach which Bry5on has pioneered). I loaded it up and the improvement was immediately noticeable. The CSL tune wasn't rough driving around the neighborhood and it wasn't enormously noticeable that it lacks in peppiness under those conditions, but when you bring the peppiness of the standard M3 tune back at those low load, low speed conditions it is immediately noticeable as an improvement. I've logged the run in TestO and will go through it later. I need to adjust a couple of the timing maps in the 3300-3900 rpm range (I haven't quite got the crossover lined up right with the VANOS maps crossover and need to adjust slightly, but it's not off by much).

Extremely happy with how this has all gone. No installation issues, no programming issues and a good success with v1 of the tune!

[Slideways]

Yeah I'm planning on doing this based on your recommendation - I left as is for starters as wasn't sure how much additional noise I was in for at neighborhood speed/throttle and didn't want it to end up too loud, but having heard in person that it's fine in those conditions I'll now cut out the divider to get the full volume as you suggest!

If you want to test volume, try it without the snorkel. Sound is managed by throttle input.

[Bry5on]

The divider is functional (assuming you duct to the front bumper)! Just saying

[karter16]

The snorkel needs a bit of choppy choppy action to get the full sound effect

Yeah I'm planning on doing this based on your recommendation - I left as is for starters as wasn't sure how much additional noise I was in for at neighborhood speed/throttle and didn't want it to end up too loud, but having heard in person that it's fine in those conditions I'll now cut out the divider to get the full volume as you suggest!

[heinzboehmer]

The oil drain back to the pan has longer clip ‘fingers’ now than the original parts did. Not sure if this was a part number change, tolerance change or what. I didn’t replace the oil drain line originally and mine never stayed clipped in to the karb fitting for more than a couple drives. Bought a new line and it fits/clips like a glove.
On the other hand, almost all my fittings have come unglued one at a time from the airbox. Since mine is a daily, maybe it just sees more fatigue? 30k miles on the airbox now. Hope your epoxy stays set!

Needed a newer oil pan vent hose. Air shut off valve was a perfect fit though.

The snorkel needs a bit of choppy choppy action to get the full sound effect

Interesting. Neither of those hoses fit well on mine, even with the newer vent hose. New style hose is super close and hasn't fallen out yet, but it doesn't exactly clip into place.

Fortunately none of my fittings have come undone and my filter does seal well

[Slideways]

Nice, good to hear that newer airboxes don't have the same issues. Slideways and I bought airboxes from Karb around the same time and we've both had those issues with the hoses. However, don't think I've heard similar complaints from the other Bay Area friends with newer airboxes.

That reminds me, I still need to grind down the port for the small hose on the bottom...

Needed a newer oil pan vent hose. Air shut off valve was a perfect fit though.

The snorkel needs a bit of choppy choppy action to get the full sound effect

[Bry5on]

The oil drain back to the pan has longer clip ‘fingers’ now than the original parts did. Not sure if this was a part number change, tolerance change or what. I didn’t replace the oil drain line originally and mine never stayed clipped in to the karb fitting for more than a couple drives. Bought a new line and it fits/clips like a glove.

On the other hand, almost all my fittings have come unglued one at a time from the airbox. Since mine is a daily, maybe it just sees more fatigue? 30k miles on the airbox now. Hope your epoxy stays set!

[heinzboehmer]

Then it was back in with the first half of the airbox for reals this time. All of the hoses and connectors fitted perfectly - I didn't run into any of the issues heinzboehmer did - maybe Karbonius have refined since?

Nice, good to hear that newer airboxes don't have the same issues. Slideways and I bought airboxes from Karb around the same time and we've both had those issues with the hoses. However, don't think I've heard similar complaints from the other Bay Area friends with newer airboxes.

That reminds me, I still need to grind down the port for the small hose on the bottom...

[karter16]

Yesterday morning I completed the install of the airbox.

First up I took the wiring loom and laid it out in the engine bay to work out the best way to route everything (note the red ties temporarily holding it in place).



Once I'd done that I then temporarily installed the TB half of the airbox to get the position and orientation of the IAT sensor just right. I made sure to mark on the loom the orientation of the loom to the connector so that it sat just right. Then I uninstalled the airbox, removed the loom and attached the connectors for the MAP sensor and IAT.



The finished loom


I then installed the loom for real, cable tying at appropriate points:


And here's how the MAF connector end looks:



With that done the only wiring left to do was to relocate Pin 1 of the X6003 connector to Pin 18 which was a quick job:



Then it was back in with the first half of the airbox for reals this time. All of the hoses and connectors fitted perfectly - I didn't run into any of the issues heinzboehmer did - maybe Karbonius have refined since? The only annoying thing was installing the 10mm nut for the rear vibration isolator - there's not much room to get in there.

I clamped up the throttle body boots and moved on to installing the MAP sensor. I'm super happy with how the MAP sensor adapter has turned out - it's worked out exactly how I envisioned it would (I've got more to say about this which I'll do as a separate post).




