Sitting on the new Apex EC-7R in 18x9 square, with 255/40/18's all around. Love these wheels, and will leave space for some of the fun coming.

Car is still too low for my tastes and will be addressed soon enough.

Also mentioned a while back, I put in a UUC short shifter, a new alcantara shift boot, and a ZHP weighted knob.

More maintenance before we get to the fun stuff.

We replaced the battery with an AntiGravity low voltage battery to replace the stock one. Pretty massive weight savings there.

We will get to the fun stuff in a moment, but during disassembly to install the fun stuff, the shop found a bunch of things we addressed. The guibo was tired, RTAB's and FCAB's were taken care of, the diff mounts and diff seals were addressed with new fluids. We did the rod bearings as well, which will be the second time this car has had it's rod bearings done.

There's a whole number of random bushings, seals, and other things we addressed.

I also did a full Turner Motorsport cooling refresh, including an aluminum Mishimoto radiator, and a Mishimoto electric fan to pull that load off the engine and get some improved flow through the rad.

Now, on to some of the fun parts.

Supersprint V3 stepped headers, catted section 1, resonated section 2, (sticking with my SCZA muffler, but might go with the SuperSprint race depending on how loud or not loud the car is after hearing it) and a Turner carbon intake box. Yes, I've heard the nightmare stories, but they were on sale, and Karbonious is way out on lead times. Honestly my main issue with the Turner box is the open airbox design, and I'd like to grab a Haimus or Karbonious box with a snorkel when I do the CSL front bumper and can duct in the air feed, but I'll be waiting until after winter, when the IAT's will go up.
For now, these things make power, noise, and for that it will serve it's purpose. The Karb box will be with the snorkel and ducted air to it, allowing me to do this build without being in a rush on the Karb lead time, and can also spend the time finding a CSL front bumper I like and figuring out how I want to do the air ducting.

 

Next up is the StopTech 4 pot BBK in the front, with stainless brake lines for both the front and rear. Since we were throwing on new pads and rotors on the front, I also elected to throw on a set of Stoptech rear rotors (stock size with stock rear brakes) and stainless lines and new pads on the rear as well.

Here is the in progress shots of the BBK and the Airbox mostly installed. You can also see my Ohlins and Turner Motorsport sway bay with adjustable end links in the first shot.

Carbon Airbox mostly installed. Also pictured is the Bimmerworld oil thermostat bypass to keep oil temps cooler, at the expense of a slower oil warm up time.

And to top it all off, a set of Recaro Sportster CS, with black vinyl and cloth in the center. Being mounted on the floor with lightweight mounts, and Recaro sliders. Dropping quite a lot of weight and removing my heavy and frankly painful to sit on (padding is long gone) stock seats that I slide around non-stop due to the all leather design.

Initially I wondered if the Imola Red interior would clash with black seats, but I think it will break up the red a bit and "mellow" out the red a bit, and give the front of the passenger cabin some presence. Either way, I wasn't really willing to spend a ton of money reupholstering these to match the color of the interior anyway.

Now that maintenance is all out of the way, bigger and better and refreshed brakes in, compression test came back clean, and we've removed a good amount of weight (removing rear window sunshade (broken anyways), 6 CD changer, seats, battery, etc) it's time for a dyno tune, which I'll be posting the results when I get them.

 

To finish it all off, I ordered a CSL replica diffuser from Euroconnex, which they claim is the best most 1:1 replica on the market. I ordered it pre-painted in Alpine white, with the carbon weave as 1x1 as what would come on a true CSL.

I also couldn't pass up Turner's sale on genuine OEM CSL trunk lids. They have had them for sale for $4.5K for a long time, and all of a sudden I saw them selling them at $2K. I decided to just jump on it. I've always wanted a CSL deck lid, but couldn't justify the cost of an OEM one, and I've seen a LOT of aftermarket ones at car shows, and they always had fitment issues. Sure the trunk works, but the lack of matching up with the original car lines would bug me to no end.

I'll likely put on the CSL diffuser as soon as I get it, but the trunk will probably wait for paint and install until I get the CSL front bumper I decide on so I can get the paint done all at once and installs all at once.

Still, going to be a great addition when it eventually goes on.

 

Looking good, that OEM trunk lid is an absolute bargain at that price. You won't have any fitment issues, mine fitted perfectly first time. I'm about to buy an OEM CSL bumper, I wish they had those on sale! ECS/Turner want $8,700 whereas Schmiedmann have them for $3,700. I've just tracked down the last piece of primary ducting for my intake that handles everything below 3,500rpm, once I finally get the bumper it's time to start the fun job of wiring the flap up to work.

