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95maxrider's Rally-x '88 E28 build- caged, head swap and more

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    95maxrider's Rally-x '88 E28 build- caged, head swap and more

    (This is a copy and paste job from the original July 2012 posting on Maxima.org)

    Quick reference guide to the thread:
    325i 885 head swap- Pages 2-3
    Big sway bars- 9
    Milk crate and drifter for a day- 10
    Broken motor mount arm- 11
    Recaro seats- 12
    First race win- 13
    Failed Bilsteins- 14
    M20B25/325i single mass flywheel and E34 front BBK- 16

    Well I finally graduated from Understeer University and have acquired a 1988 BMW 528e with the 2.7 ETA motor! I still have the I30 for DD and auto-x, but this car is going to get beat up at rally-x and hopefully Lemons. I went in on the car with a friend since we wanted a track car, but didn't feel the need to each own one. When this deal came up, it was too good to pass up. Let me elaborate.

    This car was actually already built to run in the 24 Hours of Lemons, but the previous owner needed to get rid of it quick, so we got it for a deal! The only things that need to be done for it to be ready for Lemons is to pad the roll cage around the driver and relocate the battery (kit included!). The car is poo brown and has 217k on it, but seems to run like a champ. Let's do a quick rundown on what is and is not in this car.

    Already on the car:
    Full custom roll cage
    Bilsteins/lowering springs (can't remember the brand)
    New front control arm-like things (again, can't remember name....maybe thrust arms?)
    All new fluids
    Momo racing seat with a harness
    Momo steering wheel
    3" exhaust after the headers
    Rear subframe rust fixed, subframe welded to chassis
    3.23 LSD
    Some Borbet 15" wheels with mismatched 225 AS rubber
    Lots of torque
    Poo-brown paint that appears to all be factory and in quite good condition.....for now.....I think there are like two dings on the entire car. The body panels are in far superior shape to the ones on my I30 :(

    Some assorted pics:









    Last edited by 95maxrider; 10-01-2015, 06:37 PM.

    ________________________1988 528e Rally-xmobile___________________
    2014 WDCR Rally-X MR Season Champion, 2014 NE Div. Challenge MR Winner

    #2
    We have done some repairs and mods to the car, so I figured this thread deserves and update.

    In terms of repairs, we got the tach and e-brake to work, and also reconnected a switch so the reverse lights also work. We also replaced the beat up oil cap, and will be replacing a busted coolant overflow tank cap this week as well.

    Going off of what Josh did to his car, we also got the large-size Rally Armor mud flaps installed:

    Front:


    Rear DS:




    The rear PS was a little more difficult since the fuel tank is kind of in the way, but we rigged up a little extension for the main bracket and it all seems to be pretty sturdy:








    And some pics of the car in action. Approximately two minutes after these pics were taken I got a massive gash in the inner sidewall of one of my dry-rotted AS tires and the rest of the tune-n-tune was spent running around trying to find a tire to get home on. This week we're installing a set of 205/60/15 Firestone Winterforce tires, so we should be ready to rock and roll by the event this Sunday!








    ________________________1988 528e Rally-xmobile___________________
    2014 WDCR Rally-X MR Season Champion, 2014 NE Div. Challenge MR Winner

    Comment


      #3
      But wait, there's more!

      These E28s seem to be notorious for having low oil pans (the lowest point actually sits below the rear section of the subframe), so a skid plate was in order. There were two options we could purchase, but we wanted to keep it cheap, so we attempted to make our own. A friend had a sheet of diamond plate aluminum lying around, so we decided to try and use it. After much cutting, we had our initial section. Unfortunately, there wasn't a good way to attach it to the rear section of the subframe, so some welding was in order. Step in Eric at Joe's Professional Auto Care (the shop I used to work at). Eric was the one who welded on the fender braces for my I30, and I know I can trust him. Get to work!



















      Did somebody say pee beams??? (Krylon Stained Glass, Yellow #9024, $15)





      Yup, she's a rally-x car now for sure!

      ________________________1988 528e Rally-xmobile___________________
      2014 WDCR Rally-X MR Season Champion, 2014 NE Div. Challenge MR Winner

      Comment


        #4
        I got some good pics from event #6!











        I also think I figured out why the e-brake doesn't work very well....



        Oh, remember how much clearance we had between the skid plate and the oil pan? Well this sure didn't take long....




        Time to fix it!


        Also, after event 6 Josh pointed out that a piece of my spare tire well had fallen off. Turns out the rear section of the car on the DS was pretty much all bondo. Great. Get out the welding materials!

        Bottom of spare tire well:


        We already knew the mount for the DS bumper shock was gone...


        Another view from underneath

        ________________________1988 528e Rally-xmobile___________________
        2014 WDCR Rally-X MR Season Champion, 2014 NE Div. Challenge MR Winner

        Comment


          #5
          It gets worse....


          What a view!


          Cleaning up...




          That was all bondo!!!

          New spare tire well!


          Rebuilding the body back to stock specs/design:



















          ________________________1988 528e Rally-xmobile___________________
          2014 WDCR Rally-X MR Season Champion, 2014 NE Div. Challenge MR Winner

          Comment


            #6
            Time for some rubberized undercoating


            All done!


            Um, I think it's broken


            So we had planned to do the normal method of tucking in the diving board bumpers by drilling out the oil and sticking a bolt through to hold it in place. Eric had other plans!


            We ended up tucking about 1.5" of the rear bumper. We had other plans for the front though...

            Pictures of finished product are coming....

            ________________________1988 528e Rally-xmobile___________________
            2014 WDCR Rally-X MR Season Champion, 2014 NE Div. Challenge MR Winner

            Comment


              #7
              I'm not sure if it's my computer, the new Photobucket, or the org, but I have no idea why these pics aren't coming up full size. Let me know what you see on your end.

