[My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"]

Yesterday I ended up ditching the Clutch fan and ACC fan in hopes that it would fix my overheating at idle issue. So far after about 2 hours of driving around in stop and go traffic, the car has been really good. It has never gone past half, as where before it went past half almost right away at any light. I still don't trust the setup fully, but it is for sure an improvement. 

I installed my original ZHP E-fan in place of the old setup. In order to make this work I had to trim the lower half of the fan shroud to make it clear the oil cooler. I was able to re-use the top mounting bolt hole, but had to use radiator "ties" for the other 3 corners. This is an incredibly tight fit, but it works, barely! I am probably a quarter of an inch from my belts, and about the same from the water pump (where the clutch fan bolts to)

Excited to start enjoying this car again. I really believe this is a perfect all around car. I will forever own it! 

 

***I ordered some custom plates finally! Can't wait to get them in 40 weeks! 

 

[My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"]

Also I forgot to add that I did refresh the brakes, the nastiest part of the car. The car is completely rust free, but these brakes were nasty.  Was going to go with some 135i brakes, but ended up just doing stop-tech rotors/refinishing ZHP calipers for now. Maybe next year! 

 

The entire front end of the car, along with the rear bumper also got resprayed before I left. The car had a decent amount of rock chips that always drove me insane & the back bumper got bumped downtown last winter. 

[My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"]

Helen was amazing! I cannot wait to go back next year. 

 

The car did run into a few issues. With the 90 degree/high humidity weather, the car would get hot at idle. Came to find out that the M3's have a puller fan in front of the radiator that plays a huge roll in keeping the car cool at idle. So I will be installing that in the next few days. I will also be ditching the fan clutch and going back to the OEM ZHP electric fan. Other than that, the car handles absolutely amazing in the mountains and had no problem keeping up with my friends 997 C4S! We got to shred the backroads with a ton of R8'S, GT3'S, M2'S, M5's, a ton of nicely modified VW's, and a ton of other cars. 

If this does not fix my problem, I am going to go ahead and do a complete cooling system refresh. Lets hope this fixes the problem. Here are a few photos of the car from the trip! 

I also before I left spent a good amount of time cleaning up the engine bay, and polishing the VANOS unit.

[My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"]

42 minutes ago, B C said:

What are you running for diff mounts? Stock, or urethane?

New OEM mounts, I have urethane on some things like H&R strut bar. Wanted to keep a nice comfy ride on this thing

 

[My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"]

All check engine lights are officially clear! Exhaust is finished, ended up using full m3 exhaust into the ZHP muffler. In order for the m3 exhaust to properly clear the trans mounts, part of it had to be heated up and bent, but all worked out perfectly. 

Some detailing/paint/brake work and then we are off to Sowo in Helen, GA for some mountain backroads! 

 

[My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"]

Made some small improvements today. Got the tune setup to delete the Evap control circuit codes and realized I never plugged in my ambient air sensor. Got that plugged in and I finally have no check engine light. I also actually know what temperature it is outside now so thats nice. (Showed 128 degrees before constantly) 

The one thing I am not going to run temporarily is a washer fluid reservoir because I never ever use my washer fluid and it's one less thing in the engine bay. I got rid of this light by putting a resistor on the plug. 

Getting the AC charged and muffler put on Friday by a local shop! Need that ICE for the drive to Helen, GA in a few weeks. 

I drove the car to Illinois and back for a cars and coffee and it did amazing. Very excited for the upcoming trip back to the cars home state to terrorize some twisty roads 😈

[My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"]

Took the car for a drive, everything is fixed and driving amazing! Just need a muffler setup welded on and we're done! 

(also have to finish some coding to remove the DSC and engine light due to steering angle sensor which is to be removed) 

Love this thing. 

[My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"]

10 hours ago, patsbimmer1 said:

I'm actually impressed you did this in 5 days.  I had looked many years ago and all of the build threads talked about how hard it was and how the coding and combination of dme's was a nightmare.  Nice job!

Thanks man! There were definitely a lot of parts involved and research. 

[My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"]

Update: o2's were backwards, flipped them and no check engine lights or anything. Motor runs great. Power is amazing

Bad news: Driveshaft CV joint couldn't hang and decided to take a poop. Oh well, at least the motor is all good. CV joint replacement time!

[My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"]

And thats a wrap! (Almost)

The car runs and drives, after 5 hard working days! Things swapped were, S54 (OBVI), m3 fuel tank with pumps/lines, m3 cooling system, m3 DME, etc etc. 

If anyone has any questions about the swap, please feel free to ask, I would love to help. It was very hard gathering all of the things needed to make this work and I want to help spread the word on whats all necessary. 

the last problem I have to sort out is an o2 issue. I believe I have the ordering wrong, and am going to look into that tonight as the car is getting misfires on 1-3 and lean/rich codes.

I do have the air duct for the radiator support, just need to grab some clips for it.

 

 

[My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"]

I also just received my M3 check panel in the mail. This will retain the speaker and heated seats buttons but give me the M3 “Sport” button which I was told is very important to how the car feels. 

[My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"]

Finally making some progress on this! 
 

Getting everything read to ship out to Shawn Robertson in Atlanta tomorrow. I’ll be shipping him a laptop and my S54 DME to get it all coded up. He will also be removing the SMG box on the cluster and converting it to a 6 speed cluster and adding the rear door lights! 
 

I have gotten a lot of parts over the past few weeks and have nearly everything. I decided to go with the OEM headers, and an OEM section 1 and 2 to keep the car quiet. I personally do not like the rasp of S54s. I’m going to be running a brand new OEM S54 cooling system, and keep the electric ZHP fan. 

