Last night, Tyler and Rafi came over and we dropped the front suspension and engine. Thanks guys, I couldn’t have done it without you two and Ricky’s help the night before.

The engine is out, after two real days of work. It isn’t very far removed from the car, but disconnected, sitting, er… sideways under it on a wooden dolly.

I know the new engine is coming soon, but not immediately, I need to take a number of parts that I will be reusing from this engine to my machine shop. I can’t wait for the new motor, it should be something special.

This is something I actually planned and to everyone’s surprise it went relatively flawlessly. I broke one stud on the exhaust manifold. This is normal, turbo manifold see very high temperature spikes. It wont be tough to fix. In contrast to most of the work done in the glorious garage of nonM, Tyler has a damaged right wrist, so he can only do light help and take pics. So this was documented more thoroughly than nearly anything else ever done with this car.

After the engine was safely on the wooden dolly, we called it a night.

bluejeansonfire General 330, e46, engine, m54, turbo

Tyler and I started taking stuff apart the other day. We didn’t get much done, we weren’t entirely sober, we kept things lite; I took the intake manifold off. Yesterday Ricky came over and we tore down much of the stuff that needs to be undone before I drop this motor out. The front suspension needs dropping and then the guibo needs to be undone and it will all go DOWN!!! Can’t wait for Jim to finish my machine work. I’m taking a few things I’ll be reusing to him for some balancing and clearancing. I can’t express my excitement, pics soon to follow.

bluejeansonfire General

So you’re a nonM, you know chillin’ hard. Trying to do some time travel. And then, out of the nowhere, buddy Jesus and Ms are trying to hydrolock your motor with their water. Defeat buddy Jesus and Ms with boost!
Click on the screen to start the game, space shoots, arrow keys maneuver.

e46nonM flash Game

So this game isn’t the most complete project I’ve ever undertaken. It’s a rudimentary game I made in flash class, and I don’t like to go too far above and beyond with such these exercises. Do not request further development of the game as I will not do it.

bluejeansonfire General 330, 330ci, boost, buddy jesus, e46, M, nonm, PSI, turbo

So I’ve begun building the motor for my sedan. The doner block is from a b25 that had bent rods due to hydrolock with <11k miles. I've sourced an S52/b30 crank, and will be using s52 rods with forged cp pistons @ 10:1 compression. The doner block has been pulled apart, and I've begun port matching the exhaust ports to the header. For now I'll be running stock b25 cams, but will be upgrading to the b30 intake manifold using a fabricated plate to adapt the cable throttle body from my b28. I'll update with pics as time goes. For now I'm stuck until the pistons arrive, which unfortunately may not be for a few weeks.

b25.. check out the bent rods

activ3two8 General

My car hasn’t idled since I go it back with this new motor in August. In naturally aspirated form, not that it would idle or keep from dying, but it was easier to induce idle than it was in FI form. Now, NickG and I met last weekend and he attempted, and succeeded in large part tuning my idle with a shot idle control valve. Thursday I replaced mine. It idled beautifully, for the first time, startup seemed normal, idle was achieved pretty immediately. My car feels more stocklike and less insane. The diff still makes the car seem unsuitable for the streets.
Right after fixing my idle I noticed a large pool of oil under the car.

Crap, I’m revising my oil filter housing seal to the block.
And I got it back together, awesome, but I noticed I broke the power steering plastic pulley. Damn, but I think s54s run the same pulley, or similar? it’d be close enough. I think a friend may have one to spare.

bluejeansonfire General

So, Im driving up I-75 last night. A titan comes up in the middle lane while im in the left… PASSING PEOPLE, and he decides to get in front of me before I pass a slower car who is also in the middle lane. He gets right in front of me instead of waiting behind me to pass middle lane car, and he hits his brakes pretty hard. I do as well but I remain pretty close to his car b/c of his stupid lane change right in front of me. Next thing I know some big black object (tire or bumper or full black trash bag) flies out from under his truck. THE DAMAGE >>>>>

