Cockroach Individual M3 9/12/2026 PFC BBK, Euro Headers, MSW Engine Mounts

[samthejam]

Going to Road Atlanta again soon, so trying to just go through and take care of more stuff on the car.

Went ahead and did every single cooling line.

I had to penny pinch on a few things, went to Ebay and found a 2018 date code expansion tank as well as a similar date OE fan.

- used OE expansion and fan blades (newer date codes)
-Tropical sachs 75C fan clutch
- Bimmerworld Radiator hose kit with new ends(they were on Black Friday sale)
- Rogue expansion tank vent hose (easier to fix god forbid I need to at side of road and about same price as OE)
- OE hoses for everything else (3 heater hoses and expansion tank outlet hose)

Car already has a koyo rad and 70C thermostat. Now it is a little too cold blooded for street driving tbh and the weather we are having right now.

I installed the upgraded orings on all the non OE hoses. I'll have the upgrade ones in a bag as spares with me.

It is icky in there.

Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr

Desperately needs a pressure wash.
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Also did pads for the front.
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and I ended up with a set or two of Hawk Blue after selling some parts. Not too excited to run them, however the price is right. The noises they make have been funny so far, and I am pretty tolerant of race pads. I daily drive 20k+ miles a year on PFCs. However these Hawk's might be too much.

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These Conti ECFs are fucking bricks, they have stopped wearing out. They still annoyingly have plenty of tread. Should be at 13k miles now with the June Road Atlanta event on them. I can easily spin 1st and 2nd on a cold dry day. I just got major sinus surgery, and still haven't fully healed as of writing this so probably shouldn't have been doing this car work but whatever.

Anyways tire budget is struggling but found some used 245/40R18 A052s from one of my favorite used tire guys for $600. So I'll be trying those. Should have plenty of sidewall support on my 9.5..... I was going to get Hoosier R7 scrubs but my wife will be with me on this trip and 4 tires in the car would be a big ask from me for her to put up with. So these should get me through the trip and probably a local DE or two as well.


Bridgestone RE71RS is being discontinued so hopefully can get 265/35r18 set on sale as retail is like $1600 after taxes. So far that 265 size seems to work the best with my setup and wheels.

[George Hill]

Great opportunity, and drank from the garden hose as far as learning what works for these cars for racing. Got to do the pitstops too, was a good time.

Love that livery, love that team.

Great experience!

[bigjae46]

Peter knows how to break shit in new and innovative ways...lol

[samthejam]

After the event, two things were bothering me: power steering pump noise and an exhaust rattle driving me insane. The secondary O2 sensor was falling out, so I tightened it. I replaced the power steering pump with another used X5 unit and installed its matching used filter from the donor car.


Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
Pleased with the tire wear after three events—two at MSRH and one at COTA—with 7–8k street miles. No rotations or flips, all on the same corner. My shoes and tires are both struggling.

Also picked up a greasy S54 from a Facebook listing just 15 minutes from my house. It came with a 6-speed, MSS54 DME, and an S54 in unknown condition for $3k. I believe it has 137k miles, based on the last inspection history record for the VIN from the DME. I pulled the valve cover off and found both VANOS tabs broken, so it should make a good core to go through and refresh as a spare. It turned over easily and had compression.


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Washed it put the stupid ECFs back on.

Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr

I also ended up pit-crewing for a WRL team this past weekend at Sebring. Their lead mechanic was sick, and I was recommended to help since they were so short-handed. They only had one of their regular pit crew members—usually there are three regulars—so it ended up being just me and him.

The car qualified P1 but then had a guibo failure while getting the dyno numbers.


Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr

The next morning, we found out the guibo failure had taken out the O2 sensor heater fuse. It’s a stupid design with how that fuse is placed, but we got it swapped out. Then, with 10 minutes to go, the lower radiator hose started leaking. Glad it started leaking there—we swapped it out and still made it to grid.


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After winning Saturday, we were getting an odd oil leak going all over the windshield. Bet you have never seen this before.

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Spare parts FTW.
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Swapped in a spare unit and it made it through the whole race no issues to take home another win. Definitely a fun job to do in a parking lot by flashlights.

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Great opportunity, and drank from the garden hose as far as learning what works for these cars for racing. Got to do the pitstops too, was a good time.

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[samthejam]

I switched most of my resources to the E28, put a new engine in it and have been welding up cracks so E46 has been sitting. Just using it to drive once a week or like if I need to travel it'll sit at airport or if I need a car with A/C it comes out.

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So I did some interior changes, floormats to make it easier to clean because tired of trying to get all the dust out of the carpet and dead grass. The storage cubby disintegrated into my hand one day. So I swapped to the glasses holder, style one. I bought a brand new sunroof access panel thing from BMW, it was only $17 so I got two.

