We have been busy the last 8 weeks on our S65 BMW V8 + 7-speed DCT drivetrain swapped E46 coupe, and we have detailed all of the work done in the latest Forum Build Thread update. The current state of our E46 is shown above with carbon hood, roof, trunk and doors as well as composite front fenders – but we have a lot of work ahead of us still.
In the first part of the latest 5-part Forum Update we cover some reliability mods we tackled on the S65 V8, including this AAF oil pan baffle kit. This is one of the more challenging baffle kit installs we have ever done. We also replaced rod bearings and a few other wear items while we had the V8 out of the car. Then we tackled engine and transmission mounts.
We had an uninstalled carbon roof panel for an E46 so naturally we removed the steel roof from this car, as well as the sunroof delete panel. In the Forum Update we detail every pound added or removed from this race car, of course.
Another weight saving trick is shown with these carbon fiber doors, which needed some notching at the bottom to clear the extensive door bars from this car’s roll cage. We found some DTM style door mirrors from Poland and those were installed also, and we covered the modifications to the Flossmann widebody kit we are installing onto this car.
Trying to keep as many of the OEM functions of the BMW S65 + DCT we bought a lot of used OEM components from a 2008-13 BMW M3 – chassis harness, engine harness, and lots of sensors and control modules. We have an EPIC Motorsports tuned DME to control all of it, but we needed certain sensors and things so a lot of “parts cannon” firing happened in December and January.
We show the some of the E92 M3 chassis wiring harness work, as well as the controllers for the Toyota Prius EPAS electric steering assist we have for this E46. Out back we skipped the Flossmann fender flares and ordered up some from Fitment Lab, part of their new E46 coupe kit. The Forum Update goes over why we opted for these, and talks about a second flare we will need on top of these.
We know there is a lot of work left to get our multi-colored mess of an E46 to look and perform like the E46 GTR, but we’re knocking out the punch list and the end is in sight. Thanks for reading our blog post, and don’t forget to check out the Forum Update for more pictures, video, and tech!