1989 325ix Dinan Turbo stablemate for my 1988 E24 M6

[Max325ix]

There's this site that's pretty popular for uploading videos that's called YouTube.

You can also use Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/upload

LOL! I am familair with YouTube and Vimeo. I was hoping that R3V had some way of uploading/embedding small mpeg files directly from within the forum like photos rather than needing to provide a link to an external site/service. I don’t have a YouTube or Vimeo account (at least with YouTube I have not logged in to it since its initial creation some years ago). Never posted a video on line before. Its not the greatest of quality recorded from SteveÂ’s mobile but I did get to see and hear it running.
In the meantime I hope to get some more pictures from Steve, which I will post :).
Time is getting tight with the holidays and all. I donÂ’t want to rush it at the end after all this effort so I’d venture to say that I will only be makiing the father and son road trip to pick it up sometime in January.

Max

[Kershaw]

There's this site that's pretty popular for uploading videos that's called YouTube.

You can also use Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/upload

[Max325ix]

I have a short video and sound (not the best quality image but the sound is good) of the engine running that I need to figure out how to share...


Max

[ndfspd67]

Got great news this weekend from my mechanic.

Steve: “The IX Runs! Just have to check it all out and tweak a little”.

Stay tuned, it won’t be long now.

Max

Looks like I came back to this thread at the right time congrats!

[Max325ix]

The IX Runs!

Got great news this weekend from my mechanic.

Steve: “The IX Runs! Just have to check it all out and tweak a little”.

Stay tuned, it won’t be long now.

Max

[Max325ix]

Picture from this weekend, almost ready to start her up....

Steve is almost ready to start her up for the first time since we began this endeavor.
Here’s a picture from this weekend. I am starting to get excited about this car all over again.

Max

[flyboyx]

looking good max. I paint the intake and valve cover on all of my projects. an improvement over stock I would say...

[Max325ix]

Slow but moving forward....

The car is back from the exhaust shop. Had to have a section of the Dinan system replicated to repair a small section that had some tiny pin holes.

Its now back in Steves capable hands (old school BMW specialist mechanic) for final bits. I hope I can post a video of it running real soon.

Best regards,

Max

[Max325ix]

Engine progress - after picture

The only non stock or Dinan style change I chose to have done was making the valve cover and intake manifold black from what used to be the original silver.

Many of the Dinan turbo pipes which still need to be put back in were already mat black. I figured this would complete the look by matching well with the turbo components while not deterring from the cars period correct restoration. Still a ways to go. More pictures soon.

Post above shows the before picture.

This is the after picture. What do you think? Should I have left it in factory silver?

Max

[Max325ix]

Picture of the engine progress - before and after

Hi


This is the before picture. Next post is the after picture

What are your thoughts?

Max

[Max325ix]

To replace that front Flex Disc again.... Steve had to remove for the second time the front diff, axels, controll arms and tie rods...

The new original size BMW front Flex Disc along with misc items such as some new bolts and a fresh hood emblem arrived today. Hopefully we can get it all back in by end off the week to get caught up where we were at before learning the thicker disc required additional modifications. Things should move quickly from this point on, at least I am hoping that to be the case.

More pictures will be uploaded soon.

Max

[Max325ix]

Mini update:

Originally I orderered and installed (I should say Steve-mechanic installed) the thicker front flex disc/guibo. Last week Steve advised me that the bolts do not have enough clearance. After reading through a thread here on r3vlimited, it looks like additional steps are needed. Cutting the bolts or shorter bolts, X5 centeriing flange etc... I did not want to make Steve spend time on additional modifications since I am restoring this car to how Dinan had done it in the 80’s I decided to revert back to the original sized OEM flex disc. As recent luck would have it, the BMW units are on BO at ECS, BAVAUTO plus several other sources. Steve found 4 units in the US via his contacts, one will arrive July 22nd. A few more misc items have been order such as a replacement handle for the hand break (current unit had a small hair line crack)... you know ... the “while I am at there” syndrome.
The rear end and front end have been put back together. After the original flex disc arrives and the drive shaft gets put back into the car it will be sent to a custom exhaust shop to fabricate a replica of the custom Dinan down pipe (I thinnk thats the part) becuase the exisiting unit is a little tired, pitted and has a few pin holes. Rather than just do a cheap patch with welds we are going to have a new one made. Here is where I wish the tech for 3D printers were farther along and accessible. After this we should be close! Then we begin tweeking and addressing things that may pop up with testing. It ran before we started this process this we donÂ’t expect much to come up.

On a side note, not to highjack my own thread... I came across a nice example of a one owner low mile garage kept 1991 E30 325i convertible. I havenÂ’t committed to it yet but I am having a hard time passing it up. I am thinking daily driver but, originally my 1988 M6 was suppsed to be my daily, then this 1989 Dinan ix was supposed to be my daily becuase the M6 should not be one... and now I am thinking this ix shouldnÂ’t be one either.

In the meantime here are a few misc pictures of progress...the transmission pan before and after plus a few of the turbo pipes after clean up polish and or repainted.



Best regards

Max

[Max325ix]

Bilstein has been down for a couple of months. My local supplier has over 100 shocks/inserts on order. :(

If anyone has a new set on hand they wish to unload I’d be happy to buy them. I can even replace them with new units once available again. My supplier just updated my delivery to July 16th. I wont be waiting. The units I got with the car will be going back in once we get to that point of the rebuild.
Bilstein must be really backed up as they suggested it would be a 12 weeks from date of reciept to have my own units rebuilt. Is I recall that isnup from the usual +-3 weeks. I guess many are sending theirs in since new aren’t available.

Max

[ForcedFirebird]

Bilstein has been down for a couple of months. My local supplier has over 100 shocks/inserts on order. :(

[Max325ix]

Hi

Does anyone have a lead on Bilstein front struts 34-002513? Seams that my source fell through and as some of us know, Bilstein is under has shortage parts. If I cannot source them I am going to put back the front units since changing them was for proactive reasons not necessity. I’ll keep my order in place for future... New rears I have, just not sure if I should put them on or put back the units that were on the car. Again, I was changing them to be proactive. As of now I plan to put in the new rear ones unless those in the know suggest otherwise. I’ll be keeping the original Dinan/Bilstein units that came on the car to have refurbished by Bilstein some time in the future.

Thanks

Max