ShocknAwe 135i Photo History & Build

[ShocknAwe]

Originally Posted by tree233

Hey ShocknAwe, your build is inspirational!

I'm trying to decide what coilovers to buy right now, and this thread has given me some great info. Thank you.

I'm curious what rear dampers you're switching to?

Also do you know if the TCK dampers are digressive or linear?

Cheers

TCK dampers are revalved Koni dampers. I believe they are digressive as well.

I have YCW currently but while they are fantastic, the local infrastructure here has collapsed and our roads are disintegrating. So I need to go back to something more street oriented. Not sure what I'll be replacing them with yet but the YCWs will be for sale soon.

[iminhell1]

Why are the rods on the tophat bent?


I had to go find your thread because I was curious what turbos those where. Look BA ... cast stainless?

[ShocknAwe]

Originally Posted by iminhell1

Why are the rods on the tophat bent?


I had to go find your thread because I was curious what turbos those where. Look BA ... cast stainless?

I don't follow you on the bent top hat rods.

Cast stainless compressor cover and turbine. Stainless turbofolds fusion welded.

[ShocknAwe]

Update 1: 1M front clip arrived.

Some miscellaneous parts from the build.

Going to refresh the HIDs. Original D1S bulbs are a bit dim after 10 years. Going to replace them with the new nightbreaker laser Osram bulbs, supposedly the best in the industry for our bulbs now. I guess we'll see!

Also got a crank hub lock from Hydra. Will be raising the rev limit to 7800-8k, and the hub is likely to skip while doing this. A lock will save my timing, valves from wrecking themselves.

Hydras PCV system optimized for the N53 head. Need to follow up with them on this one as I'm not 100% clear on how it's different than other systems such as BMS/RB/VTT.

Hydra cowl filter covers. Just to keep water out. Trim looks nice and subtly engraved.

[ShocknAwe]

Hydra N53 HP800 turbofolds

[Petro135]

Wow!!! I been reading this thread a little at a time for about 2 weeks now. Finally finished. Great work!! Very informative and your car is a beauty. Thank you!!

[iminhell1]

Originally Posted by ShocknAwe

I don't follow you on the bent top hat rods.

The 3 top hats I've had all have straight rods.

[ShocknAwe]

Originally Posted by iminhell1

The 3 top hats I've had all have straight rods.

Ah I see. That's my OE LPFP top hat. The PR kit was DIY retrofit for Wal450 to existing hat and bucket.

Looks like yours is bucketless? Was your original bucket/hat straight as well? Wonder what the reasons were for the different designs.

[iminhell1]

Originally Posted by ShocknAwe

Ah I see. That's my OE LPFP top hat. The PR kit was DIY retrofit for Wal450 to existing hat and bucket.

Looks like yours is bucketless? Was your original bucket/hat straight as well? Wonder what the reasons were for the different designs.

No no.

The 2 rods. Yours are angled while mine are straight.



And that bracket fit for shit and got sent back.
Once they sent directions it stated it had to be assembled in the tank.
LOL, sure.

[ShocknAwe]

Originally Posted by iminhell1

No no.

The 2 rods. Yours are angled while mine are straight.



And that bracket fit for shit and got sent back.
Once they sent directions it stated it had to be assembled in the tank.
LOL, sure.

Yeah we're talking about the same thing. Those pegs are part of the top hat.

The PR stg2 DIY kit said specifically to remove everything from the tank and carefully assemble it it won't fit for damn. Funny that whatever vendor yours was said to assemble in tank. No way that would have been remotely approachable.

[Petro135]

I'm about to do a walbro 450 upgrade. The method I've found uses the stock bucket but cuts parts of the bottom away making it essentially bucketless. I will post some pics. I think the parts come in Wednesday. You guys are all an inspiration to me. Think I'll start my own build thread. I got a ton of stuff going on.

[ShocknAwe]

Originally Posted by Petro135

I'm about to do a walbro 450 upgrade. The method I've found uses the stock bucket but cuts parts of the bottom away making it essentially bucketless. I will post some pics. I think the parts come in Wednesday. You guys are all an inspiration to me. Think I'll start my own build thread. I got a ton of stuff going on.

DON'T go bucketless! You'll get low fuel issues under 1/4 tank and possibly even as full as 3/4 tank. Lots of problems with these things. Dunno if the kit you're looking at has fixed that by having a partial bucket but I bet not. Now, if you go venturiless that's another story, but I STRONGLY advise keeping a full bucket. Go with a dual bucketed pump if you're really wanting the extra 25% flow.

