Obioban's 2004 JR/Black M3 Wagon

[Obioban]

I bought Kaiv's first mechanically/electronically M3 converted e46 touring, and drove it home from CA to PA. Not many other people I'd trust to buy a completely swapped car from, and then immediately drive it across the entire country! Right off the bat, my opinion of the car is this: from there drivers seat, there is ZERO indication that you're not driving a stock e46 M3 coupe. It's really wonderful, and exactly what i was hoping the car would be! This car is going to be my new daily, moving my wife to the e39 M5 as her daily, and will be selling the e91.

Car can be seen getting built, in posts 1-400: http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=540964

Cliffs, as I picked it up:
Touring body
M3 engine
M3 trans
M3 diff
M3 subframes
M3 control arms
M3 bushings
M3 brakes
M3 mounts
M3 cluster/ecu
M3 headers/section 1/section 2
Chrome trim turned black
black dashboard, carpet, center console

Fresh OE/Lemforder bushings everywhere as he was building it, as well as the full Beisan VANOS treatment, subframe foam (4x), new clutch/flywheel/pressure plate, and new WPC treat rod bearings.

In terms of "mods" at time of pickup (interesting term when every major mechanical component in not original, but....), it has
Eibach coilovers
Eibach sways
not very good performance friction street pads (why can't PF make a decent street pad?!?!)
Stromung customer muffler (e46 chassis mount points, M3 pipe ID and section 2 mating)

My immediate plans for the car:
-Black leather door cards/back seats
-Black M3 front seats
-M3 steering wheel
-M3 MK60 retrofit
-new OE US headers (I suspect one of the cats is gone in these)
-bunch of NCS expert stuff (quad highs ASAP... forgot how useless stock e46 headlights are)
-upgrade projectors (see above)
-two OE resonated section 1 pipes in the section 1 (kill the rest of the rasp
-M sport interior (anthracite (black) A/B/C/D pillars, headliner, and misc stuff (handles, sun visors, motion sensor covers)
-swap out the trunk area for black parts
-new wind shield (cracked it on the way home)
-intravee
-light weight forged wheels of some sort
-raise the ride height a bit
-do something about the interior trim-- not sure what yet, but I am sure that wood is not for me
-roof rack delete
-snow tires on the wheels that are on the car now.
-get the car aligned
-add a windshield washer fluid tank
-clear tails

Here is the car, as we first saw it (lower than it really is, as our junk is in the trunk and my wife is sitting in the back seat):



And the part everyone wants to see:



And driving out of Kaiv's life, leaving him in despair until he built another one the following week:



And 15 minutes later, my first ever tire blow out. Good thing I was 15 minutes into owning my first ever car with a spare tire, since I still had 2700 miles to drive in 2.5 days....



Which was a pretty severe blow out. Was going ~110 when it happened:



So then we went to the Peterson, because it's awesome:




















After that we really hit the road. We saw very little traffic for pretty much the entire country-- rarely had to go under 100 mph for all 2700 miles, and sometimes roof for well above. There's some pretty epic scenery as you cross the country. Didn't really have time to get out an take real pictures, so all we have is in car shots as we rolled through:



This gas station somehow had the land burned all around it (seriously, all sides, including some of the trees in it's parking lot), but the station itself was untouched. Crazy











Scary looking sky in kansas:





shot through the sunroof:




And home:

[Obioban]

This is paid for and in the mail minus the headliner (going to have mine rewrapped locally, as shipping is stupid):



And I picked these up last night for it:







Wheels are on. Too crappy of a day to take any real pictures.



^wheels somehow don't need hub centric rings. I'm excited about that as all previous sets of RG-Rs I've had, had required rings and/or spacers! These are just a straight bolt on.

[Obioban]

Picked up Vox Populi's stock seats from his M3. Heated/lumbar/width adjustment/correct color/5 minutes away





Not hating these wheels



Vacuum and leatheriquing the seats....
(this is a before picture, it's soaking in now)

Put in one of the two M3 seats. Was shooting for both, but it took longer than expected. Next one should go faster, as I have a technique now

[Obioban]

Had the windshield replaced, and I'm not the most impressed I've ever been. Used a new shop that's near where I live now (moved recently)...
Finger prints on the mirror
tape left at the top of the windshield
V1 installed like this:



And glue left on the A pillar...

