What's going on in my shop currently...

[George Hill]

I've said it before buy my pocketbook is damn lucky you don't live close to me because I would be horrendously lazy if you did.

NE TN? Who knows what the future holds, lol. I do love that part of the country.

[Cronenberged]

I've said it before buy my pocketbook is damn lucky you don't live close to me because I would be horrendously lazy if you did.

Same haha

[George Hill]

Back in the shop for production work was an E39 in for some basic maintenance, a waterpump and tensioner, power steering hose, thermostat and engine mounts.




Then an E90 in for an evaporator replacement. E9x cars have as much of an evaporator issue as the E46s and replacement is very similar by removing almost everything in front of the seats, lol. The last pic shows the UV dye in the refrigerant oil that is visibale with a UV light through yellow lenses which shows the source of leak(s).


















Next, we had in an M3 that came in for a long list of items and we started with a general inspection to make sure the car was fit for the future plans. During the inspection it was found the check engine light was on and there was a noise from the top end of the engine. After scanning for faults camshaft sensor and Vanos faults were found to be present, the vanos test was run and it failed to complete. Looking through the service records of this car, there had been various Vanos related issues going back 30k miles with multiple repeat repairs.

With the valve cover off and a thorough inspection it was found the intake cam sensor wheel on the camshaft was bent and contacting the cylinder head. Likely what happened was someone adjusted the valve lash and in the process of reinstalling the follower bent the tooth on the wheel. Why this wasn’t immediately rectified is beyond me, luckily it’s an easy fix to swap out the wheel without any further disassembly.

Once complete the engine was assembled and the vanos test ran again, this time passing.

[George Hill]

Next up was a 55k Phoenix Yellow M3 that was recently purchased by the owners and they were getting caught up on the big 3 and taking care of an potential SMG problem by swapping.




But first during inspection... this is a new one for me, not only did this car still have the original shipping spacers installed in the front struts, but someone had replced the struts and springs and reinstalled the spacers into the new setup!








From there the transmission was converted to full manual in house and the complete swap performed (note the elusive brown/orange clutch switch, lol). Everything works like it should as is the case with all of our swaps.










Also taken care of at this time was locking down the vanos, nothing really exciting here, just the usual... and of course a really clean engine.






While we are on the subject of the car, since then (about 8 months ago) the car was back for rod bearings. BMW history showed they were replaced at 6k miles and the car with now almost 60k seemed like it would be a bit soon, but the peace of mind is priceless and now they know. We also did the usual engine mounts and steering coupler.



IMG_4266 by George, on Flickr


Oil pump, disassembled and inspected, all was good.




And of course, no E46 is complete without a BlueBus. They were thinking about an aftermarket radio until we discussed this option and once you know, you know.

[George Hill]

***Lots of videos in this post, so click the pic and it should take you to the video (I don't know how to embed the video, lol)


Next up we have Neil's 180k mile M3 that came in for a Vanos refresh. This was an interesting one as I have never seen a "dented" hub tab. We did all the usuall stuff and replaced the hub.








After that we had an early model S54 swapped touring come in with a noise from the front suspension. I verified the noise and then went to lift the car to inspect the suspension. As I was lifting (the hood was open) I saw something move in the strut tower area that caught my eye. After a closer inspection (there was a strut brace installed) I found one of the worst cracked strut towers I've ever seen.

After repairing the cracks we added strut tower reinforcement plates and got it wrapped up, no problem.






This is a video showing the movement when taking weight off and on the suspension.




Next we finished off the E39 M5 donor car for the touring built. I couldn't bring myself to scrap the shadowline trim, but also didn't want to have to deal with disassembling from the doors and then having to store it. I ended up cutting the top off the doors off, I got a lot of flack on IG about this, but it worked out well, lol








Scrapped another 330ci parts car. The family lived on a hill and the son forgot to set the parking brake and left it in nuetral. They came out later to found the car "gone" some searching found it across the street and down an embankment smashed into a tree. They started to part it out and then decided it wasn't worth it so I picked it up. Shame as it was a real nice 330/6MT with only 115xxx miles (the seats are in my X5 now, lol).








This is a video.