 

Thanks! And yeah I agree, I had been looking for a CSL trunk for a while and seeing a brand new OEM trunk for near the price of the high end replicas… couldn’t resist.

Which airbox do you have? How does the flap work exactly and what is it’s purpose?

 

Forgot to attach this pic that shows the other pipework.

 

So the airbox is installed, along with everything else. The car is going on the dyno now, we will see what kind of power it makes on crappy California 91.

On another note, the sexy Karbonious strut brace is interfering with the jump point on the car, which is really annoying. I’ll have to relocate it or just jump from the battery as I love that brace so much I’m not willing to give it up. Weighs like 3 pounds and just looks sexy as hell.
If anyone has any ideas in regards to it blocking the jump point I’m all ears. I was going to just stick some double sided tape on the plastic enclosure and mount it to the “we know you’ll need spare oil, so here’s a spot for it” cubby.

 

If anyone has any ideas in regards to it blocking the jump point I’m all ears. I was going to just stick some double sided tape on the plastic enclosure and mount it to the “we know you’ll need spare oil, so here’s a spot for it” c

I think if you compare the same location on the other side of the bulkhead,there is a bung available.

 

Can't help but feel a Karbonius carbon engine cover is in my future when I eventually place the order for the airbox...
Is there any benefit to running the vented vs the full covered carbon?

 

Just got word from the shop. Car made 336whp after the tune, on super poor 91 octane fuel.

Car baselined at 290whp on that same dyno, stock.

So I dropped around 70-80 pounds, and picked up 46whp, probably immensely improved throttle response, way better and more responsive (and consistent) stopping power, fixed all my leaks, fixed all the suspension wear.

Can't wait to pick the car up and take it for a rip. Lots of photos coming soon.

 

Wow that looks nice!

Poon

 

Thank you!

I think if you compare the same location on the other side of the bulkhead,there is a bung available.

The shop sent me some photos and we just settled on the double sided tape on the other side of the bulkhead attached to the plastic positive terminal box.

Kinda weird how Karb wouldn't engineer the bar to not interfere with that as they usually are on point with every single detail, but it is what it is.


Updates, shop went and bed the pads and rotors in for me. They required my permission as as most of you probably know it's a pretty damn aggressive process lol.

I also gave specific permission and a request for their racing driver to drive the balls off it, and not just do a basic test drive, as this is exactly how I will be driving it. I want to ensure that just because nothing broke on a cruise, nothing is going to break when it's pushed to it's screaming limit. I was told that the car rips, sounds amazing, and their driver felt it was such a well sorted M3 and that it was an absolute joy to drive.

This of course makes the 2 more days I have to wait to pick it up even more excruciating lol.

 

Going to pick up the car today! Here's a video of the induction noise from the airbox while they were working on the dyno tune.

Turner CSL Style Airbox - E46 M3 - YouTube

 

Going to pick up the car today! Here's a video of the induction noise from the airbox while they were working on the dyno tune.
Turner CSL Style Airbox - E46 M3 - YouTube

Sounds wicked. I can guarantee you the drive home will take longer than usual and you'll drive around listening to your airbox...

 

Photo dump from EAS. Comments in the post after the photos.

 

Looks nice in Alpine White! My ‘04 M3 vert is Silver Gray.

 

Dyno pull that made 338whp.

E46 M3 338whp Dyno Pull

 

Here was their dipstick modification choice by the way. Fully functional, not in the way of the strut tower brace or anything else, I can still easily check my oil level.

 

Finishing touch on the carbon airbox. I'll do this as well with my Karbonious one next year. $15 sticker on eBay from out of the country. Super happy with it. It's a metallic silver with very subtle metallic speckles, which is pretty period/OEM correct. Just a bit of jazzing up on all the carbon even if it is just a boring old Turner box.

 

One more thing to note. If you are in the SoCal area, I highly recommend European Auto Source for M work. They did a phenomenal job, and the attention to detail was really impressive. This surprised me to see and very pleasantly so.

My dash cam (ThinkWare U1000 with a rear window camera as well) has an option to plug it into a 12V cigarette style outlet, hardwire into an accessory fuse (so it kills power when you shut off the car) or to use a dedicated battery.

The battery weighs 2 pounds. It charges off of the main car battery when in use, and when the car shuts off, it can then continuously power both the front and rear cameras for 16 hours, or you can set it into a motion detection/collision detection mode to save power. It takes about 45 minutes of driving to fully charge the battery when hardwired.

