Project: Useless E46

so freaking dope dude. Can't wait to see the MTechII kit installed on your car.

So sorry I havent been posting a whole lot lately. I have been busy with Christmas shopping and what not. My car just struck 91,500 miles and I found my valve cover gasket starting to leak a little. So I picked up a gasket kit after work the other day and changed my valve cover gasket. I know there are DIY's on how to do valve cover gaskets. Its pretty simple, I thought I would just point out a couple tips along the way.



First of all I wanted to share I got a new thrust plate. It was crammed behind a ton of other old parts in our storage at work. Cleaned it up

Gonna take mine to my buddy and have him reinforce the **** out of it.









Then Got to work on the valve cover gasket. Removed he microfilter housing.




After you pull off the engine covers, next step is to remove the coil packs. For the push-down style coils like mine, here is a little tip to getting the coils out with ease. They can be a fight you trying to remove some times. First unclip the coils from the harness. Simply take a mid size screw driver, stick it through coil. Set the handle on something sturdy and pull up on the other side to lever it out.






A thing a lot of poeple dont think about is called PREVENTATIVE MAINTAINANCE. I'm not just talking about gasket and filters. Things like vacuum lines, hoses, coolant flushes, ect. All these things matter believe it or not and can easily leave you on the side of the road just as easily as a blown water pump. An example is, I change my spark plugs every 60K because newer plugs make your ignition coils work less. There for they will last a lot longer. You could change your plugs twice for less than the cost of one ignition coil. Not to mention the better performance/gas mileage/engine cleanliness spark plugs bring.

Basically it is always a good idea to keep your eyes peeled for little things that are easy to fix. A little work now can save you big headaches in the future. Trust me I see poor cars come through everyday that get so neglected.

I found a vacuum line starting to come apart at my secondary air valve so I went ahead and replaced it. A little trick to remove small air lines without damaging the line is take a metal 90 degree angle pick, lube it up with some wd40 or dry silicone spray. Gently slide it into the airline and work it around (careful not to damage the inside of the hose) so you can slide it off without breaking it. The line was brittle as hell, and came apart anyway! Glad I changed it












I have a habit of doing this. Mark and identify what is what when you have similar connectors.






Be very careful when pulling the valve cover off. Take your time and slowly let it detatch from the head. The heat from the engine can practically glue the valve cover on. So gently pry it up from multiple spots on a side of the valve cover to release it.



Clean all the mating surfaces very thoroughly. Install the new gaskets in the valve cover. Put RTV on the half moons of the gasket and where the upper front timing cover, head and valve cover meat (front sides of head).





Are you curious if your valve cover gasket is leaking? Take a look at the bank 2 exhaust heatshield. You will start to see oil accumulate there and it will look like this.



Thats all for now guys!! More to come

My reinforcement plate is a mess too. Might replace it someday. Great DIY!

I can tell you have put alotf of time an dedication to your car. Nice work and car looks great!

nice mine looks similar.. I see that you too dont have the lid there :-D I've lost it somewhere..
and it would be great to reinforce it, thats great idea

when you say put rtv on the "half moons" where exactly do you mean?

Originally Posted by honkifyoubonk

when you say put rtv on the "half moons" where exactly do you mean?

I apologize for the vague manor I explain some of the things.

If you look at the picture below of the valve cover and the old valve cover gasket. At the front and back of the gasket there are 2 rubber bumps, commonly refered to as the half moons due to their semi-circular shape.




When replacing the gasket, you want to apply two small blobs of Black RTV on the sides of the half moons and a thin film over the top to help ensure a proper seal. I'm sorry I dont have pictures of it! Many good DIY's show this step.

Damn! Wish I would have seen that about the half moons. Now I almost want to re-do it before my VCG gets all crispy.

Originally Posted by hi its me alec

Damn! Wish I would have seen that about the half moons. Now I almost want to re-do it before my VCG gets all crispy.

If it's not leaking you don't need to...

So happy that it was time to do my front brakes. I cant wait to do my rear. The previous owner had put some crappy aftermarket pads on, and my god does it make your pedal alot squishier. I didnt do anything crazy yet, just went with factory size for now because it is easy on the wallet and I'm not sure what BBK I would like to go with.

I went with ECS Tuning Geomet Rotors, Genuine OEM BMW Semi-Ceramic Brake Pads, and Genuine OEM BMW Brake Pads Wear Sensor.


The ECS Turning Rotors are awesome. I got them for a great price during the christmas sale. A set of quality front rotors for less than $130 shipped. They are coated in an aluminum coating to prevent rusting and to keep them looking good. It is a very similar coating to what comes on BMW's factory rotors. I am very happy with them and give a big to ECS Tuning.

People often under estimate the quality of BMW OEM brake pads. An e90 M3 or E60 M5 all have single piston sliding brake calipers with semi floating rotors. No fancy 6 pot rotors or anything, but my god, the braking power would blow you away.

One little side note...


Got a new Canon 1.4f 50mm prime for my camera. I love it!!!!!




Now back on topic.

Got her set up on the blocks.



The parts set up waiting to get put on.



Took off the front wheels... Look at them ugly front brakes. Rusting like hell for living in socal.



Old pads are getting low.



Old pads out.



Old rotor off. Comparison between old vs. new.



Cleaned up the hubs from left over rust.



Installed new rotors.



Cleaned the calipers up and compressed the pistons. Make sure you take some brake fluid out of the reservoir so it doesnt over flow when you compress the brake pistons back in to the calipers. Removed and cleaned these horrific guide pins.



Cleaned them up and relubbed them with some anti-sieze



Cleaned the caliper carrier and relubricated the guides. Prepped the pads.




All back together!





I properly bedded the brakes and it is night and day.

Very nice upgrade! Tell me, your brakes are smaller than 330i, right? I've got 30d/30i brakes, and it's one of the best modding I've made in my compi.

About new rotors...Tell us some information...

Damn that stretch is serious! Great setup, car looks clean, great write up! I'm suppose to be hitting the sack but then I started reading and I don't regret it keeping me up And I do enjoy seeing pics of home

Wish I could go that low tho

Your car is looking awesome! Are you planning to install the MTec II kit? I thought you mentioned that you were planning this....

Originally Posted by LoveBeingUseless

Dude thats probably the lowest E46 i've ever seen... EPIC!!

makes me miss my e46

Originally Posted by erod225

Dude thats probably the lowest E46 i've ever seen... EPIC!!

idk this chicks is pretty low

but i do love these in silver my buddies is pretty sick aswell.


but your car does look clean. once you throw on that MTech it'll make the car look totally different. atleast thats how i felt once i put the MTII on my car just happy to drop her next month aswell

gross tattoo (any tattoo)

and tell her to get her foot off the car

and take off the shorts

Originally Posted by 330i ZHP

gross tattoo (any tattoo)

and tell her to get her foot off the car

lol thats physically her car. i think she can stand on it if she wants haha.