Sean's Supercharged ZHP Journal

[snelan]

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E46 ZHP
IMOLAROT 2 (405) -- STOFF LASERANTHRAZIT (G7AT)
2004-05-21



Background
In June of 2018, I decided I wanted a ZHP, and shipped this car from California to Maryland in order to get a clean, rust-free albeit high mileage example. I bought it from another member here, after looking over the car via Facetime. The entire process was extremely smooth, and there were no major surprises. Thus far, I've mostly focused on maintenance. Here, I'll document all the work I've done since. I have a backlog of pictures so it'll take some time for me to get this thread up to speed with a post per day and cleaning up the title post, but from there I'll keep it updated live!


Recent Maintenance

LUK clutch kit/associated wear items
Center bearing, guibo, transmission mounts
Shifter bushings

Modifications
Engine

ASA TM12 stage 2 supercharger (in progress)
Full PCV delete
Renovelo self-tuning
Transmission

OEM
Suspension

OEM
Chassis

Bimmerworld rear subframe reinforcement
Exterior

Smoked side markers
Clear front side markers
ECS carbon fiber front splitters
Interior

XTrons Android 9.0 head unit

[snelan]

Arrival

First order of business was to take delivery of the car. After a week on it's trailer, it arrived in MD on the truck. From here, I drove it about 2 miles to my house, and it did great. This was my first time ever driving an E46. The car had 163,000 miles on it, and a couple dings, but otherwise didn't show it's age at all. The most important thing to me was that it had no rust or interior wear.

Included with the car came it's full maintenance history, a BMW car cover, and lots of spare bolts, and parts.

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[johnrando]

Nice!

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[zhpnsnv]

Nice! In for supercharger info.

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[snelan]

Lower Control Arms + LCABs

At 163,000 miles, the original lower control arms were pretty used up. I decided to put Lemforder arms and new LCABs on almost immediately.

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...and washed all the dirt off from its road trip.

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[snelan]

Nice!

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Thanks!


Nice! In for supercharger info.

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Soon! I want to get through my backlog of the last year first, but the supercharger install and tuning process will be most of this thread from then on out. I'm self tuning it using Renovelo on a local dyno. I've done lots of FI tuning in the past, but never on an E46 so I want to make sure I take my time with the process.

[racer2086]

Very cool. Congrats on the new ride! Definitely looking forward to the supercharger. I love these ZHPs...I feel like that's the only thing missing on my car -- more power.

[joeybananaz18]

id love a supercharger. sounds like it should be a great read.

[Will]

Amazing how well these cars age - especially when maintained. Looking forward to your updates.

[snelan]

Rear Subframe/Chassis Reinforcement

One of my first "performance oriented" mods was to reinforce the rear subframe. After some reading, I figured it probably had lots of cracks at this mileage and bought a reinforcement kit from Bimmerworld. But... I unbolted the diff subframe to get access to the mounting locations underneath, and found not a single crack or defect!

So in interest of time, and because eventually I wanted to do the subframe bushings anyway, I just reinforced the rear locations. I used 3M DP460 for this, a structural adhesive. This provides sufficient tensile strength, but unlike a weld, is spread across a much larger area. Furthermore, it will not weaken the metal around it as a weld would. As long as the epoxy is applied and cured correctly, it should both last longer and be stronger than welding this plate would be.

I spent about an hour with a wire wheel and sandpaper on the chassis and the plates, and then coated the top and bottom of the plate with epoxy (for rust protection mainly.. the top), and held it up tightly with a lug I had laying around while it dried.

Then, I painted them with a thick red enamel, to cover up and remaining exposed metal. Red because I didn't have any other colors on the shelf.

Wire wheel + sanded plate
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Installed plates
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Painted
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[johnrando]

Nice werk.

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[JETSET303]

Wanting more power too. Following this


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[snelan]

VANOS Seals

Next up was the VANOS seals. I wasn't sure if they had ever been replaced, and wanted to do them with newer, oil resistant seals to make sure. I ordered them from Beisan systems, and did it! It took about 2.5 hours, and was pretty straight forward.

I actually still have VANOS rattle, so I have a set of anti-rattle "spacers" from Beisan waiting to go in too.

Also, took some pictures:

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