Project "Wolfenbüttel": Gertech's '86 535i, M62B44 + 6-Speed

[Gertech]

Hey all. This car has been a project of mine for a few months now, so I decided I'd try putting together a sort of build thread. I know it's not an e30, but it's a super clean relative of one! Some of you may remember my e30:


That started life as an '86 325es and now has a 5.3 LS, T56, lots of body mods, full resto, etc.

Anyway, here's the 535i a couple days after I picked it up, in all of her OE goodness. Thanks to Dave at Bimmer Buddies for selling me this beauty:



260k miles, original everything. Paint (Delphin), interior (Cardinal), drivetrain (M30, 5-speed, 3.25 LSD), even the TRXs! I did a few things to it and drove it like that for a while. Built a custom exhaust, chopped the springs (It rides very nice, so think what you will), tucked the bumpers, and threw on a set of e38 style 5s:





The project is underway, so more pics to come when I have time to upload. Thanks for looking!

[iXguido]

Perfect combo! Can't wait to see the build. And nice e30!

[stonea]

Damn that e30 is spotless!

[Gertech]

Thanks guys, one more of the e30 for fun;)



Okay, back to e28 world:




Goodbye, trusty M30. You were a solid engine, but not enough power for me:devil: I'm looking to unload the M30 and 5-speed; PM with interest.




Test fitting the M62. Picked that puppy up from the yard for a whopping $185, did the usual reseal of common leaky areas. Bought the 6-speed from a good buddy of mine. That's all for now!

[chondamx]

I like where this is going!

[kamotors]

awesome

[Gertech]

So after dropping the engine and trans in to confirm the rough placement of them, I decided it was time to figure out the brake booster rig. Like many V8 e30 swappers, I decided to go with the e34 remote booster/master cylinder. In order to get it sitting at the level I wanted, I had to make a notch in the frame. I fabbed up a nice little box with nuts welded to the back side on the base to make for easy installation and removal of the brake unit:





I also had to move the foot of the firewall support in order to clear the top of the steering box:





As you can see, everything is offset nicely to the side, making for plenty of room around the engine:



Engine and brake booster/master in place:



Please excuse the photo quality; I usually just snap things with my phone while I'm working. The best camera is the one you have with you, right? More to come...

[Gertech]

So I know most that swap in an M62 end up converting to OBD1 and running a 404 DME. I'm planning to get this thing running with the OBD2 harness & DME. Anyone have a good tuner that will remove EWS and make some other changes? Thanks guys.

[Gertech]

Once I had the brake system in place, I decided I should nail down the position of the engine and trans and fab up some mounts. The original mounts on the block (e38 ) were way too wide to fit in between the frame rails, so I sourced up a set of e34 540i mounts, along with the rubber mounts, also from an e34, for the subframe. With the engine positioned, there was still a bit of a gap between the two mounts, so I fabbed up a quick and dirty mount to bridge the two together. I'll likely come up with a nicer looking alternative in the future, but these work for now. I didn't take any pics while building these, so I snapped this today:


Not pretty, but functional. They're made from 1/4" steel plate. I also whipped up a trans mount and used the stock rubber mounts from the e28, which I had recently replaced, so I wanted to use them. I also snapped this pic today:



Now that everything was sitting in its final resting place, I decided to tackle the headers. Fortunately, the passenger side wasn't much of an issue, and a factory manifold from a e38 or e39 540i fits with the collector cut off and a smaller pipe welded in its place for clearance. Not the same luck on the driver's side; damn steering box!



That's the e39 driver's side manifold with the collector cut off. It basically dumps right on top of the steering box. No bueno.




That mess was obviously not going to work, so I scrapped that idea and decided to fab up my own header. I cut the flanges off of the factory manifold and started playing with some old tubing I had laying around:




After fooling around a bit more (and forgetting to take pics along the way), I ended up with this:




It's a damn tight squeeze, but I now have clearance around the steering box. Success! I'd be willing to bet that it flows better than that factory manifold, too. That thing was so restrictive, especially on the collector pipe of the rear two cylinders.

[JeLani]

Project "Wolfenbüttel": Gertech's '86 535i, M62B44 + 6-Speed

Is there a size/weight difference between the m60/2 , and why is it most people prefer the m60?


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[ST1G]

Is there a size/weight difference between the m60/2 , and why is it most people prefer the m60?

Don't have to deal with OBDII With m60.



Build looks great! Can't wait to see how it goes.

[jpod999]

So I know most that swap in an M62 end up converting to OBD1 and running a 404 DME. I'm planning to get this thing running with the OBD2 harness & DME. Anyone have a good tuner that will remove EWS and make some other changes? Thanks guys.

This is why I decided to go OBDI on my M62 swap. I spoke with 3-4 different tuners and no one can remove EWS from the DME, the best they could offer was an emulator.

[Gertech]

This is why I decided to go OBDI on my M62 swap. I spoke with 3-4 different tuners and no one can remove EWS from the DME, the best they could offer was an emulator.

Thanks for the info! Yeah I've been having a hard time finding a straight answer on this. I think there's a DME, EWS & key floating around at work from a non-vanos m62 740, so that may be an option. Just stick the key in the ring under the dash somewhere. I wonder why it's so tough to crack that DME.

When you went OBDI, did you have it tuned to compensate for the extra displacement?

[Gertech]

So a little update, my Dad works for Fabspeed Motorsport in Fort Washington, Pa. He was talking to their in-house tuner about my project and he seemed to think he'd be able to remove the EWS from my DME. I had my Dad give it to him and he started working on it today, so we'll see! The DME I have is a 578 from a '96 540i.

[Gertech]

Okay guys, little update here. Today I finished up with modifying the shifter carrier and selector rod. I ended up cutting about 4 3/4" out of each and welded them back together. For the selector rod, I put an 8mm bolt inside the rod at the weld joint for some extra strength, and made sure to get good penetration into the bolt. I haven't played with welding aluminum yet, so I got my old man to weld that up for me:







Some other things I recently accomplished on the car...I picked up an iS spoiler for it in pretty decent shape and drilled the holes in the trunk and mounted it. Still needs paint on the body colored piece. I used the original BMW mounting instructions for where to drill the holes, and it fits like a glove:





I'm also converting to euro lights and bumpers, so I got some things partially completed in that department as well:

Modifying the front valance to accept the euro turns and fogs:


Cleaning up the back end where the bumper shocks mounted:






Front end with the euro lights, grills, fogs, turns, and bumper installed. I picked up a pair of brackets for the bumper from Levent at Guten Parts+Service:



That's all for now!