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Thread: DIY 1995 M3 with an S54/Mk60, California Smog Legal!

  1. #76
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Menlo Park, CA
    Posts
    1,796
    My Cars
    95 M3 & Legacy Manwagon
    Well...............I've been putting off making this update because of how long it'll take to write. I've been having a blast with the car, but things have changed! Grab a beer or three and settle in, because this update is LONG. VERY LONG, you have been warned.


    Last time I posted anything of value, I teased photos of the wing. Well.....stay tuned. Let's rewind to 2017 first, preparing for a Thunderhill weekend. I wanted to revise the oil cooling ducting...again....because temps were still annoyingly high. Cue german ebay and the Euro E36 M3 oil cooler duct!







    ...it was effective but it was clear to me that the culprit is the oil cooler itself, not the ducting to it. I had sealed the cooler to the front bumper and was still getting cooler exit temps well into the 265-275 range after a handful of laps. Ffffffffffffffffffffff. There's a solution, but this wasn't it.


    Fast forward to May 2018 ish. I had just done a weekend at Laguna with BMW club, and had a weekend planned at Sonoma with NASA. See earlier posts for the Laguna vids.


    For NASA, I wanted to get signed off for TT, and wanted to get the car into TT3-ish form, which should have meant don't do anything, dumbass, but in reality meant "let's do aero cuz that's simple"


    Yup. I'm dumb frequently.


    So, first: weight reduction by deleting AC! I regret this, but I had removed the refrigerant and condenser when testing oil cooler airflow imrovements, so why keep it?





    Results of the streetcarectomy:



    While I was in there.....there's a recurring theme.



    Decision made to ignore this, and fix the always-failing barb with a hose clamp. Mission successful. While this looks horrible, the dremel kiss doesn't penetrate the fabric weave, and it's held up for about 5 trackdays now, so.....good enough!



    I was getting pedal knockback pretty badly, so front wheel bearings time! This didn't solve anything, but given these hadn't been touched while I've owned the car (since 2009), it was time anyway.



    Also rebuilt my power steering pump, because old bmw gonna bmw



    and did brake ducts




    yea yea yea, I hear you all say. What about the Aero?!? Patience. Well, not much needed, so read on!


    Assume the racecar position



    Well, crap, need to redo ducting because with the AC removed, the euro duct doesn't have a nice way to mount it cleanly without custom everything. Hold please.



    If you think you have a better protoyping material, you're wrong.




    You can see how small the cooler is relative to the radiator in the above.....you might see where I'm going with this. Eventually.


    Ok, back to the splitter. The eagle-eyed might see the Hard Motorsport splitter mounts in the above. They're.......well, insufficient to hold the splitter by themselves, which I didn't realize. Keep this in mind.


    Mark where to drill the things.




    Cool! It fits! ....but it doesn't sits.



    Whatever the Hard splitter is made of, it is F-L-E-X-Y. Cue Home Depot Motosrports to the rescue!



    Mocking up anti-submarining mounts for the splitter. Also a HDMotorsport special.




    Well, that still was super flexy without any effort, everywhere except the mounting points. Solution? More mounts. But first, I drove it, and forgot I had brake ducts, and did this. This photo also shows a bit better how the rad/oil ducting and splitter mounts are assembled. The anti-subs aren't visible.



    Well since that sucked and didn't work, what's next? Bimmerworld's mounting kit that I should've used in the beginning, since I'm using their MaxVelocity RS Lip.



    Clearancing like a pro.



    Trimming needed to fit....



    this photo is from the future, in which I'll explain the crud, but this is the only one I've got showing the BW mount locations. You need to drill into the bumper beam, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend this with the plastic ones.



    And now, the final mounting. SO MANY BOLTS.



    At this point, let me highly suggest paying a shop to do this. What a pain in the ass and at least two solid weekends of time and tinkering, to save maybe a couple hundred bucks. F that.


    Anyway. Here's how it looks....with RHRperf / AJHartman Aero canards. I seem to have lost those associated photos, but I think anyone with a sharpie, painters tape, and a drill can figure those out.



    Out of focus, sue me. Am not a photographer!



    Now, the WANG. Let's mark where the uprights need to go, then drill the holes. Bonus points for anyone who figures out what the cars in the background are.



