E46 M3 tidy up.

[shane@mbtech]

As you guys know, I bought the M3 from Martin.

Whilst it was in ok condition, it was not up to my Standards.

Quick once over revealed a few things I needed to replace.

Slight play in track rod ends and tie rods
Play in all 4 rear control arm hub bushes
Osr caliper sticking
Rear discs required
Rear brake lines heavily corroded
Diff was heavily worn and clunking.
Thread was stripped on osr trailing arm where the shock bolts to
Power steering hose leaking
And a few other little tidy up bits.

I was getting Simpsons to make a rear strut cage section tying into boot floor and plating boot floor, but the fact the brake lines and bushes needed doing meant I decided to tackle these issues first.

The boot floor was crack free upon initial inspection.

I dropped the rear subframe, exhaust, petrol tank, and all suspension. I could then get a better look at the boot floor, to my surprise not one crack starting, not bad for a 51 plate with 60k.

So after dismantling the rear end completely I compiled a small list of things that I would replace/fix.

Spherical rtab solid bushes
Solid subframe bushes
High grade polybushes for diff mounting
Oem BMW hub bushes x 4
Various new bolts and nuts
Rear adjustable camber arms
New caliper
New oem rear discs
Pagid Rs 29 rear pads
Hel rear braided hoses
Rear brake lines
Boot floor reinforcing kit
4.10 diff rebuild

KW roll bars front and rear
Alcon front brake kit
Super pro castor front wishbone bushes
Track rod ends and tie rods
Power steering pipe
Carbon airbox
Full service, all oils etc.
Our own designed exhaust system
Rear spoiler from Martin
Front splitter, a combination of carbon lip and APR flat splitter.


Before all of this, when the car was mobile and on the road, I set about designing an exhaust, I carried out lots of research, and came up with a design.

The brief.....

Quiet enough to get on all tracks
No cats
Single exit for weight saving
As unrestrictive as possible for power gain
Sound nice.

Our fabricators work is fantastic so we set about the task. A couple of days work later and we had a prototype. I tested this for a few hundred miles and I was very impressed with the results.

It sounds great, doesn't drone at cruising speeds, butt dyno felt good, it was light too- bonus. 18kg in total for the manifold back system. Stock system is 40kg.

94db @ 5000rpm
98db @ 6000rpm


A few little tweaks were needed and our fab guy set about jigging it up.
Fast forward 2 weeks and we fitted our exhaust to wills car (business partner), together with a Geoff Steele carbon airbox. We then handed the car over to Wayne @ chip wizards to work his magic. He told us with the spec we have that most cars do approx 360bhp after map. So we were extremely pleased and surprised that the car made a very healthy 385bhp. Exhaust works a treat.
I then drove Wills car and it drives superb, and pulls eagerly, certainly the best mapped s54 I've driven. Big thanks to Wayne for the superb Map, it's ultra smooth and so responsive on the road.



To be continued with pics(it's late ) .........