cameras ready prepare to flash

[s14brent]

so I found out from fortune auto the e30 coils are 60mm shorter and there is a 10mm spacer that goes between the mount and shock included with the e30 kit.



I used 9mm of random spacers, and its paper thin clearance (uncompressed) so some grade 10.9 washers were ordered and longer m12 x 75mm bolts were ordered. Thank god! crisis avoided! The FA e30 replacement shocks are $325 ea. and I'd really hate to have mismatching suspension after all this work! I should have taken a picture from underneath where you can actually see the clearance. Oh well.

[z28]

Good thing you got it all figured out, the project is coming along nicely.

[s14brent]

Good thing you got it all figured out, the project is coming along nicely.

Thanks man! I'm not entirely sold on the washers at the moment, but it will work for now and not set me back $650.

I ordered the hardware from mcmastercarr late on the 29th and it was at my doorstep the next day. UNREAL. The bolt is a grade 8.8 and the washers are 10.9 so it shouldn't be an issue. I can't wait to dial in wheel fitment/ride height, and I'll make sure axle clearance isn't a problem and try to get a picture of the clearance then!



also.....the subframe isn't fully installed all the way up. I had to pick up some new bracket-covers (acquired at junkyard this AM) since mine were in piss poor shape.
Also, small issue: everytime I jack the rear subframe up into place, it wants to push the bottom half of the poly subframe bushing out almost 1/2", but when I lower it back down, the bushing gets seated properly. I'm not having any luck compressing the bushing back in when it's all the way up... not sure if i have to do both sides at the same time some how - I'll look more into this soon.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
e39 touring update.

A friend told me an 02 530i got put out at the local pick a part so I went first thing in the morning and got me a few things. I could have easily transferred the parts off the current motor in the car right now, but all this stuff is cheap and is nice to knock out prior to pulling out the original motor and doing it all beforehand. Also felt this was a solid progress to end out 2016.

My 525i valve cover has a small chip and the damn 330i cam cover fell and cracked so I decided to pull the valve cover and cam cover off of it. Felt nice to seal it up vs putting a garbage bag over it. All new gaskets/grommets were used, and toyota fipg around the halfmoons front and back.




and I took off the PS pump & brackets since it looked like it was in great shape. Finally got to mount the ECS aluminum PS pulley



I also grabbed another set of injectors because I sent the ones from the 330i out to MEPEH/BMWSTONE, but I'm not sure he got them, or if they got stolen from his mail, etc. but from his last PM he did not get them yet and they were supposedly delivered on the 22nd. :ugh:

and the 525i (junkyard car that I got the oilpan from) was still there but the block was sitting in front of the car this time around. Probably the last time it will be there! So I grabbed the ac mount which has the same style tensioner that I purchased and so much easier to remove vs when it's sitting in the car. Also grabbed the 5 series motor mount arms since the 330i ones would be useless in this application.





All parts & hardware were immediately degreased, pressure washed, and then cleaned up on a bench grinder with a wire wheel before installation.

I also forgot to mention I picked up an AFE intake for a 528i (e39) off craigslist for cheap!



It did not come this clean, I promise you. (filter pic was post cleaning and pre-oil)



and I think I found a solution to fitting the larger 530i maf



Oh and Happy New Year everybody!!

[s14brent]

I haven't updated this in a bit.....no real update really, I removed injectors/fuel rail, intake manifold, BMC and booster off the E30. I need to bleed the e28 bmc (23.81) and then learn to flare at least 2 brake lines for non-abs setup and moving wilwood bias valve up higher.

e39 is sitting in the same spot. I really need to swap that car asap.

But meanwhile....I decided it was long overdue for me to pick up a tig welder. I wanted to get comfortable with my mig first, and I think I'm finally ready to move on especially since I find myself wanting to weld stainless/aluminum more and more often! I picked up a bottle of 100% argon (that i had) stored at a friends place. After just getting done with 2 full straight days at the convention center, I found my new AHP 200x tig welder waiting for me when I got home! I got a few other things in the mail like tungsten, and a few different filler rods to learn with, new gloves and a torch holder.



sitting on a $30 hf cart for now.....



no time to set it up fully tonight, still have a lot work to do here, but I'm super excited and wanted to post this!!

