I then sourced the last pieces required and got everything installed. I think version 2.0 looks really great, the shock tower looks a lot better being "clean" without the ugly bracket welded into it and I don't even mind the silver coolant bleed lines, I thought they would be annoying and stand out but I think they blend in pretty well with the rest of the silver in the engine bay. Really happy with it. At this point, I just need to flash to the 4.8 DME tune to be able to drive it. It idles and revs perfectly fine on the 4.4 tune, but just to be safe - I want to flash the 4.8 tune first...
I also don't have the exhaust mid-pipe installed yet, so I need to get that done too as I don't want to go deaf the first time I drive it. But that won't take longer than 30-40 minutes...
Well, the day after the above post, I got all the tiny odds and ends finished up. Flashed the 4.8 tune (thanks again to my tuner Abel for the help on that!) and couldn't help myself from taking it for a test drive
I learned two things on that test drive:
The 4.4 was definitely not healthy
A healthy 4.8 is downright scary fast
So I am going to be seriously considering installing a racelogic or something like that. But in the meantime, I treated myself to a beer after the first succesful test drive
I have a few outstanding things to address. The power steering pump is whining a little bit - I'm not sure if the pump is shot, or if the supply line is choking the pump in some way.
I need to finish the exhaust. Because it's tucked up a bit higher, the turn-down tips are tapping against the rear subframe. And because it's in a slightly different position, the hanger mounts are not positioned correctly. I knew that would be an issue which is why I cut them out on the exhaust when I was working on the exhaust. That should all be a very simple fix. I might just cut the turn-down tips off and weld the v-bands on in preparation of finishing the rear section
It needs a front alignment. It needed one before, I've done front end stuff that would have affected the alignment and I never re-did it. Again, should be a pretty simple fix. Oh and on that note I need to fix the steering wheel again.
Good news though - the steering feels nice and tight again (knock on wood). The engine sounds great. I'm just, very happy with it. Here it is in the garage. I know this looks just like the above picture, but I spent a lot of time on this engine bay and I love how it turned out
Some random parking lot...
I tidied up the engine bay a little bit, finished the exhaust and took it on some more test drives
My tuner friend also made a few changes to improve throttle response, remove some engine codes (for stuff I don't have, like rear O2's, DMTL, etc), advance the ignition a bit to make some more power and some valvetronic adjustments to help it breathe up top a bit better
Definitely drives a bit better! The throttle response was already improved with the healthy 4.8 but I wanted a bit more, somewhere between standard and sport mode throttle response. I think my tuner nailed it, I'm very happy with where it sits and how it behaves! All the engine codes were also correctly removed except rear O2's, so he will make another attempt to get those sorted
The only issue outstanding right now is the power steering. It "kicks back" a little if turning at full lock and whines a bit sometimes when steering. Not all the time, which is weird. I'm going to get it jacked back up, probably remove the alternator to get better access to the area and try to figure out what's going on. I think the "kick back" is the high pressure line interfering with the rack boot, but the whining I have no idea so I need to look into that
I took it on a longer test drive a bit later and realized something interesting after poking around in INPA
The DME does not show the "A/C on" signal in the live readout, but, when I press the A/C button it does raise the idle. Interesting. I theorized awhile ago that it wasn't showing the "On" signal because the compressor itself wasn't installed and I now suspect that is indeed the case. So, it should be very easy to add A/C. Install compressor, install custom lines, install drier and install a condenser.
However... I don't have space anymore for the stock condenser. I have plenty of space near the firewall to put the drier where the SAP used to sit. Would be really nice to be able to add A/C so I can drive it over the summer so I'll be researching condenser options. Depending where I mount it, I might need a dedicated fan for the condenser too... maybe I could have the A/C button trigger a relay to power the condenser fan, so anytime the A/C is on the fan runs...
One last missing piece of the puzzle is the ambient temp sensor. For those who forgot, I installed an ambient sensor a long time ago (>1 year ago) but the N62 doesn't recognize it because it expects that signal over canbus instead of an analog signal like the Z3's use (except the S54).
I bought the Z3 S54 module that controls the center console gauges because the S54 has an ambient temp sensor for the temperature gauge in the center console and its sends those signals over canbus.
Not entirely sure where to wire it in though. I do have two separate canbus networks, as the DME/engine has it's own canbus network and the rest of the car systems are on a separate network, which is how it's done on the N62 - the IVM acts as an intermediary between the two. I think the factory N62 cars have the ambient temp signal come in through the gauge cluster, so I think I could just install the Z3M S54 gauge module to the IKE. Not entirely sure how that works though. I'll have to check the diagrams of S54 Z3M and see how that looks...
Any help appreciated on that front, although I doubt many people have gone down this path before. Might also be cool to be able to install the other S54 Z3M gauges - I do have a set of those gauges in storage. I wonder if the oil temp would work...
Installing this would, according to Abel, make the DME a little happier. It would also eliminate the last pending CEL (since the DMTL and post-cat O2's have been coded out... though I've yet to test the updated tune that deletes the O2's). And, more importantly, it would allow for proper control of the PWM puller fan. Currently, it runs at max speed all the time.
Looking at the diagrams, it looks like I can just piggyback the gauge module off the instrument cluster CAN lines
My super professional diagram for how I plan on wiring it...
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