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The E46 330ci Track Car Build Thread

32K views 381 replies 65 participants last post by  Mr. Bigglesworth 
#1 ·
So, This post made my @westopher had me thinking. Am I doing the right thing?

I was bequeefed (sic) this car from my departed brother, Kenny (also known as Chip) in 2012. At the time it wasn't my first choice of car, but it was a clean example that was reasonably well cared for. That was until he got a little too sick to be able to drive. Then it just sat. For a while. I moved to NYC, and then ended up moving around every year. It became less than sensible to street park an aging BMW with no tools, nowhere to work on it, and needing to switch parking spots twice a week. Then it sat some more.

I've been through a lot with this car. It's scared me when it randomly shut off on the Deegan in the Bronx, it's made me smile with how smooth the engine effortlessly builds revs. I've thought about selling it a million times, thought about its potential, scooted it up to Connecticut to store for a year, accidentally backed into it, worked on it, broken things on it, moved myself to and from several apartments with it, and its gotten me to and from job interviews, work, weddings, etc.

Now living in Baltimore, it's the kind of car that gets respectful nods from the squeegee kids sitting out on Pratt street, but also doesn't look out of place rolling through fancy parts of DC and Annapolis. Without turning this into a sappy love story, I f**kin love this car. It's so good. IMO it's the sweet spot between refined analog machine and enough tech to make it comfortable and feel modern. Even if it's an automatic...it's just such a good thing.

But all good things must come to an end, right? I love the car, this is obvious, but I'm an enthusiast. Like you, I need more.

For a few years now I've just thought to myself "hey...LS swap the thing and be done with it" which all sounds good and is easy to say. But after giving it a lot of thought and knowing that I now have a reliable and fair specialized BMW mechanic less than a mile away...I'm wondering if maybe I should stick with the M54 motor.

This means I would be able to do more with the money, and most of it would need to be done anyway (strip the chassis and address any and all corrosion, POR-15 the **** out of everything, recoat, etc.) Basically without even touching the drivetrain, interior, or exterior I'd be tackling pretty much everything in this video:




Before you ask "what do you want the car to do?" I want it to go fast and I wanna have fun. It'll be a street legal car that I take to the track that retains most if not all factory creature comforts. I want it to be balanced but also make people laugh and maybe scared a little bit. I want the car to last forever.

Spec E46 suspension kits are $5k. Manual transmissions are abounds. I keep thinking about how nice it would be to have a built NA straight 6 that IMO sounds better than the S54, and kinda keeps the spirit of the car alive. But then I get swayed by thinking about doing huge burnouts and having something absurd to play around with.

What say you TCL? Big honkin Chebby V8? Or buttery smooth straight 6 with cams, full exhaust, head work etc.? Let's argue.

Car Wheel Vehicle Tire Grille



TL;DR - LS Swap or no?
 
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#86 ·
Holy sh*****t this dashcam install is pathetic. I'll post pictures later but the cliffs notes are:

No headliner dropped. The wires from the front camera basically stuffed hanging on passenger side sun visor, so that when you flip it down, the wires fall. From there it goes (visibly) into the A-pillar cover and apparently DOWN (Why down!!!???) to be run below the door. Seriously. Why are you running wires for cameras mounted above the seats, below the seats?

THEN I noticed that where the wire comes out for back camera is...across the entire C-pillar cover. Yes that's correct. It's not behind the C-pillar cover, it's just hanging in front of the C-Pillar cover. Just like a downed power line.

I don't even know what to say. I was so excited to have a GOOD shop nearby but now I'm questioning the level of mechanical work being done, because this is bad. This is worse than when I installed an amp and sub in my friends Civic in my driveway. I had NO idea what I was doing (given the fact that at the end of the install I realized I didn't hook the amp or sub up to the head unit) but I knew damn well there weren't going to be exposed wires in the f**king cabin. I sat my dumb fat ass there for several hours carefully removing seats, carpet, trim, etc.

I'm going to slowly try to cool off this morning, bring the car to a nearby parking lot and take before pictures. Then I'll do the job properly and text this mechanic pictures. I'm super disappointed because I care SO MUCH about this car and I thought that showed through to him. One would assume if you have a customer that really cares about their ****, you let anyone and everyone working on that car that this is the case and the customer is going to be discerning.

And I lose a day of my vacation doing this, too.
 
#88 ·
He had a guy come in that does electronics for him. The issue is:

Did the owner of the shop see him do this and think it was ok? Or did the owner of the shop NOT see him do this and didn't inspect it before I picked the car up?

I'm a graphic designer and if you asked me to install a dashcam I wouldn't leave wires hanging off a sun visor. I brought it in because I don't trust myself to hardwire things. That part is done.

The last mile of that job is to hide the wires and perform a clean install. At the very least I'd grab my phone, look up "How to hide wires in E46 BMW" and sit in on YouTube University for 10 mins.

