Obioban's 2005 IR/IR Coupe

[Obioban]

Winter projects underway! The front end is getting a bunch of stuff done. Including, but not limited to...
-ZHP steering rack
-fresh inner and outer tie rods
-reduced assistance from the power steering pump
-new power steering lines and reservoir, converting the system to CHF-11S
-CSL Kingpins
-new front wheel bearings
-new spring rates
-going back to the stock oil cooler
-the previously mentioned brake ducting
-replace all fluids, everywhere in the car

I had some time on new years day and started pulling her apart.





^that's copper anti-seize, not rust :lolhit:

Lots of original parts getting replaced, which doesn't happen very often anymore

[Obioban]

One of my winter projects on the M3 is brake ducting. I made some progress on that recently.

3D printed brake duct I designed. They are not cleaned up at all, because I didn't know if they'll be final.





They attach to the factory mount points, and run the air through the center of the factory brake duct/underbody mount bracket, so there won't be any hard bends in the 3" soft line.

They don't attach to the factory bumper, which means no unsightly screws visible on the bumper and taking the bumper off isn't a PITA:



They do fit with the fog light mount bracket attached.... but it's ugly.



Soooo... painful to do, after 15 years of faithful service from this bumper, but time to trim:



How it looks with the fog light mounting provisions all trimmed off:



Please excuse the Tesla like panel gaps in the bumper. Nothing was clipped in place because it was just a test fit-- still had to install the passenger side.

On the rotor side, I'm planning to use the Hard Motorsports 355mm BBK rotor duct, as it's the only solution I know of that's designed to work with 355mm rotors. It also vents into the center of the rotor, instead of the face, which is the correct way to do it (I was talking to one of Brembo's engineers, and his take was the ducting onto the rotor face on one side, but not the other, was worse than no ducting at all).

I did make an alternate version of the duct that include an intake air feed for the CSL box, similar in concept to the Evanturi bumper scoop. I'm going to monitor my IATs and install it if they're elevated vs ambient (they weren't before when above ~10mph). If they're not, I'd rather have equal brake ducting for the driver and passenger side.

I'm pretty enthused with the "look" of it, installed. That's pretty rare for me-- I almost always hate any change initially. But, I think they look "stock" if you didn't know the e46 m3 came with fogs from the factory. That's my criteria for any mods that change the look of the car-- if someone can pick out any given part as aftermarket, I don't want it on my car.

[Obioban]

I’m very pleased with the stock look of the avin3, and all the functionality it’s enabled (not to mention the ~50 lbs of weight saving)!

[Obioban]

Should be useful on track (running on my head unit):



Only needs these little sensors on the valve stems:

[Obioban]

Bought some corner balancing scales, though I haven’t used them for that yet.

I’m a bit disappointed. The truck/semi weight station had told me the car weighted 3071 lbs, but it would seem that was optimistic. 3112 lbs with a 3/4 tank. Pretty sure that means I’m not going to be able to get it under 3000 lbs with a full interior and quiet (stock weight) muffler

On the other hand, 52.6% front, 47.4% rear is better than I was expecting! 52.1% front with me in the car.





My winter projects will likely get it just under 3100 lbs.

[Obioban]

Got some new toys coming in the mail that I'm super excited about

[Obioban]

Inspired by Doogan's thread, my projects for this winter:
-Convert my alternator light to be canbus based
-Inspection 2 (all fluids, valve adjustment)
-replace the aux coolant pump with the one used in the CSL
-brake ducting, remove stock washer tank
-create adjustable rear end links for the OE rear sway bar, install
-corner balance the car. Use those results to choose new rates for the car, probably different at every corner. Re-corner balance
-BMW Motorsport subframe mounts (to recover suspension geometry)
-CSL front kingpins
-add soft velcro to the seat belt receivers to protect the center console from scratches, ala OE porsche seat belt receivers

[Obioban]

I've started running Race Technologies LLC RE10 brake pads on track. Racetech (brembo's US distributor) claims these last twice as long as traditional track pads. We shall see!

My context is performance friction PF01s, which I have been running for 14 years and have nothing bad to say about. But, if I can get twice as much use out of these, that's a significant value improvement.

My favorite ever street pad is Brembo's high performance street pad, so I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

One weekend on the RE10s used .042" of pad. I'm back at the track in my car this thursday/friday-- will report back after. So far, they are wearing ~half my PF01 wear rate.







They certainly have less bite that the PF01s.

So far, I think I like them. The pedal feel on track with these is very similar to the pedal feel with my Brembo street pads on the street-- eliminates the need to relearn the brake pedals when I first go out on track, if you know what I mean.

That said, that PF01 bite really inspires confidence (perhaps falsely, since they're not out braking other pads)

[Obioban]

Made some inserts to make the factory strut bar not slotted. You can see mine has been traveling in those slots some, over the years :P

[Obioban]

Paint doesn't look terrible for...
~150,000 miles
~10,000 track miles
~10 PA winter DD use
-never having been resprayed

[Obioban]

A friend of mine detailed the car for me for the e46 M3 only meet in NJ this weekend. Looks great, IMO-- Makes me wonder if I should clean it more often :P

[Obioban]

So pleased with CarPlay now that they've added 3rd party nav support (ios12). Waze on the nav screen using the phones data plan is what I've always wanted, and can't imagine wanting much more. Well, no, I lied-- can't wait till someone releases a wireless CarPlay dongle for this thing!

Since all the processing is done on the phone, everything is smooth/reliable/fast.

Waze running:



If you open your phone while it's running to waze, it provides the turn by turn list so that both screens are useful:



And other features, podcasts:



Visual voicemail functions as you'd expect:



And you can browse all your music with a nice interface (album art subtly in the background):



Hopefully Harry's GPS lap timer adds support, soon!

