Hi guys! I've seen a few cool threads about drift builds, and I'd like to share mine in my own thread! Bear with me, this is my first real post.
It all started when I hurt my back dirt biking late last year. It's currently on the mend, but being a 23 year old living in fear of throwing out your back really sucks. The weather was getting nicer and nicer, and it was about time to start riding my beloved Honda VFR750 to work every day. Unfortunately, my back was having none of that, and made it near impossible to daily ride the bike. If I can't do long distance on it, what's the point of a sport touring bike? Then I remembered how excited I was to go to East Coast Bash. This sparked the initial idea of trolling criagslist for a beater car to learn to drift in, and maybe switch hobbies.
I sold my VFR the day after I had made the decision to swap hobbies and pursue the long time dream of learning to drift. The same day as I sold it, I made the deal to pick up the beater.
Enter stage left: Betty.
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Picked up this 2001 330i, 5 speed, 213.2k miles. Didn't even bother to run a carfax. Listed for $1500 drove it, no weird noises, no temp fluctuations... golden! Ask if he'd gotten any offers on it, says he just wants $1000 for it. I immediately take the deal, on teh condition that he gets to keep the car for another week while he prepares to move across the country. I pick it up a week later, and drive it 45 miles home, no issues at all.
I leave the house after changing quickly to go to physical therapy, 2 miles away from my house.....
Steam everywhere, coolant everywhere, and I have to kill the engine and roll into the parking lot. All signs point to the thermostat. I let it cool off for an hour or two, refill the coolant, and make it home JUST as it started to boil over again. Temp never even hit the dreaded red.
I replace the thermostat that saturday, and beat on it all of sunday. I figure it's good to take to work the next day, which is an 80 mile round trip commute. 15 miles in, and I get a low coolant warning. I start looking for an exit.. next one is in two miles. Great. I have to kill it as it starts overheating a mile later, and manage to roll at speed the half mile to the nearest exit, and stop at the end of the off ramp, as out of the way as I can get. two nice cops help me out, we try to fill it with coolant, and everything checks out. I took it to a gas station, and it overheats again. Thermostat blew again.
So, being far from home, the classic bmw transport brings the car home.
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So, I replace the upper radiator hose which ended up being the issue both times, spewing how coolant all over the thermostat and frying it. I cleared the most faded head and fog lights I had ever seen at the same time.
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Good, now I commute in it all the next week, and the clutch starts REALLY slipping. so, time for a clutch, welded diff, and shifter bushings! I have a stuck detent pin, iconic slop and not centering between 3-4. I'll hit it all at once, just take a weekend and do it all for the first time ever, right?
Wrong. I get it up on stands! Easy peasy, going great!
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Take off the exhaust! First bolt shears the stud off, and the rest are so rusted that I dont even have enough purchase to break them off so I can torch and press them out.....
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So I hop over to a family friend's garage, and he get the front exhaust studs all broken/ pressed out. 50$ WELL SPENT.
After many different tries to unseat the driveshaft from the differential, I eventually have to turn it on, slam the brakes, and pop the clutch. seal breaks, and it comes off easy. Transmission gets dropped, not easy, but it happened as smoothly as I could expect for the first time pulling a transmission. Clutch is off right now, and last night I worked on all the shifter pins. Glad to say the clutch was worn, and not covered in oil, so the rear main seal seems solid.
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The reverse pins ended up breaking in the slot for it... it was a ruined bushing which made it originally get stuck again. That was an adventure to get out. Ended up forcing a wood screw to screw into the hole at the bottom, and finally pulled it out. the was the job of ruining the bushing enough to get it out, which really involved chiselling it until it broke enough to curl with pliers, and take out.
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Shifter pins are all in, and we look at the clock and it's most certainly time for bed, about 12:30. Up for work this morning at 6, to be here around 7, so that I can leave at 3 and get back to work! Clutch and pressure plate are going on, and hopefully my friend and I are going to remount the transmission today. I'm waiting on a shifter bushing that I forgot to order, but I assume I won't get that far today anyway.
I'm dropping off my recently acquired 3.46 to be welded, and I have a new rear differential bushing, since I get the nasty iconic clunk every time I'm on and off the gas at highway speeds.