I paid money for a professional install, and you don't have to be anything close to professional to see this guy did a terrible job.
 
#98 ·
I am sorry I am just seeing this thread. Literally just last night I was talking with someone about how a black 330ci with the sport pack was almost my first car way back but my mom wouldn't let me get it. all I needed was an "okay" and perhaps to borrow $1000 or so while I got a loan for the rest. essentially thinking how I probably wouldn't still have it but the car has a soft spot with me and then I see this. I was even in NY at the time too (though Putnam).

Certainly sub'ing so I can see updates on this, car is awesome and I hope you enjoy the project.
 
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#99 ·
Gather round, folks. Fix your gaze upon the worst install of any part on this car ever.

Just a caveat - The tint looks awful, I know. It was done over 10 years ago and I recently removed it by myself under a time crunch. Now that I live in a state that doesn't care about window tint I'll have them redone very lightly to clean them all up. Also, the A, B, and C pillar covers were supposed to be replaced during this install:


Automotive design Azure Grey Material property Automotive exterior




Car Mirror Vehicle Motor vehicle Automotive design


Love it.

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Brand new hardwire kit supplied to this guy. This is how it comes back.

Automotive tire Road surface Rim Asphalt Synthetic rubber


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"I see no other wires here, great spot for a wire"

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Definitely use clear packaging tape, and don't even cut it.

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Hood Automotive tire Automotive design Automotive lighting Motor vehicle


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I sent all of these photos to the shop owner and his response was "Probably a job I should've passed on. I'll stick to mechanical work from now on."

Which...not on my car you won't! I re-ran all the wires properly. Replaced the B and C-pillar covers, ordered new A-Pillar covers and...destroyed the passenger side one on install. This has really become an adventure.

I spoke to the shop owner last night and basically said "I want a partial refund for the install. Charge me what you would charge someone to just hook up the hardwire and leave the wires dangling" (because that's essentially what happened). He'll get back to me in the next couple of days with a financial resolution.

I've found another shop that seems a bit more capable that's fairly close-by, but I'm once bitten twice shy at this point. If my car goes to any shop, I'll be setting up check ins with them to make sure things are going the way they should. I'm not unreasonable, but I'm really unwilling to be taken advantage of more than once.
 
#108 ·
I wasn't confident in my abilities to hook the hardwire kit up. I have nightmares of touching the wrong wire to something and completely bricking my car.

Wow that initial install is really terrible.
Yeah. I was about 19 years old and installed an amp and subwoofer kit into my friend's Civic hatchback and it was a MUCH cleaner install than this.

Why are you working in the parking lot of the train station?
I don't have anywhere else to work. It's quite fun having to put everything back into the car, lock it, walk back home, upstairs, grab tools, then walk back to the car and unlock it, remove everything again and then continue working.

TDE is homerdash.

homerdash is TDE.
I don't think I'd ever willingly buy a Passat.
 
#111 ·
UPDATE:

Scraping my tongue of the taste left in my mouth by this bad experience and moving on - I found a promising shop about 30 mins East of me. I took the car to Primecare Auto in Dundalk. Siwan is the owner and met with me and went on a test drive. He asked "on clear day without any cops or traffic, what's about the fastest you'll go comfortably?" and I responded 105-110.

He proceeded to go 120 (we were on 95 and it was empty) and bring it back down to legal speed quickly just to test everything. He gave me a medium length list of mostly minor things and thank goodness was impressed with the condition of the car. Good news headline is the last guy told me I needed a new oil pan and this guy told me no, I just need the gasket.

As I suspected, there's just so many bushings that need to be replaced. The list is basically:

Rear trailing arm bushings
Diff bushings
All 4 shocks and associated bushings and hardware. They're not blown, but they're oldish and it'll transform the feel of the car for sure (I'm looking into coilovers and to just do one and done) bump stops out back need to be replaced too.
Guibo
Brake lines (I'll grab an upgraded set from ECS)
Fuel filter and lines
Swaybar end links all around
Pinion and half-shaft seals
New jack pad
Brake calipers need to be removed and cleaned up

I also have:

A pinhole exhaust leak near the muffler, and badly corroded front exhaust studs and nuts. The studs are somewhat of a priority as the exhaust needs to be dropped for a good amount of the work I want done. I have a small collapsed vacuum line near the starter that seemed impossible to find but he spotted it. I misdiagnosed this as an electrical problem because the car would randomly just shut off in traffic. I'm really relieved this is just a line that can be R&R'd.

All in all, I'm pretty relieved that he gave the car a pretty good list but none of it is major or urgent. Time to save up, because a lot of the stuff that needs to be replaced will be upgraded.

