I did a MOD! (twice)
Also I almost helped a guy win a Darwin Award! (I thought I already posted about this one? maybe I did but I can't see it so... anyways)
So we found out that my e46 is the version that should have the cats on the manifolds built in (two 3to1 manis for the 6 cyl meaning two cats), not under the car as other years had it. But as it has literally straight pipes there. welded in horribly with lots of holes, and basically only a gutted silencer at the end, it is ear bleedingly loud both inside and outside. Also it means that the most popular mod of today, adding pops and bangs to your 1.2l 3cyl turbo modern shitbox, is built in by default, for free!
I had a friend importing parts from a breaking of a RHD 330i from which I was promised the full factory exhaust almost for free, but due to weather and reason, it wouldn't arrive for over a month. SO I did the only mod that was cheap enough in the meantime.
Beer cans!
Drank the beers (2 cos dual exhaust end). Cut off the top and bent back some bits so it wouldn't shoot out from the muffler immediately, drilled holes in the bottom, filled them with steelwool (actually metal "sponges" marketed for doing the dishes with cos I have no effing clue where I could get steel wool, that is just not a thing here), and pushed em up as far as they would go inside the muffler.
It works! Kinda. My new fun game is to keep the throttle pressed down as little as possible at all times (stops pops) and to keep revs below 2500-3000 so as to stop the cans from shooting out the back lol
I found this out by driving too hard (lots of hills here) and loosing one of the cans. I'm guessing no one was behind me at the time cos no one tried to beat me to up at the lights. Anyways, it's working pretty well for cruising in the city, no neighbors complained yet when I go out for drives after bedtime, but now that the exhaust system arrived I won't have to worry about it for long.
The almost Darwin Award! (or rather, accidental manslaughter or whatever it's called properly in english)
Meanwhile, before the beer cans mod, I went to a guy who does bodywork, welding and stuff, to try and fix up the exhaust (that's when I found out about how literally "straight piped" my car is)
Apart from almost killing the dude, who as it turned out actually built quiet of few things and is a master welder, stuff probably all of you have seen in movies, it went pretty well.
The car was left in gear one time during the numerous starts (to see where it leaks still) while he was down under it in the pit , and as it turned out that little motor has tons of torque, so yeah, you can imagine the rest. But I'll try to describe it anyways cos I had a beer and I feel like writing.
I turned the key from the outside through the open window for like the 37th time that day, and it all suddenly turned into a chaos of engine noise, stuff crunching under the tires and shouting. Lots of very loud shouting NOOOOO NOOOOO in an "I'm getting torn to shreds" tone . The shed's door was open so it rolled outside and I managed to turn the key through the cars window before it crashed into the wall opposite the shed, so it only traveled about 3/4 car lengths when it came to a halt. The engine was sputtering a bit, that probably helped as well with it not going full idle speed. It would've stalled by itself, but probably not before hitting the wall. I dunno, these are the kinda details that the adrenalin washes away and I'll never clearly remember. Point is the car stopped, and the shouting didn't (which was reassuring)
Thankfully the only casualty was the dude's new pair of welding goggles. That's why he was shouting NOOO, cos he left em right in the path of the rear tires and saw em get crunched.
Some cursing and very angry noises followed, but later he got rid of all the leaks he could which helped immensely with the pops and bangs. I can still remember the shouting a month+ later and the kinda shock of "OMFG we just decapitated him". I say we, cos my friend was there and he moved the car between starts and accidentally left it in gear, but ofc I was the idiot for not checking if it was in neutral or not. I'm kinda paranoid with stuff like this, up to the point where my wife gets angry with me about it when I go back to check if I locked the doors or not, but I know I do it for a good fuckin reason! This time I let my guard down, and there was the result of barely getting lucky instead of being precise and avoiding shit like this. I don't like "getting lucky". It's not something anyone should depend upon, especially when it can turn real serious real fast. I like being thorough and doing it right, even if everyone around me thinks I'm an overly cautious idiot. It works.
BTW my friend should know this better than me, he had a million serious accidents, one time he basically ran/fell through a fucking glass door (Regular Glass!) at full speed as a kid, but because he came out of it without even a mildly serious scratch, I guess he just didn't learn from it. He was full of light scars for a couple weeks. The doc told him they almost always have to perform life saving surgeries on cases like his, , ther ppl wouldn't be so lucky and have a shard cutting their arteries and even bleed out on the spot, but all they had to do with him was basically to brush him off to get rid of the glass and that's it. Lucky bastard lol
Well, lesson learned for me at least, one pair of new goggles paid for, and I'm still kinda welcome back there, so it's a happy ending. Mind you , the shed's doors were just as wide as the car, so as I tried to turn the car off while running beside the it, one hand trying to hold it back the other reaching for the key, it was getting awfully close to becoming a proper looney toons cartoon accident with me smashing head first into the wall as the car drove out the door. That would've been epic if we caught it on video, I'd be a tiktok star by now!
So anyways, here's a thing that the guy built with this two hands from scratch, you might remember it if you've seen Blade Runner 20somthing, it's the one A.S. drives in the video:
View: https://youtu.be/c_9iv9HwO5Q?t=82
PS.: the parking sensors. I changed them, and it worked, But Only that one time when my friend moved the car in the shed. I'm guessing it's faulty wiring, it's gonna be a real pain to figure this one out.
Sort of a BRZ/Miata with attitude