I love their install location. Previously on my AMG, I had it installed under my seat. Stupid, as it misaligned my electric rails and I had to relocate it to the trunk and fix the rails. Instead of just sticking it under the trunk cover, they decided to run the wires through and install it right where the 6 CD changer was installed, that I had removed for pointless weight. It's nicely tucked up in a cubby and is easily accessible if necessary but completely hidden.

Absolutely love it.

 

Thoughts So Far

Now I've only driven the car maybe 50 miles. I drove it home in low traffic, then ran a couple errands in it just because I wanted to keep driving it a bit more.

Just wow. I never realized how sloppy my car was until after I've had all the bushings redone. The suspension can actually do its job now, I fully trust the steering, the gear action is just so crisp and connected as there is no more drivetrain slop (I really didn't even notice that slop, until it was gone) and everything just feels so solid and planted.

The seats. Absolutely love them. Their mounting solution was great. I also love how when you adjust the pitch of the backrest, and you go to use the lever to quickly drop the seat to let back passengers in, it doesn't just revert to fully back or something, it reverts to where the pitch was set before. Simple, I know, and what you'd expect from Recaro, but I appreciate that.
I will say they are quite firm, and my passenger and I both had back aches after about an hour in the car. I fully expect them to soften up significantly as they wear in, as I've sat in well used Sportster CS's and they were much softer. I do wish they had a bit more padding though, and a bit more lumbar support. Thankfully there is a massive aftermarket for these seats, so if I do, I can add that padding and reupholster them however I want, but they look amazing, grip you in tight with the cloth center, all while having a very easy to get in and out of bolster that likely won't experience a ton of wear as you don't have to slide or sit on top of them to drop in to the "bucket", as they really aren't designed to be a high bolstered bucket.

The brakes are great, but I definitely need to put more pressure into them. Initially it actually felt like I had less braking pressure than stock, but once I really dug into them, the thing STOPS. I might go for an uprated brake booster, but I'll need to do a lot more driving before making that decision.

The power. Yeah, absolutely it's noticeable. 45-50whp is definitely a noticeable difference, of course. But the throttle response is off the chain now. The car is just so responsive to your inputs, it's incredible.

And of course, the sound. Even if I picked up 0 horsepower, the car just FEELS so much faster due to how engaging the sound is. When under light throttle load, even at high RPM's, the induction noise is quiet, and you just hear the exhaust, which at light load is quiet. Once above 50% throttle, you can hear it growl. At wide open throttle, it is a face ripping growl, and sounds absolutely insane. I had a friend stand outside the car and I did a wide open pull, to get a gauge on how loud the exhaust is, because I can really not hear it, or at least can't distinguish it, over the induction noise at WOT.

They told me yeah, the exhaust is loud. Quite loud. But the induction noise apparently was so loud, they could hear it before they could even hear the exhaust, and it was LOUD at a distance, and when I came past at 7000+ RPM at WOT, it was overwhelming. They said it really reminded them a lot of old DTM race cars, which makes sense considering the ITB's, open airbox with zero noise insulation, and a high strung high RPM engine. They said that even as the car past and the loud exhaust became very apparent, they could still hear the induction noise at a very high volume, and said despite the exhaust being loud, the induction noise still made up easily 50% of the sound from the car despite me being quite a ways away at that point with the exhaust pipes pointing at them.

I had them raise my suspension a bit, and that did seem to mess with my damper settings, so I'll be playing with them to find a nice balance again. Next up is an alignment, to add a lot more camber up front to get that wicked turn in I really want.

Overall, I couldn't be happier, money extremely well spent.

I've got a dual microphone setup and will be placing one in the engine bay, and one near the exhaust and recording some driving videos to share here so people can get a sense of the experience. It really is that, an experience. Which to me, in a world of 1000 horsepower electric cars and insane turbocharged engines with sophisticated TC and ESC systems that a novice driver could hop in with poor form and zero HPDE experience could blast out massive speed with one hand in automatic mode... this car, with the sound, just the right amount of power, the looks (subtle, but elegant, classic, timeless, and beautiful) and the raw engagement of the steering, gear shift, etc just make it such an enjoyable experience to take part in.

 

Had some technical difficulties (GoPro not being tightened down enough on the good run, batteries dying on the auto recorder on subsequent runs) but this video did a pretty good job of nailing down the sound.

I learned a lot from this run and hopefully the next ones will be much better now that I figured out the little nuances and kinks of the recording setup.

This is pretty much what it sounds like as a driver. I'll likely be able to get it closer to real life in the future with a bit of tweaks to the audio recorder, but this is what I have for now.

Rode M5 in the engine bay, and one mounted on the rear bumper, both with dead cats on them.