    I'm slightly bummed I couldn't reuse the PO's wing holes. But hey, free lightweighting!



    Trunk metal is....thin. To keep your trunk from bending, you need to sandwich layers together as much as you can.



    But, that doesn't work for the holes by the edge of the trunk, or on some of the angly bits. So, holesaw!



    Skillz



    That took care of the inner holes, sort of. Not so much the outer ones by the license plate edge. Problem is primarily one of accessing the holes you drilled.



    Solution? Angle grinder! Note: dropping a nut and washer inside the trunk SUCKS.



    From there...bolt and go, and surprise wing!



    I then washed the thing the next day, and loaded it to go to Sonoma. Thrashing on the car up to the last minute....



    Gratuitous higher res shot, also with my SS.



    Off to Sonoma!



    and, of course, DivaKar diva'd on lap 1 of session 1 with a dead alternator. Luckily another racer in the paddock had a new in box spare which he was happy to hook me up with, and I got back on track for the next session. Bring all your tools if you have a diva for a hooptie.



    Later on, the driveshaft U joint basically gave up and objected to, y'know, any movement. So, on the trailer it went, after driving maybe half the sessions. I did get TT signoff though, so that's nice.




    Then, when I got home and unloaded it, surprise surprise, the C&R radiator had decided to let out some cooling juice. I then lost all patience with the car, parked it at the shop, and didn't touch it for 11 months.




    So, now let's fast forward to April 2019. I haven't touched the car since June 2018. It has, at a minimum, a leaky radiator, a semi-effective oil cooler, a driveshaft that is staying together with hopes and prayers, pricey stoptech brake rotors that are below minimum thickness (don't autocross with DTC60 pads, fyi), a rear end that is making more and more clunks than I'd like, a goober welded shitacular exhaust, busted brake ducts, and pad knockback. Hopefully you guys and gals can understand running out of interest to deal with any of that.


    Once I got my registration renewal notice though, I realized the car needed some love and that I missed tracking the damn thing. Badly.


    So! Cue mad-thrash-to-the-finish-version-30813 First, take off the aero and fix the leaky bits.


    Old C&R E36 oil cooler and radiator. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that this oil cooler DOES work for some S54 E36 swaps. I don't know why my car runs hot, relatively, but the cooler could not keep up for me. There's a thread on bf.c.track discussing S54 oil temps on track, and it seems like a total crapshoot in which I just didn't come out ahead in. Anyway, shiny things:




    It sure is shiny! Radiator was awesome, until it leaked.



    Replacements: S54 Z3M OE Radiator (~$165 or so) and Zionsville S54 Z3M oil cooler ($400). This combination is cheaper than just the C&R oil cooler, for those keeping track at home.



    Note how much bigger the oil cooler is. Also, its fitment isn't as nice as the C&R, but by no means a dealbreaker.


    It's difficult to visually see how much bigger this cooler is, even with the shorter Z3 radiator-- it bottoms out on the splitter, which is lowered ~1.5 inches below the bumper as it is. It is thinner than the C&R but is both a smidge wider and a lot taller, aka more surface area. It is significantly more effective for me-- I'll get to that later.



    Bigger cooler means....revise the ducting. Again. Wooooooo.






    Scroll up to compare with the old rad/cooler combo. The cooler difference is.....pretty stark.


    As I mentioned above, the cooler bottoms out on the splitter, even after raising the z3 rad a bit. After noticing this, I put some high temp vibration absorbing rubber from McMaster under the cooler so that it won't bash itself a leak. Also, yes, speed tape everywhere. It works, is cheap, and holds up to temperature, wind, and weather. Looks crude, sure....but by now you probably have figured out I'm not trying to win the hardparking trophy at the facebook meet.



    So, new coolers. Woo. Was that worth a bunch of photos? My thread, not yours, shush.


    Next step was to get registration finished. I didn't bother taking many photos of this, because....well, it's swap exhausts, swap intakes, un-aero it, then go get tested. It passed with flying colors.
    Stealth mode next to my m3/4/5



    I was content to leave it like this for a while....but buddy convinced me to sign up for a trackday at Buttonwillow over memorial day weekend. Three weeks away at this point, and I had a lot of stuff I wanted to address still. Cue a madder dash.


