E46 Build. Lets see if I can ruin this one a little less.

[Jrcanes55]

I'm sick of my E28. It's a rolling sack of turds. Constant issues, inconsistencies, and rust have all pushed me to pretty much write it off and start fresh. It's time to move on to bigger and better things. I'm tired of doing hours of research on stuff no one has done, modifying parts that aren't designed for the car, and having to make my own stuff. It's fun for a while but I'm to the point where I just want to buy, install, drive.

So here we go. My daily is going to be slowly transitioned into a drift car. It's an 04 330i 6 speed. 143k all original. As we speak it's sitting on Koni race springs and bent/blown shocks. I've neglected it so much for the last year and a half. It's time to make this thing shine again.







If you look at the second picture you may be able to see my sweet stance camber. That's the bent strut/mushroomed strut tower.

I've drifted the car once before but it was on sealed pavement on a wet course. I'm going to actually put this thing out there this time and see what it can do. I'm on a much smaller budget right now so everything is going to be cheap for a little while. I blew most of my money on the E28.

I went ahead and ordered
Riceland Ultimos
Ebay Camber plates
Ebay camber arms
AKG FCABs 75d race stuff
Front brakes
Steering rack spacers
Wheel spacers 30mm bolt on
Stud conversion for the rear
OEM trunk spoiler (for swag)
3.38 diff (I was on a 3.07 last time I drifted and it was still to long) (stock is 2.93)

and have been doing all of the neglected other maintenance such as fixing my washer pump leak, rewiring my ambient air temp sensor because it's causing my check engine light to come on, and fixing my alignment.


I stripped it some. I'm going to put the back seats back in and stuff but I removed all the lose sound deadening and stripped the trunk.

Anyway. Plans are to possibly move my turbo stuff from the e28 to this car. I'm waiting on RK tunes to see if they can even tune an m54. If I want to boost it I'm going to have to replace the pistons with forged ones. Stock ones are cast.... why..... I'm also going to give Fortune Auto a call and see if I can buy the stuff to swap my coilovers over. Ricelands aren't going to cut it. ANd since I have the gen 5s with the digressive pistons I can probably get away with not revalving the rear shocks to accommodate way stiffer springs.

Anyways. Here goes nothing.

Here's a video from when I slid it last.

[jalopi]

me likey

[Iteachgolf]

the m54 with a stock bottom end has held over 600whp for extended periods of times. Pistons aren't going to be the issue and tons of guys have made 400whp without touching the bottom end. NickG sold/sells kits with thicker head gasket that made 375+whp reliably. Completely unnecessary to replace pistons unless you're trying to make 700hp.

Hobbit38 made 682whp on E85 with the CXRacing kit including the 2.5" downpipe that came with the kit

[Novablue454]

There are a decent amount of parts out there for the E46, but it definitely isn't an E36 in terms of aftermarket support.

[Chase R]

There are a decent amount of parts out there for the E46, but it definitely isn't an E36 in terms of aftermarket support.

E36 and E46 are almost identical chassis/suspension-wise. I will agree there's a lot more M52/S52 aftermarket support vs. the M54.

[Jrcanes55]

E36 and E46 are almost identical chassis/suspension-wise. I will agree there's a lot more M52/S52 aftermarket support vs. the M54.

Either way, both have 100x more support than e28s do for drifting.

[e30 394]

Good choice man, the e28 is awesome but seems like you are just too deep in it. Im with the other guys, you can make 350+ stock motor all day long. The money you would spend on pistons spend on better turbo/manifold/IC&piping and make it more reliable. Loved your last build and I'm looking forward to this one for sure.

[Jrcanes55]

Well after installing a ton of new parts, getting a baller alignment, and breaking my ebrake button I finally got to rip the car around a track. What a blast. Zero camber rear end is so amazing. Tire wear was infinitely better. But the event I ran ended up getting run matsuri style so I was going through tires in 14 minutes or less. We started at 11:30 and I had already been through four pairs of tires by 12:45. It was obnoxious. The car performed flawlessly all day. I just need to redo all my rear end bushings and install the hydro I bought and I will be good to go. Here are a few pictures and some videos. They'll give you an idea just how fast paced the event was.

Ride height after coilover install.



Track height.



I let my friend Austin Wolff take the car out. He is a local pro am driver.



That's me riding along with him in my car.



Then me driving.



and me trying to link the first corner. It was really long and fast, and I was running out of gear. I think the 3.38 is a little short for the M54.



and a bunch of videos.

