Obioban's 2005 IR/IR Coupe

[Obioban]

Can't wait for these

Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 Porsche 911 GT3 - YouTube

And PF-11s


Brake light flashing on full ABS stop added

Abs braking flash - YouTube

With the HK sub removed, the oem BMW grocery hooks were eating into trunk functionality (they were the limiting factor on the trunk opening).

So, my first VAG product:






Status update: married



Pic with close friends that I've met through the car-- half are M3f members.

:hattip:

iPhone photo from M3f member CMT, more professional version (slr, wedding protographer) to come.

[Obioban]

Day 1.



My car is looking really old compared to this pic

My splitters were already in bad shape after seven years of use, but a racoon recently finished one off. So, replaced at last!







In 2-3 weeks, should have some free time to do the Besian stuff. Super excited!





I also learned how to make stuff out of carbon fiber recently. What an enormous pain in the ass. I had all sorts of projects I was contemplating doing, but having done it once... not sure I'll ever be able to get motivated to do it again. Ug ug ug :banghead:







Valve train looking healthy at 135,000 miles. Today is besian vanos fix install day!



Couple panorama shots from bimmerfest this weekend. LOTS of cars!





And, this amused me. Everyone ignoring an MP4-12C because there was a TMS e92 M3 next to it.



Had a couple projects I took care of yesterday.

First up, replaced the fuel pump regulator. Nicely resolved a starting issue I was having (engine took extra cranks before starting up).

Next, found a hole in my chassis that the JVT headers had made, long ago when I had them. So, ground that down with the angle grinder, prepped it, POR-15ed it, and put new chassis coat on. Forgot to take an after pic :roll:. Should be locked down from rust again, though...



Next up, did vibratech engine mounts. Huge difference, way more than I expected. Entire front end of the car feels much more planted, and no noticeable NHV increase vs my 38,000 mile e9X M3 engine mounts. I'm very pleased with how these came out!




I went to also do the vibratech trans brace/mounts...



But sadly they don't clear the SS V1 stepped catted section 1:

SS v1 section 1 vs vibratech trans mount - YouTube

So... that came back out. Hoping vibratech makes a version that does clear, and every better if they make it in aluminum for extra lightness!

For now, however, I'll remain with the stock brace with RE mounts.

I went to a test drive event at my BMW dealer yesterday to drive all sorts of different cars (new BMWs and their competitors).

While I was there, I hoped in the show room to grab a bottle of water and some cookies. I overheard three different people ask the sales people how much my car cost, didn't hear anyone ask about the cars they were actually trying to sell.

Test drove some modern BMWs, disliked them all, left.

Stopped at the post office to mail some packages. Came out and two people were taking pictures of my car.

Solid day. Modern BMW. :facepalm:

[Obioban]

Unlike most stereo projects, the focus of mine was not particularly to improve sound quality (though that should be a nice perk of it). My goals were as follows:
1) Increase trunk space
2) Reduce the total weight of the car
3) lower the COG
4) recover some 50/50 weight distribution

To do this, I did a number of things...
-I cut the total number of speakers in the car from 12 to 7 (removed all rear speakers and HK subs)
-I used lighter speakers than stock in each application (used polk speakers, which use rare earth magnets for the same pull strength at less weight)
-I relocated all of the heavier electronics to the far back of the trunk floor
-I switched to the non nav/cd changer trunk liner
-I switched from the dual HK subs to a single 8" free air sub in a stealth box
-I added an Alpine PXA-H100 sound processor, which the intravee tricks the nav into thinking is an OEM DSP sound processor for full control through the factory MKIV UI
-light weight amps (2.7 lbs each)

Hard to explain with words. Here's some pics. Starting with the cliff notes,
Before (sadly I forgot to take a pic before I pulled the trunk liner or of the HK subs in the center middle of the trunk:



After (note that while the stealthbox is larger than the OE HK box, it's in a useless spot above the shock tower instead of dead center in the most useful spot in the trunk):



Ignore the shock adjustment hole :P



And now for some pics of the process along the way...

