My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"
-
And thats a wrap! (Almost)
The car runs and drives, after 5 hard working days! Things swapped were, S54 (OBVI), m3 fuel tank with pumps/lines, m3 cooling system, m3 DME, etc etc.
If anyone has any questions about the swap, please feel free to ask, I would love to help. It was very hard gathering all of the things needed to make this work and I want to help spread the word on whats all necessary.
the last problem I have to sort out is an o2 issue. I believe I have the ordering wrong, and am going to look into that tonight as the car is getting misfires on 1-3 and lean/rich codes.
I do have the air duct for the radiator support, just need to grab some clips for it.
-
Update: o2's were backwards, flipped them and no check engine lights or anything. Motor runs great. Power is amazing
Bad news: Driveshaft CV joint couldn't hang and decided to take a poop. Oh well, at least the motor is all good. CV joint replacement time!
-
I'm actually impressed you did this in 5 days. I had looked many years ago and all of the build threads talked about how hard it was and how the coding and combination of dme's was a nightmare. Nice job!
-
I'm actually impressed you did this in 5 days. I had looked many years ago and all of the build threads talked about how hard it was and how the coding and combination of dme's was a nightmare. Nice job!
Thanks man! There were definitely a lot of parts involved and research.
-
-
Made some small improvements today. Got the tune setup to delete the Evap control circuit codes and realized I never plugged in my ambient air sensor. Got that plugged in and I finally have no check engine light. I also actually know what temperature it is outside now so thats nice. (Showed 128 degrees before constantly)
The one thing I am not going to run temporarily is a washer fluid reservoir because I never ever use my washer fluid and it's one less thing in the engine bay. I got rid of this light by putting a resistor on the plug.
Getting the AC charged and muffler put on Friday by a local shop! Need that ICE for the drive to Helen, GA in a few weeks.
I drove the car to Illinois and back for a cars and coffee and it did amazing. Very excited for the upcoming trip back to the cars home state to terrorize some twisty roads

-
All check engine lights are officially clear! Exhaust is finished, ended up using full m3 exhaust into the ZHP muffler. In order for the m3 exhaust to properly clear the trans mounts, part of it had to be heated up and bent, but all worked out perfectly.
Some detailing/paint/brake work and then we are off to Sowo in Helen, GA for some mountain backroads!
-
What are you running for diff mounts? Stock, or urethane?
New OEM mounts, I have urethane on some things like H&R strut bar. Wanted to keep a nice comfy ride on this thing
-
New OEM mounts, I have urethane on some things like H&R strut bar. Wanted to keep a nice comfy ride on this thing
Im going to be changing to rubber soon. Was just curious if you had urethane and how the diff whine was.
What a great car!
-
Helen was amazing! I cannot wait to go back next year.
The car did run into a few issues. With the 90 degree/high humidity weather, the car would get hot at idle. Came to find out that the M3's have a puller fan in front of the radiator that plays a huge roll in keeping the car cool at idle. So I will be installing that in the next few days. I will also be ditching the fan clutch and going back to the OEM ZHP electric fan. Other than that, the car handles absolutely amazing in the mountains and had no problem keeping up with my friends 997 C4S! We got to shred the backroads with a ton of R8'S, GT3'S, M2'S, M5's, a ton of nicely modified VW's, and a ton of other cars.
If this does not fix my problem, I am going to go ahead and do a complete cooling system refresh. Lets hope this fixes the problem. Here are a few photos of the car from the trip!
I also before I left spent a good amount of time cleaning up the engine bay, and polishing the VANOS unit.
-
Also I forgot to add that I did refresh the brakes, the nastiest part of the car. The car is completely rust free, but these brakes were nasty. Was going to go with some 135i brakes, but ended up just doing stop-tech rotors/refinishing ZHP calipers for now. Maybe next year!
The entire front end of the car, along with the rear bumper also got resprayed before I left. The car had a decent amount of rock chips that always drove me insane & the back bumper got bumped downtown last winter.
-
Yesterday I ended up ditching the Clutch fan and ACC fan in hopes that it would fix my overheating at idle issue. So far after about 2 hours of driving around in stop and go traffic, the car has been really good. It has never gone past half, as where before it went past half almost right away at any light. I still don't trust the setup fully, but it is for sure an improvement.
I installed my original ZHP E-fan in place of the old setup. In order to make this work I had to trim the lower half of the fan shroud to make it clear the oil cooler. I was able to re-use the top mounting bolt hole, but had to use radiator "ties" for the other 3 corners. This is an incredibly tight fit, but it works, barely! I am probably a quarter of an inch from my belts, and about the same from the water pump (where the clutch fan bolts to)
Excited to start enjoying this car again. I really believe this is a perfect all around car. I will forever own it!
***I ordered some custom plates finally! Can't wait to get them in 40 weeks!
-
Finally got around to ordering a new center console for the ZHP. This is one of the things that have bothering me since I got the car. I ordered all new trays earlier in the year, but this was much needed! Makes the interior feel 10 years newer and makes the car feel like it has 100k less miles.
I also fixed my drivers window regulator yesterday. I bought a new one, but ended up being able to fix the existing one.
Going to clean all of my suede tomorrow. I am in search of a MINT drivers sport seat! Let me know if you guys know of any out there.
-
@YoungCRYessir, OEM through FCP. I hate how fragile e46 plastics are!
-
Acquired a very clean drivers seat and a new OEM black M steering wheel trim. Both installed! Didn't take any pictures. My drivers seat wasn't torn or anything, was just starting to show some age.
Excited to see some crazy BMW's at Road America this weekend! Will be out and about in Elkhart Lake in the ZHP
-
FINALLY pulled the trigger and bought a Dynavin for the E46. This was a mod that I always put off because of the expensive $900+ price tag, but finally I pulled the trigger and did it.
It was so worth it! It makes daily driving the car so much better. The quality of the unit is amazing. The Applecar play is super fast and the touchscreen is easy to use. The steering wheel controls all still work, and the radio looks like it could have come in the car from the factory. I also ordered a brand new OEM tray to relocate the AC controls rather than using their bracket they make.
(also bought a new OEM tray/coin collector to make the center console area completely brand new looking!
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login