[camdinans3]

that event looked like a complete shitshow..... i'll admit I've never drifted before nor gone to an event but that seemed ridiculously unorganized and unsafe. Starting line guy didn't care at all about spacing and didn't even wait for the smoke to settle? i'm pretty confused- how do they even get insurance for stuff like this.

the course map looks idiotic with incoming cars all the time.....

[Chase R]

that event looked like a complete shitshow..... i'll admit I've never drifted before nor gone to an event but that seemed ridiculously unorganized and unsafe. Starting line guy didn't care at all about spacing and didn't even wait for the smoke to settle? i'm pretty confused- how do they even get insurance for stuff like this.

the course map looks idiotic with incoming cars all the time.....

I would have to agree... I was confused watching those videos.

Nice drifting though!

[jalopi]

+1, figuring out that course with so many random people popping up out of nowhere would be super annoying

but at least it seems you've taken well to the new car. the Z arm setup is so much better than the old trailing arm setup of the e28/30, isn't it

[camdinans3]

no one is concerned that there are novice drifters sliding all over the place and spinning out, it seems like the course exit is like right next to an oncoming drift zone. Not to mention you go around that round about at the end and there is on coming traffic too, absolute stupidity.

I've never been to a track or autox event that was that unsafe in my life.

Maybe I don't understand "bout dat drifting lyfe"

[jalopi]

i'll admit I've never drifted before nor gone to an event

Maybe I don't understand "bout dat drifting lyfe"

that being the case, you sure do have a lot to say about drifting

but in all seriousness, that kind of event is not typical in the drift world. i've seen plenty of lackadaisical start guys before, but that dude took the cake for getting a mad max style arena going. typically people get funneled in like that on "road" courses with one entrance/exit or on something like an oval track. might wind up in a crash if you have an asshole that spins and an asshole who can't dodge, but at least people won't be getting blindsided

if i had to guess, those guys probably don't have insurance and if they do, that shit would get pulled real fast if anyone from the insurance company ever saw those videos

[Jrcanes55]

I dream of the day I can start a build thread that won't get somebody super butt hurt. I just want to enjoy driving. No one has ever been injured or run into each other at any event that has been held there. With tandem exceptions.

[Jrcanes55]

[camdinans3]

I dream of the day I can start a build thread that won't get somebody super butt hurt. I just want to enjoy driving. No one has ever been injured or run into each other at any event that has been held there. With tandem exceptions.

Who is butt hurt? I'm assuming you mean me...which I can assure you I'm not. If you choose to participate in a crappy unsafe event and risk your car and safety because you want to enjoy driving then by all means go for it, completely your choice. Not a chance in hell I'd take my car there.

I've got nothing against drifting, in fact it takes a lot of skill to do so- more than I have that's for sure. My issue is with the event itself, and I'm not going to rely on some other dudebro to dodge me if I spin out with zero spacing between cars and a huge smokescreen to conveniently obscure the already convoluted course. Must be some top knotch dudebros who organized that cluster.

[DavidD123]

At my local drift track they'll start a driver as the other driver on the track is finishing their lab. But they only do this if the "starting guy" knows that the first person on track is a good driver and won't spin out. They also do this at our local autox events too.

Also, any non road course style track looks very confusing/hectic in an in car video. I hate watching in car autox on youtube because I can never follow the track and it looks super confusing.

[Jrcanes55]

Cool.

[camdinans3]

I think it's more concerning that you can't even admit or perhaps even recognize that event was awful. If that's the truth then goodluck.

[Jrcanes55]

I think it's more concerning that you can't even admit or perhaps even recognize that event was awful. If that's the truth then goodluck.

If you'd like to continue complaining about how this event was run I can give you the track manager's phone number and you can take it up with him. You're welcome to your own opinions but I would appreciate it if you would stop trying to prove your point unnecessarily on my build thread I don't run the events, I just show up and drive.

[DavidD123]

I think it's more concerning that you can't even admit or perhaps even recognize that event was awful. If that's the truth then goodluck.

Jeez dude you got beef with OP or something? If you really have that big of an issue with how the event was ran take it up with the people who runs the events, not OP.

[jalopi]

i think camcam just has an issue with drifting in general

[camdinans3]

He asked me to stop, so I'm not going to comment anymore.

For the record, like I said previously, I don't have a problem with drifting.

[Chase R]

...I don't run the events, I just show up and drive.

Well said. Let's keep this thread on topic.

[DavidD123]

Well said. Let's keep this thread on topic.

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