Upgrades going in next week

[eggman51]

I've been collecting these bits for months, finally getting them installed on my 2006 Z4M Roadster next week.

1. SuperSprint v1 Stepped Headers
2. SuperSprint Catless Section 1
3. SuperSprint X Pipe
4. SuperSprint Powerloop (street) mufflers
5. Evolve CSL Airbox
6. EPIC Motorsports Alpha N Tune
7. Varis Rear Diffuser
8. Seat Heating pad into my Sparco QRT Performance Race Seat

I live in Vancouver, Canada and this is my daily driver and track car all year long so I'm almost as excited about having a seat heater again as I am the exhaust upgrade

I've done a pre-dyno and will do a post-dyno in a few weeks.

[ZeD4Mr]

Originally Posted by eggman51

I've been collecting these bits for months, finally getting them installed on my 2006 Z4M Roadster next week.

1. SuperSprint v1 Stepped Headers
2. SuperSprint Catless Section 1
3. SuperSprint X Pipe
4. SuperSprint Powerloop (street) mufflers
5. Evolve CSL Airbox
6. EPIC Motorsports Alpha N Tune
7. Varis Rear Diffuser
8. Seat Heating pad into my Sparco QRT Performance Race Seat

I live in Vancouver, Canada and this is my daily driver and track car all year long so I'm almost as excited about having a seat heater again as I am the exhaust upgrade

I've done a pre-dyno and will do a post-dyno in a few weeks.

Can't wait to see the results and hear it...

BTW, who's doing the work?

Looking forward to your post dyno.

[eggman51]

Originally Posted by ZeD4Mr

BTW, who's doing the work?

CG Motorsports over in your neighbourhood.

[3002 tii]

That is going to be one loud car! Be sure to post up videos!

Btw are you going to integrate the seat heater with factory button?

[eggman51]

Originally Posted by 3002 tii

That is going to be one loud car! Be sure to post up videos!

I am hoping it's not too loud (or smelly). I love the old school smell of non cat cars, but hoping it's not too much for a daily driven roadster. Crossing my fingers that the sound is not obnoxious - I prefer the intake sound over the exhaust sound. If either smell or exhaust note are issues, I might consider adding some hi flow cats.

Originally Posted by 3002 tii

Btw are you going to integrate the seat heater with factory button?

I bought a BMW seat heating pad for a Z4 and am going to have that installed below the covering material of the Sparceo seat. It should be plug and play with the existing wiring harness. Hoping it works, other folks have done this without issue, but I might have missed something!

This first phase is the extent of the powertrain upgrades I plan for the foreseeable future. I have suspension upgrades planned for later in the year.

I am really looking forward to the track season!

[racerbruce]

YAY eggman51!!!!
These are awesome upgrades and will be a real plus in your track days (and DD days). Keep us up to date...I'll let you know from Seattle if I can hear your exhaust upgrades

[3002 tii]

Originally Posted by eggman51

I am hoping it's not too loud (or smelly). I love the old school smell of non cat cars, but hoping it's not too much for a daily driven roadster. Crossing my fingers that the sound is not obnoxious - I prefer the intake sound over the exhaust sound. If either smell or exhaust note are issues, I might consider adding some hi flow cats.



I bought a BMW seat heating pad for a Z4 and am going to have that installed below the covering material of the Sparceo seat. It should be plug and play with the existing wiring harness. Hoping it works, other folks have done this without issue, but I might have missed something!

This first phase is the extent of the powertrain upgrades I plan for the foreseeable future. I have suspension upgrades planned for later in the year.

I am really looking forward to the track season!

I ran full catless on my N52 for a bit and after a while the smell started getting to me. It's only most noticeable when you're idling at a light but it reminded me of when I used my motorcycle with a group of friends. 3-4 sport bikes sitting at a light reeking of unburned fuel. But even if you think it's tolerable, just know the person behind you will have it worse lol.

Sound wise, there's certainly louder options relative to what you have but I think any full catless system + aftermarket muffler of choice is going to be loud, with decent share of rasp and drone. Honestly if sound weren't such an issue I would've sprung for the SS x-pipe as well. But maybe I'm just getting too old... for me it came down to SS x-pipe + stock cans or factory X + SS PL's. I went with the latter... in any case, you've been warned =D


For the heating element retrofit, it would be awesome if you or your installer could document the install with pictures, part numbers, etc. This is one mod that isn't well covered on the web.

(Track season can't come soon enough, I've been trying to optimize any free time I have on weekends trying to knock out mods myself!)

[3002 tii]

Originally Posted by yousefnjr

I run full catless as well, smell isn’t so bad but I keep getting kicked off the track for noise either 95 or 97 dB, I can’t remember what they told me last time. I’m also told that when I start the car in the garage, the whole house shakes lol

Fun top-down times for you ahead sweet setup

Just short shift as you approach the meter or lift =D

[3002 tii]

Originally Posted by yousefnjr

I run full catless as well, smell isn’t so bad but I keep getting kicked off the track for noise either 95 or 97 dB, I can’t remember what they told me last time. I’m also told that when I start the car in the garage, the whole house shakes lol

Fun top-down times for you ahead sweet setup

In all seriousness, losing track time sucks. I’d just throw the oe boxes on for track days or weld a mini resonator along the x pipe, those are usually good for 3-4db reductions.

[eggman51]

Dropped the car off this morning. Asked the shop to take a few pics along the way, particularly with the seat heating pad install. They gave me an old E46 as a cheap courtesy car. I miss my Z4MR already and it's only noon

[Vanne]

Awesome mate, standing by for the details and the smiles.

[eggman51]

I picked up my car.

My first impressions are that you really respect the work the BMW engineers did on these cars and with this engine. The stock exhaust note from the S54 is quite lovely given all the compromises necessary for emission controls and road car civility.

After putting on the headers to mufflers SuperSprint exhaust, the sounds is definitely quite raunchy now.. even angry. I've only heard it from inside the cockpit. I think the Varis diffuser might amplify some of the low frequency hum inside the car. At some point I will trust someone enough to drive it so I can hear it from outside the car.

I don't find it obnoxiously loud. The neighbours might

There's a balance between the intake sound and the exhaust note that now leans quite substantially toward the exhaust note. I think it was very good with the Eventuri intake and the stock exhaust. It would likely have been near perfect with the Evolve CSL style intake and the stock exhust, but that would not have given the track gains I am after.

I don't think I can do much about that - it is what it is. I've noticed in videos that when appraoching you hear the intake sound, then the exhaust sound takes over as the vehicle passes. It's just that the S54 CSL intake is, imo, one of the nicest car sounds I've ever heard.

The exhaust fumes smell as a result of cat removal is not bad - much less obnoxious than I expected. Will see if the wife notices when we go for one of our occasional "date drives".

I ran into two issues that I need to get addressed:
1. The seat heater is not working. Lights flash on then off, need to look into this.
2. I have a "Service Engine Soon" light that I should not be getting with the Epic tune.

So not done on this yet, and I will post some more details - including some videos with decent sound - in the near future.

Cheers,
Eamonn aka eggman

[ZeD4Mr]

Can't wait to hear it!

That's going to dictate if I'm going straight pipe or not..

hope you fix these issues before trackdays..

[cbecker33]

Originally Posted by eggman51

I've been collecting these bits for months, finally getting them installed on my 2006 Z4M Roadster next week....

8. Seat Heating pad into my Sparco QRT Performance Race Seat

....

Pics of the seat installed? What hardware did you use?

[wspohn]

We used to use a curved tailpipe that we could rotate - the sound stations were in different places at tracks like Seattle and Westwood. But then they started moving them around randomly, so that was out.

Used to get pretty good results with a Supertrapps, depending on how many baffle plates you used.

What have you done for handling? Anything in particular?

[MBan]

Great work Eggman51 - really impressive parts list!

Have you done a post-install dyno yet?

[eggman51]

Originally Posted by cbecker33

Pics of the seat installed? What hardware did you use?

Brey Krause. I hacked in a Schroth 6 point harness; the shoulder straps are mounted with reinforcement plates into the bulkhead behind the seats.

Sparco QRT seat installed in BMW Z4M Roadster by Eamonn Glass, on Flickr

Sparco QRT seat installed in BMW Z4M Roadster by Eamonn Glass, on Flickr

Originally Posted by wspohn

What have you done for handling? Anything in particular?

Nothing yet. Just Arc-8 wheels, Michelin PS4S tires. Have some TE37s on order. Planning to do a coilover upgrade later in the year, but I need the stock market to recover from this virus

I did an AP Racing BBK on the fronts, made a massive difference in braking. Will be adding Westerlund's cooling kit in the next few weeks.

Originally Posted by MBan

Have you done a post-install dyno yet?

I have a "Service Engine Soon" light on and, although I don't see it having any impact on dyno numbers, I am going to get that resolved before doing a post install dyno... so a bit delayed on the post install dyno and tune optimization w Randy from Epic.

I've got a few more things I want to do with the car, then get some decent photos done, and post a write-up on here of the mods and how it drives. When I look at the pics of the car today, while some of them are cool action shots on the track, they mostly just make me think about how much work I have to do to get the car to where I can say "phase one is done"

Cheers,
Eamonn aka eggman

[3002 tii]

Originally Posted by eggman51

Brey Krause. I hacked in a Schroth 6 point harness; the shoulder straps are mounted with reinforcement plates into the bulkhead behind the seats.

Sparco QRT seat installed in BMW Z4M Roadster by Eamonn Glass, on Flickr

Sparco QRT seat installed in BMW Z4M Roadster by Eamonn Glass, on Flickr


Cheers,
Eamonn aka eggman

Eamonn - can you post some up close photos of your harness install? Specifically where/how they mounted to the bulkhead? Also how did you make out work those heaters? Were you ever able to retrofit into the seat and connect to the oe buttons?