cameras ready prepare to flash

[s14brent]

been busy with life, e39 touring is still not registered/smogged. :ugh:

While the car was sitting for a while I tried to get rid of the gap in the front, but failed miserably. I ordered some H&R front springs (29791-4) from germany thinking it would at least level the car to match the rear. I'm not sure if it's actually settled in yet, but it looks the same to me....def not a 40mm drop as promised. I did put some KYB bump stops and new rubber boot kit from ECS, and new lemforder top hats and drilled out a pair of m3 reinforcement plates I had laying around from my e30's 5lug front setup.



I ended up switching back to stock dme since the chipped dme apparently has a EU2 tune which i guess disables all of my CEL/SES and basically all warnings. I had local shop southwest bimmers re-code the dme to a 530i manual, and pulled out the auto dme finally! Big thanks to blackknight530i here for selling me another gauge cluster that wasn't all tampered with, and more importantly matched my vin so it could communicate with my DME. This car is such a headache, it's getting back to its once former glory.

I do have the trifecta of lights going on though (brake/abs/tcs) not sure if its a coding thing or if my abs module needs to be replaced or rebuilt. I'll get to that eventually, I kept getting p0491/0492 codes and thought it was a bad pump, so I got a SAP simulator and did a sap delete.



removed the pump and kept the cage for now to hold the fog light HID ballast and simulator.



also deleted the valve with the oem block off plate. The codes went away but eventually came back while trying to clear my drive cycle (used to come back on instantly after clearing before).



Turns out the sap plug wasn't getting any power, so I checked the relay and the 30a side was getting power...which led me down to the fuse.
super convenient location for fuses.



got a replacement from napa....new one is clear so you can check if it's blown visually.



Now things are working again, I will start the drive cycle all over again tonight and try to smog early next week!
--------------------------------------------

as for the e30.....since the pmc shifter is a sandwich type mount I made another reverse light harness. I cut the pigtails off 2 cars at the junkyard (which has been terrible lately, no new cars for months!) ordered a roll of 4.5mm shrink wrap and used some 16 gauge wire I had laying around (same stuff i made my e39 reverse wiring from). This is the one from my e39 which got wired to a pin behind the gauge cluster.



I did not take any pictures as I was putting the harness together in the car, and ran it from the shifter to behind the glove box, through the dme grommet, and across the engine harness then down and back over the trans to the switch. reverse lights done. going to do a few modifications to the exhaust, then hopefully fire her back up and dial in ride height with my varrostens on shit tires. until the kamotor standard flares arrive.

[s14brent]

Does the PMC shifter just sandwich between the sheet metal?

yes. it's a pretty solid design. I was going to purchase AKG but I needed a shifter on somewhat of a smaller budget. I still can't get over the price and the quick shipping. I read somewhere the PMC shaft was hollow but it is not. I'm guessing they may have been talking about the older design.

[thedivision]

Does the PMC shifter just sandwich between the sheet metal?

[s14brent]

so the z4 shifter did not work, and I decided to order a pmc shifter. unreal shipping from those guys, got it in 4 days all the way from poland!



I kind of love that the shifter arm is not needed any more! so much cleaner of a setup!



stuck the condor shift knob sticker up on top



so another issue I ran into...I'm going to need fender flares for the car if I wanted to run the fiske fm5's. UGH




I'm pretty bummed about it....its about 1.25" - kamotors standard flares (fronts) are supposed to be exactly 1.25" (inner lip trimmed) so maybe with a little camber and trimming I can squeeze by. The rears aren't a problem and will probably require spacers to fit the flares. I'm not a huge fan of the ultra-wides on a bronzit sedan.

specs: e36 m3 LCA - 5lug, 17x8+12 235/40 dunlop star specs

3 week wait for the flares....it's too bad I don't like dtm's or ebay flares....I really wish I could get them ASAP. I have some fender welting for the older style kamotor flares. I hope I can use that.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I tore down the e39's original m54b25 because I was wondering about that 4th cylinder. I thought it was a bent valve, but I was wrong!!



