New build! E90 M3
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I knocked out another trim piece today and it was the large one that expands almost the entire dash. I figured out that i needed to use a lot more fabric to make the corners work better and got into a nice rhythm of glue/fit/hold. I'm a lot happier with this piece and overall I absolutely love the scheme of it. It pops with enough color without being over the top. 3 more pieces to go!
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I did my first autocross event on Sunday with FVSCC and MSCC at Road America on the kart track. My initial impression as a newcomer was that it was confusing. There wasn't really anyone directing people, you just kinda had to know what to do or figure it out. Thankfully I had some grizzled veterans in @RamenNoobles, @KaiserRolls and @inazupra to help me throughout the day. Without them it would have been a lot more intimidating to be there in the morning. Overall it was a great day, I had a lot of fun and finally got to meet @MPW3RLee in person! I took my son with and he had a great time as well! He loved watching the Gridlife cars on track and for some reason is obsessed with corvettes lately so the plethora of generations all day had him jacked up.
The driving style was different than what I've experienced at track days. It felt like there was less finesse and more forcing the car where you want it to go. I was nervous about remembering the track after I walked it but once I got out there everything just makes sense as far as cone placement goes. I kept the car in MDM with the M DSC on for almost every run and i'm glad I did as I had very little grip out back on the course. I can still slide the car a bit in MDM but it prevented me from just lighting up the back tires on the uphill section. I took it off for my second to last run per the request of some spectators who requested that I "fucking launch it" at the start. The starting grid worker looked at me and said "OK, launch it" and so I obliged and left the start line with my foot buried and the back tires singing. That was good for adding about 2 seconds to my lap.
I started the day with a 54.6 lap time and ended at 50.7 and I definitely have room left to improve on that. I was happy to see continuous improvement each lap and that's all I was looking for on the day. The car performed flawless as I'd expect. Brakes worked, oil never got much above normal operating temp, no weird noises, etc. Overall, any day driving hard is a good day and i'll definitely mix more auto x into my seasons along side my track days.
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I finished up all of the door trim pieces and I'm very happy with the look! Very subtle while still being eye catching.
Next up is something I've been wanting to do for awhile! GTS DCT tune and motor tune are on order from Alpinemss! I'm probably most excited for the GTS DCT tune. The DCT is good to begin with, I can't imagine how it'll drive with faster shifts!
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I finished up all of the door trim pieces and I'm very happy with the look! Very subtle while still being eye catching.
Next up is something I've been wanting to do for awhile! GTS DCT tune and motor tune are on order from Alpinemss! I'm probably most excited for the GTS DCT tune. The DCT is good to begin with, I can't imagine how it'll drive with faster shifts!
Requesting before and after video
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Requesting before and after video
I think I can accommodate this request. I've also got dyno time scheduled with TJ next Tuesday at 9am so I should have a video of that shortly after as well.
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I think I can accommodate this request. I've also got dyno time scheduled with TJ next Tuesday at 9am so I should have a video of that shortly after as well.
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Here it is! I'm very happy with the results so far! Alex at Alpinemss was awesome! As soon as the cable showed up I shot him an email and he responded with directions to request the tune and options. Sent the request and was sent back the GTS tune and motor tune within about an hour along with detailed instructions. I loaded everything to my computer, backed up the stock ECU which took about 35 minutes then started loading the tunes which took about another 30 minutes. No issues, no hiccups, car started right up with no concerns at all. I opted for these options on this tune:
- Stage 2 93 octane
- Cold Start Delete
- Servotronics (increased steering effort)
- Speed Limiter Delete
The shifts feel a lot faster after the GTS tune and it smoothed out the reverse to 1st gear transition along with smoothing the throttle mapping for nicer take off. At first I couldn't quite tell if the car felt faster or if the shifts were making it feel quicker but after a bit of driving I can definitely tell there's an increase in power and after watching the videos (over and over and over) I can see the tach needle climbing faster. I've got some dyno time scheduled next week with @wasnt m3so we'll see what kind of gains I got!
Before and after video as requested by @KaiserRolls.
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Good lord that thing sounds great
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Good lord that thing sounds great
Thanks! That was windows up. I edited out the part where I giggled on the post tune run.