One of the last things I’m needing to grab is an M3 clutch switch, so that the shift lights and cruise control works.

[E46 M3 Parts]

Everything found in IL! Thanks

[E46 M3 Parts]

I am looking for two things for the E46 M3! 

- Check panel (heated seats/sport button/speaker button)

- Section 2 of exhaust

Let me know if you have either! 

Thanks!  

[My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"]

1 hour ago, B C said:

YES!

So what about the fuel pump? I know the M3 has a variable speed fuel pump. Is the stock 330i fuel pump adequate?

as far as the tamper dot, my research on the topic says that between the cluster, and DME 2 of the 3 need matching mileage to avoid the tamper dot. I didn’t read anything about the window switch though. Id be interested in hearing more about that. 
 

Im really excited to see this project progress!

Fuel pump as well! Sorry forgot to add that! I’m very excited as well

[My '05 Alpine ZHP "Daily"]

Back in August I picked up a very clean example of a ZHP in Georgia! I have wanted one of these cars for years, as I always thought it would be the perfect daily driver. Still very simple and reliable, but not too old where it still feels modern. The E46 Truly is an amazing chassis! Driving it home from Georgia, I had to take a proper detour and test out all the new bushings the previous owner had just replaced at the Tail of the Dragon. I instantly fell in love with the car! Here are some pictures I have taken since ownership!

Things I have done already before starting this thread

-Quick paint correction (1 step, the paint was actually in great shape)

-PPF all the piano black trim 

-New ZHP knob (stopped in Atlanta to get one from dealer an hour into ownership)

-Coco mats

-Coby new alcantara steering wheel/e brake handle/arm wrest

-Future Classic window sticker (the car is 1 of 36, just like my E36 )

-Future Classic wheel spacer kit 

-Rewrap rear and front alcantara pillars 

-New headlight lenses

-BC racing Coilovers

-AC Schnitzer Type II wheels 18x8.5 et13 wheels overnighted from Japan

-Refinished ACS wheels in BMW Stoneington Grey

-Nitto Neo-Gen tires

-AC Schnitzer Polished/Brushed Door sill plates

Yesterday I went to Chicago and pulled a 65k mile S54 from a crashed ZCP M3. I also grabbed the OEM M3 strut bar, the DME, the cluster, the window switch (to prevent tamper dot), the full wiring harness, and a bunch of other stuff. I am so excited for this. I have always dreamt of owning an S54 powered sedan. This car has been altered and modified in so many more ways already than I ever imagined when I bought it. I still plan to daily drive this car with the S54 in it; as I should! 

Things I plan to get within next week or so for the S54 swap 

-Headers (The people with the M3 wouldn't let me take the catalytic converters, and chopped them off the motor once I got it out of the car. I have yet to decide which ones to go with, as I don't want the S54 rasp)

-Full exhaust

-Rod Bearings/VANOS rebuild

-check panel with sport button/heated seats

-New OEM motor Mounts 

-Get this BABY put in and running!

-I also have new bumper brackets sitting around, but I'm waiting to install those when I take the front clip off for the motor swap!

I will probably be posting the ZHP motor for sale soon if anyone is interested! If not, I will find something to do with it! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Partiallypurplevisuallyviolet - Daytona M3 Build Thread]

On 12/23/2020 at 8:27 PM, B C said:

I need to see coco mats in person because honestly I don’t get it. I know they are popular but I don't look at them and get excited.

This is not me being a hater/dick, by the way. I’d love to see them in person to better understand the appeal.

Nice find on the ACS stuff 👍🏼

 

 

I was the same way. The quality on them is insane, they weigh like 10 pounds a piece lol

And they don’t show dirt as much as normal mats. So it always looks clean 🤓

[Partiallypurplevisuallyviolet - Daytona M3 Build Thread]

On 12/18/2020 at 10:07 PM, SteelBlue said:

E46 has to be one of the best BMW interiors. Looks amazing with the mods you've done.

 

I'm definitely getting coco mats for the E30

Thanks man! The coco mats are quite honestly my favorite mod on the car LOL

[Partiallypurplevisuallyviolet - Daytona M3 Build Thread]

Sourced some ACS door sill plates to match the mirrors. (All 4 doors, just didn’t take any more pics)

Mirrors and rear windshield wing next!

[Partiallypurplevisuallyviolet - Daytona M3 Build Thread]

I wrapped the pillars and stuff. The stuff I paid for was steering wheel/ebrake handle/arm wrest. But even the arm wrest I had to install/glue on

[Partiallypurplevisuallyviolet - Daytona M3 Build Thread]

1 hour ago, YoungCR said:

Were those a kit or did you just wrap yourself?

Coby wheel. Think for all of the stuff it was like $425 + a $250 deposit. You send your old wheel once you get new one. Quality is better than oem

[Partiallypurplevisuallyviolet - Daytona M3 Build Thread]

2 hours ago, B C said:

So good!

Don’t burble tune it

 

This ones staying silent lol

[Partiallypurplevisuallyviolet - Daytona M3 Build Thread]

[Partiallypurplevisuallyviolet - Daytona M3 Build Thread]

Haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been having my fun modding the ZHP the past few months. Brand new alcantara steering wheel/new ZHP knob/alcantara wrapped pillars (since oem black was peeling)/acs type 2/bc coilovers/etc etc!

[Partiallypurplevisuallyviolet - Daytona M3 Build Thread]

On 10/8/2020 at 2:19 PM, SteelBlue said:

Who'd you have to slip a $20 to let your car in the dealership?

Actually the BMW genius (guy who shows ppl how to use the tech in the new cars) and a couple salesman offered it to me, I was just there for ZHP parts. They loved the car, one of them has an e36 m3.