[Calichase]

Well after a long two weeks, a ton of work has been done to the m coupe. Here's a quick run through of the experience.


The goal was to install new parts, test/fix anything and break in the parts. Then dyno tune and ship the car via train to Florida where i have relocated. In preparation for a supercharged track car, I decided to address a few common s54 issues with the following parts.

-wpc treated bearings
-oem rod bolts
-oem vanos cam/hub bolts
-cyro treated vanos exhaust hub
-remilled (slightly smaller diameter) vanos oil pump disc
-vf570 supercharger


I gave myself two weeks of full dedication to the task and it came down to the wire. Big thanks to Tuning Tech Frank Smith and Beisan for suppling parts in a rush.

Vanos check and upgrade part 1 (days 1 and 2)

Starting up top, the valve cover was pulled and the vanos solenoid was carefully removed. Upon my surprise one of the exhaust hub's pins had sheared, luckily in a way that still allowed the damaged pin to function and alleviate some force that the other pin saw. The chip was right next to the hub, indicating that the issue may have happened not too long ago. I consider myself very luckily for finding this in time.


At the moment of discovery I had not planned on performing the exhaust hub and oil pump disk upgrade and did not have the new components. Fearing that messing with any components on either the bottom (rod bearings) or top side of the engine could result in timing issues, and that I didn't want to move from TDC of cylinder 1, I buttoned up and torqued the new intake hub side hardware and moved to the supercharger. Amazingly I sourced and found the needed components over the weekend and suppliers were able to get them to be asap.

Supercharger part 1 (days 2 and 3)

I purchased a used vf570 from a forum member some time ago. As much as the forum despises vf, I have had experience with the kit on m3s and liked both the hardware, ability to upgrade and fact that I was close to TTFS and could essentially perform the entire installation and testing without ever dealing with vf (which seems like the reason most people are not pleased with them).

I was not given instructions and therefore utilized the E46 m3 instructions which I later found out were not always the same.

I installed the blower assembly and intake/charge pipe and heat exchanger (both took much longer then anticipated as the lower alternator bolt required the engine to be moved to get to it).I followed the m3s heat exchanger placement and ended up leaving it in this alternate location.

I also found I was missing quite a few components including hardware, a manifold bracket, water pump relay, and a few other odds and ends. I reached out to vf expecting the worst and to my surprise they really pulled through. Gary was a pleasure, and despite me not buying the kit through them, they were helpful and even supplied me with the install manual for the z4m. They managed to overnight me all the components I was missing from SoCal to md in less then 24 hours after our first contact. I was impressed with the speedy response time and customer service of vf.

Vanos repair part 2 and valve adjustment (day 5)

With the cyro hub and remachined vanos oil pump disc in, as well as some needed gaskets and o rings, I reinstalled and torqued the new components. Careful attention was paid to ensuring the splines aligned as before.

With the vanos solenoid buttoned up, a valve adjustment was performed. To my surprise, 19/24 valves had to be adjusted despite having an adjustment just 12k miles ago.

Rod bearing replacement (day 6)

With the top side complete, the rod bearings were installed. I was genuinely surprised with the wear that I saw. I have had two oil analyses over two years, both which had very positive results (for not showing bearing wear).

After talking with a few bmw specialist, everyone agreed that the best course of action is oem rod bolts (not arp) and wpc treated bearings (not a coated type). The install was straight forward and my particular favorite part was the torquing/seating procedure calling for 3 iterations of the following Torques
5n*m, 30n*m and then 105degrees, then 360 degrees back out.

The oil pan was regasketed and reinstalled and oil was added. Total time from pan off to pan on was roughly 4 hours.

Supercharger install part 2 (day 7)

With a dyno appointment scheduled for day 9, and a 1000 mile break in period desired before that, time was of the essence.

With the new vf components and the z4m specific install in hand, the install went quickly. With some trimming, the front bumper fit around the heat exchanger in its lower position (but above the oil cooler) therefore was left there, hose lines were run, intake was run, the water pump and resovoir were installed, although the manifold install gave us a challenge. After a long night we stopped very short of success.

Supercharger install part 3 (day 8)

With a fresh outlook, the manifold slipped on quickly and the car was buttoned up. Since the kit was used, it did not come with a vf flash tune. Frank mentioned the car being drivable immediately so I figured I would perform the break in an then get a custom dyno tune at his shop. Well i don't know what I was thinking as a car that uses a maf sensor to run cannot run well without one. The car would drive, but stall and die when coming to a stop from a load (not catch an idle) to my surprise though, the car idled and rev'd beautifully unloaded. Fault codes showed tons of maf issues as well as an intake cam positioning issue.

Base Tuning (days 9, 10, 11, and 12)

The car was trailered to ttfs and flashed with a base tune used on another vf570 powered z4m. Frank and the guys and I spent all afternoon of day 9 attempting to read and flash the car to no avail, and the same continued for days 10, 11 and 12. Issues were caused by my small battery not being able to maintain 12v despite a battery charger on the car (to the engine bay jump points though, issue was resolved charging directly to the battery) and a strange backflow issue with the vf water pump causing the ecu to not shut off for until atleast 15 seconds after the car shut off.

Eventually the car was tuned and I tested it. It hesitated and jerked but ran well, however frank advised me that the vanos issue was still present and the cams being out of range meant the car was unsafe to drive. I drove the car low rpm for a while to ensure no stalling coming to a stop and then trailered the car back to the shop I was working at.

We followed a process of Reading faults, clearing them, having the car relearn adaptations and driving it worked out the kinks. After moving a hose clamp on a throttle body coupler that was interfering with the throttle body actuation, the car ran well. Multiple vanos system checks and tests were performed and the car passes all within range.

Now time to break-in in Florida and put her on a dyno for a custom tune and to get out to Sebring asap!