I'm seriously pleased with my Avin now that CarPlay does all this. I think as soon as wireless CarPlay becomes a thing, all the cars will be getting these.

Can't imagine wanting any factory nav/infotainment over this, from any company in any time period. Cop locations on OE looking nav!

[Obioban]

Got to drive Laguna Seca yesterday. Awesome track! Too bad it's on the opposite coast :P



Doing the universal M3 owner wave.

[Obioban]

Disclaimer/disclosure:
I received this part for free, I believe because I helped it come into existence. That said, I have been a happy SuperSprint customer for years, on multiple cars. On my M3 coupe, I paid for my SuperSprint headers (V1 stepped), Section 1 (catted), previous section 2 (resonated), and muffler (street with race tips). I would have paid for this part, had they not offered it to me.

Onward…

Around 1-2 years ago, it became apparent to me that the section 2 becomes a restriction point on more heavily modified s54s. It was Nick’s car that first triggered my radar, follow by Hassan’s car, then reading up on some exhaust theory. E.g. this:



SuperSprint’s original section 2 was developed in a time before people knew how to tune the S54. For the first ~10 years of the e46 M3’s existence, getting more than ~310 SAE rwhp out of a streetable/stock ecu/vanosed S54 was pretty unheard of. SuperSprint, reasonably, designed a section 2 that was optimized for that level of power, that matched the pipe diameter of most (non V1 stepped) headers. If you're doing a more mild build, this part still makes sense (and is probably superior to the new option).

In more recent history, s54 power modding has become much more effective. This has largely been the result of the ecu finally being understood (allowing real tuning), MAP based engine management making CSL airboxes more effective/viable, and attainable data logging solutions.

Combine a CSL style airbox, cams, SuperSprint V1 headers/section 1, and you have a setup that is flowing significantly more than stock.

Note: the SuperSprint V1 stepped headers and SuperSprint V1 section 1s use 2.5” tubing. This is not true of most other headers on the market, including eBay, OE Euro, and SSV2 headers. To take full advantage of this section 2, you need headers/section 1 that use 2.5” tubing.

Low end/mid range torque on the S54 can be completely gutted if the crossover/merge is not in the correct (RE: stock) location. That was something I was not willing to do. I also wanted a resonator in my setup, because I don’t like any significant level of rasp from my car.

So, I started to look around the market for a section 2 that met my criteria:
-2 x 2.5”
-Stock merge/crossover location
-Resonated
-Well made

… and it didn’t exist. Everyone running something along those lines was running a “custom” setup. So, I started pushing my desired setup both directly to my contacts at SuperSprint and to Turner/ECS (who is SuperSprint’s US importer). Unbeknownst to me at the time, Leighton was doing the same thing at the same time, though through his GB contact.

In April this year, SuperSprint posted this: http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=597650

And ~2 weeks ago, mine arrived

Clearly the shippers didn’t treat the box very well:



But Supersprint’s packaging was sufficient that it remained 100% undamaged:



Welds and build quality in general look excellent! As has been the case with all my previous SuperSprint products, as well.

I delayed installing it immediately because I had a track event, and at some point, with enough repetitions, I had it banged into my head that you should never install a new part before a track event. I needn't have worried-- I finally got around to installing it, and it went on perfectly and painlessly:





Side note: I am a big proponent of using different hardware than either BMW's stock mid pipe hardware or SuperSprint's hardware. The OE BMW exhaust bolts that attach the stock headers to the stock section 1 are inconel. This does mean that they're a bit pricey, but it also means they're FAR more corrosion resistant than any normal hardware. Normal exhaust hardware gets rusty quite quickly, which makes removal down the road for other projects a huge PITA, often snapping the bolts and requiring replacement. These are pricey up front, but rarely/never need to be replaced after that. They are a larger diameter, which means you have to slightly expand the exhaust gasket bolt holes, but the larger diameter also guarantees exact alignment between the exhaust sections, optimizing flow. I use these on the section 1 to section 2 joint and the section 2 to muffler joint:





bolt: 11621318568 nut: 18301317898. 6 of each required for section 1 to section 2, 4 of each required for section 2 to muffler. If you kept them when doing V1 headers, you already have 4. Nuts are one time use, so replace every time they're removed.

Results:
I've only had these on the car briefly, so the car has not been dynoed yet. I'll update this thread when it is. In the short term, take with as many grains as salt as are necessary. If that's what you're looking for, check out Paule claude's results-- much more obective data/dyno than I can provide, yet (though he can't take full benefit as his car is RHD and therefore can't run the V1 stepped headers).

But: the car feels significantly, noticeably FASTER. I would not be at all surprised if I have gained 20rwhp. I will be surprised if I gained less than 10rwhp. Low end/mid range power is completely uncompromised-- in fact, mid range power feels notably stronger.

Sound wise, the car is pretty unchanged vs the previous setup. It may be slightly quieter than the SuperSprint single pipe section 2 I ran before, but if so it's only just so. Tone is completely unchanged. I'll update this with a video ASAP (maybe tonight).

Conclusion:
If you're doing a full S54 build, which pretty much always includes SuperSprint V1 headers/section 1, these are a no brainer option, IMO. They don't cost more than previous options, and they continue the 2.5" exhaust flow from the SuperSprint V1 Section 1.

If you're doing a more standard build, it probably makes sense to stick to a more traditional section 2.

Videos from the twin 2.5" SuperSprint thread:

Above the bumper:

In car:

Outside of car:

Sorry about the video quality in the first two. My Go Pro is showing its age...

[Obioban]

Magic hour shot at NJMSP yesterday.