Tracking an E46 330ci on a budget! Overview of my 500k mile track car

[@haseebchowdhury4307]

So I took your advice and I’ve been looking at a few E46s. I found a clean, well maintained unit but I think the passenger side front shock tower is slightly mushroomed. Have you faced problems with mushroomed shock towers? I’m not sure how to fix it, I’ve seen people talk about just going ham with a hammer but I’m not too comfortable as it’s my first car

[@haseebchowdhury4307]

Oop nevermind just rewatched your video. Is hammering them down accurate? I’m just nervous lol is there any chance of it permanently fucking up the alignment?

[@edathi]

@@haseebchowdhury4307 mine were real bad. Had a few little cracks. Yeah that's pretty much the only fix... like this is a high end race shop: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f2ebooiwd9eIq5Y after you get it flat there are reinforcement plates you can put inbetween the mount and the tower. And/or you can get strut tower brace. It's a good bit harder to do on earlier cars because the tower isnt totally flat on the top. Sadly it's somewhat common, especially on earlier cars. It could maybe the tiniest bit mess with alignment (the tower only really affects caster and camber) but nothing that can't be corrected with camber plates...

[@haseebchowdhury4307]

edathi Are you o social media? There’s some photos I’d like to send

[@edathi]

@@haseebchowdhury4307 yeah! Instagram is eddyfb

[@haseebchowdhury4307]

Where do you get your alignment done?

[@haseebchowdhury4307]

Hey! Here from reddit! Planning on doing something similar. How much did you pay for the car?

[@edathi]

Awesome! I got the car (basically as a shell since I needed to change literally everything lol). For $800 like 2.5 years ago. Just found a pretty major problem on it though :/ . I think there might have been a little bit worse damage from that crash and tracking it basically ripped the whole unibody /strut tower area apart behind the fender. Welded it back together for the next event but I'll be needing a new shell. I might go a different route instead of an e46 shell (been thinking about swapping the drivetrain into a tube frame circle track car. I don't quite have the $ for that rn now though. But you can get a rolling 2000lb chassis for $2-3000). If your checking out a car definitely don't do it in record freezing temperatures haha. I wasn't expecting perfection for $800 but I missed A LOT because I was cold lol.

[@haseebchowdhury4307]

Thanks for the tips man. What do you reckon it would cost me to get where you are? I’m probably gonna get a sorted 330, so say 3.5/4K? How much do you have in mods and add ons?

[@edathi]

@@haseebchowdhury4307 In theory I could be where I am for about $6000 or so. I have a spreadsheet here where I had everything I initially planned on getting and updated it a few times with stuff I got but it's not super up to date or entirely what I would recommend. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BKc60hSzQyDPe9R41VRIRCddrqO9KDaWAXW1ShyT0s8/edit?usp=sharing I also had a decent post on reddit where I talked a lot about various reccomendations for a track car: www.reddit.com/r/e46/comments/diandb/my_new_project_track_dedicated_06_330ci/f49qqve/?context=3 It depends on where you are, and the market for cheaper cars has picked up quite a bit with stimulus checks and whatnot. If this is gonna be a track rat / dedicated track car I'd honestly look for a car thats just in solid mechanical shape, preferably with a worse looking interior. Lots of people seem to get track cars with nice interiors and then you just wind up throwing it all out. As long as the powertrain is good I'd recommend replacing basically everything else unless the p/o can prove they recently did it and you trust them. All engine gaskets (except like head gasket), bushings, and cooling system components especially. With a 330 you will need to secure the oil pump nut before tracking it too. You can get a nut with a wire tie on it for a couple bucks and toss that on when you do the oil pan gasket. Or you can weld it on like I have on my car. I highly recommend condor speed shop and whiteline for bushings. I haven't been on track with my ISC coilovers yet but my brother has had a good experience with them and it's like $1000 for a quality set of coilovers with adjustable top hats. If you are local to MD I have the old suspension off my car I'd sell for fairly cheap. It's got koseis with vogtland springs. At the shop we also have a set of bilsteins with H&R springs and a fixed top hat set for extra camber. I'd recommend a hotchkis front sway bar to go with my old setup or even any non coilover setup (Its also nice with coilovers) because my car had some trouble with too much body roll. Until you are racing used belts are a great deal. I got belts that were like $300+ new for $50 because they were past the certification date. I also got my bolt in half cage and sunroof plug from a friend who had wrecked his car so I saved a couple hundred on that too. I think between my reddit post and this comment I have told you pretty much everything I can pass on haha. If you got any more questions feel free to ask. Basically for a nice E46 at the track I'd expect to spend around $4-6000 all in. 2-3k on car plus 1-2k on suspension and 1-2k on doing all maintenance type items (cooling system, bushings, gaskets, weld in subframe reinforcements). Then seats, belts, and even a bolt in half cage would be another $1000. (I also didn't really include brakes, and wheels/tires which would add another $1500 or so. Both of which are really THE MOST IMPORTANT parts to spend your money on after the cooling system) Suspension and cage/seat/belt prices can be much less if you wait and shop around for used stuff!

