Nice work. Really coming together.
Red hood is eye catching.
Red hood is eye catching.
AlexGSi2000's Z3
- Thread starter AlexGSi2000
- Start date
AlexGSi2000
Dedicated Member
Had my first "spirited" run since the engine swap over the weekend, managed to get out around North Wales late one evening.
The car has now ticked the box of rekindling the fun I used to have when I first started driving.
The car feels like it has the right amount of power, doesn't feel like its lacking.
The next immediate area is as I fully expected - brakes.
The current brakes put a stop (pardon the pun) to all the fun at one-point whilst I was out - long downhill section with lots of twisties, started loosing the pedal so had to back off.
Granted I've not even looked at the brakes whilst Ive had the car - I suspect they will be just cheap pads, discs don't look like they've been changed in a while as the pads don't seem to be contacting the entire surface.
Luckily, I purchased a set of 330i brakes from Andyboy a few months ago which are sat waiting to go on.
I've ordered a caliper rebuild kit - just to freshen them up, along with a set of Bosch pads & ATE Typ200 fluid.
Always found the standard Bosch pads to be quite good for road use, I was tempted to go for the likes of PBS / Ferodo DS2500, however being fairly conscious of cost I'll see how the £35 Bosch pads go for now, if improvements or a track day looms, I'll go for something a little more suited to higher temperatures.
Once the brakes are on - hopefully by the end of the week, that should be enough to satisfy me for this season.
Progress will more than likely slow down / halt until next year, the plan for then will be to refresh the front end - all the suspension arms / bushes.etc look original to the car, so will be replacing those and polybushing wherever I can, along with a set of camber plates for the coilovers.
The car feels like it would benefit from a proper suspension / geometry setup and perhaps even corner weighting - will focus on refreshing the suspension components first.
The only other upgrade it may see in the interim other than the brakes is a new radiator - the current radiator fitted is original, it looks like there may be a slight weep from the smaller upper pipe - I suspect its probably gone a little brittle so I dare touch it. I've seen a few aluminium radiators on eBay for the same price as an OEM radiator - so may be tempted by one of those.
I may be taking the car over to France early September, if that's the case I'll get it replaced.
The car has now ticked the box of rekindling the fun I used to have when I first started driving.
The car feels like it has the right amount of power, doesn't feel like its lacking.
The next immediate area is as I fully expected - brakes.
The current brakes put a stop (pardon the pun) to all the fun at one-point whilst I was out - long downhill section with lots of twisties, started loosing the pedal so had to back off.
Granted I've not even looked at the brakes whilst Ive had the car - I suspect they will be just cheap pads, discs don't look like they've been changed in a while as the pads don't seem to be contacting the entire surface.
Luckily, I purchased a set of 330i brakes from Andyboy a few months ago which are sat waiting to go on.
I've ordered a caliper rebuild kit - just to freshen them up, along with a set of Bosch pads & ATE Typ200 fluid.
Always found the standard Bosch pads to be quite good for road use, I was tempted to go for the likes of PBS / Ferodo DS2500, however being fairly conscious of cost I'll see how the £35 Bosch pads go for now, if improvements or a track day looms, I'll go for something a little more suited to higher temperatures.
Once the brakes are on - hopefully by the end of the week, that should be enough to satisfy me for this season.
Progress will more than likely slow down / halt until next year, the plan for then will be to refresh the front end - all the suspension arms / bushes.etc look original to the car, so will be replacing those and polybushing wherever I can, along with a set of camber plates for the coilovers.
The car feels like it would benefit from a proper suspension / geometry setup and perhaps even corner weighting - will focus on refreshing the suspension components first.
The only other upgrade it may see in the interim other than the brakes is a new radiator - the current radiator fitted is original, it looks like there may be a slight weep from the smaller upper pipe - I suspect its probably gone a little brittle so I dare touch it. I've seen a few aluminium radiators on eBay for the same price as an OEM radiator - so may be tempted by one of those.
I may be taking the car over to France early September, if that's the case I'll get it replaced.
AlexGSi2000
Dedicated Member
August Update;
The past month I've mainly been enjoying the car and making use of the nice warm summer evenings, really puts a smile on my face this car every time I drive it, which unfortunately means its much easier to open the ole' wallet from time to time.
I've driven around 700 miles with the 3.0 - in which time its allowed me to shake down and reaveal any areas that need attention, which I'll get to a little further down this post.
In terms of improvements, after cooking the standard front brakes I fitted the e46 330i calipers and discs I purchased a few months earlier. In preperation I stripped down the calipers and rebuilt with new pistons.
I fitted standard Bosch pads, which I have always found to be quite decent for road use, I've seen them as the final OEM pad before moving to more specialist pads such as Ferodo DS2500, with the bigger discs my thoughts were that OEM pads should be more than sufficient, however on the same drive I did previously, they did start to complain, albeit a little further down the road than the original brakes did - that said, I think I will have been braking a little harder and later with the 330i brakes.
