Page 4 of 10 FirstFirst 12345678910 LastLast
Results 76 to 100 of 250

Thread: BenFenner's 2000 Black M-Coupe

  1. #76
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Northwest NV
    Posts
    3,252
    My Cars
    Audi B8.5 S4
    Quote Originally Posted by yash View Post
    Can't imagine any other reason to be out there, unless your desire is to be eaten by some ferocious beast or ploughed over by a maniac. Lol
    Neither one of those options is fun. Meteors = cool. Mauling = un-cool.

  2. #77
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Columbia, Worst Carolina
    Posts
    2,971
    My Cars
    2000 M-Coupe, 1994 SE-R
    Fender bender and repair

    Facebook album permalink.

    Typically I post in this thread when there are updates, but sometimes things happen in another thread and I'll link to it here. So if you want the full story, here it is: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...anels-and-help

    If you want to save yourself the time, here's a quick summary.

    5-MPH collision with a parking structure (my fault)
    Lowest bidder body shop produced poor results
    I fixed some of the mistakes after the fact


    And here are a few pictures if you don't want to go through that other thread.








  3. #78
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Columbia, Worst Carolina
    Posts
    2,971
    My Cars
    2000 M-Coupe, 1994 SE-R
    Install grills and badge

    Facebook album permalink.

    There were a few things left to do after the body repair work. When removing the front hood badge the rubber grommets took a bit of a beating because I didn't find out how to remove them properly until after I'd removed them. No bid deal, just order new ones. The front kidney grills were in poor shape having been removed maybe a few times and suffering broken tabs. New grills were ordered to replace those as well.



    Front hood badge grommets, with toothpick for scale.



    New grills.











    Heating them up on a warming pad to make them more pliable for installation. This work was done last winter.



    New grommets in place.


    Badge installed.



    One of the grills disassembled. I'm sort of in a rush during this as I have somewhere to be.


    Both ready to go now. Any longer and I'm going to be late for an appointment I have to tune someone's stand-alone setup.







    All done and at the client's house to tune his AEM EMS.
    Last edited by BenFenner; 12-14-2013 at 11:36 AM.

  4. #79
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Columbia, Worst Carolina
    Posts
    2,971
    My Cars
    2000 M-Coupe, 1994 SE-R
    New rear tires

    (Facebook album permalink.)

    I don't know why, but I seem to have a 6th sense about tire wear. Even in cars I don't own, or drive. One day I will take a serious look at a tire to see how the wear is doing, and as luck would have it, they need replacing. It never fails. The lesson here; don't let me look at your tires unless you want to replace them.

    As you can imagine, I took a look at my rear tires and saw some cord. I like to run my tires down almost to the cords, but I don't actually like to see cords. I also obviously like to see much more uniform wear. No doubt folks here are used to throwing away good rubber due to the lowering and camber out back. I knew it was inevitable, but now I'm wondering about ways to raise the rear up maybe 10mm or so. I've got thicker spring pads on the mind, or maybe something else.

    Enough talk. Here's the right rear tire.






    Here is the left rear. Not as bad. Odd, since VIR is clockwise. Maybe it's that left turn merge I take every morning? Maybe it was the previous owner's habits?





    I've certainly put my fair share of Kumho tires on cars, but this is my first set of Ecsta SPT that I've driven. I guess they were okay.






    Let me explain my tire choice a bit. First and foremost, I do not plan on keeping the stock wheels on for much longer. I've amassed a small fortune by now saving for the planned wheel purchase. I'll also be putting 255 tires up front and 295 in the rear. With that in the near future, I just wanted to get something on the car that would be cheap and not fall apart at the next track day. The cheapest tire out there with "extreme summer performance" aspirations has actually been a Sumitomo tire for the past 10 years or so. Way back when a close friend and I built his 475 WHP e30 we ended up putting these same Sumitomo HTR ZII tires on that car. Man, we were well out of money by the time it came to buy tires. Anyway, they actually did quite well on the e30 for the price so with that knowledge I felt okay running them for a short time on a performance vehicle in performance driving. Otherwise I'd probably have spent more on something else. These things are still about half the price of anything else they claim to compete with. They are also probably close to 3/4 the performance... But as I keep saying, these things are throw-aways for me. They are also a little bit of an upgrade in dry traction to the Kumho tires that were on there.

