cameras ready prepare to flash

[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]

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]

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]

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!!

[z28]

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

[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.

[ngampleh]

Thanks for following up.

So, still thinking to buy rear caliper bracket?

[thedivision]

Thanks for following up.

[ngampleh]

Looks some nice progress ;)

[s14brent]

I had a bit of time today to work on the e30. It's always one step forward, two steps back with this car I swear!! :ugh:

I was dumb and figured out I had the parking brake shoes mounted upside down. (which is why I couldn't get the rotor over the shoes)



close up of the front brake lines used with e46 rear calipers



I ended up putting the rear subframe back up (too dark for pics) but found out the e36 m3 fortune auto rear shocks rub against the axle boot (even when preloaded)



CRAP.....any suggestions on shocks that will clear? I'm going to try to mess around with it later and make sure I'm not over-looking something silly.

[s14brent]

Awesome thread. Wondering if you tested those front brake hoses on the rear? Do they work without binding/interfering?

not yet unfortunately I haven't had time to even look at the e30 lately, I have been overwhelmed with family, work and the holidays. there are a bunch of people on ngampleh (e30adapters) thread who have done this with no issue. Maybe he can chime in. I thought it was a lot easier than making a new brake line section and i'll probably use the old line to relocate the wilwood brake proportioning valve up higher when I get to installing that.

[thedivision]

Awesome thread. Wondering if you tested those front brake hoses on the rear? Do they work without binding/interfering?

[s14brent]

more e39 content.

Put in a new waterpump/thermostat. Used new grade 8.8 bolts/nuts. ECS aluminum pulley.



I located a m54b30 disa valve (long story short, i had a 2.5L disa somehow instead) and replaced the flapper with German Auto Solutions aluminum upgrade kit.



The front main seal was seeping so I tried to get the crank pulley off with my IR 1/2" impact. I soaked it in penetrating lubricant and had no luck. I ended up ordering a 1" impact from HF with a 25%off coupon. Ended up paying retail price ($129) after I got a 1" 22mm socket. This thing is so amazing. Heavy as shit, but it took off the bolt in maybe 2.5 seconds!! unreal.



e30 diff cover is back on. will eventually get back to that i promise!

==================update=============

pic as promised



and after way too long of cleaning the rtv off the disa valve, it's finally ready to go back into m54b30 intake.

[Bggdnssnguy]

This is not possible because of the c-clip

I gotcha. I wasn't sure. I havent done this yet. So figured I would ask.
Thanks!

[s14brent]

well done on all that effort mate !

Thanks!

Your tool setup is awesome Brenton, that must make life so much more enjoyable ;)

I really wanted to make this as much of a DIY thing as possible. so I can't blame anyone really if the car sucks!! But yeah, I blame garagejournal if i went a bit overboard on tools this year.

=======e39/m54b30 touring content==========

Speaking of tools, my old 1/2" Ingersoll Rand impact won't budge the m54b30's crank bolt. I ordered a 1" impact from harbor freight (coupon was expiring last night and the store was already closed). and a 1" 22mm single socket on amazon. hopefully 1500lb will break that thing bolt free! Not the best, but for $125 for both it was the cheapest solution. The front seal is leaking pretty bad and needs to be replaced.

The local shop that was going to order my diff gasket failed and didn't even order it, so I placed an order on pelican this morning. not doing much until that comes in, so I decided to work on the m54.



I took off the hard coolant pipes and took off the oil filter housing. Put a fresh gasket and replaced the coolant lines with new. Good thing I replaced them, the ends were super brittle/corroded and broke off at the ends.




I looked on real oem, and the oil pickup part #'s are different between the 330i and 530i (530/525 shared the same pn). I got a new o-ring and replaced the pickup for the 525 spare I got with the oil pan. but they looked Identical to me.



tacked the oil pump nut because apparently its still a problem on the m54's.



oil pan went on next. all the bolts were cleaned up on a bench mounted wire wheel first.



Ran out of time before work, but I'll get back to the e30 as soon as the gasket arrives and I can bolt the subframe back up and run the brake cables/lines.