Kong’s E46 M3 Track to Street Car Journal

[Tbonem3]

Louder as in, easier to hear as in, not competing with exh noise.

I've got a 50/50 mix right now and am missing the quiet exh (stock muffler). But I'm spoiled by the s65, so the desire to hear s54 exh is really gone now for me, personally.

I was just curious.

[Slideways]

Probably related to your new injectors: https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/s...umption-change

I was just about to ask how 34 MPGs is possible lol

[SQ13]

Probably related to your new injectors: https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/s...umption-change

Makes sense...maybe not as high as 34.5 but definitely a noticeable improvement. I estimated 4.5 gal used on the same trip that used to take 6-6.5 gal, so there’s def some actual improvement in fuel economy. I’ll have to take real measurements to calculate my average MPG sometime.

[SQ13]

Louder as in, easier to hear as in, not competing with exh noise.

If that was the case, shouldn’t the blue car have louder induction noise since the exhaust is quieter? 🤔

Edit: The only reason why I want to investigate the reason for the significant induction noise difference between the two cars is bc I want the induction noise in the blue car to be as loud as the induction noise in the silver car.

[Tbonem3]

Well it might be the filter as I've read someone else say the same thing.

But there are other variables of course. Does your IB car also have a "race" style box or the standard Karb box? That might make a slight difference. Perhaps engine health/robustness does as well. These engines are all stout, but some are more freakish than others.

As far as volume or what our ears hear, I don't know if the impression of induction sound is linearly, inversley correlated to exh sound. Could just be as long as an exh system isn't overbearing, you can fuly appreciate the induction.

Then there are psycho-acoutic issues - is our impression influenced by our mood/thoughts. Surely memories of the volume (db) of something aren't really quanitfiable. A memory of the sound level of something wouldn't be as trust worthy as a sound you're hearing in the moment. Then there are environmental variable/influences.

Anyway, a long winded exchange, but I do value these sort of impressions, and I do trust them to some degree. At least so much so that I am looking forward to putting the stock muffler back on my car, and am interested if you note more differences in sound between your 2 cars.

[SQ13]

IB has standard Karb airbox with Karb snorkel and ITG foam filter. For a stock car with just the airbox, Hassan said 297 WHP was pretty good, so I figured the motor is fine. I’m gonna mess with the filter and unfiltered section combinations to see if that makes any difference. Maybe swap out the Sport muffler for the Street muffler to see how the overall sound changes at the driver’s seat. And yes, it could be psychological, so I may get someone to ride in both cars back to back to get a second opinion and/or get a decibel reader.

Just a science experiment to see what might be causing the perceived differences. I still really enjoy driving both cars.

[heinzboehmer]

FWIW, my car's airbox got a bit louder/raspier when I went from a fully stock exhaust to SSV1. It wasn't a crazy difference though, so probably still worth swapping stuff around between your two cars to see if anything else is responsible for the difference in sound.

[SQ13]

Not really an interesting update, but I washed the car after letting it get filthy for a few weeks. Met a cool AY F80 owner at the wash who bought the car at 22k miles and put 77k on it in like three years. Dude enjoyed riding in my car.


On the blue car, I swapped out the ITG foam filter for an OE BMC filter, and it didn’t really make a difference. It is definitely not as loud and throaty as the Race airbox in the silver car. Next step is to swap the unfiltered sections.

[SQ13]

April - May 2023
The Ohlins R&T TrackDay coilover kit from 3DM finally arrived. Barry provides amazing service, and I would highly recommend going thru them. He also assembles the kit at no extra cost to the buyer! I decided to try the included Vorshlag/Ohlins camber plates, but I had him remove the urethane RSMs from the kit. Ordered RE RSMs thru BW instead, as well as OE strut tower reinforcement plates and RE upper control arm reinforcement plates.

Black Olive doing a quality control check.


The first issue I ran into was not being able to get the strut tower reinforcement plates to sit flush. Turns out I’m an idiot, and there were no issues on the second attempt.


And then I learned that the 336 lb/in 7” springs do not get me to my desired ride height of 13.5”, even with the adjuster at the very top. This is my fault, not Barry’s. Ohlins makes a 7.87” 343 lb/in spring, which were not in stock at 3DM or Ohlins, so I went with 8” Swift springs. Tire clearance isn’t an issue, so my only worry is that it may make the ride height too high; if that’s the case shorter 3DM spacers should do the trick.

