Thrifty S50's "Tree M3" Build

**Thrifty S50** · 01-11-2021, 06:38 PM

Hey everyone!

Finally get to make build thread here on the M side, with the not so recent purchase of a 2003 "Stahl Grau" / Dove SMG E46 M3. I actually purchased the M back in march 2019, right when the pandemic started. Ive done a fair a bit of work on the car, and am actually gearing up to do rod bearings here, next week. So I wanted to formally introduce her and try to catch the thread up to current times as best I could.

First off, I was in the Market for the M3 after selling my beloved E36 I had for nearly 10 years, a 328i with just about everything minus a turbo thrown at it (and in true E36 fashion, never got around to painting the front bumper lol thank god it was black)

If youre into E36 stuff, I have a pretty lengthy build thread over on the E36 side. I miss that car! Anyways, to address the name in the title, I called it the "Tree M3 Build", well, because, a Tree fell on it!

It looks really bad, like car should have been salvaged bad, but somehow, car came out relatively unscathed! It does have a slight dent in the roof, and one of the tree limbs damaged the bottom of the rear window seal, but as youll see the damage was m i n i m a l. Minimal enough at least for me to still consider purchasing the car, and enough so to actually buy it! The car still retained a clean title, and was actually in pretty good shape. It had lower mileage, at 122k, and although it was Dove & SMG, the interior was practically flawless, and car had no CEL lights. Here are some pictures of it that the seller provided to me prior to me purchasing the car. I mean despite the tree, she looked good! I made the decision to travel nearly 500 miles to pick her up.

And in retrospect, im very glad I did. The damage from the tree is light enough to be fixed via PDR, minus the rear window seal that still needs to get replaced. In all honesty, the dent on the roof still needs to be fixed, but somehow the paint wasnt damaged, and is shallow enough to where it doesnt show in most pictures. While it WILL be addressed soon, as with all new-to-you BMW's, there was some maintenance that needed to be done first.

**Thrifty S50** · 01-12-2021, 04:09 PM

So I guess picking up back, I decided to give the guy a deposit on this car that had a tree fall on it, which I had to drive 5 hours out for (and then immediately 5 hours home afterwards!), and I make the drive out there with a friend of mine, of which I cant be more thankful of having, a Fellow E46 M3 owner, and we get to see the car and its actually pretty clean. Like "Visually clean".

Here is the first picture I snap of it while it warmed up before our test drive:

Im starting to learn a bit more about the car as we are driving around, I guess he owned the car for the last 7 years, got Into sport bikes and starting a business, and the M kind of just sat around. He did mention that for at least the last year it was essentially "parked" as he had a brand new 4runner, bikes, etc.. And only really took her out enough to cycle the oil, or on small trips around town. He had it "maintenance" at some local shop, was reputable, yadda yadda, with most of the basic stuff. Oils changes, brakes, that kind of stuff, but there were some things showing up during the Test drive.

I guess Ill pre-face this w/ his asking price, which was 10k. I will also follow that up with, I did not end up paying 10k for the M. In fact, the car in its current form, I am just passing the 10k threshold, by a few hundred dollars.

The biggest issue showing during the test drive was the Clutch was slipping. It would kick down in gears just fine, but when shifting up, if I gave her the beans, on the next gear she would slip a fair amount before catching . It also needed brakes, which I feel bad, he swore up and down he had just had front pads / discs replaced at "so and so shop", and we were all down on hand and knees showing him that they were razor thin. Legitimately only a few mm's left on the pad. I found out just how pad they were a few weeks later when I replaced them. It also had no record of rod bearings, or subframe, or for that Vanos, the Keys didnt unlock the doors, the trunk latch is finicky and most likely the cooling needed a full replacement. A few more small things, like the interior mirror is busted, etc, but I feel that he knew the car was on track for a big service interval to take place, and besides not really ever driving the car anymore, was kind of just done with it.

Luckily for me, I am a glutton for punishment, so these were all things I knew I could fix myself, IF I were to secure the car at the right price. Well, the right price came, and my friend and I started the 5 hr trek home in my New to Me M3, slipping clutch and all ;D

First fill up

The car actually made it home without skipping a beat, still had no CEL's, and wheels were still on so I guess it was pretty solid!

