Bringing my dad's car back to its former glory and beyond

[rzerob]

rzerob- Mechanical fan delete kits come with a colder thermostat. I'm assuming to kick on a bit earlier to avoid any risk of overheating.

Thanks 2mAn! Appreciate the encouragement!

Unless your kit comes with a colder temp sensor then the fan won't kick on any sooner than the stock sensor temp. And there is no point in changing the stock hi/low speed sensor because if done right the swap won't effect the need to change the cooling operation. I have deleted my mechanical fan and added an additional spal fan more than 5 years ago on my s50 swapped E30 with A/C and never had an issue with over heating running a stock thermostat. Running a colder thermostat doesn't let the engine warm up to recommended operating temp. And on a stock build that is not a racecar gives you no benefits. If you plan on a crazy forced induction build or beating the hell out of the car on the track where the car is constantly being pushed and running hot, ok. But if this is just a daily/weekend racer then you should run a stock thermostat.

Also make sure your valve cover is flat and not warped. I have been chasing a small vacuum leak and found out it was due to a warped valve cover that was powder coated. Keep up the good work and take my advice if you want.

[dadsbmw]

rzerob- Mechanical fan delete kits come with a colder thermostat. I'm assuming to kick on a bit earlier to avoid any risk of overheating.

Thanks 2mAn! Appreciate the encouragement!

[2mAn]

Love seeing the updates, keep it up.

[rzerob]

Why are you running a colder thermostat?

[dadsbmw]

Back at it again this afternoon!

Decided to get the new passenger and rear seats in this morning. I'd been waiting on a few things to come via Amazon before I started. Was considering getting a hand held carpet cleaner, but decided against it, in lieu of using a spray hose and my shop vac. I did however, order a spray bottle of fabric cleaner and a fabric UV protection spray.

Took the seats out into the sun this morning and started the "deep cleaning". Started with the passenger seat, as it's in immaculate condition.






I sprayed it down with fabric cleaner and used a brush to lift any stains. I then sprayed it down with the hose set to "mist" and vacuum the water out. I did this all with the grain of the fabric and all went well. I then tried to do it against the grain and immediately realized this was a task best left to much newer and heartier cloth! Deep cleaning is out!

This realization went double for the rear seat back. While the rear seats were in great condition with no tears, you can see that the top of the seat back has been sun ravaged over the past 30ish years, and likely would not take kindly to rough handling. At that moment, I decided the rear seats would officially be off limits. Sorry folks, this car is officially a 2 seater!


The passenger seat won't be going in, as it's going to need a bit of reupholstering. Thankfully I now have a bunch of extra matching cloth to utilize!


After getting these bad boys cleaned up I went to pull the current comfort passenger seat and temporary vinyl rear seats. They're in great condition, just not quite what I want... the goal is OEM+ after all!








Stock 30 year old door cards... pretty great condition for a 400k mile car!




Carpet was pretty dirty upon pulling the passenger seat, so that was taken care of.




It was at this point I decided I definitely wanted a full fledged carpet cleaner. Looks like I've got some craigslist hunting to do!
Comfort vs Sport. They just look better, not to mention the bolsters.


And installed




Rear seat bottom is currently in place, but waiting on until the fabric UV protection spray dries before installing the rear seat back. This may also force me to start on another project earlier than anticipated... electric rear sun screen!

Anyways, off to buy some all red tails, s50 engine cover, and s50 VCG, see you all later!

[dadsbmw]

Thanks for the response MJ! I ended up asking this question on a facebook group last night and came to the same conclusion. Cant bring myself to replace this valve cover with an s52, as it's powder coated to match the rest of the motor, so I'll be purchasing the m50/s50 gasket today. Hope that the performance ignition coils that came with this motor are s50 as well, so I wont have to replace/modify them.

[mjweimer]

Super weird question... why doesn't my valve cover have a groove for the gasket to sit in? This does not seem normal...

Great progress on the engine build - looking good.

Sorry to say that you seem to have a M50 valve cover and a M52 valve cover gasket set (metal v. plastic). You need to source the proper VC gasket set or swap over to a later valve cover.


MJ

[dadsbmw]

Keep on keeping on...

Continued with the timing install and also bolted on the Stewart water pump


Upper timing belt, Vanos, and underdrive/lightened water pump pulley, 76*C thermostat (deleting mechanical fan), gaskets, and thermostat housing


All the powder coated parts came that way from the PO.. looks pretty good all coming together!


Did some research on the gaping holes in the OFH. Turns out some are filled with a plug that screws in with an allen key, others with an o-ring, block off plate, and circlip. More info can be had here, along with the type of oring needed: http://m3pink.blogspot.com/2010/05/o...placement.html
Ended up pulling them from another housing I had, but unfortunately only one of them actually had the oring. I'll be buying new orings this weekend to install. Also decided to order a viton OFH gasket, as apparently these bad boys leak frequently and its a PITA to replace when in the car. Better safe than sorry!


Installed a few sensors and things: ECU coolant temp, rethreaded e30 coolant temp sensor for the gauge cluster, cam position sensor, crank position sensor, coolant rear outlet


When doing the research for the e30 cluster temp sensor the usual method seemed to be drilling and tapping the head for the e30 sensor. This is something I honestly just didn't want to do. A quick search revealed that Race German makes the rethreaded sensor for $38.50. Great price, shipping was fast, and they even included a little warhead candy in there and a hand written note wishing me luck with my swap. I've gotta say, I love shit like that! Shout out to Race German! https://www.racegerman.com/product-p...coolant-sensor


Still doing some more research on parts I'm missing. The motor is pretty well spoken for, but there are other ancillary parts that should be replaced at the same time. Still not 100% on the shifter assembly I'll be using. The M50 manifold I have came with a somewhat rare 540 3.5" TB on it.


It also came with a 3.5" HFM, but it's OBD1 and I'm going OBD2. Still trying to figure out which OBD2 3.5" HFM will be the best purchase. Also need to do some research to figure out if I should do single 16" fan or dual 9" fans, and if I should set it up in a puller or pusher arrangement? I was planning on puller, as that should be most efficient, but what I've read so far is that pusher is by far more common for this swap, and has the best results.

Super weird question... why doesn't my valve cover have a groove for the gasket to sit in? This does not seem normal...

[dadsbmw]

The rest of the parts finally came and I got back to work tonight. Ended up with more questions than answers though!
First of all, what am I missing on this oil filter housing? There are two holes (the large ones) there that are usually blocked, but that are open on mine. When checking realoem they don't list any parts that should be there? Thoughts?


Second is around timing. I decided to be a bit more precise and use a dial indicator to find actual TDC for piston 1, mainly because of another thread saying theirs was a bit off.


Well sure enough, it actually was off by about half a degree


Putting the crank and true cylinder 1 TDC however, results in exhaust cam timing being slightly off


Any thoughts? It seems like this will end up with basically a net 0 effect, as there's just not enough resolution in the timing system to make up for that half degree.

[dadsbmw]

Thanks man, very kind of you to say! We ALWAYS talked about things that should be done to the car, but I don't think he ever really had any intention to spend money on aftermarket parts. Pretty sure it's way beyond anything he ever imagined it would be, but also very much in line with the spirit of what he loved so much about the car. It will definitely be in my family forever.

[325isman]

Great story,very nice car and I know your father would be proud.

[jeenyus]

too bad that gear isn't on display. billet anything deserves to show itself. super cool stuff.

[dadsbmw]

So looking back through this thread I realize I never posted the fact that I removed the front sheepskin seat covers a few months back. This revealed almost perfect grey cloth comfort seats, save for a small run on the drivers side seat bottom, and an even smaller tear on the passenger side seat bottom. Frankly, for its age, this interior is in amazing condition. I'd always planned on completely redoing the interior in potentially brown leather or something of the sort, but this plan was quite a ways down the road. Recently however, with my tastes changing, I'd begun to reconsider keeping the stock grey cloth.

I decided to check with an upholstery shop to see about getting the rear seat back refinished, as it was pretty ripped to shreds from sitting in this sun it's whole life. After calling a few shops I realized exactly how rare this fabric is today, and how infrequently you see this setup around, and that made the decision for me... I was keeping it! BUT, I still had to get things fixed, and didn't want to pay thousands to do so. I also wanted sport front seats, as I much prefer the look and secure fit for more spirited driving. I had no immediate plans to buy anything, but an ad popped up on here from across the country, and after talking with the seller for a couple weeks, and waiting a couple more for them to ship via Greyhound, they finally came in last night.





I realize these pictures are terrible, but they're in pretty darn good condition! The rear and passenger seat are perfect, and can be installed immediately. The drivers seat needs some work, but the purchase of this setup provides me with extra fabric to have a shop perform the necessary fixes without breaking the bank on material.

Also finally broke down and purchased many of the pieces needed to finish up the motor. As mentioned in the last post, I'm missing a lot of pieces. The S52 swap came with an M50 as a donor, because the previous intent of the project was to go OBD1. I decided to go OBD2, but after purchasing and modifying the OBD2 ecu and wiring harness, I was already pretty deep into the decision, in terms of both money and time. I ended up going on realoem and looking through every engine diagram to compare the S50 to S52 and buy anything that was different between the two or that I just obviously needed. Everything I ordered from RockAuto has arrived, but still waiting on pieces from Turner Motorsport and FCP Euro. All in all a little over $1k.


Engine has been pretty much on hold, as I've been waiting for these parts, with the significant blocker being the bolts that hold the exhaust timing sprocket to the exhaust cam. Did manage to get the oil filter housing mounted, which not only looks great, but also frees up room on the shelf. I swear half the enjoyment of these projects is clearing out space in the garage! So that's the update for now. The rest of the parts will be here by October 2nd at which point I can finish up the timing/Vanos install, seal up the motor, and start thinking about the actual swap.


Oh also, pretty sweet part showed up for the Probe as well. One of a kind oil pump gears to help me rev up past 9k rpm.

[dadsbmw]

Made a few more steps. Managed to get the cams installed but unfortunately am missing the exhaust cam timing components, so waiting for those to ship from a seller off ebay. I'm actually realizing at this point that there are quite a few pieces I may not have which could be a significant blocker going forward. Also realized there's still quite a bit of $$ to go before this is done! Over $1k just in engine related maintenance items! Yikes!


Up next are to get the timing set, VANOS installed, and valve cover in place. Will update soon!

[dadsbmw]

Thanks mang! I may consider bringing someone local in to help if I run into any big issues, but considering I just did a cam install on my PGT motor, I should be in a good place to complete this on my own.