Ponchiz BMW M302

[ponchiz318]

I found a driveshaft shop that made me a steel driveshaft for $250, I provided the flange and yoke.

The JTR flange would be 100+ shipping. A yoke would be anywhere from 30-75$. With a $250 dom driveshaft, I would rather spend the extra money on a 3" aluminum shaft. Right now it's the only thing stopping me from driving it to go get gas and a exhaust.

Edit: So far, the driveshaft shop from san Antonio is the cheapest for a aluminum shaft shipped to me. Locally everyone needs me to get the JTR flange.

[JBasham]

A 3-inch aluminum driveshaft would be way cool. I had to hammer my tunnel a good while to get in a 2.75" steel one, and I've only got a finger's width of clearance at that, so I may need to go smaller yet. Somewhere in my notes I have a place that sells a 2.5" 400/400 rated steel one for $160.

Take a look at your differential if you have an M3. I think the flanges on those are 6-bolt and the JTR flange is 4-bolt, so you will need to get the other flange and change it. Apparently that's a job it's easy to screw up, but there is plenty of info on the forums about doing it. I'm going to do it later this summer when I pop in the limited-slip M3 unit I bought used.

Glad your idle was just a wayward vac line. That's the best kind of idle problem to have.

[ponchiz318]

Interestingly enough, my M3 has a 4 bolt. I was under the impression that only the '95 M3 came with a 6 bolt.


I just glanced at my tunnel and yeah, I'm definitely going to need to massage the hell out of that tunnel to make a 3" shaft fit.

[JBasham]

Well shut my mouth! Now I know, start checking the 96's when I'm shopping for new ones. I plan on destroying a fair number of them (and the half-shafts) once I get up to full power.

The Dakota Digital worked great. I ran a line from the PIP sensor off the TFI to the input side, and ran the output side to the tach (pin 20 on my X20 connector, 1994 325is chassis). In the calibration setup, I wound up bumping the conversion factor to 12. I mounted the unit on the inboard edge of the fuse box, where the three clip-on relays used to be.
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[Laminar]

Mine's a 4-bolt, too.

[JBasham]

Thanks. Nice driveshaft (insert Beavis' stupid laugh).

Oil gauge panel is done

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[ponchiz318]

I was contemplating on doing this but I kinda do want to run a/c in the future.

[Laminar]

Houston? Yeah, I wouldn't blame you. I did a road trip from Iowa to Minnesota in 95+ degree weather and it was not fun. 95 degrees for you is a typical April morning.

[ponchiz318]

I'm not too bothered by the temperature. It's the humidity that's ridiculous and stupid.

[JBasham]

I hear you, there's no way I would daily one of these without AC. Plus who needs oil temp, oil pressure, and tire pressure on a daily? Not me.

I had mine out on the road for a couple hours Saturday and all seems good. The clutch setup shifts like a dream, and the 1.3 degree difference in the driveshaft U-joint angles is vibration-free. The poly motor mounts are wicked; the whole car shudders at idle. No trouble with high oil or coolant temps, but it's cold here still, and I wasn't running it at high sustained RPMs like I plan to. My only complaint is the throttle. With the E36 pedal, it is a pretty short trip from tip-in to WOT, and it's a little hard to modulate when I'm heel-toe on the shifts.

I will take it to a 2-day track test at Summit Point Motorsports Park (main track) weekend after next, even though the suspension is still stock and I haven't put in the LSD yet. Track tires and brake pads are en route from the suppliers. I also have the GRM dyno day scheduled in May -- but I have stock heads and I'm using the stock E36 midpipe, cats, and muffler, so I don't have high hopes. Plus there are a bunch of track days before that, and I may well have blown it up by then.

I'm just glad to have it running, and to have it confirmed that I have not wasted my time on this project. I will be 100% pleased if the balance of the chassis is still BMW-worthy, and it's equivalent in pace to an S52 M3. I have plenty of room to go down with the curb weight and up with the motor power. And if I bang up the chassis, I can get new ones around here for $650 or less that still have shiny paint and straight metal.

