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Old 04-09-2016, 08:04 AM   #3
John V
No more BMWs
 
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8
Location: Glenwood, MD
Posts: 14,753
Round Two: Making it faster and more reliable

I found a beautiful set of Kromer Kraft equal length headers a couple years ago and jumped on the opportunity to pick them up. There were only a handful of these made for the E46 and honestly, I did this mostly for the sound. An inline-six through an equal length header sounds absolutely phenomenal to me.



The collectors that come with these headers calculated out to be way too voluminous to maximize torque, so I had a set custom made over the 2015-2016 offseason. They are yummy.



I ditched the intake that came with the car and custom made my own long-tube 3.5" that goes down into the bumper.



The E46 Megasquirt was “figured out” by Peter Florance and Doug Keiler. We have learned a lot setting this up as it's tremendously powerful. It controls the electric fan, VANOS, everything needed to make the car run properly. I needed to eliminate the drive-by-wire throttle to make this work. I figured an M50 throttle body from an OBD-1 E36 (among other cars) would be ideal, but its stock 63mm size might be a little small for the engine, so I bored it out on my buddy's lathe. We mulled over how to cut the throttle plate, since it requires a complex profile. We came up with a really simple solution.







I run stock rear trailing arm bushings from a Z4 (yep, rubber bushings), with “limiters” from Vorshlag. There are stiffer options, but in my experience these work the best.



Up front, the front lower control arm bushings are pretty soft from the factory. I recommend either the bushings from an MZ4, which are offset to allow more caster, or the Treehouse “eyeball” bushings, which are solid delrin. Both work very well. The Z4 bushings are only around $100 for the pair.

I run the ZHP’s front control arms. They have reinforced inner ball joints which make them more durable. The geometry is the same as the stock pieces.

For engine and transmission mounts, I like the Vorshlag Nylon pieces. They’ve never given us an issue in three years of abuse, and they’re reasonably priced.

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