Hydra's voyage into ///M

[hydra]

Hey guys,
After 16 years of car ownership, I bought my very first Beemer back in February, a Euro-model BSM 2010 135i 6AT with 48,6xx km on the clock. Car was almost completely bone stock, with the notable exception of a Quaife LSD that the previous owner was nice enough to install, as well as a BMW/Garmin portable GPS retrofit done at the local dealer. Here is what the car looked like when I first bought it:

[hydra]

My first mod to the car was the addition of a set of gloss black BMW Performance grilles. I never could understand why BMW chose to equip this car with chrome grilles as standard, especially considering that it was optioned with Shadowline trim with no brightwork anywhere. My next mod shortly thereafter was the addition of a pair of VRSF 3" downpipes. I can't say I felt much of a performance increase besides a 10-20% increase in noise, but then again my butt dyno was never all that sensitive. After week or so I decided it was time for more oomph, so out comes the BT cable, and in goes a custom tune:

[hydra]

I now had a peak of 16psi tapering to 12psi, and probably gained in the region of 80-90whp in just a few minutes. Performance was hugely improved, but the added oomph really brought out the deficiencies in both the chassis and the 6AT (during high performance driving) , so a 6MT swap soon became my #1 priority. So I ended up doing the 6MT swap only a few short weeks after first buying the car, but not before doing giving the 6AT its last hurrah, in 2nd gear with 4 people in the car no less...

[hydra]

Almost immediately after completing the 6MT swap, the time came to install the next round of bolt-ons:

- Wagner Evo 2 Competition FMIC
- Magnaflow Turboback exhaust (i.e. with catless midpipes)
- AFe Momentum GT N54 intake
- Custom Charge pipe with Evo X BOV

[hydra]

The effect of all these powertrain mods (and resultant ~400whp), along with the 6MT conversion was only to highlight even further the deficiencies of the E8x/E9x chassis. Car is really ill-suited to this kind of power level as-is, and it became clear that much work had to be done to make this car "fun", and to help it put its power down more effectively. On to the next round of mods...

- M3 steering rack
- M3 guide rods
- M3 FLCAs
- Whiteline FCA430 Castor bushings
- Whiteline RSFB
- Godspeed Adj toe arms
- Godspeed Adj upper camber arms


I'm pleased to report that this latest round of upgrades totally transformed the way the car feels, tracks, and puts the power down. Steering effort is almost unacceptably stiff now, but the upside is improved feel, stronger self-centering, and the quicker steering makes slides so much easier/more intuitive to catch. Car now tracks straight and true @ WOT in 3rd and 4th gear, whereas before it would wander all over the place and fight for traction even with fresh Neova AD08Rs. What remains though, is the excessive body motion/roll on account of the stock springs/shocks, and a strong propensity to understeer at the limit, but I have several more mods coming in the pipeline to cure these ills...Took the car to a local track last Sunday in 100+ degree heat, was 8.5s faster than a friend's S2000 over a 150s lap... Here is a pic below from that weekend:

[nacaruh]

Nice build!
Was the M3 steering rack a direct PnP?
I heard there was some coding involved due to the incompatibility of the Servotronic, or something?

[hydra]

With all this talk of performance and handling, I seem to have neglected the subject of aesthetics. The standard 135i is a bit of an ugly duckling IMHO, so I decided to imbue it with some much-needed attitude...

- CSL-style CF trunk (painted body color)
- OE-style CF hood (painted body color)
- Scorpione CF rear diffuser panel
- Polyurethane front lip spoiler (yet to be installed)
- Shadowline LCI taillights
- 1M gearknob
- 1M (short) shifter
- 1M steering wheel trim
- Armrest delete
- Volk TE37SL 17x8.5 +40 (yet to be installed)

PS - Before anyone asks, I deliberately left the stock paddle-shifters on and rewired them as horn buttons, makes honking so much more convenient

[hydra]

Originally Posted by lecaf

Nice build!
Was the M3 steering rack a direct PnP?
I heard there was some coding involved due to the incompatibility of the Servotronic, or something?

M3 rack was indeed a direct swap. Keep in mind that you will need to retain your existing tie rods. Also keep in mind that my car had regular Power Steering and not Active Steering, which at only 1.7 turns lock to lock, is even faster than the 1M/M3's 2.2 turns lock to lock, didn't particularly care for Active Steering's lack of feel when I tried it on a friend's car though. I'm not sure coding (along with a wiring harness retrofit) is enough to enable Servotronic, but some fiddling with the Servotronic solenoid on the rack might be all that's needed to reduce steering effort. I have grown used to the added steering effort, so its not something I'm going to worry about any longer.

