M3dragon - NorCal CSL build

[flipm3]

Originally Posted by m3dragon

Still waiting on the Cam to come in. That is the last part and I can get everything installed.

Right now dealing with the seat issues and trying to also get the car in for the rear sub frame and diff upgrades.

Oh nice! A step at a time for sure!

I am still waiting to find some free time for Evolve and I to schedule dyno time to tune my own car. At this rate, you may get everything fully setup before I do

[m3dragon]

I am not sure how much tuning can be done. The shop said most of the time the tunes you get from the shops are pretty much maxed. I guess I need to find out more about what evlove is actually changing for each of our cars.

[Imran@Evolve]

[quote=m3dragon;12709043]So the long awaited big items arrived today. Thank you to the Evolve guys for a great packing job. A thing to point out is that the bumper comes with the gasket, splitters, and tow hoot cover. So I have a spare tow cover, 2 extra splitters and a spare seal. Kind of nice but at the same time could have saved the funds. Ok as usual images below.

Items all packed up and delivered





All the miscellaneous parts needed to install and complete the bumper installation.



Last of the interior parts from BMW were in this order. One step closer to getting the car to the interior shop. I hope to be able to pick the seats up next week as they are in.







The bumper itself. It comes painted which is kind of a bummer as I need to repay it. The bumper also seems to be some sort of carbon fiber? First time seeing a OE CSL bumper off a car.





Hi Adam

Great to see it all coming together! I have to say BMW do a great job of packing the bumper and BTW it is Carbon Fibre! Hence the hefty price tag

Can't wait to see this finished.

[flipm3]

Originally Posted by m3dragon

I am not sure how much tuning can be done. The shop said most of the time the tunes you get from the shops are pretty much maxed. I guess I need to find out more about what evlove is actually changing for each of our cars.

If you are still running the D/A Race Software, trust me, Evolve will make power on that

Getting cams and even your current exhaust setup will require some very nice tweaks to VANOS mapping. There have been a lot of advancements in tuning potential for the MSS54 with many of the thanks to Evolve Automotive.

I know a guy who bought a used E46 M3 and he thinks he had the D/A Race Software on it when he bought it. He ended up getting the Evolve tune after discussing it with me and he made a nice amount of power on top of the tune. The fact that you have cams as well, I imagine it to be an even greater difference. Again, he thought he had it, so I'm not 100% sure if he did or not. Trust me, the Evolve tune is an absolute necessity

[m3dragon]

Not worried about Evolve tune not being good. Just not sure how much tuning they can do as I know they tweaked our cars pretty far already.

[flipm3]

Originally Posted by m3dragon

Not worried about Evolve tune not being good. Just not sure how much tuning they can do as I know they tweaked our cars pretty far already.

Yeah I definitely know what you mean!

I do know of someone who went from Evolve CF Airbox/AlphaN/CSL Headers then added CSL Cams/New tune.

I think he gained 20+whp on top of everything else he had before which is pretty huge!

You're going to have a blast with your car when it's done!

I'll try to find those dynos for you.

[m3dragon]

Yeah post a link or the info. Like to see that.

I was pretty happy to see I was a consistent 312 with just the mods I have. Now with cams, intake and the diff I think the car would be a little more 1Mish in feel. Not my goal but I won't complain =)

[m3dragon]

Originally Posted by Imran@Evolve

Hi Adam

Great to see it all coming together! I have to say BMW do a great job of packing the bumper and BTW it is Carbon Fibre! Hence the hefty price tag

Can't wait to see this finished.

Yup, all the parts arrived safe WOOHOO. Thanks for getting all the items and getting them over here. I still need to send in my ECU data for the software tune. Just have not had the time for that.

[flipm3]

Originally Posted by m3dragon

Yeah post a link or the info. Like to see that.

I was pretty happy to see I was a consistent 312 with just the mods I have. Now with cams, intake and the diff I think the car would be a little more 1Mish in feel. Not my goal but I won't complain =)

Were your 312whp runs with the D/A Race Tune?

Here are dynos that I found of that Evolve client and M3forum member, djm3. Both runs have the same exact modifications (Airbox, CSL Headers/Cams, Exhaust). The only difference is that the before is a base tune, and the after is a tune after dyno time with the magical wizard of Evolve, Sal!

When looking at the dynos, what's most important is knowing the change in power, not necessarily the final numbers.

Please note, although the dynos are posted on my server, they are property of djm3 that were publicly posted elsewhere. djm3 also posted that the runs were on a bad coil pack.

[m3dragon]

Nice changes.

yes all the dyno runs were done on the current setup with D/A race software.

[m3dragon]

HOLLY COW. Finally after almost a year I have both cams at last.

Car is going in to have sub frame reinforcement installed and diff upgraded. After that it is going in for the intake and cam install FINALLY.

[m3dragon]

I am off tomorrow to get the car smoged for the last time hopefully. I had an O2 go out just before I had a test section made. The last few week I have had o drive the car around with a test section in that is bouncing around a little under the car. It is freaking me out a bit that it is going to break something as there none of the brackets are installed. Car hates having to work through 100 cell race cats and 2 high efficiency cats. Car is also being dropped off tomorrow for rear sub frame and diff upgrade to 3.91s

So I have had some parts installed a tad out of order. I had custom seat brackets made to have the Recaro seats installed. I had to have them made as I am using the sliders so the wife can drive the car still. I sit about the same height as the stock power seats. The goal was to drop weight and sit lower. I could get about a inch lower if I went to a non fixed slider but as mentioned above the wife needs to drive the car. Here are some quick pics of the seats installed.





Can you say Pile Of Parts!

[m3dragon]

Car is back after being gone for the weekend. So here is the latest and greatest.

Got the car smogged for the last time WOOTTT. As you can see I am cleaner than a prius… 4 cats can do that HAHA. Anyone needs a test section I will loan it out for $30 bucks.





After I got the car smogged I took it straight over to the fabrication shop to have the rear sub frame done as well as have the diff upgraded to 3.91 gears. Trying to time work when things can be done together. My car had started to show signs of spider cracks on both sides. The frame had not "completely cracked" but if I had not done the reinforce kit it would have eventually done so. Here is some images of the car at the fabrication shop.











From what I have found and what the shop believes as well is the reason the frames are cracking is fatigue failures. Same issue with aircraft hulls and the pressure changes. The metal eventually begins to fracture with the constant pressurization and un-pressurization.

The fatigue part in our cars is the loading and unloading going around turns. This constant flexing causes the area to fail. Bad job by BMW not to beef this up for that is the reason for the cracks. Stiffer suspension only acerbates the issue faster. As the car has 59000 hard miles on it from back roads driving and being on CA roads I guess I am not surprised to know I would potently have the issue.

Last of the recent changes is the 3.91 gears upgrade. Already I can feel a change in the car and I don’t even have them broken in. I t made sense to do the diff work now as I had the sub frame out. Pics are of the old 3.61 stock gears.

[bmproduction]

check this out, i just started doing videos, but yea give me some feedback or share it if you like it thanks

[m3dragon]

Nice thread jack

[m3dragon]

Loaded all the parts up and car is off to the shop to get all the major goodies installed. I will post some more images of the parts later tonight. Never got around to doing detailed images like I wanted to but at least I have images of everything before it goes on the car.

[m3dragon]

I know most of you have seen these parts before but here are the parts at some different angles. Hopefully you will see some things you never noticed before. Such as the center console has some side flares that I never noticed in the images I have seen. I grouped the images based on item.

CSL Intake Main Air Collector images

[m3dragon]

CSL Intake Unfiltered Housing



















Snorkel Housing

[m3dragon]

CSL Center Console























CSL Cams – Actual part number ID

[retirdesquisswb]

thanks for the pics and write-up, awesome build.

[JR M3]

Any updates yet?

[Mr.Metak2you]

AWESOME! Man, I haven't seen your car in a while. Need to hit up a ES soon...!