Damo's E86 for road and track - New upgrades incoming!

Recently bought a car that's been on this forum for the past 10 years or so. Originally owned by Roundozo, then by JamieZ4c before being sold recently to GWest44 and then to me. I bought the car unseen whilst on holiday but my pal test drove it for me so knew it was fairly straight.

As a bit of background I've been searching for a fun car to drive that handle track days and be fun on the road. I used to have a clubsport spec V8 M3 which was wonderful on the road and track but the running costs of the thirsty V8 started to become a pain. Since then I've had a couple of other cars which seemed to fit the bill but were lacking one thing....RWD. After driving my mates 130i at Bedford recently I decided to find a Z4 Coupe which could be used on track.

M3 build can be seen here: https://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/threads/cheap-e92-m3-for-road-and-track.259123/

A few weeks ago the car I am in today came up for sale and I snapped it up. Spec as I bought it is as follows from the advert:

2006 Z4 E86 3.0si
It's the sport model, and benefits from a Bilstein B12 kit. The water pump, clutch & DMF have all been replaced and the wheels are Style 32's from an E46 that have the identical staggered 18" set up to the original style 108 wheels.
One of only 34 UK cars with the triple black spec of Sapphire Black exterior, Oregon black interior and Piano lacquer dash. It's had lots of work done over the years including:
Electric water pump replaced
Handbrake shoes replaced
HID kit installed
Bilstein B12 kit fitted (shocks and springs)
Front and rear anti roll bar bushes replaced with Superpro bushes
Front and rear drop links replaced, Meyle HD
RTAB replaced
All four top mounts replaced
Upgraded Meyle HD wishbones fitted
Polly bushed front control arms
De-badged
Aux kit installed
Stubby aerial
Ram air scoop
Black kidney grills
Clutch and DMF replaced
CDV delete
Prop shaft doughnut replaced
Gearbox mounts replaced
Gearbox oil changed
Diff oil changed
Style 32 lightweight alloys
New boot (BMW corrosion warranty)
Drilled and Grooved Disks all round
Copper painted callipers
Headlight washers replaced
LED sidelights
LED Number plate lights

The last service was an inspection II carried out about 2000 miles ago by a BMW specialist so everything appears to be in good working order from a filters/plugs point of view.

There is some significant rust on the rear panels which will get sorted in time but to be honest I want to get the mechanicals all correct first.

First thing to do was to get it home and detail it. It was washed, clayed and single-stage polished by DA before a coat of spray sealant applied.

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

Then I thought I better see what I'm working with so set about cleaning under the front arches and washing the engine as there is a fairly significant oil leak from somewhere. This has also been highlighted by oil reading dropping by three squares in the first 1000 miles of me driving it.

Before
Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

After
Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

Before
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After
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The major leak was from the oil filler cap, with oil accumulating in the valve cover recesses. So i cleaned this, bent the prongs on the cap and reseated it.

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr


So far, so good, that's one leak fixed.

It also appears to be leaking from the oil cooler and filter housing so new gaskets are on order along with gaskets for the valvetronic and some other thing I can't name. I need to get under the car to check the state of the sump gasket and will do so ASAP.

I've also noticed movement in the front suspension, upon further inspection it would appear that both front top mounts are severely cracked so new ones have been ordered to replace those.

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

Also, I am trying to narrow down some clunks and bangs from the back when pulling away. The first one was the battery hadn't been tied down and is the wrong size sliding around in the tray, the other one seems to be coming from the diff but I will confirm ASAP.

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

So far I'm enjoying the car, it's great fun to drive, although the EPS is pretty pants. I covered 500 miles in it over the past two days and it's not the most comfortable car for me. The seat is as far back as it can go without squeaking on the plastics and the pedals are still too close to me to be comfortable. Defo some more remedial work to complete to get it up to my standard mechanically but that's kind of par for the course with buying a secondhand car I guess.

Plans for the car change on a daily basis but at the moment it will be the following hopefully fairly quickly:

Plated 1.5 way LSD with lower FD
Brake pads, fluid and lines upgraded
Coilovers
Square setup of wheels and tyres with semi-slicks
Induction kit and remap
Track alignment

Currently the wheels are up for sale to fund the next set.

I'll try to keep this updated as best as possible

Good to see another build thread on the forum

As a serial Coupe owner I'm looking forward to seeing future updates on your project.

They seem to be quite a popular choice for road and track use, and Liam22 has his E86 race car!

You mention a square set of wheels. SE models came with square 17s which might be a cheaper option for tyres than 18s, although another forum member with an E85 bought a set of E89 Style 290 17s from me recently for track use as the ET29 offset sits them much further out in the arches.

Anyway good luck getting it how you want it.

1536Z4 said:

Good to see another build thread on the forum

Click to expand...

There seems to be a few for sure, although it won't be anywhere near to the standard of your build. I read through your thread the other day, awesome attention to detail!

Mr Tidy said:

As a serial Coupe owner I'm looking forward to seeing future updates on your project.

They seem to be quite a popular choice for road and track use, and Liam22 has his E86 race car!

You mention a square set of wheels. SE models came with square 17s which might be a cheaper option for tyres than 18s, although another forum member with an E85 bought a set of E89 Style 290 17s from me recently for track use as the ET29 offset sits them much further out in the arches.

Anyway good luck getting it how you want it.

Click to expand...

Thanks! Yeah I can see why they are becoming popular, the starting weight, power, layout and price is a killer combo if you want to track day on the cheap.

I'll be trying to stick to 18's tbh, I want a more "arrive and drive" setup rather than karting spare wheels or compromising the car if I can avoid it.

First few parts have started to arrive

• Front top mounts

• Oil filter housing and cooler gasket

• New oil filter

• 5w40 oil

Managed to get my top mounts changed today, first time doing them and went with my mates "no spring compressor method" It was a bit fiddly getting the damper rod back in but I managed it without taking the strut off the car. By using the weight of the car to compress the spring it was fairly easy even for a first-timer like me.

Top mounts were not only cracked but the bearings were showing

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

Crazy to say they are only 30,000 miles old

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

Taken the car for a drive and its much less harsh now over bumps with virtually no bangs/movement at all. Although, its a pretty terrible design for a top mount using all that rubber. I'd prefer something with less deflection for sure.

Also, my new enclosed air filter turned up. I've decided to have a go at making my own induction kit, I'll obviously post the results here after some testing

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

Good progress, you’re not losing any time

Micke said:

Good progress, you’re not losing any time

Click to expand...

Ha ha, yeah, I'd rather crack on whilst in the honeymoon period

On to the next couple of jobs....oil leaks

My Elring Valvtronic gasket and Eccentric Shaft gasket turned up yesterday so I set about changing them. Both very easy jobs.

Th eccentric shaft sensor gasket was actually fine with no tears and no oil on the sensor but I changed it anyway for peace of mind.





New gasket fitted




The valvetronic gasket was clearly leaking!



Not sure if you can see but there was oil building up in the crevices of the valve cover



All cleaned up and refitted, I also cleaned under the coil pack wiring as it was covered on oil and gunk




Hopefully this weekend I'll get chance to sort some other job before getting to the fun stuff. Think I've also decided to check the CCV after reading up on them.

B12 suspension is working loads better with the top mounts but its up for sale now as it might be time to crack on the the really exciting stuff

Interested to see what coilovers you go for. Tempted on mine.

paul__mck said:

Interested to see what coilovers you go for. Tempted on mine.

Click to expand...

I've used a few brands over the years everything from BC's up to KW Clubsports with custom spring rates on my M3, going slightly off-piste with the next ones but aiming to keep this a budget build so won't be anything crazy.

I'll share some details once they are here

damocell said:

going slightly off-piste with the next ones but aiming to keep this a budget build so won't be anything crazy.

Click to expand...

Definitely looking forward to this and a review of them

Got on to the oil filter housing gasket and oil cooler gasket change yesterday. I'd planned to take loads of pictures detailing the process.....but got covered in oil and completely forgot to take any, whoops

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

Oh well, at least now its got a fresh filter and some lovely 5w40 oil running through it. The oil that came out was surprisingly quite black to say it was changed approx. 3000 miles ago

Also gave it another bath....again.

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

nice work, keep it up. :wink:

A few goodies have turned up this week

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

First and easiest to fit was the clutch stop from Rob's Clutch Stop Shop

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

Simple unscrew the old one from the footwell

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

And then screw the new one in place

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

Only thing is, the clutch on my ca engages right at the very top of the pedal. Almost within the first few cm of travel so I could probably do with a 20cm long clutch stop ha ha. Might take them up on their offer of a free replacement.

Untitled by Damien Bower, on Flickr

I've been missing DAB radio and Spotify/Soundcloud in the Z4, so next up was to fix the lack of Bluetooth streaming in the car. I've realised my car does come with Bluetooth for my phone but it takes ages to connect and obvs doesn't support music streaming.

Bought an adaptor for £15.99 from Amazon that was recommended to my by someone on FB, it also had a mic input



Fitment was relatively straightforward, remove the quad lock and place this on inline, then plug the mic in



I mounted the mic on the A pillar but have only tucked the wires out of sight so I can test the location first



Also, in much more fun news, I've mocked up my home made enclosed intake, seems to fit just right with the inlet meeting the outlet for the front bumper air ducting. Not totally pleased with how the pipe fits the throttle body but I have a solution for that. No testing just yet but once I'm happy with it I'll try to do some back-to-back testing using 100-200 data to see if there is a difference.

Your cracking on with this

I've realised that since changing the oil filter housing/cooler gaskets I have a small coolant leak. This turned out to be the culprit:



Managed to get a replacement from a local hardware company but it appears to be ever so slightly too big and I can't refit the pipe, had to order a new one from BMW. Wish I'd just replaced it first time

The Z4 took a backseat the past few weeks as I had a family emergency and had to fly to Dubai for a bit, but I'm back now so we can continue!

Little update on my intake system, it appears to be working well. I haven't managed to test it yet with some performance figures but the throttle response feels better, its louder outside but quieter in the cabin (can't stand the droney noise generator thing anyway). IAT's are the same as stock when moving. When on song the N52 now sounds amazing, plus the midrange flat spot has gone. The butt dyno seems to think its at least the same if not a little quicker so its here to stay if only for the sound alone.

More goodies have turned up whilst I was away:

BIMECC stud and nut kit
20mm spacers
Front and rear EBC Bluestuff pads
Wezmoto stainless brake lines
RBF600 brake fluid
2 x 255x35r18 Zestino Gredge 07RS tyres

No time like the present....onto the stud and nut kit plus spacers

Hubs were cleaned, studs torqued correctly with green thread locker applied and left to set for about 16 hours before torquing the nuts down.



Spacers are an absolute must on these car in my opinion.

Before





After





Looks so much better and so far, no rubbing issues.

Got at trackday at Anglesey coming up on the 14th October so cracked on with the brakes......



Love these Wezmoto brake lines with longer rear lines to remove the 2 separate stock lines

Started on the rear drivers but had a few issues with the brake pipe so decided to leave it for another day.



Good job I did as the passenger rear nipple had been handled by a gorilla and was rounded, plus I managed to snap the nipple on the passenger front caliper....two new calipers have been ordered. But at least I go the Bluestuff pads fitted.

Will sort the pipes, calipers and fluid this week. Plus I need to order some matching front tyres.

I was going to go for a square setup but decided to keep costs down by sticking with staggered for now and spend more money in the future on the LSD.