    I went for stock size.















    Fun fact. The red dots on new tire sidewalls indicates the heaviest section of the tire. The tire mounter is supposed to line this dot up with the valve stem section of the wheel (since that is traditionally the lightest side of the wheel) to aid in balancing.




    Loaded up in the hatch, ready to go.











    Good enough.



    The front tires are obviously in better shape. I'm going to ride them out until I get close to my next track day. I'll replace the fronts with the same tire before that.


    Receipts:



    Last edited by BenFenner; 01-26-2014 at 12:44 PM.

  5. #80
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Columbia, Worst Carolina
    Posts
    2,971
    My Cars
    2000 M-Coupe, 1994 SE-R
    New front brake pads arrive

    Facebook album permalink.

    In anticipation of more track days I plan to replace the front brakes since they are nearing the end of their life. I'll be upgrading the front brake rotors to the euro-spec E36 M3 aluminum hat units, and in an effort to keep limit brake dust I'm going to try Hawk Performance Ceramic brake pads (their entry-level pad, which is one of two popular options for less dust). Not only that, but I'm knee-deep in working on a new wheel package so I need full calipers up front to produce accurate clearance measurements. I'll be posting those for others to use soon. The planned wheels are another reason for the less dust.

    I realize track time and my decision to use entry-level pads are at odds. We'll see what I can get away with. =/

    Here's the thread I made when trying to find the euro-spec rotors: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...hip-them-to-US

    When looking for pads, I researched all of these threads (easily found in The Manifesto now obviously):
    Streetable Brake Pads
    Best brake pads for no dust?
    Dustless brake pads
    Low/no dust brake pads?
    New brakes and Rotors
    bunch of Axxis Break pad questions
    Brakes: Rotors/pads

    It became clear there were two competing options for low-dust pads. I picked the less common Hawk pad because I have been satisfied with their products in the past.



    So much talking for a few pictures of some boring break pads. Oh well!










    I'll have to do something about this paint. =/







    Since this is a pretty generic company and part, I was able to order through my favorite vendor www.gspec.com. Greg Vogel always has great prices, and the best customer service you could imagine.




    Look for the other parts to arrive and for the install update.
    Last edited by BenFenner; 01-11-2014 at 02:53 PM.

  6. #81
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Columbia, Worst Carolina
    Posts
    2,971
    My Cars
    2000 M-Coupe, 1994 SE-R
    Whalen aluminum hood release handle arrives

    Facebook album permalink.

    Here's the massive thread where these things first came to be: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...y-hood-release
    Here's the resulting For Sale thread where I bought mine: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...elease-handles
    (If you go to post #42 you will see that this thing actually arrived in April 2013 and I am way behind in updates.)

    $30 for the black anodized unit and I'm in business.








    Look for the install update soon.
    Last edited by BenFenner; 01-12-2014 at 08:10 PM.

  7. #82
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Columbia, Worst Carolina
    Posts
    2,971
    My Cars
    2000 M-Coupe, 1994 SE-R
    Another rear tire puncture

    Facebook album permalink.

    Well, that's what I get for putting new tires on the back.
    I ran over a short, flanged, lag bolt on my way into my work packing garage and heard the leak immediately. I pulled into my spot and parked for the day.
    This was a Friday, and luckily Katie and I had no car-pooled this day so we drove home in her car. I checked with the parking folks to see if I could get into the garage on a Saturday to fix my car and they said they'd let me in.

    Friday evening after work I went to get the wheel and tire off the car so I could at least have the puncture fixed over the weekend in the event that I couldn't get in the garage on Saturday.

















    Saturday, headed to the local tire place.




    All fixed.




    The tire shop tends to fix punctures for free. They assume you've bought the tires from them and thus have a warrantee through them. Even when I tell them I bought the tires myself elsewhere, they tend to do the job for free. The previous punctures I convinced them to charge me for the fix. This time (since I'd just been there getting the tires put on a couple weeks ago) I was not as successful, so this fix was free.