[Obioban]

Did some ecu tweaks this morning...



Put on the more conservative CSL warm up light values, disabled top speed limiter, disabled dyno rev limiter, enabled sport mode memory, and enabled the smg shift lights on my 6mt wagon.



Set comfort mode throttle mapping to be more linear.



Made sport mode a valet mode, in case I have to let someone drive the car.



Used paffy's mssflasher to reflash it when done, which was crazy fast. <10s to flash it, for sure. I bought it to reset the flash count on my M3, but will be using it for all future flashing on all 3 of my MSS5X's!



Second M3 seat in!



M3forum stickers on

[Obioban]

Bunch of small projects today...



Rebadged it to 332i (used an e46 323i badge to get the font right).



Bolt on license plate bracket instead of the previous double sided tape system.



New oe rear wiper blade, which should allow it to... function...



Rear OE BMW clear tails



No front plate bumper trim. Need to do some cleaning under it...



Anchor style floor mats. My driving style seems to constantly detach the Velcro style mats that were in it.

Did an extremely hack job intravee install. Didn't bother putting effort into to doing it cleanly yet because I still need to add a bluetooth module, alpine switch, and second iPod/KCA-420i (I want to set it up like the M5, so that if I unlock the car with my key it goes to my seat position, climate settings, mirror position, radio presets, and iPod, while if my wife unlocks it with hers, it goes to all hers).

So, for now, I just threw it all in the hole to make it function in the short term.



Alway amuses me to finally use wiring that's been sitting idle and unused for over a decade.



Jam it in there.



Up and running



And playing music.

Interface is not nearly as intuitive as the nav interface in the M3/M5!

Halogen highs with xenon highs, fogs on with highs, and the alternate 4 way flasher pattern coded on.





ZHP knob off, M3 knob on

[Obioban]

Finally got around to installing the Alpine switch and second KCA-420i. Now my wife and I each have an iPod in this car, with key memory.



New parts that I'll be putting in as soon as I have the M5 back together (I try to limit myself to one car apart at a time, and I'm replacing all the front end bushings/bearings/ball joints and the steering system on the M5 right now).

M3 steering wheel:






And OE BMW front and side clears:



And doing the M sport (anthracite) headliner/visors/pillars soon, too.

Still haven't found good condition black leather door cards (sedan or touring, as they're the same) or black back touring seat in leather...

Finally got some snow to play in!



And leatheriqued the steering wheel, to get the previous owners cooties off



Decide to break my own "one project at a time" rule, because this is super simple and M5 parts are taking forever to arrive.

M3 steering wheel in. Astounding how much this changes the driving experience for the better.



And OE clears installed. Fits like stock :roll:. They're entirely too clean compared to the rest of the car right now, though.

Also, snow wheels/tires are mounted (have been for a bit):





Thanks to nick to linking me to this!

[Obioban]

Going to summer tires on this car. Will probably regret it.



This is why the m3 wagon would be a better track platform



New dog. First wash of the year, to get the salt off. Dog is... not helpful.

I'm working on sourcing an e36 M3 US muffler I can borrow to test fit. I really want to quiet this car.

In a perfect world, I'd like to do euro s54 headers to s50b32 e36 m3 mids/muffler. The Euro e36 only made 22 hp less than the euro e46, so presumably that exhaust track wouldn't be too much of a bottle neck.

Been looking at e36 M3 pictures-- looks like most of the extra muffler storage space is accomplished by hanging lower.... which I find unfortunate-- my current (stromung) muffler can't be see at all, besides the tips, because it fully tucks up behind the bumper (which I like).

[Obioban]

Wood trim is looking much better





Radio trim isn't fully seated because the right side of dash trim isn't installed yet.

Attempting to capture the color/texture:



Interior is coming along on the wagon.

Came with the car: blackgrey carpet, center console, dash

Changes already done:
M3 steering wheel
M3 shift knob
grey sport seats to black M3 seats

Just completed:
Changed from Grey leather door cards to M sport/alcantara door cards
wrapped the wood trim in 3M "brushed titanium" vinyl

Owned and will be installed shortly:
M sport Anthracite (black) pillars and headliner
M3 center arm rest (nicer leather)
black dead pedal

Still need to find:
Black wagon back seat. I'm indifferent between vinyl and leather for that.

