Well I haven't updated this thread so I will post a few updates I had on my other build thread from the other forum all at once. Brace yourselves for some reading.
“I am still waiting for the brake rotors and FMIC to arrive. I got a bit pissed off about it; I paid a bit of a premium for a "local" Australian seller to supply me with the parts thinking they would have stock meaning faster delivery. But it appears they order from the exact same supplier as me and just being a middle man. To add salt the wound the American supplier had a "Black Friday sale" and all the stuff I ordered was on sale. Savings of over $500 compared to the US RRPT was on offer, I paid more than US RRPT in the first place. On the plus side I could have potentially saved myself of custom fees. But it is not helping.
I have been driving the car as little as possible and when I do take it out I can't go past 20% throttle so my frustration is growing.
High pressure fuel pump:
BMS oil catch can (attaches itself to the strut bar):
”
Now fast forward a few weeks:
“So long story short I got fucked around quite a bit with my order. So after several weeks of delays these arrived today.
My Evolution Racewerks FMIC, I optioned anodised black in hopes of keeping it relatively stealth:
ECS 2 piece front rotors, and also rear rotors:
The collection waiting to be fitted:
Since there were so many delays I bit the bullet and bought genuine F30 backing plates for the front rotors too. The new F30 3 series has a scoop style backing plate that can be retrofitted onto the 135i which helps the rotors run cooler. I figured it would be a worthwhile mod since I chose to go with cross drilled rotors that traditionally suffer from premature cracking if they get too hot. They should be here Thursday/Friday which is rather annoying since they were purchased from the US and weren't ordered until 2 weeks ago yet they appear to be arriving at a similar time as my brakes and FMIC from “Australia”.
Here is an example of a F30 backing plate retrofitted onto a 1 series. I stole these pictures off the other forum.
Stock:
F30:
”
Now at this point I didn’t update my build for a few months on the other forum too. But here is the “main update”.
“As I have mentioned back in November I had extended delays for the replacement parts due to a certain Australian seller messing me around. These parts finally arrived 1 week before I had annual leave for my holiday so it was decided to just wait it out till I returned to fit them. As a gesture of apology the seller offered compensation in the form of genuine European LCI Blackline taillights for free. This didn’t completely justify the delays but due to the gesture I decided to go ahead and order an ER charge pipe to change all my piping to aftermarket from him as a second chance. I wanted duel methanol bungs, the extended 2009+ version, along with a custom 38mm mount to allow me to fit my GFB BOV. In hindsight I should have ordered the pipe directly from ER myself.
So fast forward a few weeks and I am back in Perth. The brake backing plates I ordered has been sitting at the post office so I went to pick them up. My ER charge pipe I ordered along with the taillights however didn’t arrive. But… I could wait for those.
F30 backing plates:
The charge pipe wasn’t crucial so I took my car and the parts midweek to Josh at Galvsport. He worked quickly and the next day when I went to the workshop the new rotors, pads, titanium shims, braided lines, and backing plates were already on. I was rather impressed with his meth fuelled pace.
Front brakes (repost):
New backing plates with extra airflow:
Rear brakes:
The car wasn’t a high priority so I told Josh to take his time. I went in on Saturday to aid in fitting the FMIC due to the fact it required a bit of cutting of the front bumper and support. Josh was not too keen on this. Upon arriving I was greeted with the fact that the fuel pump was already replaced along with all the fluids, and the M3 sway bar. I didn’t trust the BMW “long life” fluids so I decided to get some changed out to something I trusted more. The engine oil, gearbox oil, differential oil, and brake fluid was changed.
New Motul/AP Racing fluids:
The old piece of shit fuel pump:
It was also a good idea to change the spark plugs since it was unknown how long the plugs have been in there along with the fact the car was running in limp mode in the past.
Engine bay looks quite different without the abundance of plastic (less):
Old vs new plugs:
So it became quite obvious that the intercooler was far from direct replacement, it was significantly deeper and slightly wider so quite a bit of plastic was required to be trimmed off. The original plan was to do this with the bumper on but it was obvious that the task would be much simpler if the bumper was taken off. We put the car back on the ground and armed with an angle grinder I got to work. For those playing at home, please for the love of god. Use safety glasses.