[Laminar]

My only complaint is the throttle. With the E36 pedal, it is a pretty short trip from tip-in to WOT, and it's a little hard to modulate when I'm heel-toe on the shifts.

I had the same issue. I pulled a throttle cam and cable out of something in the junkyard and adapted it to my throttle body to reduce the severity of tip-in.

[ponchiz318]

I made mine work for 35$.
Bought a throttle cable kit from oreilly auto, which was actually for a carburetor, then bought some cable stops. It's not the prettiest but it worked with my application without having to cut the braided stainless.



The throttle pedal has enough travel to go wot without any play in the cable. Worked out great.

[JBasham]

Mikael, do you have info posted somewhere to guide a guy looking to do his first throttle cam mod?

[Laminar]

I don't, that picture was about as deep as I went.

[ponchiz318]

JBasham, you were doing a 351 carburetor swap, correct?

[JBasham]

I think that was Jalopi. I like the idea of the 351's power, but I'm scared of the extra weight out front, since I'm doing a track car.

[Laminar]

A 347 stroker built right is an easy 450+hp NA. I'd only go 351 if I really needed 600+hp or if I was going to use boost.

[JBasham]

Throttle control with heel-toe is getting better. I pulled the stinkin' rubber pad off the brake pedal, and now under compression it's on a closer plane to the stock accelerator pedal.

[ponchiz318]

I apologize for the video, but my buddy recorded it.
Anywho, driveshaft installed. Bled clutch and went for a drive. Put in some 93 octane along with a bit of fuel stabilizer. Definitely helped with driveability. Car feels good but I need to look at the brake pads and the clutch again. It feels soft and us a bit iffy. Most likely still air in there.
https://youtu.be/sxwPx9yOIls

[Laminar]

Is the brake pedal spongy, or is there just 1-2" of takeup before they grab? The pedal travel before grab is classic E36 and I haven't gotten rid of mine.

Did you remove the clutch restrictor? Did you remove the clutch pedal spring? The clutch pedal spring massacres clutch feel, it's a billion times better without the spring.

[ponchiz318]

I did remove the clutch delay valve. I never knew about the spring. Gonna look into that. Brake pedal feels good but since the car has been sitting for so long, I think the pads have crystallized.
I probably have to bleed the slave some more.

[Laminar]

The pedal spring is effective only when the engagement is exactly where it was on the stock drivetrain. If the springs offers resistance where there already is resistance and help where there's no resistance, it makes the clutch impossible to feel out. Removing the spring increases pedal effort, but lets you actually feel what's happening.

[ponchiz318]

So Easter weekend passed and my company have us a four day weekend. Four days and I didn't even touch the M3. Sigh
Because of that, after work I moved along with other things needed to get it inspected such as headlights. I've had a pair of DJAuto headlights for about a year now. I've had a set of OEM E46 projectors since 2010 or so. I decided to retrofit them in the housings since I've always wanted to retrofit actual d2s projectors and because I already had them.
Onwards to pics of today's work.

OEM lens.

ZKWR lens from retrofitsource installed

E46 projector next to the djauto zkw rep.

This shows the gap that I need to get rid of in order to use the djauto mount/shroud

After some careful Dremel work



Surprisingly, one screw hole from the shroud lined up with the mounting point of the oem projector. Makes it a little easier

Mounting in the housing.

The solenoid hits the housing in the back so more trimming is needed. The shroud itself needs to be trimmed in order to use the high beam.
Inner lens will be removed before final assembly.

Beam pattern.

The shield itself still needs some work in order to remove the hot-spot and get the clean lines I want. It's no FX-R, but this will do for me.
Tomorrow I'll start on the drivers side and make the necessary brackets at the same time for both. Hopefully lights will be in place by this weekend.
HID kit is a DDM Tuning 55w system. D2S bulbs at 5K

[Laminar]

I've had DDM 5K bulbs and they're a little blue. If I did it again I'd go much lower.

[ponchiz318]

Think so? I had 5k bulbs from them before and never noticed a blue hue. It's evident on the 6k though