Parts in a pile waiting to go in:



Stock electronics in the nav/cd changer harness:



And in the new, smaller bracket:



All the trunk mounted modules:



Intravee breakout box on top of Alpine HD radio on top of OEM bluetooth:



Intravee on top, with the serial port left open for future firmware updates



Bluetooth antenna on the friendly side of the metal wall :roll:



Trimmed down the door to fit the new, deeper, 6.5" Polk speaker and padded the borders to keep rattles at bay and make a nice seal:



Polk speaker in boom mat, being trimmed to fit:



Result:



And bolted down:



Stock HK out:



Wiring up the new tweeters:



Heat shrink:



Result:



Foamed up:



Added a plug to make the doors easy to install/remove in the future:



Floor modules in their final location:



Whipping up a wiring harness to extend the nav plugs so they can be mounted under the trunk floor:



Heat shrunk:



Had to dremel the top and bottom of the plastic off the DVD drive to make it fit under the trunk floor:



Was amused to notice that the MKIV display is made by alpine. All alpine system



While the car away apart, took out the center console buttons and mailed them to terra to have the seat heater temps turned up. Always annoyed that they weren't warmer, like non M e46s :banghead:



Used to have fairly heavy speakers mounted on the center of the headliner for the CB and scanner. Now using light weight speakers behind the rear door cards instead. Reduced weight, lowered COG, and better back seat head room



Levitating photoelectric license plate cover :roll:



Crossovers with wires bundled in factory fabric tape:



Wiring ugliness mid project:



Cleaned up and bundled:



Noticed the right side of my brake pedal is wearing out. Too much heel toe :raspberry:

[Obioban]

Mmm... VANOS PIZZA



Finally snowed

Snow at last! - YouTube

Picked up every issue of roundel from 1999 on, including these 3 issues in particular.

It's AMAZING flipping through the earlier issue-- I literally want every car in the magazine. Unlike now, where I really don't want a single thing BMW makes



Couldn't take it any longer... Summer tire time

... Car still covered in winter filth.

[Obioban]

Picked this up because it may not exist in the future.

Not sure if/when I'll ever use it. My general plan at the moment is to pick up pieces I see used for cheaper than they should be, and if I ever get a complete setup, install :roll:



I'm going to get laughed at for this one, and rightfully so...

... however:




















Video fixed.

Meant to make it unlisted, not private.

Here's the video. Video makes it seem louder in the cabin than it really is-- in real life it's quieter now than it was with the stock muffler.
(which is not to say quieter than stock-- the headers and section 2 made the car louder with the stock muffler on it).

Zero drone, not alloying ever, pretty much exactly what I'm looking for (other than lacking an evolve or OEM CSL airbox). What I like most about it is that it doesn't sound like "muffler sound", if you know what i mean. Pretty certain I won't be changing exhaust setups again!

Better video to come! I'm not really that pleased with how it came out. It's super dark out and no street lights around, so most of the video is blackness. I'll upload it and post it here, but going to leave it marked as unlisted so it won't spread overly much.

I'll make another in a month or so with both daytime footage and sounds from the dyno included

YouTube

Being a Michelin fanboy, got these for the fiancé's car. Really excited to see how they perform, but waiting till snow is in the forecast to swap out the old snow tires for these (they don't have that little tread, just little enough that they won't work well in serious snow anymore).




Just got back from a 1500 mile 4 day road trip, focusing on good driving roads every day. Also met a forum member on the way home to trade back seats to a non ski sack one (lighter, exact weight difference to follow).

Car got seriously dirty on some mud/ice/slush mountain roads in vt this am



RI:



Vt:









I may be uploading some video in the coming days depending on how they came out...


One of the best roads I've had the chance to drive, - YouTube

Editing was to take out conversation and places I slowed down (residential). Never came up behind another car.

