The complete repair, rebuild, repaint, and v8 swap of my early model sedan

[e30sky]

damn!!!! i love this build man. you really inspire me

[JGood]

Got the lower pan swapped, new o2 sensor installed, and drove the car a bit to ensure there were no issues from when I nailed the piece of metal in the road. Everything has been good. So, I tore it back apart last night, for annual winter rebuild #3.

On the agenda this time:
New engine mount arms and trans brace (alignment is currently off a bit)
New steering rack (current e36 M3 rack has play in the center)
New oil pan (current one is leaking)
New upper timing cover gaskets
New e36 M3 or Z3 shifter (z4 shifter sucks, way too notchy)
New trans (swapping out my 200k mile 6 speed for the 50k mile 6 speed that I picked up)


Threw a level on the old and new lower pans, to show just how smashed that thing got. Crazy.




I had mattdk318i modify my spare oil pan, he just finished it the other day and sent me this pic. Looks like he did a hell of a job!





Here's how it's sitting now, almost ready to pull the engine.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Cool. Rock and roll.

[JGood]

The pumps are the same, and the pickup is built into it, it's all one piece. I think it's all completely interchangeable.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Same pump pickup? Potential problems with pickup clearance?

[JGood]

Yeah, from what I'm reading now, the early pan (11131733273) was actually superseded to the later pan (11131702891). The changeover date was 4/94, so the switch was done on the m60, prior to the m62. That's good, one less thing I have to buy!

[slammin.e28]

Gasket is the same PN M60 to M62.

[JGood]

I think you should re-title this thread to "perseverance".

LOL.



Last night I decided to pull the oil pan off and inspect the damage. The pan definitely smashed into the pump pretty hard. The pump pickup is a bit tweaked, and the pan is sort of bent around the shape of the pump.













The good news is that none of that should matter. I took apart a spare pump I had, and there is nothing important in that area where it's bent. It's just a cast housing with a thin steel cover that is crimped onto the bottom. The steel cover is all that's bent, and it doesn't appear that the cast housing is cracked, so I should be fine.









I also have a spare lower pan from an m62, which is a slightly different design. It has some ribs that run down the middle and a center drain plug, instead of side. But I think it should work just the same.


m60:







m62:

[LJ851]

I think you should re-title this thread to "perseverance".

[JGood]

It'll get fixed up, no worries. My only concern is possible oil pump damage... or, worse possible scenario, damage to where the oil pump mounts to the block. I haven't torn it apart yet to check anything.

The reason I'm not too upset is that I was planning on parking it for the winter to replace the oil pan and steering rack, among other things. The rack is leaking and the pan is leaking a bit at the welds as well. However, I didn't want those parts destroyed! Guess I'll be getting started on that project sooner now. I'm also swapping in a 50k mile 420g trans, as mine has over 200k. Still shifts fine, so I'll keep it as a spare.

[Schnitzer318is]

Sad day. Here's hoping you get it back on the road quickly.

On a lighter note... she just wanted you to do some more work to her over the winter. :)

[E30NJ]

What the hell could you have hit?[/QUOTE]

Probably something off a truck. I nailed a 2x4 going down the highway at 55mph. It only nailed my fuel filter, thank god :bow: but it sent to across the highway at on coming traffic, don't know what happened from there, hope it didn't hit anyone else. Sorry to hear about what happened, you put too much time and effort into this car. :(

[Dj Buttchug]

fck!

[LoneWolf]

Today I drove directly over a large chunk of metal. No idea what it was, but it wasn't soft. It was dark, and I was doing about 35 mph in heavy traffic. Didn't see it until it was too late.

Took out my custom oil pan (upper and lower), steering rack, part of my exhaust, an O2 sensor, and I'm sure some other stuff as well. I had already 'parked' it for the winter, but today was nice so I figured I'd drive it one last time. Bad idea.

Oh crap that sucks! Did you pull right over?

What the hell could you have hit?

[JGood]

Today I drove directly over a large chunk of metal. No idea what it was, but it wasn't soft. It was dark, and I was doing about 35 mph in heavy traffic. Didn't see it until it was too late.

Took out my custom oil pan (upper and lower), steering rack, part of my exhaust, an O2 sensor, and I'm sure some other stuff as well. I had already 'parked' it for the winter, but today was nice so I figured I'd drive it one last time. Bad idea.