2002 E46 M3 // Build Thread
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I ended up buying some TC Kline coilovers from a forum member on nam3forum. They were advertised as a 3000 mile set and they looked pretty solid in the sellers photos. Upon getting them I realized he might have forgotten a 0 or two on the mileage. The two fronts are blown and the rears have a pretty old build date. This set is nearly $3200 new, so I hoped I could save a few bucks buying used. NOPE no chance. Bought two new front replacements that are on their way from TCK. Going to rock the rears until they wear out, might have another season or two in them.
On the bright side, I did get Ground Control camber plates included. They were a bit dirty and beat up, so I did my best to clean and re-grease the bearings. Think they'll work just fine.
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Will the replacement shocks need to be revalved for the spring rates? Or are they an off the shelf setup
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Will the replacement shocks need to be revalved for the spring rates? Or are they an off the shelf setup
Yeah they are custom valved to the springs. I did give the spring rates to TCK when ordering, so hopefully the replacements are an exact match. Honestly not sure how to confirm or deny that though
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Got the new shocks from TCK already! Time to swap the GC camber plates on and get these installed. Still not sure if the factory end links will fit. If not, maybe that'll be an excuse to replace them and upgrade front sway bars too.
I'd suggest going with a shortened or adjustable sway bar link. The stock ones are made for the stock height. You're going to change the pre-load on the sway bar and could impact your handling if you stick with the stock sway bar links and lowered height.
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I'd suggest going with a shortened or adjustable sway bar link. The stock ones are made for the stock height. You're going to change the pre-load on the sway bar and could impact your handling if you stick with the stock sway bar links and lowered height.
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Just know that heim joint sway links can be noisy. So if that doesn't bother you, go for it! I have them on my Z3 Coupe and will be switching them out for some adjustable ball joint style sway links to quiet things down. Just an FYI
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Just know that heim joint sway links can be noisy. So if that doesn't bother you, go for it! I have them on my Z3 Coupe and will be switching them out for some adjustable ball joint style sway links to quiet things down. Just an FYI
He won’t hear it over the Ed Sheeran he listens to
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I'd suggest going with a shortened or adjustable sway bar link. The stock ones are made for the stock height. You're going to change the pre-load on the sway bar and could impact your handling if you stick with the stock sway bar links and lowered height.
Honestly fairly new to the intricacies of suspension tuning so I reached out to TC Kline and got this response
someone said:
Just so you know our take on the situation... We have never put adjustable end links on any of our track cars(specifically our E90 M3 track car). If your car is set to the appropriate ride height (equal on the left and right side) there is no need for adjustable end links. The only time you will put 'pre-load' on the sway bar is when the left and right ride heights are not set equal (and there is no reason they should be unequal).
I could see how adjustable links could come into play with corner balancing, but I've also read BMWs are pretty well balanced from the factory. I'll definitely do my best to test out all this info and report back though!
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Waiting on some suspension parts yet so I started the header install. Have to say that this is MUCH harder than the downpipe install on my F30. Since there's such limited room to work I had to remove the coolant reservoir tank, turkey basting out all the coolant so I didn't make an absolute disaster. Still probably spilled 1/2 gallon on the floor that came out the other end though lol. Even with this and the heat shielding out of the way, access to the 18 nuts is still pretty grueling. Just kept swapping out swivel, wobble and regular extensions, as it seems like each nut requires a different approach. After a few hours I finally got the old set out, woohoo! Still waiting on new gaskets and nuts, but should be here in about a week or so and I can get the new headers installed.
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Just so you know our take on the situation... We have never put adjustable end links on any of our track cars(specifically our E90 M3 track car). If your car is set to the appropriate ride height (equal on the left and right side) there is no need for adjustable end links. The only time you will put 'pre-load' on the sway bar is when the left and right ride heights are not set equal (and there is no reason they should be unequal).
If that's what they say then I'd go with that! I know when KW sent me my coilovers they came with a new set of shorter sway bar end links to avoid the pre-loading and I know others that do it as well. I'm sure it's like everything else handling related where it's heavily opinion based on independent results. If it works it works!
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In the future I would suggest invest in an Airlift. You can suck all the coolant out of the system without spilling much. As far as getting to the manifold bolts, I feel your pain. lol
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Got the ports all cleaned, fresh gaskets, fresh hardware and the headers bolted up. Now just have to sort through the O2 sensor wiring because I’m an idiot and didn’t mark them. I'll have to fire up Ecuworx too and code out the downstream O2 sensor and secondary air pump so we don't get a CEL.
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Since I went with catless headers, I decided to delete the whole secondary air injection system since I don't think it serves any purpose besides helping in the cat heating sequence (saves 4lbs too). Got this nifty little aluminum block off plate from Achilles Motorsports that looks pretty sweet, even though it will never be seen.
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Since it was looking pretty tired out, I decided to replace the fan blades and fan clutch with a new Mahle one. Better preventatively than to see it grenade and take out the hood or radiator. Personally prefer this setup to an electric fan swap, because it just works. No overheating in hot weather while stopped, no blasting heat in the middle of summer or messing with fan shrouds etc. Easy enough to service so I’ll keep it.
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Personally prefer this setup to an electric fan swap, because it just works. No overheating in hot weather while stopped, no blasting heat in the middle of summer or messing with fan shrouds etc
Why do I feel like this is a jab at me.
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Why do I feel like this is a jab at me.
Lol! The moment I saw you in 90 degree traffic with the heat blowing and your shirt off I said, that doesn’t look fun.
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