My E90 M3 Dedicated Track build (with pix!)

[roastbeef]

Originally Posted by rhyary

This is interesting solution.
In the video they are showing drilling.
So what exactly are they fabricating?
Will this have any impact on none OEM brakes?
Are the M14 fit existing wheels?

Drilling rotor hats.

[rhyary]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

Drilling rotor hats.

yes, I just watched the video again.
So what are the drawbacks if one need to change the hubs any way?

[roastbeef]

Originally Posted by rhyary

yes, I just watched the video again.
So what are the drawbacks if one need to change the hubs any way?

None, really. Wheels should fit fine. Rotor hats are easy to drill out. The studs exist. I only see positives so far, and they add some lightness, too.

[dogbone]

I spoke on the phone today with Mike at Future Classic. I had a few questions about the 14mm stud hubs for the E9x M3 that they’re selling. He’s a very nice. Total motorsport enthusiast. They saw a need and filled it with this product. (He was breaking studs on his E9x M3.)

The hubs are BMW F8x M3 hubs—not OEM supplier pieces. They wanted customers to have confidence that they were getting BMW parts. The F8x M3 hub almost fit on the E9x M3 platform, but not quite. The inboard/outboard fitment is close but not identical. They had to machine the mounting plate on the hub slightly to get it exact. They also had to tweak for the wheel speed sensors. The rear hub flanges also needed some tweaking to get them to sit properly on the E9x M3 platform. The coating they put on the hub is largely to prevent rust from forming

I asked if they were willing to sell just fronts or rears. He said they could do that.

We had a metal machine shop drill out some brand new E9x M3 front hubs to 14mm a couple months ago using the Rogue Engineering jig kit. We did it out of frustration that 12mm keep breaking no matter what we do. (Last year, I replaced all four hubs, bought 3 sets of brand new forged wheels and used the best studs I could find----still broke a stud a year later.) This product was not out on the market yet. If it had been, I probably would have gone this route instead of drilling hubs. Even though I just replaced my rear hubs a year ago, I am thinking long and hard about switching now to the Future Classic rears so I can have 14mm in the rear too. (I'll leave the current drilled out 14mm E9x hubs in place for now.) I spoke to Minicorsa today to ask about how hard it is to replace the rear hub flange if you leave the sealed bearings intact. They said if the bearings are left in place, the job is not that hard. So, for now, I would look to just replace the hub flanges with the Future Classic pieces.

[roastbeef]

sounds nice. did you guys touch on the titanium studs at all?

also, how much more work is it to do wheel bearings? i know nothing about typical maintenance on wheel bearings. you mentioned a while back that you replaced yours and the "old" bearings looked great- what mileage was that at? i know your bearings have seen harder use than mine, but they are still on my mind.

basically, i'm trying to justify doing this and calling it maintenance.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I asked if they were willing to sell just fronts or rears. He said they could do that.
.

This info spares me from having to experiment myself.

So 1250 is for the front and rear hubs? I assume fronts only are around half

Gotta get this! Switching to 14mm studs in the front of the E90 for sure!!

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

sounds nice. did you guys touch on the titanium studs at all?

also, how much more work is it to do wheel bearings? i know nothing about typical maintenance on wheel bearings. you mentioned a while back that you replaced yours and the "old" bearings looked great- what mileage was that at? i know your bearings have seen harder use than mine, but they are still on my mind.

basically, i'm trying to justify doing this and calling it maintenance.

Didn’t talk about titanium.

Front hubs are easy to replace. Four bolts each side. I can do it at the track. The rears——forget it. Just take it to a shop. If you replace the rear bearing, it’s a lot of nasty work. You need a bearing press.

There’s no set interval for replacing hubs. The fronts go a lot more quickly than rears if you track regularly. On the fronts, you look for any play when you tug on the wheel. The rears.....they last a lonnnng time. Mine were 9 years old and well over 100 track days and were still fine. I replaced them out of caution.

You do this mod if you want the peace of mind of 14mm studs. Look at the story of the guy who just came on here that lost a wheel in a race....this is what we all fear. I’ve come in with 2 broken studs on the same hub. That just sucks.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

This info spares me from having to experiment myself.

