Tips for bleeding the coolant system

[86325e]

Anyone that has their M/S5X running have any tips for bleeding the air out of the coolant system. I don't see a bleed screw on the thermostat housing like on the old M20's.

[rs4pro3]

what radiator did you use? the M5 equiped cars have a small bleed screw in the radiator next to the coolant resivor, you pour coolant into the car untill no more airbubbles come out of the bleeder, then start the car, turn on the heat wait for it to warm up then pour in coolant till no bubbles come out. Close off the bleeder and your done.

[Brew]

I bleed mine by running the heater and opening the overflow resevoir cap. It works fine, but I wish there was a better way.

[86325e]

Im using a brand new 88 on up E30 radiator. Im using the 88+ coolant expansion tank too.

[Teaguer]

You will have to bleed it old school like Brew .

Hey , what part of Dallas are you in ?
And is your car a driver ?

[86325e]

You will have to bleed it old school like Brew .

Hey , what part of Dallas are you in ?
And is your car a driver ?

I live a little NE of Denton and my office is down by the Galleria in Dallas. The car will be pretty much a daily driver when I'm done with it. My new GTO just got rear ended on I35 and I've put 16K miles on it since buying it new in september. I'd like to garage it for awhile. Right now the BMW runs. I still need to put in the booster and MC, finish installing the SS brake lines, bleed brakes and the clutch, install a new front wheel bearing, get an exhaust system made for it and either get my driveshaft rebuilt or buy a rebuilt one. I just came back from a place down in dallas that said they could rebuild my driveshaft for $400. I don't know if thats a good price or not.

[Teaguer]

Sounds like you still have a bit of work ahead of you on the E30 .

If you are you talking about The DriveShaft King I can get it done by them for right at $300 .
But remeber that is with new greasable/serviceable u-joints too , so thats not really a bad price for all of that .

Do you attend any of the LSC meets or events ?
Also what does your e30 look like , any pics ?

I have a buddy in Whichita Falls that has done 3 twin-cam swaps but I don't know of anyone in DFW that has actually finished a twin-cam swap .

[86325e]

Just a little bit of work. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. What sucked was I got the engine in and wired up and running then I noticed a some oil on the ground and on the oil pan. I looked closely at the oil pan and saw a small 1/2" hairline crack. :( Last week I rented a cherry picker and lifted the engine half way out to remove the oil pan and take it in to get welded. What a pain in the ass job. Im glad its done and over with.

Yeah I went to Driveshaft king. Since I already have a new center bearing they said $375 instead of $400. The output flange on my transmission takes 12 mm bolts so I would need them to enlarge the 10mm holes on the drive shaft to 12mm. Lining up the new guibo with 12mm holes to the driveshaft it looks like all they would have to do is enlarge the holes on the shaft. All the holes look to line up. That guibo I got is the same diameter size as the one that originally was bolted to driveshaft but had 10mm holes. Today Im going to give http://www.thrashdriveshaft.com a call down in San Antonio, Portland driveline, and mesa performance. I think some of these places offer sealed non greasable u-joints too. Im not sure which is better. Dropping the exhaust system and heat shields to grease u joints every whatever miles doesn't sound that appealing to me. Wouldn't mind that on the GTO but those are easy to get to.

The only LSC event I've done is shuttling cars for the Susan G Komen Ultimate drive. I want to get this car together and drivable before going to any others. The first e30 I had was a white 86 325e sedan. I was a member of the BMWCCA then but the car wasn't all that pretty and I didn't want to be the clubmember with the POS. The car was molested but I made it mechanically sound, cosmetically it needed help inside and out. I traded a laptop computer for the car so I can't complain. I had the car for 2 1/2 years and put 400 miles a week on it. Never broke down or left me stranded. I sold it to my cousin in the Air force because I had 2 e30's at the time and my wife said one had to go. This e30 I have now is a black 85 325e coupe. It's in a lot better condition and unmolested. No wiring grimlines or stupid shit to sort out. It needs some work on the outside but isn't as bad. The inside is much nicer but I need to get the drivers side sport seat reupolstered. I have a uncracked dash to install too. I don't have many pics of this e30, just some pics of me working on it here and there. After the conversion is done, I'd like to do a plastic bumper swap on it, RD rear skirt, and fix the body imperfections.

I know of one guy in DFW that is doing a twin cam swap right now, he started before me and I thought he'd be done way before me too. Last thing I heard he hasn't gotten it running yet. Other than that I don't know of anyone around here that has started one or has got theirs going. If I were going to do this again I would have started with an 88 on up car and one that was already a 5 speed. One thing that is cool is that my 85 doesn't have ABS, so I have a custom 3" CAI that goes down between the valence and the wheel well by the horn and brake cooling duct. I don't think I would have been able to do that if the ABS unit was sitting there.

[86325e]

How can you get them to do it for $300?

[Teaguer]

Man that sucks about the pan .
I've got a extra E34 one thats cracked and I'd like to get it welded eventually .

