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

[marshallnoise]

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:

Ha! Those hoses suck ass!

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[marshallnoise]

About to go full on stupid...

Since I have nothing but time on my hands waiting for the e39 sale to go through, I have decided to throw the car back together with all of the old cooling system parts I have and try to flush the block with a diluted mixture of *gasp* muriatic acid and water.

The way I figure it is that I have nothing to lose and if I am lucky, I can clear out any blockage and drive the damn thing a bit.



EDIT: I am going to test various mixtures to see what destroys aluminum or not. The stuff I bought is 20% HCL so it's not the full concentrate which varies between 34 and 39%.

[TimeMachinE30]

Awesome. Keep up the efforts.

Try seafoam first? A more OTC approach? I'm down for Mr. Beaker type approach, too.

[Walter]

This pleases me.

[CorvallisBMW]

Just remember to always pour the muriatic acid in to the water, never the other way around!

[marshallnoise]

Just remember to always pour the muriatic acid in to the water, never the other way around!

Absolutely! I have watched a ton of videos on working with the stuff. I think buying 3 bottles of distilled water, pouring out the amount of acid i want in, and gently mixing them will be the safest way to mix the solution AND get it in the car at the right mixture initially.

Awesome. Keep up the efforts.

Try seafoam first? A more OTC approach? I'm down for Mr. Beaker type approach, too.

I am not sure what seafoam in the coolant jackets would do chemically. I know that in strong mixes, muriatic acid will simply dissolve aluminum. But I am thinking of running a 1 part acid to 3 parts water mix, testing on raw aluminum radiator scrap and seeing if it starts to eat the metal or if it just cleans really well.

This pleases me.

Ha! I hope I am not too foolish. I don't have much to lose though. I will probably bypass the heater core since I am confident it is clear and the only part of the cooling system that works properly at this point.

I will get the car up to temp for 20 min or so and then let it sit for an hour, run it up to temp again, then drain.

Once I am done with the flush, I will flush it with baking soda and water to neutralize any remaining acid. Flush it once more with just water and then drive it.

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[marshallnoise]

Chemistry, I hope

Here is some science for you. If the stop leak that was used contained sodium silicate like Blue Devil or something like liquid glass, then the HCL and water mixture should turn the hardened Sodium Silicate into jelly.

EDIT: VIDEO DISAPPEAREDED

Apparently Alumaseal has loads of sand it it too.

Ironically, when doing research, adding sodium silicate to engine oil will disable an engine. http://jalopnik.com/5327580/video-ho...r-clunkers-car

[marshallnoise]

Alright...tried to make stop leak by using a pot, hot plate and Bar's Stop Leak. That was a massive fail. Apparently I don't know how it works.



So this morning I decided how hard core I wanted to be with the muriatic acid. I cut up little pieces of aluminum radiator and put in a mix of water and acid to see what would happen after 15 min or so.



The above was after 5 minutes.

So after 15 minutes I dumped the solution and examined the pieces of aluminum.



The one on the far right was slightly pitted. The other two seemed fine. So I mixed up a batch of somewhere between the two on the left and charged up the car to start it.



I put in about a gallon and a half of the solution and let it sit for a few minutes so the battery could charge and be strong enough to get her fired up.

In typical fashion, the cooling system backed up immediately and made it a pain in the ass. I was running water over the areas it was backing up trying to mitigate the damage of the acid solution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2noBR4aOfsQ

Eventually I got a cap on the thing and drove around the block. I drained the acid solution out of the radiator, left the car running and flushed fresh water through the thing to purge out the acid solution. Then I mixed up some baking soda and water mix and filled it up, ran it 5 minutes, dumped and got ready to fill it up with straight water.

At this point it was doing the typical backing up while filling the car and I decided to get my nose around the expansion tank: exhaust fumes.

I got to pulling the plugs and by the time I got to the 3rd one back to the firewall on the passenger side, I saw water on the plug. Bingo.

The order of the plugs is drivers side closest to me, front of the motor on the left.


And the plug in question.


So I am looking at head gaskets at a minimum and probably a shave of the heads. Not sure what I want to do quite yet. I may reevaluate the whole car and see what I want to do. I fear the paint might be beyond the point of no return so that weighs heavy in my decision making.