    With a little bit of luck we got in the garage on Saturday and all went well.
    Last edited by BenFenner; 01-19-2014 at 07:10 PM.

  8. #83
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Columbia, Worst Carolina
    Posts
    2,971
    My Cars
    2000 M-Coupe, 1994 SE-R
    There are lots of images on this page and it takes a while to load. With no conversation between updates, this will happen. In the interest of spreading out the images and fostering a bit of conversation I welcome anyone to post anything they'd like here. Comments, questions, and heckling are all welcome.

  9. #84
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    1,628
    My Cars
    ///M Roadster
    The Coupe is looking good! Sorry to hear about your flat, I have the same experience here at Discount Tire (always patching them for free). What are your ultimate plans for the Coupe?
    Cyrus Mistry

  10. #85
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Columbia, Worst Carolina
    Posts
    2,971
    My Cars
    2000 M-Coupe, 1994 SE-R
    Thanks for reaching out cfmistry.

    I have some near-term plans, some medium-term plans, some long-term plans, and some pie-in-the-sky plans. The medium-term plans are pretty much unchanged from what was mentioned in the initial post, but I will go over them again in more detail this time.

    However, I'll start with the pie-in-the-sky plan I guess, since that is much more interesting? I'll get to the other plans in a bit.

    Ever since experiencing the dismal fuel economy of the S52 on a daily basis it got the gears in my head turning. Quickly thoughts of an N20B20 swap started creeping in. (This is BMW's 2.0L turbo 4-cylinder engine with 240HP for those not in the know.) Finally I mentioned it publicly in the E36 M3 section sort of on a whim and we had a good talk about it, eventually leading to a new thread on the topic.

    The most important bits from the discussion in my opinion are as follows:

    Quote Originally Posted by BenFenner View Post
    I beg to differ. What's wrong with swapping in a motor with the same power, more torque, less weight, better packaging, and much better MPGs? Not to mention getting more power out of it would be much easier than out of the N/A options.

    Daily driving a stock S52 I get around 15-16 MPGs in the city. That was a pretty rough shock. Since then, I've been thinking the N20 would be a great swap candidate.
    (When I used to daily the 303 WHP SE-R, it got 34 MPG highway and 22 MPG city. If I romped on it all day it would return 19 MPG.)

    I know, the straight six is sacrosanct. I don't have the kind of attachment to it most seem to.
    Quote Originally Posted by Da Infammus 1 View Post
    Here's a few reasons. It's pencil style injectors suck which leak or stop firing and will either eat the plugs or run the cylinder lean, turbo and wastegate have come defective from factory nd they're combined as one piece, plastic oil filter housing on half of them that crack and the metal versions aren't interchangeable, plastic oil pans, piping, thermostat, etc, defective camshafts that throw timing and grenade the engine, and that's only some of what I've seen or dealt with myself. When they're running right they're decent performers but I'd never go through the hassle of swapping one in just to deal with the multitude of BS that engine entails dealing with.

    After hearing about the issues with the N20 I've almost completely soured on the idea. However, what do you folks think?

  11. #86
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Columbia, Worst Carolina
    Posts
    2,971
    My Cars
    2000 M-Coupe, 1994 SE-R
    Now that the crazy engine swap idea is out of the way, I can talk about the long term plans.

    Like many with a car that's seen as much use as mine, I'm thinking of a full body re-spray at some point. However, this could easily be 5-10 years in the future, so who knows? One day maybe.

    Also, while this wasn't supposed to be a long term plan, apparently my wheel purchase has turned into one. It's been 2.5 years trying to order these wheels and I haven't made lots of progress. I've sort of hit a brick wall with the manufacturer who first refused to give me some offset info, and now seems to be ignoring me completely. It is a weird situation to be in. They sell what I want to buy, just they won't sell it to me. I've been trying to keep the wheels a secret from the community because I thought it would be a really good reveal once I got them mounted up. These wheels have never been put on a Coupe before, and I really wanted to snap some heads back with the presentation out of the blue.

