Gizmo's E46 Touring Build

[Gizmo]

In preparation for my +1000km round trip coming up in a few days I did the service early. Along with the service items I am replacing the tappet cover gasket as I noticed recently the faint smell of oil burning, knowing I don't own a diesel I checked the gasket to find a leak which is dropping oil onto the hot exhaust. I bought 2 gasket sets as my wife's 330i is also leaking oil.

Service items.

Leaking grommets


Tappet cover off, got a nice gold colour from her 115 000km so far.



Ready to clean, start off with prepsol and end with karcher.




Intake cam cover too.


All clean and dry, about ready for refit.



Gasket surface clean.


Now for the gasket.



Drei bond, less is more.






Back in place.



More pics tomorrow.

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[BeamerMan]

Woah woah wait...

This is too cool. But are you fitting an m3 motor into the touring?

I read the whole thread but mightve missed something. Wow

 

[Gizmo]

Woah woah wait...

This is too cool. But are you fitting an m3 motor into the touring?

I read the whole thread but mightve missed something. Wow

Fixed, will put that in my garage build thread. I cannot afford a S54 swap, have to settle for M54B30 instead.

 

[Gizmo]

So I finished up on the service, car is running great and a little better on fuel as I changed out the fuel filter too. The old one was the original, 10yrs old and 115 000km, lol.


Date stamp.


OEM replacement.

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Thats all for now.:thumbs:

 

[ver328i]

Great work Gizmo...I need to do a service as well and never thought of changing out the fuel filter up until now...:fencelook:

 

[moranor@axis]

i have a new fuel filter sitting on a shelf for over a year :fencelook: guess I should get under there and get a face full of fuel

 

[Gizmo]

So, 1500km in 5 days, air con on most of the time, spent a whole day in the kruger park driving 50km/h or under and a boot full of luggage. She returned 8.9lt per 100 km so the 3.64 diff ratio isn't as bad on fuel as I would have thought.:thumbs:

 

[moranor@axis]

if anything the 3.38 ratio improved fuel consumption on my car but I also did the 6 speed at the same time...

 

[Gizmo]

Yeah 6spd is a given for anything over 3.15:1

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A few quick pics from inside the Kruger park on one of the lookout points.

 

[moranor@axis]

nice

 

[Bmw.wp]

Nice...

 

[LuranchtE90]

:bravo:

 

[Gizmo]

Very busy day as I also found the last 2 parts to complete the 3 piece M3 strut brace today so, AC Schnitzer knock-off 5-piece strut brace out, OEM M3 3-piece strut brace in! Looks so much more at home in the engine bay compared to the ACS one. Nothing compares to OEM quality!:blowheart:





I only have 3 nut caps.



The special nuts used for M3 strut braces.

 

[Fordkoppie]

Looks much better IMO

 

[Gizmo]

I also picked up a E46 M3 SMG steering rack yesterday but have been getting conflicting info about the ratio vs non M racks. This is to go into my touring if the ratio is quicker. Any thoughts from the E46 M3 owners? Is it a quicker ratio?

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Hmm, the std rack in my touring is around 2.8turns lock to lock, the M3 rack I picked up is more like 3.2turns lock to lock...:blueCry:

 

[Fordkoppie]

"Like all E46 3 Series, the E46 M3 utilizes a rack-and-pinion steering design with engine-speed-sensitive variable power assist. However, the system has been modified with special knuckles and a slower overall ratio of 15.4:1 (versus 13.7:1 in the standard E46 3 Series). A slightly quicker 14.5:1 steering rack is used in the M3 CSL and M3 ZCP/CS models."

From the M Registry

http://www.bmwmregistry.com/model_faq.php?id=19

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Quite weird that its slower than the other models.

 

[Gizmo]

Took the steering rack back, so much for an upgrade when the std 325i one is better than the M3 one...

 

[Andy1GP]

Great work Warren! raise: Very nice pic loaded write ups and results. How much did the gasket set cost you if you don't mind me asking?

To add the Z4M also shares the 14.5 csl rack.

 

[Gizmo]

M54 tappet cover gasket set is just over R500 at the agents. Thanx Andy, so z4m is also slower than my 325i one.

 

[Gizmo]

I just want to give a shout out to Alberante BMW for not taking responsibility in the R19k in damages to my vehicle which happened on your premises, clearly you don't know how to treat your best customers even though they spend R30k-R50k a month in your parts department...
Your excuse of it wasn't your workers who damaged my car is not good enough, making me chase after your "sub contracted workers" is simply not good enough either. Now I have to foot the bill and pay the excess, well done Alberante, WELL FUCKING DONE!!!!