Mykk's E34 540i/6 progress thread

[golde30]

I ran my 540i/6 with no muffler. CAT and resonator were in place. Sounded awesome.

[Mykk540i/6]

Finally got it to fire up.

I went down to the shop who had it for weeks, told them they've had it long enough and I towed it home.

Pulled the harmonic dampener off and found it was mounted 90 degrees off, I installed my donor dampener since the OE one was bent from being misaligned and torqued down.

Here's the first fire up video, you can hear the injectors clacking as well as gnarly exhaust leaks. But it's running!

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

I think I'll pull the oil pan and make sure the oil pump bolts haven't backed themselves out too,

[Mykk540i/6]

No oil pump bolts in the oil pan, which is a good thing. Someone did get in here before me as evident by silicone on the oil pan gasket.

I'll make sure all the oil pump bolts are snug, take some slack out of the drive chain and then bolt up the pan with a new gasket.

[e30austin]

Finally got it to fire up.

I went down to the shop who had it for weeks, told them they've had it long enough and I towed it home.

Pulled the harmonic dampener off and found it was mounted 90 degrees off, I installed my donor dampener since the OE one was bent from being misaligned and torqued down.

Here's the first fire up video, you can hear the injectors clacking as well as gnarly exhaust leaks. But it's running!

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

I think I'll pull the oil pan and make sure the oil pump bolts haven't backed themselves out too,

Awesome! Looks like you've got a decent start there. I've had a couple of these cars and love them.

[CorvallisBMW]

It looks like you applied the paint too quickly to the manifold, without letting it dry completely between coats. Could that have caused the wrinkling?

[Dj Buttchug]

I like this build however I cannot understand why you would drill the injector pintle caps out. They are designed specifically to direct the spray of fuel

[Mykk540i/6]

It looks like you applied the paint too quickly to the manifold, without letting it dry completely between coats. Could that have caused the wrinkling?

Perhaps. I am a mechanical guy not a paint and body guy, I don't know much about laying paint other then point and shoot.

I like this build however I cannot understand why you would drill the injector pintle caps out. They are designed specifically to direct the spray of fuel

Here's a vid that shows the spray pattern of single spray injectors vs these bosch II four hole injectors, in my mind it made sense to de-shroud the injector tip to prevent a more concentrated spray. Other applications/ injectors don't have such a large pintle cap either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHf-6ohkgbA

[Mykk540i/6]

Hey! There is a loose nut from the oil pump, now I'm glad I pulled the pan..... I'm thinking every M60 owner should probably check their oil pump bolts & nuts.

[Mykk540i/6]

What awaiting the arrival of a new radiator, I figured I'd take the downtime to install my velocity stacks intake manifold. After a re-paint. 3rd time painting this intake is a charm.

Stripped buggered paint:



Basecoat of VHT Red Fire:



Topcoats of Metalcast Red:



I also found the source of my burning oil/tailpipe smoke. The new CCV was sucking in raw oil. So I opt'd to install my oil catch can. I will probably need to install the a oil separator behind the timing cover, eventually.

But for now I just put a hose on the CCV and ran it out of the vacuum port through the grommet.



I still needed a vacuum port on the CCV since I run the brake booster off of it. So I drilled a hole,hreaded in a pipe fitting with a hose nipple and sealed with Right Stuff just in case.





To my luck the CCV still fits on the back of the intake with that hose looping around in there, and a test fit on the engine shows I have room for my fitting back there too:



And the whole assembly waiting for a new CCV pipe o-ring and then to be bolted down:

[Mykk540i/6]

Intake and oil catch can on:

[Mykk540i/6]

Still wrenchin' on it, feels good to have it on the road. Working out the glitches as they come up.

The velocity stacks intake didn't feel as fast on the street as the original late '95 intake, throttle response and off idle torque were noticeably down. So I swapped the intakes back around.



Changed valve cover gaskets because the spark plug tubes were collecting oil.

Then after driving it for a while it became real evident that this engine was burning oil. It was intermittent and seemed worse once warmed up and after long stretches of cruising and deceleration (high manifold vacuum). At first I suspected valve stem seals, and although it's still possible they need to be replaced I have started focusing on the rings.

I read somewhere that a heavily carboned up engine can have the top oiler rings stick. From the condition of the top end when I got the car I would be surprised if the rings weren't carboned.

One night I slowly sucked up a can of Berrymans B12 through a vacuum line, I eventually let the Berrymans stall the engine and let it sit for the night. In the a.m. the engine fired up with half a crank and settled at a clean low idle (mind you this was on a 28°F morning, with the IAC blocked off). But on the drive it was still blowing smoke. Later I pulled the plugs and poured a can of BG 44K down the spark plug holes and let sit for the day. That evening on the test drive, once it smoked out the cleaning agents there was noticeably less blue smoke from the tail pipe. However the engine oil was blacked out, so I drained it and instead of using the expensive Mobil1 0w-40 I will go a couple more cycles of cleaning agents on the top end while using a conventional 10w40 and may eventually settle on Delo 15w40.

One morning I went out, started the car. Once warmed up I saw a puff of smoke from under the hood, popped the hood and found a fine white powder had been sprayed over the engine compartment.

The thermostat housing seal started leaking, dripping coolant onto the harmonic dampener, serp belt and pulleys thus getting slung around the engine compartment. The white powder I assume is head gasket sealant.





I will band-aid this engine the best I can for the next several months, then I plan on doing a B44/B40 hybrid swap.That will need to wait until next years funding, I will need to car to get to work for that funding until then and the new engine is ready.

[CorvallisBMW]

Man... bummer luck. I've never seen that kind of hazy white stuff before, did you have any additives in your coolant?

[golde30]

It looks like there was no coolant, only water in the system...

[Mykk540i/6]

When I got the car non-running the cooling system was half full of water and no coolant. By the time I got done with it, new radiator and thermostat it had a 60/40ish water/coolant. The recent PO who installed the water pump said he only put in water in case there were leaks, but intended to add coolant later.

Perhaps a PO ran it water only for a while, wouldn't surprise me.

[Mykk540i/6]

It was leaking out of the water pump weep hole. Replaced the pump, cleaned up the white powder the best I could. Back flushed the radiator, block/heads and heater cores for about an hour. Installed new water pump. Bypassed broke heater control valve and solenoids with brass fittings.

After the test drive it started steaming from the valley area under the intake manifold. Pulled the manifold, couldn't find a leak, pressure tested the cooling system. It held 17lbs for 45minutes, no loss of pressure and no visible leaks.

While the intake was off again I wanted to put on some heat insulation between the manifold and block.