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08-14-2013, 11:05 PM | #1 |
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froop's AW 135i Build Thread
Hi everyone!
My name's Alex and I live in Sydney, Australia. I've been putting off making a build thread for a while as I'm not much of a photographer at all and I kind of wanted some pretty photos to put up however I figured I may as well get this up first now and when I get a friend with a proper camera I'll upload some more photos. I apologise in advance for all the crappy iPhone shots. I was always interested in cars but never passionate about them. My parents first bought me a 2004 Toyota Corolla for when I start university which I drove for about a year and a half after which it was taken away to give to my sister and I had the pleasure of driving around a 2002 Toyota Tarago Ultima (the family car) for the rest of my 2.5 uni years . When I started work I bought a 2007 VW Mk5 Golf GTI with DSG which I absolutely loved. I never tinkered with it however in 2009 I bought my first BMW. I initially had test drove a floor model E88 6AT 135i BSM with beige interior and professional nav and absolutely loved it. However when I went to put down the deposit the following day it had already sold and the salesperson advised me that he had just taken delivery of an AW E88 6AT 135i with black interior. I didn't exactly like the idea of a white car but when I went to the dealership and saw it in person I immediately fell in love with the colour and organised all the necessary paperwork immediately . Unfortunately I don't have any photos as at that time I was just one of those people who liked to drive a car but wasn't really passionate about it Then came the day when that all changed. It was July 2012, I had owned the car for exactly 3 years and had put on about 90,000kms when one day whilst driving to work I ran over an object on the motorway. It turned out to be a big fat rock which managed to punch a hole right through the barrel of my left front alloy. Miraculously it didn't damage the tyre and with RFTs I was able to drive the car the rest of the way to work. I made some calls and was told by BMW that a replacement rim would cost AU$900 Naturally I thought that was complete bull so I called up a local wheel repair place and was told that I could have it welded and repaired for $80. They also did painting so I figured why the hell not. I was fresh out of warranty and had tossed around with the idea of painting my wheels black so this was the perfect opportunity. It also turned out that all 4 of my wheels weren't completely round (probably from hitting potholes) so I had them all fixed at the same time. A few days of my car on blocks (rims) and $700 later I had 4 straightened and freshly painted wheels in satin black as well as a strange new feeling. I soon found out that this new feeling (compulsion) was in fact the mysterious but well known 'mod bug' I joined up on these forums and started researching various mods. A couple months and ~$10k later I'd bought a variety of different mods including a Procede rev3, PWM meth kit, CP-E DCIs, BMS OCC, M3 strut brace, blacklines, BMWP spoiler, ebay CF diffuser, BMWP grills, BMWP mirror caps, cool carbons, BMWP brakes kit, lightweight wheels and a golf-tee mod. I dyno'd the car before I installed the Procede on a dyno dynamics roller at Advan Performance and the car achieved 174kW atrw. The after dyno was 224.9kW atrw on 98 octane, Procede Rev 3 and DCIs. It was a bit lower than I was expecting but probably normal for the mods and age of the engine (lots of carbon build up). I had big plans for the car including FBO, meth, coils, M3 parts and possibly even a 1M conversion however it was not to be as you will find out later. During all of this I also found out that I was a bit of a glutton for punishment and actually installed all of the mods myself as well as started performing maintenance on my car. This included simple engine oil changes and even a transmission fluid flush. DIY - BMWP Carbon Fibre Mirror Install DIY - 6AT Transmission Fluid Flush M3 Strut Tower Brace Install and Review I started to take the car to track days, the drag strip and even a 1km event at an airfield. Whilst the car held up perfectly