KnighTT F82 build - The madness saga.

[KnighTT]

     Featured on BIMMERPOST.com

Well, let’s let the madness continue, shall we?

I’ve always made a new build thread when I get something new so I guess it’s time to start one for the F82.









Let’s start from the beginning…..

I’ve build a few N54 cars and it came to a head with my E92 335is – N54 – DCT track car that turned out a bit too nice for a track car….Here is the build thread for over 4 years of starting with a 335xi and then ending with an impulse buy and then full build of the 335is.

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1632256

Fully built forged motor, hybrid turbos, Ken Wedge custom tune, closed loop external PCV system, full race spec fuel system, ST XTA coil overs, etc….etc….yeah, it got crazy. I did all the things.






This car is going up for sale in the next few months, when the world isn't frozen, but now we move to the next chapter.



The M4.



Like, subscribe, comment..... Feel free to follow along the madness. It's going to be another wild ride of ADHD, impulse buys, questionable modifications, and a ludicrous disregard of proper financial investments.

[KnighTT]

So…..the story.

I went to the MVading the Dragon event back in June of 2023 with the E92 build. Three day rally event with a large group of BMW enthusiasts(100+ cars) hosted by Smokey Mountain Drives. A good deal of M cars of all ages, some serious custom and track builds, and then your everyday homegrown builds or stock cars with brave drivers. A true testament that even a stock 5-series can still rip through the Tail of The Dragon, stock, if you’ve got the marbles. Three days blasting through all of the great courses up in Tenn, NC, and SC. About 6 hours a day of hard “spirited” enthusiast driving with some of the best enthusiast I have met in my life. It was my first real event and by the end of the event I had some issues to resolve and a HUGE list of what I wanted to do before the next event.
https://www.mvadingthedragon.com/





^^ This full rain action shot made possible by Continental Extreme Contact DWS06+ tires.


I was obsessed with this kind of event. HOURS of driving through the best roads in the country, highly technical, non-stop action, all-day-long. The best drivers and enthusiasts I have met. That beer at the end of the day never tasted so good. EXHAUSTING.

Anyways, on day three my brand new HPFP was SHOT and people behind me said I had a light smoke from the exhaust during decel. I had to limp around at the end of day three but the car did get me home OK. Turns out the new HPFP was seized up. Wouldn’t go above 900psi rail pressure and would sharply drop off under any load over 20% throttle. It was new enough to just do an exchange with FCP and they are awesome about that. At the time I thought my turbos were causing the smoke, so I reached out to Rob Beck at RB Turbo to build a new set of GF High Flows. That way I never had to worry about turbos again and the car would basically have whatever power it needed. It could be tuned from 500-750 with the RB setup and that would last the life of the car and purpose.


Turns out there were no issues with my turbo’s, it was just the HPFP, but this is where it all went in a different direction….
I ordered the turbos in June, and as they were custom, RB said they needed to get the next stock of parts to make a new batch. After a couple months….. my mind started to wander.

I really started to dive into what I wanted in the long run. What car I would be happy with and invest in. As I was looking at easily $8k in next steps with the 335is. New turbo set, larger oil cooler, CSF rad, track seats, wheel, door cards, etc. So I started to wonder if there was a better vehicle to use as a platform.

I liked my E92 but I was never really in love with it. I liked the E92 M3 but the 335is lacked those nice flares. At the end of the day I started to ponder what vehicles I could pivot to that were less of a massive project and more built already for track weekends, road trips, and the weekend fun car. So my ADHD took to the interwebs.


OG M2 – ~$35-40k - At the end of the day I knew I would need to do a full build on an N55 to be happy with it and that put me right back to almost every step I already took with the N54/335is. I wasn’t looking for another ground up project. I knew I would so I took it off the list.
M2 Comp – ~$55-60k+ - S55…about the perfect setup as most people would agree but not worth the extra $20k above the OG M2 in my opinion.
A90 Supra – $45k - Nope. After research I did not want the dual port B58 before the technical upgrades.
A91 Supra – $$$$ - In the end I was very interested because I was always a MKIV Supra guy but…
- No DCT. Boooooo
- 6sp. YAYAYA but you had to order one of those, new, waiting list, and $60k out the door. Nope.
- At the end of the day the B58 is good but the Supra doesn’t come with M engineered suspension and handling. You’d have to dive into that to bring it up to par with the experience I was looking for as a platform to build on.

