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      04-28-2020, 10:15 PM   #1
Tut4u2
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DIY: 1M Conversion with S65 or a 1MMMut

I figured it was time to start this thread and share with the broader community my winter project. Initially I started this thinking I would do a sponsored build, but I gave up on that quickly given time constraints and not wanting to deal with that hassle.

For anyone who’s done their own car work (or any DIY for that matter) there are a few things and emotions that one usually encounters:
• Optimism and glee at starting something new
• Hope that you will finish on time
• Justifying the cost and time as you fall behind and over budget
• Annoyance in having to repeat something over again (as a former Subaru owner I have grown proficient at pulling those motors; damn you ring lands!)
• Bloody knuckle, a little whimpering, and maybe some tears
• Frustration when stuff simply doesn’t fit (laying on your back and trying to get the input shaft to line up with clutch splines..UGH!)
• Satisfaction and pride when you’re done. That feeling when you step back or turn the key and the motor comes to life…yah…You know exactly what I’m talking about. It doesn’t matter how long it took you, or if it was cheaper to pay someone to do it, or whatever! This is your work and its done, because you did it.

That being said, I’ve always had a soft spot for BMWs. Performance and reliability aside, they made some good looking and good sounding cars.The downside with BMWs as has been my experience is reliability and cost. Parts are expensive and the electronics are shoddy. My E36 driver side window regulator had a mind of its own and after several DIY attempts and even paying the dealer, it still wouldn’t work.

Much has been written and said about the 1M, so I won’t be rehashing anything. Go watch the Chris Harris review and enjoy. While this will be an unpopular opinion, I think the 1M is okay. Looks wise though, I think it looks fantastic. Especially in that valencia orange. Around the same era, you have the E9x M3. The coupes and convertibles are a dime a dozen and I don’t think much of them. The S65 engine though is a gem. It makes all the right noises and has all the revs. I have a supercharged S2K so I'm partial to high strung motors.

A handful of these have been done in one shape or form over the years, so what makes this one any different? Simple: its mine.

Let me address the people who will get up in arms and say this is a waste. Yes there are faster swaps out there. I could swap a LS into a BRZ/FRS/GT86 and have more reliable and cheaper car, but I don’t care and I’m not a fan of how those cars look. I could just get the rear subframe from a M3 and mod the engine on a E82 and be done; however, I want that V8. I’m not out there chasing lap times and to be blatant, how many people drive their cars to the limit? There’s a minority of people who actually buy performance cars and drive them to their full potential. I set out to build a car to have a good experience and put a smile on my face. In the process, I addressed the usual maintenance items and did a couple of upgrades since everything was apart.

Lastly, I had been hunting for a clean E90 M3 for over a year and while this swap cost me marginally more, it was more complete given that I was able to address all the issues and having taken it apart to the bare chassis I know there are no underlying issues or hidden surprises.
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      04-28-2020, 10:17 PM   #2
Tut4u2
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In searching for a donor car, there were a couple of things that I wanted:
• DCT Transmission – the decision wasn’t based around what is fastest or more fun, but rather I enjoy the DCT more. Having driven the 6 speeds before and owning an S2K, I don’t find the feel in the BMW transmission to be as good as the Honda; the throws are longer and vague in comparison. There are aftermarket solutions to address that but I didn’t want to go down that path.
• Idrive/Tech Package – The system is outdated, but I wanted MDM and eventually I will upgrade to an aftermarket unit so I will be able to get Android Auto/Apply Car Play and more importantly get stats via OBD to the screen while I’m track.
• EDC – Initially I didn't know whether I was going to go the coilover route or upgrade to Bilsteins, but I wanted to keep my options open. Secondly, I wanted the top trim of everything that BMW had to offer at the time.
• No frame damage and a car that runs – This is pretty self-explanatory. I wanted a solid base and not deal with the hassle of replacing subframes or any major components. The body I could care less about since it was going to get junked.
I lucked out that I found a salvage car on eBay pretty quick and a week later the car was in my driveway. I was on vacation when the car arrived, but the car didn’t really look THAT bad. The mad-max look was kind of nice. Secondly, the engine bay was clean and the car looked to be taken care off by the previous owner.
Unfortunately, the car didn’t run and so started my first headache. My HOA doesn’t allow for car repairs outside your garage and non-running vehicles so I had address this quickly. The car would not turnover even though it had power. Going through my diagnostics I went through the following:
• First thing I did was swap out the battery with a new one, but nothing.
• Next up was replacing the starter. Still nothing.
• I disconnected the IBS. Nada
• I figured it HAD to be the BST given that the car was into an accident. I bypassed the system by soldering in a resistor, but to my disappointment the car refused to run.
• A week after I got the car, I found the problem was a simple one and embarrassing. The positive cable was corroded from water sitting in the battery tray. It helps to do this during the day and not at night after work and your kid goes to sleep! Also its ironic in the sense that my E36 had the exact issue as well and I had to build a new battery tray for it.

