My first BMW

[tic55]

i recently got my first BMW, it is a 1999 M3 and i have to say that this has to be the best car that i have ever had. Ive had a boosted prelude, a 240sx, and a honda s2000 ( didnt wreck it or anything, had to get rid of it due to financial reasons ). and this car is by far the most fun. It does have a lot of aftermarket parts on the car. which im not familiar with some of the brands and what not, really hoping this forum and a few others can help me with that. I am 20, and I live in Kansas. i think i got a good deal on the car as well!

I did post this up in the ride and events, but i didnt get any replies on it not sure if i wasnt supposed to post it up in there or not.

the MOD list consit of
ICS N1 coilovers
turner motorsport 24 and 30mm sway bars
adjustable rear control arms
condor racing motor, tranny mounts, RTAB, DIFF mount, so on
***rev shift guibo ( I AM NOT sure what this is )
clutch master fx300 unsprung with lightweight flywheel
****FULL m50 intake swap (what type of gains do you see from this )
bosch 24lb injectors
porsche 803 HFM ( not sure what this is )
RK tunes tuned
head gasket and all coolant components where replaced 7,000 miles ago.
arp head studs
fan delete mishimoto high cfm electric fan
z4 short shifter
drilled oil pump nut ( safety wired ) ** not sure what this means **
3.5 exhaust
stainless y pipe


the guy said he has built a few BMW before and when he had the head done he thinks the shop didn't get the head torqued down properly and said it had a misfire and is leaking oil at the back passenger side of the head. when i went to look at it even during the test drive it never acted up once. no misfire or anything. During my two weeks with this car i have drove it spiritually and have yet to have any issues with the car at all, no coolant or oil loss, no smoking, no misfire or anything of any sort indicating any issues at all, until i finally got the car up in the air this weekend and saw that there is indeed a small oil leak coming from the back left side of the head looking at it from the front of the car he said that is a typically place for these cars to leak and thats why he thinks it didnt get torqued down right, i do understand that it could be warped or cracked or all sorts of problems could come along with this... if its been over heated badly and what not lots of other problems. the guy let the car go for 2800, running and driving. I will be getting a head gasket here soon ( i have not been driving it a lot, just when i do i do have fun in it. ) but i plan on boosting it, im not looking for power just a clean build on 8-12 psi. ive done a few turbo builds before not my first but i am young, got a lot to learn. again hoping to get a lot of my help from this site.

current goals are first to fix some rust spots, get rear sub frame reinforcement plates ( already has front ones ) and decide on what head gasket to get.
after that I really want to get matching rims and get the fender flares flowing with the car and looking half ass decent. i do not like the fender flares but they are already on and the fenders are already cut, so ill just have to make it work and I think i can. hopefully.


here are some pics, please feel free to give me some input and some of the first things i should do to get her cleaned up.! if you know about the mods that i left comments on and can answer them please do! I will be using the search to look them up too, but its nice to hear from others as well.
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[tic55]

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[Carpy2]

Very cool! Welcome to the bimmer world! She looks like a great pick up, and with just a little bit of TLC she will really shine. You have some of the N/A bolt-ons already so you have a head start on that. Just to answer the two asterisks in your post:

- Guibo is a flex disk that goes between your driveshaft and your transmission. Important to keep this thing crack free. "Rev Shift" is an aftermarket brand of Guibo. (people pronounce this differently, "Gee bo", "ge bo", "gwee bo" lol). I personally say Gee Bo with a hard G sound.
- Full M50 intake swap will give you better top end, but you lose a bit of lower end torque. A tune (looks like you have one from RK) will improve bottom end loss. I personally don't notice the down low loss with my tune. Certain dynos show up to 20hp above 5k with supporting mods. I would guess around 10hp on average.

Also, RealOEM.com is a HUGE help! It's my favorite website. You can find everything that was offered for our cars and their part numbers. Before every job I look at the RealOEM images to see how everything is put together, and what small bits can be replaced "while I'm in there". Also a Bentley Manual is helpful

Other than that welcome!!!! Have fun and ask questions. I'm always learning something new here.

[h82crash]

Nice score. You didn't indicate the miles on the clock, but looks like you got a decent deal. Now the real challenge. Getting all the little cosmetic bits to really make it nice.

[Ajcanadian]

Nice car! For $2,800 it's a great deal even with the issues. Seems like it's got some good mods as well.

[pbonsalb]

Search in the forced induction forum for a turbo M3 build thread by cmzwirner from about 5 years ago. He was 20 then and DIYed it. Had some hiccups along the way but ended up doing a nice job. Car is still around the New England area and running well though he sold it a few years ago. If you are serious about the turbo, use a thicker HG or spacer when you do the headgasket to fix the oil leak. The car will run fine with 9.0:1 CR instead of 10.5:1. Might lose 4% power. With a GT35R size turbo, 500 rwhp and 500 lbs rwtq is no problem with stock intervals other than the thicker HG on 93 pump. A little less on 91. More on E85 (and you don’t even have to lower CR).