Which leads us to the F82 M4
- DCT, check
- S55, check
- Carbon driveshaft, carbon roof, weighs the same as an M2.
- In my opinion, looks the best all around.


Plus, you could get a M4 with low miles for in the mid 30’s which put it at the most platform for your buck out of all that I was looking at.

So I spent a couple months looking around at options. I still hadn't heard from Rob at RB Turbo come September and I came across the perfect M4 down in Miami.



Flew down to Miami one way, took an Uber to the dealership, looked it over but was ready to fly back if needed.

Turned out to be in flawless condition. I was shocked even for how excited I was it had been really taken care of. I knew it had a few upgrades and bolt on's but I didn't know everything until I got home.

It did have a nasty rattle in the exhaust, which may have been why it hadn't sold in months on the lot. Sounded busted until the car heated up. It was originally a Carmax trade in but I could see how they couldn't sell it without fixing the exhaust. Turned out all I needed to was adjust the exhaust valve flap. Easy fix. $0.


2015 F82 M4 - Paid $38k
57k miles.
DCT
Perfect spec - no lane assist, no advanced cameras, no dynamic systems I don't need. No dynamic suspension as I prefer fully adjustable 2-3 way coil overs.
Black leather interior, so a nice blank slate, but not the leather dash and door cards. Those look nice but take constant upkeep in the south.
It had everything I wanted without any of the advanced systems/sensors that would eventually just be errors on the dash.
Plus, the Austin Yellow just makes you stare at it.

Full front end and carbon roof PPF'd.

MODS:
Richland Forged - GT4 wheels - 19x9.5 and 19x10.5. Perfect offsets and fitment with no spacers. LIGHT.
90mm wheel stud conversion
AFe MACHForce full exhaust system with single mid pipe. Sounds amazing and they do not make this version anymore.
ER Chargepipes and J-pipe.
AFe fully enclosed intake system.
Active Autowerke catless downpipes.
CF mirror caps.

Essentially, over $10k of upgrades I would have done in the long run, but all wrapped up with a bow. It was a good deal and felt so good driving that 8 hours home from Miami.

I got a quick alignment done, oil change, then the very next weekend I took it to Dragon Rally 30 to break it in and see what I had gotten myself into.

[KnighTT]

Alright, getting back to the present. Purchased the car in Sept.

Unfortunately, In November I got rear ended on the way up to Blue Ridge for a nice day drive. Stop and go traffic and the guy behind me was following too close. It was all minor. No structural damage and at the end of the day the rear bumper was all that really needed replaced/painted. It took about a month but I got the car back from the shop, insurance covered everything, and was able to get in a few fun drives before winter set in.




It did turn out that whoever put the rear wheels back on last dugga dugga'd the lug nuts to death. All 5 lug nuts had separated on the rear driver side.







I was about to take it in to figure out how to even get the studs out when I figured I give a bolt extractor a try. All 5 came out with some serious breaker bar help. It was mostly the red Loctite that made them hard to pull. Good to know if this ever happens again. This is why I always torque lugs down with a torque wrench and not blast them with an impact.

Problem solved. I picked up a 10 pack of new studs from ECS and 10 new lugs. They turned out to be the same 90mm already on the car so I just replaced the 5 and then all of the lugs on the rear. Now I have 5 spare studs.

FYI, the 90MM studs, each, are much less at FCP.

[KnighTT]

This brings us up to present day. She is up on stands in the garage for the winter while I dive into 2024 season upgrades.








So, let the real madness begin.