I got the new gauge cluster that's coded to my car's dme. I have an appointment monday to get the transmission adaptations cleared. I should finally be smog ready by then!! FINALLY!!

[s14brent]

I luv this thread. It's honestly the one I look forward to the most these days. Great work man!

Amazing work man, respect!

Thanks guys'!!

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



got my spare all mounted and balanced!



I tried to pass smog and unfortunately failed. Turns out the gauge cluster in the car was replaced and is not coded for the cars' VIN. So it does not flash the SES/CEL lights on startup. Visual inspection failed, but I passed emissions, however there is a DTC for auto trans solenoid or something. I decided to get the AC recharged and replace the rear hatch and window shocks since they were sagging. Two things that would probably irritate me when it gets into the 100+ weather here in vegas, but i must say the weather this year has been super unpredictable! I almost refuse to wash any of the cars due to these random storms every other day!
So after the cluster is coded to the car, the auto dme must be unhooked and have the transmission adaptation values reset
(basically all things that need to be done in multiple bmw programs that costs a ton of money, so I'm probably going to buy a rebuilt cluster and have that programmed to my LCM/EWS (blackknight530i on bimmerforums offers this service), and have a local shop reset transmission adaptations for me) this is the part you don't expect (esp on newer cars) and throws the project budget a little higher than expected.
------------------------------
E30!!

Since the "530i wagon" is on hold, I've started to throw the e30 back together!
I got the shift carrier bracket from ecs, and went to install it.....turns out the z3m shift knob no longer fits someho....I have no idea wtf is going on...this is why you shouldn't leave projects sitting around for months at at time!! Anyways, here's a picture that shows the shaft selector rod angle and how it hits the driveshaft when connected......I ordered a z4 shifter for now, I'm just not ready to spend $400+ on a shifter setup like AKG or bimmerworld. especially since I still need to do registration fees on the wagon whenever that's done!



5 minutes in, and i'm waiting for new parts again....Meanwhile I've been plugging everything back in on the motor side, spacing the motor mounts with just plain washers, 2 on top, 1 lower for the same 5 or 6mm clearance for the headers, rerouting o2 sensor wires, etc. I can't wait to bolt up the drive shaft/exhaust and actually mount the fiskes and play with ride height and drive the thing!

I was trying to go to speedventures at spring mtn motorsport park on the 22nd, but apparently they are all SOLD OUT

-------still waiting on shifter to ship out from fcp....mean while I bought new nyloc nuts for motor mounts and steering rack. I don't know why but the engine oil pan to skid plate clearance is what it should have been in the first place (about an inch using m20 hikfab).




already thinking of moving my oil cooler & ps cooler and making my own -an lines....because I'd need the current area for an intercooler....you know...making room for more mods basically!

[parkerbink]

Trump was right, there is so much winning in this thread I'm tired of winning!

Amazing work man, respect!

[jeenyus]

I luv this thread. It's honestly the one I look forward to the most these days. Great work man!

[s14brent]

That should be a pretty nice wagon when it's done. Are you going to keep it?

It's going to be the new daily! the e36 m3 has been up for sale for the past month now! I'll at least be able to use the wagon to transport gear and equipment with no worries!

Fuck, a 330i wagon on Mpars? that's going to look fucking sexy

Technically, it would be a 530i wagon on mpars! ;)

---------------------edit------------------------------

so I think I'm going to have to get 15mm spacers for the rear, 20mm is just a bit too much and will rub & scrape when the SLS is aired down.



also...i finally swapped the zf trans on the e30 today!! HUGE!!! I am waiting for a new bracket (that holds the shifter assy to chassis) and then I'll reinstall driveshaft and exhaust and finally dial in ride height!

[CorvallisBMW]

Fuck, a 330i wagon on Mpars? that's going to look fucking sexy

[2mAn]

That should be a pretty nice wagon when it's done. Are you going to keep it?

[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!

[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]

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!

[Kershaw]

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

[ngampleh]

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