Z3 CSL Build...

[BimmerBreaker]

I plan on taking nice pictures once more of the mods are finished

Which at this rate will be another few years... maybe I can go TWO weeks without needing tires this next time... let's see...

[BimmerBreaker]

lol, this bolt was 3" and dull at the tip... went right through the thickest part of the tire. Still not sure how this happened... tire shop guys didn't have a clue either but sure thought it was funny!

[lapoune]

Reminds me when I picked up my coupe and was driving it back home. I ran over an old engine valve sitting on it's flat face, it punctured the tire, stayed in for a couple seconds, than flew around the wheel well and got itself stuck in one of the control arm holes. Suffice to say the tire got flat in about 10 seconds. The tire guys had a good laugh at that too when they found it.

[Venom13132]

lol, this bolt was 3" and dull at the tip... went right through the thickest part of the tire. Still not sure how this happened... tire shop guys didn't have a clue either but sure thought it was funny!

I have a photo somewhere but I got a 1/2" diameter 4" long trailer hitch pin stuck straight into my tire between the tread once on my old 95 RX-7.

[JWin]

It will have M mirrors and a CSL style rear spoiler. "Wings" are ugly IMO.

[BimmerBreaker]

Reminds me when I picked up my coupe and was driving it back home. I ran over an old engine valve sitting on it's flat face, it punctured the tire, stayed in for a couple seconds, than flew around the wheel well and got itself stuck in one of the control arm holes. Suffice to say the tire got flat in about 10 seconds. The tire guys had a good laugh at that too when they found it.

I have a photo somewhere but I got a 1/2" diameter 4" long trailer hitch pin stuck straight into my tire between the tread once on my old 95 RX-7.

Wow, well I guess I'm not the only one with a crazy tire puncture story!!

Haven't had a whole lot of time to work on this car, just been daily driving it. But installed my HID retrofits recently. Will get better pictures eventually... but love the output... its amazing. I got it set up perfect, but because I kept my outer lenses in place, to adjust them I had to install them, take note, then bake them open, adjust, reinstall... time consuming, but I got the cutoff pretty much perfect.

[BimmerBreaker]

The new tires were rubbing a lot, so one day I decided to add some spacers. The spacers fit but the included bolts were too short. So I installed the Apex wheel studs I had. Still rubs. Ok, fine, I will upgrade to the M3 Bilstein struts/H&R springs I have had for awhile to try to raise the front a bit (on non-M stuff now with a heavy S54 in front). Went to install and one of my lower wheel stud bolts snapped. Tried everything to get it out, even called over a friend who is a much better mechanic than I. Wouldn't budge. Fine, I'll install the M3 spindles/control arms I have here. Forgot I need M3 brakes to upgrade to M3 spindles too... so a "trying to keep my car from rubbing" small thing has snowballed into this huge front end swap...

I think I'm so deep into this project that I may as well just do the M3 brakes... I've gone through all the hard work... problem is the M3 parts I have are used, and worn, so the LCA's will be coming out relatively soon for a replacement anyways... but I figure, may as well install M3 stuff now with everything out and make it all work so in the future when I refresh it its just a parts swap.

[BimmerBreaker]

Full Z3M suspension now on the car - control arms, spindles, struts, top hats. The only thing non-M in the front mechanically speaking is the sway bar and steering rack. The steering feels WAY different with this suspension setup, I see why M's went with a progressive rack, but I still prefer the non-M rack. Eventually will switch to a beefier M bar though, for performance and because it looked like the S54 oil pan was almost resting on the sway bar. I think the M bars sit a little farther to the rear, so the bar would travel through a specific notch in the oil pan for clearance.

Oh, and after all that, for some reason my Style 224's won't mate flush to these hubs. So I did ALL this work to fit my 18" wheels/tires without rubbing and now Im going back to 17"s anyways. Need to figure out what happened to the 224's, they were mounted on a bad quality spacer and I think some of the center of the spacer "blew out" and maybe embedded in the wheel hub.

I keep a better record of this car on instagram for anyone into that: @z3csl

Bumpers get paint next week, really excited for that. I'll at least have an M front bumper and side mirrors.
Also going to throw a new 80/88C fan switch into the S54, I don't like how long it waits until the fan kicks in (been following coolant temps with my debuffered coolant gauge)

[BimmerBreaker]

The new tires were rubbing a lot, so one day I decided to add some spacers.

