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      11-04-2021, 06:39 PM   #1
dmytro98
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Drives: bmw 128i coupe
Join Date: Mar 2019
Location: Colorado Springs

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Weekend/Track car build

Thought it was about time to start a build thread to track the progression, and I'm deployed right now so I just have time to kill.

October 2020| Buying the car and transferring parts
I had a 2013 auto 128i and had been searching for a good deal on a manual one for quite some time until I found this one. 2009 with 59k miles, sport package, premium package, and winter package all for 8k which I thought was a steal.

The first couple weeks I spent swapping over the few mods I had on the auto including the exhaust, injen intake, dinan fixed camber plates and m3 front control arms. The auto car also had the eibach front sway which I left on it since I thought it was too stiff and made the car understeer even more than it already did from the factory.

November 2020 | Subframe bushings and Oil cooler
Installed some used whiteline subframe bushings to replace the stock ones. I had a set on the auto car aswell but it was far easier to order another set instead of swapping them out.

At this point the car was setup about the same as the last and where I decided I want to use this car as a weekend/track toy instead of a daily.

First issue I knew I needed to address was cooling. I drove this car pretty hard on backroads, and at the elevation I was (up to 10,000 feet for some of the higher roads) I was often sending the car into limp mode. I had a feeling it was either coolant or oil temps but didn't have a way of checking until I had a friend come along and hold my laptop with INPA open and keep an eye on the temps. The oil temp hit a little over 300f which is when It got sent into limp mode. So I knew I needed an oil cooler. I ended up going the OEM route and retrofitting a 135/335i n54 oil cooler for about $200 from ebay which included all the OEM hoses and brackets. When installing I had to very slightly bend some of the AC lines to fit the oil cooler lines but besides that, it was a direct bolt-on. Ever since this, I have had no issues with being sent into limp mode.

I also got a cheap universal gauge to monitor oil/coolant temps that I mounted on the driver-side ac vent.

March 2021 | Bumper, Brakes, Coilover, Rear Suspension arms

During the winter I spent some time creating a nice stack of parts to install. First on the list was brakes. I got a set of used 335i front calipers and a set of 328i rear calipers which I paid about $200 for. I painstakingly cleaned this up with brake cleaner, degreaser, and a wire brush before painting them with some black G2 caliper paint which turned out pretty nice although next time I think I would just pay someone to powder coat them because this process was a pain in the ass. After I had the rotors prepped I went to do a test fit since I wasn't sure if they would fit with the stock 17" wheels and a set of 10mm spacer. They didn't. I had to use 20mm spacers to make them clear the calipers upfront. After I knew it actually fit I installed them with Zimmerman rotors and Ferodo ds2500 pads all around. These brakes felt great but I couldn't properly test them out since I was still on my winter setup.

Next was the front bumper. I actually bought this as a replacement for my last car but since it took so long to ship and paint It ended up going on this car. It was the slim 1m style front bumper with the 1m ducts. I mounted the passenger side duct to the oil cooler to give it some additional airflow. I also cut out the fake side vent that the bumper came with the plans to make those brake ducts.

Now it was time for the big suspension overhaul. I found a set of pretty beat-up ohlins from an e90 (mi00 kit) for only $400. I sent these over to Barry from 3DM to be rebuilt and revealed since the original springs that came with these were far softer than what I was going to use. I went with 70/120nm swift springs as a recommendation from barry along with a poly rear shock mount. I ended up installing these at the same time with a couple of the Megan racing adjustable control arms. I got the camber, upper trailing arms and toe arms to gain some adjustability but also to replace the stock rubber bushings with the pillow ball that these arms used. Since I installed these part at the same time it was hard to feel what each part improved, but at this point the car felt amazing even before I got an alignment. Each bump felt so controlled.

April 2021 | Wheels and Tires

I had ordered a set of wheels from apex during their black Friday special and had just received them now due to a handful of delay. I got the 17x8.5 et 40 hyper silver Arc 8's and a set of 235/45r17 Nexen Sur4g tires. The wheels looked amazing on the car but I had a few issues with fitment. After having the rear rolled I was still experiencing quite a bit of rubbing so I had to increase the rear camber from 1.8 to 2.8. The fronts were also still rubbing, but very slightly where the bumper attaches to the fender even after having the fenders rolled and slightly pulled. I was able to live with this since it only rubbed on massive bumps. The aggressive alignment 0 toe all around with 2.5/2.8 degrees of camber combined with the sticky rubber made the car feel like a whole new car. Turn in response was amazing and there was just so much more grip than I was used to since I've never tried anything better than a 350tw 205.

All of these mods made the car feel great at high speed which is where I think the car really struggled in stock form.

May 2021 | Weight Reduction and first track day

The stock seats were super comfy for a long road trip but with their lack of blustering and high weight, I knew they had to go. To replace them I ordered 2 Sparco grid q seats which only weigh 15lbs per seat compared to about 50lbs stock seats was a massive weight savings. I used a planted seat base and side mount to install the seats and mounted the buckles from the rear seat onto the seat mount to retain the factory 3 point belt. This is when I realized people who have bucket seats in there daily are crazy. These seats hold me in great but the combination of how annoying it is to get into them, and the fact that they have minimal padding makes them terrible for daily driving.

After all these mods I finally had time to try it all out on the track. I went to highplains raceway and the car performed great. I was able to stay out for the full 30 min sessions with oil and coolant temps not being a concern but this was on a cooler day (80f max). The only issue I had was with my brakes. In the first session or two, the brakes felt good but I had to do a couple cool-down laps mid-session as the brakes started to feel gummy but still effective. Later in the day by the 4th session, I started to notice that my brakes were starting to warm. I first thought it was just uneven brake deposits and that it would just go away. In the 5th session, It got even worse to the point where It was undrivable. The car was still slowing down fine, but it felt like it was going to rattle itself apart. After taking these rotors in to try to get them resurfaced I was told that the rotors had a bunch of hot spots that made them basically garbage. Luckily I bought them from fcp euro so I was able to exchange them for free. I knew that the Ferodo ds2500 wouldn't quite be quite enough for track, but I was expecting them to just fade, not destroy my rotors. So at this point, the plan is to use those holes in my front bumper I cut out and make some ducting to get airflow directly to the brakes, along with dtc70 pads to eliminate any sort of potential brake limitation since the goal of this car is to be able to beat on it as much as I want without having to worry about anything besides running out fuel.

This is a clip of my best lap


Below is a rough cardboard version of the ducts that will direct the air into 2 inch high temp tubing to the center of the front rotors
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