" It's the internet, an articulate fat chick would work too. She doesn't even have to be cute. "

" Sometimes on the internet comments can be taken the wrong way because you cannot judge a person's inflection based on their typing. And some people just like to be a-holes because they feel there are no repercussions because they are not likely to ever meet the person they are insulting.

Those are GC's street camber plates. They have a poly isolation bushing which fully prevents noise at the cost of slightly more rubberyness, if you will. They also have a bearing that prevents spring bind when turning. "

" Really? The Ground Control website specifically states its plates have the feature I am talking about:

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" LOL, literally. "

" Lots of turbo cars (other than BMWs) run T6. It is quite popular in that application. "

" That design allows the spring to spin independent of the strut mount which is important for two reasons. First, when turning the front wheels this is necessary to prevent binding of the spring in a MacPhereson strut front suspension. Second, when the spring is compressed, it will naturally wants to unwind slightly which causes the top of the spring to rotate relative to the bottom, so the design above allows this to happen resulting in a smoother feeling suspension.

I have never held the Fortune Auto camber plates in my hands, but it appears from the pictures I've seen that the thrust loads from the weight of the car are transferred through the spring perch and into the spherical bearing. This is what I am talking about preventing.

Attachment 31136
(From http://www.northamericanmotoring.com...coilovers.html)

Here you have to torrington bearing installed between the spring perch and the spring. In the image posted in the thread above, the bearing is installed between the spring perch and the mount. Either way it allows for rotation of the spring, but still transfers the thrust loads to the spherical bearing.

If you can envision a version of the mount above where the green spring perch directly contacts the black slide and in between the is torrington bearing, that would be what I am talking about. The thrust loads would be transferred directly to the mount, and the spherical bearing would position the strut shaft. "

" I use Rotella T6 and also noticed decreased consumption. Though, as I said above, my turbos have excessive play. I also noticed hotter oil temps with the T6, but never above 110°C (230°F) once I am moving. This is the thermostat opening temperature. I would only notice hotter temps in the winter, when the oil temperature never really got to 230°F. It was maybe 10°F higher with T6 than with BMW synthetic or M1. Now that it is summer, I get to 230 and stay there, except in traffic.

I want to get an UOA done on the T6, but had such bad oil consumption using anything but Stage 0 I was adding oil so quickly an UOA would have been worthless. Now that I am back to Stage 0, I am adding a quart every 1500-1800 miles, which is similar to what was happening before. I have also used the BMW oil and Mobil 1. Hopefully after I get my replacement turbos, I will stop consuming oil and can get a real UOA on the T6. "

" I really recommend looking at the front mounts, and trying to remove the weight of the vehicle from the spherical bearing (pillowball) and using something like a torrington bearing to support the weight of the car. If this is not done, it is almost certain play will develop in the spherical bearing leading to noisy mounts.

If the spring hat rests on the bottom of the sliding portion of the mount using a torrington bearing, then the spherical bearing can control the position of the strut shaft, and the torrington bearing takes the weight of the car. Some o-rings on the inside and outside of the torrington bearing between the spring hat and the sliding portion of the mount could be used to keep dust and water out.

Other than that, it's always good to see more options. what kind of price would the finished product be offered at? "

" Just because an oil meets LL-01 doesn't mean it will be appropriate for everyone in every condition. I think most people here are operating this engine outside of BMW's envisioned environment with more than double the amount of factory boost, and larger than factory turbos, etc. There are many good oils on the market that may even outperform an LL-01 oil but don't have the certification from BMW. It all depends on the situation. This is why used oil analysis is so important when you start to do things the manufacturer of the vehicle didn't design for.

FWIW, I saw increaed oil consumption with Mobil1 0w-40, but it wasn't really the oil's fault. If my turbos did not have excessive axial shaft play, I probably would have seen no difference. "

" Cool you got it fixed. If you don't want to pay dealer prices, buy Mann filters. They are the OEM for the oil filter. The filter for the N54 (and other contemporary BMW engines it seems) is "Mann HU 816 X". However, getbmwparts.com has the filter for 10 bucks, so that is hard to beat.
"

" I do like the idea of coilovers as well. I don't think many people really understand how much different a car can be with a proper suspension. Its fun to go fast in a straight line, but things get really interesting when you go fast around corners. "

" I think it has a lot to do with moisture absorption over time as well. I know there is a lot of anicdotal evidence online of people with boat engines having problem with ethanol containing fuels. "

" I'm sure it is for efficiency. Those looking to extract maximum performance should consider a low temp t-stat. "

" Take a long screwdriver and hold the handle to your ear while touching the tip to various parts of the engine while a helper holds the rpms at a level that produces the sounds. Tr the alternator, vacuum pump, HPFP, etc. "

" I don't think aluminum has the fatigue resistance that steels has. So when it flexes over time, it cracks more easily. Think about bending a paper clip back and forth.

The lugs are constantly loaded an unloaded as the wheel spins and the car steers left and the right. I would say steel is the only material to use for lugs. "

" Correlation does not imply causation. It said that before he went on "vacation" too.

The guy may have brought a lot of quality people and content to this forum three years ago, but recently he has done nothing but obstruct constructive conversation. "

" Couldn't you enlarge the ear with a drill or a Dremel? It is half the price of other intercoolers. Not that I think less of the product, as I bought one. "

" I've been plagued with oil consumption issues and smoking with catalyst free down pipes. I plan on buying some upgraded turbos (see last paragraph), but wanted to be sure this would fix the problem. I figured if I could measure the axial play in the turbo shafts, this should be the smoking gun I need.

I noticed when I bought the car it ate a quart of oil every 1500-2000 miles. I was told this is normal and these cars just use oil. Bullshit. Once I put on the FMIC and downpipes sans catalysts, I noticed smoking issues that I originally attributed to PCV problems. After re-engineering the PCV system to actually catch oil vapor instead of making a mess of the inside of my intake ports, I still had problems. The main one was my denial that the turbos were not bad.

I also noticed I burned more oil the higher I had the boost. For this reason I have been running Cobb Stage 0 and my oil consumption dropped from a quart ever 250-500 miles with Stage 2 + FMIC to 1800 miles as of the last quart added running Stage 0.

I borrowed a dial indicator and holder with various arms from work.

Attachment 30971 "