    Since I'm having so much trouble getting them, I've approached three other wheel companies trying to get them made. I forget the first company I contacted, but they said they'd do it for $50k or so, maybe as cheap as $35k? I forget. Next I contacted CCW and they were willing to do it as well. They wanted $35k as start-up costs for a cast wheel center with almost unlimited production volume, or they said approximately $15k for a one-off machined set. Not only were the prices steep (obviously) but I am not 100% confident in these company's ability to reproduce the wheel I want with exacting detail.
    I've spoken to Livery Wheel about it for a while now. I trust them 100% to get this wheel done right. Their prices are even better than CCW but they are not interested in getting into this kind of a wheel. It would be an almost exact knock-off of a wheel that's currently in production, and they aren't into that game. I don't blame them. I too would have serious reservations if I were in their shoes.

    It's gotten to the point where if I'm ever going to get this wheel, I have three options left.
    1) Call the distributor I've been working with and ask him point blank why he's now ignoring my e-mails and if he is still willing to work with me on a set.
    2) Contact one of the other distributors that I've spoken to in the past that seemed confident they could help. This guy is actually the most recent person to sell a set of these wheels (back in 2011). He did a bit of leg work for me but the manufacturer told him to stop working with me. It's possible he'll work with me for centers only if I explain to him the first distributor is no longer being considered.
    3) Get the Z3 community to help me purchase these wheels via some sort of grassroots gorilla campaign in my favor.

    Look for a thread on the topic soon if it comes to that.
    Last edited by BenFenner; 01-30-2014 at 11:44 AM.

  12. #87
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Columbia, Worst Carolina
    Posts
    2,971
    My Cars
    2000 M-Coupe, 1994 SE-R
    On to the medium-term plans.

    Most of this stuff will be familiar to you folks because in the medium-term I plan on doing a good bit of engine performance modifications. In the interest of maintaining my sanity I'm avoiding doing a full engine harness on this car, which means I won't be going full stand-alone as I'd normally do. So I'm sticking with common N/A mods. This means the typical list of engine mods apply.

    Light flywheel with sprung clutch to compensate.
    M50 intake manifold.
    I wasn't going to do cams, but after seeing dyno results of some mild cams I don't see why I shouldn't do them too.
    Depending on how high I can safely rev with the mild cam, I might be adding valve springs to the mix. I'd really like to see a safe 7.5k redline if that's not too much to ask.
    I wasn't sure about doing headers, but after giving it some more thought those will happen too. The rest of the exhaust will be left stock.
    If injectors and/or a larger MAF is required I'll go that route.
    Obviously I'll want to get the ECU tuned for the mods. This is one of the places I still need to do lots of research. I'd like to know my options here. I'm looking forward to a higher redline at the least!
    I'm not sure about the intake upstream of the MAF. We'll see if that gets anything done to it.
    I don't think a larger throttle body is in the cards, but maybe I should? I need to do more research on that.


    Other common mods are in the works, like deleting the clutch delay valve (assuming I still have one).
    I'd like to raise up the rear of the car some. Visually it sits too low, but also the camber induced wear in the rear is killing me. I'm thinking thicker spring pads are in order, but I'd LOVE to hear alternatives. It's probable that a camber adjustment kit may be added to the rear subframe. We'll see.
    The rear differential will get some attention too. I'm pretty sure I'll be adding another clutch pack to go from 25% lock-up to 40% (that's correct, yes?). I'm also seriously considering swapping to the diff entirely for the taller final drive of the S54 cars. I would love to have the taller gearing all around. I think it will complement my driving style, my desire for better economy, and with the added redline from the ECU tune I expect 1st gear to really stretch out some which I would love. As it is now, the intersection of the stock redline and gearing make sideways hooning a bit unkempt or even dangerous.
    I know I'm forgetting some stuff, but I'll likely edit that stuff in here later as I remember them.

    I don't know if I've already mentioned it, but I've already removed the stock mechanical fan. So far I've not seen a need to replace it with an electric unit so I'll leave well enough alone there.

    If there are gains to be had or improvements to make that won't require HUGE dedications of time and won't hurt the daily driver aspect then I'm all for them. Maybe I've forgotten some stuff? Let me know what else you'd do in my situation.
    And know that it goes without saying I will be addressing maintenance and repairs as necessary. I have a small hunch that the intake cam might not be phasing properly so I will be verifying VANOS functionality as well.
    At some point I will get to that oil pump nut and secure it. =/

    And don't forget to look out for the short-term plans. Those are coming next.