Parted out an M3 to make a "S54 swap kit" for a later date, this is 99% of the parts pile I use when converting a touring or sedan.




This is a video.




I was lucky when I started the shop as I ran into a guy who had an endurance race car running in the WRL organization. We had actually met a few years prior where I bought some wheels from him. I wasn't sure if they were going to fit on my BBK so when I came to buy them I literally brought a knuckle with the caliper on it so we could test fit, lol. He remembered that as it stuck in his mind and when we connected a few years later he asked me to help with his race program. We started by swapping an S54 into his E36 M3 and ran it for the first time at WRL @ CoTA in 2018.




We then eventually bought a really really nice HPDE E46 M3 that we immediately ruined turning into a race car, lol.




Fast forward a few years and I'm not as hands on in the program as we started but I still do his engine program and help with some other odds and ends. Well 2021 was a great year for them, the class they run is GP1 and last year they won the national championship for GP1 as well as the overall first place title for WRL. Really happy to be apart of this group and see where the race program has gone.






Videos:

[Andy2424]

top class

[tlow98]

I applaud getting creative with the m5 shadow line. Every person on insta that complained has never tried removing that trim. For a crusher car who cares.

[George Hill]

Next we had Mike's Spec E46 car come in, it had kicked a connecting rod out at CoTA a few months prior and we had been looking for a good "budget" replacement engine.








I don't trust a M54 (or many engines for that matter) that I can't hear run so we sourced a 330 auto convertible and parted it out for it's heart and then did the normal maintenance you would do on an M54 engine.








The GSR oil pump had eaten some metal and we felt it should be addressed, most of the parts were ok, but the housing needed to be replaced. To use the GSR parts the oil pump housing has to be modified, unfortunately we couldn't get the specs on the modification but with a little trial and error and reverse engineering we got if figured out.






Unfortunately the owner decided that he needed to refocus his hobbies and had to let the car go, but the car quickly sold and is somewhere in the NE now and hopefully battling it out with the huge SE46 field those races attract.




After that we had Scott in with his M3 and when it was all said and done we had done the "big 3." Previously you saw the documentation on the bent cam sensor gear, now this is the rest of the project.

The entire rear was pulled apart, this is 99% of everthing from the transmission backwards comes out of the car. The bottomside of the chassis is power washed, cleaned and inspected. All areas of concern are identified and addressed. CMP Auto Engineering plates are welded in, seam sealed and painted (the color looks off, but in person the match is very close to OE and with everything assembled I don't think most would notice).






The rear suspension was completely refreshed as well.




Moving on to the engine bay new rod bearings installed and at 175k if these were original they were in fantastic shape! Along with that we a new oil level sensor, thermostat (and housing), tensioner, engine mounts and stainless steel brake lines.








The oil pump was disassembled, inspected and cleaned.






And to add to the list of cars with front struts assembled this car at least had the correct bumpstops, but they were installed upside down.

[jet_dogg]

Those are some good looking bearings, reinforces my theory that frequent rod bearing replacement is unnecessary if the car is driven properly.

[George Hill]

Those are some good looking bearings, reinforces my theory that frequent rod bearing replacement is unnecessary if the car is driven properly.

You may be right, but the current owner bought around 140k iirc and we have no prior history. So without the earlier maintenance info we can make no assumptions on whether your theory is right or wrong.

[jet_dogg]

You may be right, but the current owner bought around 140k iirc and we have no prior history. So without the earlier maintenance info we can make no assumptions on whether your theory is right or wrong.

Correct, however, we can be assured rod bearings would be toast if the car was abused.

Always wise to change them when the history is not known of course. Love this thread.

[George Hill]

Correct, however, we can be assured rod bearings would be toast if the car was abused.

Always wise to change them when the history is not known of course.

I agree, but if they were replaced at 135k then this tells us nothing, that's all I'm saying.

Love this thread.

Thanks!

[George Hill]

I've never spent much time "advertising" for the shop and have let word of mouth (and these forum posts) do the talking, but we had been getting people wanting some stickers or t-shirts for the shop. We had a client whose wife is a graphic designer and we commissioned her to setup us up with a logo and this is what she came up with and we are beyond thrilled with it.




