My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"
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Back in August I picked up a very clean example of a ZHP in Georgia! I have wanted one of these cars for years, as I always thought it would be the perfect daily driver. Still very simple and reliable, but not too old where it still feels modern. The E46 Truly is an amazing chassis! Driving it home from Georgia, I had to take a proper detour and test out all the new bushings the previous owner had just replaced at the Tail of the Dragon. I instantly fell in love with the car! Here are some pictures I have taken since ownership!
Things I have done already before starting this thread
-Quick paint correction (1 step, the paint was actually in great shape)
-PPF all the piano black trim
-New ZHP knob (stopped in Atlanta to get one from dealer an hour into ownership)
-Coco mats
-Coby new alcantara steering wheel/e brake handle/arm wrest
-Future Classic window sticker (the car is 1 of 36, just like my E36
)-Future Classic wheel spacer kit
-Rewrap rear and front alcantara pillars
-New headlight lenses
-BC racing Coilovers
-AC Schnitzer Type II wheels 18x8.5 et13 wheels overnighted from Japan
-Refinished ACS wheels in BMW Stoneington Grey
-Nitto Neo-Gen tires
-AC Schnitzer Polished/Brushed Door sill plates
Yesterday I went to Chicago and pulled a 65k mile S54 from a crashed ZCP M3. I also grabbed the OEM M3 strut bar, the DME, the cluster, the window switch (to prevent tamper dot), the full wiring harness, and a bunch of other stuff. I am so excited for this. I have always dreamt of owning an S54 powered sedan. This car has been altered and modified in so many more ways already than I ever imagined when I bought it. I still plan to daily drive this car with the S54 in it; as I should!
Things I plan to get within next week or so for the S54 swap
-Headers (The people with the M3 wouldn't let me take the catalytic converters, and chopped them off the motor once I got it out of the car. I have yet to decide which ones to go with, as I don't want the S54 rasp)
-Full exhaust
-Rod Bearings/VANOS rebuild
-check panel with sport button/heated seats
-New OEM motor Mounts
-Get this BABY put in and running!
-I also have new bumper brackets sitting around, but I'm waiting to install those when I take the front clip off for the motor swap!
I will probably be posting the ZHP motor for sale soon if anyone is interested! If not, I will find something to do with it!
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Awesome
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YES!
So what about the fuel pump? I know the M3 has a variable speed fuel pump. Is the stock 330i fuel pump adequate?
as far as the tamper dot, my research on the topic says that between the cluster, and DME 2 of the 3 need matching mileage to avoid the tamper dot. I didn’t read anything about the window switch though. Id be interested in hearing more about that.
Im really excited to see this project progress!
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YES!
So what about the fuel pump? I know the M3 has a variable speed fuel pump. Is the stock 330i fuel pump adequate?
as far as the tamper dot, my research on the topic says that between the cluster, and DME 2 of the 3 need matching mileage to avoid the tamper dot. I didn’t read anything about the window switch though. Id be interested in hearing more about that.
Im really excited to see this project progress!
Fuel pump as well! Sorry forgot to add that! I’m very excited as well
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Always gotta stop at Killboy!
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Finally making some progress on this!
Getting everything read to ship out to Shawn Robertson in Atlanta tomorrow. I’ll be shipping him a laptop and my S54 DME to get it all coded up. He will also be removing the SMG box on the cluster and converting it to a 6 speed cluster and adding the rear door lights!
I have gotten a lot of parts over the past few weeks and have nearly everything. I decided to go with the OEM headers, and an OEM section 1 and 2 to keep the car quiet. I personally do not like the rasp of S54s. I’m going to be running a brand new OEM S54 cooling system, and keep the electric ZHP fan.
One of the last things I’m needing to grab is an M3 clutch switch, so that the shift lights and cruise control works.
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I also just received my M3 check panel in the mail. This will retain the speaker and heated seats buttons but give me the M3 “Sport” button which I was told is very important to how the car feels.
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Are you going to install the Mk60 ABS unit from the M3?