I was falling in love with dat booty, Car came on 19" BBS CH's as well.

But, literally the day I got home, I ordered just about everything I had noted the car needed, from earlier that day. It was time to get to work

**Kevin2772** · 01-13-2021, 07:36 AM

Love a good build/rebuild thread! Congrats on your M.

**Thrifty S50** · 01-13-2021, 04:56 PM

Originally Posted by Kevin2772

Love a good build/rebuild thread! Congrats on your M.

Thanks Kevin! IM a 90's kid so this was a Dream car for me, Glad I have one in my stable to show plenty of TLC to (even if it did have a tree fall on it lol)

Keeping things moving, I got started doing some quick aesthetic changes, PO had some matte black Amazon fender grilles in there, that were getting really yellow. Luckily he included the OEM silver grilles with the purchase. Because the OEM ones are lik $70 a side, I figured I would give a stab at taking them apart, and painting them in Gloss black.

I purchased a new "M" Emblem for them, and Ive got to say, for rattle can, they came out looking well!

I have since had to replace the drivers side fender grille, as I lost one doing a quick top speed run. I guess these are limited to 145mph. And because im also very lazy, I decided to not spray the new one, and left it in the OEM silver finish. The car now has a sort of duality to it, Silver on one side, and Gloss black on the other. I could see, based on the price of these things, that these may be something you remove before a track day?

In any case, I also went ahead and replaced the Valve cover Badge

Changed the intake filter

Purchased an exhaust of Facebook for $125. From what I can find its a DNA exhaust, which has its flaws, mostly with mounting fitment, but it was brand new and the guy delivered it to me for an extra 5$, so why not!? I have to say, it sounds "OK" but has a pretty nasty resonance from 7.5k - 8k. Kind of like a howling sound. Verified by swapping the OEM exhaust back on& purchasing new exhaust seals. Ill try and get a sound clip up soon.

And theeeen I tackled the front brakes. Remember how i said they were extremely low, like "millimeters" low? Well, that wasnt just something I said to get some $ knocked off the price of the car, have a look for your self

On top of that, the Brake disc set screws were fairly corroded in the old disc (not too mention the lip formed on the disc edge!), and the Allen key completely stripped both of the set screws, on each side.... Had some fun drilling those out.

Havent done the rears, as they actually have some decent pad left, and no lip on the disc, but Im betting that the set screws are still seized; Im waiting to do those until one of those days I have some pent up anger I need to get rid of. Nothing like letting it all out on an old stuck rotor.

Following the brakes, I decided that if I babied the shifts enough, that the car was probably in decent enough shape to take out on some canyon runs with some friends

And at this point I was kind of enjoying the SMG, minus the clutch slip, and clunky low speed shifts, it was kind of nice! And the car actually did great, going UP! Buuut as all good things must come to an end, as I was coming down the canyons, guess what I see. GEAR INDICATOR LIGHT! yayyyyy me!

Car wasnt happy, shifts were even clunkier, and she was taking along time to find the next gear when shifted. I limped her home, and had a decision to make. Replace clutch and service SMG, throwing me perpetually deeper into the E46 M3 black hole, not even 1 month into ownership, or do I take the plunge and 6-speed swap the car? At this point the Pandemic was in that crazy stage where people were getting stabbed for toilet paper, I was just furloughed, my Wife and I had just purchased our first Home in December, prior to the pandemic, and the car was already needing a few thousand dollars worth of "love" in order to keep going. Life man, it has a way of really laying it on thick!

**Thrifty S50** · 01-14-2021, 10:17 PM

Well it didnt take much thought, but I ended up deciding to tear into it and 6-speed swap the car. I had initial intentions to swap it either way, but I was hoping to get more than a few weeks out of the SMG set up. Ive done numerous manual swaps on most of the surrounding models (E30, E36, E39) so I had a pretty good idea of what needed to go down. THIS swap, I can now tell you, is the easiest of them all! The SMG shares the clutch, flywheel, diff and driveshaft, with the Manual M3 car, items of which NEED to be replaced when doing it on any of those other chassis.

