haha, thank you. We shall see what's next. The car is pretty buttoned up now and after the brakes get installed...some fresh rubber...it'll be ready for my first ever HPDE!

Have fun :)

Thanks dude :)

Replaced the battery in the car today and took it out on a 30 mile drive to clean the carbon out of the engine ;). Compared to the C350, you feel everything the car is doing and I didn't realize just how much I missed driving the M. Or I should say, I didn't think my missing it was as severe as it was after I got situated into those seats and fired up the S54.

I decided to take some pictures of the two cars. I really like how the Bilstein kit has lowered the M3. It's just enough to look aggressive without looking too low.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8477/8...cea9b4d6_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8487/8...b98b90f9_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8483/8...fb0ccc89_b.jpg

Welcome back

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8070/8...94fb3b05_b.jpg

Here are the brake rotors that will be going on the car:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8347/8...9c446220_b.jpg

Tomorrow I will be pulling out the old TCU, Microphone and BT antenna from the car and installing the new ones. I bought the latest revision of each part that BMW had made. The battery replacement has actually made the old TCU function again, so it's ripe for mailing back to Tischer for my core charge refund. ;)

Also will be putting in the newer DICE iPod controller box that I picked up. Will sell the older version for next to nothing.

Whole brake system will have to be done over Xmas break. I'm EAGERLY looking forward to this, it's really the one thing I can say the car really needs right now.

Any reason for the electronics upgrade?

Yeah...prior to my battery dying, I had been having issues with the TCU I bought (used in working condition) randomly dialing up the BMW Assist service. I took it to Eurobahn who recoded the unit and then told me it was defective and I need a new one.

So I went and bought the newest ones I could get from the dealer. In the meantime, the battery in the car dies and the car sat for two weeks while I was driving the Benz. Today, I put in a new battery and suddenly everything on the TCU starts working again...albeit with phone calls to BMW Assist.

So I've asked around and no one really knows what's going on. The best bet is to take it to a dealer and let them do the coding, but since I have the newest parts now, I'm just going to install them and then see what happens.

The latest version also supports voice commands, so it's a potential upgrade once I get it working right.

Ah. German car electricals :) Best of luck, should be pretty slick once it's sorted.

Thank you. It's a mess right now haha


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Three hours of work later.

Found out the car isn't pre-wired for BMW Assist. Weird. Has the wiring for the ULF box like a pre-2004 model. Yet has a shark fin antenna. I can't explain this so I just swapped TCUs and traced the wiring loom down to its core to be 100% positive of what I found.

Then installed the BT antenna under the center console and then replaced the microphone in the headliner with the newest one so that background noise, etc. would be diminished.

Made my first phone call, caller said it sounded like I was in the room with them.

No phantom calls to BMW Assist yet, but I remain cautious. I need to take it to the dealer to have the software coded for the car and to pick up a new 2013 nav map dvd. The pirated "2011" copy I got from Romania has POIs in spanish. Haha.

No less than two total strangers came up to ask me about the car after I took it out to run it through the gears. The compliments it gets (that's gotta be low mileage) are really appreciated after this past year's work. Still isn't 100% in my mind, but working on it is fun.

Also, ordered a Macht Schnell intake kit last night for the car. Air filter and an elbow. Supposed to add some power, but we'll see. Wasn't expensive enough for me to be overly critical.

I took some pics of what I was fooling with.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8339/8...133fda7a_b.jpg

The silver box on top is the TCU I replaced. You can see the DVD drive for the Nav unit as well as the DICE and ipod I store in there.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8481/8...2c58ce57_b.jpg

Here you can see the increase in signal I've gotten with the BT antenna hooked up. (about two extra bars)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8347/8...26ab9728_b.jpg

Macht Schnell intake kit came in today.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8079/8...57742384_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8495/8...d0e9721e_b.jpg

Supposed to add anywhere from 5-10 rwhp. I'm going to take the car out before I install it to get used to the M's power again (it sits during the week), and then do the install Sunday to gauge if there's anything worth mentioning.