[s14brent]

here's a pic of the first few aluminum welds i put down with the new machine!!



i need a lot of work, but i'm beyond stoked since I expected a lot more issues. The AHP alphatig is fucking phenomenal!
-----------------------------------
pic of my beat up oem booster vs new 944 booster


sitting in place, actually clearanced the firewall hole a little larger since it was a little too close for comfort last time!



I kept it .5" over with the modified clevis since it was already done and I could use the extra space regardless.



bench bleeding e28 bmc



reman e28 bmc (23.81) and wilwood brake bias valve (from ireland engineering), made some custom brake lines moving the bias valve up and connecting the non abs lines to a "T" since this BMC only had 2 outlets (photo was taken prior to bench bleeding)



sort of a pain in the ass to bench bleed then install in place, but i got it done finally!

------------------------------------------
update

I put the intake manifold back on earlier. I shaved the fins for the oem booster to clear the first time around....I probably have 0.75-1" clearance now with the smaller booster.



I bolted the fuel rail and coil plug harness back in place....the motor is looking semi-complete again!

[s14brent]

Found another zf trans (from a 98 328) at the local yard. My current transmission has some damage behind the front input shaft and was leaking like crazy. I've been wanting a yellow sticker (mtf) trans. I'm going to do the detent pins on this after the wagon is running.



took it to get pressure washed. - much better!



-------------------------------------

e39 wagon

started to unhook everything on the stock motor. swapped over the ac compressor and alternator. All the tensioners/idler pulleys were replaced.



I removed the exhaust and driveshaft earlier. Ended up chopping up the exhaust into pieces.



going to delete the resonator here for some 2.5" stainless I had laying around from my e36 m3



I get to practice stainless welding now that I have my tig welder setup for back purge.



Not sure what I want to do with the muffler yet...not a huge fan of the tip on there

---fast foward to today---

started this morning pulling the m54b25 out with a friend.



After the motor & trans was out I decided now would be a good time to swap out these ABS brake lines



Took the trans to get pressure washed (twice in a week!) - sprayed it down with purple power degreaser first. Looks like I'll be changing out the input and output shaft seals and shift selector seal on this trans. No detents, I noticed the detent kits are double the price now! When I did my first zf in the e30 it was about $40-50, not it's @ $80+. I'll also be doing a new rear main seal and pilot bearing.





I got lucky and the clutch looks to be recently replaced. (LUK)



refreshing the shifter assembly



turns out i need to order another set of teflon shifter bushings...oops!!



hopefully swapping in the 3.0 next week! sort of just waiting on parts now!

[s14brent]

so my m54b25 didn't have the spacer that goes between the motor and trans, ended up ordering one off ebay for a good price (really helped save time trying to pull one from the junkyard). It came in today, had a bit of surface rust on it - hit it with a wire wheel and threw it on.



Flywheel was thrown on, blue loctite used and torqued to spec.




I picked up all new pressure plate bolts (PO used 3 different length bolts - wtf) Both the clutch/flywheel (sachs/luk) are being reused. They were probably replaced when the PO did the 5spd swap. Clutch disk has a ton of life and didn't have the usual uneven wear. I had the clutch alignment tool from my s52. The M54 uses a self adjusting clutch (SAC) that needs to be "reset" if reused, and there's a special tool for that job. After flywheel was torqued, I used the flywheel stopper and torqued the crank down to 250 ft/lb's (as much as my torque wrench is able to go, I've read 250-300 is where you want it).

new selector rod shaft seal and rod joint. Should be nice with the e60 545i shifter....also ordered another pair of delrin shifter bushings.



I had a guy who makes 5lug caliper adapters for e30's (ig: @e30adapters) machine me a DSSR



one of the many hoses replaced (this one goes from brake booster to under the intake manifold.



replaced rear main seal, and pilot bearing (not fully seated)



replaced the output shaft seal and cleaned up the flange



and waiting for the input shaft seal here



removed the pioneer head unit that was held together with tape and soldered in a new stereo harness for my nakamichi cd400 from my e36 m3. also got a new dash kit for the headunit that has a small pocket vs the other one it came with. The dash kit is a POS and i had to modify it with a dremel to fit the faceplate trim



So besides waiting on a few parts, I'm not sure if i mentioned the exhaust was welded directly to the header flanges, started to cut them all off and grind it down today.

check out those PO booger welds!



and after some cutting and grinding it looks like this before throwing onto a belt sander (turns out i will just cut these off and reweld on new flanges - wasted entirely too much time on this already!)



input shaft seal came in, also installed the OEM steel pivot and a new sachs TOB (not shown).