Well.....I think I had only had the car for a week or two when I started looking around bookmarking future upgrades. Knowing I wanted to address the stock suspension and replace with coil overs (someday), upgrade the plastic aero the car had come with, and were the best places were to source parts and find inspiration.

Truth is......the more you look, the more you find deals you can't pass on.

- I picked up a Turner Motorsports carbon high kick rear spoiler.
- Turner carbon front lip.
- Carbon fiber front splitters

I keep an eye on a few suppliers clearance sections and I am always sniping "open-box/like new" deals.

One day I come across some coil overs. KW's. $3,900. I look them over as they were 3 way coil overs and top tier. Retailed for almost $7k so I was impressed that they still cost so much at half off. Lol. Still way out of my budget but it got me thinking I should keep more of an eye on deals like that. At the time I was thinking of another set of ST XTA's.

So I log in one day and check the list and.....what's this? A new price on the coil overs....... 5 minutes later, with my heart pounding, I had the order confirmation email.

KW V4's, for $1,350..... I literally didn't believe it until they got to my door. They were "open" box in the ad but when I got them they hadn't even been opened. It looked like someone had gotten them and just returned them unopened.

So I now have a full set of KW V4 3-ways for about the price of some entry level BC's. I thought about flipping them and selling them for a nice profit but even my dad and I agreed " YOU WILL NEVER FIND A DEAL LIKE THAT AGAIN". Anything I would replace them with would be a step down and I would never spend that much on coil overs.

[KnighTT]

There is a 1 day Dragon Rally in March and is the opening event of the year. Right now I am prepping for this event and have a list of hardware to install.

I took off my set of PS2's, and replaced with a full set of Continental Extreme Contact Sport 02's.

265/35/19 and 305/30/19



They fit perfect on the wheel set. Perfect fitment for 9.5F and 10.5R. They even clear the stock suspension but that's getting pulled.





To-Do while the roads are frozen.

- Install new coil overs.
- Configure ride height. Sticking as close to stock as possible as this car is low enough.
- New ceramic carbon brake pads.
- ATE TYP 200 Race brake fluid.
- ECS stainless brake lines.
- String line rig assembly (on the way) and do full alignment. I decided to learn how to do string line alignments and save myself some time and money.
- Set street/track camber and test and document configs for camber plates.





I've got a few last fun things on the way but I've told myself that's it for 2024.


I did flash the car after the Dragon Rally event with MHD. It had a tune of some kind, I am thinking BM3 set to stock but DP fix, but I wasn't sure so I wiped it to stock and flashed so I would know and wipe out any past custom work. I've always ran standalone MHD and that is probably more than enough for the S55.

Flashed the DCT to their GTS DCT tune. I am going to do some research if there are better flashes for the DCT and the E-LSD. Right now this came with MHD so that's a freebie before looking at xHP. That's $500 alone so I want to make sure if it's "better".

Right now I have it on a Stage 1 tune. I liked the GTS tune, especially after the latest revision calmed down the low-load throttle oscillations, but the GTS tune comes with an annoying level of artificial exhaust burble. Not my thing. The car has natural burble I prefer. I may take it down to just the CS tune as I hear it is much more refined. I'm not after more HP, I'm after taking advantage of the upgrades as well as respecting that this engine doesn't need more POWER, it just needs to be driven.

2024 is all about dialing in the new tires, brakes, and the 3-way coil over suspension. That's going to transformational. I've never taken the car above 50-60% throttle and it has all the power I need. The S55 is incredible.

[swagon]

Originally Posted by KnighTT

Right now I have it on a Stage 1 tune.

Originally Posted by KnighTT

I've never taken the car above 50-60% throttle and it has all the power I need.

... so it's got more power than you can actually use or handle, not need. Especially on that twisty road you mention, I'd say you need other things rather than power.

And Ate 200 is just an OEM-like fluid. Get Motul RBF or Castrol SRF.

[M3SQRD]

Originally Posted by swagon

... so it's got more power than you can actually use or handle, not need. Especially on that twisty road you mention, I'd say you need other things rather than power.