    Step the first: unsmog (also install aero again, easy enough)



    Step the second.....rebuild the entire rear end. Oh, and do it in 3 days.


    Assume the Racecar Position



    Start with ball joints:



    Then yank the whole thing.



    Disassemble more....



    let's do something dumb while I'm in there.... (ironically, this reduced clunking. take that, internet)




    Reinstall!



    The eagle-eyed will notice a diff bushing difference between the subframe and diff. That's because I swapped from my 4-bolt 3-clutch 3.91 diff to my original 6-bolt worn-TF-out 3.15 diff to use my good 6 bolt driveshaft instead of my shitty ornery 4 bolt driveshaft. Don't worry...this was temporary, though didn't get solved before Buttonwillow.


    My insulation E36'd itself and was rubbing on my old driveshaft and guibo, which also needed replaced (shock! awe!). So, cue Braymond141's trick solution-- these are nice pieces.



    Lastly, at least, lastly before Buttonwillow, I swapped to the new exhaust. This is what I was running before: SS V1, SS V1 Cats, E46 Sec2 goobered to E36 M3 muffler. Car makes 300whp with it (yay?), passes Laguna sound (Yay!), and is QUIET (YAAAAAAAAAAY)....but is down 30whp on my 3" ear cannon and is a boat anchor.



    I show this not for gratuitous Supersprint, but to point out to the viewer where the OE E46 EGT sensor bung is-- it's on the elbow near the downstream cat. This is important to remember.



    And, because I thought this was cool to see, SS V1 Cats-- ain't they pretty? Off they go though, until I can get a 2.5" Sec2....



    Supersprint apparently has realized S54 E36s are a thing, so they have built a 2.5in --> 60mm conversion exhaust for the V1 headers to mate with the E36 Euro mufflers, which are 60mm. In theory, this should drastically improve flow over my prior setup, without the noise. I haven't dynoed yet so jury is out on that, but butt dyno feels appropriately whelmed. I went with the SS E36 Street muffler so that I had a prayer of passing Laguna sound limit (90 dB). Spoiler, it passes.





    As if they were designed to fit. I am super happy with this exhaust-- it's QUIET, doesn't stink, and doesn't feel slow. The cats are a bit further downstream relative to E46 SS, but the crossover point appears to be in the right spot.





    Remember the EGT mention above? Here's why that matters. The SS E36 Swap parts do NOT have an EGT bung, forcing you to use the bung in the V1 headers. Why does that matter, you ask? Well, on an E36, that sensor comes within a couple mm of the chassis heat shields, and CANNOT be removed with the header still in the car. I am a bit annoyed at myself for not coding it out, because it's not coming out until smog in two years.



    Ok, so that's just about everything. Here's most of the list o'stuff that got done before trackdaybro. I crossed off the list, this was halfway through the thrash.





    So, finished up two days before Buttonwillow, because can't help myself. Eyeball aligned the rear suspension, eyeball ride heighted it, loaded up tires and tools and such and drove down.


    Now, I've never driven Buttonwillow in my own car. I've only ever driven our Lemons hooptie there, and....well.....there's not much that transfers over.


    That said, I am pretty pleased with how well I did, and overjoyed with how the car did. Temperatures were in the 90s, with bright sun. Similar conditions in years past have had the oil temp measured at cooler EXIT climbing to 275F within 4-5 laps. With the new cooler, I never exceeded 240F, not even by the END of a session. I averaged 230-235F at cooler exit, which, for the mathematically challenged, is a 35-40F reduction in oil temperatures from cooler change alone. Technically ducting changed, but c'mon, the ducting is just resized not substantially different. I'm blown away by that, and am very much not used to having more than 4 laps before having to shut down the fun. Water temps were higher than the C&R rad, averaging 190-195F instead of 180. Higher, but well below the OhShit point.


    So, video! I left about halfway through the afternoon, because it actually rained on us and I didn't want to deal with that on my first trackday in a year. Juuuuust about broke into the sub-2:00 range though.




