E46 Touring LSD

[snaponbob]

I am considering building an E46 Touring "M3". I have a COMPLETE S54 (EVERYTHING !!) for a screaming deal with nothing to put it in --- yet. One of three choices is a sedan "sleeper", and E36 host, or the aforementioned wagon project. I am up to speed on E36s, but know little about swappy stuff with 46s. Is there an LSD unit that will go in the stock Touring E46 3.46 diff case? In other words, yank the carrier, swap the ring gear, and put it back together. Simple deal on 36s, but have not played with 46 diff.

[Arana36]

Wondering similar. But would rather a smaller final drive.

[dworthy]

There are companies out there that sell the LSD, just have to look for them.

If you have the full driveline from the donor car, you could just swap that into the wagon. Now I would first look at reinforcing the rear end as the E-46's are known for ripping out. While it would be a bit of a challenge stuffing in a 255 in the rear, it can be done. I would keep most of the modules for the wagon, and send this guy a message:

328 Power 04

He can walk you thru how to code everything in so it would be just like factory, and you won't have any tamper dot plus the original keys for the car would work.

[snaponbob]

WOW!!!!! Talk about dusting off an old post !!

I kept the suspension on the Touring as delivered, but spapped in Koni FSD dampers. REALLY nice pieces. Springs are sufficient, but i will upgrade the bars.

ANYWAY, the LSD was resolved by MFactory. Since this is just a fun street car, I kept it simple and bought their helical unit for $1000. The BIG issue was the carrier bearings. BMW does not even have a part number for them, and they are simply not (easily) available in North America. AND, they are not easy to remove. So, I shipped the OEM carrier to them, they swapped the bearings, and sent it back. Given that the two bearings cost $200 (!!!!), the cost of shipping was a bargain.

Anyway, the 325 bases DSC has a VERY low threshold compared to an E46 M3, sharp turns in neighborhood "confuse" it, so the light comes often. But, not an issue, and big long black streaks are available in two gears -----soooooooooooooo.

I have changed to 18x8 APEX rims with 245/40x15 Michelin PS3 A/S tires. MUCH better than the 225x17 Contis, and they fit fine. Had the rims been 8.5 or 9 wide, 255s would have fit as well. After all the mods, the extra rubber was needed, and it corrected the speedo errors in the M3 cluster.

[dworthy]

Oh man, they got me again on a resurrected post!