My oval shifter bushings from garagistic arrived. They are a different design than the ones previously ordered from them. I had to put the inner bushings on a belt sander to fit in the given space correctly. The outer ones are thicker, i'll have to mock this up on the trans to make sure I won't have to deal with fitment issues under the car.



I bought the self-adjusting clutch tool kit from 8milelake. seemed like the best bang for the buck, but none of the alignment tool fit so I had to take the smallest one and throw it on the belt sander until it could fit into the pilot bearing.



and the tool in use:



will mate the engine and trans on my next day off - right now i'm waiting on the headers - ended up cutting off the flanges, but waiting for new 2" flanges to arrive and I need to probably refill argon.

Hoping to be able to throw the motor and trans back in the car next week!

[CorvallisBMW]

Self-adjusting clutch tool kit? Is that just for lining up the PP & clutch, or for something else?

[s14brent]

Self-adjusting clutch tool kit? Is that just for lining up the PP & clutch, or for something else?

a self adjusting clutch has a mechanism inside the pressure plate that automatically lowers the engagement point through the wear of the clutch so that the engagement point will be roughly the same throughout its life. The tool basically resets the diaphragm springs for correct operation. If not properly reset, there's a bunch of problems that could occur.

some info i found posted by uuc in an old thread somewhere which made me decide buying the tool would probably be worth it since I'm reinstalling a clutch that was barely worn. and these are a some "symptoms" in installed incorrectly. If I didn't owe a ton of money for taxes this year I would have converted to a non-sac setup to avoid this whole situation.


" SACs have a few basic failure modes:

1) Incomplete disengagement - you can never fully release the clutch. Symptoms include difficulty getting into or out of gear. Cause: Over-adjusted pressure plate. Final result: clutch failure from excessive wear, potential transmission synchro damage from forcing gear changes.

2) Incomplete engagement - clutch does not hold as strongly as it should due to insufficient clamp load. Symptoms include slipping, especially in high load/low-rpm situations, burning clutch smell. Cause: Under-adjusted pressure plate. Final result: clutch failure from excessive wear.

3) Inconsistent engagement/disengagement - sometimes engagement point is higher, sometimes lower (different than changing slave hydraulic fluid temp!). Cause: combinaton of #1 and #2 above, but adjuster sliders slipping back and forth. Final result: clutch failure from excessive wear, potential transmission synchro damage from forcing gear changes.

4) Juddering engagement - impossible to engage cutch smoothly, particularly in First or Revers. Cause: one or two of the three adjusters may be stuck. Final result: clutch failure from excessive wear, potential transmission synchro damage from forcing gear changes.

What causes these problems with the SAC mechanism? The mechanism gets fouled by normal clutch dust and the spring-loaded adjuster sliders get stuck either permanently or intermittently. Also, a "clutch dump" hard launch can knock the adjusters into a different position where they may get stuck.

SAC is a flawed design which causes many people to pay for prematurely-failed clutches, and also degenerates the driving experience due to a lack of feel. "

[CorvallisBMW]

Interesting, I had no idea BMW used SACs.

[ngampleh]

Me too... thanks for write up Brent !!

[Kershaw]

Only since the early 2000s. That's why none of us (I certainly didn't) know that.

[s14brent]

planning on putting the m54b30 in the wagon end of this week! meanwhile, trying to replace a few things that were broken.

the cup holder for one was broken.



The fill hose for the washer reservoir in the driver side wheel well was broken in a few spots.....turns out this hose is $48!! I went to a junkyard with 5 e39's on hand, and all of them were in pretty bad shape or just missing completely.....damn. Waiting for this thing to arrive!



I ended up finding a pair of headers (brand new) local for under $100, ended up going that route vs welding on new flanges (just don't have the time right now unfortunately). Transferred over the o2's and put oem m50/s50 gaskets since the cheap ones are the worst. (I decided not to go with the m54 ones with the heat shield because I've heard it can collect oil (leaks) and be a potential fire hazard.)



I had to clearance one of the runners to clear the o2 sensor. ::enter:: BFH



shifter carrier installed. Can't wait to see how all this feels!! delrin shifter bushings, ETA aluminum dssr, e60 shifter...yum! (new guibo installed also)



I also found a local guy who has chipped ms43 dme for sale (with ews delete), he was doing a 3.0 swap but into a 325. Thinking about picking it up, since it's local and can get me up and running without downtime!

