depends how that air gets channelled and directed as well.

13.07.2014
 

Not sure what to write first really.
I will try to summarize.

I changed the alternator. The voltage regulator that I had changed didn't help and replacing the whole unit was necessary.

I found an AC Schnitzer rear strut brace. It's fantastic because you can take it easily out if you want to fit something big. Used one, not cheap but it's what I was looking for all these years.

I ended up replacing:
- Radiator. Only 60% of the radiator was working... so ladies and gentlemen replace your old radiators.
- Thermostat. I put a new one. Feck it, warranty it is
- Water pump. Nothing was wrong with the old one apart from a very small play on the bushing. So prefered to bin it before it dies on it's own.
- Water hoses. Old ones were ok, but better safe than sorry. Would hate to have a blown water hose in the middle of nowhere.
- Fan clutch. Mine was fecked (again). Warranty again.

Before doing all the above I had some very strange overheating occurences.
The car would overheat (if you call 96C overheating) when on camber (the right side higher than the left).
I had overheating only on one specific place of the autobahn, while moving very slowly or stopped due to traffic. After days and days wondering why the car overheats only there, trying to understand what is special, I noticed I am sitting on a camber.
What is more funny is that I replicated the issue at home !
Car flat on the garage idling. No issue.
Jack it up from the right side and the temperature rose.
Take it down, temperature goes down.
I think it had to do with the clutch fan and whether it's engaging or not.

After replacing all the above, I saw only once the same occurence on the same spot of the autobahn.
The only things that would explain this are the following
- cracked gasket or cylinderhead which is creating pressure in the cooling system
- the water temp sensor is fecked OR the groundings of the engine have an issue

I am a very curious individual therefore I ordered a leak down tester tool.
Today I did a leak down test on the engine twice, just to verify the results.
Fortunately, the engine is in perfect condition and I have no issue in the cylinderhead or gasket.

What I will replace now is the water temp sensor.
I am pretty sure there is a problem.


Other news.

I will be selling my AP Racing kit and the Ohlins suspension and going to purchase a KW clubsport suspension and the Brembo GT brake kit (380mm / 6 piston front).
The reason is the ultra strict Swiss MOT :banghead:

That is very strange.

Also how do you know only 60% of the radiator was working and what do you think the reason for this is?

Alex can you explain me with a few words the Swiss MOT?

Thank you

You don't want to have to do anything with them.-

Stunning car mate!

Hi Graham.

As suggested by Monkey, I took the radiator out and drained it.
Then I boiled some water and with the radiator on the floor I filled it up with the hot water.
Cold spots are visible then and you can feel with your hand if all the surface is hot or if there any cold spots.
Mine had a 40% space that was completely cold, which indicates that the water was not flowing there.
It's down to age really. A 10 year old radiator will wear out.

18-08-2014
 

So a small update.

The AP Racing kit had to removed from the car, as well as the fantastic Ohlins TTX suspension.
So the OEM brakes are back, along with some Goodridge brake lines and Mintex M1144 pads.
I used ATE racing blue brake fluid this time, for a change.
I also changed again the oil and oil filter.
The pads squeal like hell (like the RS29 on OEM calipers), which I somehow knew from my Z3 coupe.

I also bought a KW clubsport suspension.
Nice bit of kit and I like the way it drives.
Lacks a bit in damping compared to the Ohlins, but it's fully homologated for Switzerland :banghead:

Here a photo of the kit.
http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/20140812_232121.jpg

And a photo of the car now.
I lowered it one more cm, so it's 2 cm lower than OEM now.
http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/20140816_140244.jpg

I will test it at the track next Saturday.
Looking forward to it.
Let's place bets if the brakes won't be able to cope :hahaha:

Looking Great ALEX:thumbs:

Looks amazing Alex

CSL
 

Alex

car is stunning

Epic wheels

Coach work looks amazing. What's your secret to keeping the nose so pristine?

Thanks guys.

The nose is not pristine at all.
It has many stone chips.

