Joined
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315 Posts
I'm back!
SO you'll remember that I got the E61 M5 manual swapped and then decided that it wasn't for me because I just didn't see enough potential in the chassis for me to warrant investing further into the car. Thus my E61 is for sale in the UK and hopefully it'll find it's new owner soon enough.
I made it clear though that I was a huge fan of the S85 and it's a fantastic NA powerplant as a racey engine on a spirited drive. So on that basis, I figured maybe I'd get a saloon model and do a manual swap again...but then I was thinking (and a good few of you actually advised me to) maybe an E46 M3 might be the right car for me because it was an equally brilliant chassis especially when the right tweaks have been made.
So then God decided to be nice to me and blessed me with the best of both worlds. Gentlemen, I am proud to be back....in....
An S85 swapped E46 M3 with a manual transmission 👻
![Car Vehicle registration plate Vehicle Grille Automotive lighting]()
It was literally just my luck that this came up and the NICEST guy built the car. It has an LCI engine from a 2008 car with around 47k on the motor. The bearings and usual vanos line, oil pump maintenance items have been taken care of. It has an E92 M3 6 speed with the 3.85:1 final drive (not quite the 4.1 in my E61). The car was built as an out and out track car, so the suspension has been set up to the extreme, which I LOVE (although I do need to knock a couple of degree's of camber out at the front for road use).
My plans for the car are to make it look pretty much like a stock M3 from the outside and leave the suspension in kill mode. It just needs tidying up and then refining as I go along. It's got a silver wrap on the body, so I'll be peeling that off shortly and re-spraying it in minty fresh black.
The 0-60 is pretty brutal (sub 4 seconds) and it handles like a dream. It's apparently been tuned and running 530hp, but I dunno....it doesn't feel all that much different to my M5 in terms of acceleration, so I do feel that I need to do a bit of data logging to investigate if it should be running faster. I can hear a few exhaust leaks...possibly by the manifolds and a little bit by the back box, so I'll also take a closer look at those when I have time. It's running a K&N hot air intake (there literally isn't any room for anything else, although I may well cut into the chassis to make provision for the intake tubes to pass through and make a genuine cold air intake. Part of me does wonder if it's just pulling so much timing due to heat soak. On the basis that it's decatted and running a straight through exhaust to an AC Snitzer back box, it should be running around 560hp anyway, right? But yeah, all in good time.
I've ordered 10 new injectors (largely for preventative maintenance with the hydrolock horror stories) and I'll likely order a set of vanos solenoids from BMW while they're still affordable and available. If anybody has any other good suggestions, please let me know. The car is running in Alpha N.
Hehe just as well I didn't sell my Match Schnell pulley kit...hoping that'll give me another 10hp or so, but I wont fit it until I'm satisfied with the performance of the current configuration. I might hit up a dyno soon and get some baseline numbers too. I'm also likely to get a 4.4:1 final drive gear also. I want this to be as scary fast as possible to have fun with on the road and also I'll no doubt start doing track days too.
I'll start my official build thread journal soon guys - stay tuned! But for now, I'm very much living the dream and looking forward to unleashing the true potential of this car.
SO you'll remember that I got the E61 M5 manual swapped and then decided that it wasn't for me because I just didn't see enough potential in the chassis for me to warrant investing further into the car. Thus my E61 is for sale in the UK and hopefully it'll find it's new owner soon enough.
I made it clear though that I was a huge fan of the S85 and it's a fantastic NA powerplant as a racey engine on a spirited drive. So on that basis, I figured maybe I'd get a saloon model and do a manual swap again...but then I was thinking (and a good few of you actually advised me to) maybe an E46 M3 might be the right car for me because it was an equally brilliant chassis especially when the right tweaks have been made.
So then God decided to be nice to me and blessed me with the best of both worlds. Gentlemen, I am proud to be back....in....
An S85 swapped E46 M3 with a manual transmission 👻
It was literally just my luck that this came up and the NICEST guy built the car. It has an LCI engine from a 2008 car with around 47k on the motor. The bearings and usual vanos line, oil pump maintenance items have been taken care of. It has an E92 M3 6 speed with the 3.85:1 final drive (not quite the 4.1 in my E61). The car was built as an out and out track car, so the suspension has been set up to the extreme, which I LOVE (although I do need to knock a couple of degree's of camber out at the front for road use).
My plans for the car are to make it look pretty much like a stock M3 from the outside and leave the suspension in kill mode. It just needs tidying up and then refining as I go along. It's got a silver wrap on the body, so I'll be peeling that off shortly and re-spraying it in minty fresh black.
The 0-60 is pretty brutal (sub 4 seconds) and it handles like a dream. It's apparently been tuned and running 530hp, but I dunno....it doesn't feel all that much different to my M5 in terms of acceleration, so I do feel that I need to do a bit of data logging to investigate if it should be running faster. I can hear a few exhaust leaks...possibly by the manifolds and a little bit by the back box, so I'll also take a closer look at those when I have time. It's running a K&N hot air intake (there literally isn't any room for anything else, although I may well cut into the chassis to make provision for the intake tubes to pass through and make a genuine cold air intake. Part of me does wonder if it's just pulling so much timing due to heat soak. On the basis that it's decatted and running a straight through exhaust to an AC Snitzer back box, it should be running around 560hp anyway, right? But yeah, all in good time.
I've ordered 10 new injectors (largely for preventative maintenance with the hydrolock horror stories) and I'll likely order a set of vanos solenoids from BMW while they're still affordable and available. If anybody has any other good suggestions, please let me know. The car is running in Alpha N.
Hehe just as well I didn't sell my Match Schnell pulley kit...hoping that'll give me another 10hp or so, but I wont fit it until I'm satisfied with the performance of the current configuration. I might hit up a dyno soon and get some baseline numbers too. I'm also likely to get a 4.4:1 final drive gear also. I want this to be as scary fast as possible to have fun with on the road and also I'll no doubt start doing track days too.
I'll start my official build thread journal soon guys - stay tuned! But for now, I'm very much living the dream and looking forward to unleashing the true potential of this car.