Stock FMIC vs Evolution Racewerks:
Rather tight fit:
Ah me blowby:
This had to go:
Me + car + unguarded angle grinder (semi success). Just don’t ask about the hot plastic in my eye:
The intercooler still wouldn’t fit so more had to be chopped off:
More tools + safety glasses = success:
The anodised black finish really helps with the stealth theme:
We ran out of time on Saturday so instead of rushing the job we decided to complete it another day. Josh helped me fit my BMS oil catch can as well, he did notice that one of the supplied lines was in fact heater hose which is not rated for oil use so he went ahead and changed it for me. It was a good thing he installed it rather than me, I would have just chucked it on without realising. Just goes to show the level of care Josh takes.
I went ahead and cleared the fault codes and service intervals; after a few initial gremlins were sorted the car was up and running again. The feeling was bliss. It was initially weird to start the car without a fault code showing up on the dashboard after being plagued with HPFP failure for so long. A new map was loaded from the Cobb and we went for a spin. Having full boost was a sensation that I had missed for quite a while. I was excited to get the car fully tuned soon to find out the true potential.
No fault code, bliss:
At this point I realise it is already 1am and that I have an on site meeting at 7am. I really wanted to finish this thread update tonight but I really should sleep. The photos are already uploaded so I will make my best effort to complete this build thread tomorrow night. Until then I hope you guys are semi entertained.
At least I ended it on a high note...”
I posted this the following night.
“So the show must go on. The last post stopped at me picking up a running car, the brake upgrades seemed to be working quite well however there is an initial clunking when going from forward to reverse and vice versa. The Ferodos aren’t a 100% perfect fit so they do move around in the calliper a tiny bit causing the noise. I have enquired about it and I have been ensured it is common and nothing to worry about. The power bump also seemed to be making the car fun to drive at last. I still didn’t trust the email tune so a milder map was loaded; the car still had boost oscillation along with a timing correction issue at 2000rpm so a proper full tune was due in the near future.
In the meantime I finally fitted the replacement 3rd brake light that broke in the original post. GT Graphics helped me apply a clear vinyl over the broken light in the past whist I was waiting for the replacement and it was holding up surprisingly well. This resulted in me being quite slack and unmotivated to fit the new light, it required a bit of metal to be shaved off which registered it as a too hard basket.
New revised light vs old:
This had to be removed:
After the tab was shaved I had to touch up the raw metal. I used a bit of touch up paint from the Celica (I may have cursed it):
Following the theme of lights these Blacklines finally arrived:
During the brake upgrade it was originally planned for Josh to modify my stock N54 mid pipes by removing the two factory cats. There was a slight hiccup in the process and out of dumb luck a set of Berk mid pipes popped up for sale in excellent condition in Australia. I originally wanted these due to the fact not only do they get rid of the two cat converters and also the standard resonator, it also increases the pipe diameter from 2x 2.25” to 2x 2.5”. The main issue was the exuberant cost of getting them from the US, so without much thought I pulled the trigger.
They arrived and coincidently my ER charge pipe finally arrived too (only a 2 month purchase date difference):
Unfortunately after the delay with the ER charge pipe upon opening the box I realised there are a few issues. I wanted dual methanol bungs in case I decide to run methanol injection in the near future. The pipe did not have any methanol bungs fitted. Additionally I wanted to run my own GFB BOV, I liked the option of adjusting from atmospheric to plumb back whenever I felt like it. This resulted in the need for a 38mm pipe mount, when I looked at the pipe it appears they have added a lip in the middle of the pipe resulting in the inability to fit the BOV. It took a few weeks of back and forth but I managed to get the seller to order a completely new pipe. I was not happy with his suggestion of just “fixing” the pipe. When I asked him questions such as where does ER fit the bungs for atomisation points, re anodising the pipe, and also ensuring a perfect fit. He couldn’t give me any decent response. Considering the issues I had with this seller in the past I didn’t want to take any chances.