31.08.2014
 

So yesterday I went to the track, again at Anneau Du Rhin in a time attack event organised by Speed Industries http://www.speed-industries.ch/wordp...-attack-serie/

Let's start with the most important things.
Water temperature issue, SOLVED
We had up to 32C yesterday, the water temp didn't move from the middle at all.
The oil temperature was steady at 110C. I personally never had high oil temperature.

Impressions from the suspension.
Very good. I feel it lacks in high speed damping compared to the Ohlins but I managed to beat easily my best laptime, even with the OEM shit brakes.
Comparing the telemetry data, I have same cornering speed in every corner compared to the Ohlins.
Overall happy with the suspension.
I have the latest version and I found that the settings that I liked more were +3 bound/rebound in the front and +4 bound +8 rebound rear.
I didn't fiddle more with the suspension as it takes some time and I wanted to focus on the driving.

Impressions from the OEM brakes with Mintex M1144.
Fecking hell ! SCARY. Twice I had a ' I have no brakes moment '.
It is a shock after using AP Racing.
Ordering my Brembo kit this week !

Laptimes etc.
I beat my best laptime there and I also got 1st place in the RWD street category.
Best lap of the day measured by the transponders 1:27.07 while the one measured by my telemetry 1:26.4 (it has different start/end point).
I am really surprised to be honest that I managed this, as the brakes were not up to the job.
Also, comparing laptimes in the site serious-racing.com with someone with a 997 GT3 RS, I see that he is faster by 10km/h in every straight, but surprisingly I have higher speed in every corner of the track.
Makes you wonder what the CSL could do with the P54 engine and genuine 420BHP.:whistle:
Note: I don't drive the CSL at it's absolute limit as I don't want to bin it.

Here you can see a 1:27.7 lap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2K86Wdg83c


And a few photos.

http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/20140830_175528.jpg

What was BMW thinking ???

http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/20140830_105530.jpg

The cups were working perfect with the suspension and geometry.

http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/20140830_161333.jpg

And one on the way home with a lot of gravel pickup

http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/20140830_181647.jpg

alex


fantastic that you've solved the overheating.

also that you beat you fastest laptimes. the brakes when working will still stop you just as quick as the APs as apparently its all limited by tyre grip, AP just give you that consistently.

any ideas why your times were better, maybe more confidence with the suspension and pushing on a bit more or just getting braver with age?

Very nice pictures and video.

The modulation the APs offer cannot be compared with the OEM ones.
A few times I was over-braking and many times I had to brake very fast as I was not confident they will stop me.

It is the 3rd time I am on a track with an aftermarket suspension.
The 1st time was last year with the Ohlins on dry track. Then I did a second trackday with the Ohlins in the same racetrack but it was freezing cold and raining, so I was drifting.
The 3rd time was yesterday so I am getting used to the extra grip a proper suspension is offering versus the OEM one.

22.10.2014
 

One more update about my favorite vehicle.

If you remember, I was going to change my brakes to the brembo version that has CH homologation.
So after some waiting, the brake kit arrived.
I got only the front brake kit.
It is the 1M2.9001A5 which means it's the Brembo GT kit for the E46 M3 with monobloc 6-piston yellow calipers, slotted discs of 385x32mm size.
The kit was beautifully packaged and with the necessary Goodridge braided hoses.
The documentation is very good and everything fits perfect.
The build quality is much better than the AP Racing kit, but then again it costs double the money :banghead:

What is interesting is the weight. They are very light considering how big they are.

The caliper and pads are just 5.2 kg

http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/20141001_175335.jpg

While the massive disc is just 9.5 kg

http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/20141001_175713.jpg

Here the OEM CSL disc vs the brembo one

http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/20141004_094357.jpg

Here fitted

http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/20141004_150305.jpg

The dimensions of the pistons of these massive calipers are spot on and the fluid capacity is very close to the OEM calipers.
The brake pedal travel and feel is simply perfect !