Had to go slowish as I was on snow tires, and it had just warmed up to 32º.

Not overly exciting, just onboard footage at realtime speed. Does need sound, though, imo. I probably should have turned my music off for this portion...


Last VAC piece off my car and OEM lightness installed






Finally found a BMW part I've been looking for for years: fabric wire wrapping tape



Part number:




This winter I ran the Bridgestone LM-60s on my car for ~2 month. I absolutely despised them-- squirrely under braking, squirrely under durning (you could literally feel the tread blocking rolling over), no grip under acceleration, constant DSC interruption. I disliked them to the extent that, for the first time in my life, I replaced a set of tires before they were worn out (actually, that turned out to not be true-- I though I was replacing them before they were worn out, but it turned out I wore through the rear tires in 2 months without turning DSC off :roll.

Anyway, on to the PA4s: they are EXACTLY what I wanted in a winter tire. Imagine a winter version of the PSS-- that's them.

Grippy (dry), good braking, good wet/hydroplaning resistance, not at all annoying! Not super light (then again, neither are my winter wheels), but they make the car enjoyable to drive again.

If you're looking for a winter performance tire, I can't recommend them highly enough.

That said, I'm sure they're not going to be spectacular in the snow. Certainly nowhere near as good as a non performance winter. That said... in the one snow we've had so far, they performed better than any performance snow I've had before.

I could not be happier with them. Highly recommended!

Oh, downside: they don't (at least not yet) come in stock sizing. I went with 235 front 245 rear.



Edit:

Michelin Pilot Aplin PA4 - Co developed with Porsche - YouTube

[Obioban]

So, forgot to post this. Earlier this month my friends had a surprise party for me, and got together to get this for me. It was fully stocked at the time-- I've had my way with it a bit :shifty:

Pretty awesome, if I do say so myself



Always a welcome sight




Quote:

Originally Posted by flipm3 I love getting stuff from Amazon......... oh wait..... :taser: Unboxed pics NOW!!!!!!!

Swaintech coated V1 stepped headers and SS section 1 for SS V1 stepped with HJS cats





Time for this:




And this




And done







Update:



Quote:

Originally Posted by gojcaj I could have sworn you had a CF airbox at some point? Where'd it go?

It was time to move on from it.

I may be back with an OEM or evolve box in the future.

Underbody is sitting pretty

[Obioban]

Rod bearings replaced, and not at all sad I did!

Crank, happily, is still perfect, so no stroker for me yet.






A couple of months ago I was browsing m3cutters and came upon this thread, which piqued my interest:

http://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/showthread.php?t=48861

Most of it doesn't apply to our cars (that thread is about the BM54, which has TMC support and frequent failure, neither of which applies to us), but this part does:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ccfj1 However, the change in the system is very good indeed, it’s quite hard to explain, there is just more quality to the sound, more bass, more mids, crystal clear highs and a shed load of depth, a richer fuller sound all round, and no more need for max bass settings (in the tone menu).

So, off to England went my BM53! Baris upgraded the amplifiers in it, as well as adding heat sinks to it so it doesn't overheat. Several days later (he turned it over in 24 hours, but shipping to/from england times some time) it was back in the car.

Sound quality is now, dare I say it, decent! The stock system always kinds of sounds like your listening to it through something. This significantly improved the quality, and made it seem much more like the source audio. I'm still running the stock HK speakers, now with 130,000 miles of use, so I suspect it would be even better with good (or even just new) speakers. This isn't an upgrade that'll give you thumping base, but if you want the music to sound clearly/better, it's a significant improvement (and still works like stock in every way ).


All of the rod bearings in order. Cylinder 2 and 5 took the worst of it, as normal:












Stupid nor'easter... Switched to snows even though it'll be back into the 60s this weekend.




I just ordered the CSL cabin air filter holder.