Some of the cars around the shop:

Wheel Tire Car Land vehicle Vehicle

Wheel Car Tire Land vehicle Vehicle

Car Tire Wheel Cloud Vehicle

Car Automotive parking light Land vehicle Tire Wheel

Hood Motor vehicle Automotive design Mode of transport Automotive exterior
 
#116 ·
Yep. So much of the rubber and plastic on this thing is gone or going. I'm glad I didn't drive it much (really at all) in any winter, and I did have it covered for a while. So not everything is toasted, but much of it is just old as ****.

did you talk to original shop about the install and what did they say?
I did. He's open to a partial refund which is cool, but I'm totally burnt and turned off. I won't be taking the car back to him. ever.


In other news:

I. LOVE. PICK & PULLS.

I woke up to an email alert from LKQ saying they had a 2000 328i in stock, ready 12/11. I check the photos and sure enough it's a manual. Score!

I show up at like 10 am still half asleep with coffee in hand and get to work. It was gross, and I earned my discount, but I got:

Pedal assembly including lines, clutch switches and wires.
Shifter linkage and associated hardware
Manual driveshaft

for $85.

Idk if they know the mileage of the cars they stock, so I'll call back tomorrow to ask. If this thing had around/less miles than my car currently has, I think I may try to go back next weekend for the whole trans.

It'll add a real interesting step to teaching my fiance to be more comfortable behind the wheel, but it's been like 12 years since I've driven stick.
 
#118 ·
Sweet. If you buy the transmission it might be an idea to grab the transmission mount and reverse sensor/wiring (assuming it plugs into the gearbox). And personally I'd skip the flywheel and clutch and just get new ones; the junkyard savings is big, but it's a huge gamble as you don't find out if it works well until it's all assembled, and there's a good chance it won't.
 
#120 ·
The OEM clutch is a dual mass which isn't the best for performance applications, although it is quite luxurious. I plan on swapping for a single mass when it finally goes, which will allow me to be a little more reckless with doing launches and the like, and will be significantly lighter, although to be fair the stock set up has held up through a lot of abuse.

Regardless of your clutch setup, remove the clutch delay valve from your clutch line. It's the big fat cylinder on the line, there's a bottleneck that causes the clutch to slip on engagement, which again while luxurious, not good for performance driving. DIY
 
#121 ·
CDV delete is great advice--if OP has the hose he can do it before he even gets the transmission. I really struggle to understand why they include those darn things in the first place. Maybe so people didn't stall on the test drives? They make the clutch feel muddy and awkward to shift quickly.

Single mass...I'd recommend driving one first if you can find one. Depends on the car, how smooth you are on the throttle, and how comfortable you want to be. Between the gear lash and the jerky behavior on/off throttle, pretty sure I look like an idiot putting around parking lots in the single mass cars I've had. 😂
 
#125 ·
^ Thanks for the above, guys.

Here's the skinny - The car had 263,000 on the odometer according to a quick vehicle history search. Originally registered in VA with 9 miles on it, then in Louisiana with 34k on it, then in VA again at 194k miles.

Thoughts on grabbing a salvage 5 speed with over a quarter of a million miles on it? It'll probably only run me about $200, but that's a lot of asphalt to have covered in one life.
 
#127 · (Edited)
Not worth installing a 263k transmission. No way.

That said...for $200...how do you feel about doing a rebuild? Depending on what is inside, you could end up with effectively a brand new transmission for like $400 and a couple weekends.

edit: Also, I don't know your junkyard, but I'll bet a "c'mon man...263k" would get you that transmission for $175. 😜

Single mass flywheels don't have to be a huge pain. A lot of cars came from the factory with them. As long as they're not stupidly light and the clutch is still full-sized and fully faced they can be very tame.
Yes, this is true. And further a lot depends on the car too. Curb weight, engine idle speed, DBW/cable, etc.
 
#128 ·
If you're going to get rid of the dual mass flywheel, go ahead and get rid of the driveshaft guibo too. Oh, and just replace all bushings with poly/metal.

Unless OP is going to be drifting/launching and make this strictly a track car, the dual mass flywheel is plenty robust. That really changes the dynamics of the car and I would not recommend it for something that's going to be daily driven.

If you want to delete the CDV, that's fine, go for it. As far as regular flywheels and other cars, yes, there are plenty of vehicles with regular flywheels and clutches. They were designed with that in mind, these cars were not designed with that in mind, and it severely hurts NVH.
 
#129 ·
If you're going to get rid of the dual mass flywheel, go ahead and get rid of the driveshaft guibo too. Oh, and just replace all bushings with poly/metal.

Unless OP is going to be drifting/launching and make this strictly a track car, the dual mass flywheel is plenty robust. That really changes the dynamics of the car and I would not recommend it for something that's going to be daily driven.
Agreed. I would love to go with a single mass flywheel but every E46 that I heard with a single mass flywheel rattled like something was broken. I would love that easy weight savings but its not worth it unless its a full track car.
 
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