A purists nightmare - E46 drift build

[i_love_cars]

absolutely, almost nobody does it all alone but still good skills to have and a very impressive amount of work going into this

[Tkuhn]

i_love_cars said:

absolutely, almost nobody does it all alone but still good skills to have and a very impressive amount of work going into this 

For sure! Appreciate it!

[Jdesign]

Damn looking good!!! Those stainless hydro lines are awesome, is there a reason you didnt run hardlines?  I assume this route was more expensive.

[Tkuhn]

Jdesign said:

Damn looking good!!! Those stainless hydro lines are awesome, is there a reason you didnt run hardlines?  I assume this route was more expensive. 

With the hydro getting so much pressure so quickly it is better to have a little give in the lines. That's what I've read and been told as well. Could be just a myth but if I was to hardline anything it would be the interior part since the lines under the car need a flex point either way.

[Tkuhn]

UPDATE!

Ill be honest with you guys I feel like this update will not be as in depth as it should. With my deadline for the weekend of May 19th quickly approaching a lot of work needed to get done and I slacked a bit on taking photos.

Chase Bays power steering resiviour, lines and cooler installed (Had this on my 330i previously.)

Rebuilt my vanos with new seals and the anti rattle kit from Beisan.

New radiator mounts strapped to the new CSF radiator.

Got the dash installed and with that came a lot of progress getting all the wiring under the dash and etc figured out.

Also installed this Parts Shop Maxx engine vitals gauge. The one i went with has settings for oil pressure and coolant temp along with voltage. Awesome little gauge for the price i must say. Also in this pic you can see where i removed the DSC button and the panel there and made a carbon panel to go into place.

Made floor plates thanks to the help of @Sam_Holzmann and another friend.

Now onto something I am not super proud of but with the price of black door panels in these cars I decided to clean them up and use interior paint to make them black LOL. I must say they turned out really well. Also re-wrapped the arm rest panels along with the A pillars (I dont have a photo) Was also able to transfer over the Harmon Kardon speakers and amp from my 330 into the car.

And got the car running!!

Had some serious time consuming hiccups with this. First was the expansion tank rubbing on the power steering pulley due to the thicker radiator. Really suerprised that CSF doesnt have a solution for that but we were able to shave some plastic and make clearance for the pulley.

Then there was some odd clacking coming from what sounded like the intake on start up and went away after awhile. Was a very intermittent problem as well. Also was throwing multiple misfire codes and misfire on start up codes.

After chasing the problem trying multiple different things we found that a hose came disconnected under the manifold causing a gigantic vacuum leak. Once that was fixed the car idled awesome and everything was looking great.

Now onto the wheels. To be completely honest the build was running out of time and money so i used the ole rattle can on my wheel faces.

And I sanded the lips to prep them for a friend who is able to polish much more efficently than I am able to.

With new valve stems and new hardware installed I was able to get the wheels together, get tires and have them mounted pretty quickly.

Wheels are SSR Vienna Courages, 18x8 +37, 18x9 +37 and to be honest I had no idea how they were going to fit the car because by the time I had my re drilled hubs on the car I had the wheels apart to refinish them.

Id say it worked out pretty damn well for guessing.

Next up was the daunting task of aligning the car which we did all in shop (its damn close to straight and even). With everything being completely adjustable in the rear and front it was quite interesting, but we got it.

Finished up some things in the engine bay like all the seals and etc. Also have the radium catch can installed but I have it routed not the way they intended as I dont have a CCv and it is meant to work with the CCV, Id like to get one and hook it up correctly in the near future though.