Door cards didn't come with speaker holes, which I didn't realize was an option (I got the door cards from Europe). So, had to dremel my own:





But it cleans up nicely with the speaker in place:

[Obioban]

Fun part:



Not fun: dropped $1500 on a cooling system refresh, head gasket, head bolts, valve seals, pre cat 02s, and a new maf.

Nothing is failed, but I'm going to do euro headers/cats, and that's half the work of taking the head off, so, "while I'm in there" has taken me over again...

[Obioban]

Finished off (got rid of) the rest of the grey interior (trunk area, back seat)!

[Obioban]

Swapped out the rear eibach coilovers. Doing the fronts this evening. Already MUCH happier with how the car rides/handles. Eibach coilovers for sale, soon :roll:



Switched over to rouge RSMs/reinforcement plates, largely because it means I won't have to disassemble the rear of the wagon (pita) for future shock replacements-- can do it entirely from the wheel well. Plus it gave me an excuse to do the ECS hybrid monoball RSMs on the M3 coupe! Got new bushings from RE, because zero effort swap currently. Moved from the "track" bushings I had on the M3 coupe to "street" bushings for this application.



Looks to sit ~1cm higher than the Eibach coils at max possible ride height:



And got the new black trunk carpeting installed, plus holes for shock adjustment. Looks SO much better than the old grey. Going to get some black plastic caps for the adjustment holes to clean it up a bit.

[Obioban]

Front suspension is in. I'm MUCH happier with the car now than with the Eibach coilovers. It was constantly busy at high speed before-- this setup it much better at absorbing the bumps and getting back to business.

Doesn't feel like I've given up anything in exchange, either.

Every time I drive a car with TCK valved Konis, I'm blown away by how good they are. They punch so far above their price point!

I was finally pushed over the line on doing this project because I drove my friends 600 lb front, 700 lb rear TCK car 150 miles the other day, and it rode better than my Ohlins equipped 400/620 M3 coupe or the Eibach coilovered M3 wagon :roll:

[Obioban]

Quiet muffler going on!


e36 m3 muffler-- the US muffler is the same as the euro (S50B32) muffler, other than necking down where it meets the mid pipes. The necked down portion is getting cut off. My thought here is that if it flow sufficiently for the 321hp, 7600 rpm S50B32, it shouldn't restrict the S54's 343hp/8000 rpm overly much (euro headers/cats/tune getting flashed on shortly).





For sure it's not as cool looking and going to be way more visible. But, shouldn't impair entry/exits more (muffler doesn't hang lower than the line between the tips and tires) and I want the car to be quiet
__________________

[Obioban]

Picked up the car, with the e36 M3 muffler installed, from Bimmerworks (West Chester, PA), who did kick ass work (as always).

The result was EXACTLY what I was hoping it would be-- as quiet as the stock e46 m3 muffler and zero drone, under any conditions. It actually seems to have a bit less rasp, too! (better, imo). Will post a video at a later date. Not sure if it'll be before or after I do euro headers/catted section 1/tune.

My request to them were...
-stock tip location
-stock section 2 merge point retained
-bolts up to stock section 1 like stock
-if possible, retain the stock section 2 resonator
-use OE hangers for future serviceability

Pictures of the process...

Test fitting





Stock e46 m3 cut off after the resonator. Fun how the e46 M3 doesn't use round pipe while the e36 m3 muffler does :P. They had to reshape the e36 pipe to match.





e36 m3 muffler with the necked down portion cut off. The e36 euro (s50B32) and US (S52B32) muffler are both the same, other than the necked down portion where it joins with the mid pipes. My thought going in this project is that if it flows well enough for the 321hp 7600rpm S50B32, it should be okay with a 343hp, 8000rpm S54B32. Butt dyno says that assumption was accurate.



e36 M3 muffler welded up to the e46 M3 section 2, with e46 non M hanger mount points added. The muffler body was painted black to minimize the saggy muff/full udder look that e36 M3's sometimes have from behind/side.



And installed!





The muffler body is above the line between the tip of the exhaust pipes and the tires, so my departure angle shouldn't have been adversely affected.