This is where I went wrong

I bought those spacers in a set with a bunch of them for really cheap, this was the first set I had mounted. I'm not sure *exactly* what happened, but the end result was that the "hub" of the spacer was pinched off between the wheel and actual hub, so when the spacers came out, they didn't have a hub. The hub broke off in the Z4M wheels, acting like a hubcentric spacer, so when I tried to fit them on the M hubs, they mounted right up until it hit the broken part of the spacer.

Had a friend with me the other day asking about hubcentric spacers in these wheels. Of course I adamantly denied that as a possibility, seeing as ALL my cars are standard BMW center bore (my friend with me is an E39 guy, so thoughts of mismatched center bores often cross his mind...). I took a quick look at it, but last time I messed with this was after a long day of work. I looked and thought the broken spacer was one of those "inner lips" that some wheels have. Yesterday, closer inspection with a fresh mind revealed that yeah, the spacer was messed up. Wheels are on now, don't seem to be rubbing the strut... time to get it aligned and back on the road!

[Tim95M3]

Full Z3M suspension now on the car - control arms, spindles, struts, top hats. The only thing non-M in the front mechanically speaking is the sway bar and steering rack. The steering feels WAY different with this suspension setup, I see why M's went with a progressive rack, but I still prefer the non-M rack. Eventually will switch to a beefier M bar though, for performance and because it looked like the S54 oil pan was almost resting on the sway bar. I think the M bars sit a little farther to the rear, so the bar would travel through a specific notch in the oil pan for clearance.

Oh, and after all that, for some reason my Style 224's won't mate flush to these hubs. So I did ALL this work to fit my 18" wheels/tires without rubbing and now Im going back to 17"s anyways. Need to figure out what happened to the 224's, they were mounted on a bad quality spacer and I think some of the center of the spacer "blew out" and maybe embedded in the wheel hub.

I keep a better record of this car on instagram for anyone into that: @z3csl

Bumpers get paint next week, really excited for that. I'll at least have an M front bumper and side mirrors.
Also going to throw a new 80/88C fan switch into the S54, I don't like how long it waits until the fan kicks in (been following coolant temps with my debuffered coolant gauge)

I had never thought about the steering rack difference... Maybe this is why my roadster feels a bit too "twitchy"? I also have a full M front suspension swap, and the amount of twitchiness at speed is a bit unsettling in certain situations.

[BimmerBreaker]

Non-M racks are linear, M racks are progressive. The M suspension seems to like turn-in so the progressive rack is slower at center so it works well as a system. I still personally prefer the linear rack even if it can be a little touchy sometimes, but the rack is most definitely what you are feeling (or bad alignment?)

[lapoune]

Non-M racks are linear, M racks are progressive. The M suspension seems to like turn-in so the progressive rack is slower at center so it works well as a system. I still personally prefer the linear rack even if it can be a little touchy sometimes, but the rack is most definitely what you are feeling (or bad alignment?)

Interesting...I am swapping in a Z3 rack into my coupe before summer starts since the M rack is so terrible (my single biggest disappointment with the car). Do you happen to know which one you have? From my understanding there's a couple different ones with different ratios and feel.

[kyrix1st]

Trying to achieve ~1,000kg on my Z3 1.9 roadster as well. Watching this with great interest!

[BimmerBreaker]

The car this thread is talking about started life as a non-M and still has it's Z3 non-M rack. I recently swapped all the M stuff on and with the non-M rack the steering is very tight and as Tim mentioned a little touchy near center - though to me, that's just an artifact of how the M suspension behaves...

If you want something that might be a good compromise, E36 non-M racks have the same ratio as the Z3 non-M rack but they are progressive. Guess it depends what your problem with the M rack is. If you want something with more feel on center, the linear rate Z3 non-M rack would be good. If you want something that feels similar to the M (a little slow around the center) but that ramps up a little faster the E36 non-M rack might be a good fit.

Personally, I have a refurbished Z3 non-M rack waiting to go into my M Coupe when I have the time

Trying to achieve ~1,000kg on my Z3 1.9 roadster as well. Watching this with great interest!

Despite the name, weight loss is not a major part of this build. Mostly the inspiration comes from the cosmetic changes to the CSL, to the point I considered calling this the Z3 CS build... weight loss will be the last thing I focus on but it will be a part of the build eventually. Recently I've just been adding heavy M parts to it...

[JWin]

I think the M bars sit a little farther to the rear, so the bar would travel through a specific notch in the oil pan for clearance.

As best I'm aware the bars are the same general shape. The M front bar is one of the smaller ones in the line up of Z3s because the sway link mount points increase the spring rate of the bar. I (and probably a few others) have grabbed the thicker bar off a 3.0 car and it works fine.