So 1250 is for the front and rear hubs? I assume fronts only are around half

Gotta get this! Switching to 14mm studs in the front of the E90 for sure!!

Yes $1250 is all four corners, but no studs. If you want studs, that’s extra.

Yup, you are a prime customer for this kit!!!

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Yes $1250 is all four corners, but no studs. If you want studs, that’s extra.

Yup, you are a prime customer for this kit!!!

I'll use the BW studs for sure. Already have them waiting for me at home!

Unless these guys have a better way of permanently affixing the studs to the car

[dogbone]

Quick note for us guys that still have the older AP Stillen kits——Stillen is no longer the AP distributor for street products!!! Essex is now supporting AP street products! Yay!

Stillen service and support was TERRIBLE in the last couple years. Awful. Basically, zero support. (I won’t bore you with my long frustrating story.)

I talked to Essex today. They said they are willing to support older products, but it will take some time to sort out the details. Even that is better than what Stillen was doing—-which was zero.

[dogbone]

I've been complaining for some time that supercharger oil sprays from the breather bolt in the Vortech unit when it gets hot. Prior to hood vents, it was a nuisance that just gunked up the engine bay. However, after hood vents were installed, the problem became a bigger issue because the fluid was spraying onto the windshield right in the driver's line of sight. Obviously, there is no ready-to-go fix out there for this---well, at least on the BMW platform there isn't. (Someone made a fix for the Corvette world.) So, the hunt was on to try to find a way to fix it. The question was: could we put the pieces together to capture the spraying oil?

Steve at EAS found a couple parts on Ebay---a vented bolt that had a hose connection that matched the thread pitch of the Vortech bolt, and a 90º-bending tube to route the oil to a line. I bought the pieces and they looked viable. However, I was concerned that the venting hole in the bolt I had purchased was much larger than the hole in the Vortech breather bolt. So, I had the bolt brazed/sealed with stainless steel on both ends. Now that it was sealed, I could drill a vent hole in whatever size I wanted. I drilled a 1/16" hole.

When I went to Minicorsa for daily tech work, I handed them the pieces. First issue: the hex on the bolt was too large to fit in the bolt hole on the Vortech, so we needed to grind the sides of the hex down to fit. Once they did that, the pieces came together quickly. We used a 4 foot long fluid hose to route the oil to a catch can.

I'm happy to report that the fix worked GREAT at Spring Mountain. No oil on the windshield.

Now I'm just waiting on Bimmerworld to get their powersteering reservoir back in stock and maybe---just maybe---I can have an engine bay that isn't constantly leaking fluids everywhere......

Some pix:

Finished product:


Original bolt:


New bolt:


New bolt with overly large vent:


New bolt brazed:


New bolt vent drilled to 1/16":

[roastbeef]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Quick note for us guys that still have the older AP Stillen kits——Stillen is no longer the AP distributor for street products!!! Essex is now supporting AP street products! Yay!

Stillen service and support was TERRIBLE in the last couple years. Awful. Basically, zero support. (I won’t bore you with my long frustrating story.)

I talked to Essex today. They said they are willing to support older products, but it will take some time to sort out the details. Even that is better than what Stillen was doing—-which was zero.

isn't the older ap kit basically a cp5060 caliper? have you checked to see if you can run the 355mm rotor and aluminum hats that essex makes? might coincidentally fit...

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

isn't the older ap kit basically a cp5060 caliper? have you checked to see if you can run the 355mm rotor and aluminum hats that essex makes? might coincidentally fit...

The front is a CP5555. AP still makes that 368x36mm rotor and keeps it on the shelf in the UK. Don’t ask me how I know.

The rear is more fuzzy. The caliper is a CP6600/AP7150. Stillen spec’d out a 355mm rotor from an Australian rotor company called DBA. The availability of that rotor from DBA or AP is unknown. That’s what will take some figuring. Maybe a new hat will be required.

[dogbone]

Today will be a minor car update note and then a fond farewell to my pup who passed yesterday.

I was finally able to order the Bimmerworld Power Steering reservoir. They were out of stock for quite awhile because there was one connector that they were waiting for. Anyway, I haven't installed it yet, but I am quite happy with how it looks. All aluminum, it has some kind of internal baffles/perforations. Construction on the unit looks good. I have high hopes that this unit can prevent power steering fluid from spewing in the engine bay. If that's the case, I think I will have solved all the fluids from spraying in the engine bay.






When I joined this forum in 2012, I wasn't really an internet forum/social media guy. I was at a loss as to what my forum username should be. After much lameness, I looked at my dog and thought it would be funny to tie my online identity to something dog related. "dogbone" was the best I could come up with. It seemed dumb, but I have to say, over the years, the name has grown on me. And I find it really funny when I'm at the track and someone will come up to me and say, "are you dogbone?" In 2012, I can honestly say that I never expected to hear strangers saying that name to me.

Anyway, my little guy, Finley, was a great dog for 9 years. We believe he was a yellow lab/dachshund mix (go figure that one out). A rescue organization saw him and his sister being sold on the side of the road in Downey, CA when they were 5 weeks old. The rescue organization scooped them up and put them up for adoption. He turned out to be an amazing family pet, so good with my two girls, loyal, and such a silly and playful little personality.

Sadly, what we didn't know was that years ago, he somehow picked up a fungal infection in his sinuses. We were suspicious that something was up because he sneezed a lot. We took him to doctors who said they could do a bunch of expensive tests, but that it was probably just allergies. So, we just accepted that we had a sneezy allergic dog. Anyway, a year ago, when we moved from CA to CO, the sneezing stopped and we figured, yup it must have been allergies in CA. Cool.

But in January, he became mysteriously ill, so we started fighting the fight and finally found out that he had a long-brewing fungal infection in his sinuses. (The fungus had enough time to destroy all the cartilage in his left sinuses.....crazy.) We fought this infection hard for the last 6 months, and I believe we actually turned the corner and mostly beat the fungus. He gained his weight back, was acting like himself, no high temperatures----we were cautiously happy. But then a week ago, something suddenly changed. The doctors are calling it vasculitis, some kind of auto-immune thing that attacked his skin. No one can say for sure, but it was most likely a side-effect of the stress of the fungus. I won't go into the details, but I will say that it only took a week for this new thing to end Finley's journey. Even the vet was shocked with how quickly things changed......

So, it is with great fondness that I will remember my little buddy who inspired my m3post name. And I will continue to carry my dog moniker on the forum proudly!! "Are you dogbone?" "Yes. I am dogbone."

A couple pix:

New to Colorado! So many new things to smell!


hmmm...snow....not sure he was a snow dog.....he was willing to give it a shot though! Mommy insisted he wear a jacket in the snow. How embarrassing!


Puppyhood. We didn't know what he was when we got him. And as he grew, he just kept getting longer and not taller....we were like, what the heck are you??? hehe

[ThunderMoose]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Today will be a minor car update note and then a fond farewell to my pup who passed yesterday.

I was finally able to order the Bimmerworld Power Steering reservoir. They were out of stock for quite awhile because there was one connector that they were waiting for. Anyway, I haven't installed it yet, but I am quite happy with how it looks. All aluminum, it has some kind of internal baffles/perforations. Construction on the unit looks good. I have high hopes that this unit can prevent power steering fluid from spewing in the engine bay. If that's the case, I think I will have solved all the fluids from spraying in the engine bay.






When I joined this forum in 2012, I wasn't really an internet forum/social media guy. I was at a loss as to what my forum username should be. After much lameness, I looked at my dog and thought it would be funny to tie my online identity to something dog related. "dogbone" was the best I could come up with. It seemed dumb, but I have to say, over the years, the name has grown on me. And I find it really funny when I'm at the track and someone will come up to me and say, "are you dogbone?" In 2012, I can honestly say that I never expected to hear strangers saying that name to me.

Anyway, my little guy, Finley, was a great dog for 9 years. We believe he was a yellow lab/dachshund mix (go figure that one out). A rescue organization saw him and his sister being sold on the side of the road in Downey, CA when they were 5 weeks old. The rescue organization scooped them up and put them up for adoption. He turned out to be an amazing family pet, so good with my two girls, loyal, and such a silly and playful little personality.

Sadly, what we didn't know was that years ago, he somehow picked up a fungal infection in his sinuses. We were suspicious that something was up because he sneezed a lot. We took him to doctors who said they could do a bunch of expensive tests, but that it was probably just allergies. So, we just accepted that we had a sneezy allergic dog. Anyway, a year ago, when we moved from CA to CO, the sneezing stopped and we figured, yup it must have been allergies in CA. Cool.

But in January, he became mysteriously ill, so we started fighting the fight and finally found out that he had a long-brewing fungal infection in his sinuses. (The fungus had enough time to destroy all the cartilage in his left sinuses.....crazy.) We fought this infection hard for the last 6 months, and I believe we actually turned the corner and mostly beat the fungus. He gained his weight back, was acting like himself, no high temperatures----we were cautiously happy. But then a week ago, something suddenly changed. The doctors are calling it vasculitis, some kind of auto-immune thing that attacked his skin. No one can say for sure, but it was most likely a side-effect of the stress of the fungus. I won't go into the details, but I will say that it only took a week for this new thing to end Finley's journey. Even the vet was shocked with how quickly things changed......

So, it is with great fondness that I will remember my little buddy who inspired my m3post name. And I will continue to carry my dog moniker on the forum proudly!! "Are you dogbone?" "Yes. I am dogbone."

A couple pix:

New to Colorado! So many new things to smell!


hmmm...snow....not sure he was a snow dog.....he was willing to give it a shot though! Mommy insisted he wear a jacket in the snow. How embarrassing!


Puppyhood. We didn't know what he was when we got him. And as he grew, he just kept getting longer and not taller....we were like, what the heck are you??? hehe

Sorry man. Our pets mean a lot to us.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by ThunderMoose

Sorry man. Our pets mean a lot to us.

Thanks. Yeah, this was the dog my kids grew up with. Great pet for young kids to learn how cool a dog can be.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Today will be a minor car update note and then a fond farewell to my pup who passed yesterday.

I was finally able to order the Bimmerworld Power Steering reservoir. They were out of stock for quite awhile because there was one connector that they were waiting for. Anyway, I haven't installed it yet, but I am quite happy with how it looks. All aluminum, it has some kind of internal baffles/perforations. Construction on the unit looks good. I have high hopes that this unit can prevent power steering fluid from spewing in the engine bay. If that's the case, I think I will have solved all the fluids from spraying in the engine bay.

I have it in the E90 and E92 and have never had leaking, it's great

I'm very sorry to hear about your doggy. They really become part of your family. If us humans were more like dogs the world would be a better place.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

I have it in the E90 and E92 and have never had leaking, it's great

Great to hear. I’m really looking forward to the idea of an engine bay that isn’t constantly dripping some fluid. Unfortunately there’s no track day scheduled in the near future, so it will be a bit before it’s installed.

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

I'm very sorry to hear about your doggy. They really become part of your family. If us humans were more like dogs the world would be a better place.

Thanks man.

[roastbeef]

Sorry to hear about the pup. A fungal infection in the spine is what took our indi a while back. When you're ready for a German Shepherd, mrs beef volunteers for a shepherd rescue over here.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

Sorry to hear about the pup. A fungal infection in the spine is what took our indi a while back. When you're ready for a German Shepherd, mrs beef volunteers for a shepherd rescue over here.

Thanks man.

Wow, a fungus was the cause of your dog’s demise too? Argh, I just never heard of fungal issues with dogs until recently, and I’ve had dogs for 20 years. Frustrating.

[admranger]

Sorry to hear about your dog. I currently have two older ones and I’m fearful of the day they cross over the rainbow bridge.

[dogbone]

Thanks man. In my opinion, the life journey with dogs is very worth it. But the end of the journey is tough. No doubt.

We’re doing fine. The kids dealt with it quite well. Better than the adults....hehe