👋 INTRO Semi Slop from SC

[ArmyBimmer]

Evening all! Just a quick introduction along with my 5.3 build progress and what it's going into (hopefully)

So the original plan was to make a Drag Week/ Rocky Mountain Race week truck and just slowly develop/ improve it over the years... But...

The truck runs fine now, so I plan to acquire everything I will need to do the swap, and then attempt the swap in a weekend to limit the downtime on the truck.

Also I've been moving more towards just a fast driver that I can use to get to work (250 mile round trip) when my daily is down.

The daily is a 242,000 mile E46 M3 that I have been driving daily for almost 5 years now, the last three of which have been about a 250 mile daily drive.

Thanks this is long enough already so I'll hold off on the planned parts list unless people let me know they want to hear it.
John

Click to read more...

 

[Flyn]

Interesting build. Lonnnggg commute. Welcome to TCG!

 

[Mook]

So many bad ass trucks joining. Welcome!

 

[ArmyBimmer]

So many bad ass trucks joining. Welcome!

Thanks! This one has been in the family for quite a while, it's my Grandfather's old truck, so when he passed about 10 years ago I kept it running for my grandmother until she decided she no longer needed it, it's a 1984 scottsdale longbed with about 110k miles on it. Lots of memories in that truck

 

[ArmyBimmer]

Interesting build. Lonnnggg commute. Welcome to TCG!

Thanks! Yeah it's a bit of a haul, but the M3 has made it 'fun' which is what has me leaning towards a manual trans setup in the truck, but it seems that the general and popular setup is a 4l80E they're just so hard to find around here, and I have an unhealthy obsession with jamming my own gears...

 

[Flyn]

I hear you. I had to switch to a 4 door auto Caddy for real estate and shifting isn't easy with customers in the car and paperwork all over the place. Still, rowing gears is best. I take out my son's Focus ST when I want to have some fun.

 

[IDAFC21]

Sweet! Nuthin wrong w/ a BMW as a daily I say.

Welcome!

 

[v6buicks]

These are the best kind of builds IMO. Purpose built racecars are cool in their own right, but but why not have your cake and eat it too? I'm building my Camaro to be a fun commuter car as well. Our Volvo will eventually be built the same way except more on the comfort side than the speed side. It's cool that your truck holds some sentiment as well. That makes the project so much more fun. Welcome to the site!

 

[FESTER665]

Welcome to the site!

Man, that commute would KILL me.... I had to go and see how big a 125 mile radius would be for me just to get an idea of how far it is.

 

[ArmyBimmer]

I hear you. I had to switch to a 4 door auto Caddy for real estate and shifting isn't easy with customers in the car and paperwork all over the place. Still, rowing gears is best. I take out my son's Focus ST when I want to have some fun.

Ah yeah I could see that being a pain... this will likely only ever be me riding in it thankfully, even if I keep the bench seat, I dont imagine anyone riding in the middle so I could theoretically run a manual and keep the bench seat, or go with some buckets and a console... decisions decisions...

 

[ArmyBimmer]

Sweet! Nuthin wrong w/ a BMW as a daily I say.

Welcome!

Thank you! Its my fourth three series, Ive raced them for a while, so when my daughter was born and it was time to put the brakes on racing, it made sense to keep something that I was familiar with and could work on.

 

[ArmyBimmer]

These are the best kind of builds IMO. Purpose built racecars are cool in their own right, but but why not have your cake and eat it too? I'm building my Camaro to be a fun commuter car as well. Our Volvo will eventually be built the same way except more on the comfort side than the speed side. It's cool that your truck holds some sentiment as well. That makes the project so much more fun. Welcome to the site!

Thats where Im at with it at this point, like that would be cool, but it really didnt make sense for me. If thats not going to be its primary use, why commit to that fully? If I can have A/C and a Manual, and 500 HP, and still throw crap in the back when I go to Lowes, wheres the downside? Looking forward to seeing more about the volvo, Ive always had a soft spot for those turbo LS crazy Volvo wagons. Plus with the new Volvo plant near where I work Ive been seeing a lot more of them lately...

 

[ArmyBimmer]

Welcome to the site!

Man, that commute would KILL me.... I had to go and see how big a 125 mile radius would be for me just to get an idea of how far it is.

Thanks!

Its been pretty brutal, lots of audiobooks, podcasts, music, alleged triple-digit blasts down the highway at 5 in the morning...
But thats where work is and thats what pays the bills. Definitely looking for something closer but hard to find anything that has comparable pay and benefits...

 

[FESTER665]

Thanks!

Its been pretty brutal, lots of audiobooks, podcasts, music, alleged triple-digit blasts down the highway at 5 in the morning...
But thats where work is and thats what pays the bills. Definitely looking for something closer but hard to find anything that has comparable pay and benefits...

I get it.... I always say it would take a good amount of money to get me to work somewhere else since my commute is 3 miles.

Nice to have you on the site though, it's been a nice influx of people...

 

[v6buicks]

Thats where Im at with it at this point, like that would be cool, but it really didnt make sense for me. If thats not going to be its primary use, why commit to that fully? If I can have A/C and a Manual, and 500 HP, and still throw crap in the back when I go to Lowes, wheres the downside? Looking forward to seeing more about the volvo, Ive always had a soft spot for those turbo LS crazy Volvo wagons. Plus with the new Volvo plant near where I work Ive been seeing a lot more of them lately...

The Volvo won't be LS powered because I'm too weird for that, but the quicker, more fuel efficient, more useful, cold AC, and high reliability without buying new car thing is still the same madness I'm after.

 

[ArmyBimmer]

I get it.... I always say it would take a good amount of money to get me to work somewhere else since my commute is 3 miles.

Nice to have you on the site though, it's been a nice influx of people...

Yeah, I used to have a 2.5-mile commute... I did it on a motorcycle and it cost me like $14 bucks in gas every two weeks, now its like $30-$40 a day...

Thanks its good to be here! I grew up in Indiana and my Dad is from Illinois originally, so that counts right? lol

 

[Spivitz]

Man, love it ???


Welcome

 

[FESTER665]

Yeah, I used to have a 2.5-mile commute... I did it on a motorcycle and it cost me like $14 bucks in gas every two weeks, now its like $30-$40 a day...

Thanks its good to be here! I grew up in Indiana and my Dad is from Illinois originally, so that counts right? lol

So many people moved on from Chicago but are still on here.... It's all good!

 

[ArmyBimmer]

The Volvo won't be LS powered because I'm too weird for that, but the quicker, more fuel, efficient, more useful, cold AC, and high reliability without buying new car thing is still the same madness I'm after.

Hell yeah, My M3 is not LS either, but I have over the years gone for quicker, faster, more reliable when anything breaks and it made more sense to put a ton of miles on it than buying something new and putting a bunch of miles on it. I like this madness that we are all a part of!

 

[Gtirhd]

that long bed tho

 

[ArmyBimmer]

Well this seems to be getting a bit of interest so I'll throw some more info on here, starting with the M3 cause it has the most done to it (so far) then Ill throw together another post here (unless there is a better place to put it) about the progress on the truck.

So it's a 2003 BMW M3 that I bought in early 2016 to replace my turbo S50 powered E36 and my E46 330 that I had converted back from track mode to street mode after losing my second M54B30 engine...

So far (short version) It has:

Reinforced subframe
Driveshaft shop 1000 HP axles
Coated rod bearings/ new oil pump during that job
Supersprint stepped headers and oversized mid section
Single resonated X-pipe and race catback all Supersprint
Matte bronze Apex Arc-8 wheels in 18x9.5 square
Just a ton of other maintenance stuff for 242k miles

 

[ArmyBimmer]

that long bed tho

Hell yeah, another long bed buddy! They're so useful, I use the hell out of mine!

 

[Gtirhd]

Hell yeah, another long bed buddy! They're so useful, I use the hell out of mine!

everyone tells me that I need a short bed and its a poor mans c10 which I get. mines been a shop truck for 30 years, haul 8 foot sheets of steel and pick up body parts and junkyard runs weekly with it, plus I haul motorcycles and dirt bikes all the time. for me I wouldn't trade it for a short bed. that being said I do wanna buy a short bed for another truck as a toy

 

[ArmyBimmer]

everyone tells me that I need a short bed and its a poor mans c10 which I get. mines been a shop truck for 30 years, haul 8 foot sheets of steel and pick up body parts and junkyard runs weekly with it, plus I haul motorcycles and dirt bikes all the time. for me I wouldn't trade it for a short bed. that being said I do wanna buy a short bed for another truck as a toy

Meh I've heard that too and seen a lot of short bed conversions, but I like the long bed, its the truck we use to actually to do work rather than my brother and father-in-laws new trucks with short beds...

I'm going to keep mine long bed, not cutting it or trading it, too much history with it

 

[Yaj Yak]

long bed ftmfw

i miss my texas limo crew cab long bed truck occasionally and yeah. long bed for the motherfucking win.