Jacob's other Wagon

[Laecaon]

On order, Set of Koni FSD, found on sale for $545, a screaming deal compared to full price of $1200.

Also, new rear shock mounts with reinforcement plates, and front reinforcement plates. Went with poly rear shock mounts as the reports are rubber anything dies fast. Reinforcement plates are for rough roads and hard suspension. The idea here is that BMW uses software to minimize wait, as in the metal thickness is the thinnest it can be to live its useful life. These are OEM plates, and add some resistance against fatigue.

Shocks here on Monday, other stuff, IDK.

[DRIVEN]

Minimize wait and minimize weight mean two different things. Both are good.

[Laecaon]

oops, beer.

[Laecaon]

Oops, I just stumbled upon something... I can boost my stock headlights...

Yes please!

[Laecaon]

Pulled the headlight out of the BMW. Then pulled the ballast out. Just checking to see if I have the Bosch Gen 2 ballasts or not; I do.

Inside, I just have to add a resistor in parallel to an existing resistor. This will boost the power. It has been shown that you can boost all the way to 70W (stock is 35W), so doubling the power. I have decided to only boost to 50ish watts. To do this I will need to get some thermal compound, and also figure out how to attach a heatsink to the ballast.

[Taterhead]

Am I right to assume the thermal compound is for keeping them cool?

I'm sure you have figured it out by now since you are Mr Research but 50w might be hot enough to melt the lenses a little.

[Laecaon]

It's kinda funny. The e46 had two different headlight manufacturers, AL and ZKW. The ZKWs burnt up at the standard heat, removing the chrome from the projector. The ALs are fine, I have ALs. The plastic lens in front of everything(housing) is actually a bit melted from the focused light,but only slightly.

I'm not terribly worried about the lights themselves, just the ballasts.

[Taterhead]

I figured you had it figured out.
I talked to a guy that works at the stereo shop nearby about the little skulls he had in his lenses (has BMW 328 I think) and he said that they were actually melted that way from the bulbs. Looked kinda cool. They looked like mini versions of the punisher skull.

[Laecaon]

Note to self, dont use OneDrive for hosting pics...

Ok, so headlight number 1 completely modded.

I didnt feel like running wires to a switch or potentiometer, so instead I just soldered a 30k ohm resistor straight on. From the research done on the ballast, this should result in something like 50-55w output.

To error on the side of caution though, I have added a heatsink and a cooling fan.

At this point I have only modded the passenger side . Its not dark here yet so no output shots.

The other mod I did (no pictures yet), is to do a projector lens swap. The ZKW projectors have better lenses, so I bought some and put one in on the passenger side as well.

[Laecaon]

New HID bulbs.

Old: boosted passenger light, clear lens, Old Philips bulb. The bulb greatly color shifted when boosted. Barely noticeable on the garage door in day light. Driver side completely stock, only the hotspot was seen on the garage door in day light.

New bulb in passenger side, a lot brighter on the door in day light.

[Laecaon]

Holy shit balls. These lights are bright now. I didnt realize the old bulbs were so dim as the lights were still brighter than a lot of cars on the road.

Boosted the stock Ballast from 35w to 50w (20% lumen increase), Clear lenses instead of slightly fogged (for a sharper light), and new 5500k bulbs.

And boosted at 50w definitely color shifted the new 5500k bulbs to probably about a 4700k color. There is absolutely no blue color in my lights. Non at all, which actually makes me think something is out of whack...



Headlight modding is probably done.... until I get a cheap price on some good LED lights or something....

[Laecaon]

Front brake upgrade coming soon.

[DRIVEN]

Don't you have a 510 to build?

[Laecaon]

Um yes. Today, I sat in the driver seat, and pondered. Then I took a 3 3/8" hole saw to 3/8" thick steel plate...

Also I installed all the hardware for the turbo manifold and turbo...

[Laecaon]

These are the pads....

[Laecaon]

Still waiting to install...

[Laecaon]

Went to do the brakes. Um I dont think I have ever encountered anything that uses a 7mm socket head... A new tool to buy!

Also, I think I have finally figured out my oil leak.

[flatcat19]

7mm hex? Male or female?

GM uses 7mm male on a lot of interior screws. Lots of GM's brake caliper slide pins use 7mm female/Allen.

[DRIVEN]

Ford coil bolts too.

[Laecaon]

Socket head... allen key style. And they were the slide bolts.

Whatever, I have a 7mm allen socket now.

Also, determined the oil leak is the oil filter housing. Which is a $6 gasket, and about 4-5 hours of work...