picked this up in the fall of 2011 i think.
bought it for $300 or $400 bucks. No springs / front spindles or shocks / struts. Everything else was there.
Put suspension in, H&R's and Konis I think.
The interior was GROSS... i hate blue.
Swapped it all over to black. The PO put some knockoff racing seats in it, those looked a lot better than the blue cloth ones tho.
I bought and immediately swapped in a 2.92 LSD. this car had a 3.73 OPEN diff, i couldn't stand it. It was a whole other car without an LSD... in a bad way. no good. the 2.92 is all i could find locally so i took it, 70 bucks whatever. No pics tho
to this
MUCH better.
The airbag wheel was horrible, just horrible. Bought this
Put it in, looked great.
brakes sucked, got new pads and rotors, german stuff of course. no chinese ever.
She was good ! clean and ran well, loved it.
THEN the head gasket blew... found out later it was because some DOPE swapped in a ETA m20 and kept the 2.5 liter motor's ecu... and I was revving it out to redline all the time.. to 6500.. far past the 4750 or whatever the redline was supposed to be for that junk eta motor.
SO I decided, M50 swap... yeahh whooo , here we go.
Bought the M50NV, $500 all acessories / harness / ecu ready to go.
The engine stand was PISSED tho..
The last moments before pulling the beat ass M20 out...
Did everything necessary to pull the engine and out she came !
looked nasty.
Ordered a bunch of parts.
stage 2 clutch
Shaved the flywheel and resurfaced it at napa, was like 100 bucks.
Z3 rack? shit why not !
Brake booster was a piece of shit, so i replaced with a used one from a member on here or e30tech.
moved the booster over and cut the arm and made it work, works mint.
Did the water pump, valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket obviously, rear main seal, thermostat and housing and new plugs.
Tranny cleaned up good. did all new bushings in the shifter linkage , and replaced the rear seals on the tranny too cause they sucked ass.
wired up the harness
this is my cousin you keep seeing in the photos, im not 17 don't worry.
and finally it was in
Didn't take pics but I also put new inner and outter tie rods, replaced control arms up front and also got the solid M3 offset bushings too.
My buddy put together my exhaust for me. I got the mufflers because the guy who has this forum has a thread about his M50NV build (can anyone link me?) and he was right.. this exhaust setup is the best. Borla muffler in the middle with the vibrant out back. Sounds beast, perfect for daily driving and WOT.
During the process of everything above, it didn't go as quickly as it seems when looking at the pictures.
The first harness didn't work out cause the dumby person I am, cut off the wrong connector and wires from the automatic harness... the E30 ecu happens to plug into the transmission ECU socket perfectly on M50 harnesses... go figure. Mixed the E30 ECU's up and never noticed until I couldn't get it started for days...
Bought two more harnesses, one was wrong and the last one finally worked.
Installed the M3 bushings in the wrong pointing direction, had to redo those.
So not everything is as easy, dont feel bad if you're doing a swap and you're shit is all messed up. just relax.
I could so frustrated with my wiring harness issues I let the car sit all last summer until this last winter and had my buddy finish the car for me because I couldn't get back into it,i was drained. I am not a mechanic at all. Just someone who does their own brakes.
He finished it up for me, made the exhaust and here it was, a year later... it ran. and it ran smooth and good.
It was awesome, had my car back... yeah I have 2 other bmw's too but this one is the classic, the raw machine.
but..
IT WAS SLOW AS SHIT. Maybe because of the 2.92 LSD... actually.. definitely because of the LSD.
So I got some more stuff.
My hood was dented, it sucked. found this almost mint.
bought this 3.73 LSD but didn't install it, its actually still sitting there in my office.
then i bought the CCW knockoffs, 16x9 ET15...
Best idea ever.
So everything was cool, also had a 16" SPAL electric fan setup, the thing was beast, blew the small fuses I had until I finally got it to run with 25amp fuse. cycled / cycles perfectly.
Well the second time it blew a fuse is when i was on a cruise, hot day, traffic, bullshit.
Motor got a little hot and i pulled into a gas station. fixed the fuse, put the bigger on in problem solved. started it back up... big noise... sounded like a hardcore knock.
no good... everyone with me thought motor was done, me too.
Anyways drove it for a couple days here and there, knock was getting worse, figured it was done.
Looked around for some motors put some offers in, nothing worked out. Bidded on this S52 in NYC and they declined.
Later that night my buddy looks at it, tells me its probably loose spark plug....
wtf??
yeah ... it was... wtf.
tightened it up, the engine was mint, ran like normal everything was cool.
A day later the offer for the S52 was somewhat accepted.
long story short i found this OBD1 converted S52, "95k" (ya okay) with a few mods (see my sig not gonna type them again).
So i said waffleswaffleswaffleswaffles it, went down next morning with a bunch of cash and pulled the motor with the guy and put in our truck and headed home.
here it was
SOOOOO out my M50 went, after only driving it for a couple weeks...
This time i was determined to do it myself and get it done in two days. ...lol
and it was out, my cousin couldn't figure out how to get the driveshaft off, dooooof it just slid off but i took his word for it and just pulled it with the tranny because i didn't want to get on the car for a hundredth time.
My friend has pics, but we reinforced the subframe , welded some plates on it for the motor because i've heard bad things if you don't with the M3 motors.
Then swapped the oil pans, i hated life... it was frustrated, hot, no engine stands, engines swining off a skidsteer and a engine hoist.. very annoying, took way too long. but this was all in one day still... so we were all tired.
This pos would just not go in, i hate load levelers, the cheap ones. they are garbage the handles don't turn right EVER LOL
Finally got the motor in and on the mounts. broke the tranny mounts, they sucked anyways. ordered new ones and new shifter ball cup bushing that we trashed because we are idiots.
my lovely girlfriend did the wiring for me
It was 2 1/2 days later and the engine was in but wouldn't start or stay running at least.
Through the most ridiculous stupidest troubleshooting process we realized the FPR was modified, the PO used his own regulator mounted on the car, independently and the one on the fuel rail was straight through, regulating nothing.
insane... so dumb. wasted days. So on day 4 the engine ran, and it ran well... very strong.
Now that she is fast and nimble the M5 can sell now.
anyone have $15,000 bucks for the cleanest M5 you'll get with 98k ?
i deeply apologize for the retarded big photos, and then the super small thumbnails.
You can see all photos and more of the car here...
The forum owner here should add some CSS code for images like
{img max-width:600px;}
That would limit all these images easily
bought it for $300 or $400 bucks. No springs / front spindles or shocks / struts. Everything else was there.
Put suspension in, H&R's and Konis I think.
The interior was GROSS... i hate blue.
Swapped it all over to black. The PO put some knockoff racing seats in it, those looked a lot better than the blue cloth ones tho.
I bought and immediately swapped in a 2.92 LSD. this car had a 3.73 OPEN diff, i couldn't stand it. It was a whole other car without an LSD... in a bad way. no good. the 2.92 is all i could find locally so i took it, 70 bucks whatever. No pics tho
to this
MUCH better.
The airbag wheel was horrible, just horrible. Bought this
Put it in, looked great.
brakes sucked, got new pads and rotors, german stuff of course. no chinese ever.
She was good ! clean and ran well, loved it.
THEN the head gasket blew... found out later it was because some DOPE swapped in a ETA m20 and kept the 2.5 liter motor's ecu... and I was revving it out to redline all the time.. to 6500.. far past the 4750 or whatever the redline was supposed to be for that junk eta motor.
SO I decided, M50 swap... yeahh whooo , here we go.
Bought the M50NV, $500 all acessories / harness / ecu ready to go.
The engine stand was PISSED tho..
The last moments before pulling the beat ass M20 out...
Did everything necessary to pull the engine and out she came !
looked nasty.
Ordered a bunch of parts.
stage 2 clutch
Shaved the flywheel and resurfaced it at napa, was like 100 bucks.
Z3 rack? shit why not !
Brake booster was a piece of shit, so i replaced with a used one from a member on here or e30tech.
moved the booster over and cut the arm and made it work, works mint.
Did the water pump, valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket obviously, rear main seal, thermostat and housing and new plugs.
Tranny cleaned up good. did all new bushings in the shifter linkage , and replaced the rear seals on the tranny too cause they sucked ass.
wired up the harness
this is my cousin you keep seeing in the photos, im not 17 don't worry.
and finally it was in
Didn't take pics but I also put new inner and outter tie rods, replaced control arms up front and also got the solid M3 offset bushings too.
My buddy put together my exhaust for me. I got the mufflers because the guy who has this forum has a thread about his M50NV build (can anyone link me?) and he was right.. this exhaust setup is the best. Borla muffler in the middle with the vibrant out back. Sounds beast, perfect for daily driving and WOT.
During the process of everything above, it didn't go as quickly as it seems when looking at the pictures.
The first harness didn't work out cause the dumby person I am, cut off the wrong connector and wires from the automatic harness... the E30 ecu happens to plug into the transmission ECU socket perfectly on M50 harnesses... go figure. Mixed the E30 ECU's up and never noticed until I couldn't get it started for days...
Bought two more harnesses, one was wrong and the last one finally worked.
Installed the M3 bushings in the wrong pointing direction, had to redo those.
So not everything is as easy, dont feel bad if you're doing a swap and you're shit is all messed up. just relax.
I could so frustrated with my wiring harness issues I let the car sit all last summer until this last winter and had my buddy finish the car for me because I couldn't get back into it,i was drained. I am not a mechanic at all. Just someone who does their own brakes.
He finished it up for me, made the exhaust and here it was, a year later... it ran. and it ran smooth and good.
It was awesome, had my car back... yeah I have 2 other bmw's too but this one is the classic, the raw machine.
but..
IT WAS SLOW AS SHIT. Maybe because of the 2.92 LSD... actually.. definitely because of the LSD.
So I got some more stuff.
My hood was dented, it sucked. found this almost mint.
bought this 3.73 LSD but didn't install it, its actually still sitting there in my office.
then i bought the CCW knockoffs, 16x9 ET15...
Best idea ever.
So everything was cool, also had a 16" SPAL electric fan setup, the thing was beast, blew the small fuses I had until I finally got it to run with 25amp fuse. cycled / cycles perfectly.
Well the second time it blew a fuse is when i was on a cruise, hot day, traffic, bullshit.
Motor got a little hot and i pulled into a gas station. fixed the fuse, put the bigger on in problem solved. started it back up... big noise... sounded like a hardcore knock.
no good... everyone with me thought motor was done, me too.
Anyways drove it for a couple days here and there, knock was getting worse, figured it was done.
Looked around for some motors put some offers in, nothing worked out. Bidded on this S52 in NYC and they declined.
Later that night my buddy looks at it, tells me its probably loose spark plug....
wtf??
yeah ... it was... wtf.
tightened it up, the engine was mint, ran like normal everything was cool.
A day later the offer for the S52 was somewhat accepted.
long story short i found this OBD1 converted S52, "95k" (ya okay) with a few mods (see my sig not gonna type them again).
So i said waffleswaffleswaffleswaffles it, went down next morning with a bunch of cash and pulled the motor with the guy and put in our truck and headed home.
here it was
SOOOOO out my M50 went, after only driving it for a couple weeks...
This time i was determined to do it myself and get it done in two days. ...lol
and it was out, my cousin couldn't figure out how to get the driveshaft off, dooooof it just slid off but i took his word for it and just pulled it with the tranny because i didn't want to get on the car for a hundredth time.
My friend has pics, but we reinforced the subframe , welded some plates on it for the motor because i've heard bad things if you don't with the M3 motors.
Then swapped the oil pans, i hated life... it was frustrated, hot, no engine stands, engines swining off a skidsteer and a engine hoist.. very annoying, took way too long. but this was all in one day still... so we were all tired.
This pos would just not go in, i hate load levelers, the cheap ones. they are garbage the handles don't turn right EVER LOL
Finally got the motor in and on the mounts. broke the tranny mounts, they sucked anyways. ordered new ones and new shifter ball cup bushing that we trashed because we are idiots.
my lovely girlfriend did the wiring for me
It was 2 1/2 days later and the engine was in but wouldn't start or stay running at least.
Through the most ridiculous stupidest troubleshooting process we realized the FPR was modified, the PO used his own regulator mounted on the car, independently and the one on the fuel rail was straight through, regulating nothing.
insane... so dumb. wasted days. So on day 4 the engine ran, and it ran well... very strong.
Now that she is fast and nimble the M5 can sell now.
anyone have $15,000 bucks for the cleanest M5 you'll get with 98k ?
i deeply apologize for the retarded big photos, and then the super small thumbnails.
You can see all photos and more of the car here...
The forum owner here should add some CSS code for images like
{img max-width:600px;}
That would limit all these images easily
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