I am very happy with them.
The wheels just about clear the calipers in the spokes and the rim.
It seems like the wheels were designed to clear them !

http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/20141004_161444.jpg

http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/20141004_161508.jpg

Then I tried them at the track.
I am running the stock brembo pads and rear Mintex M1144 pads on the OEM brakes.
They are fantastic.
I will upgrade the pads for getting the extra stopping power :thumbs:

And some photos from the beautiful Alsace in France, close to the racetrack... sunset time.

http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/20141013_185401.jpg

http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/20141013_185520.jpg

http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/20141013_185546.jpg

Very :smokin: BREMBOs :beer:
Any plans to fit the rear BREMBO callipers to match the fronts, in the near future ?

I don't see the need right now Matt.
The brake balance is very good at the moment.
BMW is doing the same in the M series, big 6 piston in the front and single piston rears. Work fine in the M5.

What you say makes sense :thumbs: and it seems to work well on the current generation of M cars but do keep an eye on your rear pad wear as when I did my Porsche BREMBO conversion starting with only the fronts at first, I noticed the wear rate of my rear pads was 2-3 sets of rear pads for every one set of the fronts. This is why soon after fitting the fronts I added the rear BREMBOs :beer: Since then the pad wear rate has evened out to a ration of 1:1, front to rear.

Nice work...

I have noticed with AP's on front back brakes are over heating and wearing down quicker and that was even in the wet.

What Matt says makes sense because the rear pad surface is smaller therefore more material will be used.
The AP setup has rear discs with the same dimensions to the OEM discs (i was running my OEM discs).
I haven't seen a problem now and with rear pads at 1/4 of brembo rear pads, i will leave it like this for now.

Hi,

thanks for the info.

What is the weight of the oem front disc in kg ?

A video from last year :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeTH5Tk1j2w

Nice work dude...

I had a great day yesterday at Monza.

I did 4 30-minute sessions :)

Here is a video of my fastest lap of the day :thumbs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2AM7tK1Zlo

great lap Alex, a damn sight faster than my quickest lap in 2008.

Great lap. May I ask which telemetry setup is that ?

shimmy > thanks mate. I can go even faster but the pads (currently the road-friendly pads) didn't give me so much confidence. Nevertheless in 3 braking points I hit the brakes at 100m :thumbs:

clubber > It is the RaceChrono Pro. I am using it since years with a bluetooth 10Hz receiver (Qstarz BT818X).
I was condidering to get the racelogic 20Hz BT unit but the position accuracy is worse than the one I currently have.

I just realized it is for androids. I use an iPhone 6 with my Harry's Lap timer app, although having difficulty overlaying OBD info. Which obd reader do you use ?

I use obd key http://www.obdkey.com/

And a few photos now :)

http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/1084...49335070_o.jpg


http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/1095...10639977_o.jpg


http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/1107...68463111_o.jpg


http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/1108...60131092_o.jpg


http://www.clubcsl.com/CSL/blog/1109...97236166_o.jpg

Great shot :smokin: (and lap) Alex :supz: which reminds me to ask... how did your new BREMBO brake set up perform ?

Great photos Alex :thumbs:

Matt there was a mistake done by brembo for their racing pads and I went with the road sporty pads the brakes came with.
Surprisingly I survived although the confidence was not great and of course the pads got destroyed. On the way back there was hardly any front braking.

Interesting fact.
My rear Mintex M1144 pads lost 5mm of material in these 40 laps or so that I did.

Annoying fact of the day about the Kw clubsport suspension.
In order to change rear pads you need to unbolt the rear dampers.
Epic fail!

What?! Which KW CS version do you have as i do not have this issue! :smt102

The new version (2014).
Mind you my rear calipers are OEM, you have AP Racing.

That's an impressively low wear rate for the rear pads in OE callipers :thumbs: I guess the front BREMBOs were very busy munching the soft pads ;)

It seems odd KW overlooked the OE rear brake set up with their CS kit. :banghead: Did you manage to undo just the bottom bolt and swing the rear shock out of the way enough to change your rear pads ? I bet you miss your old OHLINS set up :bigcry:

Yes Matt. I miss the Ohlins especially when I go to the track.
The Ohlins as a race suspension was dead easy to adjust. Just crawl under. Job done.

The Kw needs a jack, lift the car etc etc.

Swiss MOT. Its the way it is.