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Kalim's Garage Adventures

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130K views 731 replies 71 participants last post by  Bandit4077 
#1 ·
Well, this thread has been a long time coming. Thanks to some encouragement from one of General's most prolific posters (dmax), I've finally gotten around to documenting some of what goes on in my very happening garage.

There's a long story behind how I arrived at this point, but briefly, I've wanted a garage of my own for a very long time and living in apartment complexes since I graduated from college made that pretty tough. I found "workarounds," e.g., detailing my E46 into the wee hours of the morning in the underground garage, using extension cords dropped down 5 flights of stairs and a garden hose attached to an overlooked hookup (score!), or swapping my E30's engine in a carport with a floor jack, hoist, some jackstands, and a set of hand tools, but I was never really able to take on big projects. Recently, I moved to a house with a detached 2-car garage and I have found bliss! Most weekends (and many weeknights after work, too!) are spent in the garage with any number of the local fanatics working on installs and repairs. So I decided to create this thread to document the DIY maintenance and modding that goes on around here.

Just to name a few things that I've worked on in recent months:
-E46 330i GC coilover installation
-E30 325i front wheel bearings (once for a friend, once for my own car)
-E46 M3 CSL style front bumper installation
-E46 M3 CSL style trunk installation
-E46 323ci M3 steering wheel installation (a few times)
-E46 330ci shark injector
-E30 325i fuel injector o-ring replacement
-E30 325i fuel filter replacement
-E46 330ci Powerflex FCABs

And today, finished up PSS10s on a friend's E90:

This installation was a lot more complicated than previous generations, but we came up with a few tricks that made things go faster the second time around. OEM springs are huge.


Had to keep it a little conservative because they rub like crazy front and rear, but we got a decent drop out of them.




Business card flush, haha. :str8pimpi


Hoping to have some nice pics of the new stance after a good detail.


Anyway, I'll try to update this thread often. In the meantime, feel free to ask questions about any of the above! I don't bite (usually). >:]
 
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#584 ·
Oh, and I had another mushy brake experience today, just like with kyle's 330 brake upgrade. I'm pretty sure the issue only affects the driver if the driver is the one pressing the brake pedal during the bleeding process. It was like a deja vu today when I finished putting in new pads on the carrera. Then I went to go bed the brakes in again, and everything felt like what I remembered, but just sitting at idle, I could have sworn there was air in the system. :rofl:
 
#585 · (Edited)
Also, Porsche 996 Brembos are ridiculously quick and easy to service. Wayyyyyyy better design than E46 calipers, and like half the weight too. Sure, the caliper is like 4 times the cost, but everything else is about equal in price to an M3 or 330.

-All 4 corners have wear sensors, and each wear sensor clips into both pads, so it's way less likely to damage anything from an overly worn pad. Bad thing though is that you have to but like $40 of sensors instead of $20.
-All pad wear sensors are the same part, so one spare works for all four corners.
-The wear sensor connector is right on the spindle with a little metal spring clip, so no stupid little box to open up or billions of wire ties.
-No squeal paste needed with the special vibration damping pads and shims.
-If you have your car setup for light or serious track use, you can easily bypass and eliminate the pad wear sensor, much easier than the E46, and if you don't use the vibration damping shims, you can literally swap out pads in less than 5 minutes with only a flathead screwdriver.

Truly an awesome brake system to deal with. Then went to bed in the pads... awesome modulation. I seriously need to make an E46 mod to make the brake pedal stiffer like a carrera.
 
#586 ·
Interesting. It's not like E46 brakes are that tough to deal with either. Get me a set of 996 brakes so I can compare. :eeps:

Also, you should seriously start a thread in OT - Mkodama's Warehouse Musings or something. Start it off with a bit of background and some cool pics from your trips and warehouse goodies, then continue to add posts like this ^^^. I think it would be pretty interesting.
 
#588 ·
Lots of stuff has been going. Haven't had a chance to upload the pics, but here's a list:
-Three-stage manifold swap on an E90 325i. (Adds two DISA valves for a nice hp gain).
-Changed the front shocks on Jimmy's M3 ZCP yet again. The TCK Konis had developed some very noticeable clunking due to shaft play. Sending those back under warranty.
-Finally fired up Ramin's car with his new (my old) motor. :D
-And a whole lot of little things here and there, haha.
 
#589 · (Edited)
Haven't updated in a while so here goes:
-Last weekend, did a 5spd swap in an E36 328i and did a Homelink retrofit in a Honda Fit
-Yesterday, installed the OEM muffler on my beater M3, replaced the fuel filter and some dry rotting fuel hoses in my E30.
-Today, got about halfway done with an E30 2.7 stroker build in an '87 eta. The eta cylinder head was pulled and the 885 head was prepped. The block and pistons tops were also made to shine. Should be finishing up the build in the coming week or two.
 
#591 ·
I have people for that. :eeps:
 
#592 ·
The 5-spd swap took you almost a whole weekend? You're slipping.

It took me a whole weekend to replace my cooling hard pipes...though had a little extra time to do two 4-spd swaps and add an LED light to my key fob (just taped the xl50 to it), and touch up the paint that was peeling on my tires.

