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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - New Windscreen

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Vanne
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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - INTRAX….!

Post by Vanne » Sat Jul 03, 2021 5:06 am

It's weird how track stuff like CS has little warranty, while if you buy a porker, drive it from the showroom to the track and proceed to blow up the engine/car, it's completely warranted on track.. that I guess just goes to show you what a great product that is.

There a set of racing KWs for sale in your part of the world, but your looking at 5k pounds used..

Both will go for 600us. They are in awesome nick. Only 5 track days on these. Obviously comes with the whole hardware/springs etc..

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Replaced them with these custom jobbies..

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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - INTRAX….!

Post by sixspeed » Sun Jul 04, 2021 9:09 pm

BMWZ4MC wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 11:00 am
sixspeed wrote: Mon Jun 28, 2021 10:34 pm …I'm a bit fed up with my KW Clubsports (I have to keep rebuilding the rears).....
Andy, how have the problems with your rear dampers manifested? As I mentioned a page or two back, one of my rear dampers started leaking at c 35k miles and I’m hoping that won’t become a recurring theme given your comments.
Well I had a rear leaking damper almost from new. It was so early in their life that KW actually gave me a replacement set (despite them not being "warrantied"). That has actually been useful, as I've had a spare set to send off and have rebuilt ready to go on.

I think from then they lasted quite some time tbf, but eventually that second set blew (probably after about 60k miles though - at a rough guess). I then sent both sets off for rebuilding (Cornering Force), and have gone through both pairs a second time as we speak. A few weeks ago I swapped over the rear shocks again for what is now the 5th innings.

They were fairly low before, and I've raised the suspension slightly at the last geo (where I discovered the shocks were blown again). So let's see if that makes any difference.
Last edited by sixspeed on Sun Jul 04, 2021 9:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - INTRAX….!

Post by sixspeed » Sun Jul 04, 2021 9:11 pm

Ed Doe wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:04 pm Andy, I'm based in Guildford and have a set of intrax 1k2s fitted, albeit they're a few years since last serviced. You're welcome to have a poke around the car and come for a spin and feel what they're like if you want :)
Not far from me then, that would be great! Once the weather dries up again, I'll take you up on that. I'll drop you a PM.

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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - INTRAX….!

Post by Mikey_Boy » Wed Dec 01, 2021 4:48 pm

Time for a long overdue update! Its been a pretty busy and expensive time for my Z4, but those of you following this thread will know, my car is very much a keeper and I’ve always been a believer in preventative maintenance… :thumbsup:

So, first up, fitting a carbon airbox - I’ve always loved these and the sound they make. I’ve always thought the idea of a ‘Z4 CSL’ was an opportunity missed by BMW and I’ve interpreted it hopefully pretty well with my car gaining bucket seats and big brakes.

Looking at the market it was clear to me that Karbonious made a super product and inspired by threads on here, I though I’d give fitting it a crack myself. If you take your time with several cups of tea, this is a pretty easy job and a great chance to learn a bit about your car. One thing to look out for is the joining rubber hoses between the airbox and the throttle bodies - these changed design part way through the S54 engine production so best to be sure which ones to get for your carbon airbox - I replaced all the rubbers hoses and retaining clips with new OEM.
The following pics give some idea of the process - job took me a morning to complete taking my time:
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All in all a lovely bit of kit!! :thumbsup:

I have installed a map from Randy at Epic motorsports which has worked really well out of the box.

And of course the noise is worth every single penny. Quiet a cruise, but when you let rip, it’s glorious!!!! :D

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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - INTRAX….!

Post by beanie » Wed Dec 01, 2021 5:29 pm

Excellent! You can’t beat an airboxed S54. 8)
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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - INTRAX….!

Post by RedUn » Thu Dec 02, 2021 1:31 am

Karbonius is the way forward! Bet that sounds lovely :evil:
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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - INTRAX….!

Post by Beedub » Thu Dec 02, 2021 7:49 am

such a good thread. my fave on the forum. Glad your here mikey!
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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - INTRAX….!

Post by Mikey_Boy » Thu Dec 02, 2021 11:31 am

Thanks Beedub! :thumbsup:

That’s really kind of you - more obscure ramblings to come… :D

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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - INTRAX….!

Post by Mikey_Boy » Thu Dec 02, 2021 11:34 am

Next up - catalyst - after running the airbox for a while, I was a bit miffed when come MOT time, the car failed on emissions… Yikes! After quite a bit of digging wondering if the map was OK or other horror stories in my head or, it was found that one brick in the (original, 13 year old) catalyst was loose. Weighing up options, the OEM catalyst was one of the cheaper options so I went for that figuring it’ll last at least another 10 - 15 years:
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After this, I wanted a bit more exhaust noise to compliment the intake noise - I have used Supersprint exhausts before on other BMWs and have been really impressed with them so bought an X pipe and rear boxes to make the rear end of the car look a bit tougher. As always, the quality is superb and no droning or excess noise inside but a deeper burble outside, especially at idle - a really nice improvement over the standard system which is pretty decent anyway - shiny pipes below!!
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At this stage I know I’m annoying the purists but hopefully some of you appreciate why I’m doing this…! :poke:

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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - INTRAX….!

Post by Beedub » Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:02 pm

ive got 100 CELL race cats.... fails the MOT every single year, such a pain in the ass :cry:

Love the new pipes! youve really created something special here mikey..... like myself weve invested so heavily, and created something such high performance i now find i can afford its replacement and im stuck here unless i want to spend 100k plus!!!
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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - INTRAX….!

Post by Ed Doe » Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:17 pm

Beedub wrote: Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:02 pm ive got 100 CELL race cats.... fails the MOT every single year, such a pain in the ass :cry:

Love the new pipes! youve really created something special here mikey..... like myself weve invested so heavily, and created something such high performance i now find i can afford its replacement and im stuck here unless i want to spend 100k plus!!!
I've also got 100cell race cats too with the same issue, they only really work when roasting hot!

Op, forget what the purists think, it's your car - I reckon it's awesome 8)
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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - INTRAX….!

Post by Mikey_Boy » Fri Dec 03, 2021 12:55 pm

On some levels, I’m happy to hear that others have been having emissions issues….. :? I was surprised how cheap (relatively) the OEM catalyst was from a dealer. Thankfully, it sorted the emissions issue straight away :thumbsup:

Thank you again for the kind words - as BeeDub rightly says, what do you replace a Z4 with? It’s something I have wrestled with for a while now - I love the idea of a Porsche GT4, but I can’t justify the money sat in my garage or the risk of someone taking me out on a trackday.

The Z4 is soooooo much fun and a really rare sight these days and so much potential to take a good car and make it great for not an enormous amount of cash.

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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - INTRAX….!

Post by Mikey_Boy » Fri Dec 03, 2021 1:00 pm

So - the last update…. Change of suspension from Bilstein to Intrax!!

Those of you who have read the whole thread will know I have had a decent re-work of the existing suspension from OEM to Bilstein that has served me extremely well, using loads of help on here - thank you again Exdos!!

Just to be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Bilstein suspension - it’s served me very well on road and track (and yes, the spring and damper kit is coming up for sale!). I wanted to go to the next level of springs and dampers and see what all the fuss was about.

In short, the Intrax suspension is fantastic. I answered a few questions from the Intrax folks on the car and it’s intended use so they could tailor the package. It’s a little controversial, but I asked for the springs and dampers to be set up for use with 19” wheels as I am running OEM CSL wheels on the road and 19” Apex ARC-8 for track work so I will be selling my OEM 18” 224s soon as well… :thumbsup:

The quality of the damping is phenomenal and that translates into a super ride quality on the road. Where the Bilstein has 10 clicks of adjustment, the Intrax has 50 clicks so you could play all day. It doesn’t turn your Z4M into a Citroen for a pillowy smooth ride, but what it does do is smooth out a lot of the bumps at lower speeds where the Bilstein suspension could sometimes be a bit crashy and keeps high speed composure too. The anti roll (ARC) is something like black magic honestly with the car staying extremely flat during cornering.
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The only 2 disappointments on the Intrax being:

1. No brackets for the brake lines and sensor wiring - quite a surprise honestly. In fairness, I didn’t ask about this when I ordered and once I noticed, I quickly made up a couple of brackets for the job.
2. Adjustment for the rear dampers is awkward as it’s on top of the damper in the rear wheel arch - I have bought a scissor jack to raise the car up to get access to this

I had the suspension installed and set up at a company called Suspension Secrets near Knutsford - extremely knowledgeable and helpful on the set up which is now as follows:

Front Camber: -2.7 degrees
Front Toe: 0.5mm toe in
Front Right Castor: -8 degrees
Front Left Castor: -8.5 degrees
(No more pulling to the left!! Hurrah! The guys at suspension secrets confirmed that the GT4 teams had this castor difference side to side)

Rear Camber: -1.8 degrees
Rear Toe: 1mm toe in
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I have yet to try this set up on track but it feels very tight on the road so looking forward to getting some decent miles done after the salty winter months are behind us…

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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - INTRAX….!

Post by Beedub » Fri Dec 03, 2021 1:15 pm

mikey , please consider put the strut tower reinforcement plates in , ive seen with my own eyes at my shop a few track suspended z4 where the strut tower tops have deformed due to the smaller foot print of the new top mount concentrating load and ballooning the tower. its really cheap insurance , car looks SO special. what a thing you've created here.
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A few bits and pieces and a trip to Spa - INTRAX….!

Post by Mikey_Boy » Fri Dec 03, 2021 2:37 pm

Thanks Beedub :thumbsup:
It’s why I went for a separate spring and damper set up from Intrax at the rear - you can’t see it in the pictures, but there’s a large lovely titanium mounting plate on top of the damper - hopefully that should be enough?

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