Post a pic of your car as it sits currently

[ItsMeScottG]

Originally Posted by AaronGTR

This looks very familiar to me! Almost exactly like my buddies 2000 323ci that I did a ton of work on.

Yep a fellow e46. Different car all together though, the 2.5l that's in the 323 is nothing like the m54, not to mention the brakes, the suspension, the exterior/interior, and the nice little improvements that the ZHP had. Same platform, different internals

Mines a 2005 so it's a facelift, your friends must be a prefacelift e46. How long has he had his car?

[AaronGTR]

Originally Posted by ItsMeScottG

Yep a fellow e46. Different car all together though, the 2.5l that's in the 323 is nothing like the m54, not to mention the brakes, the suspension, the exterior/interior, and the nice little improvements that the ZHP had. Same platform, different internals

Mines a 2005 so it's a facelift, your friends must be a prefacelift e46. How long has he had his car?

He doesn't own it anymore. He sold it a couple years ago and bought a range rover sport. I think he bought it in like '04 though from someone in Georgia. Was a low miles dentists car. The engine bay looked almost exactly like yours. We did put an intake on it though with a different air box. I also helped him do some HID projector headlights with the LED halos, clear/smoked corners, flat black grills, black/CF rondels, a trunk lip spoiler, LED tails, 19" M3 CSL replica wheels, and M3 CSL replica front bumper with a CF lip molded on and paint matched. It was helrot red. Looked pretty nice for a basic coupe and still got good gas mileage. The 19" wheels kept getting bent and leaking air though so he replaced them with some different 18's later.

His engine bay looked almost exactly like yours though, so the engines must have been similar, even if the displacements were different.

[ItsMeScottG]

Originally Posted by AaronGTR

He doesn't own it anymore. He sold it a couple years ago and bought a range rover sport. I think he bought it in like '04 though from someone in Georgia. Was a low miles dentists car. The engine bay looked almost exactly like yours. We did put an intake on it though with a different air box. I also helped him do some HID projector headlights with the LED halos, clear/smoked corners, flat black grills, black/CF rondels, a trunk lip spoiler, LED tails, 19" M3 CSL replica wheels, and M3 CSL replica front bumper with a CF lip molded on and paint matched. It was helrot red. Looked pretty nice for a basic coupe and still got good gas mileage. The 19" wheels kept getting bent and leaking air though so he replaced them with some different 18's later.

His engine bay looked almost exactly like yours though, so the engines must have been similar, even if the displacements were different.

Yeah well all of BMW's inline6 engines look very simular

The 323 came with a m52 2.5l inline6 and the 325 came wth a better 2.5l inline6 engine, the 330 came with the m54 3.0l inline6 engine, and the 330 ZHP (what I have) came with a tuned m54 3.0l inline 6 engine, and lastly the best of the e46 (the M3) came with an S54 3.2L inline 6 engine.

I love the power band on the inline6's though, you can literally always feel the torque. Butter smooth acceleration etc. These engines are reliable I must say, my car has 152k on it and still runs like it's brand new. Maitinance is costing me quite a bit more than my grand am did but I'm really enjoying the car so I don't mind it.

[AaronGTR]

Yeah, those inline sixes are inherently very smooth engines, and have very good torque curves. He would get an occasional check engine light from a cam position sensor (we replaced it but it still gave issues every now and then), and I had to replace the T-stat housing and coolant tank on it for him. Other than that, the only stuff we had to do on it was basic maintenance... replaced spark plugs, changed trans fluid/filter and diff fluid, brake pads, etc.

The chassis and engine/trans were in really good shape still when he sold it. The only really annoying thing was the interior was coming apart. BMW had some kind of film finish over most of the interior parts like the dash, door panels, speaker grills, etc. that was all peeling off, and there were some trim pieces around the door openings that kept coming loose and falling off. The heat would make the glue fail. The fabric on the head liner was coming off too and billowing in the wind.

[ItsMeScottG]

Originally Posted by AaronGTR

Yeah, those inline sixes are inherently very smooth engines, and have very good torque curves. He would get an occasional check engine light from a cam position sensor (we replaced it but it still gave issues every now and then), and I had to replace the T-stat housing and coolant tank on it for him. Other than that, the only stuff we had to do on it was basic maintenance... replaced spark plugs, changed trans fluid/filter and diff fluid, brake pads, etc.

The chassis and engine/trans were in really good shape still when he sold it. The only really annoying thing was the interior was coming apart. BMW had some kind of film finish over most of the interior parts like the dash, door panels, speaker grills, etc. that was all peeling off, and there were some trim pieces around the door openings that kept coming loose and falling off. The heat would make the glue fail. The fabric on the head liner was coming off too and billowing in the wind.

Yep I've redone 100% of my interior with new genuine parts, car looks brand new. First thing I did to the car was revamp the coolant system. It's been very reliable so far.

[geldartb]

and now it's in it's winter form

[_HeC_]

Snow melted so been enjoying my swap! Parked next to buddies 4x4 at work

[TruGreenGAGT]

dam that thing low. what suspension you running?

[_HeC_]

Canucks on stock struts hopefully going lower over winter

[TruGreenGAGT]

like lower when the springs settle? or you doing something different?

[_HeC_]

something different.... Koni yellows with ground control coils and a few other things

[TruGreenGAGT]

nice nice, im gunna have to look for some canucks for mine and get new struts I think mine original from 01

[geldartb]

went out to get more alcohol and i brought a real camera this time.

[xUnderCoverHoBo]

i now know the struggle of getting drunk and then running out.... late night trips of being dropped at the liquor store. haha

[xUnderCoverHoBo]

mike are those plastidipped or painted btw? im guessing plastidip

[geldartb]

Originally Posted by xUnderCoverHoBo

i now know the struggle of getting drunk and then running out.... late night trips of being dropped at the liquor store. haha

hadn't even started drinking yet but i figured i might as well clean out the back of my car so it doesn't look like i'm an alcoholic and i really didn't want to go shopping on friday even if it was only to the liquor store..

use to be even better before my friend moved.. he lived in the center of a small town so all we had to do is walk to the liquor store. now that was nice. go for a small walk

[_HeC_]

Originally Posted by TruGreenGAGT

nice nice, im gunna have to look for some canucks for mine and get new struts I think mine original from 01

Mine will be up for grabs some time over the winter as long as my plans work out but shipping across the border usually sucks

Originally Posted by xUnderCoverHoBo

mike are those plastidipped or painted btw? im guessing plastidip

talking to me about my rims or someone else?

[TruGreenGAGT]

whats with the driver door gap on that Subaru??

[geldartb]

Originally Posted by TruGreenGAGT

whats with the driver door gap on that Subaru??

door wasn't closed all the way..

[TruGreenGAGT]

oh ok makes sense. I was looking at other edges and it looked closed to me