  13. #88
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Dallas, Texas
    Posts
    35
    My Cars
    Z3 Purple People Eater
    Great thread Ben. I have a question.....I noticed on the first page on this thread that it looks like you change your brake fluid every time you do an oil change. Can you tell me why, and is this something normal or is it something that you just feel more comfortable doing? Thanks !

  14. #89
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Miami
    Posts
    1,768
    My Cars
    00 M Coupe
    If revs are what you want, I'm going to highly recommend new valve springs just to be on the safe side. Vac bimmerworld and turner have good info for engine performance kits

  15. #90
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Columbia, Worst Carolina
    Posts
    2,971
    My Cars
    2000 M-Coupe, 1994 SE-R
    Quote Originally Posted by texasbmwguy View Post
    Great thread Ben. I have a question.....I noticed on the first page on this thread that it looks like you change your brake fluid every time you do an oil change. Can you tell me why, and is this something normal or is it something that you just feel more comfortable doing? Thanks !
    I looked back through the first couple pages of this thread and couldn't find anything related to what you're talking about.

    But since you asked, I will tell you how often I do brake fluid changes. On my other car, I flushed the system with Motul RBF 600 (they make a 660 now) about 10 years ago when doing the front BBK. About 7 years ago I put in the rear BBK and at that point I bled the brakes as normal just to get the air out. I haven't touched the fluid since. Mind you, this is longer than I expected to use the fluid, but it has held up fine for street and track use. Part of the reason is because the brakes on that car are over-sized and don't get nearly as hot as most. I like this because it means I can run a street pad and be fine on the track. Pads last forever, as do the rotors. I'm 10 years in and still on the same set of front rotors and have only changed the front pads once. The front rotors will last me another 20 years by the looks of them (slots are still as deep as the day I bought them).

    On a car where the brakes get much hotter, I'd probably leave the fluid in for 5 years or so (factor in 3-5 track days a year) and then I'd start thinking about replacing it. A long while ago, I know racers would need to change brake fluid after every weekend. Then companies came out with some really exceptional fluids that had much higher dry and wet boiling points, one of those being the aforementioned Motul fluid. Racers found they could go a whole season without boiling fluid, so they started changing once a season. As time has passed the need to change brake fluid seems to have diminished if you're running a modern, performance fluid. And on a daily that never sees the track you shouldn't have to change it but maybe every 100k miles or 10 years. I think doing anything much sooner is just wasting good fluid.

    I hope that reply works for you.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bimjam96 View Post
    If revs are what you want, I'm going to highly recommend new valve springs just to be on the safe side. Vac bimmerworld and turner have good info for engine performance kits
    That's what I'm thinking as well if I want to go over 7,000. Sound about right?

  16. #91
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Miami
    Posts
    1,768
    My Cars
    00 M Coupe
    yea, I'm in the middle of my engine build right now so i've had to do a bunch of research. the stock hydraulic lifters could probably be okay up to 7400 with aftermarket valve springs but most tunes go to 7200 just to be on the safe side. if you want to go higher than that you'll have to switch to solid lifters which requires more maintenance and is more for race engines only. Unless your'e going to switch to a real aggressive cam, revving that high won't get you much more power anyway but its up to you. if you do go real aggressive cams you'll have to disable your vanos which isn't too hard, or you can do what I did and go for aftermarket pistons with enlarged valve reliefs. I also went with 1mm oversized valves because i have a supercharge goal in my long term future. but then you're talking full engine rebuild and thousands of dollars in parts and machine work. by the time i am done with my engine minus the supercharger I'm looking at about 9k dollars parts and labor…yea not fun

  17. #92
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Columbia, Worst Carolina
    Posts
    2,971
    My Cars
    2000 M-Coupe, 1994 SE-R
    Thanks Bimjam. That's useful info for me.

    Part of the reason I like the S52 is because of the hydraulic valve lash adjusters. I will be keeping those for sure. If that means 7,200 RPM is the max, then I can live with that. So with a mild performance cam I could avoid doing valve springs still? That sounds good enough for me.

