Engine refresh

[dtenev]

I thought I would share my M3 experience so far:
I bought this 08 M3 with 150k miles on it about 6 months ago. Immediately I wanted to do a bit of preventive maintenance.
List of things that I replaced: rod bearings, clutch, flywheel, mounts, about every seal, and fluid.
The cost for all this was surprisingly low. Probably well under $2k, but it did require a few late nights. See the pictures, they will explain the process better.
I already have over 1,000 since the service, and so far there are no leaks, and most importantly the car was restored to a "new" driving condition (mainly because of the clutch and mounts).

I went with the blue, purple, red paint in the engine bay because I wanted to match the ///M logo, but I need to fix the purple on the spark plug covers.

[dtenev]

A few comments to add: While working on the car I was able to see that a lot of engineering went into this engine, and I really appreciate it because of that. Well I guess the engineers decided on the rod bearing specs on a Friday afternoon 5 minutes before the design had to be locked for production.
What is even worse than that is the crappy manual transmission they decided to add to this special engine. It has super long gears. 70mph on second gear, pisses me off every time. The shifter sucks for a RWD car or any car actually, and its super noisy and clunky. I guess they made it up with the M differential (my favorite part of the car).
The EDC is amazing, but the steering rack sucks. It needs to be tighter.
And it needs a little more noise. Why do I have to modify an M car to sound better?
It's a very good car. You should buy one just so you can drift it safely everyday (MDM).

[serranot]

Nicely done. Well the gearbox is no Honda, but it does have to absorb a bit of horsepower. Contact Ronald at Autosolutions, hand him $400, and you will think he built you a new gearbox.

[amrazM]

rtd shifter 4.10 gearset problem solved.


Furthermore you may not like the stock gear ratio but it has to work for everyone who buys the car, not just you.

[rcracin]

Nice work! You really cleaned that engine up.

[pbonsalb]

Good job on the DIY reasonable cost 150k mile servicing and cleaning! Looks great and very thorough engine out work.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by dtenev

What is even worse than that is the crappy manual transmission they decided to add to this special engine. It has super long gears. 70mph on second gear, pisses me off every time. The shifter sucks for a RWD car or any car actually, and its super noisy and clunky. I guess they made it up with the M differential (my favorite part of the car). .

Well, what are you comparing against?

It's has pretty short gearing. Go try a supposed race track ready GT4 and second gear there goes to 84mph... now that is a problem.

For the shifter, get an AutoSolutions SSK and an Ultimate Clutch Pedal and it's pretty awesome.

[bvrider1]

Nice job! Try the Euro MDM, I enjoy mine.

[dtenev]

bvrider1 I thought there should be a tune for this but I didn't know what it was called. I will look into it right away. MDM does cut way too early, and traction off is a bit risky around town.

amrazM Good point. I might look into a higher FD ratio eventually. Just need to cut down the highway driving first.

I guess I didn't mean to say it pisses me off every time, but rather it makes it really hard to enjoy the 8.4k rpm redline which is really the purpose of this car.

serranot Can you give me a bit more details on this?

[serranot]

Originally Posted by dtenev

bvrider1 I thought there should be a tune for this but I didn't know what it was called. I will look into it right away. MDM does cut way too early, and traction off is a bit risky around town.

amrazM Good point. I might look into a higher FD ratio eventually. Just need to cut down the highway driving first.

I guess I didn't mean to say it pisses me off every time, but rather it makes it really hard to enjoy the 8.4k rpm redline which is really the purpose of this car.

serranot Can you give me a bit more details on this?

Danny (SYT) mentioned it as well. The Autosolutions short shift kit. It is built to the ratio you want. Makes the gearbox feel totally different. I went with 15% reduction; others have done more and I think you could reasonably go with 20% ratio without a detrimental increase in effort. The best dollar to benefit mod out there, with the possible exception of the OEM exhaust mod.

[bmwpower603]

Originally Posted by dtenev

I thought I would share my M3 experience so far:
I bought this 08 M3 with 150k miles on it about 6 months ago. Immediately I wanted to do a bit of preventive maintenance.
List of things that I replaced: rod bearings, clutch, flywheel, mounts, about every seal, and fluid.
The cost for all this was surprisingly low. Probably well under $2k, but it did require a few late nights. See the pictures, they will explain the process better.
I already have over 1,000 since the service, and so far there are no leaks, and most importantly the car was restored to a "new" driving condition (mainly because of the clutch and mounts).

I went with the blue, purple, red paint in the engine bay because I wanted to match the ///M logo, but I need to fix the purple on the spark plug covers.

Attachment 2311256

Attachment 2311257

Attachment 2311258

Attachment 2311259

Attachment 2311260

Attachment 2311261

Attachment 2311262

Attachment 2311263

Attachment 2311264

Attachment 2311265

Hope you did throttle valve gaskets, idle strip gaskets, PCV valve, and OFHG.. Rear coolant pipe gaskets, crossover pipe gaskets, front coolant pipe o ring.

[bmwpower603]

Originally Posted by pbonsalb

Good job on the DIY reasonable cost 150k mile servicing and cleaning! Looks great and very thorough engine out work.

Would be more thorough if new Genuine BMW valve covers were used.

(Would be a tighter seal between gasket, and cover) And they won’t peel for another 150k

[pbonsalb]

I would not buy new valve covers unless mine are warped. He cleaned and painted his. No need to spend money on new ones if yours are good. Peeling is cosmetic. Magnesium BMW valve covers have been peeling for 25 years without doing anything other than looking bad.

[dtenev]

I appreciate the info. Already contacted AutoSolutions to get a quote on a shifter.
I am very interested in the Euro MDM, but it's hard to find information on how to do it. I will keep searching. I am also looking into doing the OEM exhaust mod. My buddy has a welder in his garage. I guess a few minor touches can make this an even more exciting car.

[dtenev]

The OEM valve covers looked pretty bad. I couldn't believe how bad they were peeling on the inside. I had to fix that. I cleaned them as best as I can and pained them with Autozone paint. I like the way they turned out, and 3 months in they still look the same. I was worried about the gasket surface, but I stuffed enough RTV in there and nothing is leaking (I know I should not use RTV). I even reused the bolts and o-rings with RTV. Not a chance I would spend money on new valve covers.

[bmwpower603]

Originally Posted by pbonsalb

I would not buy new valve covers unless mine are warped. He cleaned and painted his. No need to spend money on new ones if yours are good. Peeling is cosmetic. Magnesium BMW valve covers have been peeling for 25 years without doing anything other than looking bad.

It will contaminate your engine if you have peeling valve cover gaskets. The older v8s had the peeling in the upper oil pan. Which would degrade the engine must faster than normal.

Also, if you don’t use the same exact paint process that bmw uses with the magnesium. You’ll run into the same problem much sooner than expected.

Replacing the valve covers is what the BMW dealership would call for. So that is what I do. Some people cut corners. Some people don’t.

[bvrider1]

For my Euro MDM I went the easy route.

http://www.bpmsport.com/coding-features-service.html

Originally Posted by dtenev

I appreciate the info. Already contacted AutoSolutions to get a quote on a shifter.
I am very interested in the Euro MDM, but it's hard to find information on how to do it. I will keep searching. I am also looking into doing the OEM exhaust mod. My buddy has a welder in his garage. I guess a few minor touches can make this an even more exciting car.

[pbonsalb]

Originally Posted by bmwpower603

It will contaminate your engine if you have peeling valve cover gaskets. The older v8s had the peeling in the upper oil pan. Which would degrade the engine must faster than normal.

Also, if you don’t use the same exact paint process that bmw uses with the magnesium. You’ll run into the same problem much sooner than expected.

Replacing the valve covers is what the BMW dealership would call for. So that is what I do. Some people cut corners. Some people don’t.

I am not worried about it, but the dealer is there for those who do. There are some who believe you can’t be maintaining your car well unless you spend as much money as possible. And there are some who know that is not true.

[dtenev]

I didn't have to use the same paint process as BMW. I did not paint the inside, just cleaned it really well. A lot of paint came off. I would recommend doing this if you see any peeling near the oil cap.

Thanks for the BPM suggestion. I might go that route as well.

[dtenev]

I'm surprised people follow the dealer's recommendations so closely, especially with old bmws. I wonder how much the dealer would have charged me to do this work? $10k? On top of that I don't trust the techs to perform the same quality of work that I did.

[pbonsalb]

You did a massive amount for $2k! I bet a dealership bill would have been in that $10k range.

[Shrike360]

Originally Posted by serranot

Danny (SYT) mentioned it as well. The Autosolutions short shift kit. It is built to the ratio you want. Makes the gearbox feel totally different. I went with 15% reduction; others have done more and I think you could reasonably go with 20% ratio without a detrimental increase in effort. The best dollar to benefit mod out there, with the possible exception of the OEM exhaust mod.

Ronald's working on my shift kit right now, and should be done middle of the week. I ordered with a 10mm height increase (puts my ZCP knob at stock height), 20% reduction and 70A bushings. Will report back on how it feels.

Ronald is really responsive to email, but you should go ahead and give him a call to discuss all the options.