After the diff and shifter go back in, I should have a car that I can truly begin to learn on. I picked up a set of burner wheels for the rear, with mostly good tires on them, so I'll burn those first. Want to get in some basics practice with cones before I go try an event, and I'm not sure if I want my first ever event to be ECB. We'll see how the funds are doing in terms of tires and entrance fee, and I'll go from there for my first event. Stock suspension, stock everything... I'm in it for the seat time. Seat time is what I want and need, and then I'll start upgrading the car as I learn. Right now my handbrake doesn't lock the rears, because the backing plate is screwed, so I think I'll eventually piece together a dual caliper hydro setup.
If anyone has any questions, comments, or suggestions, please let me know! I'm all ears, and this is the first major mechanical job I've done to a car. I'm familiar with motorcycles and their engines, but this is a huge auto job for me to tackle on my own. I love working with my hands, and on my vehicles, and there's no time like the present to start learning!
Last edited by awp235; 05-04-2017 at 02:33 PM.
Ready set drift in long pong, pa, is have a bunch of skid pad events in may and June. Basically a parking lot with cones. I think it's like 90 bucks to drive. ECB is fun but it gets crowded so you might not get enough seat time.
The car looks good. I plan on doing my shift bushings within the month. Did you use the bmw tools for them? I can't see the pictures you put in the second post.
Shoot, not sure what's up with those pictures. Are you referring to the shifter pin bushing + the pins? I didn't use the BMW tools, I actually mcquyvered it with a small 10mm socket inside of a 14mm socket, then realized I have a snap ring tool. I replaced all of the caps too, do I simply punched a flathead through the middle and twisted the cap to loosen and get it off.
Here's a pic of my mcguyvered setup, it actually worked really well. IMG_2200.jpg
Oh sweet!! Long pond is only about an hour away from my house, maybe I'll try to make it to the may 20th event, and just attend ECB without actually drifting there.
Last edited by awp235; 05-04-2017 at 02:35 PM.
I'm probably gonna just buy the tools from eBay for $60. They won't go bad lol, but I like your "tools."
I might go to rsd on the 20th but idk yet. Personally I try to stay away from club loose because they get crowded, but I learned a lot there; the track is pretty good.
Make sure your engine mounts are in good condition, otherwise your fan will break and destroy half your cooling system.
Maybe we'll run into each other one event. I'm Matt btw.
With the electric fan? I can't see how the separate fan would break anything if my motor moves around a bit. The version that has the mechanical fan, I've heard of teh mechanical fan moving too much, clipping the shroud and breaking itself/ the shroud/ other things, but I can't really imagine the electric fan having that issue.
I'm Aaron. Hopefully I'll catch you at one event one of these days, I'm not sure I'll really be able to hit my first event before June. we'll see how the car comes together in the next few weeks. I would buy the tools if I did it again, and had $60 laying around, but I really wanted to get it done, and had heard of people doing it without them. Honestly a small socket to simply compress it while using a real snap ring tool worked flawlessly and relatively painlessly.
The manual e46's don't have a mechanical fan, only the early auto's did. It was phased out in favor of the larger electric manual version for all models during the facelift I believe.
I have a mech fan on my E46 wagon (early model). Sounds like a school bus. I love it.
Status: Someone put glitter in my oil. Wait. Why's all my oil outside the engine? What's that knocking?
So, a little update. Car moves under its own power! Very exciting moment for me, clutch feels great, every shifter bushing was changed, every shift pin/ sleeve was replaced, transmission feels like new.
As to the project side- I actually ran into quite the issue that I wasn't expecting. I bolted everything up the first time, transmission back on, torqued properly, and went to start it as a final "before I put this thing all back together" check. I'm glad I did. The starter spun freely! No bite, no grind or anything. I cursed the transmission out for a minute, and then calmed down and set to looking fro the issue. The starter hadn't mated with the dowel properly. loosened the bellhousing bolts a bit, got the transmission moved back half an inch to give myself some space to work with, and then got to sanding and lubing the dowel. Managed to reposition it and mate it properly, and use the bolts to pull it far enopugh onto the dowel. By the time it was almost mated, I was using a ton of force to get it any closer. There's probably still a 1/16" gap between the starter housing and the bellhousing, but it started with no grinds and I was getting concerned about breaking tht bolt clean in half with the amount of torque I needed to turn it any further. Starter right up, shifter feels amazing, and I drove it a bit around town. Waiting on the welded differential now, should be done sometime on or before Wednesday I hope. kept the heat shield and exhaust off, since they'd just come right back out to swap the differential. Looking forward to the 3.46 welded rear, and looking forward more and more to learning to slide!
