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The E46 330ci Track Car Build Thread

32K views 381 replies 65 participants last post by  Mr. Bigglesworth 
Wow. That looks great. This build really morphed into something nuts. Looking forward to the finished product. And I definitely want some vids to hear this thing sing.
 
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Well, that kit is something new i learned about today in the world of the e46. Never seen one before, definitely rad.

The rear wing from the kit is meh IMO, so no big loss there. I always thought the e46 was best finished with a lip spoiler or CSL trunk lid.
 
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Cap came in, did some VHT black crinkle on this bad boy. This is gonna really blang out the engine bay nicely.

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Damn. That looks good.

Also, though...it's been a minute since I've peaked under the hood of an E46, but isn't this normally covered by the "BMW" cover? Will you not be running the cover?

...further stream of thought: I suppose that would make sense on a more track focused car.
 
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Duuuude. F yeah.

Can relate to life going into a whirlwind (in good ways) and not knowing where the hell the time went. Solid progress and I think you made all the right moves.
 
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Wow. I'd love to see that in person. Looks like it came out great. The original soft touch stuff is a "when not if" proposition as far as peeling is concerned, so your solution should definitely outlast any swap option you could have found. Storage containers may be worth a go when they start removing stuff for the transmission swap.

As for the armrest, I'm surprised you haven't come across one with everything else you've lucked upon. Maybe black interiors weren't that prevalent at that time? I guess in my own anecdotal experience they're mostly grey/beige colors.
 
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I forgot to mention something kinda funny.

The last time I went over to this guy (his name is Siwan) we were talking and he showed me some logo designs he had someone do for him. I could tell the artist was just starting out because a lot of the stuff looked like what I did when I first started. I told him I could help him out since that's what I do. No charge.

A couple weeks pass and I get the chance to throw together some options based on what he wanted. I told him I could piece together the rest of the BMW badge font alphabet so if he wanted his shop's name set in that he could. I sent him options saying "these are super rough, just to show direction. Let me know what your preference is from here and we can iterate."

I send him this:

View attachment 198233


And 2 days later I'm on Instagram and he posts a story of the top version in a white decal on someone's car.

I guess that means he liked it.
With how easy digital media is to transfer, unless you yourself design or have a close friend/family member in that arena, most people have no appreciation. I myself didn't really get it until I caught back up with a childhood friend who is in the digital marketing/media space and we started swapping stories. he's now designing a memorial piece of my dad for me, which I'll have printed and framed, and then utilize as a basis for a tattoo.
 
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The headliner is cost-prohibitive to just replace, so re-wrapping it is the best option. Since the pillar covers are brand new and I put them on a couple months ago, I can deal with the difference for a bit. If I eventually tire of the contrast I can buy new covers.
Oh, if they're new then let it ride. I forgot the pillars in the E46 aren't too bad since they more or less clip on and off.
 
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It really does. It's changed the entire feel of the car. It feels more grown up if that makes sense.

And yeah, I'm actually not entire sure what to do about the remaining gray stuff. I need new kick panels for drivers and passenger side, but the center console being gray may bother me. I could buy a new black one, but the plastic ages so poorly that I've been considering having it vinyl wrapped black.

As far as the A/B/C pillars and headliner? Well I just replaced the pillar covers but my headliner is sagging. Now that the car has black carpet I was thinking about a sunroof delete and black Alcantara wrapped headliner.



Although my mechanical confidence increases with every job I do, I won't be tackling the oil pan/steering/intake stuff. I'm going to take my car to a local BMW specialty shop that can do that stuff for me.
I'm a sunroof guy, so I'd want to keep it assuming it's still in working order, but I like your plan as well. Having had an E46 w/ all black, I vote for consistency because I do think the grey may stand out a bit much. No idea how well vinyl wrapping will work though.
 
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So, the pump, rack, lines, reservoir, boots and tie rod ends will all be replaced along with the oil pan and gasket. It's the most economical way of doing things and I can at least assume/plan to not have the car for a few weeks over winter.
Steering coupling/guibo while you're in there, do it.

 
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I know the feels. I did a manual swap on an e30. Felt like I doubled the horsepower. So glad you did it! I am in process of replacing my e46, and I am doubting my decision even though the replacement makes almost twice the power.
I'll tell you that going from my E46 to my E92, despite being a gorgeous 335i in alpine white over oyster on the optional 19" 5 spokes (I really liked the way it looked), was a let down. Granted, also automatic, but it was much more a GT cruiser than a tossable enjoyable drive.
 
That auto ZF was SO sleepy compared to the manual.
Yup. What got me into E46's was a buddy who had an 01 325ci with the 5spd. I drove that a few times and spent a lot of time in it as a passenger. When I was finally looking for an E46 myself I gave a few auto's a try because price/condition was too good to simply not look. Each time, even on a ZHP, I was left wondering why it just didn't live up to my memory. It's just not the same car with the plain jane slushbox.
 
Thanks for the good juju.

I managed to snag an armrest assembly with everything for $70 shipped. I got it and the outside looked great. one small blemish but it's much less noticeable than the actual disintegrating material on the original.
View attachment 202959

Nothing is without it's problems. I opened it up and...yeesh. An illustration of my aforementioned conundrum. PIECES of newer parts might be in better shape than my car, but other pieces of the same exact part may not be. The inside of my armrest vs. the one I bought:

View attachment 202960


shakes spraypaint can

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The new (old) one next to the old (new) one:

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Annnd boop:
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I'm currently waiting in a starbucks for my third A/C recharge this year. Pray for me. Pray for mojo. Pray for Project Melissa.

Love it.

This a/c recharge is at least post what you think was the culprit for the leak right? If so, fingers crossed.
 