I'd always wanted a manual car and these events only exacerbated this feeling so I started to have a look around on the market for a manual E82 135i. N54 and AW of course . I test drove a couple of stock 135i's as I was planning on transferring all of the mods over from the E88. Fatefully however as it turns out a locally modded car popped up on the market which ticked almost every box plus some. N54, 6MT, AW, 135i, E82, low kms and had been modified with a large portion of the mods I was already planning on doing. It was FBO with meth and had a few various other mods, mostly cosmetic. I quickly organised for a test drive and committed to buy it then and there. It was epic. A big thank you goes out to MrBlonde (Kenny) for all of the effort that he put into setting up the car. All of it was extensively documented in his E82 Daily Driver Project thread. I highly recommend that anyone interested in starting to mod their N54s take a look. Mods included in the car when I purchased it were: 35% tint Procede Rev 3 PWM Meth CDV Delete 3D Design Aluminium Pedals AR Catless DPs CP-E midpipes and axleback ER Comp FMIC and CP with TiAl BoV P3 Vent Gauge BMWP CF Interior BMWP Black Grills BMWP Short Shifter Kit, gear knob and handbrake lever BR Racing Half Cage The car achieved a stock dyno of 187.9kW atrw and after Kenny was through with it it put down 293.5kW atrw on 98 octane, FBO and 100% meth. I picked up the car about a week or so later after all the paperwork was done (I had to pretty much learn how to drive manual on the way home ) and immediately commenced some further modification of the car. First step were the wheels and swapping over the M3 strut tower brace and BMWP CF Mirror Caps. The wheels were Forgestar F14s in "Brushed Titanium" 18x8.5 ET 48 at the front (8.6kg each) and 18x9 ET50 at the rear (9.0kg each). I shod them with Federal 595RSRs in 225/40 and 255/35. I went narrower than I wanted to due to the fronts running incredibly close to the front strut. I'll probably look at getting 245 and 265s on my next tyre change with a 5-10mm spacer on the front. My next mod was the intake. The car had pretty much every bolt on engine performance mod that you could wish for except for an intake. I decided to go with a Mr5 intake setup that I picked up from another member as well as a new AFE Pro5R drop in filter and some AFE dynamic air scoops (for looks). I wanted something a little bit different so I plasti-dipped the scoops a metallic yellow colour (trying to get sort of like a Phoenix Yellow'ish colour) by laying down a base of flat yellow followed by a couple coats of gold metalliser. I was very happy with the result although unfortunately it doesn't show well in the photos that I took. We had a dyno day come up very soon after all of this and I figured it would be a good idea to take it along to see what kind of effect the new intake setup had. It was on the same dyno at Advan that was used for previous measurements by MrBlonde and on the dyno day it was about 30+ºC in the workshop. The car managed 298.9kW atrw and I was pretty happy with the result. I took the car down to WSID, our local drag strip for my maiden run in this car as well as ever in a manual car. I managed a best time of 13.033 @ 118mph with a 2.160ft. Not too bad considering that I had only driven a manual car for about 3 weeks ever The following night/day, whilst parked outside overnight at my girlfriend's place a passer by decided to write me a lovely note and leave it on the windshield . After owning the E88 which had a black roof, I felt that something was a bit off with this new car. I hadn't yet put on blacklines or a spoiler and the E82 didn't have a sunroof so it felt almost a bit too....'white'. I picked up some cans of black plasti-dip, painters tape and drop sheets and after several hours of work ended up with my first ever speed striped car . It turned out even better than I expected and I felt that it gave the car a nice aggressive look that it was missing with all the white and nothing to break it up. I had a track day planned so I bought a 4 point harness to install. It helped amazingly through the corners to hold me into the stock M-sport seats however unfortunately not everything went to paln and the dreaded HPFP