I'll weight both and compare, but it'll be a couple weeks-- backordered because CSL, germany to england, england to me, maybe get stuck in customs along the way :roll:

I'm excited-- always been annoyed by how heavy the stocker is, and it's weight off the front of the car


Replaced the rear window seals tonight using this guide:
http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showt...p?p=1065838915

I went off guide a bit because I'm a huge 3M fanboy, so I used their seals instead.

Before:



During:



After:

[Obioban]

Misc updates...
I received the SS street muffler with the race tips, and put it on. It's EXACTLY what I was looking for. Same volume as stock (maybe a tiny bit louder), but with much better tone and much better looking tips. My car felt a bit slower when i took the Scorza off and feels a bit faster with this on... idk if it's placebo or not, but either way I'm extremely happy.

BM53 just arrived in merry old england today, so I'm getting lots of time to pay attention to exhaust tone alone. :roll: Looking forward to getting that back. Interestingly the e39 retains bluetooth speakerphone functionality without the BM53 whereas the e46 does not. Must be a DSP thing.

I'll be getting dyno tuned by Evolve before the new year. I'm pretty excited. Before I do so, doing a couple of tweaks to my stock airbox:
1) adding an AIT sensor, separate from the MAF, in a non heat soak prone area (and having the car retuned by evolve to expect the new values)
2) adding some gutter to my intake duct to ram cold air up there at speed
3) Bimmerworld elbow.

Plus the V1 stepped headers. Once all the hardware is on, plan to give the car a couple of weeks to adapt. Then, off to the dyno for tuning.

I'd like to hit ~310-320 rwhp on a dynojet. That will be it for power for me until it's engine rebuild time.




Posted this in another thread, but thought I'd put it here too...

I used leatherique for the first 6 years I owned the car and tried gliptone this year. I wasn't at all happy with the results, so I'm going back to leatherique.

Leatherique leaves it soft, supple, and matte. Gliptone left it matte, but feels dried out to me.

Don't like the results, regardless of what supposedly should or should not be used.

And, really, Cleveland is the reason people were using leatheique to start with... and he wasn't one to give advice without knowing what he was talking about!

I will say that Gliptone was a much easier process to do.

[Obioban]

Installed the newest intravee firmware and am really enjoying the new features! Dynamic nav zoom based on speed, playlist selection by number keys, vehicle info on demand, auto mute and distances displayed when in reverse, etc etc

New intravee shiz - YouTube

Found this video of my car on YouTube that has more views than any video I've ever posted :roll:

Obioban´s red BMW M3 E46 - YouTube


Found an awesome new option in the tomtom app




Last night I used navcoder to enable the voice control portion of the bluetooth module. Super kickass, and reminds me very much of MKIV-- extremely limited in what it can do, but super good at what it does. Made ~10 test phone calls by name last night on the highway (ambient noise), and they all went through correctly.

"

Sometime I think coding/programming mods are my favorite mods. So free of downsides, just better!


Hit a raccoon on the way home tonight. Somehow it managed to take out a fog while leaving the fog trim :clueless:

Also toasted a splitter.

[Obioban]

Just realized i never put up pics of all my underbody items after I got them powder coated (and new bushings put in everywhere).

Clearly not installed at the moment, but still thought they'd be fun to post....







































And, totally invisible if you're not under the car!

















Subframe repair is complete!














Can't wait to get the rest of her put back together



Just realized i never put up pics of all my underbody items after I got them powder coated (and new bushings put in everywhere).

Clearly not installed at the moment, but still thought they'd be fun to post....







































And, totally invisible if you're not under the car!

[Obioban]

Up to 45 sig pics now. Thinking I should make some with the track car some time.

Here's what I have so far:

[Obioban]

Finally got some pics of my new laser jammer location, to give people in the new jammer GB ideas of where to put them. So, here they are as well










































Best wedding gift I've ever given.

Can anyone guess what it is?






Shiny new parts that will hopefully be going in on wednesday.

