Derek's E90 slicktop OEM+ Project

[MisterClutch888]

oh yea, pushing him everyday

Originally Posted by derbo

Well get him to get it installed already?!?!!!!

[red998]

Thank you for the details to mount front lip! See how long it will last!

[94jedi]

@derbo decided to pull the trigger on a ssk from Ronald. Didn't know he was in his 60's. Definitely going to pair an UCP with this.

[derbo]

Originally Posted by 94jedi

@derbo decided to pull the trigger on a ssk from Ronald. Didn't know he was in his 60's. Definitely going to pair an UCP with this.

Sweet!!

Yea, Ronald told me his first shifter made was for an E12 in 1991. He has been doing this for decades. It will be a shame when he retires.

[derbo]

Spring Update

It's been awhile since I posted an update. I guess there is enough to talk about for a new post!

# Thunderhill 3-mile with HOD 2021-03-06
Location: Thunderhill 3-mile.
Host: Hooked on Driving

Earlier last month, my wife and I participated at HOD 3-mile Thunderhill event. It has been at least a decade since I last ran with HOD. The entry cost is a little more expensive than others, but you get an group that is very organized and gives a great impression to the event participants. I would spend the extra money to go with them again!





## Video of best lap of the day

## Impressions
From the maintenance side, I fixed my coolant temp sensor and harness. From the modifications, I added an ultimate clutch pedal (UCP). The UCP made the engagement of the clutch feel better and will compliment the Autosolutions short shifter when it arrives. Car felt okay and if anything I just need to gain my confidence back on track.

I definitely left room on the table and I need more seat time to get back into the groove.

### It is always something huh?
On the very last session, my car decided to throw the engine malfunction light at me! Luckily, I had my laptop with ISTA. This particular fault was plausibility bank2 was too lean. The only symptom I could detect was the car sounded like there was an exhaust leak. I cleared the errors and went home without any issues. The next day, the car threw the light again and when I checked, I was able to feel the exhaust gasses coming out of the exhaust manifold to xpipe connector on Bank 2. It must be the donut gasket.



## Donut gasket removal

Fast forward to a few days ago, I finally had some time to replace the donut gasket. When I removed the x pipe, donut in bank 1 was barely there and donut in bank 2 was nonexistent. It literally was gone without a trace! The previous owner did have the xpipe removed for whatever reason as the torx bolt head was facing me when it should've been flipped. Either way, I replaced both sides and new hardware.




## Part updates!

As a few of you know, I've been on this whirlwind of decisions about rims.

To recap the timeline:

-Sept 2020 - Ordered TE37SL 18x10.5 Titanium Gunmetal in Sept
-Oct 2020- Spun out the M3, scoring the BBS GT4s
-Nov 2020- Debated what to do about rims, sold GT4s, sold stock wheels, bought Titan7 TR10s for track
-Feb 2021- TE37SL order got denied for custom color, decided to go a different route afterwards
-April 2021- TE37 Saga Bronze 18x10et25 arrived!

Huge thanks to System Motorsports for helping out with this. I was a bit bummed that my TE37SL Ti Gunmetal was denied due to Volks not offering the color anymore. Had I know it would've been denied earlier, I would've kept the BBS GT4s as my street wheels and TR10s would've been my track tires. Anyways, what is done is done and I'm somewhat glad I was able to get a less aggressive wheel set in a very popular 18x10et25. TE37Saga do not normally come in this size so it was very cool to get a set from System Motorsports!

The wheel specs are as follows!

TE37 Saga
Color: Bronze
18x10 et25
Face 4



A large reason why I decided to spend a little extra to get the TE37 Saga is because Volks decided to strengthen the classic 6 spoke design. With the modern updates and a somewhat rarer size to get, it was a no brainer to get them!

The main noticeable differences between the Saga and the TE37SL/OG wheels
- Double rim lip with milled engravings for the logos
- Rear of the spokes have different design for rigidity and strength.
- Knurled tire bead

Here is a pic of my wife's TE37OG on the left, and my TE37Saga




As with all new rims, I used Gyeon Prep to wipe the wheels and use Cquarz Rim to protect it. The Titan7 TR10 has been applied prior to mounting tires and it's been super easy to wipe off brake dust even stubborn track pad dust.




A quick test fit shows it clears the ST60s (Possibly even the Brembo 380s) with ease.



Since these are for the street, I will be opting for an ultra high performance summer tire. PS4S is out of stock till June and the #2 tire, Conti ECS left a pretty amazing impression on me during the M Track school in 122F weather. If it can withstand that kind of weather and have decent performance, it's definitely not to be dismissed. The ECS is about 20% less cost and I certainly don't think it is 20% less of a tire than the PS4S.


## Future
Autosolutions is incoming
Next track day probably won't be till 7/31 SVB Thunderhill. With COVID restrictions relaxing, it is time to take more vacation outside of cars so tracks are put at a little lower priority.

Anyways, that's it for now! Till next time!

[cyberkaa]

Really a shame about the huge delay only to be told they wouldn't do the gunmetal finish. It's alright, though. Those TE37 Saga wheels you got are really cool.

[derbo]

Originally Posted by cyberkaa

Really a shame about the huge delay only to be told they wouldn't do the gunmetal finish. It's alright, though. Those TE37 Saga wheels you got are really cool.

Part of it was I went through a friend instead of a dealer and that added to the delay. Then I switched over to Thomson at System Motorsports to see what he had incoming. SM business model is neat. They pre-order popular sizes and sell them before they arrive. During my conversation with him in Feb, he said the Sagas were incoming in April so that was very appealing too.

Either way, I'm happy as I was able to reduce my original 18x10.5 size down to 18x10 for better street-ability.

I ordered Conti ECS 275/35/18 so hopefully they arrive by tomorrow.

[derbo]

[cyberkaa]

Sweet!

[derbo]

:spam

[Deebo]

Those look soooo good!!!

[cyberkaa]

Finally!

[derbo]

Shorting

As I mentioned in a few posts back, I ordered the Autosolutions short shifter for my car! It was finally complete this past weekend. For whatever reason, I never pulled the trigger on this mod but I'm excited that it is finally done!

Here is how it came in the mail. The selector rod orientation is incorrect in the picture and needs to be upside down.



## Installation
My buddy lent his garage and aid to do the install. Total install time was 2.5 hours. The biggest hurdle we had, dealt with the selector rod pin. The pin tolerance to the hole was too tight for hand insertion. I texted Ron@Autosolutions and it seemed like he dealt with this before. He suggested to insert the pin into a power drill, lube the pin and insert the pin until the hole was loose. This process took about an hour before it was loose enough for a hand insertion.



Everything else was pretty standard removal and replace. If I had to do it again, I would buy a new pin and ensure it was loose enough for the pin ahead of time.









#Impressions:
With a 22.5% reduction, the effort to shift has increased but not to an untolerable amount. The shifts are direct and very precise. This modification paired with the ultimate clutch pedal definitely increased the engagement enjoyment level! The 80A shifter bushings do add slight vibrations to the lever but since I don't rest my hand on the shift knob, this is not a big deal to me. This should've been done years ago but I'm happy its done now!

##cars will be cars
With all things, sometimes coincidentally things fail. My idrive controller suddenly failed (I unplugged it during the shifter console removal) and it seemed to no longer get power. I confirmed the CON module failed as I swapped my brother's e90 idrive controller and everything worked. Now to see if I can open it up and fix the controller or replace it with a new/used one. A quick research on the forum showed some folks required programming but I hope that is not the case.

Another preexisting fault that just happened was my secondary air system was failing. ISTA secondary air system test said the high film air sensor failed so that might be the thing to replace. I'll confirm the connections are good. I definitely need to fix that as smog is coming up and that needs to be ready on the readiness monitors.




Cheers!

[jsivadas]

Awesome build man! I'm new to the E90 M3 platform and just cruised through your thread to get some inspiration.

[s0ldats]

fav thread on the forum. thanks for keeping it updated!

[cyberkaa]

The shifter feels so good. I'm ready to order one for myself.

[XKxRome0ox]

what size tires are you running?

nvm
i found it - "I ordered Conti ECS 275/35/18"
those are backordered now

[derbo]

Originally Posted by jsivadas

Awesome build man! I'm new to the E90 M3 platform and just cruised through your thread to get some inspiration.

Thanks for the love!

Originally Posted by s0ldats

fav thread on the forum. thanks for keeping it updated!

Thanks!!!

Originally Posted by cyberkaa

The shifter feels so good. I'm ready to order one for myself.

I'm telling you, order one for all 3 of your cars. Even if you don't install it, it will be hot commodity in the future when he retires.

Originally Posted by XKxRome0ox

what size tires are you running?

nvm
i found it - "I ordered Conti ECS 275/35/18"
those are backordered now

Shortages are crazy right now due to logistics. I didnt want to wait for PS4S two months ago so I opted for ECS. I'm glad I did.

I happen to also have a set of Bridgestone RE71R 275/35/18 in the garage thanks to the TireRack File sale. ..

[XKxRome0ox]

stop hoarding all the tires!

go give me input in the track thread about my tire size dilemma please

[derbo]

Mini update.

It was too hot to post any personal bests but it was fun to be at the track again. I had some issues with the GoPro turning off and forgetting to change the track to West layout instead of East in the beginning of the day. So I ended up with only the 2nd session of the day with decent video and telemetry. The best lap of the session was 1:28.931 with a pretty hard lift off on the main straight.

Car did good. I'll post a larger post later when media gets back to me.

[cyberkaa]

It was a fun day.

[derbo]

End of Summer Update

## Airflow Sensor

In April's post, I mentioned the airflow sensor triggered an SES fault. A simple remove and replace of the part and the error went away. I love it when it is that simple. While doing the job, I did noticed my valve covers are starting to bubble a bit. I'll wait till the gaskets start to fail before doing anything there.



##C&C?
I rarely go to meets but I just happened to be free and wanted to take the car out. Met up with a few local E9x crew and went to the Val Auto Club Blackhawk event on June 6th, 2021. Overall cool event, and a bunch of stock looking E9x!











## Rennline phone mount
I did not like how the vent mounts would fling my phone in the event of a large lateral G force. With the new mount, testing at the track proved it was sufficient holding the phone without fuss! I recommended the product for anyone who needs their phone mounted without having your phone fly off. It held my heavy 12 Pro Max without a fuss.

SVBimmer 2021-07-31 Thunderhill West

Back at the track again! Temperatures were in the high 80s in the morning, peaking at 95 or so by 3PM. I did not expect to beat any PB times at this event and it was a great time to hang out with friends, chasing each other in the open group. My pace felt pretty good overall but the RS4s were falling off my expected pace of them either due to the heat or the amount of heat cycles they have. The RS4s have been to 3 events now and still have TONs of tread but they feel hard as a rock. Either way, it was fun to be on the track again. I felt my times were more consistent this time around so overall, it was a good day!

Obsessed Studios was providing coverage again and they provided some cool shots including some #CLOUTCHASING rollers. Hahaha.

SVBimmer 2021-07-31 Thunderhill West Media

Center Caps

After waiting for 6 or so months, my center caps finally came in. Thank you to System Motorsports for getting them to me. Shipping delays/shortages has been crazy for everything so I was not expecting them any sooner.

The overall cap looks to be made of metal and matches perfectly with the TE37 Sagas.







Til next time!