ILC's E92 M3

i_love_cars

Things are happening. Xpipe arrived today and I have sourced the below ESS 625 kit. Fortuitous timing given the color-matching. The seller will be shipping it out to me either next week or the week after. Once the salt clears and the car is out on the road, I will also be getting the rod bearings replaced.

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As it turns out, I've already got a head start on the install because I saw a bunch of fucking coolant under the M3 a couple days ago. Car hasn't been touched since Nov. 4th. I couldn't find anything wet in the front of the car. Pulled the intake manifold and found a bunch of standing coolant on top of the block below the thermostat housing where there are some coolant elbows that go to the heads. Seems to be the likely culprit that one of those seals failed somehow. I'm borrowing a coolant pressurizer kit from a friend to verify.

YoungCR

Very excited for this. I got to drive a ESS E92 M3 at the dealer once, the noises were incredible!

GunMetalGrey

Oh boy! That will be fantastic!
Can't wait to see the install and final product!

KaiserRolls

m42b32

That color matching looks fantastic!

patsbimmer1

#rollraceking

jc43089

Are you sure the coolant was mixed strong enough to prevent freezing? Could have frozen and that's what caused a leak just sitting? Doubtful because it's such a new car though, likely it hasn't been touched yet.

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Jdesign

WOWza. This is awesome.

The coolant leak sucks but I assume that's just your engine crying for more power anyways, so I think you are making the right choice here.

i_love_cars

jc43089 said:

Are you sure the coolant was mixed strong enough to prevent freezing? Could have frozen and that's what caused a leak just sitting? Doubtful because it's such a new car though, likely it hasn't been touched yet.

Sent from my 831C using Tapatalk

The prior owner had coolant flushed on annual basis at the dealership (kinda weird?), and I had 0 problems storing it last winter but then again it wasn't nearly as cold last winter compared to the huge cold snap we had this year in Deember/January.

I borrowed a coolant pressurizer from Dan Frodl and couldn't reproduce a leak anywhere. That said, the thermostats on these cars are a common failure at my mileage anyway so I picked up a new thermostat and a couple of orings for the elbows that go to the cylinder heads off the thermostat housing (which is where the coolant leaked from). I've put several hundred miles on the car over the past month without any issues so I'm almost 100% sure it was only due to the extreme cold we had and orings shrunk. Either way I'm not leaving it to chance. This stuff is going on when the supercharger goes on since the manifold will be off anyway.

i_love_cars

Ok so everyone else is doing cool builds and as usual I don't have anything unique to add to the conversation - just basic beta bitch mods like bolt-on superchargers.

I walked away from the deal for the used 625 kit that had the red painted manifold. It looked good in photos but I know it was also a $15 rattle can job. Not a professional paint job like you'd get from iND or something. The guy wanted $6250 for his kit and on top of that you need to drop $1000 to get a new tune from ESS because they are locked to a VIN. I just couldn't fully bring myself to spend that kind of money for a used supercharger kit compared to the price of a brand new one that comes with a 2 year warranty.

So I called up EAS and they quoted me $7720 shipped for a brand new kit (which includes a tune). It's a no-brainer at that point to just buy it new. The extra $500 guarantees no missing parts and everything works.

I also ordered a set of BE rod bearings and ARP bolts. They were back-ordered until March 31 (i placed my order on March 22nd or so) and I'm glad I did because as of now they are already backordered again until July 1. Lots of S65 owners are buying up these bearings because they have increased clearance, but not so much that there is any real impact to oil pressure at high rpms.

The supercharger showed up earlier this week and I'm still waiting on the bearings. Install plans have been delayed because ....well I mean just look outside. It's cold in my garage too.

I will be outsourcing the rod bearing install to Efab Motorsports in Lake Zurich. They are doing a labor special on rod bearing service for $700 during the month of April. I'll have them throw in new motor mounts while they are at it because for whatever reason the mounts on this car are a 50k mile maintenance item and the subframe will be down already. The shop owner has a VO 1M that I am excited to look at when I go down there.

I am scheduled to drop the car off for RB service on May 1 and pick it up May 3.

YoungCR

Are there no after market solutions for the motor mounts? Every 50k is crazy

i_love_cars

YoungCR said:

Are there no after market solutions for the motor mounts? Every 50k is crazy

There are but they all involve more NVH and I'm trying to preserve the street manners of the car since I don't intend to track it ;(

Daggerty

YoungCR said:

Are there no after market solutions for the motor mounts? Every 50k is crazy

Higher power luxury cars it is common with the hydraulic mounts.

Jdesign

Are they those fluid filled mounts? Ughh those are such a mess when they fail.

GunMetalGrey

Jdesign said:

Are they those fluid filled mounts? Ughh those are such a mess when they fail.

I poked one a tiny bit on my Mazda (with my finger) and it blew up in my face.
That is one thing I wish to never have happen again.

suspenceful

*Insert comment about how you must miss the power of a modded N54*

I'm excited for you to get the new setup installed!

MPW3RLee

$700 for RB replacement!? That’s a steal! I did mine on my own but at that rate I’d almost consider paying someone, maybe....

Following to see how the SC turns out, would like to go that route someday, but that might be a ways away for me

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i_love_cars

suspenceful said:

*Insert comment about how you must miss the power of a modded N54*

I'm excited for you to get the new setup installed!

I honestly wish I could say that because it would actually make me feel better about my purchase LOL - as it turns out, it's moreso that I am just completely incapable of leaving well enough alone.

MPW3RLee said:

$700 for RB replacement!? That’s a steal! I did mine on my own but at that rate I’d almost consider paying someone, maybe....

Following to see how the SC turns out, would like to go that route someday, but that might be a ways away for me

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Yeah I have digital torque wrenches so doing this with proper accuracy shouldn't be hard, but at $700 it was a no-brainer. I figured I can justify the cost after all the thousands upon thousands I saved by DIYing my E46 manual swap

My stance on the supercharger is that if you want the car to be a drag car, then just buy an N54 instead - but if you like everything else you get with an S65, then a supercharger makes the car "competitive and relevant" in the modern age to essentially give it a new lease on life. FIrst you say "someday" which is exactly what I did....then before you know it barely a year later you're installing a 625 kit LOL. To quote Family Guy - "it's like sex with Kobe - you can fight it all you want but, it's gonna happen"

patsbimmer1

I'm glad I saved this...

i_love_cars

See ?! This is nothing more than pure validation of my prior statements that the longer you wait, the worse it is because no matter what, it's gonna happen and yer gonna get a supercharger hahaha.

I bought the warranty as a way to try and keep myself from modding the shit out of the car. That lasted for a bit and then I was like "Fuck it I can get 3k prorated refund on and use the money for performance parts!"

And here we are

EDIT: my friends clearly know me, otherwise Hallway never would have saved that photo from so long ago lolol. Everybody knows I have complete ADHD and cannot leave shit alone.

WIBIMMERS

ILC's E92 M3