---update----


$50 plastic hose came in



installed all nice



after some frustrating moments, I got the motor in place with the help of a friend! I had to swap over the m54b25 coolant temp sensor and the SAP check valve that bolts onto the head.




after figuring out the wiring and vacuum lines under the intake manifold I mocked up the 528i AFE intake that I picked up.



radiator, clutch fan, with a new oem fan shroud and febi radiator hoses installed, fluids filled! (you can see the difference in check valve in this picture)



I just need to weld up two or three sections on the exhaust, and get a hold of that local guy with the m54b30 chipped dme (or just get my dme reflashed). Battery is back on the battery tender so i'll be ready to fire it up when the time comes!

[s14brent]

looks pretty good with all the plastics on. (it looks identical to my stock m54b25 just a slightly larger intake manifold)



I got extremely lucky. There was a local guy trying to swap a m54b30 into his e36, but ended up scrapping the project. Anyways, he had a chipped ms43 DME with ews delete. It fired up on the first try!! 3 liter manual wagon FTW!! I have to wire up the reverse lights next, and finish the exhaust - open header is a bit loud but sound awesome!!

[s14brent]

another wagon update:

Did a few of these upgrades a few weeks ago, then had a death in the family and haven't been in the garage until this last weekend. I had a massive vacuum leak and i'm glad I found it before spending any money at random parts. (thought it was a bad maf for a bit). e39's use those hard plastic lines with the built in clip. the line from the OSV going to dipstick tube was probably not fully "clicked" and worked its way loose. Really glad I could fix it without taking off the manifold again!


I was going to bleed the clutch slave, but after getting access to reservoir, decided a brake flush would probably be a good idea. I'm glad the previous owner included these lines, the car really needed them all replaced!



The rear lines were a super tight fit, I feel like they're almost stretching...not a huge fan of the design and almost wanted to leave them hanging. I feel a slightly longer line would probably add a few years of life to the lines.



Those are the original rear lines in all their cracked up glory.
I used a motive pressure bleeder to get all the air out, and i'm not very impressed with the stock clutch pedal feel, for some reason I thought it would feel like a stock sachs e36 m3, but it feels more like a na miata....::le sigh::

so i made a trip to the junkyard to cut out a few plugs to wire up the reverse lights. I only found one manual trans switch cut super-close to the plug, so unfortunately that's what I have to work with. soldered/extended and heat shrinked (3rd pic). cut off a few plugs at the dme which worked perfect, I actually only needed to cut one since all the pins there are the same style/length.



but then we get to the blue plug behind the gauge cluster. Not sure what happened here, but the donor car at the yard was an 01 525 sedan. The top pic with the grey plug is from my (02 525i) touring, the bottom is the one cut out from the donor vehicle. Turns out the grey plug has a slightly longer pin and doesn't raise high on one side like the black plug pins do. Kind of confused and disappointed since the 5 series are kind of lacking at the junkyards. I wasn't aware of the differences in clusters and hopefully I can find one with a grey connector.



I ran all the wiring through the engine bay dme location, firewall, and through to the gauge cluster. All connections soldered and heat shrinked, all i need is this last pin and hopefully I'll see the reverse lights illuminate!

I ended up getting the right gauge cluster pin out of an 01 540i part out from a local shop. After some help i got my reverse lights working. (Ran wiring from reverse light switch straight to the back of the gauge cluster, apparently all e39 is this way but people want to do it the hard way and do additional coding)



I ordered the little plug for where the automatic shift linkage goes.



A friend of mine had a staggered set of e38 Mpars collecting dust. I ended up getting them for free since they weren't in great shape. I dropped them off to get refinished, and I ordered new Hankooks that should fit the wagon better.



Decided to run studs and spacers that step down the hub from 74.1 to 72.56 so I can run the Mpars after they get refinished! (15mm front and 20mm rear)



Decided to replace the fuel filter since I had no idea when or if the p/o did this. To my surprise the filter was stamped with a 2014 date. (not bad!) I replaced it with a mahle stamped 11/16.



Picked up the wheels from getting refinished...threw on some non-e38 tire sizes (235/40/18 & 265/35/18 hankook ventus evo2's) HUGE dfifference!



and I ended up trading a subwoofer that was sitting in storage for an 18x8 full size spare.



pretty stoked! going to burp the coolant and power steering tomorrow, and finally take this thing out for a test drive!