2005 E85 3.0i Project

JaxMoneyPit

New member
Hey All

New member here in northeast Florida. Purchased a manual, six-speed E85 2005 3.0i in June of last year for $8500. Typical things wrong with it but it only had 75K miles and a Vortech supercharger on it so I thought it might be a fun project. Been working out all the bugs on it for the past six months as it seems like it has not been very well maintained. So I thought I would detail out that journey here and see if folks from the forum might want to weigh in on how I can keep this thing in good shape for the next five years or so.

One thing to note: this is not a track car. This is my daily driver and I use it to commute to work everyday so I am putting about 250 miles on it each week.

So here's where I am at it:

1) JB Racing Aluminum Lightweight Flywheel & Clutch Masters FX250 Clutch Kit
2) Replace MAF, O2 sensors, Fuel Pump, Fuel Filter/Regulator, spark plugs and purge valve
3) Removed CCV and replaced with oil catch-can set up
4) Vanos seal repair - Beisan Systems
5) DISA valve upgrade - German Auto Solutions
6) Blew up the supercharger (bad rebuild) so replace with new Vortech V3 SC1 supercharger with 3.25 pulley
7) Working with Frank Smith @ TuningTech on remote tune
8) Replaced the 3.07 diff with a 3.46 diff
9) New K&N air filter
10) New front brakes and rotors - TRW Ultra
11) Removed soft top and replaced leaking hydraulic hinges - relocated pump

The paint is in pretty good shape but it did have a number of dings and maybe a little bit of hail damage. I just had a local guy who does paintless dent repairs just pop them all out for $800 so its really starting to look sharp. Going to detail it and go for a drive with the top down today!

So next steps are to replace the stock radiator, do all the cooling hoses, upgrade the water pump and shocks but that will probably be later this year. Anything else I should consider in the near term to keep this thing on the road for a while?
 
Love the fact you guys over the water properly mod cars from standard

Now get some pics up

:poke:
 
I put a thicker rear anti sway bar on my old z4 3.0. It really helped dial out understeer. That was the single most effective mod I did to it. Only cost a few hundred quid as well.
 
Nothing special to look at. Pretty much stock except for the supercharger, clutch and diff. Now that I have all the mechanical issues behind me (I hope) I can spend more time on aesthetics. Going to do a paint correction, polish and wax this weekend and restore the convertible top.

Looked at adding a sway bar, but we have no curvy roads in Florida so not sure I would get any benefit from it?

Was getting some inconsistencies with my LTFTs so hooked up the smoke machine and found a vacuum leak on the back of the intake. Capped it off and took it for a drive. Seems to have resolved the issue.
 

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That's a good looking Z4 with some fantastic modifications - it must be making a fair bit of power!

Looking at your photo of the engine bay it looks like yours had the secondary air-pump that was only ever fitted to Ms in the UK. Do you know if all US spec cars had that?
 
Thanks! Should be ~330 HP but I have not had it on the dyno yet.

All the environmentalists here need us to have secondary air system for emissions. I’d pull it from the car if it wouldn’t throw codes. 😁
 
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