Z3 M Coupé Resto and Engine Rebuild !

[Clubber]

Hey everyone,

In the brief time I spent on this site, I realized that most of you are not only CSL fans but also general ///M car lovers, just like me. So I thought I could share my little restoration projects of my other ///M cars for others to hopefully enjoy.

This is the restoration of my '00 M Coupé which I acquired almost two years ago ;

The car was turbo'ed by the PO which I admit was part of the charm for me although I am a die hard NA man. I just wanted something different then my old Dakar Yellow M Coupé (Gone). But after a few months of ownership the novelty of Turbo setup wore off and I missed the driving characteristics of a strong NA engine.
So , I have started work on reversing the car to NA and doing other bits and mods along the way.

I had a similar thread for my Dakar MC last year which was fun to create, here it is,

Dakar MC Restoration From Turkey

I know many of us like these build threads so I decided create another one for the new ride.

Here is a list of things we did first,

-Turbo Kit taken out
-Extra Gauges and control units (EVC,AFR DEFI etc.) taken out
-Engine Cover stripped of cheesy paint theme
-All the fluids replaced (TWS for Engine, FM Booster for Diff, SRT for brakes and OEM Trans Fluid)
-Alu look door trim installed ( To match the exterior color )
-New Floor mats put and leather bordered
-Custom Pedal Set designed and installed
-Engine taken out for NA rebuild and stripped of boy racer paint
-Hamann Roof wing replaced with ACS piece.
-Replaced painted grills with OEM chrome parts.
-OEM Short Roof Antenna put in.

What is next ?

-Full NA engine rebuild
-CF Airbox
-Repainting every engine part to stock colors
-Polishing stock headers before install
-Removing Hamann Side Skirts and maybe rear side diffusers ?
-Leather reconditioning of the interior
-Adding red stitching to door grabs and center console L pieces
-Replacing aftermarket headunit and cd changer with OEM parts
-ECU tune to run the airbox
-Replacing worn BBS center caps with new ones.
-Major detailing including underbody to finish everything off.

and as always taking care of little surprises and hiccups along the way

So, lets begin,

This is her, aka " Junior " the day I bought her with po's plates,



First things first, we replaced all fluids, (TWS for Engine, FM Booster for Diff, SRT for brakes and OEM Trans Fluid)
Old Diff oil. This so called lifetime oil was literally black,





New OEM Diff Oil with FM Booster put in ($$$$!)



Before moving in to engine rebuild, I made some cosmetic enhancements,
Replaced the black door trims with alu look trim to give a little contrast to the cabin and reflect the exterior color.

Before,



After,



Then got some new floor mats and leather bordered them in red to highlight them a bit, ( You can almost see the boy racer gauges on center console )





Then replaced the Hamann pedal set with custom pedals made specifcly for my car by www.bmwpedals.com

Hamann set before,



Custom Set,







Last thing for the interior was to remove the turbo control units and replacing the ashtray,

before,



after,

[LeinsCSL]

Very nice Clubber :thumbs:

Always loved these, just a pity I can't even fit in the drivers seat, never mind drive one

[Clubber]

Very nice Clubber :thumbs:

Always loved these, just a pity I can't even fit in the drivers seat, never mind drive one

Thanks my friend. I admit they are a tight fit but well worth it

[Clubber]

And then I moved to the engine. How the engine looked when I got it. With lots of custom paint and F&F colored hoses and etc..





And then the engine came out for the rebuild,





First I wanted to attend to the engine cover. Removing the old paint and preparing for repaint to OEM black.

Used a fair bit of paint remover,



Paint remover working its magic,



Lots of scrubbing with sand paper and wire brush,



Almost there,



Then I let it cool down a bit and moved to the engine block for the same process,

Terrible red theme





Paint remover applied,



Spray washed,



Almost there,



I'll have another go at it with gas and alcohol before the paint this weekend.

Super glad with the cleaning stuff, I set my sights on the throttle bodies. Since those are a little complicated to dismantle, I left the job to my mechanic and then I started.

Before,



Almost two hours of scrubbing, washing and brushing with various stuff,



I believe they turned out pretty good.

More to come...