Also doing diff mounts.

SS mids because I was so impressed with the headers that I had to get the mids, and TMS ALCA to replace my UUC ones. This are half the weight of the UUC ones and not made by UUC :lo:










Rough day for my car. I went to do the TMS control arms and diff mounts and found a whole pipe of issues:

1) The UUC RLCAs were bowed and the bushings were falling out of them once removed from the car. Not great! And not possible to see with them in the car. I was already replacing them, so not that big a deal now, but... ug.

2) While doing the front diff mount, I glanced at the subframe bushings (already replaced with new stock when my turner subframe kit was welded in) and noticed that they were seriously torn up. Complete circles around the center bolt. So... out came the rear subframe. Ordered some AKG 90A poly subframe mounts which should be fairly similar to stock in stiffness and hopefully will last considerable longer. Still on my original poly RTABs (now with 120,000 miles on them), so consider me a believer in poly longevity.

3) Once I had the subframe out, I noticed that the people that welded in my subframe kit didn't do a very good job sealing it up afterwards... with the result that there is now rust on the chassis. Ordered a serious rust repair kit-- when it comes I'm going to completely grind it down, clean it, treat it, and seal it.

Since the subframe is out, and has some minor surface rust on it, I'm going to get it sandblasted down and powder coated in a silly color for fun. Haven't decided on a color yet...

Annoying day!! At this point, every single part that attaches to the rear of the car is sitting in piles on the garage floor. :banghead:












In an attempt to get some fun out of this project, and since all the parts are out of the car anyway, and since it actually will protect them going forward, I'm going to get the following parts sand blasted and then powder coated glossy red:
-rear subframe
-rear v brace mount
-v brace
-the two chassis braces that go under the exhaust tunnel
-the thrust plate
-rear sway bar bushing holders
-trans support brace

Since the TMS RLCAs come blue, I'm going to get the factory rear upper control arms done in blue, as close to matching the TMS arms as possible.

None of this will be visible unless you're under the car, so it's really just for my own amusement :roll:

Parts before (subframe not pictured as bushings being pressed out):





One more before shot that I forgot to post. Subframe seems bigger once outside of the car!

[Obioban]

New part ordered :shifty:

Hoping to increase civility and decrease weight with this one.





two mini updates:

1) VAC doesn't sell a kit for the fuel system emissions stuff, but they do eliminate it off their track cars. Going to talk to one of their techs on monday and replicate. Will post up the details, for those wanting to save the weight

2) Modded the GF's (now fiancé's) finger today.

[Obioban]

About 1.5 years ago I decided it was time to get headers for my car. I read lots of positive things on the forum about ebay headers and figured that headers were just bent pipe... so how far wrong could you go? So, for the first time on my car, I cheaped out. A decision I now regret, as lots of hassle could have been avoided.

Install was painful. It took about 4 hours to get the collectors mounted on the block. The pipes were misaligned and at varied depths. We eventually got them on with a combination of clamps, cardboard to hold things in place, and brute force. Oh, and the flanges were thicker than stock, so I was required to use longer studs. Not a great install, but I was okay with because I figured I only had to deal with install once and then they'd be fine.

Over the next 18 months I was continually in battles with various rattles in my exhaust track, ALL of them header based-- header to engine mount, header to FCAB, midpipe to exhaust tunnel (because the header misaligned the midpipe), and super low exhaust tips (also because of the headers).

Eventually I got fed up with trying to deal with these issues, one after another, so I ordered some properly made headers. Not wanting to repeat any of my issues I skipped all the "midgrade" options (which may be great for all I know) and went for the best-- SuperSprint.

Since I have the CSL airbox, which takes some of its air directly from the engine bay, I opted to get the JetHot ceramic coating-- also the best there is, from the research I've done (was really, REALLY trying to do everything right this go round with headers). I ended up with the Sterling Silver finish, as it was the cheapest (as the default), they're never seen, and it's just as effective as all of their other colors. So, if they look a little different (especially around where you should be seeing the welds), that's why.