Timeline so far:
8/19 - Saw the car on eBay
8/20 - Seller sends me photos and I wire funds
8/24 - Car arrives to my house
8/28 - I see the car for the first time
9/2 - Car is running and ready for disassembly






Last edited by Tut4u2; 04-29-2020 at 09:43 AM..
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      04-28-2020, 10:20 PM   #3
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The next 29 days were fast moving and I made a great deal of progress. I told my wife that the project would take me 6 months to complete and that she would be able to park her garage in the garage before the first snow fall of the year so I had to work quick!

Let me give you a tip before I start. In a project like this, I would save EVERYTHING from the donor car (no matter how small) even if you don’t think you will need it. In the process of reassembly, I kicked myself repeatedly for buying stuff that I threw away; it was a complete waste of money and unnecessary. If you have the space, save everything! You will end up using more of the donor car than you think. For example, I had to buy a second set of M3 cowls and bunch of random rubber trim that I threw out. Secondly, my donor car was an E93 and while I didn’t know by this point how I was going to complete the swap, the fact that it was a convertible posed its own unique challenges. Differences in coupes, convertibles, and sedans can be mostly coded away as the modules are shared across the lines; however, the wiring itself is different and the location of the modules changes which adds work on the backend. For example, the convertibles have different safety features and airbag locations. Knowing that now, I would have looked for an E92 but in the grand scheme of things it didn’t add THAT much time.

I’m not going to bore you with 500 pictures of me taking the car apart. In short, I took EVERYTHING apart aside from the hardtop. Every wire, bolts, nuts, module, and sensor came off. The disassembly process was a piece of cake. I lucked out that the car had no rust whatever so nothing was seized or stripped. I was blown away. The most frustrating part of the disassembly was dealing with the brake lines. Every single fitting was seized and didn’t budge. It was kind of ridiculous. It was a first for me to have ALL the lines be seized; the same repeated itself with the recipient car. I could’ve tried to exercise more patience with the lines and applied even more heat, but at the time I thought f it and kept moving. In the middle of all this work, I found a recipient which forced me to accelerate the disassembly.

Second tip: depending on how you want to complete the swap, I would take care with the hard brake lines not damage them. Also, do not damage the hard fuel line as you will need that.

Third tip: You need to keep the CAS, DME, and key since all 3 are matched to each other. If you’re missing the key, you can get another one from the dealer provided you have title in your name. Else, you can send your CAS to a locksmith and they can create a copy for you. This is a hassle that can be avoided all together.

Fourth tip: this goes without saying but label everything. The wiring harness is unruly and its easy to get lost. Aside from taking photos, the labelling helps when you’re tired and just want to know quickly what the wire is for/what it plugs into.

Timeline:
9/2 – Disassembly starts
9/20 - Recipient found
9/24 – Wire sent to Seller
9/26 – Drivetrain removed
9/27 – Recipient car received
10/1 – Donor car taken away










Last edited by Tut4u2; 04-29-2020 at 10:18 AM..
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      04-29-2020, 08:26 AM   #4
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Definitely going to follow this. Your level of detail sounds promising!
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      04-29-2020, 12:05 PM   #5
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My dream is to do this one day... pretty sure its everyone's dream. Dear god give us more
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      04-29-2020, 01:23 PM   #6
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To recap thus far: over the course of 5 weeks, I found a donor car, stripped it completely and had it taken away, and found a recipient. Hauling the donor was proving to be daunting. The car didn’t have any wheels and I didn’t watch to destroy neither my garage nor driveway. I called a number of towing companies and the reaction was mixed: some didn’t want to touch it and others wanted to charge me in the neighborhood of $800, which I thought was egregious. After much searching, I managed to find a small outfit to take the car for free; they were going to recycle the metal. I ensured them that I would them again, which I did!

Over the next 2 weeks I dealt with insurance and car carrier company as they damaged the front bumper of the car when they picked up. Instead of tearing into the car, I decided to address the maintenance issues on the S65.
• Rod bearings – this is an obvious one since the motor was out. While I find this issue overblown on the forums (similar to crank walk in DSMs, or blown ring lands in Subarus), but I did it anyways so if/when I sell the car the next owner wouldn’t grip about it. I used BE ARP Rod Bolts and ACL Mixed Bearing Shells from Lang Racing. This was due to availability and cost. I have used ACLs in every other build and have not experienced any issues.
• Belts – common sense
• Tensioners/idler pullies – BMW doesn’t sell the idler pullies independently of the tensioner so you are forced to buy both as a set. Yes, you can piece it together using a pulley from the older 5 series but it was going to be more hassle than its worth.
• DCT Service Kit – my DCT was leaky like all of them so I replaced all 4 gaskets and both filters.
• Valve cover gaskets - the head look nice and clean with no sludge.
• Spark plugs
• Motor Mounts
• Exhaust gaskets all around
• Redid rear subframe in POR-15 (will look for the after photos). I decided to leave all the bushing alone since they were in good shape and didn’t want to deal with the additionally NVH for minimal gain.

I should have the throttle body actuators while I was in there, but its not a bad job so I can just do it whenever they fail.

Timeline:
10/2 – Maintenance start
10/13 – Maintenance complete




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      04-29-2020, 01:57 PM   #7
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Finding a recipient car was daunting. I was looking for a clean title with low miles, sport seats, AHLs, and minimal rust. I didn’t care about color or 128i vs 135i since everything was going to get swapped anyways and I was planning to paint the car valencia orange. I didn’t want to deal with mileage being off on the title or monkeying around the cluster so I preferred one with less miles than the donor.

I kept leaning towards a 128i since they were cheaper, but depending on spec a 135i might be more economical since you would net more after parting it out. Sure enough, I ended up with a 135i. I found the car on eBay after the auction had complete but reserve was not met. I called the dealer the next morning and we squared everything away. Upon receiving the car, I felt bad doing the swap. The car was very clean and looked after! It was M-sport, had JB4, downpipes, intakes, catch can, performance exhaust, performance side skirts, FMIC, blow off valves, and the 1M replica front bumper. It sounded great and despite needing new turbos, felt healthy.

While I was dealing with insurance and doing maintenance on the S65, I started posting parts up for sale. I told myself that as soon as someone buys the drivetrain, I will start working on it. If not, I would buy replacement turbos and keep the car. Sure enough someone bought the drivetrain since I was selling everything for cheap. How cheap? I sold the full drivetrain (motors, trans, diff) and subframes for $1200. Despite that people still tried to nickel and dime..oh well. Took me 5 days to remove the drivetrain and move it out.

Over the next 2 weeks it was more of the same as before. Taking a ton of photos, removing all wires and sensors, and tagging them in the process. The recipient car was from New York some bolts proved to be stubborn but only a handful stripped or broken; none that threaded into the actual car. Additionally, similar to the E93, the brake lines were seized again and broke..FML! At this point I still didn’t know how I was going to perform the swap. I will get to that one of the next posts, but you can either run the brake lines the same way as the E93 or run them in a similar fashion to the E82. Given that I stripped both, I was f’d either way and had to solution. I was more diligent in taking the E82 apart overall. Taking both of the cars apart back to back, the overlap in build and architecture was clear as day and made things easier the second time around. Lastly, it gave me confidence that maybe I could pull this off and not be out a good chunk of change.

Side note, dealing with insurance and car carries is a nightmare. The estimate for the damage on the front bumper was $1300 and the deductible for the carrier was $2500. This meant that the carrier would be going out of pocket. The carrier was located in NC while I’m in VA so short of going to court I had to recourse to recover my losses. I ended up putting a stop payment on the check for the car transport so recoup some of the money, but it’s annoying nonetheless.

Timeline:
9/27 – Recipient car received
10/14 – Recipient car disassembly starts
10/19 – N54 Drivetrain sold
11/3 – Recipient car disassembly complete









Last edited by Tut4u2; 04-29-2020 at 10:18 PM..
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      04-29-2020, 11:22 PM   #8
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At this point, I had the E82 completely stripped and I had to decide how to do the actual swap. After researching through various threads, looking at YouTube videos, and speaking with gixracer I decided to swap the entire harness from the E93. This would allow me to retain EDC, Idrive, Servotronic, etc without having to splice any of the wires or running additional wires. Looking through the wiring diagrams I identified what wires I would need to splice if I maintain the E82 harness but swapping the harness was the easiest solution. This posed its own challenges as some of the modules in the E93 would be defunct and I would have to work out some of the kinks for the lights, trunk release, and FZD. More of that later.

Getting the wiring in was easy given that for the most part all the wires are run in a similar fashion except they are longer. Being that my harness was from an E93, some of the wires laid out differently, but I think if I had an E92 donor they would have mimicked the E82 path exactly. Nonetheless, all the grounding locations and harness locating pins are identical for the most part.

The next challenge was identifying what dash I wanted to run. The dash support bar is different between the two chassis since the dash itself is a different shape. As previously mentioned, I wanted to keep Idrive so I could run an aftermarket display, but I didn’t know if I could retrofit an E82 screen with the E9x wiring harness. I saw online that someone had thrown an E9x dash in an E82 so I decide to roll the decide and give it a try. Despite being a bit wider, the dash does it. I had to remove some of the padding to get the doors to close more easily. Secondly, there’s a gap before the gap and the windshield but I will address that later. Lastly, the E82 A-pillar covers don’t fit, but I have a fix for that.

As previously mentioned, the hard-line fuel feed from the E9x is maintained as part of the swap, except its shortened slightly given the shorter chassis. The question becomes which hard-fuel lines do you keep? Specifically, the lines going from the DSC module to the rear of the car. The front lines swap easily and route without any issues. There are 2 approaches here:
1. Keep the E82 hardlines. This poses its own challenges since they will run on top of the driver side headers and exhaust path. You can mitigate heating the lines by using flame proof wrap or gold wrap. I have seen people do this, but I wasn’t comfortable with it and didn’t want to risk the lines getting heated up.
2. Keep the E9x hardlines. The lines are longer obviously, but they do fit perfectly otherwise. In the back you can’t attached them to the chassis mounting locations, but I built brackets to hold them fixed and keep them from rubbing on anything.
After deciding to go with option 2, I had to source the hardlines given the one from the donor car were ruined. You can’t buy pre-bent lines from BMW. They sell you pre-terminated lines and you have to bend them yourself. I tried buying a roll off eBay and making my own, but they were ugly as sin and the bubble flare on the lines wouldn’t hold pressure. I scoured eBay and junk yards, but no one would ship me the lines. Some told me to buy their entire salvage car if I wanted the lines.

As luck would have it, I found a guy on Craigslist who was in the midst of his own swap/partout and had the lines from an E90. I drove 30 mins and picked up his lines. They were also seized but salvageable. I cleaned up the threads and BAM! I was back in business. I routed the lines in the same exact path as the E9x. Some of the mounting location on the chassis weren’t present for the brackets so I used some Click Bond studs to create the mounting locations. I could’ve welded these one, but I elected to sand the underside and use some 3M body adhesive to mount them. Porsches use a similar concept, but they weld them.

With the wiring and hardlines in, it was time to throw the carpet back in and get ready to throw the drivetrain back into the chassis.

Some things to note:
• The DSC lateral sensor is different between the E8x and E9x. The location is the same (underneath the driver side seat) but the bracket and orientation is different so I used my E9x sensor.
• The hard pipe for the heater core which runs along the driver side frame requires a new mounting location. I drilled a hole and used a rivnut to mount it. gixracer has pictures in his thread that you can reference.
• The front brake line brackets are unique to the M3 so you will need to carry those over.
• Some of the brackets in the engine bay need to be swapped over but those are apparent as you start porting over the lines.
• In the interior, the brackets for the center console are different since I decided to keep the E9x center console as well so the rear bracket from the M3 was maintained.

Timeline:
11/4 – Reassembly starts
11/16 – Wiring harness and hardlines transfer complete








Last edited by Tut4u2; 05-21-2020 at 08:52 PM..
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      04-30-2020, 04:33 AM   #9
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You are one bad ass wiring maniac! wired the oem alarm loom around the car (incl. removing the dashboard), but this is levels above.

Some remarks:
The e82 controls cluster has no specific control for edc, so hopefully you can incorporate the E93 controls.
- The E89 ecu platform is shared between the E93 and E82 so adding edc to E82 wire loom should be possible, and i have heard of 1 person completing this.
- Also the idrive hardware is exchangeable, so you still have the E82(1M style) dashboard route as plan B.
- edc on a 1M is a fantastic upgrade as M-engineers confirm that the settings are right around the 1M oem damper settings.
- exited to see someone exploit the modularity of our bmw platform, subscribed!

Last edited by eeghie; 04-30-2020 at 04:57 AM..
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      05-20-2020, 10:18 PM   #10
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Impressive, please keep the updates coming.
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      05-21-2020, 09:50 PM   #11
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Prior to putting the drivetrain back in, I made sure to reuse all the heat shielding from the E9x M3. For the most part all the mounting locations are the same between the two chassis. In the engine bay there are one or two studs that are different in the engine bay, but nothing too drastic. Underneath in the transmission tunnel the differences are more. Here I used a combination of rivnuts and Click-Bond studs to create new locations to utilize the E9x shields. In the E8x the heat shielding is localized by the passenger side given that where the exhaust runs, where as in the E9x its more symmetrical given the nature of the V8 layout and headers.

Getting the engine in was a breeze and I managed to do it solo. It did a couple of tries since I had the angle off initially but after placing a jack under the trans to raise it up slightly, everything slid in perfectly. I would caution here so watch out for the air pump hose that go to the air injection valves on the back of the heads. While putting the motor in, the hose on the driver side valve came loose and popped off. I didn’t identify this issue until months later when I kept getting an error code. I thought my air pump went bad so I bought a tune to eliminate the pump, but the code persisted. Eventually I had to take the intake manifold off again and click the hose in place. Secondly, if you need to replace the valves now is the time to do it! Else you will have to drop the motor again. Thirdly, if you need to change out the hose going to the PCV valve, do it now as well. It is virtually impossible to do it while the motor is in the car.

As far as fueling is concerned, I used the E8x fuel tank, swapped in the E9x M3 fuel pumps, and fuel line. The fuel line runs along size the brake lines to it’s a tidy solution. Make sure to clean the outside of the tank and drain as much of the fuel as possible as it’s a tight fit in the tank. Also, do it while everything is out of the car.

The mounting points for the subframes are exactly the same between the E8x and E9x. The front subframe has an extra bolt on the rear wings, but the provision is already available in the E8x so you don’t need to drill anything.

You will utilize the E8x front radiator support and mount the E9x radiator, power steering and engine coolers to the support. Everything bolts up. You will have to clearance the E8x support to mount the E9x M3 engine cooler. While it may seem, you are trimming off a lot, you really aren’t; it a similar exercise to mounting large stepped FMIC. Given that I used the E9x M3 wiring harness I didn’t have to worry about wiring in a relay for the M3 radiator fan. The M3 fan is much larger than the E8x. If you don’t swap the harness, you will have to solution for this. Once again, its similar to retrofitting the BMW PPK for the N54. I can’t stress that swapping the harness over is the easiest way to do the swap.

Once hardware was in and fluids were topped off, I went to turn the key and…nothing! I spent 4 days scratching my head and tracking down wires in order to figure out what happened. I kept plugging in modules and following wires to see if I had a short or tripped fuse. Finally, I realized that I missed the grounding strap from the oil pan to the chassis. This is the only ground from the engine to chassis; its pretty nuts. The first start up though was glorious! It came on a bit sudden and it was fantastic. Open headers on these things is loud as hell.

The front snorkel from the E9x won’t fit as the E8x has a snorkel unique to the chassis. Some trimming was in order but it worked out beautifully.

The E9x M3 doesn’t produce enough vacuum at start up so BMW added a brake vacuum pump to assist with brakes on start up. You can either eliminate the pump or mount it behind the driver side fender. Once you run the wires and tubing there’s one logical location install it. It might seem that it will contact the fenders but it does not. Just be cognizant that you keep a clear path to the lower mounting hole for the driver side fender.

Once all the wiring is in, you will notice that you are left with longer wires and some of the locations are ideal. For example, you will have to lengthen the fuel pump wires, rear speaker wires, rear tail lights and seat belts tensioners. All in all, the wire tuck nicely and nothing stands out if you do it correctly. True to my word, I called up the same towing company and had them tow it to a local shop to shorten the driveshaft and fab up the exhaust.

I spent the holidays finishing up the wiring as follows:
• Removing the E93 coding
o This is straight forward for tedious. The VIN maintains whether the car is a convertible, coupe, or sedan. AFAIK there’s no specific VO for a convertible. This means going through every module and coding it as a coupe. Since I removed the CTM and ROC modules, the car was throwing errors as it couldn’t find then. I went through the CAS, Kombi, and CCC to code the car as an E92. This removed all error codes that were associated with those modules missing and meant that I could put the DCT into gear.
• Tail lights
o The E9x has inner and outer tail light housing while the E8x does not. This required going through the wiring diagrams to identify wires and removing redundant wire. The E9x has a plugin harness from the trunk to the main harness and once you identify the wire you can eliminate the E9x trunk harness completely.
• Trunk release
o The coding in the CAS maintains controls around how the trunk release is controlled. If you have an E93 the CAS makes a call to the CTM to release the trunk. Even if you code the car as a coupe/sedan there a different line item for the call to the CTM. You will have to code this as well otherwise your trunk release will not work. Took me a couple of days to figure this out and its frustrating, because as you know if the rear seats aren’t folded down there’s no way to get to the manual trunk release.
• FZD, CA, and Rear-View Mirror
o The M3s have lights in the vanity mirrors and more wires along the windshield. Secondly, the E93 have different wiring for the rear-view mirror and FZD. The wiring diagrams are generic and don’t call this out specifically. You will have to follow the wire coloring in the diagrams to figure out how to pin the rear-view camera and FZD accordingly. Secondly, my donor car is equipped with Comfort Access and I couldn’t figure out why my remote was not working. Turns out the CA is wired into the rear-view camera; if the camera isn’t plugged in then your CA and remote will not work.
• NFRM
o This one was a mystery to me. Both cars had FRM2 but the window and sun roof controls refused to work with the E9x NFRM. I kept getting window trap and AHL errors. Despite coding the module, it simply wouldn’t work. I swapped in the E8x NFRM and everything worked.
• ABG
o There’s more than one way to skin a cat here. The E93 does not have curtain air bags as it has roll over protection. This means you can remove the curtain air bags and code out the roll over protection. Air bag sensor locations are consistent between the two chassis with the exceptions of the rear sensors which I removed since I eliminated roll over protection and curtain airbags. Since I swapped in the E93 dash I have knee airbags for the driver and passenger. I did code the module for an E8x given that the chassis is different and in case of an accident you want the computer to perform the calculations based on the correct chassis.
• EDC
o I updated the coding to match that of a ZCP. I knew I was maintaining EDC and I was either going with ZCP shocks or Bilstein B6. In either case, the difference between ZCP and non-ZCP is all in the coding.
• DSC
o I enabled Euro MDM and GTS tuning
o You can also update the coding to match a 1M but I haven’t done that yet. I might do this in the future depending on how the car does on track
• Miscellaneous coding
o I enabled the euro AHL
o I enabled BFD2 for the tail lights
o Updated DCT to the GTS tune
o I eliminated TPMS and enabled FTM. This was for the sake of simplicity and not having to worry about mounting the sensors as well as allowing for easy wheel/tire swaps
o I kept as many of the E9x modules as possible including PDC, JBBE, CA, PGS, EDC, etc. Only the NFRM was from the E8x









11/17 – Motor In
11/21 – First Motor Start Up
1/9 – Off to shop
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DrFerry6722.50
      05-21-2020, 09:53 PM   #12
Tut4u2
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First start up

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DrFerry6722.50
      05-21-2020, 10:18 PM   #13
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The next month was one of frustration. The shop I tasked with shortening the driveshaft and modifying the exhaust was subpar to say the least. They dragged their feet on shortening the driveshaft. Eventually they told me they couldn’t do it because the driveshaft is friction welded even though I specifically asked if they could do it before hand. More disappointing is that they specialize in German cars so they knew this to start. I ended up buying a new driveshaft that was 3 7/8” shorter after the carrier bearing and bam it slipped in beautifully. Additionally, they fabbed the exhaust incorrectly and left me with exhaust leaks. I wanted to keep the factory x, which they did but the exhaust sat too low so I ended up having the whole thing redone later on.

Prior to going to paint, I had to address the body aspect of the car. There are multiple threads on what parts are required on 1addicts and other forums so I won’t go into much detail here. The point is that I bought rear flares from Jay Meadows and had them molded into the quarter panels. This was more economical than buying the factory quarters and having them installed. Is this better/worse than going the OEM route? That’s for you to decide but the finished product is immaculate and you can’t tell the difference unless you go tapping on the panels. For perspective though, the cost of buying the flares and having them molded in is the equivalent of buying one OEM rear quarter; that’s a significant amount of money. I cut the rear quarters, welded them in, used 3M panel adhesive and other rust protection to prevent rust. I’m using OEM liners so water getting up there will not be an issue. While the car was with me I had it aligned and state inspected. After getting the flares molded, I got an Alpine tune, because at this point what the hell, why not? A Macht Schnell intake and underdrive pullies as well.

I knew I was going to run a Seibon hood with the bulge, because it would allow the car to stand out that much more. Fitment on the hood leaves much to be desired given the cost. The fender to hood gap is a bit wider than OEM and while I got to fit its annoying. Originally, I did not intend to run hood latches but seeing how many threads were engaged on the latch it made me nervous. Installing the hood pins is nerve wrecking. Nothing like cutting into a CF hood with no going back. Install was straight forward and took around 4 hours with use of a Dremel only. Its messy as hell and make sure you’re using a mask and wearing long sleeves. While I was it, I also installed the M3 hood struts as the E8x struts are much stronger given the former uses an aluminum hood and the latter uses a steel hood. I think with the Seibon hood you could get away with using the E8x struts. The M3 struts hold it up but if you sneeze, the hood comes down so the struts need to be a bit stronger.

The remaining body panels are OEM: both bumpers, front fenders, ducts, fender liners, side skirts, etc. I was torn between painting the panel piece meal versus getting the whole thing painted in one shot. To avoid mismatched color, I got the car painted. I used the same body shop that did the fenders as they did good work, but they dragged their feet on the wet sanding and I decided to do it myself.

While at paint I decided to buy more parts…oh boy















2/9 – Back from the shop
2/22 – Off to body shop
3/8 – Back from body shop
3/29 – Off to paint
5/6 – Back from paint

Last edited by Tut4u2; 05-22-2020 at 09:38 AM..
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      05-22-2020, 08:21 AM   #14
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Thanks so much for all the detail on the swap. Coming along nicely! I just got mine back from paint after also using the fiberglass flares. Turned out great.
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      05-27-2020, 09:23 PM   #15
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Great update, what did you use for rust proofing?
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      05-27-2020, 10:47 PM   #16
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Woah, love this. Car looks great!
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'11 N55 135i 6MT || ///M-Sport|| Alpine White/Coral Red|| KW V1