failure reared it's ugly head. I wasn't even able to get 1 clean flying lap without multiple misfires. The car even started to stall and misfire when cold starting the car. I picked up a new HPFP from Stuart@BMRAutowerkes and set about installing it in my garage. Overall it took me about 3 hours and when I fired the car back up I knew immediately she was back in action. Next to come was a whole bunch of cosmetic stuff. BMWP Spoiler, blacklines and an entire 1M interior that I managed to find on eBay. I also picked up an eBay diffuser from a member but unfortunately it didn't fit due to the exhaust fitment. I'll have to get some of the hangars cut off and rewelded on. The whole 1M interior swap took me about 8 hours all up to strip and re-install. This included the steering wheel, instrument binnacle cover, door and rear side panels, front and rear seats, underseat subwoofers and rear parcel shelf with speakers. I've since taken it back out to the strip a couple times and so far my best time is 12.718@120.39mph with a 2.228 60'. My race weight was 1583kg. I've also managed a nice 3.89s 0-100kph time on one of my strip visits which gave me a pleasant surprise . I really need to work on my launches though to get my 60' times faster and more consistent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edit 22/8/13: Went out to the strip again last night and managed a new PB! Achieved 12.569 @ 115.54 with a 2.069 60ft and a raceweight of 1566kg. Tried dropping down my tyre pressures to 20psi which I think helped with the launch but then again looking back to my previous results I was able to manage similar 60fts with 26-32 psi and higher ETs. Might just need to work on my technique. Hopefully I can head out again in the next couple weeks and pull a low 12. Also managed to capture this 0-100 time, though I think it was probably due to some wheelspin when changing into second ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edit 30/9/13: Just ordered a set of the Turner Motorsport solid Aluminium rear subframe bushings. They'll be replacing M3 rear subframe bushings that are already in there. I've done a bit of research and it appears that replacing the rear subframe bushings with solid ones doesn't affect NVH too much as long as I keep the diff bushings stock. The new M3/4 as well as the current M5 also use a solid subframe bolted directly to the chassis without any bushings. The reason why I want to change the bushings is to reduce the risk of wheel hop on hard launches. I've looked at the DEFIV diff lockdown kit but it's quite expensive and has more risk of introducing a lot more NVH. All of the M3 parts have finally landed in Sydney. I'm waiting for clearance through customs and quarantine and once it's all done it'll be sent to Advan to inspect and install. I hope to have it all installed within another month or two. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edit 13/10/13: I just changed my transmission fluid to the Redline MT-90 yesterday. Car has 48,000kms and was running the original OEM fluid from the factory. It also has a BMWP SSK with the BMW gear knob. The fluid drained was a dark brown and of a watery consistency. There was quite a lot of metal particulates in the fluid itself. I used a $5 plastic petrol siphon pump thingy to fill it up but gave it a few small pumps before plugging the drain hole to help flush some more of the older fluid out. Probably ended up using just over half of my 1 gallon bottle. Ever since I purchased the car (already had the SSK) it's been quite notchy, requiring a lot of force to get the car into 1st, 2nd or reverse gears. Since the MT90, whilst it's still notchy it's definitely smoother. There's little to no grind and the force required to get it into gear is significantly less. Taking it out to the strip on Wednesday so we'll see how it goes. Also have a set of E46 M3 transmission mounts that should arrive within the next week. I also put in an RB Turbo PCV valve which has been sitting around in my garage for a while. The install isn't too hard but you just need to watch out for pressurised fuel in the fuel lines. I had to disconnect the one sitting over the PCV valve as I couldn't get the PCV cap off. The engine was still warm from me going out to buy the $5 siphon pump and fuel started spittling out from the loosened fuel line all over the places. Had to quickly throw a shop towel over it to stop it from going everywhere. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edit 11/7/13: Aaaand finally after about 2 weeks I got to pick it up today after installation of the following parts! BMWP Brakes (F+R Calipers, ECS front rotors, BMWP rear rotors) Cool Carbons F30 Backing Plates Ti Shims ECS SS Brake Lines E46 M3 Transmission Mounts Moton Clubsports (135i fronts, 1M/M3 Rear) Vorshlag Camber Plates Urethane Rear Top Mounts Swift Springs (560lb fronts, 800lb rears) TMS M3 Solid Aluminium Rear Subframe Bushings M3 Rear Subframe M3 Rear Axle Shafts M3 3.15 LSD E93 M3 Front Sway Bar E90 M3 Rear Sway Bar M3 Rear Arms (upper guide rod, upper link, lower camber link, toe arm) M3 Front Control Arms Unfortunately I don't know of any other E82 135i's that have undergone this specific transformation with an M3 rear subframe, all M3 suspension arms (rear upper guide rod, rear upper link, lower camber link and rear toe arm), with the stock 135i hubs and therefore we've run into some unexpected issues. I currently have an incurable 10mm toe out on the rear when it's supposed to be a 2mm toe in. The reason for this is that the M3 rear toe arm is too short resulting in too much toe out and the stock 135i rear toe arm is way too long and won't even fit. I'm going to have to buy some rear adjustable toe arms from either Rogue Engineering or Megan Racing however from my research they have an arm for either a non-M or an M whereas my car is a hybrid of both so I've sent off emails asking which arm would be more suitable for my application. I have a feeling it might be the 1M arm which can then hopefully be lengthened sufficiently. I also ended up caving in and bought an E93 M3 Front Sway Bar as well as some ECS 2-Piece Semi-Floating Front Rotors. I also needed to get some 5mm spacers for the front wheels due to rubbing issues on the front strut, front control arm and front subframe. Anyway, here are some photos for your viewing pleasure. Sorry for the dirty car. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So far as at 11/7/2013 the mods are: Power/Exhaust RB Turbos Cobb Backend Flash (Self Tuned) Procede Rev 3 PWM Meth with Custom Boot Tank and Braided Meth Lines Mr5 Intake AFE Drop In Filter + Scoops ER FMIC ER CP TiAl BOV AR Catless DPs CP-E Midpipes Berk Street Axleback with Custom Butterfly Valve Muffler Bypass Suspension M3 Strut Tower Brace M3 Front Control Arms M3 Complete Rear End Retrofit (3.15 LSD, Rear Subframe, Rear Axle Shafts, Upper Guide Rods, Upper Links, Lower Camber Link, Toe Arm) E93 M3 Front Sway Bar E90 M3 Rear Sway Bar Moton Clubsport Struts/Dampers Swift Springs (Front 560lb/ft, Rear 800lb/ft) Vorshlag Camber Plates TMS Solid Aluminium 1M Subframe Mounts Brakes BMWP Calipers ECS Front 2-Piece Semi-Floating Rotors BMWP Rear Dimpled/Slotted Rotors DS2500s Hardbrakes Front Ti Shims ECS SS Brake Lines Castrol SRF Fluid Cosmetic BMWP CF Mirror Caps BMWP CF Spoiler BMWP Kidney Grills Blacklines BMWP Shifter/Handbrake BMWP CF Trim CF Diffuser P3 Gauge 1M Interior 1M Steering Wheel BMWP Steering Wheel Trim Plasti-Dip Speed Stripes Wheels/Tyres Forgestar F14s - Front 18 x 8.5 ET48, Rear 18 x 9 ET56 Yokohama AD08Rs - Front 235/40/R18, Rear 265/35/R18 Miscellaneous BR Half Cage CDV Delete RB PCV BMWP SSK E46 M3 Transmission Mounts Plans for the car in the future hopefully include some RBs to replace my smoking stockers, a pair of fixed back Sparco's and then if I happen to win the lottery maybe a 1M widebody conversion with RevoZport CF bits Also, I'm hoping to get a proper photo shoot done once I've done a couple more cosmetic things to tie in the look. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have any questions at all please don't hesitate to ask Cheers, Alex
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Last edited by froop; 12-07-2014 at 08:55 PM.. |
08-14-2013, 11:24 PM | #2 |
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Awesome thread Alex! Cant believe hpw much work you did yourself! I chickened out and my cars in thebshop for 6 weeks haha. Maybe its time I write my own build thread, following your inspiration...
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08-14-2013, 11:30 PM | #3 | |
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Definitely write up your own thread. It's pretty fun looking back at everything you've done to the car step by step. I think I've missed out quite a lot of though haha
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08-15-2013, 12:26 AM | #4 |
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Nice one Alex, well modified car that is only getting better!
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08-15-2013, 12:33 AM | #5 |
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Very nice!! If you need any help with widebody hit up ilikebmxbikes, sk8fe, or myself
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08-15-2013, 12:51 AM | #6 | |
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Thanks Luke!
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When I am ready though I'll definitely hit you guys up haha
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08-15-2013, 01:05 AM | #7 | |
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First thing I did was give it a good clay, polish and hard body'd the entire thing haha.
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08-15-2013, 05:32 AM | #8 |
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Very nice sir
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Mods:-Berkexhaust -alpinaB3flash -CobbAP -Cobb FMIC -ER charge pipe tialQ bov -M3 front sway bar -M3 subframe bushings -M3 front upper and lower control arms -M3 guide rods -M3 rear upper control arms -Mfactory LSD -defiv lockdown kit -TC Kline SA coilovers /camber plates- HP rear toe arms |
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08-22-2013, 01:23 AM | #10 |
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Thanks guys!
Just added some new results at the strip from last night. Managing to get a new PB each time I head which I'm pretty happy with (especially since each time I go out I only get 4-5 runs before it clsoes) 12.569 @ 115.54mph. Better 60ft of 2.069 but about 5mph less trap speed probably due to the significantly lower tyre pressures I ran this time round.
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08-22-2013, 08:38 PM | #12 | |
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Yep you are correct. The black grill on the floor is the subwoofer housing cover. If you are removing the seat just be careful. They're floating covers so very easy to break if you accidentally put weight on it. Ask me how I know
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08-23-2013, 02:13 AM | #13 |
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Oh no! hahaha
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09-29-2013, 07:33 AM | #15 |
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Just ordered a set of the Turner Motorsport solid Aluminium rear subframe bushings. They'll be replacing M3 rear subframe bushings that are already in there.
I've done a bit of research and it appears that replacing the rear subframe bushings with solid ones doesn't affect NVH too much as long as I keep the diff bushings stock. The new M3/4 as well as the current M5 also use a solid subframe bolted directly to the chassis without any bushings. The reason why I want to change the bushings is to reduce the risk of wheel hop on hard launches. I've looked at the DEFIV diff lockdown kit but it's quite expensive and has more risk of introducing a lot more NVH. All of the M3 parts have finally landed in Sydney. I'm waiting for clearance through customs and quarantine and once it's all done it'll be sent to Advan to inspect and install. I hope to have it all installed within another month or two.
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Last edited by froop; 09-29-2013 at 08:40 PM.. |
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09-29-2013, 01:30 PM | #16 | |
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Drives: 2011 E82 135i, 2015 F15 X5 35D
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09-29-2013, 07:11 PM | #17 |
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Let me know how NVH is with those, i've toyed with the idea but I don't have much tolerance for resonance in the cabin at idle.
This is probably the coolest E88 on the forum
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E88 N54 Alpinweiss/Coral Red/Motiv HTA 3586r Tial .82AR/Other stuff...652WHP
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09-29-2013, 07:23 PM | #18 | ||
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Once it's all in I'll definitely let you know how it goes. I think my tolerance for noise and vibration isn't too bad as I'm running straight through piping which is pretty damn droney and raspy and I've actually gotten used to it. Initially I found it unbearable.
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10-02-2013, 05:30 AM | #20 |
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Wow Alex... those Aluminium rear subframe bushings are a step (or closer to 10) up from the Whiteline inserts that I thought you had in mind (or are they for the 'vert?)
I look forward to seeing pics of the M3 rear end installed on your coupe. |
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10-02-2013, 07:43 AM | #21 | |
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My E82 on the other hand could probably do with unitising the whole rear.
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10-02-2013, 08:16 AM | #22 |
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Lol how did i miss the metal roof...oh well still love both of your cars.
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