For the airbag I'm 90% sure it's because I had the car off and on and off again with the passenger seat unplugged.
I think...and I could be remembering incorrectly.

But my issue stemmed from one of the sensors related to the driver side seat, and an old battery. I think a combination of clearing the code and new battery fixed the issue. If that hadn't done it, then a whole knew seat belt mechanism or something was needed.
 
My luck kinda ran out yesterday. A cross-threaded bolt and my airbag light is still on for some reason. Nothing too major, and both fixable but kind of annoying.

I will take the fact that the car is running, idling, and staying perfectly cool on these very hot and humid days as a big old victory. I think the coolant that was in the car was kinda done. New stuff has me idling exactly in the middle.

These two little bastard items:
View attachment 198162

Led to a real escalation of things:
View attachment 198163

Enough corrosion and time meant not only the bolts for the accumulator bracket were frozen, but the accumulator was frozen to the bracket itself. It took about 2 hours to get the headlight off, realize I wasn't getting these bolts unstuck while it was in the engine bay, removing the old and replacing with new. Real pain in the ass.

While I soaked all that crap in brake cleaner I ran back to the apartment to address my still gray (DUH, dude) interior kick/trim panels. I'm standing there thinking "uh yeah this is gonna look weird" so I decided to sand, paint, sand, paint, and clear coat the gray kick panels. This is easily like $300 of stuff new, and one of the issues I have with this car and it's lack of abuse is, replacing stuff from similarly aged cars doesn't always mean the parts are in better shape. If you've ever seen black E46 sill covers you know they're usually scratched to ****.

View attachment 198164


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And.... View attachment 198166

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Pretty much the only thing I haven't put back in are headrests and the a-pillar covers. I drove around the (very bumpy) block and...no rattles! I'm kind of amazed. I'm not terribly mad at the gray center console either. If I can find a black console/armrest for cheap, I'll pick one up but it's not as bad as I thought it would be.

The last remaining issues are:

  1. That cross threaded bolt. Can likely be tapped.
  2. Airbag light. Pretty sure that can be coded out.
  3. The accelerator pedal needs to be konked the last 1/8" onto its adapter plate. It's not loose, but it's not 100% clicked into 'never-getting-this-off-without-breaking-it-ville'
  4. A/C system needs to be vacuumed/charged and refilled.
Always something unnecessarily difficult when dealing with a 20 year old car.

The kick sills look great, definitely the right move and I hear you on stuff from other E46 interiors likely looking like crap.

The center console doesn't look half bad since you put in that silver trim. Kinda flows. I'd just replace or recover/dye the arm rest itself in black.

Air bag light...do you know the cause? I had this on my E46, and I think the fix was actually mundane but expensive. ...I'll see if I still have my invoices but I think I trashed them in my last move.
 
But...it's really heavy and raises the center of gravity. I don't use it all that much, and really as time goes on I'll likely be using this car less and less. Plus...cool points for a carbon fiber sunroof plug.
I mean, are you going to be using this as a time attack car? If not, that 20-50lbs isn't going to be noticable. Now...if you're gonna replace the whole roof skin with a carbon fiber piece, that is another story. just a plug? I'd keep the glass.

My thoughts for the gray contrast are: Carpet, seats, dashboard, center console and door panels all black. A/B/C pillar covers remain dove gray, and then the black Alcantara headliner would give the car what I'm imagining is a 'vaulted cockpit' feel. Basically below and above my line of sight would be black, and everything between belt line and roof would be gray.
This could work, but if you're already doing the headliner, I'd just make it all match. I remember wishing my E46 had black abc and headliner, when i finally moved into my E92 w/ M-sport thats how it was despite being an Oyster leather (white/cream) car.
 
Yeah, black interior looks much better. I'm interested to see the grey contrast with everything else in there.

I assume you have somewhere else to do the mechanical work?
 
Go on the trip, and to quote Jeremy Clarkson, "...you idiot."

The car will clearly still be here one way or the other.

On another note, it sounds to me like you should buy a daily. I can relate to the feeling of being in love yet bored with a car because its the only car you have. Even with my current car, a few days away, or a long drive in someone else's car typically renews my interest in my own vehicle. 10 years with only 1 vehicle is a long time, get a daily and take things with the E46 slow.

Then return to tackling things one at a time.

FWIW, body should be last, and certainly stay away from any kits. That money is better spent rolling and pulling the fenders as much as they reasonably can be.
 
Word of caution on the LED tails, as far as I'm aware there is no way to replace the LED's individually. If one fails, the only fix is replacing the entire tail. I remember having to replace both of mine because the LED's were starting to go out.

Now, that said, you're clearly fairly handy so perhaps you can macgueyver a work around. Either way, I'd test to see all the LED's illuminate prior to finalizing an install.
 
Yep. I did the aFe thing for a bit. While it sounded good there was no real improvement in power, not noticeable anyways.

I got a stock airbox on eBay for $150 that even came with a MAF.

Then I went ahead and listened to a stock air filter again and I wanted just a hair more. At that point I ordered a drop in oil-less aFe filter and threw it in the stock box, sounds great and retains all the good parts of the stock box.

This is the filter I went with fwiw. BMW Magnum FLOW Pro DRY S Air Filter - aFe 31-10015
I hear good things about aFe, but never went that route because they seem to charge 40% more for the same stuff K&N offers. The K&N filter is $50 vs the $88 for the aFe.

And before the whole dry v oiled filter debate starts, I had that filter in the car from approximately 80K miles till when I sold it at ~160K, no issues. The MAF was replaced prior to the filter being installed as part of a once over on the car when I bought it from a BHPH lot.
 
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