Started with ripping the SMG Pump out

Then I removed the Trans and the rest of the SMG system

Trans had seen better days, so im glad it was out. Dropped it off here at "Lang Racing" here in So~Cal to be "converted" to manual. I tinkered with the idea of buying a manual trans but since my car was still relatively low mileage I figured it was best to refresh, and re-use it. Also, Lang Racing really knows there stuff for this Job, I was glad to have them machine it with their amount of experience, and it came out perfect. Ive driven some swap cars that have some funny spots between the gears...

I also picked up some Manual E46 Pedals; All Manual E46 variants (325i, 330i, M3) share the same Clutch pedal, "skinny" brake pedal, and pedal bracket set up, so I scored this for cheap off a wrecker 325i .

Scored a 6 - speed shifter assembly from " M Parts Worldwide" on IG. A little later down the road I refreshed it with all new bushings, as well as a new 6-speed weighted ZHP knob,

Also, I took a picture of the SMG fluid I drained from the reservoir. It was Nasty!

**Thrifty S50** · 01-17-2021, 03:01 PM

After Dropping the trans off, I had some time to get to some other maintenance as I was waiting on some parts that I needed prior to doing the clutch (rear mains seal bolts). Car needed a new idle tensioner / pulley, and after some investigation it was pretty clear why!

Ended up replacing the remaining pulleys and belts, but had the pleasure of having a bolt snap from the tensioner, breaking right into the face of the block...

Luckily my local stealer had one in stock, and I was able to get some vice grips on the protruding threads, and get the bolt out.

I also grabbed a pretty clean dash cubby from a wrecker, why is that these things are always so damn beat up? lol Every E46 it looks like a Cat just went wild scratching on the trim

Next I needed to get ready for installing the shifter arm, so I drilled out the space in the trans tunnel, and prepped for installing the shift carrier arm bracket.

I know that with the above process, you can grind out the tack welds for the plate , and then grind out the cosmoline along the perimeter of the plate so you can go topside and knock it out, But in my previous experience with reinforcing rear subframes, grinding the metal clean of cosmoline so you can get a good weld on the sheet metal is a total pain, and for this job more work than needed. With the proper sized hole saw, you get a perfectly cut hole, no grinding required, and done in 30 seconds. Same train of thought on the shift carrier bushing bracket. I just mocked it up and bolted it in the trans tunnel (only after trans was installed, so placement was correct). Washers to help distribute the load and grade 10 bolts, shes not going anywhere!

Was able to get a quick mock up picture at least, for this point in time, and I love when this part comes around, the cars potential starts to really show!

A few days later I had a custom clutch line made, I always run a full stainless line, from the master to the slave, when im doing swaps. It always makes it a ton easier when you need to route the line through the fire wall to connect it to the slave.

Around this time the transmission was finished being machined and converted to Manual "spec", so I picked it up and prepped for replacing the clutch and all that. I also sold the BBS CH's, so the car was wheel-less. I did order some replacement wheels that I was hoping to have as soon as the car came off of jacks

**MauiM3Mania** · 01-18-2021, 03:01 AM

Nice progress!

**Thrifty S50** · 01-21-2021, 03:17 PM

Originally Posted by MauiM3Mania

Nice progress!

Thanks Maui! The car has definitely been keeping me busy, my aim is to essentially bullet-proof this car as soon as possible!

Once I got the transmission back I went ahead and replaced the rear main seal & pinion bearing, which looked a bit rough

& and the clutch and Pressure plate

The Flywheel looked good, so I just cleaned and re-mounted it with new flywheel bolts. This let me get the trans mounted , and then I was able to mount the pedals and slave cylinder, and route my clutch pedal hoses

following the KISS method, I took what I needed from the E46 325i pedal bracket, clutch pedal, springs, etc.., and just mounted them to my existing bracket, and voilà, we *almost* have a 6-speed car!