Took the car for a drive and ran into some issues... the m54b30 which was from my 330i had a flash tune from RK-Tunes. Everything was done correctly wiring wise other wise I know the car would nit have started. When driving the car it was rev limited at around 5200 RPM. Tried a few things including swapping a MAF with no luck. After doing some research I figured out that it may be because the cars ABS was completely removed and the cluster no longer has a module to talk to. With that being said I emailed Jordan at RK-Tunes knowing that with my past experiences along with a friends there was a good chance I would not get an email in the time frame that I needed to. So while talking to someone on a facebook page I came across the fact that he also does flash tunes. He runs a website that he sells his own products as well as comissions other peoples products that they have specially made for these cars but have not broken through to the big companies. His name is Mike Dodge from Seemslegitgarage.com . So he hooked me up with an all new DME, ews deleted and tuned to my specific needs for this chassis and build. I swapped the DMEs and drove the car and BAMMM were in business. While Jordan may be a great tuner he lacks in customer service and Mike promised me he prides himself on making sure he is there for customer support. 

Still some finishing touches to touch on but the car is running, driving and now at home where i can work on it more frequently without driving to the shop.

Also a big thanks to @Earl for gifting me the Euro M3 style roof extension for the rear window!

[Ryan...]

[jc43089]

Wow, looks awesome!

[Jdesign]

I agree, I cant wait to see it in action!

[Tkuhn]

Jdesign said:

I agree, I cant wait to see it in action!

USAIR DD71 this weekend! Made it to the dells and back with only a problem with my engine vitals gauge reading 12psi with the engine off and 145 psi at like 35 mph which isn't even possible to my knowledge lol.

[Jdesign]

Tkuhn said:

USAIR DD71 this weekend! Made it to the dells and back with only a problem with my engine vitals gauge reading 12psi with the engine off and 145 psi at like 35 mph which isn't even possible to my knowledge lol.

Is that boost or oil pressure? LMAO  I totally want to go, but I have plans this weekend.  Keep us posted and take lots of pics out there!!

[Tkuhn]

Jdesign said:

Is that boost or oil pressure? LMAO  I totally want to go, but I have plans this weekend.  Keep us posted and take lots of pics out there!!

Oil pressure hahahah and will do sometimes I forget to take photos because it's too much fun driving. Hoping all goes well and everything stays mechanically sound

[Tkuhn]

Figured I'd post a quick shot from automotion. Posted at our hotel with @nick.e46.330i. @Earl and @Sam_Holzmann

[Tkuhn]

Swapped out my valve cover tonight. The one I had on the car has roughly 200k on it and leaked when under high revving for extended periods of time last year, aka drifting lol. 

A big thank you to @Earl for picking it up for me since I work till 430!

Also raised the rear a bit so it isn't as sacked out in the rear.

[Jdesign]

I saw a snapchat of this thing all lit up at night. Where are your pix and info on the night lights? I assume all LEDs? I dig it!

[Tkuhn]

Jdesign said:

I saw a snapchat of this thing all lit up at night. Where are your pix and info on the night lights? I assume all LEDs? I dig it!

I was saving that fun info for when I get a decent photo! Hahahah

[Tkuhn]

DD71 went very well. Didn't have any major issues besides my first set of drift spares rubbing on the passenger side coilover. (Because I never test fitted anything lol) luckily we had spacers to solve that problem, but the car definatly needs a real alignment beyond our toe plate/angle gauge good enough alignment haha.

The car stayed relatively cool for the fact that it's getting thrashed on hard. Was 96 at the hottest point all weekend and engine temps didn't go over 216 and went right back down after a cool down lap

Overall I'm extremely happy with the cars performance, while of course I want more power haha. But it is extremely controllable and predictable, which I didn't realize how loose and blah my sedan was. Definatly more adjustments to make but I'm so excited to learn more with a solid chassis under me

[Tkuhn]

Well I did have one thing up my sleeve that @Jdesign already called me out on hahah. 

I had this kit on my civic and I kept it for this car.

It's a XK Glow xkChrome exterior and interior kit. Bluetooth controlled and all that fun stuff with a shit ton of color options and patterns. I also installed a strobe kit on the car but I don't have any good videos of it yet. 

[Tkuhn]

[Rekpoint]

Kailr needs to hurry back to stout so he can take some cool pictures of my car !!!!!

[Jdesign]

That looks killer. Do you have any close up pics of the actual lights?