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Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
IMG_1417 by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr

I also got new headlight lenses, took them off some 2001 M3 headlights.

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Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr

Airport car.
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I also added blindspot mirrors. Absolutely LOVE this change. Just like I did on my E28, bought a spare set just in case as I consider these mandatory now.
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Trackday was coming up so I had to dust it off. My usual thing is drive the car for a week and do a nut and bolt check, check all fluids. Of course the diff needed to be topped off. The exhaust was ratlling like a MFer, it's always been an annoying piece of shit. But lately it was really bad. Found out why, one of the mounts was snapped clean off.

I booger'd it with a flux core welder. I think I have blown out my section 1 as it rattles pretty bad internally so when I replace that, I'll weld this better.

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I topped off diff fluid and put on my old Direzzas that had 2/32nds tread all around. For two reasons, I hate the conti ecf's, for me on my 9.5 inch wheels they just don't work. I have 11,600 miles on them now they are bricks now with soft sidewalls it just isn't pleasant. The other being this is first time tracking the car with the MCS 1WNR, so I wanted the direzzas on as they are worn out but I was comfortable with them so wanted to keep that as a known. Goal was to kill them.

I can happily say I didn't have to touch car all weekend, and spent most of it in oversteer. MSR just had a "repave" which completely changed bus stop on the track. The track also hadn't been driven on in 3 months so it was interesting. I had a great time. We also got to do a track walk. This was eye opening. This is MSR's original surface. No wonder it is so hard on tires LOL.
Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr

I had some students with BRAND new porsches so was there the whole weekend in dress shoes and slacks, as all my other clothes are super greasy.

Wife also did parage laps in the car.

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Tire wear was pretty good. I thought I was gonna wear the rears out first, but the RF outer corded first. However, I am very happy with this tire wear. No flips, no rotations. 3 events with about 7,000 street miles. I started to wear the fronts out when I couldnt be so aggressive with the throttle, so started to get some mid corner push.


The rears:
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Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr

RF:
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Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr


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Duct tape hanging off is pretty funny, but it did 10 sessions this weekend.

Also first time with the Koyo, when the ambient got to around 92, temp gauge would go slightly above half. Turned heater on and that was no longer an issue. Anything cooler than that no issues. Oil temps didn't even get to the third dot. Probably 230F?

Pace was very off this weekend, I'll link some videos. With how green track is and how fucked my tires were, I am not mad. I was fighting for my life to get 1:49s out of it. I almost had a 1:48 but had traffic, so ended up being a 49. Hoping with fresh tires can get it back down the 46s in the right conditions. Ultimate goal is a 45 on 200tw. Sucks the Direzzas are NLA, I really liked them.

Getting a little too comfortable sliding the car, video a wife got of me chasing a E36 and sliding all the way out to the wall:

Can see the car has no more lateral grip in it for the high speed lol:

Last but not least, trying to impress my friend Haas old SCCA Champion on my homemade slicks with the sun in my eyes. He is my neighbor so we carpool to the track. I got a "nice" and thumbs up for one of the sections so I take that as a win. Last part was going to the fastest lap of the weekend but hit traffic.

[samthejam]

Also with the new wheel, my radio no longer was functional because my volume button is fucked. On/off usual problem with the broken plastic mount as well as the encoder for volume was broken. I did find a really nice radio off Ebay, a BMW reman. A guide to the part #s in case you ever need to replace a stock single din. I am happy with just aux. https://web.archive.org/web/20230314...y-MP3-Data-CDs!

[samthejam]

I think the pics are pretty self explanatory. I grinded some of the old poorly welded areas and drilled out any cracks. Zapped even more reinforcement plates on there.

The left side was really bad, it has had creaking over bumps I can hear on the highway with radio off. Incredible the pace the car has put down on track like this. That is gone now, still some poly squeaks but the groaning and creaking is gone.


Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr

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I also went to Tokoyo for my honeymoon. After a lot of searching found a Nardi I was happy with for the M3.

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Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
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Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr

[bigjae46]

Yes, they were very cracked before. They didn't get drilled for the cracks, had a buddy who tig'd it and it is cracking again on some of those welds.

I want to drill the cracks. Weld the cracks up. Than spotweld the reinforcement plate to the tower

At this point, you really should at least stitch weld the plate underneath with a MIG then hammer the metal flat against the plate finish with a couple of rosette welds on the top side. If you just tack weld the plate you're going to be in the same spot as you are now or maybe worse.

[samthejam]

Don't you have the reinforcement plates for the strut tower?

Yes, they were very cracked before. They didn't get drilled for the cracks, had a buddy who tig'd it and it is cracking again on some of those welds.