  18. #93
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Miami
    Posts
    1,768
    My Cars
    00 M Coupe
    Yea, you should be fine. I'm only going to run a mild schrick cam but at the time I was going to go with the vac dominator cams so I had a bunch of expensive head work done. They always recommend new springs and lifters for any cam for peace of mind especially for higher milage engines but that could also be a sales pitch too

  19. #94
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Columbia, Worst Carolina
    Posts
    2,971
    My Cars
    2000 M-Coupe, 1994 SE-R
    I've mentioned the long-term plans which I think were basically wheels and a re-paint. I mentioned the medium-term plans which were a lot of N/A power mods, diff work, CDV delete, and related.
    My short term plans (basically the next 6-12 months) are aimed at getting the car reliable on the track and fix some things that need fixing.

    I want to get an oil cooler on the car ASAP. I shouldn't be doing any more summer track days until this happens. I still need to research the crap out of this though. I want to do it with the least parts, the least junctions, the least engine bay clutter, the cleanest install, etc.

    The brake master cylinder is leaking, so that will get fixed (likely replace the whole thing). I'll flush the system and put some real brake fluid in at that time as well (Motul RBF660).

    The A/C compressor is on its way out (low pressure readings are not low enough and high pressure readings are not high enough). That will get replaced as well, hopefully very soon. I'll replace the drier at the same time, and the o-rings I run into.

    The heat is not nearly as hot as it should be. It does get warmer with revs, so I think I have a clogged heater core. Or maybe a malfunctioning heater core valve? I plan on figuring this out and fixing it some time before next winter.

    I want to raise up the rear of the car for almost every reason imaginable. Looks, ground clearance, camber correction, handling balance, performance, tire life, etc.
    I'll be doing this with spring pads. It might take some experimenting to get things where I want them. I think I want at least an inch of added height.

    Part of the reason the rear is getting raised so soon is because of the new wheels and tires that are on the way. I've got some 17x9 and 17x10.5 Apex ARC-8 wheels ready to go that should tide me over for a long while until I can manage to obtain the 3-piece setup I dream of. Tire selection is very modest so I can test the waters and wait until the next set to push the limits. I'm not 100% sure what these offsets will let me get away with.

    The offsets of the Apex wheels aren't ideal for the rear, so I'll have to figure out a spacer solution in the rear. I'm also trying to decide between extended lug bolts, or if I should go with a stud conversion. I'm probably leaning toward going to studs, however advice here is appreciated (as is advice on anything else).

    I'd like to try to get the driver's seat tilted in a different way from the usual solution.

    My driver's side door lock likes to spin a lot before grabbing, so I want to fix that.

    The passenger's side door panel has the plastic trim piece by the stabby window falling off, so I will address that.

    I want to polish the headlights to get rid of the fog.


    I'm sure there is plenty of stuff I missed, but people asked for my plans and that's the best I can remember. Hopefully we'll get to a new page here soon so I can start posting pics again. This page takes long enough to load as it is.
    Last edited by BenFenner; 03-04-2014 at 10:57 AM.

  20. #95
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Columbia, Worst Carolina
    Posts
    2,971
    My Cars
    2000 M-Coupe, 1994 SE-R
    Let's get to a new page so I can post some more pictures. This page loads way too slowly on my stupid computer at work.

  21. #96
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    VA
    Posts
    4,576
    My Cars
    00 Mshoe
    Quote Originally Posted by BenFenner View Post
    I want to get an oil cooler on the car ASAP. I shouldn't be doing any more summer track days until this happens. I still need to research the crap out of this though. I want to do it with the least parts, the least junctions, the least engine bay clutter, the cleanest install, etc.
    I was a little concerned about my oil temps as well before I got my underpanel sqaured away and it helped quite a bit. There is a pletora of info out there for oil cooler options. From the (your) manifesto, there is a great write up on the options we have available, but I think it mostly boils down to dollars you want to spend.

    Cleanest, Least parts/junctions would be OEM parts S54 oil housing, oil lines and oil cooler, not to mention an S54 radiator.

    Personally I think I am going with an S54 housing and aftermarket lines and coolers for the added capacity (i.e. larger lines) and the ability to choose where to mount the cooler. I plan on mounting it high in the nose grilles w/ custom brackets vs low under the rad.