As you can see in the photo, I also got new tires bc I wanted something quieter and with better rain performance compared to the the semi-slick R-comps I’d been running. The Firehawks are nice, but I probably should have gotten PS4S for an extra $300 - may end up doing that


First time using QuickJacks. They’re pretty dope!


I thought I fixed my failed “time sert” issue, but nope—the M16x1.5 drain plug isn’t sealing properly. I’m going to attempt to permanently fix it using a Stahlbus drain valve and Permatex thread sealant w/ PTFE.


Current ride height. Hate it and hope to fix it in a week.

[heinzboehmer]

Hit me up if you want to borrow my timesert kit for the oil drain plug. It's just sitting in the garage gathering dust.

[SQ13]

Hit me up if you want to borrow my timesert kit for the oil drain plug. It's just sitting in the garage gathering dust.

Thanks! Would the time sert be M16x1.5 or larger? If larger, do you think there’s enough room to install it? Worst case I could grind down the cover to make space, but I’d just wanna make sure I’m not grinding away too much material.

[heinzboehmer]

Thanks! Would the time sert be M16x1.5 or larger? If larger, do you think there’s enough room to install it? Worst case I could grind down the cover to make space, but I’d just wanna make sure I’m not grinding away too much material.

I'd need to measure it, I'm not exactly sure what size it is. I can tell you that there's no need to grind down the cover to get it installed though

[SQ13]

May 2023
I was able to get to my desired 13.5” ride height by switching to 8” 336 lb/in Swift springs.


The following day, I went to EMG in Houston to have the clutch master cylinder replaced due to two issues I’ve been having since the clutch replacement - squeaking sound coming from inside bellhousing at the very end of clutch throw and a loud thud when putting the car into gear quickly, either from standstill or upshifting. New MC didn’t help with either issue.

I tried to get a video of the thud but you can’t really hear it in the vid. Sounded like it’s coming from the diff, and yesterday I was able to put the car on a lift and confirm that the source of the thud is the diff. So I’ll be getting a rebuilt unit pretty soon. To address the squeaking noise, I’m probably going to have to pull the trans and lubricate some of the contact points, and maybe replace some of the new parts if they have any damage on them.


Poor E36 😭


Wasted another six liters of 10W60 to install a Stahlbus in an attempt to stop the leaking. While messing with the copper crush washers, I found that the crush washers that came with the Amazon plug weren’t very malleable but the one that came with the Stahlbus was very malleable. I figured the soft crush washer, combined with Permatex thread sealant with PFTE, should do the trick.


The front end is clunky going over bumps and dips at parking lot speeds. This began happening recently, while I had the MCS coilovers with Vorshlag plates, and it still persists with the new Ohlins setup. So I think I can rule out the coilovers for now. Other potential sources are the sway bar endlinks and the TMS monoball FCABs, so I replaced the endlinks with new Lemforder and regreased the FCABs. This didn’t help, so I will likely switch to Lemforder FCABs.


EMG let me know that my coolant reservoir was leaking. Thankfully I have a spare cooling system for these types of situations lol. Lasted 22 years and 108k miles - not bad.

[SQ13]

Yesterday I made a final ride height adjustment (only LR needed to be lowered) in preparation for today’s alignment, as well as retorque the front diff bolt hoping that it would stop the thud (didn’t help). Oil drain plug is dry!

Car on four post lift to torque the lower shock bolts. It was on a two post earlier for everything else.


Final ride height of 13.5”F and 13.0”R, but I may raise all four corners by 0.25” before corner balancing and realigning.


Alignment went okay. I asked them to avoid scratching up the camber plates and strut tower, and even told them how to adjust the camber to avoid scratching, but they gouged the hell out of them anyways. I’m going to buy a string alignment kit, so I don’t have to deal with this shit again.
Alignment specs:
Front camber: -2.6°
Front toe in: 0.06°
Rear camber: -2.0°
Rear toe in: 0.16°

Came into the shop running -4.0° camber up front, and they could only bring it back to -2.6°. I think I may have the non-M Vorshlag camber plates…will reach out to Barry. I’m not really a fan of how the car feels with toe in up front, so I will probably go back to 0.0° when I get it realigned after corner balancing.


New steering wheel! It should be arriving next week.

[Bry5on]

Solid alignment settings. I run the same toe but .5* less camber front and rear. You running monoball RTABs?