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

[jpod999]

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

I haven't gotten that far yet but will likely get a MarkD M62 OBDI chip when the time comes.

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.

This would be pretty cool, would likely make an M62 swap much easier if they were able to accomplish this.

[Gertech]

Yeah for sure. He seems pretty confident that he can figure it out, but I haven't heard anything from him yet. I still have a bit of work to do before I'm ready to fire it up anyway.

On another note, for anyone looking to buy euro bumpers for an e28, you probably found out that BMW will not sell them here in the states. Of course you can go used, but they can be hard to source. I contacted Schmeidmann in Denmark and they were able to source some brand new rear bumper parts for me and shipped them to PA! They were a pleasure to deal with and the prices were reasonable. I purchased a brand new center bumper section, both joining covers, and the outer trim piece. All were brand new BMW parts. Just a little FYI.

[CorvallisBMW]

Awesome project, sub'd

[Gertech]

Awesome project, sub'd

Thanks man!

Got a pic with the modified shifter linkage installed, sporting the factory shift boot and knob for the moment. I'll probably get a 6 speed knob at some point, although with the stock stuff, nobody is the wiser (unless it's running, of course :devil:)



I also did some junkyard hunting the other day and picked up an intake duct and idle air control valve. My engine came with the traction control duct/blade, so I eliminated that with this:



You can also see my electric fan in that pic. I have to come up with a mounting solution, but it's a puller fan from an R53 (Mini Cooper S) that I snagged from work. The speed controller is kaput, but I'm just bypassing that so it runs at full speed when it turns on. Right side up, the fan hit the front of the water pump, so I flipped it upside down so it's justified to the passenger side. Plenty of clearance!

I also got my shipment of bumper parts from Schmeidmann to go with the bumper end pieces I already have, so I did a rough mock up of the parts on the car:



That's it for now! Working on figuring out cooling system stuff, mainly hoses and how to route them. I'm going to run an early e30 expansion tank mounted on the passenger side fender well like an e30. I put in a big order of parts today at work, so I should have some stuff to play with for the weekend.

[Gertech]

Got a little more done on the 28 today. I was able to grab the front half of a driveshaft and the guibo from an e38 parts car at work, so I set out to mate the flange from that driveshaft to the rest of my stock e28 shaft. After measuring a bunch of times, I cut the flange off of the e28 shaft and welded the e38 flange to it. I cut both pieces with a large pipe cutter for a perfectly square cut. It also gave the ends a nice bevel for good weld penetration.

Here is the e38 flange attached to the e28 shaft, and the stock flange from the e28 shaft for reference. As you can see, it ended up being shortened a few inches:



I decided to TIG this part so I wasn't adding lots of extra material that could cause an imbalance issue:



I'm just learning the TIG, but so far it's so much more fun and controllable than the MIG. I started practicing on some scrap stainless exhaust tubing, so I'm planning to TIG up a nice duel system for it.

[iXguido]

I want that shift knob if/when you decide to change it!

[pandaboo911]

I think welding a driveshaft yourself without a proper jig is risky. Otherwise nice build

[jpod999]

I'm just learning the TIG, but so far it's so much more fun and controllable than the MIG. I started practicing on some scrap stainless exhaust tubing, so I'm planning to TIG up a nice duel system for it.

Totally agreed on that point, TIG is way more fun.

I also did some junkyard hunting the other day and picked up an intake duct and idle air control valve. My engine came with the traction control duct/blade, so I eliminated that with this:

Nice! I'm thinking about doing the same thing. Are you going to remove the ASC+T connector and wiring from the harness or just leave the connector dangling? Apparently the M6x cars that didn't have ASC+T had the connector just sit there unused from the factory. We had a whole conversation about V8 harnesses here: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=378498

[Gertech]

I think welding a driveshaft yourself without a proper jig is risky. Otherwise nice build

I'd agree, but I did have this jigged to make everything square and centered for welding, just didn't take a pic of that. But thanks for the input and complement!

JPod, I was thinking I'd just trim that connector off of the harness, along with the wiring for the automatic trans and such. But I'll take a look at that thread to see what others think. Thanks!