Install:
There's only one way to describe the install process: easier and better than stock. First off, the header flanges just slid on. There was ZERO tweaking of the pipe necessary, only instant glide on. Secondly, the flanges are properly sized so that you can use e46 studs. Thirdly, the section one connectors are in the stock location, so everything downstream (midpipes and muffler) fits properly, doesn't cause rub, and doesn't wear out muffler hangers prematurely. Lastly, there's huge clearances for everything. There's no area when I can't fit my entire finger between the header and another part of the car.

Then there's what really matters to me: there is clearance EVERYWHERE. I can literally put a finger between any part of the header and any part of the car-- FCABs, engine mount, etc-- plenty of clearance everything. My car will be vibration free like stock :roll:.

Some other observations:
-all the welds are bang on perfect. Smooth, consistent, perfect.
-the stepped headers, at least, are remarkably different in design than the JVTs. I've attached some side by side pics below, and the way they route the pipe is markedly different.
-02 bung and EGT sensor placement is perfect. You don't need to remove the headers to replace either, should they go wrong (to replace the EGT with the JVTs, the headers had to come off).

Power: I really can't comment to any changes in power. From what I've read the SS stepped makes more power than any other header on the market. That said, I made too many changes at once to attribute changes in power to the stepped headers. The JVTs did make the car noticeably faster, I can't hold that against them. These should do more still.

Overall, I couldn't be happier with my purchase. It's what i should have done 18 months ago instead of cheaping out. First and last time I'll make that mistake.

Some pics:

The headers, Jethot coated in sterling silver:




Compared to the JVTs. I really just included this pics because I think it's interesting how different the pipe routing is on the stepped than on the JVTs:













Nice thin flanges, and perfectly straight line of them:





Bolted in the car, perfect mating with the section 2:




FCAB clearance:







:whistle:


Quote:

Originally Posted by deadlysyns Pics...

Pic that a friend (surge709) took this spring with his iPhone that I like (unwashed, unposed, just parked there):





Some pics from a recent road trip

Brief disclaimer: This was a 5000 mile trip and the car wasn't washed before I started, much less by the time I got back :roll:

Pics my Surge709 :thumbsup2:

Prep:












Texas:






























Joplin:






















Indy:
















St Louis:













Enthusiast Auto group

[Obioban]

Car is going on the lift this Friday and won't be coming off till all of the following is done:

SS stepped headers, jet hot coated
new gaskets, studs, nuts, etc
secondary air pump delete kit
evolve dyno tuning
rear upper ball joints
rear lower ball joints
rear lower control arms
front lower control arms
front control arm bushings
pre cat 02s
EGT
new RSM bushings
valve adjustment
fuel injector rebuild
OEM CSL intake ducting
OEM CSL air intake temp sensor
CPV
Pilot Super Sports in 255/40/18 and 275/35/18
ride height tweak
align/corner balance
new CSL air filter


got the injectors back yesterday. Result from the service:



1 & 3 had bad spray patterns. 4 was clogged to the point that it couldn't be repaired and they said it should have been throwing misfire codes. All 6 had reduced flow.

Used top tier gas whenever possibly, new fuel filter every inspection interval (20-25,000 miles), techron also run every inspection interval.



Did some small projects this weekend. Moved the jammer heads from the bumper mesh to inside the headlights, replaced the bumper mesh, and added OEM CSL intake ducting. Annoyingly the VAC airbox ducting holes are slightly (but too much) off the OE location, rendering them unusable. Going to contact them... hopefully they're replace it or rotate the ring....

On the bumper side, the OEM CSL intake duct comes out perfectly by the fog light!

Also (previously) removed the secondary air pump, had evolve turn off the sensor for it, and modded the bracket to not look like it wants to hold one.

Sorry about the pics, dark out and only had my phone camera to use.