ER charge pipe with no meth bungs:
Incorrect mount:
Nevertheless I was still excited to fit the Berk mid pipes. These brought me one step closer to getting a full tune; additionally they would add a subtle bark to the exhaust note. So off I went to visit Josh to chuck the car on the hoist once again. The mid pipes looked quite decent and after a few choice words they were fitted to the car. I must admit I had a certain sound hyped up in my head so when I initially fired it up I was quite disappointed. The car still lacked an aggressive note but part of the reason I kept the stock muffler was to add to the stealth factor of the car. However through time I have noticed the car has in fact got a new more aggressive note with a bit of a volume increase at WOT. At idle and sedate driving it still stayed well under the radar. More to the fact with a larger diameter and the removal of the cats I was no longer concerned about the mid pipes causing a restriction to flow.
I still added high flow cats to the exhaust after removing the four stock ones to keep the car legal. Knowing this fact someone kindly threw my N54 pipes out to the local tip since I would no longer need them.
Berk mid pipes vs stock N54:
So now onto the next thing, Racewars was coming up and I wanted to make sure the car was safe to run so a tune was organised with ASG. The car was performing relatively drama free so I was quite relaxed as the dates came closer. Besides the tune I only needed new front tyres, Perth was out of stock for the matching RS-R’s but since I had time I was not worried and ordered in a set from Demon Tweeks.
All was well and on a certain Sunday a group of us went out, my car reinstated its Hertz Rental status and somebody else was given the keys. My tyres also arrived the a few days before and due to my limited boot space the person sitting on the passenger seat was required to hug one of them during the drive to dinner. I won’t place all the blame on what happened to this one driver since multiple people have driven the car in the past along with me. More importantly we all share one common denominator, we all lack mechanical sympathy. However it is quite apparent that my clutch was significantly burnt out that day, on one occasion even his wife stated, “that smells horrible”.
Hertz rental, I won’t name the driver. I don’t want to rat out Shannon like that:
So the next day as I was driving up a hill I noticed my revs climbs on boost whilst my speed didn’t. I tested it a few more times but it became apparent what the issue was. I have experienced this a few times in the past… My clutch was on the way out. I made a few calls enquiring about replacement clutches however they were quite expensive even as a stock replacement. This inevitably triggered me to look into upgrades, a few moments later I decided I want to try and replace the duel mass flywheel with a single mass conversion along with a stronger clutch. There weren’t many options so I sent a few enquiries about what was already on the market. I still had 3 weeks before Racewars so there was still a chance I could make it. What made things slightly difficult was that I was going to Melbourne for the F1 the next day.
Whilst in Melbourne I was still making enquiries about getting the upgraded clutch and flywheel but due to the custom nature of the package it was growingly adherent that I couldn’t get it made/sent/installed in time. The final nail in the coffin was the call I received from ASG, it turns out they couldn’t tune my 135i due to the fact the Cobb tuning software they have is only for the R35s. I was left with no choice but to pull out from the event.
At this point in time I am still waiting for my new clutch and flywheel, once that is installed and the car is 100% repaired I will speak to ASG again. I have the software for my individual ECU from Cobb so I will have to speak to Sean about using my version to tune the car in the future.
Additionally after another 2 months my replacement ER charge pipe has finally arrived, I finally opened the box just now and it appears to be correct this time. I will also install this in the near future along with finally fitting the Blacklines.
Replacement ER charge pipe with correct BOV mount and meth bungs:
Additionally here are some photos I randomly took using my phone; I will bring out my DSLR one day for proper pictures:
So as the typical tag line goes in my build threads. “Hopefully the next update is good news.””
I still haven’t replaced the clutch however I did do this the other night.
“So still no real progress but I did finally get around to installing the LCI Blackline tail lights tonight. I probably should have done this earlier; the car does look nicer with them on.
You might also notice the spoiler was missing in some of the photos. The double sided tape was failing and it was slightly wonky. So it was torn off once again and refitted. This time it is almost perfect.
Out with the old:
Old vs new lights off:
Old vs new lights on:
Completed with CF spoiler back on:
”
Well this make this 1Addict thread to catch up to the other one. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it and I will keep you posted when the new driveline gets fitted.