I did flush out the system using ATE Typ200 also. If the car sees a trackday in the future I will be investing in a set of hotter pads.
(excuse the overspray - I gave the edges / inners a quick hit before fitting)
The next purchase was a used (new) Mishimoto radiator. The radiator on the car was original, there was an ever so slight amount of pink residue on certain areas where small amounts of coolant had leaked and crystalized / sealed - so it was always my intention to address prior to any long trips. With a trip to the border of Switzerland planned in early September, I thought it would be prudent to replace.
I had been keeping an eye on a few aluminium rads on ebay for around the £150 price point, a few weeks after a boxed Mishimoto radiator was advertised on Facebook market place.
The chap had began accumulating parts for a Z3 track project but it never materialised, it was unused, so had to nab it before anyone else did - pretty much half the cost of a new one.
Many people who have fitted the Mishimoto radiators have ditched the viscous fan and fitted a slim electric unit due to space constraints. I found I was just about able to fit the viscous fan and also trim / modify the shroud to fit.
Still pulls a reasonable amount of air through and will idle all day at 93c, so Im confident enough its sufficient.
With those additions out of the way, it was time to address a couple of things I had noticed - wet patches under the car, both Oil and coolant.
When I had the gearbox off for the second time to replace the clutch, I thought the rear main looked like it was too proud - I knocked it back a little into the recess. Turns out, it was actually fine and then I went and messed it up
Back off with the gearbox and in with a replacement main - I've had the car running for around 30 mins since it was replaced, seems OK again up to now.
Coolant leak was from one of the hard plastic lines under the intake manifold, I replaced these pipes before I fitted the engine - I obviously fitted one of them quite badly, not even sure how its possible to do this to a pair of O-Rings, but it happened!
Replaced the O-rings using plenty of grease on the way in, not driven on it yet, but seemed fine when idling.
The final issue I had since the engine replacement was a lumpy idle - almost to the point it sounded like a cammed car.
Would stutter continually when warm with the occasional misfire / hesitation - seemed fine when driving however.
I dismissed it for the first 500 miles, but it started bugging me as I knew something wasnt quite right.
I started by scanning for codes - it showed a fault with the exhaust cam position sensor, I feared that it may have highlighted a defect with my timing when doing the chain, I had a spare sensor from the 2.2 engine and swapped them over.
This resolved the fault thankfully, however it still ran the same.
After a few miles, two new faults were generated - fuel enrichment threshold hit maximum values for both banks.
This would typically point to an unmetered air leak past the MAF sensor, I couldnt understand why as all the intake boots / pipes were replaced when I refreshed the engine, I emptied a can of brake cleaner around that area with the engine running and it made no difference, so I was confident I didnt have an air leak.
By chance I disconnected the MAF to see how it ran in closed loop (I think its closed), the engine immediately settled down and ran as smooth as anything.
Turns out the Delphi MAF I purchased as part of the engine swap was defective and wasn't metering air correctly.
I was advised not to skimp on the MAF, aulthough I thought the Delphi would have been a good middle of the road option at £70.
Replaced it for a Pierburg unit - my word, what a difference. Not only does it idle as smooth as butter, but there is a tangible change in performance.
Also replaced the fuel cap seal for good measure as I was getting quite an odour of fuel - especially when pushing on through the corners.
The gearbox oil has also been changed for a slightly thicker 75-90, which as reduced the "chatter" under light load.
The soft top also had a few coats of Renovo followed by some Fabsil to tidy it up a little.
Thats it for now - I think the car is as ready as it can be for its trip over to Switzerland in a few weeks time.
I was toying with taking the daily, but where is the fun in that?
I shal report back after the trip!
The past month I've mainly been enjoying the car and making use of the nice warm summer evenings, really puts a smile on my face this car every time I drive it, which unfortunately means its much easier to open the ole' wallet from time to time.
I've driven around 700 miles with the 3.0 - in which time its allowed me to shake down and reaveal any areas that need attention, which I'll get to a little further down this post.
In terms of improvements, after cooking the standard front brakes I fitted the e46 330i calipers and discs I purchased a few months earlier. In preperation I stripped down the calipers and rebuilt with new pistons.
I fitted standard Bosch pads, which I have always found to be quite decent for road use, I've seen them as the final OEM pad before moving to more specialist pads such as Ferodo DS2500, with the bigger discs my thoughts were that OEM pads should be more than sufficient, however on the same drive I did previously, they did start to complain, albeit a little further down the road than the original brakes did - that said, I think I will have been braking a little harder and later with the 330i brakes.
I did flush out the system using ATE Typ200 also. If the car sees a trackday in the future I will be investing in a set of hotter pads.
