So this is a story 5 months in after it began…
Cue November 2015 and the itch to change cars began… my ex E92 335i had become a weekend car after buying my Pajero and wasn’t doing more than 500km a month, the need for more speed was driving me nuts and a close friend of mine just got his paws on a silver E92 335i DCT… first drive in it and I went bonkers! I mean mental bonkers.. it was all I could think about, just like a boy who copped his first feel! That’s the best way to describe how bad it was! So the first thing I did was advertise my previous car on the forum and other classified sites but I wasn’t getting anywhere fast with so decided to hold out and wait for the right buyer. The car was fully paid so it wasn't a huge expense to hold onto it. All the aftermarket mods that were on this car started coming of and in the space of a weekend she was back to OEM (just like they like it on BMWTALK).
Now the hunt for the replacement started and there was only one person’s car on my mind, He is a member here and he knows who he is.. We went back and forth with discussions and eventually we couldn't agree on final price, in hindsight its not a bad thing because that car is irreplaceable for the market price/value/offer… Despondent and heart sore I continued the hunt and found another one just waiting for me, it had the all the right buttons and all the right curves, On the 9th of December payment was made for the new car and I collected it on the 10th only to park it overnight at work. (I could only take it home the next day for prayers)
Now I seemed to have struck a problem, PARKING! Both cars went under the carport and my daily drive Pajero went outside to the cold… However it was nice driving in at night and seeing 2 N54 coupes in your driveway just waiting to be touched in all the wrong ways a car lover would.
The week after began the slow process of remedying the immediate issues and getting quality control up to spec. The first task at hand was a cracked drivers side fog light, Little did I know that the E92 with M sport takes a unique fog light as the part number search turned up. Phoning around SA and the forum turned one up with Ultimate German Spares who after a dozen photos to satisfy my concern if it was right then sent it down to me. It is at this point I will tell you that changing a front fog light without removing the bumper or bottom tray is a seriously kak job! With a bit of persistence and swearing it was finally done. Next up was a set of Philips diamond vision fog light globes to change the colour of the light from that miserable yellow to a cleaner white. (not a fan of HID) The next job was the LED angel eyes and the number plate lights which weren’t that difficult to finish.
The ffg weekend I started with the basic mechanical service items like spark plugs/oil/filters/brake pads and sensors. With that being done I pulled the 19Inch CV3 rims out of the garage and took the style 225 rims off the car (no they not for sale). Things were starting to take shape slowly in the looks department and that Hella-flush fit with the concave went well on the car. A job well done and onto the next weekend.
Now the itch to find more power from the legendry N54 was starting to grow and I needed to the get the DPS off the old car anyway. I booked some time with Andre from ACE exhausts in Umbilo road to take care of the deed, with the help of the KZN guys we got both the cars to the shop and swopped the entire dps and complete exhaust systems between cars. The older car had catless DPS, mid cat delete with resonators in place of the cats and the 100mm exhaust tips on this system. It was otherwise standard piping for the rest of the system but it had a vicious roar to it and did not drone when cruising. The new car had a complete stock system from turbo to tips. I wanted the older car to go back to a full stock spec for the new owner whoever he would be. Later that afternoon with the job done The Reaper had a new growl to him.
A work in progress...
Sadly I didn't get pics of the finished product...but the welds have all been cleaned up with a pencil grinder...
Pics of said tips in the diffuser...
That weekend all the bolt on/plug in toys went onto Reaper… it’s not a long list and can be found in my signature for reference. Thanks to the guys who came over to help me with the installs, we soon had him rolling with some new weapons and blowing flames on shift to unsuspecting wannabe’s…
It is at this point the whole vision from November 2015 started to come together, the car was fast… scarily fast… but that just might have been the poor front tyres! Lol! It was amazing to see how just by changing the transmission type from Steptronic to DCT there would be so much character change in essentially the same car. Fun was to be had!