**Thrifty S50** · 01-23-2021, 05:16 PM

After getting the pedals mounted, and the shifter assembly installed, It was time to put the car back together, so I stitched her up and dropped her off
at Lang Racing. They were the ones I brought my trans to, to be machined, and they ended up helping me do the wiring, and coding, needed to finish the Job. Im not 100% familiar with the coding aspects of the conversions, I can do the mechanical portion all day, but I prefer to have someone who knows exactly what needs to be done, at the OEM "factory" level, in terms of fit and finish , to do things like coding / wiring. In the end its worth it for me, my back up sensors still work, and car drives just like it should have it were a true manual, and thats what I wanted.

Also the wheels made it in right on time before the car needed programming. I went with the ez route and am running Apex Arc-8's again. (lol, so overplayed, but so good). This time around Im running 18x10's at all four corners. Even on stock suspension they suit the car very well

The stance is pretty much right where I want it to be, in terms of offset and poke, once I get coilovers on the car it should fit very nicely.

After the 6-speed, it felt like an entirely new car. Like day and night difference. I quickly put about 3-4 thousand miles on the car, taking any excuse I could really just to drive the thing. Such a composed car when you want to just cruise around, but is always read to play

At this point in time I was just cruising the car, putting as many miles as I could on her, and was just prepping for future projects, and had been toying with the idea of interior swapping it. I put a feeler post out there for my Dove seats, with the intentions of swapping to Imola, and someone messaged me like a day later that was needing Dove Front seats, and happened to have a lead on some Imola fronts. It all worked out very nicely and was able to grab the Imola fronts for basically no out of pocket cost, but the guy I bought the Imolas from wouldnt sell me his rears / door panels, so I rocked just the fronts for awhile

I was really digging how it was going to look, being Steel Gray on Imola / Black

**Thrifty S50** · 01-26-2021, 03:54 PM

After getting the Imola fronts, I was on the hunt for rears / door panels, but couldnt really find anything local, and shipping was killing me on anything east coast. After maybe a month or two of just rocking the fronts, I had the opportunity to pick up a set of " taninröt ", rears and door panels, which is essentially the red used in non-M E46's, for a good deal. I compared the two and while the taninröt is a shade or two darker, and isnt technically Nappa leather (I think its montana leather? ), it is closes enough for now. It bugs me that the rear seat is sown with a different pattern, but the rear seat foam shape appears the same, so If I cant find a clean rear seat, I may just order new Imola Skins and re-upholster them . I was able to score imola rear bolsters, so that was a plus, But all together I think it looks miles better than the Dove

I did have to some swapping around on the door panel bits, The taninröt set came with wood accents, which were all cracked. I swapped over my brushed aluminum and it came out looking great.

I had noticed the guy that I purchased the Imola Front seats from, whos interior was original, also had a brushed-aluminum / black / red color scheme on his door panels, so i figured it wouldn't be too far from OEM by swapping my stuff over

Before

After

It looks good, but the car will look way better once I get a black dash, carpet, and center console in.

I also took my car into the dealer as I had the re-call for the airbags still open, both the passenger dash and steering wheel airbag needed to be replaced.

If you remember back on my first post, one of the things that didnt work was that when you pressed button on the Key it wouldn't remotely unlock / lock the doors if. I asked the service writer how much it would be for a new Key, and he asked me " You sure you dont just need to re -initialize it? " He asked for my Key, and did the re-initialization right there on the spot and had it working in like 10 seconds.... *facepalm* Im super glad though because it saved me like $200. Unfortunately PO had tore into the secondary car key, thinking the battery died, and tried to replace it himself, and essentially ruined it. Thinking now, it may have also just needed to be synced back up to he car...

**Thrifty S50** · 01-30-2021, 05:53 PM

One thing that had always bugged me about the original interior, was that it was spec'd with no cup holders. For me, I need them, so I picked up a cup holder, center console, and coin try all in Black, to continue the interior conversion. I also picked up an arm rest in Nappa black w/ red stitching from someone on Facebook who ended up running the euro center console.