When you installed the trans, did you forget to put back in the dust shield? That's what aligns the starter and that dowel. I wouldn't just leave your starter like that. At least sand the dowel with some sandpaper to help it get in its home.
Status: Someone put glitter in my oil. Wait. Why's all my oil outside the engine? What's that knocking?
The shield never came off, and yes it was aligned to the bolts, but for some reason the starter wasn't aligned to the shield, and have pushed itself back towards the engine side of things. I sanded the dowel a ton, until it was nice and shiny, and then was finally able to get it in as much as I got it. I was doubling the tq rating trying to get it any farther and called it quits out of worry of snapping it. The drivers side bolt also has very little to grab on, since whoever did the job previously must have stripped some of the engine threads out, they came out with the bolt. Makes me pretty worried about cranking down on that one to slide it home more. My rationalization is that the flywheel is open to the "elements" regardless, through the two ports on the lower drivers side of the bell-house where you can see the flywheel, so it wouldn't have a gigantic impact as long as it wasn't grinding at all. Let me know if my logic is terribly flawed!
Are you sure that clunk is a diff mount and not your subframe moving around? I'd look in to reinforcing that before doing too many clutch kicks.
If you took the trans off, that shield came out. *shrugs* I think you did something wrong...
Status: Someone put glitter in my oil. Wait. Why's all my oil outside the engine? What's that knocking?
I'll be the first to admit that it is absolutely just as likely that I did it wrong as I did it right. To go through what I did and t to figure it out- I did have to unbolt the shield from the transmission housing to get the transmission off. Shield was loose and easy to move around, but it appeared I would've had to take the flywheel off to fully remove the shield. I didn't end up removing the flywheel because from what I could tell the clutch was entirely oil free, and there didn't seem to be any seepage from the rear main seal that I could see with a flashlight. I didn't replace the flywheel (I know, not recommended, but I'm not expecting this clutch to last super long anyway!) so I didn't pull it off. The shield was loose and could be moved around easily- but I got it lined up well as soon as the bolts were in and through the holes in the shield.
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I spent a bunch of time looking for a torn mount, and couldn't see anything. From research (gasp.. I used the search!) rear diff bushing is a decently common problem to cause the throttle chop clunk, and the bushing is all kinds of cracked and torn. I know you can't necessarily see the cracks starting without full removal of the subframe, but with this specific clunk I really think it's that shot bushing. Could totally be the subframe though. That'll be addressed ASAP, just don't have the funds yet, and talking to my mechanic, he'd charge the same for fixing and reinforcement as just for reinforcement. Might as well see if it holds up for a bit.
There's 2 dowels that align the shielding. Most of the time it goes on just right. But I've had instances where it's not 100% on correctly and it misaligns the starter.
Status: Someone put glitter in my oil. Wait. Why's all my oil outside the engine? What's that knocking?
Small update- I swapped the diff! Also got some black sport seats for cheap, locally. So Now I've got a welded diff with the right flanges, it's all bolted up. Swapping the unput flange was an interestingh experience.... I Went with the mark the nut/ flange, and make sure the exact same amount of threads are showing method. it hasn't blown up yet... and it makes no noises. I guess we'll see if it lasts. The 3.46 rips in the 330i, and in combination with a brand new clutch, shifter bushings and transmission pins, the car feels phenomenal. It's super eager to burn rubber, and I did my first donuts and burnouts in it. I've got to say, the smile on my buddy and I's faces as I was holding my first donut made all the hard work worth it. I Bought a $1000 330i, and it's finally in a completely driftable form.
I did hear a funky noise though. Exhaust shield rattling at some points, but the major noise was under deceleration at above 3500 rpm. It sounded like the driveshaft was knocking on something, so I'm going to pull the exhaust at the studs off, and drop the center supports and heat shield to make sure I snugged up the center support bearing to the body of the car, and to check to torque on a few things now that I got it all moving again. it occasionally makes a little suspension noise up front too, but I assume that's the swap bar settling back into place, as that's the only front suspension component I touched.
Well, she drifts! Had my first drift day the sunday before last. Hopefully getting out there this sunday too. Nothing but great things to say about Ready Set Drift at the Pocono raceway. A great bunch of people, all just there to have a good time. People were more than willing to give me pointers, which was much appreciated, and I like to think I was functionally sliding by the end of the day!