[BimmerBreaker]

That makes sense too, I just noticed the oil pan sits really close to the sway bar - haven't poked around under a stock S54 enough to know how it looks, but I knew my S52 has more clearance. Maybe engine mounts are toast

[BimmerBreaker]

These are listed as fitting the S54, but do they fit the S54??? http://www.iemotorsport.com/bmw/item/E36rodbcoated.html

After seeing my X5's rod bearings I want to be proactive on the Z3... the engine was built by a race shop before I got it and they said the did the bearings but I don't have any paperwork verifying that. Wasn't there some mumblings about another company making coated S54 rod bearing options being available soon?

[lapoune]

These are listed as fitting the S54, but do they fit the S54??? http://www.iemotorsport.com/bmw/item/E36rodbcoated.html

After seeing my X5's rod bearings I want to be proactive on the Z3... the engine was built by a race shop before I got it and they said the did the bearings but I don't have any paperwork verifying that. Wasn't there some mumblings about another company making coated S54 rod bearing options being available soon?

Probably just a listing for all bearings they can sell coated. You don't want to go for WPC coated bearings?

[z3forlife]

• S54 Rod Bearing replacement options. This thread post #44 I believe is what you're looking for per RF

[BimmerBreaker]

Not that I don't want WPC, I just remembered hearing that there was a good and cheaper than OE solution on the way

• S54 Rod Bearing replacement options. This thread post #44 I believe is what you're looking for per RF

I will send a word out to RF about them... less than OE and coated! how can you go wrong?

[Remotion]

Trying to achieve ~1,000kg on my Z3 1.9 roadster as well. Watching this with great interest!

Very interested, make a topic.

[BimmerBreaker]

Powerwashed my engine bay before I did the hub swap. Powerwasher must have exacerbated an existent VCG leak I had... so decided to do VCG. Since I was doing the VCG, decided to do valve shim adjustment too, I had never done it while I owned the car.

Bought this kit: https://www.amazon.com/Wiseco-VSK4-P...&keywords=VSK4

Came with the correct shims and free 1-day Prime shipping! Doing this job tomorrow... I don't have the right tool, so it's gonna be an adventure. I might just make a tool... it's just a magnet on an arm and a little non-magnetic tip.

[Synisalo]

lol, this bolt was 3" and dull at the tip... went right through the thickest part of the tire. Still not sure how this happened... tire shop guys didn't have a clue either but sure thought it was funny!

Strange as it sounds, I know what that bolt is. My business is installing kitchen appliances. That's a mounting bolt from a over the range microwave oven. The blunt tip allows it to seat correctly in the loose nut attached to the chassis of the micro. And... *I* have also gotten one of those buggers stuck right through the tire of my truck!

[BimmerBreaker]

Strange as it sounds, I know what that bolt is. My business is installing kitchen appliances. That's a mounting bolt from a over the range microwave oven. The blunt tip allows it to seat correctly in the loose nut attached to the chassis of the micro. And... *I* have also gotten one of those buggers stuck right through the tire of my truck!

That's so funny... I've still got the tire, I'll straighten the bolt out and mail it to you



Did my S54 valve shims earlier today. Only 7 of the 24 valves needed adjusting, but I was right in thinking I was hearing some noise from the valves... much better now New valve cover gasket too so hoping that will cure the leak. Smoking a ton right now lol, but I haven't had time for it to burn off the old leak. Alignment scheduled Monday... hopefully that will be the end of this little fiasco...

Valve shim job was actually way easier than I thought it would be. I didn't even buy the proper BMW tool. It's $30 for a piece of metal with a magnet on the end of it. Ain't got time for that...




I took an old credit card and a strong, but small, fridge magnet. Drilled the card in the size of the magnet, was going to JB weld it in place but it was such a snug fit that I didn't have to. Worked perfectly. It is up on my shelf for the next S54 valve shim job I do

[BimmerBreaker]

Took it over to Firestone this morning. The guy on the phone said they wouldn't do a lifetime alignment on my car because it was lowered and "special BMW stuff" that isn't aligned like normal cars. Once I got in I talked to the manager who tried to give me more of the same story but cut it out once he realized I wasn't buying it. I basically just told the guy to get it in and do the best they could, the car tracked straight as an arrow before, I just want the toe straightened out. I was able to convince the manager to let me get the lifetime alignment PROVIDED they can even get it up on their rack... they haven't called yet so I'm thinking they got it up. Having the non-M bumper helps with ground clearance a bit...

It's always fun explaining "Hey I know the VIN says the car is a 2.8, but please, align it as an 'M Coupe' not a 2.8..."

Hoping this car will be daily drivable again once the alignment is finished!