The Techno Turd 98 M3

[BimmerBreaker]

There is so much beauty.

And it will only get better...

Decided to get the bumper clip fixed today, I observed on the intact side that it has these alignment holes

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I'm sure there is some proper procedure for doing this, but I just shoved a ziptie through the back like this...

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Then cinched on another from the front to keep it tight. I applied a flexible plastic epoxy to the contact points and where the tabs would have gone

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Then just cut them off after the epoxy had set. Easy.

I also got in some fog deletes the other day and painted them and test fit them. They sat in a bit too recessed for my liking, so today I trimmed the tabs and when they were installed I shoved some cardboard behind the tabs from the back to keep them in tight. Looks quite a bit better. This shows about how much I had to trim (these were the $15/set ebay ones)

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Looking good I think the fog deletes are a lighter color because I needed to use a black primer coat. I'm gonna give that a shot sometime soon

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Hoping to make some actual progress on the O2 sensor stuff this weekend. They were just dragging, it looks like one of the wires may have frayed but we looked at the car using INPA and it looks like its the precat O2's that are causing the problems.
And I figure if I'm gonna be bloodying my knuckles wrenching around the pre-cat O2's I'm thinking I may as well install ebay headers...

[Nate047]

nice progress so far, how many miles are on this thing?

[MauiM3Mania]

I'm guessing about 180k.

[BimmerBreaker]

I'm guessing about 180k.

Can't tell if good guess or actually read the thread

Bought these yesterday

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Part of me is soooo tempted by those ebay turbo kits though...
I figure I get the engine running well first then if I want to go ebay turbo I'll slap these ebay headers on my other S52

Now I need to find some good used precat O2's because of course new just won't do

[propcar]

are those the same as raceland?

[CblockM3]

Looking much better, that corner light tho haha

[weedshoes]

are those the same as raceland?

No, they are not. They're 2" instead of 60mm. Primaries are slightly smaller too.

[BimmerBreaker]

are those the same as raceland?

They share the same basic design in that they are both euro supersprint replicas. I actually read quite a few times that the racelands are copies of the supersprints and the ebay headers are copies of the racelands

Looking much better, that corner light tho haha

The pictures make it look deceptively nice. Rest assured, in person the corner light fits right in with the rest of the car's jank

No, they are not. They're 2" instead of 60mm. Primaries are slightly smaller too.

You forgot the critical difference - the eBay headers are also much shinier whereas the racelands I've seen pictures of from owners have a sad, dull appearance - like they were picked last in gym class. Ain't putting no scrawny picked-last bad-at-dodgeball parts on my car!

[tsmith25]

My racelands are a shiny blue, bronze, and gold swirl now that they have been driven for a few weeks. They started out as just a normal chrome appearance. They were probably picked in the middle during gym class, after the real supersprint euros.

[weedshoes]

They share the same basic design in that they are both euro supersprint

You forgot the critical difference - the eBay headers are also much shinier whereas the racelands I've seen pictures of from owners have a sad, dull appearance - like they were picked last in gym class. Ain't putting no scrawny picked-last bad-at-dodgeball parts on my car!

You clearly have no experience with the racelands. I have racelands on my m3 and eBay headers on my 325i. The racelands are much higher quality. EBay headers are smaller, harder to install, slip fit vs bolt on flange, and they're not any shinier.

[BimmerBreaker]

My racelands are a shiny blue, bronze, and gold swirl now that they have been driven for a few weeks. They started out as just a normal chrome appearance. They were probably picked in the middle during gym class, after the real supersprint euros.

Thats fair, I mean, as long as my headers could participate in dodgeball without a note from their parent's I'm ok...

You clearly have no experience with the racelands. I have racelands on my m3 and eBay headers on my 325i. The racelands are much higher quality. EBay headers are smaller, harder to install, slip fit vs bolt on flange, and they're not any shinier.

I don't have any experience with either. But these were $80. I will be modifying them for a bolt-on flange though. I don't trust the slip fit. Definitely very shiny though.

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These weren't the best headers, I know that... but again, they were $80. And obviously a HUGE improvement over OEM. I may try racelands for my other S52 depending on how I like these.

Installing them probably next week... too busy this weekend to even think about wrenching on that car. Have something else I'm installing I think will be pretty cool too

[jayjaya29]

I liked the racelands on my S52. The slip fit was garbage though.

[BimmerBreaker]

Been busy with other stuff and went to install the headers today but seemed to have misplaced one of the gaskets lol. So I'm ordering some new ones, was told to use ones for the euro engine?

Did manage to get in some seats that I've had sitting in my back room forever. These are from an 06 M6 I parted out many moons ago. They need slight modifications to fit but the Ivory color is basically a dead-on match for the Dove Grey
Maybe I can see about making some sort of M stripe to match the rears...

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As my friend who was with me pointed out - these seats, like the headlights, are way too nice for the car

[notMpowered]

Make the car too nice for the seats!
That's a cool swap. Do the power functions work at all?

[BimmerBreaker]

All the power functions work, haven't actually tested if the memory functions work - they might since that module is built into the seat base.

[silvermsane]

what toilet did you grab the turd from?