E46 M3 Carbon Airbox + SuperSprint - YouTube

 

Had some technical difficulties (GoPro not being tightened down enough on the good run, batteries dying on the auto recorder on subsequent runs) but this video did a pretty good job of nailing down the sound.

I learned a lot from this run and hopefully the next ones will be much better now that I figured out the little nuances and kinks of the recording setup.

This is pretty much what it sounds like as a driver. I'll likely be able to get it closer to real life in the future with a bit of tweaks to the audio recorder, but this is what I have for now.

Rode M5 in the engine bay, and one mounted on the rear bumper, both with dead cats on them.

E46 M3 Carbon Airbox + SuperSprint - YouTube

What Radio is that?

 

Geesus... For a second there I preferred reading this thread over watching porn... I think I have a problem.

 

Is ther any place in the North East that does this type of work with this type of attention to detail?

 

I would start with @MrMCar if I was in that neck of the woods. If he doesn't do it he may know who does.

maw

 

Here's a few more sound clips now that I've got the kinks worked out of my recording setup.

338whp Naturally Aspirated E46 M3

Redline, 3rd through 5th and a bit of 6th.

 

Here's a few more sound clips now that I've got the kinks worked out of my recording setup.

338whp Naturally Aspirated E46 M3

E46 M3 - Carbon Airbox and SuperSprint Exhaust - Freeway Onramp and Top Gear

Good God, this is what i want to do with my M3. Sounds amazing. Still need to do my VANOS and Rear Subframe before i jump on mods though.

BTW your 2nd link doesnt work.

 

If you subscribe to the author of the first link on YT, the second vid is right there.

maw

 

On another note, how do I create for sale listings? Do I need a certain amount of posts, duration of membership, etc? Or am I just missing something? I have a set of SCZA headers, SCZA rasp eliminator pipe, and some other parts that I want so sell, and can't find a way to make a new thread in the for sale section. Thanks in advance.

 

Well, it's been a while guys.

Got a lot of stuff incoming. CSL carbon front bumper, CSL carbon rear diffuser, and +10mm carbon front fenders from Alsatek sourced from Euroconnex on their way to hit the body shop for paint matching and mounting.

Also replacing the Turner box with a box from Haimus Racing to pair with the CSL bumper to let me duct it straight into the intake snorkel, to help keep the IAT's down. I considered the Karb box, but after seeing the development that's been done on the Haimus unit that Euroconnex has documented, it's the one I went with.

To pair with the +10mm front fenders, I'm going to be getting a set of square 18x9.5 Apex EC7R's with 265 or 275 Michelin Cup 2's with more negative camber all around. I've really reached the max the chassis can bring to me even with a lot of suspension setup work, and it's just time for more grip.

I've also reached the limit on the stock StopTech pads that come with their big brake kit. No dust, quiet, but they are fading even in cold temps near the end of long hard canyon runs. Looking at EBC yellows or blues.

Here's a video with a dual mic setup for amazing sound that is pretty close to 1:1 with the sound the driver experiences.

YouTube

 

Well, it's been a while guys.

Got a lot of stuff incoming. CSL carbon front bumper, CSL carbon rear diffuser, and +10mm carbon front fenders from Alsatek sourced from Euroconnex on their way to hit the body shop for paint matching and mounting.

Also replacing the Turner box with a box from Haimus Racing to pair with the CSL bumper to let me duct it straight into the intake snorkel, to help keep the IAT's down. I considered the Karb box, but after seeing the development that's been done on the Haimus unit that Euroconnex has documented, it's the one I went with.

To pair with the +10mm front fenders, I'm going to be getting a set of square 18x9.5 Apex EC7R's with 265 or 275 Michelin Cup 2's with more negative camber all around. I've really reached the max the chassis can bring to me even with a lot of suspension setup work, and it's just time for more grip.

I've also reached the limit on the stock StopTech pads that come with their big brake kit. No dust, quiet, but they are fading even in cold temps near the end of long hard canyon runs. Looking at EBC yellows or blues.

Here's a video with a dual mic setup for amazing sound that is pretty close to 1:1 with the sound the driver experiences.

YouTube

Great to hear you are thinking of using EBC for your next brake upgrade!
If you purchase through the link in our signature you can get 10% off with discount code FORUM10USER

 

Great video!

So in hindsight, do you think (1) the airbox; (2) the electric fan (less parasitic power draw); (3) the headers; or (4) the tune, brought you the most power? Do you care to put them in order?

maw

 

Sick build! Are you running spacers up front for caliper clearance? I just picked up the same brakes and the guy I bought them from said he was running 17mm spacers on 19" ZCP wheels.