That led to a shirt and really happy with how they turned out, although I think we've limited our target market with the back, lol.




After that we had Daniel's famous #M3Baru: https://youtu.be/RLaw7pb7yDk




If you don't know the car its an S54 swapped touring that has retained the AWD driveline. He was on a cross country trip from Washington (to I believe Houston, Tx) and back. We have been online friends for awhile now and he had planned to swing by and show me the car anyways but ended up needing a couple items checked out.

He told me to take it out and drive it hard and normally I would say thanks and not do it, lol, but its so snappy he insisted. With the 3.91 awd diffs and the big tires it was so much fun to drive. I really want to build one of these now!

The main issue was the car had an intermittent hard start which was caused by a loose battery cable at the underhood jump point. This caused thermal damage to the jump point terminal block and connected battery tender wiring. We swapped the terminal block with a used one we had on hand, then repaired and re-routed the battery tender wiring to the drug bin side of the block.

A severe vibration on braking had developed and so a front brake pad and rotor replacement was due along with an oil change. The hatch glass would not open and it was discovered the General Module (GM or Body Control Module) was coded for a coupe. A quick coding session got the GM setup for the touring and got the missing functions now working.








We had Alonzo's E65 back in the shop for a couple items but the big change was the switch from Beyern 18" wheels to factory 20s in black. I know its an N62 E65 and most people hate them, but boy do I like this car blacked out like this.






Started prepping and S54 for a swap. The car had 150k miles on it, running and driving, no noises, passed vanos test, everything looked good. Went to put bearings in it and...






Luckily no spin or any damage, but still, we caught it just in the knick of time. New bearings went in and then went to the Vanos and...




Lol, this engine was just so close to being a paperweight. I ended up calling it a night after this and as I slept on it I thought more about it. And while I don't think there was anything "bad" about the bottom end I decided that I would trade the engine with another I had saved as a personal back-up engine. I figured the engines were basically the same starting point but I wanted to pull the bottom end apart on this one and physically measure the rod big end and that was a bit out of the scope for the client. With the vanos all pulled apart and the engine on a stand its not *that* much more work to pull the head and knock the rods out of it to verify sizing. Besides that, this client is a really good guy and he's had some bad luck with this new racecar of his and I wanted to ensure his bad luck didn't continue and I was more optimistic about the replacement engine than the current.


Some of you may know that we are working on making/supplying a carbon fiber roof skin replacement for the E46 tourings. I had a chance to fly out to the manufacturer and inspect a couple of the first versions and see their setup.












And then by happenstance an interested party who had been very vocal about wanting one just happened to be about 45 min from the manufacturer. His car was in pieces and it worked out that we were able to "test" fit one on his car and see how it was working out.






Originally we had planned to make it a full replacement skin replica but after staring at it on his car we decided to trim it and make it just the top skin and not incorporate the complete rear section (which was definitely the right choice). It was a fabulous trip but quite the whirlwind, on the plane in Austin at 6am, flying half way across the country, fitting, and back landing in Austin at 1am.


After that we had an E63 M6 in for a 6MT conversion. This was a first for us and I'm really happy with how it turned out. The clients were great to deal with and we all had the same vision for how it should turn out so I was very thankful that they were fully committed to let us make it as perfect as possible.






As with all of our swaps we try to emulate a factory car as close as possible so this meant all the "correct" M6 6MT parts were sourced including the switches and electronics.




For the transmission the 6MT from the S65 is commonly used as finding a S85 6MT is extremely hard. And honestly we considered buying a new unit from BMW, at a price of nearly $8k alone it was going to be a commitment, but we ended up finding a low(er) mileage S65 unit and went with that. The main difference in the S65 vs S85 6MTs are that the S65s incorporate an oil cooler where the S85s don't use one. There are lots of ways to deal with this, but what we did was design our own block off plates for the oil ports and the oil pump. These plates use all the factory o-rings and seals and are completely transferable in the instance the trans needed to be replaced.






We used a new BMW flywheel and and aftermarket clutch (spec'd for a S85), assembled the transmission and got it all in the car with a custom spec driveshaft.