And Ate 200 is just an OEM-like fluid. Get Motul RBF or Castrol SRF.

Ate 200 has resulted in a squeaky brake pedal in multiple F8x. Stick with low-viscosity brake fluid, which oem fluid is, unless you’re tracking the car and changing/bleeding fluid frequently.

[swagon]

Originally Posted by M3SQRD

Ate 200 has resulted in a squeaky brake pedal in multiple F8x. Stick with low-viscosity brake fluid, which oem fluid is, unless you’re tracking the car and changing/bleeding fluid frequently.

Yup, got a squeaky brake pedal with Ate 200, too.

[Track/S]

The nuts that broke were for 17mm wrench?
I would like to know who the idiot was who made them for a M14 studs...

Do not waste time with typ200 fluid, it works like the oem, use motul rbf700 and change it every year.

[KnighTT]

I did forget to mention.

This is not my daily driver. This is a track platform build. Not track dedicated, as I do love a good car meet, touring, and multiple maintain rally's are on the schedule, but the function and progression will be track focused and not show. I'm sure to drop in on Caffeine and Octane and a BMW CCA meet but that's because I love the community.

BMW CCA events, Atlanta Motorsports Park, Road Atlanta, and eventually move up to some weekend SCCA/NASA events. I decided to move away from the N54 platform to the S55 and M platform as it suited my more long term goals.


I've used the Ate TYP 200 on my e92 track build and never had an issue with it. Not to say the F82 isn't a different vehicle but I'll just have to see.


ATE TYP 200 - $16ea - 536d/388w.
Stock BMW DOT4 - $6ea - 446d/311w
Motul RBF700 - $36ea - 637d/336w.
Castrol SRF - $60-$80ea - 590d/518w.

I'll see how the TYP 200 performs as well as it's cost ratio being changed frequently. Moving up to the RBF700 may be in order if I end up getting into more track days and there is issues with the braking temps. I would say the Castrol SRF would be more for a track dedicated and high event frequency use for top tier protection. Comes at a cost for sure.



I have to agree about the lug nuts. All of the stud kits for the M14 studs come with 17mm lug nuts. After seeing the damage on the prior set, I noticed how thin the nut wall was. A 19mm lug nut would be much stronger without the lug nut being any "larger". I'll have to keep looking and see if I can find a 19mm lug nut but also with a longer nut shaft.



Still waiting for the 3D printed brackets to come in for my string alignment rig. I want to have them in hand before I start to pick up the poles for fabrication. Just in case the diameter is off.

Too cold to even want to work in the garage right now so I'll take this next week to get the next few parts in the mail and then get started taking out the stock suspension next weekend when it's warmer.

[KnighTT]

Well, it was a productive weekend.



- Coil-overs installed. I always like to follow a good video on these and KIES had a great one and notes on torque specs. Install was easy it just took time. Gave me an excuse to finally pick up a 3/8 compact impact wrench for the next larger project. I've got everything else....not sure why I had gone so long without it.

I'll drop the car down in the next couple days to let it settle and look at ride height and then adjust. My goal is to get it close to current ground clearance as any lower and I'm always going to be paranoid about my front lip.

- Stainless steel brake lines are in. This install was a breeze. The E92 rear lines are a pain without access and the right tool. The F82 lines take about 5 minutes each to swap. Plus the fluid doesn't leak like a faucet. Fashioned a plug with a rubber stopper and a hole drilled in it just to keep the floor clean.

ECS SS kit fits exactly like stock. I think the whole kit was only $118.

- Bled the brake fluid and refilled. Easy as pie with a pressure bleeder. That was money well spent on my last build.

- Got the new PS Z26 ceramic carbon pads installed. Man do I love how easy a Brembo makes a brake job.

My plan is to use these as a higher performance all-around pad. PS ceramic are perfect a quiet ride, low dust, and would be fine for a fun run up in the mountains for a few hours. I'm not sure how they will handle under a heavy all day rally load so I am going to test them on a one day Dragon Rally in March. I had issues in the last rally and that was clear when I pulled the current pads off to just find regular OEM grade pads. No surprises there. When they got hot they yelled at me.

I ran a three day event on a lower spec ceramic PS pad in my E92 and they were outstanding but this is a different car and different setup. If they give me any concerns I'll step up to the PST track pad set for events and call it a day.

Next is to adjust ride height, check clearances, and then rig up my alignment frames. Then I can dive into a string alignment and document the process.

I did install one other thing over the weekend but I'll document that in its own post. I did tell myself though this is the last upgrade for the year. It wasn't needed but man did I have to have it....

[Torgus]

I liked your other car better.

Just kidding.

That is a STEAL on those coilovers! Enjoy!! I agree taking out the CC and dropping 7k on coilovers? You better be at the limit of your driving ability and need them for it to ever make financial sense. Congrats on the deal! I bet they are awesome, especially pushed to the limit if correctly set up.

[KnighTT]

Torgus Thanks for coming and following along the next chapter of poor financial decisions.

This is where we are at.




Getting closer to getting it back on the road in the next month.

Front camber set to -2.5
Rear set to -2.0

I have the new string alignment rig setup and getting the final adjustments made so I can start measuring to adjust toe. I made 4 stand boxes with slip plates on top. $50 for the 3D printed rig parts from Caliper Garage. Then some EMT conduit poles at 1/2" from HD for $5 a pole. Then some 90 elbows just to stiffen up the frame and square it out. Last step is getting the strings all set up for parallel.

This next weekend I'll probably also go ahead and get the MMI Carplay box installed. That'll resolve the only real gripe I had about driving this car around. Carplay is a must.

I've got another little gem I've added to the car that I'll add some pictures of here shortly.

[KnighTT]

Finally got the toe alignment done and got the car back out on the road for s few test drives.

Adjusting toe using the string alignment method is far easier than I thought. The truth is getting the rig put together and dialed in to a parallel box is harder than adjusting toe. Got the front set to 0 toe and the back to 1/8" total toe in.

I have since had the car out on the roads and highway and was impressed that the alignment came out perfect.

The -2.5 camber in the front drastically improved turn in and responsiveness. When I took the M4 up for Dragon Rally I felt like I really had to rotate the steering wheel much farther than I was comfortable with to get it through a hard turn. I can already tell that issue is resolved.

Here is something else that drastically changed the steering of the car.

The Zestek OEM hub matched with the 350mm MOMO Mod 78 wheel.











Moving to the MOMO wheel gave the entire car a different feel. You feel much more connected to the driving experience. The "numb" feeling that is so widely talked about as we get farther into advanced hydraulic steering and even more so into electronic steering feel much more visceral now. You can feel so much more of the car and the road. Outside of taking a U-turn, you can control the car through almost any turn with less than a 90 degree turn of the wheel giving you a much more precise feeling of control.

Now, obviously this experience was amplified by the fact I had just moved the car over to the KW V4 coil overs. Which are incredible. The car feels so much more planted and platformed and you can really tell this is what the car feels like when all of the components are NEW. Versus the "slightly off" feeling sport suspension feels like when it's got some years on it.

I dialed in the coil overs first to the "street" setting KW recommends which keeps most of the valves 80% open. No reason for me to be rattling my teeth out around town. I was expecting the ride to still be stiff and bumpy for the most part and then dialing it for track spec would be unbearable around town. I was impressed that on the street setting the car felt very stock in harshness during casual driving but also felt much more planted and solid in platform. Kind of a best of both worlds for street improvement. It felt GREAT driving around and it never felt like harshness was added to the ride around parking lots and town roads.

When the weather gets warmer I'll dial it up to a more aggressive setting to try it out on some mountain runs and see what the twists and turns feel like. Then I can document a good street setup and a Dragon Rally setup.

Ended the weekend with taking it out to my first BMW CCA cars and coffee meet. It was cold but spring is just around the corner.

[TR930]

I was told blue loctite and anti seize on the wheel studs. Looks like yours just had red loctite.

[Vmohan5072]

Love the build so far, I've also been failing to stop myself from mass buying parts while waiting for winter to thaw haha

[KnighTT]

Last weekend was Dragon Rally 33 with Smokey Mountain Drives. This was an all day event through Tail of the Dragon, Cherohala, Foothills, etc. About 300 miles worth of hard enthusiast driving. My only complaint is this wasn't one of the three day events but it was a great opener to the season.

I am going back for two three day events this year. MVading the Dragon in June and Dragon Rally XL in October which are both three day events.

Pictures of the group. We had an incredible lineup of GT4s and GT3s as well as some great Italian and British supercars. No drama, great roads, perfect weather after the morning wetness cleared up.





I actually drove for about an hour sandwiched between this Austin Martin Vantage and the Ferrari. That was fun.

[KnighTT]

I usually wouldn't go up for just a one day event but I really needed to shake down my performance and handling updates from the winter before I got into a three day event and couldn't make any adjustments.

KW V4 Coilovers - I have these set to KW's recommended street settings. I didn't want to go with the track settings just yet as the drive up there is three hours and I was worried about that being jarring.

The street settings soaked up everything perfectly. I never had a moment of too much roll or anything feeling non-compliant. The only things that I may increase is low speed and high speed compression. I did hear a few times while taking a very hard turn with an incline up on exit where I think the front of the car may have just barely been scrubbing the ground.

Camber adjustments to -2.5 front and -2.0 rear - This turned to to be perfect. Turn in was drastically improved and I almost never had to remove my hands from 9 and 3 on the wheel. The responsiveness of steering is laughably better than stock alignment. I am sure the 350mm Momo steering wheel also helped.

By the end of the weekend I knew the camber and steering wheel combo really put a period in the end of the handling setup. I love the way the car drives under heavy demand while also being a breeze to drive down the highway and around the city.

PowerStop Z26 brake pads - ceramic and carbon hybrid - These pads performed better than expected. No noise, no fluttering, no brake fade, and minimal brake dust by the end of the day. Now I'm not saying these are a track day pad but as far as around town and hard rally drives like this, they are a very cost effective option I was very impressed with. Great bite and I never felt like they got too hot.


Momo Mod 78 and the Zestek steering wheel setup - As the steering wheel is the heart of the interaction with the car, this proved to be one of the best improvements to the entire experience. The feel and command of the steering wheel is superb. It gives you back so much feel compared to the "numbness" people complain about with the electronic steering and a big stock wheel full of rubber and padding.

The Zestek is outstanding. The fully adjustable paddle position and the button programming give you everything you want to keep the stock functions driving around but then the racing wheel for events. Plus, it's nice to take the steering wheel setup up to your hotel room with you knowing at least no one can steal you whole car, easily.

It did get a bit "loose" on me at the end of the day. Like a little hitch when I turned hard. Turned out I hadn't torqued the main hub bolt down enough and it had started to loosen up. After that it went back to solid and no play.

Tune - For most of the Rally I had the car set to the "CS" tune from MHD. I feel this has the best power curve for consistent linear feeling, good low end, and isn't too aggressive. I prefer the GTS tune as it has an even better power delivery but the burbles are ALWAYS aggressive. The only issue with the CS tune is it has a lesser burble added to it, which is fine driving around town, BUT when you get things hot and sporty those added burbles get annoying every-single-time you let off the gas.

Towards the end of the day I put it up on Stage 1 and that changed everything. No more burble but it feels like it adds a heap of more power. I went up and back down the Dragon after the rally was over and it was almost unsettling how aggressive it can accelerate between turns. I had to completely adjust how hard to push the car. I am going to leave it on stg 1 and adjust how I drive to meet the power.

I think in the long run I'd like something like the GTS tune, which is just an even ~500hp, but if I could remove the added burble. Stg 1 is just a bit more than the GTS.