E30 M3 S54 track day car build

[Mikey_Boy]

^^Fantastic! Looks excellent...

I'm a big fan of Zircotec - makes a BIG difference to both engine bay and cabin temps - aiming on using them for my new exhaust manifold.

[Superleggera]

Spencer has been busy getting the bay ready for paint - almost there now the sealer is down.

[Superleggera]

Spencer from BMP Conversions was able to do the final spray on the engine bay today. Im very pleased with the end result

[Superleggera]

Engine bed strenthening plates welded in place.

[rix313]

Will the whole car be that colour? Nice work going into this.

[Superleggera]

Will the whole car be that colour? Nice work going into this.

No - the rest of the car is staying Black for now.

[Superleggera]

Spencer at BMP Conversions has been busy

[Superleggera]

Ive been offered some prodrive replica uprights so may need to rethink some of the front suspension:

[Superleggera]

Vanos rebuild is now also complete:

[Superleggera]

Prodrive replica struts fit my coilovers perfectly ! I think its hard to pass these up. Ill have to invest in some replica DTM arms now !!!

[Superleggera]

[Superleggera]

Off to the auto electricians for its custom loom. Must say im very please with the wheels - not for the purists who cringe at the sight of 18s

[DanThe]

What management are you using?

[Superleggera]

What management are you using?

Standard DME that has been flashed for the conversion...for now.

I havent given much thought as to whether I will change this in the future as my key focus is just to get it up and running at the moment

[Superleggera]

Ive done a complete U-turn on the front setup and just took the plunge and got some adjustable DTM control arms. Im quite excited about this development and should contribute to some good handling.

[Mikey_Boy]

^^^^ blimey!

[Superleggera]

Some slow progress at the moment as we look to rewire the whole car, and take out anything that is unnecessary. Im glad Imnot doing this part !

[DanThe]

Table full of E46 spaghetti

[Superleggera]

Loom is starting to look a lot better now with customised lengths and unnecessary bits taken out:



Control arms turned up today too

[rix313]

Who is doing the loom? Any idea what it's going to cost?

Those control arms look tasty.

[Superleggera]

The wiring is being done by Andrew Stockley - look up A.M.Auto-Electrical Ltd on facebook.

The price is obviously higher than a plug and play solution but I wanted a custom loom so that most of the wiring can be modified to length and 'tucked' to keep it simple and clean. This takes time.

As an example here is the steering column loom before:


and after:

[sideways_king]

Hi there bud, that's looking real nice,
I've not long completed my s54 conversion and I must say it was a task to make everything nice, neat and strong
Where are you based?
What kind of power are you expecting?
How come you are using a standard ecu?

[Superleggera]

Im based in Hertfordshire but the car is being built in Norfolk.

This is my first BMW so I didnt want to go too extreme and decided that many have had good results from the standard ECU - so that is the starting point. Who knows what I end up doing in future but the philosophy was to keep everything simple.

Power-wise Im aiming for 350 but we will see. I dont care too much for the actual output but I need to have some kind of benchmark. The engine has been completely refreshed, new big and main end bearings, ARP bolts, full vanos rebuild, new oil pump, valve clearances done etc... so should be a nice healthy motor. Its running stock S54 headers, will be decat, custom exhaust, have an evolve air intake and custom remap so hopefully not too far away from 350.

My primary focus is on handling though, and then to become a better driver

[sideways_king]

Yea that's a good idea, simple is always best and then you can change it once you are using it as and when you need to,
I done my car abit arse about face,
I built my car as a track day car, I made my own suspension, custom rear axle and all that jazz, so she handled amazing, then needed more power so built a itb m20 stroker which made good power at 255hp 230lbft,
Then got use to that so sold my m20 and done the s54 conversion, I went standalone bcoz it made sense in regards to making a loom and I didn't want to do it twice, it made it simple in regards to mapping and future tuning incase I want to boost it etc etc.
I don't want to tell you what to do but I had a custom exhaust made but with standard m3 cats bcoz of bottom/mid range torque and power, I'm using standard headers, completely standard engine apart from a vanos rebuild and it made 374hp 320lbft which has made her MENTAL!
If you wasn't so far I'd say pop down and I will take you out.
Anyway I'm now going to cage her and maybe do some different spring rates as she has abit more weight in the front.
I would have loved to have done bulkhead work and moved the s54 back abit but I will do that later on.
As for the manual steering, I have manual steering with m3 rack and it's the best, the feeling you get from it is amazing and I'm running 225 r888's and it certainly isn't to heavy!
We will have to meet up sometime.
My name is Ashley by the way

[Superleggera]

Engine sub frame has been modified to take the DTM arms.

[rix313]

I'm putting a few months aside to do my wiring. Going to be a giggle

[Superleggera]

Front part of the wiring loom is done - slowly getting there

[Superleggera]

A few more updates on the wiring - the auto electrician is doing a very clean job

[rix313]

Surging on dude looking good! After Christmas I'll be pulling the wiring out of my car to re-do and neaten it all up. Do you have a fuse box inside the car now?

[Superleggera]

Thanks. Yes - fuse box is now behind the glove box.

[rix313]

Be keen to see more pics of the loom through the car for some inspiration if you can get them?

[Superleggera]

I should get some pics of the loom later this week now that work on the car has resumed - the loom has been completely taken out of the car for final prep and insulation and will be put back in later in the week hopefully.

Car was started up for the first time last week to make sure it was all working as expected - started up first time. Top effort from Spencer at BMP Conversions:


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[Superleggera]

Another small vid



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[Superleggera]

Some more updates on the car as it enters its final stages.

The custom loom is complete and ready for its final reinstallation as after it was tested taken out to be shrouded



Custom exhaust is also nearing completion - the welding is a work of art





Carbon boot lid has been made now too:

[Superleggera]

[whoops]