The wiring is a little daunting but not TOO terrible once it got started. We used a factory 6MT transmission sub harness and modified the SMG trans to e-box harness to emulate the 6MT version (not available). From there wired the harness to the e-box into it's corresponding components and interior items.












The interior was wrapped up and looks like it should have come from BMW.




I'll go on record as to saying I don't hate the SMG and I was mildly concerned I wouldn't like the swap (based off of driving 6MT M5s years ago) but I'll definitely say I LOVE driving this car now. Everything works like it's supposed to and it's just a blast.

[George Hill]

Part 2 of the E63 work, along with the 6MT conversion the car also got a new set of rod bearings from BE.








Along with the bearings we also installed the new stlye piston oil squirters, engine mounts and internal vanos oil supply hose.




We got a call from the Tejas chapter of the BMW CCA (our home chapter), Josh wanted to do a small feature on the shop. We set up a small "30" minute meetup and after what seemed like 1.5-2hrs he was confident he had the info needed. A few months later and we were thrilled with what came about and very humbled to even be considered.






Next we have a very cool ZHP sedan slicktop that came in for a S54 conversion.




We went all in on this one, literally every single moving part of the suspension was replaced, shocks, struts, bushings, ball joints, etc.

















The engine got all the usual stuff, but I guess I didn't document it very well. The engine is stock, but we did add euro headers and cats then a Super Sprint S54 to E46 conversion section 2 & 3.














Wiring is always the interesting part, lol. The correct color wires and now in the right place.






SMG harness thinned and "converted" to euro spec.




Instrument cluster in process to getting "converted."




And assembled.










Lastly, we sourced a tanin read interior and it was swapped in then the pillars and headliner were all recovered with OE replica material.

[George Hill]

Brandon is a friend of the shop and after coming to a an HPDE with us (in his WRX) decided he wanted to step into an E46. As a shop I am always looking for cheap E46 330s and especially if they are manual. As luck would have it I stumbled onto a 330/5MT coupe that fit the bill. We got the car acquired and went about addressing all the deferred maintenance and some minor upgrades to get it ready for track events.




All the fluids were changed as well as a bunch of minor engine maintenance items.




Some of the worst engine mounts I've seen, the support bar was tight before we started.






He really wanted that "Racecar" feel and one of his must haves was a chassis mounted shifter. We got him a Coolerworx as I had heard good things about them being a nice entry level shifter. This was going to knock out two birds with one stone as his transmission detent pins were sticking and we hoped this would allow us not to have to pull the trans out. Well, after fighting the shifter adjustment and still not being happy with it I pulled the shifter out and put my CAE in it. Unfortunately this still didn't get it just right either, so out came the transmission. With the trans out I replaced all the detent pins and then discovered someone had replaced the clutch before and used the garbage pilot bearing that comes in the kits. This is not to knock any particular clutch kit, but everyone I've seen (stock replacement) use non BMW bearings and they just don't fit right, we ALWAYS use a BMW bearing. What happened here is the bearing doesn't fit tightly into the crankshaft and gets loose then starts spinning and sticks to the input shaft, it then overheats, disintegrates and puts trash through the bell housing.




Luckily this one didn't take to much work to get off and a new bearing got it sorted. With the transmission pins replaced and back in the car I put the Coolerworx back in it and now it shifts great!




All back together and he really needed some shocks and struts but wasn't quite ready to pull the trigger on a set of MCS so I let him borrow a set of Konis we had sitting on the shelf.






Last step was a set of 17x9" APEX Arc-8 wheels and 255 RS4 tires.




Next up, Landon brought in his 5MT touring for a couple small items that turned into a bit more work when we started adding up the "might as wells."






We started with replacing the oil pan gasket and engine mounts.




Moving back the entire shifter assembly was replaced/refreshed along with a new guibo getting installed.






With the driveshaft out we found one of the u-joints was starting to bind. Our driveshaft shop used to rebuild shafts, but has changed to just making new ones, I assume the economics are better that way and with a simple phone call and vin# we had a new driveshaft in hand in a matter of days (sometimes even next day!).




Lastly, the diff came out and all (3) mounting bushings we replaced, but apparently I didn't take any pics of it.

The car turned out great and appreciate Landon giving us the opportunity to work on his wagon.