You should definately bring it out to the Mineral Wells auto-x's once its sorted out .
I plan on tearing up some M3's when I'm done with mine .

As far as DriveShaft King goes , I worked up until recently for a shop in Richardson and we used them all the time .
I deal with David who runs the Plano location and if my memory serves my right then $300 is the going rate for a Bimmer driveshaft .
Your drilling of the flange might cause it to be slightly more though .

Is that you who has sold a few BMW parts on eBay ?
Noticed last year there was a guy selling stuff who claimed to be building a e30 M50 but I never contacted to find out who it was .

[86325e]

I found a guy close to the house that did it for $20. I've been out to mineral wells a few times to drive with my dad when he had his 911 and then again with his Z06. It sure was fun but seemed like forever to get out there.

I didn't know Driveshaft king had a Plano location. I went to that one down in Oak Cliff. Can regular customer walkin's go to the Plano location or is it just for shops? I'd rather go there, much closer. Do you remember if they're using sealed u-joints or greaseable ones?

Oh yeah.. I remember seeing that guy selling stuff on Ebay too. I think I sent him an email but never heard back from him. I do need to throw a bunch of parts on Ebay to get rid of them. I'm tired of tripping over them all over my garage. I doubt ETA parts will bring much. The old block I'll probably just take to the scrap yard, I doubt anyone would want that.

[Teaguer]

I've had a E36 pan welded in Plano for $30 but that was after we prepped it and all .
I originally saved the cracked pan because it was free and I did not have one yet .
Now I've got like 2 pans plus the cracked one .

The Plano shop would do them with greaseable u-joints unless you specified otherwise .
When you are ready to get it done let me know and I can call up there and tell them we are dropping one off .
Then you just pay them when you pick it up .

I'm about to put up a bunch of E21 and E30 stuff on ebay for this weekend .

Oh and the drive out to Mineral Wells is half the fun . :D
Pretty cool to roll out there in a caravan of bimmers .
The 140mph speedo pic in my sig was taken while driving out there at 6:30 in the morning . :twisted:

On one weekend last year I knew it was going to be my last event on my 15" tires so I decided to do have a major burnout/donut session at the end of the day .
It was pretty cool , people declared me the clear victor versus a Cobra Mustang .
But I still had to drive back to Dallas on those tires , ordinarilly not a problem .
However the skies decided to open up in a major way just when we hit highway 80 before Weatherford .
Everytime I hit 4k revs the ass end would just start going sideways and thats in 5th gear .
My buddy had corded his rear tires on his '04 M3 SMG and was hating life just as bad as I was .
Took us just over 2 hours to make it back to Dallas when it usually takes me an hour exactly from the time I leave my place to the lot .

Hell one event last year my trans got stuck in 2nd gear on the 2nd to last corner on my last run of the day .
I had to drive all the way back to Dallas in 2nd gear and that trip was quicker than the downpour and slick tires trip .
Oh and thats with my 4.10 too . :D

[86325e]

I had to clean and prep my pan too. I didn't have acess to a parts tank so I did the best I could.

Are the greaseable u-joints ok to have? Will it be a pain in the ass to lube them? I'll check how my funds are doing and maybe do this next week.

I don't know where to get my exhaust system made. Have any ideas? I got the original cats and front half from the donor car, I don't have anything else though. Should I even attempt to drive the car with no exhaust to the shop or get it towed?

Man, what a drive back from Mineral Wells. Im going to be positive that my car is 100% sorted out before going.

[Teaguer]

Sure the serviveable u-joints are OK to have .
And its not like you have to grease them every month or anything .
V8 powered American cars have been coming with hollow/serviceable u-joints since the dawn of the model-A .
Only the most high powered cars with huge tires will really need to run solid u-joints .
Also the US aftermarket has been offering greaseable ones for M5's and M6's since the eighties .

For the exhaust I would Recommend Pronto Muffler in Plano on N Central and like 15th .
I plan on having them do my car when the time comes .
I can show you a pic of how you can modify the ft section that you have to work on your car .
Will be able to get pics this wekend .
You can take the ft downpipes to get modified and then just drive to the muffler shop with that section and the cats .
Would not advise to drive with just the manifolds .

Yeah i never really had any problems auto-x'ing other than the tranny issue .
Bent a shift fork and instead of fixing it I just replaced it .
Sounds like you are running the E35 trans though , right ?
If so what ratio diff are you going to run ?

[86325e]

Cool. I installed Treehouse CABs so the front down pipes should clear that passenger side CAB. Everything I got was from an E34 so they're the E34 down pipes. I'll test fit the pipes tonight as is just to get an idea what I'm starting with. I'm not sure how to hang it.

The manual transmission is from the that E34 too, S5D something I think. Right now the stock 2.93 rear end is on there. I've read that a 3.25 is supposed to be a nice rear end to get with that transmission. I think they only came on E28's so I'd have to swap the differential cover. I wonder if I could come across one of those out at pick n pull or something.