1995 e34 540i/6 *m60b44* - Return to Some Kind of Glory

[marshallnoise]

Man, just read through this entire thread. You're a champ with this resto. Keep it up! And every e34 I've owned has had constant cooling problems..... Just seems to be the trend, especially in hotter climates.

That's fabulous news! LOL!

I am trying and trying.

[90-E34-M5]

I did a 25 mile trip in traffic yesterday that took 3 hours

OBC reading was 116 deg F (radiated road temp) and the temp gauge went to the middle, on a normal day the temp gauge sits left tangent to centre.

The E34's cooling system isn't built for hot climates and slow driving in traffic (the M5 is worse than the M60) and I spent almost a year making the E34 540/5 reliable on a hot day.

Stick with it , it CAN be done

[squidmaster]

have you tried water wetter? My benz has heat-soak in traffic and that helped keep my temps down quite a bit.

[marshallnoise]

have you tried water wetter? My benz has heat-soak in traffic and that helped keep my temps down quite a bit.

I haven't tried that yet. But I am pretty sure my motor has something wrong internally. I m going to march forward with the m60b44 swap anyway. That way I'll know whats what with the drive train. I really hope to make this car something I own for quite some time.

I did a 25 mile trip in traffic yesterday that took 3 hours

OBC reading was 116 deg F (radiated road temp) and the temp gauge went to the middle, on a normal day the temp gauge sits left tangent to centre.

The E34's cooling system isn't built for hot climates and slow driving in traffic (the M5 is worse than the M60) and I spent almost a year making the E34 540/5 reliable on a hot day.

Stick with it , it CAN be done

I just can't believe that BMW would build a vehicle that would require that much modifications in order to be reliable. I am glad your car is running well, but this isn't an under-engineered vehicle and it should be able to stand up to pretty much anything that gets thrown at it.

[CorvallisBMW]

I just can't believe that BMW would build a vehicle that would require that much modifications in order to be reliable. I am glad your car is running well, but this isn't an under-engineered vesicle and it should be able to stand up to pretty much anything that gets thrown at it.

This. They built tens of thousands of e34 V8 cars and they all ran at the perfect temp when they left the factory. If the system was under-engineered from the start, all cars would have cooling issues on the first day they were sold. That's obviously not the case.

To the fellow with the M5, that sucks that it took you such extreme measures to get your car to cool properly, but consider that BMW does hot weather testing in Death Valley at 125F and higher during their development process. If the car is running properly and everything is working as it should, a stock cooling system should handle whatever you throw at it. If your car was previously overheating, it was a symptom of some kind of issue, not a design failure.

OP it sounds to me like you're on the right track with your blocked coolant passage theory. Is there any way to use a hose or other delivery method to check flow through different parts of the engine, i.e. crossover pipe? Or perhaps try one of those cooling-system-flush-in-a-can things? Can't hurt.

[marshallnoise]

This. They built tens of thousands of e34 V8 cars and they all ran at the perfect temp when they left the factory. If the system was under-engineered from the start, all cars would have cooling issues on the first day they were sold. That's obviously not the case.

To the fellow with the M5, that sucks that it took you such extreme measures to get your car to cool properly, but consider that BMW does hot weather testing in Death Valley at 125F and higher during their development process. If the car is running properly and everything is working as it should, a stock cooling system should handle whatever you throw at it. If your car was previously overheating, it was a symptom of some kind of issue, not a design failure.

OP it sounds to me like you're on the right track with your blocked coolant passage theory. Is there any way to use a hose or other delivery method to check flow through different parts of the engine, i.e. crossover pipe? Or perhaps try one of those cooling-system-flush-in-a-can things? Can't hurt.

I flushed the crap out of the engine, and even removed the cross over pipes and coolant manifold to ensure there wasn't a blockage. There wasn't in those parts.

I hadn't thought of a chemical flush. I will look into those today. Thanks Corvallis.

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[jpod999]

[marshallnoise]

The 2000 540i/A is still available for $600. It has a salvage title, of course I don't care as I want only three things from the car: The M-Sport steering wheel, the Style 66 17" rims and the m62/Automatic combo.

The car has been listed for a month and he successfully rejected an offer from me by saying he had a better offer and even went so far as to say he had a guy make a deposit on it. I let it cool for a few days and then went back to him. He said the car was still available and gave me some coordinates as to where it can be seen. I told him I would go down and see it tomorrow, but it ends up I can't.

The plan is to make contact Friday, see the car, find a tow dolly and see if I can waive a bit of cash in front of him to get rid of it.

[bobaflesh]

Inspiring thread and great work! I have always liked E34s and wanted one.

[marshallnoise]

Thanks man. Its a labor of love. They are great cars.

[marshallnoise]

How about a bit of drama?

Sitrep: Guy selling 2000 540i/A with bad timing chain guides is selling the car from a pay-per-day parking lot just feet from the international border. I finally found my way to where the car was and took a look from behind a fence.

Decided to walk over to the attendants station and asked about a guy selling a black BMW 540i from this lot. He looks at me with wide eyes and says, "No way!" Turns out that the car has been there since August or so and they have towed it around the lot to do maintenance on the lot and are very close to doing lien paperwork on it.

The guy said I was very lucky to walk up and talk to him because if I had bought the car for say, $600 from the current owner, I would have had to pay the parking lot the back fees on it to get it off the lot, which amount to over $1,000.

So I could have been potentially screwed, royally. Gotta love Craigslist scammers!

The silver lining is that the guy is about my age and wondered what I was going to do with the car. I told him my plans. He also asked how much I was going to buy the car for and I told him anywhere between $400 and $500 and told him the guy was asking $600. He said he would have no problem getting the car into the parking lot's possession because of it being an abandoned vehicle and selling it to me for $500 bucks.

Crossing fingers on that one. We exchanged numbers and said to sit tight for a few weeks.

[TimKninja]

If someone ever used stop leak in the car, It could of easily have clogged the coolant passages. EASILY. I had a 1.8t Passat give me alot of overheating issues. turns out the guy dumped stop leak into the engine cooling system at one point. we pulled the head off and many of the passages were blocked with stop leak.

good luck dude! Love E34s, just picked one up on Friday to accompany the E30

[marshallnoise]

Ooooh! That makes me feel better about my issues. Thanks Tim!

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[marshallnoise]

So I had UnrulyGrace over from Bimmerforums and we worked on his 95 540i/6. His car is fan-freaking-tastic.

While he worked on updating his interior trim to a smoked Birdseye maple (almost charcoal and rad in the light), I installed a Mishimoto radiator and the Volvo fan setup that I have in my car. So this entails dumping coolant from the factory radiator, installing the new one, running wiring (very clean too) and filling, burping the car.

His motor took no effort to bleed. We filled it up, pointed the nose downhill, ran the car with heater and his car was up to operating temp in 10 minutes. The coolant didn't start overflowing out the expansion tank like on mine nor did it take forever to warm up like on mine. After 15 minutes of idling, his car was warm enough to kick on the low speed on the fan.

This confirms that I am not a full-on retard and can properly drain and fill a cooling system.

I am still waiting on this specific e39 to be transferred into the parking lot's name through mechanic's lien and then I can go down and pick it up. I don't mind waiting because I have had a lot of stuff going on and I just didn't want to get back into wrenching just yet.

That's the latest. Anyway, click up top for Jason's pictures. That Calypso is just stunning.

[Walter]

His 540i is a thing of beauty. Hope things work out well with the mechanic's lien deal. I obtained a car that way before and it took forever.

I'll be bringing my 540i/6 over to your place soon for power steering hose replacements. It's a pretty short drive. :mrgreen: