Technical AzNdevil's RHD 335 6MT Build Thread

[AzNdevil]

20220723 What I have done over the past 2 years, Part 2

the sequence of which i put new stuff/changed out stuff on the car might not be correct... but what matters is, its documented

Heres the Dyno Run
3 pulls, 3rd, 4th, 5th gear, i didn't plan on putting the car on a dyno but i was there with my friend so... why not
i was still working on the tune so the dips are somewhat expected

please excuse the portrait video

finally had some time on my hands, 6MT car is back. time to swap the interior

What's better than two 335s?

after i have swapped the interior and some small bits over, i have decided to send the 6AT car to the scrapyard.
there are too many issues with the 6AT car and its not even worth selling at this point.
abs pump is kind of dead, rear turbo is dead, AC is dead. fixing it costs more than the car itself used

back to fixing up the 6MT car.....
suspension started leaking after ~3 months/2000KM of use so the rebuild was a huge waste of money.
not what i expected from an AST authorized service center and certainly not what i expected after paying so much.
at this point i was pretty annoyed so i just left it with someone local to have a go at it.
worst case im out another ~2k USD and it fails again.

after disassembly, every bladders in the 4 reservoirs cracked so they couldnt hold any air, since these werent off the shelf parts, the guy that did the rebuild machined a cap and put in o rings to seal it.

Custom Cap with O Rings to Seal the Reservoir

got the car back, it certainly does not feel as good as new but at least the suspension working properly.
at this point, with all the money i have spent on this, i couldve picked up a set of JRZ or Nitron or MCS suspension
this is a lesson learned for me...

now that the car is pretty much in a working state, time for some more upgrades!
BimmerWorld Trailing Link Bearing Set

BimmerWorld Rear Camber Arm Bearing Kit

Heres everything in one box

Hard Race Solid/Spherical Rear Guide Rods/Camber/Toe Arms

these parts sat for around a year before i got around to installing them recently. random pics of the aftermath

initial impressions: now that i have removed almost all of the rubber bushings from the car, i can officially say, because racecar!
i was skeptical of ordering these bimmerworld kits because i couldnt find any reviews on them at all.
as far as chassis/handling upgrades go... these kits are the last piece(s) of the puzzle.

• car handles totally different compared to how it was previously.
• all the slack from the rubber bushings are removed from the rear end and replaced with NVH into the cabin.....
• you can really feel the suspension working especially when going over bumpy surfaces
• its weird hitting potholes because it sounds like the car is breaking but you dont feel the hole as the suspension soaks everything up

would i be able to drive the car in corners faster with these mods?
at my skill level, i doubt it to be honest. but i consider this as one of the best mods i have done so far.

ive had a lot of people ask me why i didnt just buy a m3 and skip modding everything
if both cars were stock, i'd agree. the non m e9x just wasnt built to be thrown into corners at all.
but if you are going to mod it, it doesnt make much difference in the end since non m and m share the same exact chassis and pretty much all the same chassis mods.

the main difference is the front subframe where it ties into the chassis and the rear lower control arm + spindles
there isnt much i can do for the front subframe unless i can somehow get the n54 to mount in the m3 front subframe
the rear lower control arm + spindles can be retrofitted but that would require new rear brakes and a different styled suspension
carbon roof.... can be retrofitted but i'd lose the sunroof which i never use

anyways, my m3 steering rack started to leak badly so i ordered another used RHD rack off ebay and had it installed on the car

thats everything i have done for the past 2 years and now my dme or something is acting up.
dme freaks out and christmas tree cluster when i do a pull..... i will update this as i go along and try to fix it
shoutouts to @carabuser for the potential solution!

 

[doublespaces]

Man you got a lot of stuff updated. Is that another m3 rack?

 

[AzNdevil]

Man you got a lot of stuff updated. Is that another m3 rack?

yep another m3 rack...this one costs 300usd. i took a chance going with a used rack because a new refurbed rack is ~1900usd and 2 month wait

my old rack was leaking really badly. i was leaking around 500ml of steering fluid for every tank of gas so i had to replace it

well after everything i put in the car, it still doesnt work properly lol... i want to play with the new mhd features....

 

[AzNdevil]

20220820, M3 Front Strut Brace, Mini ADCP MSD81/CAS ISN Reading/Writing Part 1

Sometimes I really wonder how much my car hates me...
I haven't really had this car working properly in one piece for as long as i have owned it
Things just never go the way they should and this is yet another fail

somehow while i was shopping for a used msd81 dme, i also picked up this brace used off ebay.

it was missing a stud on the center piece and seller replaced with a hex bolt. fine, beggers cant be choosers, at least the bolts that go on the shock top mounts are there....

honestly, i have no fucking idea how anyone could manage to stuff the center piece of the bar into this hole without removing the wipers to gain clearance.... i was leaning on top of the engine in 34C weather 90% humidity for 2.5 hours trying to jam the piece in with no success

youtube makes everything look easy.

finally ended up removing the wipers... which proved to be a struggle until i used a bearing puller....
center piece fitted after ~30 mins......i shouldve just removed the wipers in the first place

and heres everything in its place

oh wow. guess what happened when i start to tighten things down....

the stud snapped right off right when i started to torque it... i was no where near the recommended specs 34-40Nm......
previous garage probably rattle gunned the bolts on... FML

anyways i got hold of AST and they told me to use a M8 bolt for the time being until they come back from their summer holidays and ship me replacement studs

first impressions: there are more rattles from my car so... i guess... it means... the front end is more connected to the chassis now?

 

[AzNdevil]

as for my dme issues, i decided to test my luck with yet another chinese tool. Mini ADCP
Note: This is not sponsored by Mini ADCP, i paid for this out of my own pocket.

many of you know its probably cheaper to have it done by someone with the tools already but i have been down this path half a year ago

my old dme had water ingestion, a local euro car electornic specialist replaced it for ~750usd and now half a year later i suspect the bsd driver chip is damaged and also there are some weird issues with the pt-can communications as my car will randomly cut out while driving...especially during WOT.....the guy wants ~200usd to fix the bsd issue even when the dme is supposingly to have a "1 year warranty" so i told him i will pay him another ~750usd to source another msd81 and he kind of shrugged me off

i had enough of this shit so i decide to take matters into my own hands.
worst case i fuck up something and its just more money down the drain.

anyways, i ordered this package for 600ish USD shipped to Hong Kong from Mini ADCP China factory directly

this includes the Main Mini ADCP Programmer Thingy, BMW CAS Hardware + Key Reader + Software License/Authorization, BMW DME ISN Cloning Hardware+ Software License/Authorization, MSD81 ICP Hardware Board

the sales manager was nice and kept spamming my whatsapp and wechat with videos on how to use this thing

if anyones interested, let me know and i will start a new thread with an in depth review on this, otherwise i will just do a quick review and whether if i can get it to work in the end.

my goal is to clone my current dme isn to the donor so both dme will work on my car....
if i can achieve this, i will take a stab at fixing the bsd driver chip on my current dme.

after a longgggg wait.... my donor dme will be probably arrive next week from ukraine...
there was a dme from US being sold for the same price, too bad i took too long to decide and it was sold when i looked it up again

 

[AzNdevil]

donor dme finally arrived....
got the vin and isn from dme without taking the lid off, the dme is from a n53 powered 325i

now this poses an additional challenge. the power class setting/coding will be different compared to a dme from n54... this will prevent the car from going into boost

 

[AzNdevil]

things never go smoothly for me...
i cant read my original dme isn/psw through canbus or delid... working with mini adcp support on whatsapp now... so far they have been responsive

i kind of expected this to happen as there are communication issues with the dme in the first place on bsd bus and occasional canbus dropouts. which is what led me wanting to replace my dme in the first place...

i do have a backup plan...

 

[AzNdevil]

got a reply from mini adcp, seems my old dme is "too new", they collected the logs for analysis and are working on it as we speak

so... i just unsoldered the eeprom and got a clean dump with a cheap ch341a programmer
@carabuser : this was what we were discussing. in line clamp didnt work

95640 eeprom unsoldered from dme

sop8 chip in the programmer, note the orientation, bottom left pin is pin 1, i put it in the programmer the other way and the chip almost burned my finger

auto chip recognizition

dump with asprogrammer, you can see my vin

comparison of both dumps with hxd

put the eeprom back in and pretend nothing happened

 

[carabuser]

Thanks for keeping a record of all this. I'm keen to play with these tools in future. Having ability to write directly to the EEPROM would be really cool. Can you read and write the entire 2MB? Even the first SBOOT section?

Also I'm guessing you still need ADCP to come along with an update firmware so you can read the ISN? What chip is that stored in?

 

[AzNdevil]

Mini ACDP Review Moved to a Seperate Post Here
https://www.spoolstreet.com/threads/mini-acdp-review-msd80-81-clone-swap-upgrade.8494/

 

[AzNdevil]

Thanks for keeping a record of all this. I'm keen to play with these tools in future. Having ability to write directly to the EEPROM would be really cool. Can you read and write the entire 2MB? Even the first SBOOT section?

Also I'm guessing you still need ADCP to come along with an update firmware so you can read the ISN? What chip is that stored in?

Its relatively affordable if you want to deep dive into the DME especially when they just released a new module allowing what they claim to be FULL access to the DME without delidding.... if it really works, you'd have something that does the job for 400USD+Shipping

as for the ISN, its something i have planned to look into when i have time
from the looks of it... its most likely in the Tricore EEPROM/SBOOT area since the Mini ACDP Controller doesnt support writing anything there

 

[AzNdevil]

20231213 update

- carbone loraine (CL) brake pads fucked my ap caliper brake pad stops, had to order new stops from the US cause i couldn't find anything locally
- added a megane racing strut bar so i have a place to ziptie my ast suspension reservoirs
- got a permit to drive in china, arranged a trip to the 2nd closest racetrack with a bunch of friends
- radiator blew one week before my 188km/120mi drive to the racetrack, had to limp the car to china to get it fixed because i couldnt find a radiator locally

- track prep, new bridgestone re71rs tires, new project mu999 pads, fake omp 4 point harness (track requirement)

- either my gearbox or diff started to whine near the end of the first track session

- fitting on the top radiator hose to the heater coil blew apart after 2-3 laps on the second session

- paid ~20 usd for someone to drive 3 hours and deliver the hose, paid ~70 usd for someone to install the hose at 10pm at night

- friend's audi s3 ate a bird, had to cut the grill so he can reach in and remove it

- replaced gearbox and diff oil hoping the whining sound would go away, it didnt.

- group picture, one subaru is missing as engine seized after a few laps

- subaru with the seized engine was towed to a shop 2 hours away from the track, everyone drove to watch the car being unloaded
- ate dinner, drove 4 hours home listening to that whine and arrived at 4am

oh, and the "flying lap", not driving at the limit and slow by any standard, i can probably go a second faster

 

[wheela]

Damn, sounds like a rough trip...

 

[AzNdevil]

Damn, sounds like a rough trip...

well it was fun until it wasnt lol

on the bright side, turns out my mfactory helical diff is fucked not my gearbox
on the bad side, im out a lot of $$ and both front brake discs are cracked

 

[AzNdevil]

Asked the local MFactory dealer to get the diff fixed or how much for a new built pumpkin as i considered to upgrade to a MFactory Clutch Plate styled LSD but they couldn't quote me on the exact price and turnaround time after a few days.

So......New Pumpkin with Quaife LSD Ordered from the UK. They are doing a sale now so its a great time to buy!
Most likely it will arrive after Christmas so I will have to live with this whine until then.....
Old diff will be removed and checked for damage once the new one is in then i will decide if its worthwhile to fix.

New brake discs will be installed this coming weekend providing the hardware arrives on time.

 

[doublespaces]

Any reason for going with the quaife?

 

[CalvinNismo]

That’s a really good price for the Quaife! I paid a smidge over £2,000 to convert mine to a Wavetrac nearly 4 years ago and that was with a Black Friday discount. Drive-in drive-out job. I imagine you’ll get hit with taxes when it lands?

 

[AzNdevil]

Any reason for going with the quaife?

drexler and os giken are too expensive.... 3k + install + shipping and i need to ship them my diff
besides, i dont want to deal with shipping the diff to them to rebuild when the time comes so staying with helical is more of a compromise

i might get my current broken diff rebuilt with a mfactory clutch plate style lsd if the local dealer dont try to rip me off with ridiculous pricing

they quoted me ~2k usd to fit a new mfactory helical lsd excluding seals and bearings, ~3k usd for a used diff + new mfactory helical lsd excluding seals and bearings, and a ~1 month lead time, this doesnt include installation of the diff onto the car

That’s a really good price for the Quaife! I paid a smidge over £2,000 to convert mine to a Wavetrac nearly 4 years ago and that was with a Black Friday discount. Drive-in drive-out job. I imagine you’ll get hit with taxes when it lands?

i considered wavetrac as well... couldnt find anyone offering a bolt on/built pumpkin solution except for VAC motorsports in the US but they didnt reply to my email so i gave up. ecstuning/turner also offers this but i rather not deal with their customer support as i have had bad experiences

no tax for importing car parts into hong kong

 

[AzNdevil]

boost solenoids decided to stop working while i was 200km away from home on christmas vacation... had to drive around with no boost for a few days. finally picked up new ones and installed them.

last time when i was at the track the coolant hose from top radiator hose to heater core blew, paid someone to do a quick install because i was lazy and this is the aftermath... i spent 15 minutes removing the chargepipe as the hoses were all tangled together and one of the heater core hoses wasnt tightened down causing coolant to piss all over the back of the engine

so i spent some time cleaning it up.....

diff arrived today and will be installed along with new brake rotors next week.

 

[AzNdevil]

quaife diff installed! and since i visited @Asbjorn today, its now broken in and im due for a diff oil change

new front brake discs, nothing to write home about. they are supposingly to be better but they are still chinesium so we will see....

both old front brake discs have cracks in them after a few track sessions

took the cover off the old mfactory helical diff, ~75% of the pinion gear is chipped like this. also, theres some wear on the final drive but thats not surprising

tiny metal chunks fell out and glittery oil says it all

last but not least, a pic with the legendary z4