I want to drill the cracks. Weld the cracks up. Than spotweld the reinforcement plate to the tower

[bigjae46]

Don't you have the reinforcement plates for the strut tower?

[samthejam]

I did clean it.
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However it is dirty again. 8 hour round trip for a work trip.
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After I finished that. I installed some MCS 1WNR
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Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr

Had to fabricobble a spacer.
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The front towers need to be repaired again, not sure how I will attack that and with all the fiddling the alignment is off. So that's on the agenda. I am trying to be on a hiatus for track stuff to save money. We will see how long that last.

Initial impressions of the MCS 1WNR, is they go brr. Not a magical ride, but it is so much better than the ASTs. They handle dips in the road extremely well which is a huge pain point for me on most aftermarket suspension. The clicks are real and adjust the handling balance. I finally have another car with a suspension that does both fairly well, it took a lot of time to get that right on the E28. Works as advertised, in my suspension thread I will go over why I picked them over the 2WNR and as well general research stuff I found. As well as update what killed the AST for me. https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...027#post314027

[bigjae46]

Unless the bearing is shot, the regulator is the only other wear item on the alternator. Replace and send it!

[samthejam]

Someone did get a pic of my M3 at Road Atlanta

Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr

So the overheating situ for on track...

On the street the car has absolutely zero issues with temperature, and if it's below 85+ the car was on track. Anything over that 5 laps, absolute tops. Usually 3-4. This is unacceptable, by this point it is at 3/4 and it will keep climbing. If it equalized at 3/4 I'd give it a pass but it wasn't.

To address this prior to this post:

- replaced the front ducting for the rad
- replaced the radiator with a 2016 date Modine used radiator
- replaced the thermostat with a lower one 70C
- water wetter/more water mix
- added the factory undertray
- added all the factory fan shrouds (I only had the main one)
-bleeding it multiple times, jacked up front end and other tricks

and it passed a exhaust gas test for the coolant and isn't using any.
Fan clutch can be heard moving a lot of air with raised rpm and it destroys a roll of paper towels at idle.

There were no real obvious improvements with any of those changes. The lower temp stat resulted in longer warm ups and lower operating temps cruising around under 60mph. Once I was on the highway with the A/C on gauge would be at the middle. Which I always thought as odd, as the increased airflow should bring it down.

Out of ways to optimize the stock system further, I got a Koyo Radiator and cleaned out the A/C condenser.

That is the not the 2016 Modine, I had in but the other Rad I had that basically came with the car. Just have it there for comparison.

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I just got some simple green coil cleaner and a regular garden hose trigger nozzle thing.

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Can't see the shiny thing hidden under everything but its there.
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Now I fully believe the stock system should be capable of keeping a car cool. My fathers did great when he had it, as a street car and as a trackcar with deleted A/C. He never had an issue. A Genuine Rad is now $700~, and I had already tried the best used one I could find.

I figured it would be time to try a Koyo and see if a result, worst case I have a radiator without end tanks to break off.

So the results,

The car by the gauge, and by the OBD2 reading is running WAY Cooler when moving. I have yet to see it go past 82C on the highway on a hot summer day. I feel like I can say the cars cooling system has increased in removing heat now with airflow, which was what I had been chasing to see an improvement. With the low temp stat, it is much more evident that it seems to be cooling better. I can't say this will give me a track session but this is the most progress I've had on seeing improvement in the system on the street.

Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr
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Now as anything goes, increased radiator cooling usually comes at the drawback of this radiator probably is harder to get air through it, since it is slightly thicker. So far that hasn't been an issue at low speeds, and not at idle yet. When August hits, I'll know for sure.

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Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr

I also went to take it to work Monday and was greeted with the battery light staying on. Luckily I had a spare, looks like a BMW reman from 2007.

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Untitled by Sam DaJam, on Flickr

The original alternator, had absolutely no brushes left. I unfortunately didn't check the brushes on the one I put in, but way she goes. I should be able to put brushes in the bad one, and that should fix it. I have a local guy that can also go through it as well if needed.

[samthejam]

Let me know if you ever want to get rid of 4 of those SSRs. They look so boss. Cool to see one of these cars still really used as a dual purpose street/track car. Reminds me of myself 10-15s ago with old Hondas and stuff.

Probably going to diamond hands these haha, is some sentimental value since they're takeoffs from a childhood racecar and they're a great wheel. They've had a lot of hours on them from their prior life and how I am using them. So I know I'll need the spares I have.

Glad you're enjoying following along in my shenanigans.

[discoelk]

Let me know if you ever want to get rid of 4 of those SSRs. They look so boss. Cool to see one of these cars still really used as a dual purpose street/track car. Reminds me of myself 10-15s ago with old Hondas and stuff.