[eforty6_m3]

Listen, I'm no baller and don't have these crazy, epic builds like I see on these forums. Now don't get me wrong, I respect and love the hell out of such builds. But I recently bought a house and got married, so I'm slowly paying my way out of debt. So my mods are few and far between. And said mods are typically of the lower cost variety.....ballin' on a budget is my motto.



Hopefully some of you enjoy it. There are no half naked women, rolling shots, or $5000 wheels. It's just me and some fellow BMW enthusiasts.

Now, 56k users beware, as there are a ton of pictures in this thread.

Over the course of the winter, I was able to accumulate a few things. Namely, the following:

Exhaust



EEEK, GASP, DA FAQ?!

Yes, I went with the M2 based on a few different factors. Namely, budget. I did a ton of research on the M2 and read some good, some bad. For me, taking into account the price, the good outweighed the bad. I figured at the very least, I'm swapping in a lighter, stainless steel exhaust and could always modify it later on if the notorious drone ended up being too much for me.

The price I paid made it well worth the risk. Ebay score!



Spacers
(not pictured, 15mm Macht Schnell spacers, which I sourced from a fellow e90post member)

Picked these up from Sonic Tuning, who, at the time, was offering a great deal on their spacers.







Stud Conversion Kit

Did a bunch of research and decided to ultimately go with Ryan's hardware. Didn't hurt that they had a huge spread in an issue of Performance BMW, either. Can't say enough about the service and options that Ryan provides. Dude is A+ all day!

This stuff is almost too sexy to want to install.































Sunglasses Holder






























Exhaust Install

Got the exhaust in January and since I live in Massachusetts, I needed to wait for a "decent" day to install it. This, was that decent day.









Where the hell am I gonna store this? Thanks BMW for making this easy...




Laying all the pieces out, put together like a puzzle






And she's on...fitting like a champ!










Walnut Shell Blasting

So aside from the aforementioned parts, I had to make sure the N54 was running smooth. And at 81k miles and being fairly certain the PO (who passed onto me detailed service records) never had this done, I took advantage of Phi's awesome deal. The dealership wanted to charge me over 2x what Phi was charging. Eff that!

Since the blasting, my throttle response is definitely improved, as is the idle. No more hard shudders or shakes at idle. I've very happy with the results and I'll definitely get this done again in another 50k miles. Preventative maintenance FTW!

Here are the photos I took that day:

On the lift









Before











After











Where the magic happens




Wastegate Rattle

Seeing how close I was to the 82k mile cutoff for the wastegate rattle extended warranty, I emailed my service advisor at BMW of Warwick and scheduled a pick up for my car. It had already been in once before for the rattle, so it had a documented history. And a few hours later, I got some great news...my service advisor emailed me back and said the turbos had been ordered and she would be in touch in a few days.

Funny enough, the car was done and returned to me 3 days later, on my birthday!

No photos of that service, but here is one of the F30 loaner I had:






BMW Day

A few guys I work with and I try to get together early each spring for a "BMW Day". But really, it's more of an excuse to get together and bullshit, talk cars, smoke cigars and drink some beers!

This year, BMW Day took place on April 13th at my place. Here are a shitload of photos I took. In all, there were 4 BMW's in the driveway (though there were 5 up until my wife left to run errands). My E90 and E30 beater, my buddy Mike's e46 and my buddy Jay's e39.

For me, it was finally time to swap out my winter wheels and get into summer mode. So on went the spacers, stud conversion kit, I lowered the suspension all around and threw on the 162's!

Before this took place, however, we had some fun with the spacers and Mike's e46 (who was also swapping on his summer wheels). Pretty sure Mike and Jay now both want spacers for their respective cars.


Mike's 330i in winter mode...15mm spacer up front and 20mm in the rear.


Spacers


Tucked, no spacers


Rear view, no spacers


Rear view, spacers










Spacers with summer wheels on


























Finally got to open one of my xmas gifts from my sister. Wheel tree from ECSTuning.




Jay's style 42's...nice, clean wheels




































My beater...needs a starter replaced and a new hard line in the rear and she should be ready to take over some of the daily duties of my e90.




Pretty damn flush with the 15mm spacers up front. Pumped! No more tuck, cheahhhh!


Even with Mike and Jay in the backseat (each weighing over 200lbs), no rubbing in the rears. Was a little concerned that I'd rub being lowered with 20mm spacers, but I think I'm golden!




How she sits, without any settling, after adjusting the coilovers down. Might need to bring the front down a bit more, but overall, pretty happy with where she's at.



Once everyone left, I relocated to the deck and sat my ass down and relaxed for a bit. Cigar in hand, Sixpoint Hi-Res (amazing, for all you IPA fans!) and tunes blasting, with my dog somewhere nearby.


While sitting on the deck, I realized I had never climbed to the top of the swingset. May have been the beer talking, but I ventured up and took a POV shot. Mind you, the PO's left the swingset behind. We don't have kids yet, so this hardly ever gets used.



In summary...
Now that the exhaust has been on for a few months now and had a chance to break in, I can finally say that I am super happy with my purchase. The drone was present for the first few weeks but seems to have gone away as the exhaust has broken in more and more. The only complaint I have (as well as other people) is with the tips. They're huge, which I don't mind, but they're single-walled. I might end up buying double-walled, angled tips from Dimisa or Cyba over the summer and having a local exhaust shop weld them on. But for now, I can deal.

The exhaust sounds excellent and has a great throaty tone to it. At WOT in 2nd and 3rd gear, it sounds like pure sex. And when rolling around (5mph, more or less) in parking lots, the popping and throaty sound are exactly what I was hoping for.

All in all, money well spent.

[JesseJames]

Nice build thread

[buster84]

Originally Posted by onebamf335i

Where the hell am I gonna store this? Thanks BMW for making this easy...

Hang it to the top of your garage. That seems like the simplest place to put it. Or if you already have storage up there hang it on the wall as decoration

Originally Posted by JesseJames

Nice build thread

[mashimarho]

Not sure what you're talking about. I don't have a crazy build thread.

[dhurng]

im like 95% confused about what i just saw..but great build so far! maybe post up pics of your wife?

[eforty6_m3]

Originally Posted by JesseJames

Nice build thread

Everyone loves a comedian!

[QUOTE=buster84;15854524]Hang it to the top of your garage. That seems like the simplest place to put it. Or if you already have storage up there hang it on the wall as decoration

The ceiling in the garage is super low, so not sure that's a viable option. Might see if I can hang it on the wall in my parents garage, which is a huge, 2 car addition on their house.

Originally Posted by mashimarho

Not sure what you're talking about. I don't have a crazy build thread.

Haha something tells me you're being sarcastic. I'll have to check out your threads sometime.

Originally Posted by david hurng

im like 95% confused about what i just saw..but great build so far! maybe post up pics of your wife?

HA, what's so hard to understand?!

Basically just summing up what I've done to my car over the winter. Parts I purchased, service/maintenance it received, etc. Rather than do it all separately, I combined them into one non-build thread.

Regardless, thanks for looking.

Oh and ask and you shall receive..here's a photo from my wedding:

[#Tee]

love it...!

[stieny]

Love the "budget baller" thread. Car looks great.

I am getting married in a few weeks so, excluding my already installed PPK S1, my mod budget is limited to about zero.

But, I have convinced the soon-to-be wife to let me pick up a S1kR after the wedding since I sold my R1, so I guess that's a victory in itself.

Oh, sixpoint is awesome stuff. My favorite is Resin.

[RaceTruk]

I didn't think the m2 exhaust ever had drone.
I just think it sounded like a riced up civic, tips looked cheap especially with the rain hole at the norton that was visible, and it rusted fast.
Main problem was the sound for me, which only got slightly better with downpipes.
In the end I thought muffler delete sounded better for a "budget" exhaust mod.
Congrats though, nice build

[Game]

Wow that's a lot of pics. I don't think I've ever seen more detailed pics of lugs before.

Good luck with the BUILD!

[Eat.Sleep.Race]

nice!!!

[bimmette]

Wow, yeah that was a ton of pics! But good job! I like low-budget!

[Sidewinderpb]

Good man. Solid thread. We want moar beard!

[BlkD12agon]

Awesome man.

[SMH]

Nice work!

[TopBack_Mack]

Looking good. Your build is coming along

[Reckless335]

Where did you source the sunglass holder from? I need one of those asap.

[JoeyBananaz18]

Looks like that budget is working for you. Looks really great!

[scotty_miller]

Looking good! Nothing wrong with being smart about your money....But seriously something about the e39 chassis will always have that soft spot in my heart

[StealYourFace]

Nice.

Some slightly smaller diameter exhaust tips would look great. Nice ride, I've had my 330i for 5 years and I still occasionally think I should get a 335i.

[Bangarang_Rufio]

Fully enjoyed reading that. Nothing wrong with a little comedy. Then a dude asks you for a pic of you wife just messin around and you post one. You got my respect lol

[Knobi]

Nice work! Your car looks exactly like my old E90, gotta love the Sparkling Graphite Metallic with the 162's. Keep up the good work