[boyerstyle]

Alright, so after that insanely long list, what has been your favorite mod?

[hydra]

Originally Posted by boyerstyle

Alright, so after that insanely long list, what has been your favorite mod?

There's plenty more where that came from believe me! Have several boxes full of parts still awaiting installation...

From all the mods I've done so far, my favorites in terms of pleasure per $$ spent have been (in no particular order) the M3 steering rack, the RSFBs and adj toe/camber arms, and the LCI Shadowline taillights.

[hydra]

Car is on the lift, and a large round of upgrades coming soon... Oh and excuse the mess

[hydra]

Lots of ups and downs this week. Started off by removing the tranny to install a SPEC LWFW + 550i clutch kit only to find out that the SB53A-3 flywheel I had ordered will absolutely not work with a stock-style clutch, and that an SB53A-4 flywheel is needed instead. So my car is going to end up stuck on the lift for an extra week or so while we wait for the replacement flywheel to come in.

On to the rear end then... My diff seals had been leaking since I bought the car due to them not being replaced when the PO installed the LSD, so now was high time to remedy that as well as installing a pair of M3 front diff bushings while we're in there.. I figured at $22ea they'd be a cheap upgrade, time will tell what, if any, effect these will have on the dynamics of the car.

[hydra]

With that out of the way, it was time to button up the rear end of the car once and for all, so I installed the Swift Spec-R springs, M3 Bilstein B8 shocks, M3 lower control arms, Stoptech brake lines, and Dinan Rear Shock Mounts to compliment the Whiteline RSFBs and adjustable camber/toe arms I had installed earlier.

[hydra]

I know its not much, but I also managed to get the RE71Rs mounted and balanced on the Volks. You wouldn't believe how much I'm looking forward to seeing these on the car once its done!

[hydra]

Finally got the car buttoned up right before the weekend.. Here are some quick snaps, hope to take some better pics soon... What do y'all think of the Volks?

[VMRWheels]

You don't waste time, do you? Nice job so far!

[hydra]

Quite a lot has gone on since my last update.... I bought/received a set of Vargas GC Lites, so I figured I would get my car dyno'd before and after installing them to see the difference. Dyno model is a Dynocom 5000X (we don't have any Dynojets locally), and the temp was 81F with a 1200ft DA. Car is running 21.x psi peak tapering down to 17psi at redline with FBO except outlets and running C16 race gas. Smoothing Factor on the dyno is 1, my dyno sheet printout says 523whp, I don't know why the pic above says 518whp but it is what it is... Run was done in 4th gear btw on a 6MT car with a 3.46 rear end.

[hydra]

Next round of mods coming very soon to include the following:


GC Lite Turbos
MMP Outlets
LPFP Upgrade
Recaro Pole Position ABE seats + Brackets
Custom rear seat delete panel
Adjustable rear spring perches with 650lb/in Hyperco Race springs

Here's a sneak Peak of the turbos being installed:

[ASAP]

When you mention the car being all over the place in 3rd and 4th gear, were you referring to a really uneasy side to side flex. My vehicle experiences this greatly as well... did your aftermarket toe arms fix this? thanks

Its really unacceptable to be honest.

[hydra]

I installed the RSFBs and the toe arms together, but there was a definite improvement in rear-end stability under power afterwards. I would say this is a must-do mod on any high-powered 135/335..

[hydra]

Here's another teaser photo:

[nacaruh]

Originally Posted by hydra

M3 rack was indeed a direct swap. Keep in mind that you will need to retain your existing tie rods. Also keep in mind that my car had regular Power Steering and not Active Steering, which at only 1.7 turns lock to lock, is even faster than the 1M/M3's 2.2 turns lock to lock, didn't particularly care for Active Steering's lack of feel when I tried it on a friend's car though. I'm not sure coding (along with a wiring harness retrofit) is enough to enable Servotronic, but some fiddling with the Servotronic solenoid on the rack might be all that's needed to reduce steering effort. I have grown used to the added steering effort, so its not something I'm going to worry about any longer.

I totally forgot about your thread. I ended up retrofitting the steering rack as well, and I absolutely LOVE IT! Definitely my favorite mod so far, and as far as the servotronic goes, with a little modification, you can get it working. But even without it, I don't mind