Since the car was running pretty well now, I had been itching to take it back out to the canyons. I had a friend visiting from the east cost and we typically run the canyons whenever he visits, so it seemed like a good time to take the M3 back out. I called when he was here and asked what car he was driving (last time it was an E93 M3), and this guy says "Oh we rented a convertible Beetle" ... I was pretty bummed since we wouldn't be able to really exploit the roads down here, but low and behold

Those new 911 Turbo's are just insane. As a factory car, its on a completely different level then the M3, its absurd. The launch in that thing is brutal, and there's virtually no loss of power between gears. Absolutely wicked! I had fun in the M3, although I did notice temps creeping up after a bit. Cooling system refresh was already on the list, but I may need to put more thought in terms of upgrades, than I initially thought.

I also was becoming really impressed by the Steel Grey paint, Ill be honest it wasnt my first choice when I was in the market, but its very unique and in the right light its got a very nice metallic flake to it (Looks like some red and blue and gold, reminiscent of E36 Cosmos Black), and even takes on a number of different color characteristics, from "flat" style gray to silver to even blue-ish.

I also had ordered a CSL box for the car, pretty much a month after I picked the car up. After a number of months waiting, it finally came in! Although for now it is just something pretty to look at, as I had purchased it with the intent of installing it, only AFTER I had replaced the Rod Bearings.

**Thrifty S50** · 02-05-2021, 10:35 AM

So with this post, we are finally up-to-date! And to be honest this was the most anticipated job I had put together for the ol' M3.

< R O D B E A R I N G S >

Through a little research, I was able to find out that my rod bearings were changed under re-call back in 2004, when the car had 23k. With my current mileage being right around 128k , these bearings had right around a 100k on them, and I couldnt help but hear a little whisper in my ear every time I drove the car. "rooooood beeaaariiings". From what ive read the rod-bearings are a service item with a ~70k mile replacement interval. I was getting paranoid to say the least. I ended up picking up some ACL rod bearings, and ARP Hardware, and took the plunge on changing them out the other weekend.

I was planning on doing it here in my garage, but my friend had a Bay open at his shop, so i was fortunate enough to do this on a lift. These freakin ARP bolts cost more than the bearings, but Its nice to know that I have brand new hardware, BMW's re-call states that for the pre 2003 "production" cars, you are supposed to re-use your bolts, but something about that didnt sit right with me.

If you're interested in reviewing the official BMW re-call bulletin, with complete repair instructions, you can refer to them here:

http://www.siwilson.com/BMW/Service_...20Bulletin.pdf

Ive done a few oil pan gaskets on the 6 cylinders before, so i figured this was "same same", with a few extra steps, and it turned out that it really wasnt that bad. I was also glad to get this done, as I had a substantial leak from the pan gasket either way.

The procedure went very well, and was rather uneventful, that is, until I pulled the bearings... Check out cylinder 2 (top), completely worn through the bearing material, exposing the copper layer.

Its really hard to gauge exactly how long I could have keep driving with these before I spun a bearing, 10k miles, maybe a year or 2, but with the higher wear on Zyl 2, IM just glad I got it done.

They arent exactly the worst Ive seen, but they arent exactly great either. Id say about standard wear for 100k, from what ive seen. The rest of the cylinders Top-bearing had more even wear, but 5 out of 6 were worn enough to where I was starting to see copper.

Here is a pic of the crankshaft all bolted up with the ARP hardware.

Anyways, popped the new bearings in there, and buttoned the car up, and man I cant tell you how much I was shitting it, for the first start up. But, she started up just fine. Im only about 120 miles into the 1200 mile break in, so I have a bit more cruising to do before I can really drive the car. Also, while the car was in the air, I was inspecting the subframe, and I was able to locate 1 fairly sizable crack on the Passenger side, front mounting point. Sighhh. Guess I know what im doing next!

Use this as a reminder! Change your freaking rod bearings and check your subframe! Your car is not special, and did not escape these defects!

Anyways, here is a picture of an Isetta that I took at the local dealership. I needed the O-ring for the oil pump pick-up-tube, something I recommend changing when your doing the rod-bearings. Ive go to say, next to the 507, the Isetta is one of my favorite classic BMW's.

**Thrifty S50** · 02-24-2021, 11:42 AM

So here we are a couple weeks after the Rod bearing replacement, been trying to cruise the car as much as possible, but am only about 300 miles into the break in period. I had a random misfire develop before I changed the rod bearings, that was intermittent at first, but showed up for good just a few days later.