              Well it's been a while since an update, so I think one is in order!

              First, some pics of the car with the front bumper removed





              Then it was on to the passenger side to fix a bit of surface rust. It was only on the exterior panel and wasn't anywhere near as bad as the other side. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good before pics, so these will have to suffice.





              The black plastics on the exterior of the car were pretty faded, so I sanded them down, cleaned them off, and painted them flat black. Thankfully, it turned out pretty well.

              Before:


              After:










              We decided to test fit one of the style 4 wheels, and learned it pretty much rubs against the strut, so we need at least a 12mm spacer.


              ________________________1988 528e Rally-xmobile___________________
              2014 WDCR Rally-X MR Season Champion, 2014 NE Div. Challenge MR Winner

              Comment


                #8
                We then cut/bent the fog light brackets so they sat a little more flush in the holes:







                In preparation for the sound deadening and to get the spare to actually fit, we hammered out this crap in the spare tire well that the previous owner thought was necessary to get the muffler to fit, but I think he got carried away.





                So we fixed it a bit





                Cleaned out the trunk with soapy water, simple green and then brake clean:







                Then it was on to stage one of the deadening:







                And how about some extra skid plate bracing? It's a work in progress, so check back later for finished pics!



                Last edited by 95maxrider; 02-06-2013, 01:13 PM.

                ________________________1988 528e Rally-xmobile___________________
                2014 WDCR Rally-X MR Season Champion, 2014 NE Div. Challenge MR Winner

                Comment


                  #9
                  First in...
                  Patrick Henry

                  1989 325iC build: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=316880


                  Comment


                    #10
                    Just a suggestion, though...

                    When you upload to PB, use the medioum size. People hate to have to sidescroll.
                    Patrick Henry

                    1989 325iC build: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=316880


                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by phenryiv1 View Post
                      Just a suggestion, though...

                      When you upload to PB, use the medioum size. People hate to have to sidescroll.
                      this.

                      also, why are you loading up the trunk with sound deadening?

                      and let's not forget the most famous picture of the e28....

                      Nick was out in town tracking down a new tire over the lunchbreak at his first event. The rest of the crew thought the e28 would make a good prop :)

                      Stage rally/rallycross e30 build/competition journal
                      Track/street e21 build
                      visit Condor Speed Shop
                      visit Motorsport Hardware



                      [FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"] 1985 318i/M50 Rally Car - 1988 Porsche 924S - 2005 Sequoia tow pig - 2018 GTI

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by irish44j View Post
                        this.

                        also, why are you loading up the trunk with sound deadening?

                        and let's not forget the most famous picture of the e28....

                        Nick was out in town tracking down a new tire over the lunchbreak at his first event. The rest of the crew thought the e28 would make a good prop :)

                        Yeah yeah yeah, you guys just need to get bigger monitors :o Don't worry, all recent and future pics will be uploaded for 17" monitor viewing.

                        As far as the sound deadening goes, we can do the entire car and it will add less than 5 pounds, so there's hardly a weight penalty. The muffler on this car is so freaking loud that driving to Summit Point is almost unbearable. So far the deadening has been pretty effective in terms of reducing drone; the trunk was basically one big resonating chamber for exhaust noise.

                        ________________________1988 528e Rally-xmobile___________________
                        2014 WDCR Rally-X MR Season Champion, 2014 NE Div. Challenge MR Winner

                        Comment


                          #13
                          true....mine is loud as hell now that I took all the soundproofing off the outside of the firewall and transmission tunnel. Resonance like a mofo...It's far louder IN the car than outside of it, lol.
                          Stage rally/rallycross e30 build/competition journal
                          Track/street e21 build
                          visit Condor Speed Shop
                          visit Motorsport Hardware



                          [FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"] 1985 318i/M50 Rally Car - 1988 Porsche 924S - 2005 Sequoia tow pig - 2018 GTI

                          Comment


                            #14
                            I've got a couple small updates to note!

                            First, all head swap parts have been ordered. I lucked out and somehow got a bunch of parts at dealer cost/wholesale from Rockville BMW (instead of CCA pricing), which took my order down from about $300+ to $240!

                            We also got the windows tinted 20% (except front windows) to make the roll cage a little less visible and to have a nice base for our naming stickers for the rear windows :) It also happens to look pretty bad azz.

                            I plan to work on the car tomorrow to get it as prepped as possible for the head swap. We bought this tach but it doesn't seem to sync with the OEM tach. Do tachs like this work with BMWs or do I need some special tach for German cars or something? I'm hoping Josh can chime in, since I know he has an aftermarket tach in his car.

                            ________________________1988 528e Rally-xmobile___________________
                            2014 WDCR Rally-X MR Season Champion, 2014 NE Div. Challenge MR Winner

                            Comment


                              #15
                              If you mean an aftermarket tach, most have a switch somewhere on them that specifies 4cyl, 6cyl, 8cyl.....You need to select the one that says 6cyl, obviously. It's also fully possible, if you have the aftermarket tach set right, that your stock one is no good. BMW gauges are FTMFL.....

                              I have a cheap Sunpro tach and works fine with my car. My M42 tach gets its signal from the DME/ECU since I have no dizzy. I think you have a distributor, though, so the tach should be wired to the positive and negative leads of your coil, IIRC.

                              naming stickers, eh? you gonna put the merry-land flag on it? ;)
                              Stage rally/rallycross e30 build/competition journal
                              Track/street e21 build
                              visit Condor Speed Shop
                              visit Motorsport Hardware



                              [FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"] 1985 318i/M50 Rally Car - 1988 Porsche 924S - 2005 Sequoia tow pig - 2018 GTI

                              Comment

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