(excuse the overspray - I gave the edges / inners a quick hit before fitting)
The next purchase was a used (new) Mishimoto radiator. The radiator on the car was original, there was an ever so slight amount of pink residue on certain areas where small amounts of coolant had leaked and crystalized / sealed - so it was always my intention to address prior to any long trips. With a trip to the border of Switzerland planned in early September, I thought it would be prudent to replace.
I had been keeping an eye on a few aluminium rads on ebay for around the £150 price point, a few weeks after a boxed Mishimoto radiator was advertised on Facebook market place.
The chap had began accumulating parts for a Z3 track project but it never materialised, it was unused, so had to nab it before anyone else did - pretty much half the cost of a new one.
Many people who have fitted the Mishimoto radiators have ditched the viscous fan and fitted a slim electric unit due to space constraints. I found I was just about able to fit the viscous fan and also trim / modify the shroud to fit.
Still pulls a reasonable amount of air through and will idle all day at 93c, so Im confident enough its sufficient.
With those additions out of the way, it was time to address a couple of things I had noticed - wet patches under the car, both Oil and coolant.
When I had the gearbox off for the second time to replace the clutch, I thought the rear main looked like it was too proud - I knocked it back a little into the recess. Turns out, it was actually fine and then I went and messed it up
Back off with the gearbox and in with a replacement main - I've had the car running for around 30 mins since it was replaced, seems OK again up to now.
Coolant leak was from one of the hard plastic lines under the intake manifold, I replaced these pipes before I fitted the engine - I obviously fitted one of them quite badly, not even sure how its possible to do this to a pair of O-Rings, but it happened!
Replaced the O-rings using plenty of grease on the way in, not driven on it yet, but seemed fine when idling.
The final issue I had since the engine replacement was a lumpy idle - almost to the point it sounded like a cammed car.
Would stutter continually when warm with the occasional misfire / hesitation - seemed fine when driving however.
I dismissed it for the first 500 miles, but it started bugging me as I knew something wasnt quite right.
I started by scanning for codes - it showed a fault with the exhaust cam position sensor, I feared that it may have highlighted a defect with my timing when doing the chain, I had a spare sensor from the 2.2 engine and swapped them over.
This resolved the fault thankfully, however it still ran the same.
After a few miles, two new faults were generated - fuel enrichment threshold hit maximum values for both banks.
This would typically point to an unmetered air leak past the MAF sensor, I couldnt understand why as all the intake boots / pipes were replaced when I refreshed the engine, I emptied a can of brake cleaner around that area with the engine running and it made no difference, so I was confident I didnt have an air leak.
By chance I disconnected the MAF to see how it ran in closed loop (I think its closed), the engine immediately settled down and ran as smooth as anything.
Turns out the Delphi MAF I purchased as part of the engine swap was defective and wasn't metering air correctly.
I was advised not to skimp on the MAF, aulthough I thought the Delphi would have been a good middle of the road option at £70.
Replaced it for a Pierburg unit - my word, what a difference. Not only does it idle as smooth as butter, but there is a tangible change in performance.
Also replaced the fuel cap seal for good measure as I was getting quite an odour of fuel - especially when pushing on through the corners.
The gearbox oil has also been changed for a slightly thicker 75-90, which as reduced the "chatter" under light load.
The soft top also had a few coats of Renovo followed by some Fabsil to tidy it up a little.
Thats it for now - I think the car is as ready as it can be for its trip over to Switzerland in a few weeks time.
I was toying with taking the daily, but where is the fun in that?
I shal report back after the trip!
Last edited:
AlexGSi2000
Dedicated Member
1,500 miles covered within three days - the Z3 did me proud.
Left Liverpool on Thursday evening headed for the French/Swiss border, arrived Friday mid-day.
Left France Sunday afternoon returning at Liverpool at 5am Monday.
Weather was horrendous from Remis heading back towards the tunnel. Dark, torrential rain, very windy but the Z3 soldiered on.
Didn't miss a beat, not so much of a stutter, around 0.9l of oil consumed.
Granted the gearbox was already tired, but it didn't seem to get any worse.
Engine was sat at 4,000rpm at 80mph most of the way, I assume this will be a little lower once I swap the box to the ZF320.
Averaged around 28mpg.
Some obligatory photos;
Now time for a well earned wash and wax. I envisage she wont see much more use before being kept away for the winter months.
Left Liverpool on Thursday evening headed for the French/Swiss border, arrived Friday mid-day.
Left France Sunday afternoon returning at Liverpool at 5am Monday.
Weather was horrendous from Remis heading back towards the tunnel. Dark, torrential rain, very windy but the Z3 soldiered on.
Didn't miss a beat, not so much of a stutter, around 0.9l of oil consumed.
Granted the gearbox was already tired, but it didn't seem to get any worse.
Engine was sat at 4,000rpm at 80mph most of the way, I assume this will be a little lower once I swap the box to the ZF320.
Averaged around 28mpg.
Some obligatory photos;
Now time for a well earned wash and wax. I envisage she wont see much more use before being kept away for the winter months.