325rider General

Ok, so yesterday I made the post below regarding the new AD08 and the far more exciting Hankook RS3.
So, yesterday, shortly after posting the blog, I recommended the experimentation of these to a friend. He questioned my judgment, “are you seriously asking me to put tires with flames on my car?”…

yes…. yes I am. As stupid as Hankook might be and as much as they may have shot themselves in the feet with this stupid little tread design detail, I still think it’s probably going to be great competition for the NT-05, at only 3 dollars more. I’m comparing the 255/40r17 size based on these prices: Discount Tire Direct NT-05 $149 and Tire Rack R-S3 $152… I want to see the general consensus on the forums and lap times before I pick my next tire to test. I have some time, but not a whole lot on my rears. My choice will be based on straight line grip, but I’m not going for a 100 treadwear nt555r, I still want a soft compound, hard side-walled autocross tire. I just want the one that reports the best transfer of torque to the ground. Among my considerations was the new Toyo R1R. It seems like it’ll be a nice competitor, but sadly, I can’t find it in anything near my size. What I can find in my size is the $200 RA1. So I could pay an extra $100 dollars to ensure me half the tire life, I’m guessing no more than 2 months… two awesome months! I dunno.

bluejeansonfire General hankook, r-s3, R1R, RA1, rs3, Toyo, toyo r1r, toyo ra1

From a tire segment having only a few offerings two years ago, we have a nearly overwhelmed market. I love the competition…. errr… choice availability.

There was the Azenis 615, I’ve gone through two pairs of these, still the best offering from Falken. These have very short life and a very round tire design. The grip is good, I was surprised by how much grip was available in the wet when full thread depth was available. But life is very short and it felt like it started to become a rock as it very quickly approached the wear bars…. not a very good experience…

There’s the aging Kumho MX.
I’ve had a pair of these. And I’ve driven a few other cars with them too. This is a classic, and it outlasts the Azenis with nearly all of the grip it offers, and in my experience better overall handling. Infinitely better manners than the Azenis. Still a good choice at a very reasonable price.

Kumho has recently released the XS in the past year.
I haven’t tried this tire, but I hear nothing but good things, it is visually very similar to the Azenis. I can’t speak for performance but typically, I don’t favor the round tire tread designs. However, with the availability of very wide sizes, and from my visit to Gainesville earlier this week, I observed these tires looking completely different in its wider profiles, looking much more square-shouldered.

The Re01R came out around 5 years ago, and it is now gone, replaced by the re11r. When it first came out, I immediately fell in love with the idea of it. But I had no expectations to ever be able to afford them. That is, until they were pulled from production to open way for the new re11r. Tire rack clearanced them out right after I flat-spotted my starspec/KD setup from my lack of ABS and a stupid sudden ledge locked up my brakes as i was on them to avoid a bus. Fuckin’ construction. Anyway, re01r’s were had for 96-120$ for my staggered setup, dirt cheap. I am disappointed. I expected much better grip and surface contact than my BFG KD on the exact same size, 245/40r17. The RE01R offers more grip than my worn KDs, but it is still mostly overwhelmed by all of my second gear. No other complaints really, other than that it looks really skinny and stupid in comparison. Cornering grip is great. I really shouldn’t be complaining at all, road manners are also exemplary. But it’s my torque, it overwhelms nearly everything that will fit under my narrow quarters.

The KD is older by comparison. But the KD’s very square shulder made for a much wider surface patch. At the time I got boost, they were too worn down. It could not contend with boost in second gear at all, while the RE01R chirps, and makes tire noise while mostly holding, the KD made no effort. When I first had these, they were on the front, they made for great front tires. This is another tire that I originaly had no hopes of affording, till I found a guy selling a bunch of pairs of these in my size on eBay for ~$200 a pair/shipped. This tire broke records for street tire lateral holding strength… like 8+ years ago. This tire was originally made when performance tires didn’t know how to perform in the wet.

Dunlop Direzza Z1 StarSpec….
This is one of my favorite all time tires. I cried tears of blood for destroying a pair of these with at least half of their lives left. These require no heat to grip, there is a tremendous amount of grip all the time, combined with relatively fair wear. Cornering is awesome. I never had a set of rears of these, but I think it would go very well. Though slightly round, this is mostly a square tire.

NT-05, Nitto’s release from earlier this year is on David’s car. I think these are epic. It’s a shame it couldn’t be used by One Lappers this year. For more on this tire, David made a thorough review a few weeks ago a couple of posts down.

The new offerings:
Hankook RS3 and Yokohama AD08

Like all yokos, the AD08 is probably awesome, and will get the such feedback for its flexibility and amazing grip. But I have never owned “extreme performance” yokos, because I can’t afford them.