Filter in place:



Various top-side connections done:



Then it was a quick job to install the front half of the airbox and the snorkel:



And finally with the rest of the engine bay back together (you'll have to excuse the dirty car - I'm in the middle of significant landscaping and renovations at the moment at home and it simply isn't worth me spending much time cleaning anything up as the clay dust gets everywhere:




Then in the evening I flashed the Terra 0401 program binary to the car (after taking read backups of the current prog and tune) and then the partial binary with what I'm calling the "base modifications" to make the 0401 work with non-CSL cams, code out the DTC for the flap, etc.

This morning I started the car briefly to confirm it would start and there were no major issues. A bit later today Dad is coming round to (a) come along for the first test drive and (b) hold the data-logging laptop while I drive. The plan is to take it for a run on the "base modifications" binary, log and make sure things are working as they should be and for me to get a feel for what the base CSL tune is like (my exceptions are for it to be rubbish like everyone says). Then I'll flash V1 of my tune and do the same thing and cross my fingers that it's an improvement.

We'll find out :-)

[0-60motorsports]

Awesome work. Look into doing an SMG relocation. Parts are easily available.

[karter16]

Boxing Day today and did some bits and pieces in between lunch with friends and playing with the kids.

First up - I cleaned the ICV and throttle bodies with CRC throttle body cleaner. I hate to think what's in it, but it works very well. The ICV wasn't as gunked up as I was expecting, and the throttle bodies were worse than I was expecting.









Of note is that I decided to use reusable screw-type hose clamps on the ICV - I intend to make cleaning it a semi regular exercise so decided screw clamps made sense given they are hidden anyway.



I swapped the oil dipstick tube out for the CSL one.





Connected the CSL SMG reservoir (and annoyingly split some CHF-11s in the process - best laid plans...). The final design of the bracket is still to come, I'll get to that once the airbox is fitted and I can play around with it.



And installed the CSL secondary air rail



Mr 3 and I came back from lunch a bit earlier than my wife and Mr 7 as Mr 3 had expended his socialization fuel tank. So I spent some time getting a nice finish on the 3D printed adapter for the MAP sensor. The adapter is printed in PETG-CF which comes up beautifully with a wet sand and then polish with some cutting compound and the polishing disc on the Dremel. The key is to go slow and not heat up the surface of the plastic too much.

It came up beautifully - the photo doesn't do it justice, it's a very nice finish indeed and matches the sensor well. I've epoxied the sensor to the bracket and will get some photos of the finished product when I install it tomorrow.



Lastly I spent some time this afternoon getting the MAF connector end of my extension wiring loom done. Because I don't want to hack up my wiring loom, etc. and want to retain the ability to return to stock I'm taking the approach with the wiring for the MAP and IAT sensors of making an extension from the MAF sensor connector which splits out and runs to the IAT and MAP sensor respectively. I'll follow the trunk that goes from the distro box by the ECU box across to the distro box underneath the ICV, and from there to the sensor locations.

In terms of the pinouts - all I need to do is to de-pin X6003 pin 1 (MAF signal) and re-pin it to X6003 pin 18 (MAP signal). I'll put a warning label in the ECU bay to note this so that I don't forget in the future and have an easy reference to return to using the MAF sensor if so desired.



Tomorrow the plan is to do a mockup routing of the extension loom, a test fit of the airbox, determine the final lengths for the extension loom, remove it, attach the connectors at the sensor ends and then reinstall. From there it's then on to the actual installation of the airbox, and then flashing the DME.

[karter16]

Forgot to add as well that Dad made up a threaded guide for a long 5mm drill bit for drilling through the RACP mounts :-)

[karter16]

Man that's some dedication. I would have cut it off and bought another on ebay if I ever wanted to go back

Yeah being in New Zealand by the time you add shipping unfortunately everything is expensive, so decided I'd go the extra mile

Next time, stick your hand into the intake hole and push from the inside. Pops right out!

Ah thanks! I did have a look/feel of it from inside the intake - sounds like I should have just pushed harder on it and I would have been sorted!

[heinzboehmer]

This morning I removed the LHS radiator cowl. My objective with these modifications remember is that I retain the ability to return the car to stock. I therefore didn't want to cut-down or cut off the cowling. It was a quick job to detach the top radiator pipe and slide the cowling out.

Man that's some dedication. I would have cut it off and bought another on ebay if I ever wanted to go back

All pretty straightforward - the little connector on the bottom at the back is a bit of a pain, but all done without too much fuss.

Next time, stick your hand into the intake hole and push from the inside. Pops right out!

[karter16]

This morning I removed the LHS radiator cowl. My objective with these modifications remember is that I retain the ability to return the car to stock. I therefore didn't want to cut-down or cut off the cowling. It was a quick job to detach the top radiator pipe and slide the cowling out.



Then right on cue the CSL oil dipstick tube showed up (along with the silver-coloured hardware I was waiting on for the airbox as well).



So I carried on going...

I didn't have a turkey baster for removing the SMG fluid from the reservoir, but I do have an abundance of my son's old enteral syringes and feed pump tubing :-)



All pretty straightforward - the little connector on the bottom at the back is a bit of a pain, but all done without too much fuss.




Next up will be a quick general clean up, as well as cleaning the ICV and throttle bodies (might as well while I'm in there) :-)