Wicks' E46 M3 Build. Hertz 3-Way Set from Tony D!

[Wicks]

Onto the Mechman re-install.

The upgraded Alt now uses an adjustable external regulator so I had to find a place to mount it...and I don't have much for room under my hood.

Here's the mocked up piece of wood I made to fit my regulator and relays. One relay for my LED halo lights and one to power the regulator.

Time to tear this thing open yet again and swap the stock Alt for the Mechman.

Time for you to go...twice now.

And she's out. Much easier the second time although those hard cooling lines right behind the Alt are a pain to deal with.

The Mechman needs a bolt at the bottom which lines up perfectly with those coolant lines...

Side by side of the stock Alt (right) and the Mechman (left)

I said it before and I'll say it again...its hard to believe that the "smaller" Mechman puts out 2.3x more power than the original Alt.

Along with the upgraded regulator, Mechman changed the windings so now this guy should output 200A at idle (up from the previous 160A).

But it does steal some peak output to do so. My peak dropped from 320A to 280A, still pretty good for what I'm planning in this car.

Stock Alt pulley size

Mechman pulley size

Looks like the Mechman pulley is smaller and therefore should spin faster.

Since I'm in here, I figured I'd add another ground line from the Alt to the chassis since I plan on using that as a return path (along with my separate run of 0ga).

I drilled a hole in the frame and used a grinder to remove the surrounding paint for better conductivity.

Here's a closeup

Extra ground strap secured

Sprayed on some Rustoleum white primer to help against rust and contaminates

Helpful hint:

Since this Alt doesn't have a separate ground bolt, it uses its case as the ground return which conducts through the engine mount.

I used some sandpaper to clean of any grease/oil residue which inevitably gets all over engine components.

This ensures I'm getting great contact between the engine/alt mount and the alternator.

Here's the almost finished mounting plate for the relays/regulator

Yep, I know its MDF under the hood... I primer-ed it and put some clear coat on it.

It was the easiest and quickest mounting plate that I could come up. Fab'ing up a metal plate will take a bit more effort so we'll see

how this holds up.

Mechman installed!

A small twist on the regulator pot and I'm at a solid 14.8V.

[Twostrokeking]

I love ur build dude. Huge inspiration

[TylerParrish]

dude, this is turning out amazingly! I read through all of it and even though I'm not into foreign cars....when a car's nice, a car's nice, and damn your car is nice xD Makes me wanna go work on mine....right now....at 1:42 am just to get some actual work done on it.

[Wicks]

I love ur build dude. Huge inspiration

dude, this is turning out amazingly! I read through all of it and even though I'm not into foreign cars....when a car's nice, a car's nice, and damn your car is nice xD Makes me wanna go work on mine....right now....at 1:42 am just to get some actual work done on it.

Thanks Guys!

Much appreciated.

Can't wait to get this thing buttoned up so I can really start using it.

[car_lost]

put some wire loom or something on the wires from the relays... it'll looks much cleaner. either way, im loving the rest of the work. can't wait to see more.

[Wicks]

put some wire loom or something on the wires from the relays... it'll looks much cleaner. either way, im loving the rest of the work. can't wait to see more.

Yep definitely going to do that, I like it looking clean, good suggestion.

It was later in the day and I wanted to get everything installed so I could test out the alternator.

Thanks for the comments.

[Wicks]

Signal wiring update:

So my Canare LV77 coax signal wire was acting up and some of the compression RCA ends were coming off.

Adding to the problem was the weak, stranded center conductor which would easily deform as it was inserted into the RCA plugs.

A solution would be to buy expensive RCA plugs where the center conductor has a separate piece that is inserted before the shield.

Not wanting to get too much more complicated, I ditched the Canare for some plain old RG6 that I had laying around.

Besides the Canare LV77 was supposed to be RG59 (smaller diameter than RG6) according to the website, but it turns out that its in fact larger that RG6. Probly hence the "77" in the name.

I had a hard time finding any connectors to fit over the large jacket.

With plain old RG6 coax all of those issues are gone and it should have plenty of noise cancelling for a car environment.

The new RG6 was also a double-run which means that it had two coax runs attached to each other. Made running a total of four runs much easier.

I don't have a lot of room behind my HU at all so I wanted to make sure that the stiff coax wouldn't have a depth problem. I used some 90 degree F-Connectors to help with the bends behind the HU.

I didn't want a stacking problem so I had to use two 90 degree bends on the SUB outs to make sure I don't extend too far out from the HU.

Quite the mess of wires and connectors but it does help reduce the overall depth needed.

Now.....I'm hoping the stiff coax wire doesn't add any torque and mess up the RCA jacks on the back of the HU.

:fingers crossed:

Now that that's done.....on to the beasts!

[Wicks]

Time to install my DC Audio XL12's!

First off, I had to extend the direct leads a bit to allow me to wire them up in the box before install since I don't have room in the box when the subs are loaded.

My Harbor Freight crimper came in handy:

I got some 8ga couplers and crimped the wire extensions. Soldering those couplers would have more than likely melted the wire insulation and cause a huge mess.

Added some heatshrink afterwards and it worked great.

Prepped the baffle with some painters tape to help make sure these heavy beasts don't scratch up the baffle holes.

Running the wires before the subs are installed.

Wire connections on the side:

Almost ready...

Soooo, about mounting a 50lb sub on a painted, angled baffle inside a car...

First one in!

It took a few tries to hold that monster up to the hole before I came up with a method to support the motor in the box as I slide it in.

Check out how close the motor is to my port assembly...

Don't think I'm getting any Level5's in this box.

I knew it was going to be close on paper, glad I didn't get any surprises.

Time for the second one.

Second one is in!!

Ass shot:

My suspension doesn't look too bad after adding another 100lbs.

Still got another 70lb XP3000 to go though...

[Sosebee]

Looks super clean man. The thing I love about this site is how people take their time and do things right. Looks amazing and I hope it sounds the same. Great work.

[Wicks]

Looks super clean man. The thing I love about this site is how people take their time and do things right. Looks amazing and I hope it sounds the same. Great work.

Thanks

Much appreciated.

There are some amazing builds on here. Great community for advice as well.