ILC's E46 wagon

[i_love_cars]

Ok so I've been super lazy about this. Billing 120 hours a week right now across 3 clients so time has been exceedingly short. I had to force myself to take some time off on Thursday/Friday last week to legitimately get this car back together. Final detail on the M3 for winterization is Nov. 4th so I am trying to make sure I've got this thing back on the road by then.

At this point, all I have left to do is bolt up the driveshafts, brake calipers, exhaust, and pedals. I'm halfway done with soldering the wiring for the clutch switch and the reverse light, there's not much to do there so I don't expect that to take much time. As long as I can get a solid 2-3 hours this week, I think I can have it all back together and put some fluids in it. Waiting on a couple random clips from ECS that will arrive later this week. Then as long as it doesn't grenade, I will try to get it over to Kummrow for re-coding.

The only unexpected thing I have run into with the swap was that for some reason, my car didn't have the support bracket for the shift fork bushing welded on at the back of the trans tunnel. Other auto e46s do seem to have this, so I was confused. I had to request the guy I got all my parts from cut it out from his car and send it to me. So then I welded that up only to discover that there must be minor chassis differences between his 2001 325xiT and my 2003, because the way the metal was formed, the bracket was hanging about an inch too low and collided with the guibo off the transfer case. So I took the xfer case back off (annoying), broke the welds, and cut the bracket plate down enough that it could sit nearly flush to the top of the trans tunnel. At that point welding wasn't gonna work because even at the lowest possible heat setting, based on the new location of the bracket, the welder was eating through the metal on the car (thin spots). So i ended up drilling a hole and just bolting the support bracket up. After that, positioning seems fine, and the shift lever is now centered like it should be and all gears seem to be ok for engagement. With the subframe back in and the trans crossmember bolted up - with everything fully straightened the bracket now sits between the guibo and xfer case so no collisions, and sits a bit higher. 

At this point, I've gotten to the point where I can retrospect a little bit and if I had to do this swap all over again, I can say that because I don't have a lift combined with the fact that I was swapping out differentials as well, I would 100% pull the motor/trans. A lot of people don't swap differentials when they do an e46 manual conversion, and if you don't, then there's no need to touch the subframe and at that point I wouldn't worry about pulling the motor. I did swap the diffs because I wanted a complete swap that included proper gear ratios. My touring auto was a 3.46 and the manual is a 3.23 - due to that, I was forced to lower the subframe to get the front diff and when you're talking about removing both the trans and the subframe, it starts looking more attractive to just pull the motor entirely and bring the transmission along for the ride. That is, of course, if you don't have a lift. 

There's just not a lot of room to work when you've got multiple jacks (3) like I did at one time in play to jockey shit around or balance things, it gets a bit tedious. I spent a lot of time moving in/out/around the car and was thankful I'm only 34 years old. Timewise it is probably a wash if you pull the motor entirely, but you gain in the fact that overall everything is just easier to work on. 

subframe had to come down a lot in order to get the front diff out, so I took the opportunity to do the oil pan gasket, etc. 

Subframe back up with new mounts, etc. xfer case and trans in, rear diff mounted:

Finally able to take the engine support brace off and have room up top again as it officially is supporting its own weight now:

[suspenceful]

Looking good! Nice to see an E46 get some well-deserved attention around here.

I'm borrowing an E90 M3 today and thought of you. These V8s sure are music to my ears.

[B C]

Looks like you are kicking some ass on this thing!

[GunMetalGrey]

This sounds like an awful lot of work,but the final product will be worth it! 
Looking good

[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: