butters 318i project, S54door...

[butters]

Pictures from the head removal process:







While my car was down I decided to have Corey take care of some other things. I had noticed a knocking from the right rear entering the parking lot at work, and I was sure it was the subframe bushings. I went with OEM rubber for those as well as the RTA bushings.

There was also a spot of rust at the driver's side unibody near the subframe bracket, so it was ground away and I ordered some POR-15 to prevent further corrosion. I'm saving body work for later as far as replacing the sheetmetal there. Corey used the extra por to treat as many surfaces on the diff housing, subframe, and trailing arms as possible where surface rust was becoming ugly.



Here's what was left of that subframe bushing. The other one was also bad.

[irish44j]

I hate you for having roads like this where you live...

[butters]

Corey introduced me to his black '87 325 eta 2-door automatic, known affectionately as Harold. Love that old M20 starter motor sound.. well, I love all the sounds that motor makes.

I have one picture of Harold on hand. A couple weeks into the process I had a flat on my way to work. Luckily it happened literally pulling off the main road into the plant. The car had a flat spare and no jack, but luckily I rolled it into maintenance and found a nozzle, and it held air. I was in an area of the plant with no other cars around, and the owner of the truck was nowhere to be found, so we grabbed a pallet jack and made quick work of it:

[butters]

The only real trouble I ran into initially was that high idle. I attempted to clean the ICV and it was frozen in place, stuck open. Matrix Integrated, a great European specialty shop in Portland, happened to be across the street from my apartment, and they hooked me up with the part on short order and at a great price. I installed it and all was well for the time being.

As soon as I got into town I went onto the r3v PNW regional forum and discovered how awesome and active the community is. Right away there was an upcoming event, the Maryhill Loops Tour. BMW CCA membership was required so I signed up and registered with Trayson, the local E36/BFc guru who put the whole thing together via the car club.

I got up at the crack of dawn for the long drive out to The Dalles area of Oregon. The drive was great, incredible views highlighted by a rising sun and blue skies as the scenery goes from lush to dry desert.











Vineyard at the loops road:



The upper sections of the road:



I'm trying to keep the photos limited but there are too many good ones not to share. I have a bunch of pics in my photobucket from another BMWCCA meet/drive that took place a couple weeks later, and the Griot's Garage meet from that same month. And a little road trip I made to the Pacific ocean, which I had to do while in Portland right?



Around this time I started to experience problems with the car. Back when I swapped the ICV I knocked the TB line loose and lost some coolant. Not a significant amount, but I believe this put air in the system and subsequently caused me to overheat. I had heard that the engines are susceptible to blowing the HG this way so I called roadside assistance and got a tow home rather than driving it into the red. Re-bled and was fine. Still, looking back I think I may have done damage.

I had been consuming oil excessively, like 1 quart in <1k miles, and since the motor sat for awhile I was concerned that the valve seals were the culprit in addition to the usual wear on these engines. Since the Maryhill event my lifter tick was getting worse and worse, really making it miserable to drive. Loud exhaust combined with a feeling that the engine needed to be babied was awful. I started contemplating a top end rebuild and how in the hell I could accomplish that given that I needed to be at work every day of the week no exceptions. I began to notice blue smoke which was not surprising given recent events and how much oil was being consumed. Rislone treatment helped for a short time, and switching to Rotella T6 helped but was just a band-aid.

I started threads, searched here and BFc, and eventually threw it out there to the PNW crew that a shop quoted me $1200 to pull the head and refurbish it and I would really love to give someone this work on the side, with the caveat that I need means of transportation. My savior made himself known, Corey Abraira aka blackangusinc. Corey PM'd me and said he could do the job at a reasonable rate, and bring the head to the masters at M&B Cylinder Heads. Plus, he had a "beater" e30 that he could loan while my car was down - I love beater e30s!

We met at my first Abe-b-q, a PNW gathering, and someone was kind enough to bring a compression tester. This revealed what was by then obvious - terrible numbers and a definite blowout between 5 & 6. Corey and I arranged to swap cars at the end of October, after the HorsepowerFreaks Dyno Day (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgtwTsJdIbk).

I ran my busted S50 on the dyno for the hell of it. What a champ, she did 208 whp shutting down at 6500rpm.



You'll notice the seats have changed in this photo. I went through a cardinal red phase where I wanted to do the upholstery up really nicely with these vert seats up front. Those plans were dashed by engine trouble of course.

The next day, Corey began his work. Here's a shot of how the engine looked up until this point. I hadn't even gotten around to trimming the wiring and squeezing it under the M42 harness covers.



More on that with my next post..

[butters]

It does seem a bit loud but as long as you are having fun. Looks really nice under the car though. :up:

Thank you. I did finally rework the exhaust last summer, I'll get to that part soon.

So, that's what my car will sound like! Maybe not quite as loud, as I still have cats and two little resonators, but that sound is incredible.

The guy with that E28 is Jay (Jay2 on mye28, iirc) from NorCal. Neat guy. S38 powered euro'd E28. Pretty sure you caught him on the way to 5erWest. lol

I'll have to get updated sound clips, it's not so dramatic now with cats/res. 5erWest definitely rings a bell as what he mentioned. Badass car.

[e30austin]

So, that's what my car will sound like! Maybe not quite as loud, as I still have cats and two little resonators, but that sound is incredible.

The guy with that E28 is Jay (Jay2 on mye28, iirc) from NorCal. Neat guy. S38 powered euro'd E28. Pretty sure you caught him on the way to 5erWest. lol

[N2MYE30]

It does seem a bit loud but as long as you are having fun. Looks really nice under the car though. :up:

[butters]

Back to the story. Car goes on a 2 week journey to Portland, I fly out and enjoy a rental.... so forgettable that I forget what it was.

This shot on the trailer shows the situation underneath:



I tried to swap out the input shaft seal on the Zf310 and wound up damaging the input shaft bearing. That sucked. I decided to just eat the cost of upgrading to a rebuilt Zf320, and Drive-Gear in NJ hooked me up by meeting an hour and a half from his location and took my '95 transmission as a core in a WaWa parking lot. It was still a significant additional expense, but I take comfort in how beautifully it operates and knowing that it is good for a long time.

You'll also notice the open headers. My neighbors loved me but I wasn't home long with it running and only drove it to the dealership to get it on the lift. I couldn't resist..

Anyways, I arrived in Portland. Obligatory mural photo.. kicking myself that I never bothered to go back with the E30.



I picked up my car at the DAS terminal, gave it a cursory wash myself (was filthy, under the hood too ugh) and popped ear plugs that I grabbed from work for the 30-mile drive south to Canby muffler. The noise was civil <5% throttle... and then it droned like nothing else. I could visualize the throttle plate cracking open as I put the slightest load on the engine and it reverberated into my brain. Luckily the drive wasn't too long and no one seemed to notice. Honestly. I was able to keep it pretty quiet but couldn't help but jab the throttle here and there to feel the power that wanted to be unleashed.

I figured this exhaust work was going to be temporary until I pieced something proper together, and kind of wanted to play with the car while loud for awhile anyway. So I went as cheap as I could and for a couple hundo the shop fitted my UUC System U rear section to the 2-piece eBay headers via crush-bent straight piping. He did a number opening up my valence, which was addressed only just last month.





I had been, up to that point, behind the wheel of mainly turbo VW and Audi cars, which you can throw straight pipes on without much fear of excessive volume. I was not prepared for the result of this straight-pipe straight-6 naturally aspirated concoction. Videos don't do it justice, the drone was almost as bad as with open headers. I can't believe how long I drove it like this, but again, priority number 1 remained the engine.

The iPhone 4 video camera is great, but the microphone not so much, and the startup is not as impressive as traffic goes by:

https://youtu.be/2AK6sxuzDKM

90 seconds is probably too long for an exhaust clip but I wanted to capture it and I'm glad I did. Interior sound:

https://youtu.be/vjXson7-Omg

It was too loud but it ran great (aside from what I later found to be a stuck open ICV causing the high idle)and I was ecstatic. With the skinny tires I was traction limited so hooliganism only happened on the highways which, I have to say, are disappointingly rough in Portland. Probably my only complaint.

Things were looking up, and on my first visit to the DIY carwash I ran into this gentleman:





I said hello and I believe he was going to a local event, which happen all the time in the wonderful world of the Pacific Northwest, just like sightings of other nice classic cars.

Safely in the garage in SW Portland:



..to be continued.

[butters]

Thanks Keith, yea my final "rotation" brought me to a manufacturing facility here just like what initially brought me to Portland. My time traveling ends in July.

Yikes, sorry the photos are a little large, they make the page too wide for my square monitor at work but I suppose not too bad on the usual widescreen.

[Keith M]

Nice write up Stephen. Are you enrolled in another internship in Cleveland?

[e30austin]

Glad to finally see a build thread, buddy.

[RLGDiesel]

Beautiful sedan!! Keep it classy and stock.

[knuklehead92]

awesome car! love sedans!

[butters]

Thank you! I forgot to touch on the sleeper aspect aside from pointing out the pros of the four door. I bought the swap so early on in my ownership and I want to really be sure the engine is running perfectly and the swap is seamless, so that's where my e30 money has gone. more on that later. this way the car has stayed very stock looking and in fact still looks today as it does here. On the outside anyway :)

[uofom3]

Car looks super clean - nice work!