ILC's E46 wagon

[YoungCR]

Quite the undertaking! Nice job man, idk where you find the motivation on top of your work too.

[Jdesign]

Damn that looks like a lot of work. I bet having a lift you could have changed you timeline immensely. Sounds like you are on the home stretch now though!

[i_love_cars]

I love this forum because you all realize the (stupid) amount of work for this swap. I'm not sure I'd do it again, but I can say that at the time i was bored because i had 0 project cars. Who knows what will happen in spring season, now. 

I just tried to crank it over to prove the wiring out and we have success!  Initially the security system engaged because I didn't have the EWS pin all the way in, but after fixing that it was instant crank. The car is still on jackstands so I didn't fully let it start but it should be good I think as it was happy to try and crank over. 

The only remaining thing is the fucking exhaust studs on the cat. Having a tough time getting those off in order to put on the exhaust with new hardware. So i'm open header right now and honestly tomorrow morning if I can't get them off with heat, I'm probably going to just drive the car .5 miles down the road to the local shop, give them parts, and say "here, install this" and make it their problem. 

I'm excited but still cautiously optimistic because I still have to actually prove the car can move under its own power.

[stealthbimmer]

i_love_cars said:

I'm probably going to just drive the car .5 miles down the road to the local shop, give them parts, and say "here, install this" and make it their problem. 

I'm excited but still cautiously optimistic because I still have to actually prove the car can move under its own power. 

Been there done that. Sometimes sanity is more valuable than money.

[i_love_cars]

shit is working. I'll be dropping the car off on Monday at Kummrow for both re-coding and getting the exhaust bolted up. Super pumped right now and very excited to hopefully be able to legitimately drive this thing soon on the regular.

[YoungCR]

Sounds good! Nice work

[B C]

What changes in the coding?

[i_love_cars]

Snap said:

What changes in the coding?

Not a ton that is noticeable to the user. Currently there are transmission fault codes being thrown which trips the CEL, and there are other small things for example like cruise control that obviously won't work right because functionally cruise control is required to automatically disable in a manual trans car when you change gears, compared to an auto trans that will manage it all.

[Jdesign]

i_love_cars said:

Not a ton that is noticeable to the user. Currently there are transmission fault codes being thrown which trips the CEL, and there are other small things for example like cruise control that obviously won't work right because functionally cruise control is required to automatically disable in a manual trans car when you change gears, compared to an auto trans that will manage it all.

First off, I am really jelly you now have a manual wagon.

Second, could you just use a manual trans cruise control unit or trick the auto into always thinking its in gear? Or is it not that simple?  I mean its always engaged unless you are stepping on the clutch or brake, which then will disengage it anyways.

[i_love_cars]

Jdesign said:

First off, I am really jelly you now have a manual wagon.

Second, could you just use a manual trans cruise control unit or trick the auto into always thinking its in gear? Or is it not that simple?  I mean its always engaged unless you are stepping on the clutch or brake, which then will disengage it anyways.  

Let's call it even then because you've got a 1JZ swap  =P 
 

honestly i'm sure you could finagle it, but I think the overarching issue is just that the coding basically changes the vehicle load order and indicates what the car does or does not have. Drivability-wise I haven't read anything definitive, but I do know that there a bunch of transmission codes that get thrown when you don't recode, and that could have some effect. I would assume cruise control is the same part between both cars, and it's just a matter of what the computer thinks needs to happen based on if it's programmed for a manual or auto car.

[i_love_cars]

This is likely the last post of this thread until Spring season when I start to do some not-very-interesting-but-required aesthetic mods like tint, wheels, black out the chrome window trim, kidneys, etc. 

So the car is officially on the road and overall driving great. Blizzaks were mounted yesterday. Still has a CEL for a bad o2 sensor, and I have noticed a couple things now after 150 miles of driving that I'm going to deal with. I used MT-90 fluid in the transmission and I believe that's a bit too thick for the cold climate as when the transmission is not warmed up, it's pretty fussy about the gears. This week I will be putting in MTL instead which should be more viscous. The rear passenger shock is blown and leaking so I have 2 new rear shocks on the way from FCP right now and will install those this week as well. 

Overall I'm pretty much ecstatic about where the car is at right now and have been taking excuses to drive it whenever possible. Obviously working from home doesn't give me a lot of reasons to go out, but I'm trying to find them anyway because for the work I've put into the car, I'd like to enjoy it a little bit. It's crazy how much more engaging this thing is with a manual transmission. 

Pic for posterity - yes it makes it up to 5th gear and does freeway speeds: