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      06-27-2018, 03:27 PM   #243
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Originally Posted by vtl View Post
During the turbo install, i removed the subframe and 034Motorsport engine mounts. I had just installed the mounts a week earlier and had around 600km on them so far.

I had already unbolted the mounts from the bottom and top. As I tilted the subframe downwards during removal the engine mounts rolled out in pieces!

One of hte mounts had failed, and the other mount lookedl ike it was close to failing. The problem is the bottom cap is pressed in and the bottom perimeter of the mount is pressed in, preventing the cap from falling out. Unfortunately they had not pressed them in enough and resulted inthe caps moving. This is bad because the plastic caps support the weight of the engine.

034 was very responsive and had good customer service regarding the failure. They sent me new mounts which arrived within a few days. The new mounts look the same except they had laser markings on the body with the 034 logo on them. But personally I just didnt trust the mount design.

I had some 100mm billet aluminium stock at home so I machined up a pair of new caps to fix the old failed mounts. Took a while on the little lathe. After machining them i made up a pair of jigs to hold the bottom caps on during welding. I made the caps compress the rubber mounts slightly so the rubber wouldnt shift around so the jig was quite important. I have a cheap MIG welder at home so I could not weld these mounts myself. I used Ray from Rev Speed Auto in Clayton, cost $40 and was done very quickly. I figured these would be challenging as the mounts are filled with rubber so you really don't want to cook the mount as its being welded.

Installed them in on the weekend, feels much better than the old mounts I was using (335is right mount, stock left mount). Gear changes and throttle transitions feel a bit more solid. Only thing I notice now is a slight bit of a vibration from the engine at 650rpm idle. Will see if it goes away after a few weeks otherwise will bump up the idle speed to 675rpm. After driving the car on the weekend the vibration seems to have reduced significantly so will probably work itself out over the next few weeks.
You think that maybe filling the bottom rubber part with some sort of high temp rubber or epoxy would remedy that issue? Or where they just not manufactured correctly?

I just don't see the difference between the stock/335is or 034 with regards to that specific part of the mount, you know what I mean?
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      06-27-2018, 05:57 PM   #244
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Originally Posted by gmagnus7 View Post
You think that maybe filling the bottom rubber part with some sort of high temp rubber or epoxy would remedy that issue? Or where they just not manufactured correctly?

I just don't see the difference between the stock/335is or 034 with regards to that specific part of the mount, you know what I mean?
The weight of the engine effectively sits on the bottom cap, and the outside edge lip of the aluminium housing is rolled over to stop the bottom plastic cap from coming out. Hence the weight of the engine sits on the rolled over edge of the aluminium mount. I noted that the 034 mounts did not have this edged rolled over properly (looks incomplete and not rolled completely over the plastic cap). On the OE mounts this edge is rolled over much flatter. My theory is that the tooling 034 is using to press/roll the edges isn't as powerful as the OE tooling, so the bottom cup can fall out.

Epoxy wouldnt really be ideal, as youd have to support the weight of the engine based on the adhesive under tension between the rubber and the aluminium housing. Usally glueing rubber parts would be a pain, combined with the fact there would be release agents still bonded to the rubber that youd have to deal with.
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      07-18-2018, 11:38 PM   #245
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Picked up these Alcon 6 piston front brakes, the stock calipers look impressive and work well for street use but the longevity in track use isn't ideal. These calipers will hold up to track abuse better, and offer larger diameter and thicker discs for improved cooling, and shouldn't have any issues with heat. The discs are 2 piece fully floating as well, which allow the disc to expand radially from the heat cycles and look great too

Bled the brakes with a DSC bleed with Motul RBF660, looking forward to testing these out on a track day.

Eventually I will see if I can find some Alcon 4 piston brakes for the rear, as I have calculated the brake bias to have moved 4% forwards by keeping the rear brakes stock. Alcon are the OEM brakes on a small number of cars, they are all radial mount so they are easily adaptable. As for discs I would probably stick to an OEM BMW disc rather than go to the expense of fabricating 2 piece fully floating discs for the rears. One of the biggest reason to stick to an oe disc is so the handbrake works without any issues. Could go 335i rear disc, e92 m3 disc or possibly 5 series rear disc
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      07-19-2018, 04:09 AM   #246
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Looks great mate

I was going to ask if you're going to strip the paint off the rears, and paint all 4 corners the same colour. But then I read you're chasing Alcon's for the rears too, it's always great to have a matching set, helps with ocd lol
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      07-19-2018, 04:56 AM   #247
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Good stuff! What size are the front rotors?
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      07-19-2018, 08:19 PM   #248
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Nice pick up with the BBK.
Appreciate the detailed updates.
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      07-19-2018, 08:33 PM   #249
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Good stuff! What size are the front rotors?
The discs are 355x32mm they weigh similar to the stock discs despite their size increase.
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      08-05-2018, 04:47 AM   #250
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Great thread!
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      08-31-2018, 10:24 PM   #251
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Great detailed posts vtl - just joined the forum as I'm looking to sell my 135i but got caught up reading through your thread!!
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      09-03-2018, 08:06 AM   #252
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Great thread!
Buy another one!
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      10-05-2018, 12:17 AM   #253
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Managed to find a set of Apex EC-7 wheels secondhand for a bargain price on eBay. Big thanks to titium for picking them up for me in Sydney!

Specs:

Fronts: Toyo R888 225/40/18 8.5" ET45
Rears: Toyo R888 255/35/18 9.5" ET58

Apex seems to be one of the very few performance oriented wheels with correct offsets for maximum rubber for these cars. They are a pain to import from the USA and hence are quite hard to come by in Australia. I have not been happy with any of the local wheel choices and was waiting for a set to come up secondhand, so I snapped these up as soon as they popped up on ebay. The perch clearance is very close up front, I had to raise the perch to gain a little extra clearance. There is probably around 5mm gap between the tyre and the lower spring perch. I have a 5mm and 10mm spacers at my disposal if I want a tad more clearance but should be ok as is. I would prefer not to run spacers if possible. Very happy with the Anthracite colour which gives a bit of contrast to the Alpine White

These Toyos run extremely wide with square sidewalls, the fronts looks similar sizing to a regular (ie non performance tyre) 245 sized tyre, and the rears are quite bulged on a 9.5" rim and look similar to a 265 or even 275 width. These tyres are not known to be that great for the street, they have very stiff sidewalls which feel significantly harsher over bumps, and are very noisy. At 50kph the noise from the tyres is quite unpleasant, youd really only want to run these on a weekend car.

Outright grip I have not driven the car enough yet, the grip is adequate on the street but nothing special, can still get a bit of DSC intervention. The tyres feel very harsh, but the upside is the steering feels a bit more direct. I am not sure if you can get enough temperature (around 70-100 degrees C tyre temps) with street use to get the most out of them. I will be saving these tyres for a track day but will run AD08Rs on the street. I have a set of unused 0km tyres on my 18" 313 rims so will be keen to get them on for street driving.
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      10-05-2018, 12:44 AM   #254
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Wheels look great, I'm a big fan of Apex wheels.
Why would you say they are a pain to import?
I've bought multiple sets direct from Apex with zero issues.
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      10-05-2018, 12:55 AM   #255
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Wheels look great, I'm a big fan of Apex wheels.
Why would you say they are a pain to import?
I've bought multiple sets direct from Apex with zero issues.
More concerning the financial pain of pricey shipping charges and getting stung by GST as well.

They're a great value flow formed wheel, despite the wider wheels they were significantly lighter than the stock boat anchor 261s
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      10-05-2018, 01:50 AM   #256
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vtl View Post
More concerning the financial pain of pricey shipping charges and getting stung by GST as well.

They're a great value flow formed wheel, despite the wider wheels they were significantly lighter than the stock boat anchor 261s
Yeah shipping isn't cheap but the end price is still good for the quality of the wheels.
In the past they were willing to declare the appropriate value when shipping, not sure how that works with the new laws though.
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      10-09-2018, 04:54 PM   #257
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After I got my Alcons I knew that my space saver wheel would be a tight fit, being a 17". Along with a compressor and tyre slime, these space saver wheels really give you piece of mind when going on long trips, can really save the day

The problem with space savers for BMW is that they made from materials blessed by virgins, which makes them crazy expensive. When I purchased my car the previous owner was paranoid about not having a spare wheel so he purchased the 17" alloy space saver. This wheel looks quite nice and comes with bag and separate toolkit with jack etc.

With big brake kits you have the option of a 18" space saver that was offered with the F30s and there was a 19" alloy offered with the e53 X5 (but finding the correct tyre for rolling diameter of E9x would be almost impossible)

I finally got around to testing fitting the space saver. By chance, I also have a 17" steel space saver on hand to test with as well. The alloy space saver is an extremely close fit with the alcons, less than 1-2mm of clearance with the barrel, the wheel DOES spin freely though. This was solved with a 10mm spacer, this puts the inner barrel away from the caliper and the outer barrel is a larger diameter so no problems there and plenty of clearance with a spacer. The Alcons are a 355mm brake disc, if you had an M3 or 1M (360mm, so disc is 2.5mm closer to the wheel) these 17" may very well fit with a spacer too.

The steel wheel did not fit at all, even with the spacer. The inner barrel is smaller and simply wont fit the brakes. You'd probably need a 20-30mm of spacer to make the wheel sit outside of the brakes, which you may run into clearance issues with the fender.
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      10-22-2018, 08:27 PM   #258
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DIY PE Mod exhaust

Bought a spare stock N54 135i exhaust from the forums, with the intention on modding it to the PE mod:

http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=963343

Bought it at the end of 2015 and only got around to doing it the last few weeks. Installed it on the car a few days ago.

Fortunately I saw woosh for sale thread with pictures of the 135i muffler. The N54 and N55 135i exhaust is different. The Y pipe internally is perforated on the N54 but is solid on the N55. This also explains why the exhaust flap on an N54 135i is pretty ineffective, as both pipes are muffled regardless of whether the valve is open or closed.

To do this mod properly, I had to cut open both sides of the muffler and weld up all the little holes in the Y pipe. The Y pipe is perforated on the top and bottom, quite hard to access.

The 3 big holes in the middle pipe I patched up with some small piece of stainless. The 3 big holes are connected up to the exhaust flap. The other pipe in the middle is perforated and I left that one alone to make the exhaust a bit more quiet when the flap is closed. I replaced all of the fibreglass packing.

Then welded it all back up and ground everything flat. I underestimated the amount of work required for this mod, this was my first welding project and was a bit of a learning curve. Also grinding, and smoothing everything took forever. Ended up polishing it all up to make it look a little nicer.

I am very happy with the exhaust. When the flap is closed it is louder but still pretty quiet in the cabin with the windows closed. The exhaust note is a bit more higher pitched and is much louder when under power. The crackles and pops are much clearer and crisper but are not over the top. Blocking off the exhaust valve in the engine bay (effeictly golf tee mod) has a much more pronounced effect, much louder driving around at low loads, but I prefer the automatic exhaust flap control via the DME so i'll leave it connected.
Fantastic post, and I think I finally get it with the whole exhaust mod thing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like my N55 simply needs the three large holes welded shut (and valve defeated) to effectively act like the PE exhaust, whereas N54s also need the two y-pipe perforations welded shut, yeah?
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      10-22-2018, 10:20 PM   #259
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Originally Posted by duder13 View Post
Fantastic post, and I think I finally get it with the whole exhaust mod thing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like my N55 simply needs the three large holes welded shut (and valve defeated) to effectively act like the PE exhaust, whereas N54s also need the two y-pipe perforations welded shut, yeah?
Yes that's correct, from realoem, the muffler part number for n55 is different and all the photos of N55 exhausts have that Y pipe as a solid piece. You can use a $5 ebay endoscope camera to verify too.

In your case, welding the 3 large holes and leaving the other perforated pipe alone would be a winner. Imo, the valve is a great feature of the PE mod and definitely makes the exhaust a lot more civilised in comparison to the PE, which is quite loud.
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      12-09-2018, 11:02 PM   #260
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Took the car to MSCA's come and try day at Philip Island. The new wheel setup has been fantastic on the road, and was very happy with it at Philip Island.

The car feels much more at home at a fast flowing track like this, vs Winton where it does not feel too agile and you're constantly on the brakes. Getting a touch of understeer in the high speed kinks but the slow and medium speed corners the car hangs on exceptionally well. The car was faultless and no check engine lights for the whole day, first time I have completed a track day with no issues.

The day itself was a lot of fun, great to try out Phillip Island for the first time and the driver instruction was very helpful.

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      12-13-2018, 07:13 AM   #261
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Nice one Vince. Glad you popped that PI cherry. It's a great track, addictive picking up speed through the corners. Did you get any indication of lap timings?
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      12-13-2018, 03:33 PM   #262
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Nice one Vince. Glad you popped that PI cherry. It's a great track, addictive picking up speed through the corners. Did you get any indication of lap timings?
Thanks mate, long time to see! Got around a 1:55 on my final flying lap. Definitely lots of room to improve
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      12-19-2018, 01:46 AM   #263
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Thanks mate, long time to see! Got around a 1:55 on my final flying lap. Definitely lots of room to improve
That's a nice time considering it was your first visit to that track. Be good to catch up again soon. I've been keeping an eye on the drives you all are doing but can't seem to align the planets and attend!
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      01-23-2019, 05:26 PM   #264
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I had purchased a set of KW competition coilovers a while back, and went with H&R springs of my own specification.

This setup did not work well and was disappointing. The rear shocks squeaked quite loudly into the cabin, and the fronts caused a lot of creaking noises and bottomed out hard over medium bumps.

All these problems made my remove the shocks, and convert my KW V2s to use the H&R springs. This worked ok, but could definitely feel this setup was very underdamped for the stiffer springs. The lack of compression damping was very evident, and really made the car compress too much over bumps, with the weight transitions very slow. Over rough roads this really caused the rear end to feel way too soft and bounce a lot.

After the last track day and drive days it was finally time to revisit the KW competition shocks and develop the setup more so it could work.

1. Squeaky rear shocks

This problem is mainly due to the top mount of the KW competition shocks. They are solid ball joints which transmit the high frequency noise into the chassis. I removed these and installed my old Dinan upper shock mounts which are rubber. These do not fit because the KWs are 14mm thread and the Dinan holes are only 12mm. I bored out the holes to 14mm on my lathe, simple change.

2. Rear bump stops disintegrated

The rear foam bump stops had fallen apart, causing the rear to also bottom out and crash over bumps. I purchased a set of Powerflex BS015 bump stops. The powerflex ones are 20mm internal diameter, while the shock shaft of the KWs are 22mm. The polyurethane stretches easily over the 2mm difference and result in a nice fit.

3. Fronts harsh and creaking, and ride height was quite low.

The KW fronts come with their own camber plates which are pillowball mounts. I reverted to stock top mounts with Dinan camber plates. Not as sexy piece of hardware but the stock top mounts perform nicely for a street car. The stock top mounts result in a much higher ride height.

4. Suspect the spring was bottoming out before the bump stop was engaged.

I had around 15mm of preload on the front spring which can result in the springs bottoming out before the bump stop is engaged. This is probably the thing that requires the most thought in rectifying.

The KW competition upper spring perch tapers downwards, which is bad for my setup. I went with a turner motorsport piece which has a flatter design, so I can mount the lower perch higher up.

I also inserted a 12mm stainless steel spacer block underneath the spring perch, which mounts the top perch higher on the shock spindle. This allows me to raise the lower perch without increasing spring preload.

These changes are critical due to the fact the KW competition shocks actually have more travel than stock. Its also fortunate the spindle where the top mount and spring perch mount is actually longer than a standard spindle, so I can put spacers in there without running out of thread on the top nut.


It has taken me a while but have finally got all the parts into the car. The front ride height was achieved with 7mm of front spring preload. From my calculations this is enough to hit the bump stop before bottoming out the spring. I still need to drive the car on rough roads to test but looks promising so far.

The damping is much improved, doesn't over compress over bumps and feels more composed. Extremely happy with the setup. I will dial in some extra front damping but overall the car is massively improved. The ride comfort is excellent.

I will also need to do additional investigation to prevent the rear wheels from contacting the fuel filler neck. The bump travel is controlled by the shock and increasing shock travel on a 1 series can easily result in rubbing the fuel filler neck on large bumps. This will involve using a longer bump stop and swapping out the Dinan upper shock mount with one with standard dimensions (like the Monroe).


Current setup:

Front:

- KW Competition, single way adjustment (slow compression and rebound)
- Spring: H&R RF200050 (200mm length, 50N/mm, 60mm ID)
- Dinan camber plate with stock top mounts
- 12mm spindle spacer
- Swift thrust sheet


Rear:

- KW Competition, two way adjustment (slow compression and rebound )
- Spring: H&R part number R25100600 (10" length, 600lbs/in, 2.5" ID) Metric: (254mm length, 105N/mm, 63.5mm ID)
- Dinan upper shock mount
- HDPE bump stop spacer
- Powerflex BS015 bump stop
- MCA 2.5" rubber lower spring perch
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