[Roland]

:smt023

[///martin]

very nice project :smt039

[Clubber]

:smt023

very nice project :smt039

Thank you guys.

[Clubber]

After the clean up, I put the first coat of black paint on the block.

First I masked all the necessary areas and heated each side before paint,



Then the first coat of black was sprayed,



I want this paint to stick so I am taking my time with it.
I put the second and third coat of paint on the block and finally it looks clean and new.



Now that the block was ready, we started the rebuild. Piston and rods prepped,



First the crank went in,


Then the pistons,



Done a bit more engine work,

Put on a new water pump and installed the oil filter housing after a thorough clean up,





Oil pan put back,



New head gasket in,



Headgasket before cleaning,





and cleaned and installed,





Almost there. Engine should be done by the weekend. Still looking for the headers, they are hard to find

[cslsuperfan]

M rebuild

Great work Clubber

:-D

[Clubber]

Great work Clubber

:-D

Thanks.

[Clubber]

Engine coming along nicely. Cams and flywheel have been installed today and as always lots of more cleaning done.







Alternator serviced and cleaned,



Starter motor cleaned,

Before,





After,





and finally, new BBS center caps have arrived. Current ones are very worn and scratched.




Thermostat housing cleaned,

Before :



After :



Fuel rail cleaned and painted matt black for OEM look,



Housing installed and pulleys painted ;



Injection Tube Connecting Pipes cleaned (It's the little things

Before and after,



Throttle bodies installed,



And I bought an used headers which didn't have any cracks or welds and all it needed was some love,

Before,



Obviously this rusty junk can't go in to my fresh engine like that so, I sent it to my polish guy. He rested the headers in rust remower chemical for a day and the next day, he polished the metal using three different polish pads from hard to soft. The result,



That's it for now, more to come...

[Clubber]

We closed up the engine, engine cover repainted in OEM matt black. Needs a little cleaning but a whole lot better than the ricer grey paint before,







Then I saw the transmission laying on the side of the shop and decided to give it a good cleaning. I forgot to take a before shot but I can tell you it was almost completely black from dirt and oil.

found this pic online, not mine but mine was even dirtier,



And after a lot of pressurised water and other stuff,



My mechanic told me, in a few days, he would put the engine in so today, I cleaned up the engine bay as much as I can and man did it loose some dirt. It is really hard to capture the clean look on camera but you guys will get the picture I guess.

Before main look,









After, general look,



Steering rack before,



After,



Before,



After,





more to come...

[Clubber]

We received a bunch of small stuff including a lot of clamps, bolts and cosmetic stuff like covers and bins etc.

New cylinder head side cover,



new washer fluid reservoir,



and tested a heat shield cleaning on the undercarriage, turned out pretty good,

before,



after,



Just when we were having fun with cleaning, I got a call from post office and this arrived. Wanna guess whats in ?



No, it's not a home theater system



Finally my CF airbox has arrived and since the engine was in display only mode, we tried it on for wannabe race engine look









It looks all business, best money spent on the engine IMO. That ghetto sticker will come off, don't worry. It will be replaced with a " BMW M Power " sticker. next, the engine goes back in

[Clubber]

The engine went in, most of the cabling are done, wheels and calipers are restored.

First, we took of all four wheels cuz the lips on the BBS rims had slight clearcoat peeling and scratch marks on the edges. I took them to my wheel guy to have them dismantled and cleaned. He took them apart and cleaned each lip,







Inside the rims were filthy,



Since the wheels were apart, I decided to polish the lips for a change since my polish guy is awesome, I thought they might look good.

Before they came back from the polisher, I found the opportunity of having the calipers and wheel wells out in the open, so I decided a through clean of the area,

Front Stoptech BBK Calipers before,







They needed major cleaning and some touch up. I emailed Stoptech to ask for their red color code but they said they don't have one and the closer code to their paint was Dodge Viper Red. I found the paint code online and went a paint shop to produce a small amount for touch up.

Viper Red,



The color seemed too bright for my calipers untill I found out have much filth and dirt was covering the real color of the calipers, so we gave them a nice clean and scrubbing.





And after a lot of touch up, here's how they looked,

[0-60motorsports]

This was an awesome build. Beautiful car.