Mykk's E34 540i/6 progress thread

[Mykk540i/6]

Been driving it as a daily, taking care of problems as they come up. The clutch had finally started slipping enough for me to take action.

Pulled the engine & trans as one piece:







21 years of fluid leaks, heat cycles and road grime were not kind to this engine compartment. I've got alot of clean up, degrease and painting to do.





Started degreeing in the cams:









After noting where the cams were I'd found the intake cams were reatrd a couple of degrees making for a 111°ICL / 110°LSA. Original spec is closer to: 109°ICL / 108°LSA.

My plan is to advance in the intake cams and increase the valve overlap for a 106°ICL / 106°LSA. Currently a work on progress.


Also, ebay header fail. There isn't an after market header intended to use on the E34 540i, but there is for the E38 740i. I wanted to give it a try.

[DIIRTY-30]

Looking prettty good! Curious how those headers are gonna work out.

[CorvallisBMW]

Wow, that flange is way off :eeek:

[Mykk540i/6]

Engine degreased, pressure washed and painted. The first time I've painted an engine in anything other then black. I hope I don't regret it later. Still need to clean up and paint the valve covers black, I'm also going to strip and repaint the intake with metalcast red.



Duplicolor engine aluminum color paint looks a bit like fake chrome paint for me, I'm sure it'll tone down after a few heat cycles.

I set the cam timing by using valve opening points, I want to set up the degree wheel and dial indicators again and recheck by intake centerline method. I also want to mark TDC on the dampener so I can check tuned vs actual ignition timing with a timing light later on.

[Mykk540i/6]

I decided to make the headers work, here's DEI titanium heat wrap on the stainless headers.

[marshallnoise]

In. Unless I am already in. I am kind of in at bimmerforums.

Edit: I spy a J-Bass body in the background.

Oh and I hope to got my engine bay isn't that corroded.

[Mykk540i/6]

...I spy a J-Bass body in the background.

That's what I do. I play bass in hard rock & metal bands.



I've even modded my 540i/6 to fit my 8x10" bass cab in the backseat.

[marshallnoise]

Excellent! I play guitar and bass. Used to be in an Iron Maiden Tribute band in San Diego in the early 2000s. I mainly play at church now. If I had my druthers, I would be playing Deep Purple, Pat Travers, Gary Moore, etc. That's my bag. And I am impressed an SVT cab would fit in the e34! Well done!

[Cptcarisma]

You ever play "Run to the Hills" at church?! Lol
Sure that'd go over well!

CAPP. :-)

[Cptcarisma]

Think "Number of the Beast" would go over well, too....
Lol

[marshallnoise]

Lol ironic enough, a bunch of us are old rockers so we do jam out on some Sabbath every now and then.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[Cptcarisma]

Any Social D? That's my band...! Saw them in Milwaukee last Oct..
Mike Ness still gets it done!

CAPP

[marshallnoise]

Any Social D? That's my band...! Saw them in Milwaukee last Oct..
Mike Ness still gets it done!

CAPP

I never really got exposed to them...

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[Mykk540i/6]

Making some progress. Spec lightweight flywheel & Kevlar clutch disc with Stage II pressure plate arrived and installed.





The parts supplier sent me an unsprung clutch hub, despite ordering a sprung hub clutch. After sitting on hold with the parts supplier for a couple of hours, I gave up. Installed it as is. Then took UUC Motor Werks adice on a Redline fluid blend to help keeping the transmission gear noise/ lash clatter down.



Clutch installed, trans mated to engine. Headers torqued. Fluid drained and refilled with the redline blend.



I now need to focus on the engine compartment; change out the steering gearbox, replace the control arms and steering linkage. Make some new brake lines after bypassing the ABS unit. Finish cleaning up and painting the compartment and then drope the drivetrain back in.

Once it's alive, I'll get it down to my exhaust guy where it will get a single 3" system made with a Flowmaster Super 40 and I haven't decided if I'm going to use the Vibrant Ultra Quiet resonator yet or not.

[Mykk540i/6]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKb1a19mmYA