3.4L Motor Swap Underway!

[insite]

for some odd reason, it hit 62 degrees in atlanta today. i took an opportunity to see if my paint could clean up at ALL.

i've been nervous about this. when the motor blew, i lived in an apartment. i bought a cover & the car sat outside for six months. the cover, it turns out, was not waterproof....... the car was COVERED in crap. mildew, gunk, slime, dirt; you name it.

turns out some water and a LOT of soap can do wonders . thanks, glasurit!

[ddb]

It looks great! Nice interior too.

[BudmanV24]

Lookin good. Were you able to buy just the 540i maf housing, or did you buy it with a sensor and toss the sensor?

[JTP]

Your red interior trim looks great. Did you paint them or was it a factory option?

[insite]

Originally Posted by JTP

Your red interior trim looks great. Did you paint them or was it a factory option?

thanks! i actually did it myself a couple of years ago. my interior was totally black and a little boring. i went a little nuts with the guards red, but it turned out pretty nice!

[insite]

well, we hit 1,000 miles on the 3.4L. it's been running great, with the exception of a single lifter that seems to be sticky & loud at idle. also, there's a wierd clunk under braking from immediately behind the passenger compartment firewall.

so, up in the air it went. checked fastener torques, looked for leaks, removed the transmission mounts & cut the studs shorter (i had a theory that the clunk was from the studs hitting the subframe). i also drained out the syntec 5w-30 and replaced it with syntec 10w-40 and a new oil filter. i collected a sample to send off to blackstone for analysis & comparison with the oil that shipped in the motor.

fired it back up......the lifter is quiet! it really seems to like the 10w-40. buttery smooth. still getting some clunk under braking. need to inspect my motor mount.....

finally, test drive. now in atlanta this weekend, we had TWO 70 degree sunny days in a row! perfect; the porsches were out in full force! my car FEELS really fast, but i have been looking for an opportuninty to prove it with....field research.

wish granted....twice! i was going up a hill on the way to an AWESOME set of downhill twisties. there was, unfortunately, a minivan in front of me. behind me pulls up a silver 996 3.6L. the minivan turned off! perfect. i nail the throttle and so does he. the boxster walked away from that 996 with NO problems; he absolutely could not keep up. phenomenal!

yesterday, the wife & i were out driving around, enjoying the weather & the twisties once again. as i roll toward a stop sign, i see a flash of red go through the intersection, followed by an unmistakable banshee scream that was obviously a GT3. SO, i of course promptly turned left to try & catch up. sure enough, he hit some traffic & i wound up right on his tail. 2010 997 GT3 that didn't even have license plates yet! still had the dealer temp tag. we got to a stop light & traffic cleared a bit; we both turned left & he HAMMERS it. so do i. at this point, i am fully expecting him to pull WAY out in front.....but he doesn't! he is definitely pulling away from me, but not by much. we were on a two lane weaving through traffic at a VERY brisk clip. the boxster hung on with no problem. MAN that GT3 sounds sick at WOT!

so, the verdict? i LOVE this car. it is an absolute joy to drive & seems to be stupid fast. i need to get it on a real dyno or take it for a 1/4 mile run or something. i can't wait to get it to the track & see how much of a difference this makes on lap times.

i will post my oil analysis when i get it back from blackstone. until next time, cheers.

[Pat]

Great stuff! Thanks for the update, insite.

[insite]

Originally Posted by BudmanV24

Lookin good. Were you able to buy just the 540i maf housing, or did you buy it with a sensor and toss the sensor?

i found a guy on bimmerforums who had one. when they sell the new BMW sensor, it comes with the housing. there are lots of old housings lying around.....mine was $20.