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      05-28-2020, 01:17 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bubbles View Post
Great update, what did you use for rust proofing?
The 3M product is a rust inhibitor in itself. After bonding the inner and outer skins of the quarter panel, I sanded the surrounding areas down to the bare metal, primered, painted with 2K paint matched color, sprayed a sealant on top, and finished off with rubber undercoating on top. I'm 100% confident it won't rust. I did a similar exercise on my S2K when I installed my ASM overflares and they didn't show a hint of rust after 3 years. Mind you the car sat outside in Miami sun and rain and a few hurricane seasons.
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      05-28-2020, 09:23 PM   #18
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The car being at paint for so long gave me ample time to go shopping for parts and scour for deals. Also gave me an opportunity to clean out my basement. I should’ve taken pictures, but essentially I had 2 cars worth of parts, wiring, dashboards, etc in my finished basement. Needless to say, my wife was less than pleased with the situation. As I threw stuff out, I ended up buying other parts. Over the course of 5 weeks I collected the following:
• Bilstein B6 shocks
o These were on backorder for the longest time so as soon as I saw them in stock on RockAuto I picked up a set. Additionally, they had a stellar deal on them.
• ZCP shocks and springs
o Picked these up to refresh the ones that had come on the donor car but didn’t end up using them
• Eibach 1M Springs
o Being a E93, the donor car springs made the car sit higher especially in the back. Originally I was going to run E92 springs, but Eibach had a stupid sale and the springs were under $80. You can buy used springs for that price
• Macht Schnell Intake
o Impulse buy, but I figured it was a good deal since I needed to buy a new air filter anyways. I marked this as ‘maintenance’ rather than a ‘modification’
• Macht Schnell Underdrive Pulley
o Good for some HPs and faster revs? Can’t really tell if it made a difference, but whatever. It was a good deal used and every little bit helps.
• ACM Test Pipes
o Might as well get every little bit out of this motor. If I end up going supercharger later, I will need them anyways and once again I found them used for a stupid cheap price.
• Stoptech ST60/ST40 BBK
o I had no intention of doing BBK, but with all the free time on my hand I started looking around for kits. I wanted to do the Brembo GT6 kit, but the cost is outrageous and pad selection is limited. Stoptech runs a well used pad shape so pads are plentiful and affordable. Also makes tracking the car more manageable since everyone complains about the stock brakes
• ECS Tuning Stainless Brake Lines
o I put these on as I was rebuilding the car, but I will throw them in here anyways.
• Bavsound Speakers
o To say I was disappointed in the stock speakers is an understatement. Both car were optioned with the base audio and it sounds like garbage. Also, my front passenger speaker was blown so I had to replace it. Originally, I planned on replacing it with one of the speakers from the donor car, but stock amp got damaged during paint (long story). Given that I had to replace the amp, and remove the door cards to install the side mirrors again, I said f it and bought the speakers. I was pleasantly surprised. They make a significant difference. I can’t attribute the difference to the fact that I replaced 11 year old speakers or whether the speakers are actually that much better but whatever.
• Logic 7 subs
o While I was upgrading the audio, I was torn between doing the Ghost Subs or going this route. Reading online, many people suggested these were an economical upgrade so I went for it. I’m not planning on driving the car much in the first place, no one listens to their music while driving, and the S65 is a better sound track than anything coming from the speakers in the first place so I choose the economical option.
• Android HU and Rear-View Camera
o I wanted to modernize the car slightly with a rear-view camera and while they are emulators to get a camera working with the OEM CCC system, going the Android HU route is easier and costs about the same. An added bonus is that the CCC screen is upgraded. I don’t plan on using the Android HU itself nor the Bluetooth since the audio output is awful.
• New Comfort Access module
o Similar to the amp, the original CA module got axed during paint. No need to replace it other than the fact that I didn’t want to keep something broken in the car. Its also nice to keep the key in my pocket and just turn the car on. Eventually I will retrofit CA to the door handles since the remaining wiring is in the car, but its not a priority right now.

Next up is wet sanding, final assembly, and the finishing touches.
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      06-06-2020, 07:50 AM   #19
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Where did you source new eibach springs for 80 bucks? Details please
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      06-06-2020, 06:24 PM   #20
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Directly from Eibach. They are $93 now https://eibach.com/us/1433/20120.140...ries-M-pro-kit
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      06-07-2020, 10:30 AM   #21
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'15 X5  [10.00]
Nicely done!

Looks like a very clean build so far
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      06-07-2020, 09:34 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tut4u2 View Post
The 3M product is a rust inhibitor in itself. After bonding the inner and outer skins of the quarter panel, I sanded the surrounding areas down to the bare metal, primered, painted with 2K paint matched color, sprayed a sealant on top, and finished off with rubber undercoating on top. I'm 100% confident it won't rust. I did a similar exercise on my S2K when I installed my ASM overflares and they didn't show a hint of rust after 3 years. Mind you the car sat outside in Miami sun and rain and a few hurricane seasons.
Good info, what is your plan for the interior?
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