Turns out Injector 1 was kaput, so I swapped that out and threw some new spark plugs in; Was defiantly time for plugs.

Then, as another intermittent problem turned permanent, my starter gave out on me. To be completely honest, it has been off and on since I finished my 6 speed swap, but was getting increasingly worse over the last few weeks. Was starting to have to park on an incline, so I could bump-start the car if need be. Anyway, replaced the starter, which so far has been teh easiest starter replacement ive done on any BMW Chassis, for the sole fact that you can completely change the starter from the top of the car, if you pull the manifold.

Have to thank FCP and their lifetime warranty, because now ill never have to pay for a starter again! Took the car out to the canyons for some mild cruising, its the best way to down the miles than aimlessly driving around Los Angeles. Car drove great, and didnt have to bump start once.

In an effort to knock out the remaining 900 miles of break in, Im going to take the car out for a drive to San Francisco this weekend. There and back, to here in LA should put me right around 1,000 miles once I get back home. Scheduling an oil change for when I return, and then I look forward to being able to properly drive the car again! Break in periods are torture!

**916z06** · 02-25-2021, 01:37 PM

Gorgeous car, the steel grey is one of my favorite colors. Doing the rod bearings, how difficult was it and what issues did you run into?

I also converted my car from an SMG to full manual and enjoy it very much.

**Thrifty S50** · 04-02-2021, 11:57 AM

Originally Posted by 916z06

Gorgeous car, the steel grey is one of my favorite colors. Doing the rod bearings, how difficult was it and what issues did you run into?

I also converted my car from an SMG to full manual and enjoy it very much.

Thank you, Steel Grey is one of the best! Also, it was actually very straight forward. The most "difficult" thing is the torque sequence on the rod-bolts. And that's more tedious than it is difficult. I had no surprises when doing it on my end. Only issue was that I was missing the pick-up-tube o-ring, which put the job out another day as I had to find one locally. Let me know if you had any further questions down the line on that.

So I haven't done much to the car, but i did want to check in since Ive completed the Break in period after replacing the Rod bearings. Driving the car to SF and back was a great choice, Car performed great and Im sure there is tons I can say, but enjoy a few pictures from the drive.

A friend and I made a trip out of it, of which he brought his E34 M5. Car has basically been fullly restored, with only 100k original miles.

**Thrifty S50** · 04-14-2021, 12:18 PM

Im bored here at work this morning, so i'd thought Id show off some pics I took of the CSL intake. To m surprise it has a full carbon construction, including the trumpets

& here is a picture I took of my last canyon run. This maybe 2 weeks ago when we still had some snow on the local mountains

**TowJamma** · 04-20-2021, 08:12 PM

Great canyon run pic!
Good looking air box, too.

**Thrifty S50** · 05-28-2021, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by TowJamma

Great canyon run pic!
Good looking air box, too.

Thanks Towjamma!

& Finally the time has come! I had the CSL airbox installed a few weeks ago, and have been taking the time to put it through its paces. and WOW, was it worth it! The CSL dipstick had to be special ordered from germany, and took FOREVER to come in. its about 1/3rd the size of the US dipstick + tube.

And for some porn

I dont have much to say about the install, I did the MAP conversion and am running the stock Euro MSS54HP software for management, and the car dyno'd at 283whp on a Mustang Dyno, roughly converted to 315whp on dyno jet (12% conversion). Unfortunately we couldnt tune for power as I guess the shop couldnt get a clean AFR reading, so that is where we will stay for now. Remember this is a BONE STOCK car, minus the intake. Stock exhaust, stock headers with Cats, etc.. I think that is a very healthy number, considering the shop said most US E46 M3's without mods put down 260 on the same dyno. We also raised the rev-limit to 8200 and it just SCREAMS to the top. All in all I am at about 3100$ for everything (CSL Box, Installation, Dyno Time, etc.)

I figured you all would want to HEAR this thing in action, so I took it up to the canyons for the first time since installing the airbox and recorded about 12 min of Raw driving footage. You can check it out here:
(driving starts at about 2:00)