2005 "Cockroach" M3 12/2 Tstat and Water Pump make love, more welding, New PB at MSR

[samthejam]

As promised, only did the front rotors for now. Rear rotors still good so want to get moneys worth out of those.

Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Also sourced all the missing OE stuff for the battery. Little things.
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

I daily drive with the PFC 08s so the brake dust is horrednous.
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr


Had a wedding
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Instead of honeymoon, decided to do headers. That was a debacle.
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Also did trans mounts
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr


Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Has a really interesting exhaust note, definitely doesn't sound like the BW exhaust I have mostly heard.
Megans, stock section 1 and their street track section to the back.

https://youtube.com/shorts/YnXjFI84Etk?si=6l7yJPmnC2eBBgKs

https://youtube.com/shorts/CcqBaVtJbOI?si=8yK9JPV52NNel1r2

[samthejam]

Ordered the Reddish subframe reinforcement and AKG 75D subframe bushings, so that is next. My suspicions of the car having a tune have been confirmed, cat deficiency always showed as not ready. No CEL yet after the headers. When we did the CSL shift setting and 105 DTC error disabled. We used Martyn's tool and Cat deficiency was greyed out. I saw this before on a friends car but it was for the burble setting, so someone has tampered with it and software won't let you touch that setting. So no idea what's on it but someone has cooked here before.

CPV valve is starting to leak but didn't have the tool or the part so that is ordered as well.

[George Hill]

congrats on the wedding!

[samthejam]

Thanks George!


Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Took Friday off work, after a friend offered he could help weld in the Subframe plates. I had to rent the shop space, but that's okay. Was able to align it there and everything. I also paid my friend for the labor of welding, cutting and grinding basically hot glueing the plates in and repairing any damage. Glad I did came out better than I would've. Picture of on my way there.

Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr


Onto the pictures.
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

After an hour or so

Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

It was time to replace the subframe bushing with AKG 75D as well as replace the cracked right rear spring arm, I had been fully relying on the stainless steel reinforcement to hold it together. Even though I was at a BMW specialist they did not have a tool that was fairly easy to remove the subframe bushings. However I brought my RTAB tool because I thought I read that would work. It didn't, but I fiddlefucked with it and made it work.

Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Worked like an absolute treat with the torch. No impact just a regular 3/8th ratchet. Hammered the new AKGs into their new home.
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Onto the spring arm and guibo. I sourced a brand used one.
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Basically where it stopped for Friday, besides having the area cleaned and inspected. We found 3 areas that were cracked.
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr



Came back Saturday morning and my friend was feeling a lot better and cranked it out.
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Welded up the cracks, and note the gas tank is still in there. Those got covered with wet towels when welded. The Reddish plates were huge so we trimmed them a bit, as I did not want to mess with dropping the tank. I did show up with it with less than a gallon, but we worked around it.

Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

I also found a Hotchkis swaybar laying around the shop, so put that on. Was very pleased about that.
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

I haven't been able to do my alignment myself on a machine in a long time, so that was a fucking treat.
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Forgot to take a pic but -3.5 camber in front, zero toe, didn't hit my camber number I wanted on RR for some reason. So it was -2.0 and -1.6, rear toe is just factory specs.

Car drives great, absolutely transformed can feel what the rear end is doing now and the front bar really helped with the softer spring rate I have up there.

Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Total time spent doing everything was 24 hours, two 12 hour days.

[jayjaya29]

Big 3 done!

[cornerbalanced]

Have you measured your ride height yet as it sits now? Sorry if I missed it.

Alignment spec is -3.5 front (no toe), -2 rear (factory toe)?

Love those SSRs!!

[samthejam]

Have you measured your ride height yet as it sits now? Sorry if I missed it.

Alignment spec is -3.5 front (no toe), -2 rear (factory toe)?

Love those SSRs!!

I keep forgetting to check this. I forget exactly what it is but I remember raising the rear because of this thread.

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/main-forum/e46-2001-2006/9123-e46-m3-suspension-setup-or-how-to-not-downgrade-your-car-with-suspension-mods

It is somewhere in this window but I am limited in what I can do since my fronts are at max height with this GC setup until I get taller springs but I like the height so probably won't change.

[samthejam]

So got the strut towers finally welded, they have been cracked since I got the car as well as the Strut brace. My friend was able to tig it in the car with everything still assembled.

Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Strut Brace also repaired. It was cracked clean through.
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr


I signed up for an impromptu event at MSRH, my local track. Very familiar with this place, and aren't many consequences here for most places when you push so it's great to feel a car and test it out. I was really low on rear pads, so just wanted to get one test session in. They had some portable curb things to move the apex's which in a couple spots was terrible like into Gut Check and coming out of Keyhole were the most irritating ones.

Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Car is super easy to drive though, the new Hotchkis bar was a nice addition. It is at the softest setting right now, might want to stiffen it but the balance of the car is very good. Overall it is too soft so on the 265 Rs4s now it is okay but if I start running fresher Hoosier takeoffs or even RE71RS I am a bit concerned itll be a bit soft. But anyways car was boogie'ing. Annihlated my PB here I did in the E28 on Hoosiers.

Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Here is a lab of the PB:

Unfortunately after that PB car bit me and the thermostat went into the water pump. So the car has been running extremely cold, which has been tough to daily drive with since it's finally getting moderately chilly here in Texas. I had a used thermostat on standby, but was debating on going the Anri 70C or motorsports thermostat. Red light of death luckily never came on caught it quick and was able to coast/ limp car into pits.

I had a friend drive me back home to grab the thermostat, as I suspected that was bad since the top hose was hot and bottom room temp. I thought the thermostat froze shut. I brought my spare used water pump as well just in case. Glad I did.

Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr


I also was lucky enough to have this which I had on hand just for emergency's.

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/classifieds/member-services-rentals-products/4125-m3-s54-cooling-system-hi-temp-o-ring-kits

Was able to get the car all patched up with the brand used parts and new orings and it left under its own power.

Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr


Systems check the following day.
Untitled by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr


So if you notice all the parts that were removed are absolutely covered in RTV (I hate RTV). Well one connection was not and I think this thermostat has been out for a long time. So when we were assembling everything, the water pump pipe stayed with the thermostat housing. We found out it cannot be assembled like this. So we got the pipe out which took quite a bit of time as it had never been seperated.

Now it's hard to say since my thermostat came out in many pieces. However my hypothesis is the monkey who was in here before and replaced the water pump (2010 date code) as well as the thermostat did not know that pipe needed to be be in the block/head first. He jammed it all together somehow, and this bunged up the thermostat. Since I got the car it had a coolant temp implausible code and then I deleted that DTC. My guess is, it has been like this for a long time but anyways all correct now.



There will be a HPDE next weekend I'll be instructing at will test car more. Then it will go on a long roadtrip and get a day of beating on at Road Atlanta the following weekend.