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You will want to spend the $25 or whatever on this program called ECUWorx so you can customize your settings and adjust your throttle mapping. Refer to the linked post here:
The S54 is one of the earlier adaptations of throttle by wire. It is a good system, but the stock throttle mapping drives me batty.
Normal mode/komfort mode throttle response is dead off the line and very flat, sometimes making you feel like you may stall the car if you are trying to get off the line very gradually. The rest of the normal mode throttle mapping is good and seems linear/natural enough.
Stock sport mode throttle mapping is insanity. Way too aggressive off the line and makes you accidentally slip the clutch if you aren't used to it/have been driving in normal mode for a while. The other reason I dont like the stock sport mode throttle mapping is it is so dead and flat near WOT, so when you are racing a Nissan Kicks SV for pink slips, teasing them along at 80% throttle and go for the WOT kill, you dont get 20% more throttle/power and can be disappointing. I have experimented a bit with the throttle mapping and tweaked it to something much more natural and enjoyable. Some people even tune it so WOT in normal mode is only 70-80% WOT as sort of an "eco mode" and then get 100% WOT only when sport mode is on. Fun idea, but ive had some hairball left turns where ive needed full steam ahead and need all of the beans in an instant.
What I ended up with turned out to be nearly identical to the throttle mapping on the Evolve tune. Since the MSS54 has dynamic timing advance, most tunes for the S54 wont do much more than adjust throttle mapping, remove top speed limiter, and will delete certain features that you ask them to. Some, like evolve will optimize the vanos maps a bit which is worthwhile, but a lot of the perceived gains are through throttle mapping, which is why ECUWorx is a badass little program.
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mk60 is the stuff of dreams
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And thats a wrap! (Almost)
The car runs and drives, after 5 hard working days! Things swapped were, S54 (OBVI), m3 fuel tank with pumps/lines, m3 cooling system, m3 DME, etc etc.
If anyone has any questions about the swap, please feel free to ask, I would love to help. It was very hard gathering all of the things needed to make this work and I want to help spread the word on whats all necessary.
the last problem I have to sort out is an o2 issue. I believe I have the ordering wrong, and am going to look into that tonight as the car is getting misfires on 1-3 and lean/rich codes.
I do have the air duct for the radiator support, just need to grab some clips for it.
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Update: o2's were backwards, flipped them and no check engine lights or anything. Motor runs great. Power is amazing
Bad news: Driveshaft CV joint couldn't hang and decided to take a poop. Oh well, at least the motor is all good. CV joint replacement time!
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I'm actually impressed you did this in 5 days. I had looked many years ago and all of the build threads talked about how hard it was and how the coding and combination of dme's was a nightmare. Nice job!
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I'm actually impressed you did this in 5 days. I had looked many years ago and all of the build threads talked about how hard it was and how the coding and combination of dme's was a nightmare. Nice job!
Thanks man! There were definitely a lot of parts involved and research.
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Took the car for a drive, everything is fixed and driving amazing! Just need a muffler setup welded on and we're done!
(also have to finish some coding to remove the DSC and engine light due to steering angle sensor which is to be removed)
Love this thing.
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Made some small improvements today. Got the tune setup to delete the Evap control circuit codes and realized I never plugged in my ambient air sensor. Got that plugged in and I finally have no check engine light. I also actually know what temperature it is outside now so thats nice. (Showed 128 degrees before constantly)
The one thing I am not going to run temporarily is a washer fluid reservoir because I never ever use my washer fluid and it's one less thing in the engine bay. I got rid of this light by putting a resistor on the plug.
Getting the AC charged and muffler put on Friday by a local shop! Need that ICE for the drive to Helen, GA in a few weeks.
I drove the car to Illinois and back for a cars and coffee and it did amazing. Very excited for the upcoming trip back to the cars home state to terrorize some twisty roads
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All check engine lights are officially clear! Exhaust is finished, ended up using full m3 exhaust into the ZHP muffler. In order for the m3 exhaust to properly clear the trans mounts, part of it had to be heated up and bent, but all worked out perfectly.
Some detailing/paint/brake work and then we are off to Sowo in Helen, GA for some mountain backroads!
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