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I got GoPro video of almost every lap, mounted on the roof. Going to try to mash together a video of the learning process. Next time, it's being mounted on my chin, to hopefully get a much better view of what's going on. I'm sure it'll be very apparent that I do in fact need a bucket seat asap! Second gear the whole time, only really beating on the clutch at launch. I see why it wouldve been a good idea to upgrade it, although it's holding absolutely fine for now. I'm having the muffler deleted, because I want to be able to hear what the heck the car is doing, but there's always the chance I absolutely hate it and throw the muffler back on.
Last edited by awp235; 06-27-2017 at 01:31 PM.
I saw your car there and was like "I wonder if this is the guy from the forums." Didn't know you were going to this event lol. It's to bad we didn't get a chance to speak in person. There's always next time.
You progressed good through out the day. In the beginning it was apparent you still needed seat time but towards the end it was nice seeing you actually hold some type of line in a bone stock e46. As the upgrades come and you get more seat time you'll do great.
Did you delete your muffler yet? ha! inside jokes are fun.
Status: Someone put glitter in my oil. Wait. Why's all my oil outside the engine? What's that knocking?
Should've come over and ragged on my shitty driving! What e36 were you in? There were a bunch, now I'll have to creep on your profile to find some pictures. Seriously, thanks for the kind words about me actually progressing. Major part of why I love the RSD community already. It's certainly not the car that's holding me back, although towards the end of the day I was recognizing times when a little more angle would've let me save a spin. I figure learning the basics on a stock car will help the skills progress, rather than relying on insane angle or power to be able to drift. Also, I think the essence of going out in a stock car and being able to whip it is sweet, so that's my current goal. That said.... I'm always browsing craigs, and facebook marketplace, to see if I can snag some quality coils for half price lol.
I'm trying to make it out this sunday, but that sadly might have to be missed, due to my grandma not doing so well. If she passes, I'll be flying out to arizona, and transferring my registration to the next event.
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At least I'm not the only one who spends a LITTLE too much of his work day thinking about his bimmers.....
In fact, I did pick up the car yesterday with a deleted muffle. Started it up, sounded great, and immediately lost power steering and the battery light came on. Uhoh, belt's gone. I tried to make it the 5 miles home before the car started to get hot, but only made it 3.7... Had to get a ride home to get tools+ my otther car to go grab a new belt, and then rip out the alternator air duct that fell off and rubbed through the belt. Popped the new belt on in less than 15 mins start to finish, and got it going again. Didnt even boil it over!
Car honestly sounds great, I'm super happy about having it chopped. Drones EVER so slightly on the highway, but I think that's because of my short gearing. Around town I can choose whether it's quiet or if I'm turning heads, and I still don't think it's obnoxious when I am trying to turn heads.
Last edited by awp235; 06-29-2017 at 09:06 AM.
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I was driving this thing.
When I started drifting I had my suspension beefed up but no angle or hand brake. You may find it weird, but I got better at clutch kicking after I started using my hand brake. And the angle mods help you learn a little bit faster. You will learn how to hold a decent line without spinning. Im a firm believer that if you can't drift a stock car, there's no point in dumping money into a high hp car. But steering angle and a working hand brake is definitely a game changer. I guess having those two things will allow you to grow into the car as your driving progresses. So don't be so hesitant on upgrading it further. Seat time is important but my brother and my friends all had the same response when first doing those upgrades. If I were you, don't worry about angle yet, but get your stock hand brake 100% functional and learn how to use it.
I was trying to make the Sunday event as well but god forbid my boss gives us off on Sunday... oh well hopefully we'll see each other next event. Sorry about your grandmother. Hopefully everything is okay. This kind of stuff always sucks.
I'm working on the handbrake, I've been trying to get it working. I THINK the cables are likely stretched out, so they're a bit elastic. That or the actual expansion mechanism sucks and has failed. I just replaced the shoes, but might go in there and replace the cables. Honestly, it's just such a pain in the butt to run them. exhaust and driveshaft need to come out, which I can probably do pretty quickly at this point, but if I don't HAVE to 'd prefer not to. At that point I'd just consider plumbing a hydro, but the funds for the actual calipers/ master aren't there right now.
Do your cables when you drop your subframe. I know you're gonna reinforce the subframe mounts, unless the e46 doesn't need them? Drive shaft is easy to take out. Come on you pulled your tranny, so you can do your drive shaft.
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