Other shitty thing? Hydramats don't fix the issue. And they are a wear part. And are in the ballpark of $150-300!

[Petro135]

Thanks for the heads up, I read back and forth on the bucket/ no bucket thing. My friend went bucketless and said he's not ever had a problem but also has never got below 1/8 tank. I do believe I can not cut the bucket and just put the sock in the bottom. The diy I read cut pieces off both sides and makes sure the sock sticks out of all sides a little. It still has most of the bottom on there. I'll do some research thanks

[ShocknAwe]

Originally Posted by Petro135

Thanks for the heads up, I read back and forth on the bucket/ no bucket thing. My friend went bucketless and said he's not ever had a problem but also has never got below 1/8 tank. I do believe I can not cut the bucket and just put the sock in the bottom. The diy I read cut pieces off both sides and makes sure the sock sticks out of all sides a little. It still has most of the bottom on there. I'll do some research thanks

If you drive casually with highway pulls it'll probably be fine. However if you do any kind of performance driving, I strongly advise you to keep your bucket. Dual 450s in a bucket works great.

[ShocknAwe]

Update: two something something's from overseas.

And after inspecting the body panels, the front right fender I got is scratched to the metal in several spots and some tabs look bent. Silly thing is the dealership parts shop won't comp the cost to fix and wants to exchange the fender. NBD my front EC7R wheels won't be ready until December.

[Torgus]

What a great thread and a great looking car. Can't wait to see where this goes.

[ShocknAwe]

RacingBrake 2pc Rotors were an addition to the car last year. I ultimately did front and rear brakes, and while this is in the process of being revised, I will post the photos for reference.

The rotors save substantial weight per axle, allow a standard 135i pad up front, and a Mitsubishi Evo X pad in the rear. They are sized to scrub the edge, which prevents the rust lip. Looks great.

Ultimately, easy to install like any rotor. Remove caliper from rear mounts, pads, remove rotor set screw and remove rotor. Clean everything up and reverse.

The braking performance after bedding in is phenomenal. I have probably 10-20k miles on the total set, still on the first pads, no evident rotor wear, bite is still good and no matter what I do I can't get these to fade on public roads. Track is another deal. However, I am adding Ti shims and upping the front rotor size soon to try to deal with that.

Pics:

[ShocknAwe]

YCW Coilovers and Swift Springs - Including custom ///M rear toe arm by Fe1rx.

My TCK coils were no longer performing as I wanted and not handling the roads in my area. I tried numerous combinations of spring rates, camber plates, sway bar tuning, and could not eliminate bump performance issues.

So, I got in touch with Mike@MFactory and got a set of YCW coilovers custom valved with race plates and with Swift Springs in 6k front and 18k rear rates.

The smooth road performance of these are incredible. Zero bump steer, equal motion ratio front and rear axles, and completely neutral handling with a -2.5 front and -1.5 rear camber alignment.

I installed spindle body spacers from Fe1rx to raise these in the spindle. This allowed me to fine tune the tire spacing with the threads already on the damper body. Worked well.

I got these with rear M3 lower arms to eliminate the non-M mounting point which had proved problematic with seized lower shock mounts on the TCK rear dampers. I even had to cut them off the car!

Also paired this work with custom M3 style toe arms from Fe1rx. These incorporated dual bearing ends to a solid toe arm, allowing me to get rid of spherical bearing adjustable toe arms, something I had wanted to do for a long time.

At this time I also added YCW axles, which are rated at well over 800whp/wtq. So far so good. Sorry for no picture of those.

I also added a fully built Mfactory 3.08 helical LSD built in a large pumpkin by Synchrotech. This in addition to the Bimmerworld Solid Aluminum RSFBs made the rear end totally predictable. Sliding this thing is extremely fun and extremely easy with a touch of throttle input. Again, sorry for no picture, but you all know what a pumpkin looks like.

My only complaint with this setup is the bump stop characteristic on the front damper is quite harsh. This can be remedied with addition of an OE bump stop, as the YCW stop is a thin hockey puck to prevent damage only.

Otherwise, very fine kit.

Pics:

[ShocknAwe]

Apex EC-7 Rear Wheels - 18x9.5" et 58.
Tires: Michelin Pilot Sport 4S 275/35/18

I've been driving around FBO, with LSD, upgraded axles and my old 265/30/19 rear MPSS were corded. Badly.