    While I was still riding the trackdaybro endorphin high, Nholmes twisted my arm to sign up for Thunderhill. The following weekend. As in 7 days away, for a 2 day track weekend. At this point I still had the front rotors to swap and my 3.91 diff to flange swap and then install. I had/have given up on doing the rear wheel bearings until they actually need it.


    So, 7 days, diff swap and rotor swap and alignment to go....



    uh oh diff is not in the diff hole



    there it is. Swapped the input flange from 4 to 6 bolt, swapped diff cover to the one that has the stiff bushings, and good to go. FYI-- there is a Permatex RTV specifically for gear oil. Good shit.



    new rotor rings with Stoptech's "MAX-Float" hardware. This hardware solved my knockback issue. Highly recommended. You can also see the result of the Buttonwillow rain as well as my speed-taped rubber vibration absorber mat. While doing the rings, I realized that I am basically out of pad. So, scrambled to find thick enough spares for the weekend, and thankfully had some. Need to order some pads asap...



    Guess what didn't get done?


    Yep. Alignment. Still on the eyeballed alignment and ride heights. Car drove fine at Buttonwillow, so how bad could it be?


    Washed it for the first time since 2018. I'm the worst, probably.



    Loaded up, drove off to Thunderhill, and flogged the car all weekend with zero issues. 100F ambient temps and zero oil temp issues. Set a new PB on both Bypass and Cyclone, though I don't think my driving was particularly great on either day. I also got a Smartycam during this thrash and a microphone, so I finally don't have to spend hours aligning data and trimming videos. Highly recommended!!


    For all of these videos, the microphone is hanging in the trunk. It's not super duper loud, which is awesome, because it means the airbox can scream. (paging Obioban....)


    Bypass video:


    Cyclone video:




    Nascar thingy I caught:




    The driver rust is starting to wear off. The car keeps driving like a champ! So, let's be stupid and do another track day. Two weeks later, let's go to Laguna and test the exhaust...or something.


    Zero prep happened. I literally pulled it out from the garage, put my helmet in, and drove to the track--didn't even unpack from Thunderhill! Checked that pads were in the calipers and not just backing plates and that was it.


    For Laguna, my driving was crap relative to past days. I have driven (and posted) video going multiple seconds faster....but it was a Monday, I was not at work, and was at a racetrack, so who cares. I stuck the microphone in the engine bay this time.....this video deserves all the speaker/headphones you are willing to throw at it, because the noise is glorious. Oh, and that eyeballed alignment/ride height? Was spot effing on.





    And with that.....I'm going to sleep and not do car stuff for a month. Probably.


    Trackday, bro??


    "Fear disturbs your concentration" -Sabine Schmit

    1995 BMW M3/2/5-- S54 + Mk60 DSC, California Smog Legal (Build Thread)
    1998 BMW M3/4/5 Alpine/Modena, Z3 Rack, otherwise stock-- DD without burbles
    2017 Chevy SS, Orange Blast Metallic, 6MT -- DD with burbles

  2. #77
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Chicago, IL
    Posts
    297
    My Cars
    99 Dakar M3
    Nice update. I feel for you Californians and the things you go through to pass smog.

    The car looks really fast. Love you passing newer BMWs and Nascar thingys

  3. #78
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Marietta, GA
    Posts
    2,680
    My Cars
    95 M3, 87 535is
    Great update, thanks for taking the time to put it together and write it up.

  4. #79
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Huntington Beach
    Posts
    1,117
    My Cars
    96 M3 Coupe
    Random bump, but I've got a DSC swap question and figured you're the best one to ask. Also wanted it posted for future searchers.

    I'm looking into swapping the MK60 system into my car just the same as you did and have found an 05 M3 locally being parted with everything I'd need. However, I want to make sure I'm getting the right controller.

    The BMW part number matches (2 282 250), but the ATE part number is not like the other ones I've found listed online (10.0206.0079.4). Any idea if this one works for this swap?

    EDIT:

    Further research answered my own question. The ATE part number I asked about is not the one relevant to this discussion. Have to look on the cover of the DSC module to match up that part number. That is where you'll be able to see if you have the 818, 813, or 817 (good luck) module.
    Last edited by Foda420; 11-13-2019 at 08:45 PM.
    @M3AMI
    96 BG/Magma Lux
    Mods. Lots of Mods.

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