Just a hair cheaper than the StarSpec, but a bit more expensive than the new Nitto NT-05 is the new RS3. I have had some experience with RS2, based on discussion with the owners of these, and I had some of these on my car briefly as loaners, I didn’t get onto them very hard though. But I’ve been in cars with them and it breaks loose way too easily. The RS3, on the other hand has a much more sporting 140 treadwear rating. While these ratings often mean nothing, they are an indicator at what the company was trying to develop. And 140 is a commitment to grip. The pattern is also much more aggressive, it looks to have more square shoulders, bigger tread blocks, I’m optimistic. I just wish that they would be cheaper than NT05, otherwise it doesn’t really seem worth it, I’m not sure I believe that it will outperform the Nitto. It may last longer, but who really cares about that?

bluejeansonfire General azenis 615, direzza, e46, hankook rs3, KD, Kumho, MX, nitto, nt-05, nt05, re01r, re11r, review, starspec, tire reviews, tires, XS, z1

So yesterday David and I went to the one lap. Only we were both at very different locations. While David was enjoying the beginning of his summer vacation enjoying the awesomeness of Bimmerfest via flight from Miami, I stayed here in Orlando and visited the Boca BMW Mega Meet. The Boca meet was a failure. It was a fun outing though. PICS:










Some buddies of mine helped with polishing duties. I might have some mechanical prowess, however, I have no senses of any skills necessary for winning car shows. Lucky for me, I have some friends that understand paint. They handled the detailing duties beautifully. I’ll do my best to honor their efforts and keep it blingin’ the way it is.
Some highway pulls were had, results: 80 roll vs e46 ASA TM20 AA M3 vert= me win in high boost! hardly, but i think I pulled him a few feet, if not, we were dead even. I also took on a fully stock 335i coupe auto. He ran me in low boost, i told him to just go and reeled him in with no issues, immediately @8.5psi. I did also run him high boost to pull buslengths.

I digress, heavily.
So David was coming up from Miami, he also had a good kill.
He stopped by Sebring on his way back to Orlando. I was going to Gainesville to pick up my OE, numbers matching engine…. it is undergoing some teardown later today and prep for build.

It’s weird how well that worked out, Gainesville and Sebring were the two tracks scheduled for Tuesday for the One Lap.

I met some really cool people and visited some old friends from Gainesville.

Catesby Jones, the e46 HKS AA M3 driver is currently ranked 4th. I got to speak with him and he’s optimistic for Daytona and his currently third-ranking competition. The current third place team drives a GD WRX that apparently has a top speed issue with heat. At Daytona the handicapped WRX should open third place for Catesby due to the high-speed nature of that huge oval track.
this is the home team, we share sponsors and chassis, apply support here

I also got to observe the GT2 be super fast, supposedly ran a mind-blowing 2:18 around Sebring. Good for low 12s with the few runs allotted to the One Lap, I’m sure much better is possible.

There was a Rice Motoring club with an Alfa, and a far more interesting e36 M3, ‘95. It was very nearly stock with some Koni/TC kline bits. It was good for a 15.6@95. I’m sure a low 14 is possible with that trap speed.

Jon Czarny was also there, once again, campaigning his e60 M5. He did surprisingly well in bracket racing for someone going around asking what he should dial in. The One Lap isn’t about drag racing, no one preps their car for drag, no one enters for the drag racing… I think Brock Yates just likes the idea of making the One Lap a very well rounded event. But Czarny ran a 12.77, dialed in a 12.7 and ran consistent 12.7-12.9 until he was knocked out at the very end.

Other noteworthy entries included the orange GTR, the bone stock 328i (e46nonM!!!!!!), the e9x M3s, Including the BMW performance e90 M3. David reports that the BMW performance driver to be magician from his observations at Sebring.

This was so exciting, I sooooo want to do this at some point.

bluejeansonfire General aa, active, brock yates, catesby jones, e46, e46 turbo, hpf, one lap, one lap of america, s, supercharger

Good afternoon everyone,

Its been a few weeks since i posted an update. Well here it is, i will let the pictures do the talking.

The only thing that’s left is the wiring. ETA is 1 week.

Cheers!

-Kevin

A55A55IN General