Greg's E46 Build

Let me start by saying this is a shameless re-post from the new member intro, but I figured it was a good place to start and I'll use this threat to post pics and details of all the mods on my car as I have time to sort through the pics (and do new things). So as a build thread, I feel less guilty about the repost :craig:

Until then!


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Hello everyone!

Greg here, Canadian living in Italy.

Let me start by saying that I am a massive car nut and that I bought an E46 as a project car back in early march. I've owned an E90 M3 but other than that have never been a huge BMW fan. Always had been in the Audi camp.

Until November I had an insane MK7 GTI (450+hp, with active diff, solid subframes, 15lbs wheels, the works). Unfortunately some dicks poured diesel on the road before a turn and I ended up in what could have easily been a fatal accident and the car was lost. It's a complicated situation and will likely be a year or more until I see some insurance money, so I just bought a completely beat Ford station wagon (oddly liberating as zero f**ks given). A few months later I felt I had to get something sporty, at least for the weekends, and I was missing RWD. So after looking at several cheap options I figured I would get an E46, just because of rear drive and decent power. I found the lightest most powerful config possible, a 330ci with no sunroof, 5 speed manual, and no xenon. Oriental blue. A color I didn't really like (my cars have always been silver or dark grey). A couple basic mods; intake, rear sway bar, maybe an LSD told myself that's all I need to have fun.

Right... :hi:


3 months later:

Sparco Trofeo 5 Bronze wheels, Sportmaxx RT2 tires
Every single suspension and chassis/subframe/diff/engine/trans bushing in polyurethane (27 in all)
solid aluminium steering knuckle
Brembo ventilated rotors
steel brake lines
EBC yellow pads
Sachs Sport shocks
Front and rear strut tower reinforcement plates
ST lowering springs
H&R adjustable swaybars F/R
Rear strut tower bar
K&N intake
iridium plugs
Schmiedmann headers and catted midpipes
Magnaflow muffler
Custom exhaust midsection (2x2" into 1x3")
short shifter
JB Racing 10lbs flywheel
fully rebuilt transmission (engagement pins were bad, may as well)
subframe reinforcement plates
superwhite bulbs
LED DRLs
crank pulley
hydraulic tensioner conversion
full AC delete including tensioner
all engine trim delete (filter housing, covers, underhood)
rear seat/trunk/toolkit/etc delete
radio/speakers delete with CSL block-off plate
Sparco R100 seats
3.38 rear diff
welded oil sprocket nut
lighter battery
Superchips 7200RPM tune
few cosmetic mods (all black interior from the tacky silver trim), blacked out silver trim on front bumper

Also did loads of maintenance such as all new water hoses, waterpump, fuel filter, thermostat, expansion tank, vacuum lines, intake tubing, ALL fluids, flex disk... I think I changed every consumable/wearable part of the car other than the wheel bearings.

I'm now almost done with the build, waiting for the transmission to get back after which I just need to run over everything, do some shaking down, and send off to the body shop to fix a ding to the fender. Ironically the LSD is the only part I havent fitted yet. I may weld the original one and see how I like that. The whole point of the car is hooning around and getting sideways a bit on all the amazing mountain roads we have here (Bologna, Italy).

In all my google searches on how to do all the work on the car (myself except for the tranny rebuild), this forum is the one that had the answers 80-90% of the time. So when I had to choose which one to sign up to the choice was obvious.

So just saying hello and a big thank you to all the members. I couldn't have built and gotten to know this car without all your posts and DIYs.

THANKS!

P.S. The car and colour are really growing on me :):)

Greg's E46 Build