Professional Monster Energy Athlete Steve Baggsy Biagioni signed a partnership with “Goodwood Motor Circuit” to offer a drift experience as a part of their corporate experiences. He decided to go with the E92 M3. We fit the E92 M3 with the CSF cooling package, which includes the engine oil cooler, the engine water radiator, the DCT cooler, and the power steering cooler.
The upgrades discussed apply to E90 M3, E92 M3 & E93 M3.
Power Steering Cooler
One of the biggest loves of enthusiasts on the E9X M3 platform is one of its biggest Achilles heels. Whilst the M3's hydraulic steering provides incredible feedback, as it is used, the fluid heats up, and a common complaint is that the power steering fluid will overheat, leading to poor steering feel and, in extreme situations, leak out of the reservoir, leaving a mess in the engine bay and potentially leading to a serious accident for you or whoever drives over the fluid.
When you look at the stock power steering cooler, you can see why it struggles. The factory cooler uses a really old style and is adequate for road driving a mechanically bonded core. This has a comparatively small surface area for heat transfer to the find from the tubes that the power steering fluid travels through, greatly limiting efficiency. The cooler is also very small, under utilising the space available.
To help prevent this issue, the CSF power steering cooler improves in every area of the original design. The CSF power steering cooler used a CAB-brazed core, which dramatically increases the surface area for heat transfer from the tubes to the fins vs the OE power steering cooler. The CSF power steering cooler has a dual-pass design and adds additional cooling rows with a super high-pressure wide 4-channel microtube core. All of this works together to deliver a lab-tested 40% increase in efficiency vs. stock, resulting in a power steering system that will continue to deliver the incredible steering feel, lap after lap.
Engine Oil Cooler
The S65 V8 ///M engine at the heart of the E9x M3 is renowned for having bearing and vanos problems, and critical to their performance longevity is not only the design of the parts but the oil quality too. It's not uncommon for the powerful, high-revving S65 engine oil to get very hot on track, especially on modified builds with more grip and power. The problem is that when oil gets too hot, it uses the oil additives sooner, reduces lubrication, and can lead to deposits being made around the engine. All things to avoid if you want longevity.
The factory cooler has several features that leave a lot of performance on the table: it doesn't utilise all of the space available, limiting cooling performance, and it has an unreliable design whereby the end tanks are mechanically crimped onto the core, resulting in a common failure rate on higher-mileage and older vehicles, which are all now. Not to mention the fins being well beyond their best after being battered by debris across the years.
The CSF engine oil cooler utilises all of the space behind the bumper while still being an OE fit, requiring no modifications. The core is then TIG welded onto the end tanks, meaning it won't fail in the same way. During independent testing by MOTO IQ, the CSF oil cooler has been proven to reduce the engine oil temperature from a toasty 127 degrees Celsius to 105 degrees.
Gearbox Cooler
With a lot of these cars specified with M-DCT and the same cooler being used on the M-DCT gearbox as the manual, it's no surprise that the M-DCT struggles. Common complaints of M-DCT owners are poor gear selection, being stuck in gears, and the gear box control unit controller can start to extend the shift times to help prevent the gearbox from heating up anymore. The CSF gearbox cooler uses a much larger, efficient core that has been tested to have up to 30% more efficiency than stock, keeping the M-DCT gearbox in its optimum operating window for longer.
Water Radiators
With such a colossal improvement available from the CSF power steering cooler, CSF engine oil cooler, and CSF gearbox cooler, it's no surprise there are cooling benefits left on the table with the water radiator too.
When on track and pushing your M3 hard, if you logged the temperatures, rather than relying on the inaccurate dash display, you would immediately learn that the coolant temperatures are way too hot. It's common to see temperatures in excess of 120°C, way above the recommended 100-105°C maximum. These radiators are also well over 10 years old, and failures of the crimped-on core to the plastic end tank are becoming very common.
To solve these two issues, the CSF radiator uses a much larger, efficient core that still fits within the same space constraints. Efficiency is improved by around 15% vs. the factory, delivering consistently cooler water temperatures, which will also improve the oil temperature. The CSF core uses a B-tube core rather than a conventional O-tube. The B-tube has more surface area, dual laminar flow, and is much stronger, allowing for less material to be used. All of this, combined, means you get a big cooling performance boost without the colossal weight penalty of other O-tube radiators.
During independent testing, MOTO IQ tested a drop in engine water temperatures from 23 degrees Celsius to 100 degrees according to CSF.
Ensure your BMW E90, E92, or E93 M3 is track-ready with the ultimate CSF cooling package from Regal Autosport. Upgrade today to achieve optimum cooling performance and durability under extreme conditions. Are you ready to elevate your drive? Contact us today at 02380558636 .