Time for new tires. Well, one of my Alufelgen SF-71 rear wheels was cracked, bent, and after repairing these 3x here on CHS roads, I felt it was time to stop spending money fixing these wheels, no matter how much I loved them.

Off to talk to Jeff at Apex. With my coming 1M front conversion, I decided to go with 18x9.5" rear wheels, in nonM 1er rear fitment. +58 offset.

After lengthy discussion, I decided to wrap these in Michelin Pilot Sport 4s tires, which are absolutely the best Max Perf Summer tire available hands down. No arguing here. Size specced was 275/35. I decided not to opt for Extreme Perf tires as I want to maintain hydroplaning performance. I have my eyes on a set of Yoko AD08R tires if these don't hold the power though.

I ended up having to put a 3mm spacer on the hubs, as I was rubbing the fender liner right by the fuel filler tube a tiny bit. Once that was done, PERFECT.

All in all, the 275/35 MP4S tires have held everything I've thrown at them, including big tq hits with full E85 and 22+ psi on stocks. No complaints.

Pics (RB rear 2pc rotors pictured here as well!!):

[ShocknAwe]

Bimmerworld Carbon Fiber Sunroof Delete Plug
OE BMW 1M Slicktop Headliner in Anthracite

OK. Plenty of discussion on the benefits of both sunroofs and slicktop cars. Now, I'm not going to get into the luxury of a sunroof, sunshine, airflow, hairdo upset, whatever. Onward with the SUNROOF DELETE.

I wasn't able to get my 1er with a slicktop. AFAIK all 135i cars sold in NA were sold with the sunroof. I've used it maybe 10 times in the nearly 10 years of ownership, it adds weight to the top of my car, and RATTLES LIKE CRAZY.

So, whats the fix?

A delete plug.

Delete plugs are available for the E82 chassis from several manufacturers, and our own Jake Spence went with Nelson Racing Wheel plug, however he reported to me that the gasket there leaked, so I took the plunge on a Bimmerworld plug.

Bimmerworld offers these sunroof plugs in CF and Fiberglass. Aside from my hate of FRP, I wanted something I could leave unfinished for a while until I decided if I wanted to have the roof shaved and repainted. The CF weave of the unit is absolutely gorgeous, and fits the roof like the OE sunroof does. Proof is in the photos.

It requires removal of the headliner to remove the sunroof cassette and glass. This is about a 6h job truthfully speaking. However, it's totally do-able as a DIY. The cassette is removable with basic BMW hand tools, and the glass is easily separated.

The CF plug is installed using the bolts from the cassette, and GENEROUS use of RTV silicone sealant. I confirmed there were no leaks, and after 24 hours, it was safe to drive!

However, I felt it was necessary to finish the roof since this is my DD. Rather than reinstall the peeling faded, badly warped headliner (courtesy of SC summer heat and humidity!) I imported and installed a genuine 1M slicktop headliner.

The 1M headliner was a beast to install, and really did not want to fit into the car. I was lucky to have the help of my wife to hold it in place but the procedure is effectively the same as removal of the original liner. It's essential to use the install manual from BMW to do this, as numerous pillars and panels have to be decoupled and the muckets BMW uses to hold interior trim in place tend to be in odd spots.

All in all, it was a fun job!

Small things to note: Doing this will allow you to delete your sunroof water drains. I removed all four, probably not much weight but felt like about 1lb total of rubber. Total weight reduction ~35lbs, not factoring the headliner. The forward dome light works.
You will lose the sun visor lights, the 1M does not have these and there is no cutout. I chose not to install them, more weight reduction.
The wiring harness for the center dome light is different, and I have not addressed this yet.

Pics!

[ShocknAwe]

Around this time, I also decided to uninstall my JB4. The JB4 is a great tuning device and I never had an ounce of trouble with it. It really is the complete package when you pair up the Rev3 Connect kit (bluetooth), DP fix, NLS/2step, backend flash.

So why remove it?

Omar@HydraPerformance is building my new turbo setup (Read: custom head, turbos, cams, inlets and outlets) and we will be using MHD only to tune the car with it.

So, tuner preference. That's all. Not that I've wrested all my business from Burger Tuning! Picked up a HUGE 7.5" Race HD core FMIC from them, with the matching 2.5" up/J-pipe. More to come on that later.

[Torgus]

Any more news/costs/experience on the crank hub lock 'fix' from Hydra?

I have a spare head and would like to build it and rev out to 8200. Best way to make HP stuck on 93 pump gas and meth that I can think of. As well as being a lot more fun