You really need to slow down...you're making real mechanics look like oafs!
 
#593 ·
lol. It was only Saturday, actually. The homelink retrofit was on Sunday.

Great job, Doug! Keep those green tires looking good! :rofl:
 
#596 ·
Whew, what a weekend. Finished Inspection II, VANOS profile and solenoid gasket replacement, and an angel eye install on jimmymoo's 2006 M3 ZCP.
The engine was noticeably smoother and quieter after the valve clearances were brought into spec.
 
#617 ·
What's that fluffy looking thing on the intake camshaft cylinder 1 in your picture? Is that a rag or something?
If you're referred to the blue thing, that's a shop towel. The black area is the rough cast portion of the camshaft.
 
#598 ·
No, he's on the calendar for the weekend of 9/22 and for 9/30.
 
#602 ·
Made some great progress on Leo's E30 2.7L stroker last night.
Installed the water pump, timed it, adjusted valve clearances, and wired the old style eta starter to the newer 'i' harness yesterday. It cranks, so we'll hopefully be finishing up the oil pan gasket, intake manifold, and cooling system sometime later this week in preparation for the first start. :)
 
#603 ·
We got the oil pan, intake manifold, and a few miscellaneous items back on the E30 stroker a few nights back, but we found a fuel leak at the injectors while priming the system, so we decided to call it a night.

Today, I brought over some 'i' injectors, new injector o-rings, and a late model fuel rail which works better with the late model injector harness. Priming showed no leaks. :)
We nervously cranked it and had a partial success. The engine would start and die soon after, or would bounce off the rev limiter with partial throttle, so we made a list of things to test over lunch and got to work soon after.
After reasoning that fuel and spark were probably ok, we diagnosed and replaced a bad airflow meter and plugged a vacuum leak from an unused port on the throttle body (also on the to-do list, which we hadn't checked in our excitement). Another crank and it fired right up! :woot:

We were running the car with open exhaust ports, which is deafeningly loud, but also amazing in the dark since the motor is shooting blue flames right out of the head. :evil:
It also helped us see that #2 was running a little weak, so there was more to it than just the coolness factor. A video does exist and I'll post it if Leo gets around to uploading it.
 
#613 ·
Was out greasing up the lock cylinder in the M3 and figured out a cool, simple way to disable the steering wheel lock:

1. Remove lower steering column trim.
2. With key in position 1, insert pin and remove lock cylinder. Leave pin inserted for installation.
3. Look into the hole where the lock cylinder used to be and you'll see the locking shaft with a slot in it as well as the separate 2-toothed cylinder that surrounds it. Our goal is to reverse the 2-toothed cylinder.
4. Using flat-head screwdriver, turn locking shaft CCW towards position 0. The 2-toothed cylinder has a tab/key that keeps it in the locking shaft bore. Once it lines up with the 10 o'clock position, it'll slide right out. You'll notice that you probably can't quite turn the shaft CCW far enough to get it to line up, so...
5. Unclip ignition switch.
6. Turn locking shaft slightly CCW until key on 2-toothed cylinder lines up with notch and remove 2-toothed cylinder. You'll see a spring left behind it on the lock shaft.
7. Flip 2-toothed cylinder around so that the indentations that correspond to the back of the lock cylinder now face into the bore instead of outward.
8. Insert 2-toothed cylinder back into locking bore, using screwdriver to align the teeth onto the locking shaft. The tab/key will catch on the first groove (which is for the lock cylinder retainer) so be sure to insert all the way until the tab/key reaches the second groove farther in. Note that the wheel is now unlocked.
9. Rotate lock shaft and 2-toothed cylinder CW slightly to position 0 and install ignition switch.
10. With the lock shaft rotated to position 1 (slot roughly vertical), install lock cylinder.

A lot of words, but not much actual effort. I can do a proper DIY with pics if anyone needs clarification.
 
#614 ·
A couple of carbon black beauties in for some TLC:

 
#622 ·
Finished up a Z3 steering rack swap in an E30 325i last night. More stuff to come this weekend!
 
#631 ·
Yep, was a great day of garagewerke.

In addition to replacing Kyle's very worn out VCG, spark plugs, and coils:
-Fixed Kyle's falling lower steering column trim (loose expanding rivet)
-Changed Kyle's engine oil and reset the oil service light
-Fixed Rick's trunk lock, which wouldn't open with the key
-Changed Rick's cabin air and engine intake filters
-Installed a new ambient temperature sensor on my beater M3
-Cleaned up another section of the garage with quite a bit of help from Kyle

Also set up some new shelving in the garage yesterday with Miles's help. That opened up quite a bit of space for a large delivery of parts that should be coming in soon. :mischief:
 
#632 ·
Just a couple of pics from today. Spark plugs were just destroyed :rofl: but the engine didn't have much sludge or bad wear, which was a surprise being that it was on the old plugs/coils/and I have never done anything to it.

And I changed Rick's air filter cabin :rofl:
 

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#634 ·
Those plugs were terrible, haha. Hopefully you'll get a little bump from the new ignition components. :thumbsup:

lots of work - kudos as always for doing the work yourself
Thanks, Stu.
 
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