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[marshallnoise]

I am headed up to Huntington Beach tomorrow to pick up a timing-chain fail m62 long block already stripped down to the heads for $40 and a 12 pack. Rad!

The build is still on.

[marshallnoise]

Ba-da Bing! We in business!

Rolled up to Huntington Beach with a buddy and picked up an m62b44 that was stripped down to empty heads, block and upper oil pan for $40 and a 12 pack. The fellas at 3rd Shift Motorsports were cool as heck and loved the idea of resurrecting cars like mine and hybrids like I am building. They have a bunch of trick projects going on and are open 7 days a week too.















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[marshallnoise]

Decided to go out and pull the heads and the motor mounts off the m62. I wanted to see what the condition of the chambers were and if I got a vanos motor or not.

IMG_20160502_183504668_HDR_zpsiopbrbts by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160502_183829188_HDR_zpssfkpol9w by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160502_184723345_zpswyjmguyn by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160502_184729357_zpsfrmfypk9 by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160502_185047655_HDR_zpswzrnqieu by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160502_185053686_zpslessppqh by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160502_185649302_zpszlntsot4 by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160502_190110342_zps0sewtdqj by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160502_190116909_zpswyvgau7f by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160502_191933097_zpsxppu7wme by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160502_191938122_zpswfknwsco by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160502_191942378_zpswvlg7bx4 by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Judging by the valve reliefs, I have an m62b44tu motor.

Then I wanted to see if the motor would turn over free and easy...Well, it didn't. I am kind of concerned about it. Especially after looking at the valves in the heads. I believe that some of the valves are bent and you can also see lines across the bottom of the valves.

I believe this engine might have been mistimed and attempted to fire. I am not too sure.

In the meantime, I have bagged the motor and sprayed some PB Blaster in the driver's side cylinders in case the engine is just frozen from sitting. I will come back in a couple of days and flip it to the passenger side and do the same thing, then give it a turn on Saturday and see if it will spin.

:popcorn:

[Walter]

You sir are a glutton for punishment. I would've given up probably 6 pages ago.

[marshallnoise]

You sir are a glutton for punishment. I would've given up probably 6 pages ago.

Lmao [emoji3]


As my family would say if I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all. I am going to text 3rd Shift Motorsports and see if they knew if the motor was locked up or not. They told me that the bottom end should be fine. I am in no way mad at them about. Hoping that its just sticky rings.

I tried researching if rings can stick in an Alusil block like they do in an Iron block but I can't find anything.

[marshallnoise]

She's toast, never had a prayer!

I got the motor to turn over with TONS of force. Then it loosened up a bit, but still required lots of effort to turn.

Take a look at this carnage!

IMG_20160503_185839783_HDR_zpsdjgdpmpn by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160503_185852154_zpsqaxbvjny by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160503_185858966_zpsoa9gtck4 by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160503_185940866_zps7chrd5iz by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160503_185947378_zpsflbuzraf by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160503_190040469_zpserujfq3v by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160503_190046907_zpsnqxwi4sl by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160503_190131089_zpsqmtu5bae by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Basically most of the cylinders show damage, but this one was the proof of a big problem. The groove is deep and wide.
IMG_20160503_190243485_zpscfy2qrth by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160503_190252184_zps5kwjvohd by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160503_190353398_zps68qsjomr by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160503_190358884_zpsvsy2a3ps by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

IMG_20160503_190431630_zps7hfovncy by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Back to the drawing board. Oh, and 3rd Shift Motorsports hasn't responded, though I knew I might have been getting something a little dubious. They have this thread as I texted it to them yesterday. I don't hold them responsible though. So $40 and a twelve pack for the beginnings of a table...

[marshallnoise]

I am wondering, since my car is rough, if I can find a better car with a bad transmission or even an ok running car and swapping my 6 speed stuff into it.

I know its crazy to swap a transmission over a blown head gasket, but I have interior issues and paint issues and suspension issues, etc.

If I have both cars side by side, then I can move everything over from one car to the other and then sell the old car to a junk yard for probably $500 bucks or so. I am still having a hell of a time getting it registered, so...

Just mulling it over.

EDIT: The e39 540i/A guy and I just spoke. He said that the car is almost ready to transfer to me. Just waiting on someone else apparently.