my 330i

[nick.e46.330i.]

Well the winter has come and gone.  I got what I could done on this thing but not all was completed. 

For those that seen the mishimoto expansion tank I warn that there are fitment issues with it. The top radiator hose being one that I encountered. The other issue I had was an installer rookie mistake. 

But here's a couple pictures of it now. 

[nick.e46.330i.]

Does anyone know what size socket is used for the rear axles on an e46? It's a 12pt nut that's larger than a 32mm. Rather not play the trial and error method.

[patsbimmer1]

36mm

[nick.e46.330i.]

patsbimmer1 said:

36mm

Thank you Pat!

[nick.e46.330i.]

I dropped the rear end out of the car a month and a half ago with intent of putting new bushings in, put in toe correction brackets, swapping the diff to an open 3.38, and welding in reinforcement plates. Turns out when my brother started to weld the plates in he noticed a crack on the driver side rear mount. 

Got everything fixed and plates welded on now.

Seeing how I can get things powder coated matte black for free at work.  I sent the trailing arms, subframe, upper control arms, and the subframe crossmember through the paint line. I ordered revshift poly subframe, trailing arm, and diff bushings. The rest of the bushings I purchased oe replacement parts.

Put the rear end back in this past Sunday night. It's pretty much all back together besides some interior bits and such. 

Also I picked up some wheels from Jory. Some 17" oz fittistars. They will be rebuilt and refinished before they go on. 

[B C]

Whoa!

[Jdesign]

Rad! What are the specs on those Fitti's?

[nick.e46.330i.]

Jdesign said:

Rad! What are the specs on those Fitti's?

The original specs are 17x10 et65ish. They were for a corvette the hub bore is in the 60's. I had a buddy bore them out to 72.56 so now I just need to rebuild/refinish them

[nick.e46.330i.]

The other week I pull the engine out of the e46.

This past week end I started to shave and stitch weld the engine bay.  Welding should start this weekend. 

[jc43089]

Be careful, my e36 has been in the corner for years now because I thought it would be a good idea to take it apart and trim out unnecessary stuff and seam weld.  Looks good though, I have had some trouble with seam sealer that I couldn't get out of the cracks burning and making the welds look poor, and tricks for that?

[nick.e46.330i.]

I used a wire cup on my 4 1/2” grinder. Got all the seam sealer off real quick

[Jdesign]

nick.e46.330i. said:

I used a wire cup on my 4 1/2” grinder. Got all the seam sealer off real quick

Same. It was a mess but it worked quickly. Im not looking forward to doing it again this winter.

[nick.e46.330i.]

Jdesign said:

Same. It was a mess but it worked quickly. Im not looking forward to doing it again this winter.

It wasn’t that messy for me. There was barely any seam sealer in the bay.

[Jdesign]

The 90s were a very wasteful time period lol

[nick.e46.330i.]

The last couple weekends have been somewhat productive. 

The engine bay welding is complete and body filler is mostly done. Just got to sand a couple more spaces and lay down a little bit more filler. 

I also picked up an s54 oil filter housing from @TehRaydarlover. I bolted it to the block to take measurements for the power steering pump spacers. 

[Jdesign]

Looks NICE!! keep on going!

[nick.e46.330i.]

Jdesign said:

Looks NICE!! keep on going!

Thanks Jason!

I got to keep moving on this. The current plan is to have it done for Euro District in April.

[nick.e46.330i.]

The engine is finally painted. It took longer than I wanted to but that’s because we ran out of propane and and when that happened I lost ambition. Haha. My buddy came out to my shop and put the primer down Saturday night. Then came out tonight to lay down base and clear. 

Also since my last I got the spacers to space out my power steering pump. 

I also put new seal on the vanos pistons and put the anti rattle kit in. I don’t have any pictures of the process as my phone died when I started. 

Now when @Tkuhn has time he will be doing the wire tuck.

[Jdesign]

Damn looking nice! Moving along steadily!

[nick.e46.330i.]

Thanks! All I have to do is buy a few gaskets, the oil pump, and send some parts though the paint line at my work and the engine will be ready to go in!