One of the negatives of running a fully catless set up is that any weakness in your turbo seals/PCV system will show itself in a humiliating way, when I negotiated with the ex-owner I knew the turbos were rattling quite badly and I managed to work that into my final offer, however having a full catted and stock exhaust system it also blocked out all the smoke that the turbos were spewing out. A couple days later while driving during the day in traffic I found myself engulfed in a cloud of blue acrid oily smoke. Once i started to notice it, the smoking got progressively worse. Something had to be done about this embarrassment, the first suspect is the stock PCV valve and the flapper system, when those were changed out with new ones and it didn’t do much to alleviate the situation then the blame lies with either the valve cover gasket or the turbos. With the rattle also prevalent the sensible thing would be to tackle those turbos first then move on via process of elimination. More on this topic later in this thread.
So ever since I joined the x35 fanatics group as a owner I have been strongly supported by Rennzport through Charles and Zaahier, they have helped me with advise and supported my motoring needs. Charles in his pioneering days had a thread ages ago on the forum about using the slower brother E92 M3 as a donor for suspension parts, anyways it seemed a bit unfair they got all the nice stuff… so a quick refresh read to that thread and I knew my first big mod to get would be a set of M3 from control arms and tension rods. After a quick discussion with Zaahier he arranged me a set of OEM arms and rods from a supplier in the USA. This came complete with the different headlight adjusting arm to finish the kit off. Install was put onto the back burner till I could get other items I need. Presently saving up for M3 front and rear shock mounts. I was also lucky enough to find a set of HnR springs to do at the same time and a new set of Lemforder tie rod ends and drop links. Install pics to follow...
The last and latest change was the front tyres, I had fitted a pair of Toyo T1Sport on the front wheels on my ex car, those rims and tyres came onto this car but the tyres were worse for wear. Fearing they were edging close to legal depth I changed them out for a pair of Goodyear eagle F1 Asymmetric 3, I had previously used the AS2 on the ex car rears and have the utmost faith in them. I am so happy with the results and feel of these tyres that it feel like your gliding on air. The old tyres were not wearing out well and they had become difficult to balance as well, the Goodyear's were fully balanced on under 20g per wheel in total for both inner and outer.
At this point this thread is pretty up to current with were I am on the car. There is so much planned but of course our eyes are bigger than our pockets so god willing it will all come in his grace.
Some random pics taken over the last couple months... Credit to the respective photgraphers..
After an early breakfast run.. bugs galore!
I welcome constructive criticism and ideas to add to the build...
Cue November 2015 and the itch to change cars began… my ex E92 335i had become a weekend car after buying my Pajero and wasn’t doing more than 500km a month, the need for more speed was driving me nuts and a close friend of mine just got his paws on a silver E92 335i DCT… first drive in it and I went bonkers! I mean mental bonkers.. it was all I could think about, just like a boy who copped his first feel! That’s the best way to describe how bad it was! So the first thing I did was advertise my previous car on the forum and other classified sites but I wasn’t getting anywhere fast with so decided to hold out and wait for the right buyer. The car was fully paid so it wasn't a huge expense to hold onto it. All the aftermarket mods that were on this car started coming of and in the space of a weekend she was back to OEM (just like they like it on BMWTALK).
Now the hunt for the replacement started and there was only one person’s car on my mind, He is a member here and he knows who he is.. We went back and forth with discussions and eventually we couldn't agree on final price, in hindsight its not a bad thing because that car is irreplaceable for the market price/value/offer… Despondent and heart sore I continued the hunt and found another one just waiting for me, it had the all the right buttons and all the right curves, On the 9th of December payment was made for the new car and I collected it on the 10th only to park it overnight at work. (I could only take it home the next day for prayers)
Now I seemed to have struck a problem, PARKING! Both cars went under the carport and my daily drive Pajero went outside to the cold… However it was nice driving in at night and seeing 2 N54 coupes in your driveway just waiting to be touched in all the wrong ways a car lover would.
The week after began the slow process of remedying the immediate issues and getting quality control up to spec. The first task at hand was a cracked drivers side fog light, Little did I know that the E92 with M sport takes a unique fog light as the part number search turned up. Phoning around SA and the forum turned one up with Ultimate German Spares who after a dozen photos to satisfy my concern if it was right then sent it down to me. It is at this point I will tell you that changing a front fog light without removing the bumper or bottom tray is a seriously kak job! With a bit of persistence and swearing it was finally done. Next up was a set of Philips diamond vision fog light globes to change the colour of the light from that miserable yellow to a cleaner white. (not a fan of HID) The next job was the LED angel eyes and the number plate lights which weren’t that difficult to finish.
The ffg weekend I started with the basic mechanical service items like spark plugs/oil/filters/brake pads and sensors. With that being done I pulled the 19Inch CV3 rims out of the garage and took the style 225 rims off the car (no they not for sale). Things were starting to take shape slowly in the looks department and that Hella-flush fit with the concave went well on the car. A job well done and onto the next weekend.
Now the itch to find more power from the legendry N54 was starting to grow and I needed to the get the DPS off the old car anyway. I booked some time with Andre from ACE exhausts in Umbilo road to take care of the deed, with the help of the KZN guys we got both the cars to the shop and swopped the entire dps and complete exhaust systems between cars. The older car had catless DPS, mid cat delete with resonators in place of the cats and the 100mm exhaust tips on this system. It was otherwise standard piping for the rest of the system but it had a vicious roar to it and did not drone when cruising. The new car had a complete stock system from turbo to tips. I wanted the older car to go back to a full stock spec for the new owner whoever he would be. Later that afternoon with the job done The Reaper had a new growl to him.
A work in progress...
Sadly I didn't get pics of the finished product...but the welds have all been cleaned up with a pencil grinder...
Pics of said tips in the diffuser...
That weekend all the bolt on/plug in toys went onto Reaper… it’s not a long list and can be found in my signature for reference. Thanks to the guys who came over to help me with the installs, we soon had him rolling with some new weapons and blowing flames on shift to unsuspecting wannabe’s…
It is at this point the whole vision from November 2015 started to come together, the car was fast… scarily fast… but that just might have been the poor front tyres! Lol! It was amazing to see how just by changing the transmission type from Steptronic to DCT there would be so much character change in essentially the same car. Fun was to be had!
One of the negatives of running a fully catless set up is that any weakness in your turbo seals/PCV system will show itself in a humiliating way, when I negotiated with the ex-owner I knew the turbos were rattling quite badly and I managed to work that into my final offer, however having a full catted and stock exhaust system it also blocked out all the smoke that the turbos were spewing out. A couple days later while driving during the day in traffic I found myself engulfed in a cloud of blue acrid oily smoke. Once i started to notice it, the smoking got progressively worse. Something had to be done about this embarrassment, the first suspect is the stock PCV valve and the flapper system, when those were changed out with new ones and it didn’t do much to alleviate the situation then the blame lies with either the valve cover gasket or the turbos. With the rattle also prevalent the sensible thing would be to tackle those turbos first then move on via process of elimination. More on this topic later in this thread.
So ever since I joined the x35 fanatics group as a owner I have been strongly supported by Rennzport through Charles and Zaahier, they have helped me with advise and supported my motoring needs. Charles in his pioneering days had a thread ages ago on the forum about using the slower brother E92 M3 as a donor for suspension parts, anyways it seemed a bit unfair they got all the nice stuff… so a quick refresh read to that thread and I knew my first big mod to get would be a set of M3 from control arms and tension rods. After a quick discussion with Zaahier he arranged me a set of OEM arms and rods from a supplier in the USA. This came complete with the different headlight adjusting arm to finish the kit off. Install was put onto the back burner till I could get other items I need. Presently saving up for M3 front and rear shock mounts. I was also lucky enough to find a set of HnR springs to do at the same time and a new set of Lemforder tie rod ends and drop links. Install pics to follow...
The last and latest change was the front tyres, I had fitted a pair of Toyo T1Sport on the front wheels on my ex car, those rims and tyres came onto this car but the tyres were worse for wear. Fearing they were edging close to legal depth I changed them out for a pair of Goodyear eagle F1 Asymmetric 3, I had previously used the AS2 on the ex car rears and have the utmost faith in them. I am so happy with the results and feel of these tyres that it feel like your gliding on air. The old tyres were not wearing out well and they had become difficult to balance as well, the Goodyear's were fully balanced on under 20g per wheel in total for both inner and outer.
At this point this thread is pretty up to current with were I am on the car. There is so much planned but of course our eyes are bigger than our pockets so god willing it will all come in his grace.
Some random pics taken over the last couple months... Credit to the respective photgraphers..
After an early breakfast run.. bugs galore!
I welcome constructive criticism and ideas to add to the build...
raise::clapper:
I want one.