[@haseebchowdhury4307]

I am local to MD! Near the DC ish area. That actually is perfect for my budget. I don’t want it to be a track rat per se, but a semi daily that is more inclined for the track. For the next 3 or so years I’ll be living on campus for college so I won’t exactly need a fully dedicated daily driver so I have some leeway into having a car that is less comfortable on the street. I likely will not be gutting it either, it being my only car and all. What engine stuff did you replace in terms of gaskets and consumables? Did you have to replace your entire cooling system? I’m currently on Facebook marketplace everyday lol, I’ll snatch up a decent 330 as soon as I find one

[@edathi]

​@@haseebchowdhury4307 Ah okay! That was my plan for the 330xi I had but plans changed lol. When you are looking for a track day group I recommend NASA Mid atlantic. They always do a great job. I'm an instructor with them (NASA is a nationally respected track day / club racing group so since I'm instructing with them I can instruct at pretty much an event with any group tho). An event at summit point would be closest, or maybe dominion (NASA doesn't go there anymore but I like the track and other groups still go there. They have their own 1 day 'HPDRE' events too). There are a few things you can get rid of to cut some weight before fully gutting. Stuff in trunk, sound deadening (theres some loose stuff in various places in the car in addition to the sound deadening that has to be melted/scraped or frozen off), headers give a better exhaust note and cut like 30lbs from the car, with headers (or with just stock manifolds) you can delete the secondary air pump. If you do headers (mainly on a pre 04 car, but I think I can get software now to tune facelift cars (with the ms45.1 ECU) too) HMU and I can code out the check engine light. The main gaskets that need to be done (they will leak after 5-10 years or so if they aren't done) are the valve cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket, and oil pan gasket. There are some other seals and gaskets that can go bad, but it's relatively uncommon. It's a good idea (or necessary) to do an oil change each time you do those gaskets so it's nice to do them all at once. 50s kid, shoplifetv, and just forums and posts on the internet are all great sources for tutorials. You can also go to a pyp junk yard and practice tearing an E46 apart lol. Both the E46s I've had had new cooling system components (radiator, expansion tank, and upper radiator hose are most important. Any component in the system can go bad, though. If you ever have the intake manifold off the hard coolant lines can break after years of neglect). A radiator will very very rarely go bad if it's less than 5 - maybe even 10 y/o. Expansion tanks on the other hand can be a bit of a problem. Use an OE brand tank (99.99% of the time any part on FCPEuro will be very good quality) and even then it's not a bad idea to have a spare one in the trunk. A failed cooling system has been the death of many thousands of E46s. Supposedly it's good to get a new cap too, I heard that an old/bad cap can lead to worse problems with expansion tanks breaking. With a manual car an E46 will almost never leave you stranded if your cooling system and battery are in good shape. Fuel pumps can go bad too, but typically they will soft fail before leaving you stuck somewhere.

[@eliotbittner833]

The real to cheap e46 track car is stealing all the parts from your big brother..... lol jk