    Quote Originally Posted by BenFenner View Post
    The brake master cylinder is leaking, so that will get fixed (likely replace the whole thing). I'll flush the system and put some real brake fluid in at that time as well (Motul RBF660).
    Excellent fluid, I have 3 bottles sitting on my shelf to do a full flush when I get my brakes redone here soon.

    Quote Originally Posted by BenFenner View Post
    The heat is not nearly as hot as it should be. It does get warmer with revs, so I think I have a clogged heater core. Or maybe a malfunctioning heater core valve? I plan on figuring this out and fixing it some time before next winter.
    If you have access to an IR thermometer you can check the input/output pipes of your heater core, this will tell you if its the core or not. If your heat is on full heat with the fan set low you should have almost no emp drop in the coolant going through the core. If you see the output significantly cooler, your core is clogged. I had to do this on another car of mine due to the PO never flushing the coolant. I rad was so clogged up it was only achieving a 9* drop vs the usual 20*+.

    Quote Originally Posted by BenFenner View Post
    I want to raise up the rear of the car for almost every reason imaginable. Looks, ground clearance, camber correction, handling balance, performance, tire life, etc.
    I'll be doing this with spring pads. It might take some experimenting to get things where I want them. I think I want at least an inch of added height.

    Part of the reason the rear is getting raised so soon is because of the new wheels and tires that are on the way. I've got some 17x9 and 17x10.5 Apex ARC-8 wheels ready to go that should tide me over for a long while until I can manage to obtain the 3-piece setup I dream of. Tire selection is very modest so I can test the waters and wait until the next set to push the limits. I'm not 100% sure what these offsets will let me get away with.

    The offsets of the Apex wheels aren't ideal for the rear, so I'll have to figure out a spacer solution in the rear. I'm also trying to decide between extended lug bolts, or if I should go with a stud conversion. I'm probably leaning toward going to studs, however advice here is appreciated (as is advice on anything else).
    I am planning on going to studs when I get my ACS's rebuild. the 75mm's will work with up to 12mm spacers with standard nuts, the 95s will be needed for anything larger. I plan on going with 95mm studs and Project Kic lug nuts

    Quote Originally Posted by BenFenner View Post
    I'd like to try to get the driver's seat tilted in a different way from the usual solution.

    My driver's side door lock likes to spin a lot before grabbing, so I want to fix that.

    The passenger's side door panel has the plastic trim piece by the stabby window falling off, so I will address that.

    I want to polish the headlights to get rid of the fog.
    No input for you seat woes, I like the bimmerdiff setup.

    You can just put in a keyless system I am offering to wire up and not have to worry about the tumblers ever again.

    Mine is as well but I have yet to get in there and see what's going on.

    power buffer ball and some rubbing compound and you should be good to go unless its heavily faded. I will be polishing mine as well before my retrofit reassembly too.

    Quote Originally Posted by BenFenner View Post
    I'm sure there is plenty of stuff I missed, but people asked for my plans and that's the best I can remember. Hopefully we'll get to a new page here soon so I can start posting pics again. This page takes long enough to load as it is.
    New page post?! (hopefully)

  22. #97
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Columbia, Worst Carolina
    Posts
    2,971
    My Cars
    2000 M-Coupe, 1994 SE-R
    Thanks for your input Robb. I will be digging deeper into those things soon and get my choices solidified. I really need to dig into BMWBergy's detailed thread on the oil cooler options. I thought that would be me next mod, but the wheels, master cylinder, and A/C compressor seem to be taking precedence.

    I think 3 more posts and we'll have that new page. Thanks for the assist. =]
    Last edited by BenFenner; 03-04-2014 at 01:41 PM.

  23. #98
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    VA
    Posts
    4,576
    My Cars
    00 Mshoe
    (shameless extra post)

    You're welcome.

  24. #99
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    1,628
    My Cars
    ///M Roadster
    Progress is coming along great as always!

    (You're also welcome)
    Cyrus Mistry

  25. #100
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    VA
    Posts
    4,576
    My Cars
    00 Mshoe

Page 4 of 10 FirstFirst 12345678910 LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •