1995 e34 540i/6 *m60b44* - Return to Some Kind of Glory

[marshallnoise]

Wow great work. You are really attacking that motor from every angle. Better of to have pulled it and done all the work?

Thanks man! Yeah, it would be easier to do all the work if the motor was pulled. But I don't have a place to put the motor to work on it. It would be on the side of my house and the only engine stand I have currently has an m30b35 block on it. :/ Really, all of this work hasn't been that bad. The worst part is the unbelievable mess that the power steering leak created, that was subsequently ignored, and turned into a paste that just gets everywhere. I am going to do MORE power washing later.

Unless I feel like absolute garbage when I get home, I plan on getting the intake back on the car and hopefully getting it fired up as a test fire.

Definitely swinging by Home Depot for some M12 washers per this write up. The purpose is to increase downward pressure on the m60 intake manifold gaskets which become a common source for intake manifold leaks. In fact, I could have tried this first had I come across it earlier.

[TimeMachinE30]

As an E38 740iL owner, I am watching your work with much interest. Keep up the good work!

Mine seems to have a miss under load. I have all new plugs to install. I hope it is that simple. Next will be coils...

[marshallnoise]

As an E38 740iL owner, I am watching your work with much interest. Keep up the good work!

Mine seems to have a miss under load. I have all new plugs to install. I hope it is that simple. Next will be coils...

Its funny, I didn't have hardly any time driving the car to figure out what it's issues were. I brought it home and after 2 commutes to work, it went right under the knife.

What year is your e38? One of those with the 6 speed manual would be epic.

I got a lot of work done tonight. I will post an update when Youtube is finished loading a video.

[marshallnoise]

I didn't kill it!

I managed to get the intake mounted, rewired and fueled enough to get it to start this evening.

Started off with a run to Home Depot to get the m12 washers mentioned in the post above. The idea is to place additional pressure on the rubber washers to force a better seal at the intake manifold gaskets.
20151111_184059_zpsdrk67p4c by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

And there are 9 of the 10 I need. I freaking lost one of them!!!! Oh well.
20151111_185653_zpsx7xo7w3d by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

The manifold with new Elring gaskets all loaded up. I didn't have any issues throwing it on like some folks do.
20151111_185633_zpsltrb7zcu by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Prepped for install.
20151111_185641_zpsy64xtxnw by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

For posterity and some instruction for folks who haven't seen this, there is a vacuum tube (no, not the ones in guitar amps) that runs from the driver's cylinder head back to the PCV valve.

In the pic below you see the blue o-ring in the center. The pipe slides over it.
20151111_192523_zps17pc2inq by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

This is a picture with the tube slid over it. I need to order the clip that goes over it. I don't think mine ever had it. At least I don't recall seeing it.
20151111_192750_zpsw5kfzwvi by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Spent about 20 minutes hooking up the wiring and fuel lines. Random picture.
20151111_193959_zpsfs52ckld by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Another random picture.
20151111_194016_zpscpn5dozd by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Made sure everything was out of the way of the drive pulleys and loosely connected up the intake elbow and airbox. I didn't cinch down the brake booster lines or the other vacuum line on the TP either. I just wanted to see if the sucker would start.

30 seconds of letting the fuel pump prime and another 30 seconds of cranking, she came to life. No horrid sounds, just a motor that needs to be checked for vacuum leaks again. Haha!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRFAsNtEcR4

When cleaning up after my successful start, I found #10 intake manifold bolt thingy. Sonofa....!
20151111_205051_zpskhspikor by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

[marshallnoise]

Busy Friday and Saturday. My buddy Mike's 97 4Runner decided to piss diff fluid out it's outer seals so the weekend was occupied by that. Not too tough of a job, but you gotta remove everything attached to the drums, remove four bolts and pull the whole axle out. Pull the seal and then replace everything. Then you gotta bleed the drums. Which I suck at. I supervised mainly, but helped every now and then.

In the mean time, I hooked up the remainder of the cooling system and toyed with the Taurus e-fan.

Here is what I am working with:
20151113_190235_zpsdzjffksk by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20151113_190316_zpsl5vswljz by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20151113_191257_zpsu3yr3fh9 by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20151113_191348_zpsuctiojmh by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Now in the car the Taurus e-fan is simply too thick. Plus this orientation makes it clear all the drive pulleys which tend to be congregated on the driver's side of the engine.
20151114_100038_zpsharjrokh by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20151114_100052_zpsp73rp87v by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20151114_100100_zpstqqlfqub by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

So I trimmed the crap out of it and made it thinner. I didn't take any pictures though because I decided to do a test of the motor with fresh coolant and everything cinched up.

Sure as shit, as soon as a filled it up with coolant and had it running, it started to piss out coolant at a furious rate. From where you ask? The &$*#ing valley pan gasket. That meant I had to tear it all apart, AGAIN!!! ARGH!

With some help from another friend who stopped by to shoot the breeze, I got it torn down and resealed. Fired it up, filled with coolant and the motor is tight as a drum!

Left it running for about 15 minutes and watched the needle. Stayed at the middle and was tickled pink. Except I noticed fresh coolant leaking again! This time from the driver's side of the radiator. Checked out the hoses and they were fine.

I can only presume the radiator tank has a crack in it somewhere or there is a hole I overlooked. Oh well.

The plan is a Mishimoto e36 M3 radiator.

When it rains, it pours!

[marshallnoise]

Mishimoto time

I was pleasantly surprised when I got home that my new e36 Mishimoto radiator showed up already. Ordered it on Saturday and it was here Wednesday. Amazon said it would take longer. I gotta say, the packaging was rad and the craftsmanship appears to be fantastic.

20151118_171533_zpsajsfak4c by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20151118_192324_zpsyxxsotif by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

So I went about draining what was left of the coolant in the radiator in the car. I tried saving as much as I could but that was a gigantic failure ending up with fluid everywhere. Oh fooking whell.

I was lucky enough to find the custom bracket required to fit a narrower e36 radiator in an e34 at the local dealership for $16. It is for an e30 m3 and even though its no longer available at BMW corporate, there are apparently tons of them left in the system.
e30 m3 Bracket_zpsljkykikl by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

I swapped over the passenger side bracket to the driver side and fitted the old radiator's rubber bushings onto the Mishimoto job. The top hose fit great too. The bottom...not so much as expected. You can't really see it, but it is kinked up pretty good.
20151118_192318_zpsanlfieiw by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20151118_192304_zpsyvwmyu5l by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

So I had to get creative with the trimming of the bottom hose. I didn't want to splice it like other folks did though with as much hacking up of the stock hose I had to do, it would have worked out just the same. No pics of it. But it looks like it should if it was to fit like a normal hose.

Finally able to fill it with coolant and get some gas in it, I ragged it out for a short drive. I love the self-bleeding nature of the m60 too. But it takes a couple of heat cycles to get all the air out of the system.

I need new throttle cables and aluminum bushings because the throttle response is just not great at the moment. The cables look like hell and are missing the threaded bushings anyway. Oh, and while getting rid of the lean right cylinder bank code, I have a new one: 1216 TPS. Need to see if the potentiometer can be cleaned up or a new one has to be ordered. It also could be that the throttle cable is not adjusted properly. It didn't throw a code before so I am unsure.

Happy to report that it runs great despite having lifter tick. I will be running some Marvel Mystery Oil in the crank case for a few weeks before doing another oil change to see if I can free up the lifters a bit. I am a big believer in the stuff.

Stuff still to do before daily driving it:

• I still need to wire up and install the Taurus fan set up.
• New throttle cable and throttle bushings
• Install front suspension stuff and rear dogbones
• Register it in my name
• Get insurance

Also took some pictures of it this morning for giggles right before leaving for work.

20151119_070758_zpsxdenayfu by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20151119_070813_zpsnaff5fdh by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20151119_070838_zpsva6jnbzr by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Oh yeah, my new to me m60b30 oil pan I got from the junk yard is leaking oil right around the oil plug. I forgot to try and tighten it up last night. I will try that first before I get all crazy. Though, I have seen some rad diamond plate reinforced lower oil pans. Since I have a MIG welder now, I may get in on that and try to fab something up.

[marshallnoise]

Here is what happened over the past couple of days.

First, the past three days have been occupied with our oldest cat (about 16 years old) getting pretty sick. She had a mass in her stomach near her intestines that grew to be about 3" in diameter. She eventually couldn't eat any more and wanted to drink water. Between Thursday and this morning, she had lost over a pound in weight, understanding she was a small cat anyway and the heaviest I have seen her in 8 years was 6 lbs. She was down to 4 lbs this morning and she looked gaunt and stumbled around from place to place. It was truly a heartbreaking experience. My wife is just beside herself.

Love you Kitten!!! Thanks for all the memories.
IMAG0344_zpsujdsaqux by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Back to the car...

Friday, I managed to swap out the spark plugs thinking that they were old and might be causing the flop around lifter noise I was getting on the motor. Sounded like a knock, but the internetz contribute such things to loose plugs or stuck lifter.

BMW wanted $13.49 each for a whopping total of $105 plus tax for the sum of eight plugs. No. Not doing that. But I did pick up a new radiator cap because the system wouldn't hold pressure. Sure enough, the new cap did the trick. Pretty easy to tell why in the pic below.

536_zpsne1uj0ru by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

I went to Vatozone and they had the NGK plugs I wanted for $5.49 each, which is much better.

Upon installation, 5 of the 8 were indeed loose. Especially on the driver's side. The old BOSCH plugs looked tired and there is evidence they got hot. But no damage to them otherwise.

Drivers bank, front is on the left
541_zpsqomwzfxr by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Passenger bank, front is on the right
542_zpszvrbqu5e by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Sure as hell was smoother running after that. Remarkable difference. And the knock was gone. I also added a bottle of Rislone figuring it couldn't hurt too much.

I also crawled under the car to see if I could tighten up the oil pan bolt a bit. It just spun freely after going around on it. I got it to it's tightest point and left it. It doesn't seem to be leaking at the moment. Oh well.

So last night I got in the car and flogged it some more and sure as shit, now the expansion tank is letting steam out. Fortunately I had a 535i tank from an e34 on hand. I installed that this morning now the system is holding pressure. FINALLY.

I decided to head to the junk yard to see what was there. First, there was a set of 18" e38 M-Parallels that were in pretty good shape. Not staggered and said made in Italy. No idea if they are real or not. But with Ecology not being Ecology any more (sold to LKQ Pick Your Part), prices doubled over night. Now a set with tires would cost me $240 before tax. There was a set of 16" e39 style 5s there too that were in really good shape, but same story. I decided to hold off as my credit card seems a bit on fire at the moment. I could always swing by tomorrow if I really want to go there.

What I was really looking for was another Volvo/Taurus fan setup. The Taurus fan I hacked up would be fine, except for there was no clean way to mount it. The Volvo fan I needed has a big lip on the top that hangs over the top of the radiator. Sure as shit, I found one at the yard and pulled it out.

Here it is installed in the car. All I had to do was trim off 1" off the left sight of the shroud and it slips right over the radiator like it was meant to be there.
20151121_133206_zpsi9iiqc1z by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

I am using this thread as my inspiration since I have everything he used. http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...Fan-Conversion

So I got to wiring on it this afternoon and got everything done except for a Bussman 40 Amp Auto-Reset Circuit Breaker and the power cable attached to the engine bay positive power terminal. I will try for the circuit breaker tomorrow at NAPA and figure out how to permanently attach the power in the bay.

Wiring up the temp sensor to the signal input on the Volvo fan relay setup.
20151121_160144_zps5mb1ebmv by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Brown from the sensor is ground (go figure)
20151121_160406_zpsh3utfa57 by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20151121_161506_zpscyy4e6rx by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Ground buss for the sensor and the fan
20151121_164040_zps8lcmo6s1 by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

I rushed to get the other stuff done and just touched the hot wire to the hot of the Volvo relay set up. No fires, no sparks, also no workey when the engine gets hot.

So I have to trouble shoot that crap after the Chargers loose to the Chiefs tomorrow.

[marshallnoise]

I decided to go out tonight and check to see if my wiring is legit. It is. I jumpered the brown wire to the purple and the low speed side of the fan kicked on, then jumpered the brown wire to the black and the high speed side of the fan kicked on.

That leaves two things as a possibility; either the coolant temperature switch is dead or the plug to the coolant temperature sensor is bad (it is awfully fragile and some of the connections are loose in the housing). I will more than likely epoxy the connections to the housing in place and try swapping in a new sensor.

Considering I have hand-wired guitar amplifiers before, I am glad I didn't hack this job up.

;)

EDIT: I also picked up a new TPS from the yard. I installed it and my code is still there. I will clean the connections on the harness and give that another shot.

[marshallnoise]

I went out after the Chargers lost (I am a prophet) and checked out the coolant level of the car. Sure enough, it was still low. So I drove down to Vatozone and bought some more coolant and the Bussman 40 Amp Auto-Reset Circuit Breaker. But the one I bought was a 30 Amp variety since that matches the relay in the Volvo fan controller.

I gave the 80/88 temp switch a chance again now that it actually had fluid touching it and sure as shit, everything clicked on as expected. So my temp switch wasn't a problem, but the coolant level was too low to allow the switch to work.

I will drive it to work tomorrow and see how everything goes. I think that the suspension woes may have been also made worse by the engine mount that was broken. I could be wrong. Either way, that's going to be the task for the rest of the week: Get the suspension swapped out. Then I can begin to make the car nice to sit in and look at. Finally!

Ohhh, I ordered a new shift cup from Garagistic and a new throttle cable from FCP Euro and an e60 545i shifter.

[marshallnoise]

FUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!

fuuuu-rage-guy1_1596246_zpsfimyt8rt by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

The second expansion tank developed a leak around the neck where the cap goes. Fortunately, I can bypass the coolant temp sensor (since now it has no coolant touching it to turn on) and get the fan cranked up all the time.

FCP Euro has a brand new OEM tank for $75.99. I want these cooling issues done. Old plastic parts fail, duh.

[marshallnoise]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-brRSYlRFjg

[sublimation]

Sounds like you have head gasket issues.

[marshallnoise]

Sounds like you have head gasket issues.

How can you be sure about that?

EDIT: I went out and removed the heater core plumbing and auxiliary heater pump. Plan is to bypass that junk to see what exactly is giving me fits. Head gaskets rarely blow on m60s. I think that if it turns out to be anything, it will be the coolant manifold. I quickly pulled that apart to avoid redoing the water pump when I had to tear down the motor again because of the valley pan fiasco. And the valley pan looks good from what I can tell.

[marshallnoise]

Found it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q6h7Pugcvo

[marshallnoise]

The URO Parts expansion tank hose lasted about 5 heat cycles and it burst. I will take pictures of the hole at some point. Basically, it follows along the injection mold seam. The way it burst looked to me like a manufacturing defect. I won't be buying any URO Parts cooling system items again.

I pray I am out of the woods on the coolant situation. Tomorrow's commute should give me an indication. I have bypassed the heater core since it was not working anyway and installed the original expansion tank hose. So far the car is holding pressure well and the Volvo fan, relay and 80/88c coolant temp sensor is doing the trick.

I am seriously considering ditching water based coolant though. According to Bill in the e39 Bimmerforums section, he has successfully switched to Evans Waterless Coolant. Basically, it is a mix of Propylene Glycol and Ethyl Glycol and uses no water. It has a boiling point of 375 degrees (far higher than water) and in a m60 based car, generates 3-5 lbs pressure as opposed to upwards of 30 lbs of pressure using standard 50/50.

Since the m60 has to run much hotter than the 4 and 6 cylinder cars to achieve proper emissions and MPG requirements, this means the motors are always on the edge of overheating. This heat is hard on rubber and plastic parts. But combining the heat with higher than usual pressure means shit breaks fast and reaction time is severely decreased. Opening a radiator cap is lethal, but not so with Evans Waterless Coolant; because the coolant doesn't pressurize, you can pull the cap after flogging the crap out of the car and hear the faintest of hisses. The stuff is expensive at $45 a gallon or so and the cooling system of an m60 is 3.25 gallons.

The consolation is that if you can recover it when you need to change a radiator or water pump, then you can continually reuse it. I have read that the service life is somewhere around 500,000 miles. Bill has run the same coolant for 5 years and his Behr radiator just developed a small leak which requires replacement. Me, with my brand new Mishimoto e36 radiator and fresh hoses everywhere shouldn't have any issues for the same time period if not more.

In other news, I took it to the car wash after getting some shame from the parts guy at Mossy BMW.

20151124_204223_zps9buton0i by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20151124_204236_zpsz2q0ie96 by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20151124_204248_zpsrbpuo9oa by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20151124_204259_zpsgolbtwnv by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20151124_204319_zpsyuuhav6q by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

The clear coat is very oxidized and once I get the new rash of parts in and installed, I will focus on saving the paint the best I can. I believe I can get it to shine.