Well he would deserve one. He's sending my wife and I to Thermal, CA for a private McKenna BMW M Performance trackday!

 

dang that's gotta be awesome make sure to take a bunch of pictures I wish I could find a good priced M1 but they seem to just be going up in price

 

You got your M from McKenna?

When I was in SoCal for two weeks last October I drove right by McKenna Porsche and I wanted to stop in and see if they had any of their old ALMS race cars.

Plus my gf's aunt bought her Z4 from McKenna BMW as well lol.

 

As much as I like the 1M, it's just not a practical car. I don't daily the M3 at all either, but that's a collectible car that'll continue to appreciate over time. I was trying to holdout for the M2, but I couldn't pass up one of the last 2015 6-speed M3's in the states. Everyone I've spoke to are shocked that I found a 6MT so late in the 2015 allocation.

Yes, I got it at McKenna. I didn't walk over to the P side, we browsed the Audi side for a bit, but nothing really catches my eye with Audi.

McKenna has been awesome. They've even invited me to their special trackday event out at Thermal, CA which is the BMW M Perf Driving School West location next Monday.

I'm suppose to be at work, but who would pass up a M trackday??? I'll just make up that day later.

 

Well you will be at work, it'll just be behind the wheel of awesome cars lol

 

Nah, wouldn't miss it. I'm sure I wouldn't miss anything at work. I came in late the one day I signed my papers for the M3 and didn't get to work until about 3pm. Was told I didn't miss anything.

 

Turbo work on the MINI commences today. Hopefully I'll get it back in the next 2 weeks. MINI is just up on jacks at this point in the garage waiting for it's new turbo.

M3 has 2 sets of wheels coming in. 19" MORR VS52R and 19" TE37 SL

I need more space for all the wheels!

 

I might have missed it what turbo are u going with? Why the change?

 

E45HP (K03) --> E45R (K04)

Should be a nice bump in power when I dyno. As long as I address the intake manifold leak this time. Apparently I've been accusing of doing everything else but get a dyno, so I'll even have someone take my MINI to get dyno'd if I don't have time. It's easier to do things in my own garage than actually drive and get it done

Wastegate flap broken (mine on bottom, jcw on top). Look at blacken of walls inside turbo.

 

O that should be a nice bump and do they warranty that turbo in any way? Are you going to sell it?

 

No. I'm pretty sure I was out of warranty on it and because of the upgrade they're going to do a once-over on it so with the upgraded internals it should be fine. And plus they did the ceramic coating on my turbo and downpipe so I leave it to their expertise to address anything my turbo needs.

And it's using my same turbo from the E45HP to E45R so there isn't anything to sell.

 

Well aren't the housings different? K04 bigger no? I haven't read up much in the jm turbos

 

I'm not sure the process that JMTC does to go from HP to R but I'll leave that up to the consumer to decide what they want to do. I'm glad the E45R will still retain spool quick for lower grunt and carry on the top end.

 

Ah ok I see I'm not crazy about numbers but I can't wait for the dyno results lol

 

Love your M3, that color is awesome. What's the stock numbers!

 

Love the E45R.
Your wastegate door fell off too? I know someone with an E45HP that had his wastegate door fall off.. Hopefully my E45R isn't part of that...

 

425hp is good on the M3 don't know if I'll even bother to tune it. It feels mighty fine to me.

Yeah. He told me they weld the flap on now so it shouldn't be an issue. Already miss driving the MINI.

 

I'm not being a wise guy or trying to start an argument here by no means, please understand that.
Now, turbos that are stock last a very long time. Like my original S turbo made it to 188,000. Not one problem. And I took it off cause I was building a full build or it would still be going.
I bought the owens turbo for this new build. Not one issue with the turbo so far even after all the self induced issues, issues from machining, IAT sensor going south, boost surges from 20psi to 10 psi, pressure converter going bad and now I got a throttle body that needs replacing. To me, that waste gate should have never ever done that. At all. Like the machining of my block wrong. The machine shop paid for the repairs free of charge and everything it took to do it. I gotta hand it to owens. They built a pretty good turbo. I've made just about every bad mistake you could with it. Glad to see your getting it fixed and gonna get some dyno numbers. The we can compare your to mine we both have a pretty good build and it'll really show how the turbos perform. Personally, something like that and it being out of warranty, I would have to look into another make of turbo. I wouldn't except a failure like that under any circumstance. Warranty or not. Mr JMTC should be fixing that free of charge. That turbo should have been able to go just as far as a stock turbo.
If everybody starts to atleast inquire about the owens turbo, maybe they will give someone a chance to be a dealer here in the great USA.
Sorry about that failure RA2. Also glad to see it being repaired. Please don't take this response as a argument starter. It's not mention to be in that manner.

 

No, not at all. I think had I just brought up I wanted it repaired, I'm sure it would have been repaired under their 2 yr warranty (when replaced oil line at same time), but because I was upgrading as well, I did take the fee. It doesn't bother me too much since it's minimal, but I'd understand some others' frustration if this occurred and it was their only mode of transportation.

Last summer I was going through issues with a spark plug thread being stripped and it was a nightmare of a time and I was down and out with the MINI, but nowadays I'm in a comfortable position to either get a rental for weeks w/o issues, or just drive my other cars, so it's all good!

I've filled the spectrum on my end. A Prius for the economy which sucks to drive, the MINI for loud obnoxious thrills, and the BMW for outright comfort, handling, and speed.

 

Let me know if my M3 questions are imposing on your MCS thread, but have you considered and Cat-back exhaust (Borla) for your M3?

MCS and M3 equal twice the fun factor.

 

Eh, doesn't really bother me. As far as exhausts go, they're like 3-4x the cost of a R56 exhaust, which is pretty nuts. With the exhaust note being fed into the cabin via the speakers, I haven't really considered a new exhaust. It sounds perfectly fine to me as is, and the M3 is purely for looks and not for sheer speed and tracking like the MINI was built for.

At some point the urge to get an exhaust will bite me, but right now I'm not entirely impressed with what's out there. AWE makes a nice system, but I just want a simple single walled exhaust tips because I hate the rolled look. I am considering iPE again only because then I can say "I have a R56 and F80 with iPE exhaust systems" but that's it! I think that's more bragging rights than it is because it sounds better than the others.

 

Also I put the new bumper on with my Challenge Lip finally. Got tired of it sitting in the spare bedroom the last few months.

note: I did this on a Sunday afternoon for those that keep track of my "lack of time"

 

That looks good need more pictures!! I know I know it's down without a turbo

 

When it's done. No use in putting it down and then putting it back up. :D

 

I know I know I figured that just anxious I've read this entire thread and have been following it forever it feels like and every time I get excited for something new