UK Project BMW E46 357ci V8

[bikealarmblair]

It's been a busy few days for Craig @ DynoTorque he,s made the exhaust headers & connected them to rear section along with sorting power steering lines.

This



+



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[bikealarmblair]

Waiting for the t**t that's borrowed efi live to bring it back so I can unlock the ECU then it will start





It runs





Still plenty of work to do before it's finished if a car like this is ever finished.....

Seems like I've got a faulty brake master cylinder as I no pressure to the rear brakes, not ideal
Needs to have the wheels aligned etc & still quite a bit of wiring/interfacing to sort out so still a few late nights left in it yet!!!!

But I'm a happy chap Craig's work is amazing I can't thank him enough for the work he's done & the endless advice & use of his workshop for the last month or two, I honestly wouldn't trust anyone else with car/van/bikes

Oh yeah it's gained a bit of weight..... It's 1499kg so 78kg heavier not all of that is engine tho, it's down to bigger brakes/wheel spacers/anti roll bars/diff/boot floor mods etc so it's about the same weight as a STD M3

I taxed it earlier & have done 5-6 miles in it, it's fast.... I love the way when you rev it the car rocks side to side, it's as quite as I could make it but you can still hear the V8 rumble it's almost wrong in a BMW. I've got lots to sort out before it's really roadworthy at the moment the brakes aren't working correctly, no abs, speedo or any gauges apart from fuel I think the can bus is connected to more of the car than I first thought. Lots to do but I can already tell this is going to be a fantastic car

I've got to the bottom of some of my issues today I've refitted the BMW engine ecu with hindsight I should never have removed it.... & now have a working temp gauge & I've been able to scan the car & the reason (or at least one of) I have no abs or speedo is because the car is not seeing the rear wheel sensors the M3 rear end is from a later 2004 car with DSC & it looks like the sensors are not compatible with my ASC unit so tomorrow I'm going to try & get some older sensors & fit them, with a bit of luck that will sort my brake issues too only leaving to decide which way to resolve the tacho either machine my front pulley & fit the BMW sensor or source a convert box from the chevvy crank sensor to the BMW one.

Todo list is very small indeed, aircon pipes/gas, bleed clutch, fit trigger ring for rev counter & clean it



The last few days have been a blur!!!! I'd say the car is 90% now my todo list is almost empty I think all that's left is to have the aircon gassed, alignment done & tweak the map when it's got a few more miles on it, oh & fix it.....

[bikealarmblair]

I've gained control of most of my gauges, I made this really hard work for myself by taking out & selling the bmw ecu with the engine I didn't realise how much of the car was connected to the DME, heater, aircon, abs, speedo instrument cluster with the help of my mate rob & a bentley manual, bmw tis, bmw laptop software, chevvy laptop software, digital volt meter & a lot of time we refitted what we needed of the bmw DME & wiring and had a trigger wheel made to so the DME still thinks the bmw engine is fitted.....



All of which gives it



Took a couple of pics before I drove home in it last night




Unfortunately the bmw expansion tank has sprung a leak so I'm off to try & source one or there will be UBMW for me

Not really an update more just an excuse to post a pic or two




Wideband sensor controller



Craig made me an adaptor to put the sensor in the exhaust

[joecar]

Wow, that is a major project... 357ci very clever badge

Thanks for posting.

[slows10]

Nice project, thanks for the pics.

[bikealarmblair]

Glad you like it, I love it

[bikealarmblair]

[quote name='bikealarmblair' timestamp='1312651601' post='395834'] Over the coming weeks/months time & money permitting I'll be:
Sort ABS/brake issues, still have a long pedal & odd ABS performance I really don't want to remove the ABS but it's becoming an option & fit rear AP's
Sort Air bag faults (passenger seat pad override)
Connect oil level sensor from LS1 sump to BMW DME
Find/sort irritating noise from rear seat/shelf area
Get air con gassed
Replace front tyres
Decide how high/low I want the car & get Alignment sorted
Make front strut brace & mod tower so camber can be adjusted easier.
Fit Parrot hands free kit
Make it quieter
Map the fuelling
Drive it like I stole it[/quote]

So over the last month I've been a bit lazy/unfocussed but I have done a couple of bits to it....
Brakes: I'm hating brakes at the moment! I found that the ABS module was faulty so finally gave in and ditched it another set of new braided lines were made up and fitted, I have brakes..... Well kinda it now stops in a straight line but pedal feel travel is still the same :( So it must be a master cylinder ratio issue even tho the maths say it's all fine.... So I replace it with a bigger one & also put the rear AP calipers back on & the difference is minmal :( Without Craig pushing me at this point I'd have just parked it up & sulked! Craig modified the pedal pivot but still no real difference it seems that everything makes it a 'little' better but nothing fixes it 100% we also changed the servo as we had one but no difference... I'm beaten!!! Craig isn't tho he checks the internal diameter of the pipes & it's dash 4 not the dash 3 he specified (means nowt to me either) so yesterday I made new front lines with dash 3 and the pedal is 75% better!!! Going to change the rear lines too & fingers crossed I should have the amazing brakes this car needs! Craig your a hero without you this would be just another unfinished project.

I've made a sensor pad bypass for the passenger seat airbag mean the pass airbag will always trigger now, these are on eBay for £15 but I made mine using 2 100ohm resistors & a diode so about a £1

I've replaced the front tyres with some awesome Dunlops (well Craig treated me to them as a unneeded thank you for getting his website up to date ) they have transformed the car the grip & turn in is fantastic wet or dry very impressed this is the first E46 I've had that doesn't understeer

I've been twiddling with the HSD's & have a decent compromise between looks & bottoming out getting to the garage, I've also backed the front camber off from 3degrees to 2degrees since fitting the Dunlops but will still get it aligned at some point if only to see how close to correct I've got it.

Been logging the fuelling/mapping & it was being restricted by the MAF/throttle body so before an E46 forum dyno day I decided I'd change the MAF with one we had just before I left for the dyno.... Car felt flat as a fart :( and made shockingly low 326bhp on the dyno, on my return to DynoTorque after some of the piss take had stopped Craig told me the MAF I'd put on was from a car that had been written off in floods..... No wonder it felt flat!!! So I took it off & Craig got busy porting the throttle body for me & also persuaded Pinhead to remove the LS2 MAF from his ute (he's had a mafless tune) so I could use it on mine a few new pipes later & it feels like a new car the bottom end is now so sharp the pick up is much faster much more mapping/tuning is needed but I can't believe the difference it's made so far.







So my to do list now looks like:
Replace rear brake lines again
Interface LS1/BMW oil sensor
Fit/gas aircon compressor
Front strut brace
Fit Parrot
Fix rattles
Mapping
And more destroying rear tyres

Blair

[bikealarmblair]

Brakes are now sorted and are amazing
Aircon compressor & lines fitted just need to get it gassed
Strut brace is being made this week
I've found two of the rattles (both are not conversion related)
I'm about to make my first mapping changes to the ecu
& it needs more tyres....

http://youtu.be/mCbg2CLWl50

[joecar]

Yes, LS1's give the vehicle the ability to steer-by-torque... ...thanks for the vid.

[bikealarmblair]

Took the car over to Greg @ ProTuner for mapping today 14 hours of mapping....

I'll let the pics & vids do the talking



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOdkf...e_gdata_player
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEbNu...e_gdata_player
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i6wC...e_gdata_player
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDeFL...e_gdata_player
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPc21...e_gdata_player
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4ytK...e_gdata_player

And of course the scores on the door.....

407 bhp 430ft Lbs both at flywheel