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This morning I took the car by @wasnt m3 at Late Model Throttle to have it dyno'd and make sure my butt dyno has been calibrated correctly. As I've been driving more the car definitely has felt faster and the dyno confirmed that for me! This is also the first time I've heard my car from the outside and I was not disappointed. My favorite part's were TJ asking "Did you know your car was this loud?" and TJ saying "Thank you for putting a smile on my face.". That about sums up this car. It doesn't win any contest on paper but the value is in the noise and the feel of the car. From about 3k RPM I've got full torque and the horsepower just climbs and climbs. The crescendo of screams coming from the exhaust and the constant gain in horsepower makes it very exciting while feeling predictable.
I picked up about 30whp and 18wtq from the tune and downpipes.
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TJ asking "Did you know your car was this loud?
Explains why everyone was staring us down at RA.
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Bring it next time you're in Appleton, interested to see how it feels now compared to when I drove it last week.
*If it's not put away for the winter by then.
I'm coming up tomorrow if you're back from Batavia by then but it's looking like rain all day long so that'll be a game time decision.
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I'm coming up tomorrow if you're back from Batavia by then but it's looking like rain all day long so that'll be a game time decision.
I will.
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I went to change the oil about two weekends ago before putting it away for the winter and upon re-inserting the rear drain plug on the oil pan I found that it wouldn't tighten to the required 18ft/lbs. Righty tighty became righty losey. I pulled the plug back out and examined the threads to find some alloy bits left on the bolt and the pan had some semblance of threads left but obviously not what it was supposed to look like. I'm the only one who's changed the oil since I bought the car and I have always used new plugs, copper o-rings and torqued both plugs at every oil change so I was confused and frustrated. I hit the google machine and found that it's a fairly common occurrence on the S65 with steel plug/aluminum pan. I also looked up the cost of the upgraded pan from bimmerworld... about $1100 and I'd get no core because of the damaged pan. That's still cheaper than a new OE pan for about $1300. The prospect of spending 8+ hours laying on my back to drop the pan was a scarier thought than buying the pan with a dipstick.
I decided to try a time sert first so $115 later I had it ordered. After getting it I called up Turner looking for some validation and their service department was pretty helpful. They said this happens and they've used these to do the repair before with success and consider it a permanent fix. I bought some red loctite and gave it a shot on Saturday.
For those like me who had no idea what a Time Sert was and why it's better than a helicoil here's my take. The Time Sert is a full set of steel threads with no gap in between the threads. This gives it strength and ease of installation with little to no change for it to pull out where as a helicoil is a wire type insert that lacks the strength of the Time Sert.
The Time Sert was far easier to install than I expected but the prospect of possibly ruining my pan further was terrifying. The kit includes the required drill bit, counter bore, tap, tap guide, driver and inserts. It did NOT include loctite or any T handle/tap adapter and I found that the drill bit and tap were slightly larger than any drivers I had or could find at a store so I used my drill on it's lowest setting. Also, by this time my oil had been draining for about a week so there was no oil dripping out at all which made the install cleaner. Since I was doing this on my back I made a guide for the drill bit by drilling a hole into a 2x4 and holding that against the pan for a guide. I then counter bored the hole and tapped it for the insert.
I put a little red loctite on the insert and used the driver to install the insert. I followed the directions and kept turning the insert past the point of it getting hard to turn until the insert stopped moving. I let it set for about 30 minutes then put the plug in and torqued it. The plug tightened to the proper torque with no fuss so I filled it up with a few quarts of oil and drained that out to try and get any shavings out. A couple came out but there wasn't much material removed to begin with so I wasn't expecting much. I reinstalled the drain plug, torqued it and added all of the Liqui-Moly 10w60 and let it sit for a little bit while I stared at the drain plug. No leaks yet so I started it up and let it run for about 20 minutes while I intently stared at the oil pan. No leaks! I took it for a short drive, re-examined and still no leaks. Took it for another drive, said a small prayer to the BMW gods and ran that tach to 8k RPM. No explosions! Did it a few times and brought it back home to inspect and found no leaks at all!
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said a small prayer to the BMW gods
I think this is what WIBimmers collectively forgets to do before hooking up a compression tester!
I'm glad to see it was a relatively easy fix! Dropping pans is never that much fun, especially for something of this nature.
Good work Pattycakes!
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