Also, ordered the Turner power pulley set, which they claim 8 rwhp from. I really don't put much faith in advertised gains, but I figure the cumulative effect may be enough to reach 350 at the flywheel.

http://www.turnermotorsport.com/imag...e46pullies.jpg

Oh and if anyone is asking themselves why would I bother with an M3 with 103k on it....

http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=428493

it's because they run forever.

I don't remember if you wrote yet, but did you order your exhaust yet? Ill sell you one of our on a great deal through vac

Not yet, I'm planning on getting that done in March. I've been looking at going with either a complete Euro setup or the AP headers and Euro cats. For a muffler, I've been thinking Rogue El Diablo. Any recommendations or comparisons?

Our (Fabspeed) headers are really popular and use stock studs whereas a lot of headers need extended studs to install, another big seller is our rasp suppression pipe (resonated cat bypass)

Installed the Macht Schnell intake kit today. Here's how it works:

My old 100% factory engine bay:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8206/8...9838fe3e_b.jpg

Remove the strut tower bar (Four 13mm bolts):
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8337/8...e652bbc8_b.jpg

Remove factory elbow from the induction box:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8489/8...77c7f26a_b.jpg

Remove airbox cover (factory air filter is dirtier than I thought it would be at 3k miles on it):
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8484/8...732dc09b_b.jpg

Let's look at that induction box for a moment:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8496/8...22e0ca52_b.jpg

See the trumpets inside? Each one feeds an individual throttle body. High RPM motor, indeed.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8504/8...69cda8c4_b.jpg

Here's the factory elbow versus the Macht Schnell. You can see the MS has a larger cross-section for air to flow through with no internal obstructions, unlike the ribbed factory piece.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8493/8...c2188ae6_b.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8346/8...94858a10_b.jpg

Test fitting the elbow to the induction box:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8062/8...f00be60a_b.jpg

Let's replace that air filter while we're in there:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8504/8...61fcb490_b.jpg

Button everything back together:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8504/8...cceec113_b.jpg

All done:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8478/8...1e2f2af7_b.jpg

Engine bay needs to be cleaned, the flash really shows a lot of dirt and dust.

Mod impressions:

EAS Tuning and Macht Schnell claim 10rwhp from this mod. That may be a little optimistic in my view. The engine is definitely much smoother now, especially below 3k now. Above 4k when the VANOS starts to get aggressive, the engine does seem a little quicker to rev. The induction noise is now also a little bit louder, which I really like. There's less of a dead spot in the curve now than there was before since things are smoothed out more. I wouldn't say this mod is very noticeable, but combined with other parts I'm sure it's a nice extra to have on the car.

The more I drive the car now, the more the lack of good brakes is standing out. The suspension continues to really impress me with its ride quality and performance. The engine is probably the best performing inline six that BMW has ever built and it's a shame that they've gone to turbochargers these days because their N/A work is outstanding. This thing just wants to keep pulling.

I really think my C350 is a fantastic daily driver, but the M is a wet dream to drive. Raw, yet refined, tossable yet solid...it's an experience.

Next up are the Turner power pulleys and getting these brakes installed. That should round the car out nicely until I get the exhaust situation completed with a tune. From there, wheels and tires for my first track day in the spring.

Do you have any dyno comparisons with the Fabspeeds over stock? How much would just the headers or the cat pipe and headers run me? (I can PM you about that if you'd like to keep it private).

I'm really not leaning to anything too expensive like Super Sprint because I will eventually get a supercharger kit for the car and don't want to spend the extra $1,000 for a 2 rwhp difference between headers.

Wow, that induction box is pretty damn nice for being a stock piece. Liking the look of your engine bay, even if you say it's dirty :-p

Thanks! :) It IS dirty, haha:mrgreen:

Gonna dyno it after all of the N/A stuff? I hope so :)

If you think that's dirty, I'll dig up some pics of my old cars, lol

I should have dynoed it before putting this on, then after...damn. I need to find a dyno around here...

Haha, thanks. I think I'll clean it tomorrow a little bit.:rofl:

PM'd back...

As I said in my PM, if you're coming up here for x-MAS or New Years and want to throw the stock intake back on ill do a before / after on our linked dyno-jet. Then the exhaust with another Dyno!