I don't think I've ever really posted much on R3V about my own cars, and know for sure that I've never made a thread following the progress of any of my cars. I figured since I was starting with a blank slate it may be best to keep track of all the little things I do with this car, as I seem to forget those little details as time goes on. Hopefully it'll be a little bit entertaining as well.
So I'll start out with an intro to my interest in E34's. Most of my time has been spent with E30's, and I daily drive my 318is. I've been driving a decent bit around Metro Atlanta lately and will be driving a little bit more now with a new job. I got an idea to try out something a little bit bigger so I don't get crunched out on the free for all that is Metro Atlanta highways. I ended up buying a decently nice auto '95 525, did a bunch of maintenance work to it and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I soon decided that if I was going to put a bunch of work into an E34, I wanted it to be something more worthwhile. I was leaning towards a Touring, and I was casually on the lookout for an ideal donor.
Before I found one though, I ended up with an opportunity to get into a reasonably priced E34 M5. As always, there's a catch. The car has been sitting for 10 years.
My buddy Jonathan had been looking around for an E34 M5 and had been posting around in search of one. He ended up getting a message from a guy who had two M5's he was thinking about selling. One running Calypso car, and a non-running black car. He was interested in the Calypso car as he doesn't currently have the space and or time to be working on some haggard M5 so he asked if I was interested in the black car. I headed up to NC to check the cars out with him and this is what I found.
I don't think I have the story 100% correct, but here it is as I understand it. The car was purchased from the original owner around 2006 or so. For some reason, the second owner had the head rebuilt around 2007, and the story that I got was that it never ran after the initial head rebuild, but receipts and records seem to indicate differently.
Supposedly a new guy that was new to the shop did the rebuild, and once it was assembled and started it began pissing coolant into the cylinders. The story I was told then goes that the engine was torn all the way down and the block was sent out to be looked over. There are receipts for block pressure testing and a whole lot of new parts, including all of the bottom end bearings and new timing components. There are receipts for a bunch of head work as well. Supposedly the engine was then re-assembled once again, fired up, and proceeded to do the exact same thing.
At this point, the owner had run out of patience and sometime in 2008 the shop replaced his car with an E39 M5 and the E34 has sat ever since. I purchased the car from somebody who bought the car from that shop in order to use it as a parts car, but only ended up taking the exhaust they needed and saved it as it's really too nice to part out. That's why I only have the second hand story as to what went down with the engine.
The story that I got from the seller was that it seemed to have the wrong head gasket on it, as there was gasket visible when he looked down the cylinders with a boroscope. That seemed like too easy of a solution, and kind of hard to believe that a shop doing all of that work would have make such a vast oversight.
Even though the engine problem really wasn't adding up, I decided that major component failure was unlikely and that it was more likely something smaller that was the cause, so I went ahead and bought the lottery ticket.
Overall, the car is pretty decent. The paint is gone, but the body is pretty darn straight with very few signs of rust. We jacked the car up and I took a poke around the underside, and the rockers, floorpans, and door seams all seemed pretty solid. The major missing components are the M5 front bumper and the exhaust. The complete set of Throwing Stars was a nice plus though, and I just so happen to have a complete set of Turbines as well.
IMG_3002 by Alex Barroso, on Flickr
The interior is in surprisingly good shape considering how long it's been sitting out in the sun, but the leather is definitely dry and the rear seats have split at the seam. The headliner actually isn't bad either. The car phone is a huge ++++++. (Might have even been the deciding factor )
IMG_3003 by Alex Barroso, on Flickr
IMG_3005 by Alex Barroso, on Flickr
IMG_3004 by Alex Barroso, on Flickr
When I first looked inside the car I was a bit concerned about the missing cluster, but it just so happened to be in the trunk and the story behind it is kinda neat. The guy I purchased the car from asked the shop owner about the cluster and he remembered who he sold it to. The shop owner reached out to the guy and he just so happened to still have the cluster sitting on his shelf after 10 years. So luckily the car still has its original cluster!
And here's the literal money shot! Another big thing (that shouldn't be big) is the missing spark plug wires. Those suckers retail for $500 from BMW. I suppose it won't hurt to be starting out with fresh wires though.
IMG_3009 by Alex Barroso, on Flickr
So that's about it. We loaded her up and took her back home.
IMG_3011 by Alex Barroso, on Flickr
I think I got most of the story right as far as I know it, but I've got a stack of receipts that show things a bit differently. I might talk about that a bit in the next post though.
More to come soon!
So I'll start out with an intro to my interest in E34's. Most of my time has been spent with E30's, and I daily drive my 318is. I've been driving a decent bit around Metro Atlanta lately and will be driving a little bit more now with a new job. I got an idea to try out something a little bit bigger so I don't get crunched out on the free for all that is Metro Atlanta highways. I ended up buying a decently nice auto '95 525, did a bunch of maintenance work to it and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I soon decided that if I was going to put a bunch of work into an E34, I wanted it to be something more worthwhile. I was leaning towards a Touring, and I was casually on the lookout for an ideal donor.
Before I found one though, I ended up with an opportunity to get into a reasonably priced E34 M5. As always, there's a catch. The car has been sitting for 10 years.
My buddy Jonathan had been looking around for an E34 M5 and had been posting around in search of one. He ended up getting a message from a guy who had two M5's he was thinking about selling. One running Calypso car, and a non-running black car. He was interested in the Calypso car as he doesn't currently have the space and or time to be working on some haggard M5 so he asked if I was interested in the black car. I headed up to NC to check the cars out with him and this is what I found.
I don't think I have the story 100% correct, but here it is as I understand it. The car was purchased from the original owner around 2006 or so. For some reason, the second owner had the head rebuilt around 2007, and the story that I got was that it never ran after the initial head rebuild, but receipts and records seem to indicate differently.
Supposedly a new guy that was new to the shop did the rebuild, and once it was assembled and started it began pissing coolant into the cylinders. The story I was told then goes that the engine was torn all the way down and the block was sent out to be looked over. There are receipts for block pressure testing and a whole lot of new parts, including all of the bottom end bearings and new timing components. There are receipts for a bunch of head work as well. Supposedly the engine was then re-assembled once again, fired up, and proceeded to do the exact same thing.
At this point, the owner had run out of patience and sometime in 2008 the shop replaced his car with an E39 M5 and the E34 has sat ever since. I purchased the car from somebody who bought the car from that shop in order to use it as a parts car, but only ended up taking the exhaust they needed and saved it as it's really too nice to part out. That's why I only have the second hand story as to what went down with the engine.
The story that I got from the seller was that it seemed to have the wrong head gasket on it, as there was gasket visible when he looked down the cylinders with a boroscope. That seemed like too easy of a solution, and kind of hard to believe that a shop doing all of that work would have make such a vast oversight.
Even though the engine problem really wasn't adding up, I decided that major component failure was unlikely and that it was more likely something smaller that was the cause, so I went ahead and bought the lottery ticket.
Overall, the car is pretty decent. The paint is gone, but the body is pretty darn straight with very few signs of rust. We jacked the car up and I took a poke around the underside, and the rockers, floorpans, and door seams all seemed pretty solid. The major missing components are the M5 front bumper and the exhaust. The complete set of Throwing Stars was a nice plus though, and I just so happen to have a complete set of Turbines as well.
IMG_3002 by Alex Barroso, on Flickr
The interior is in surprisingly good shape considering how long it's been sitting out in the sun, but the leather is definitely dry and the rear seats have split at the seam. The headliner actually isn't bad either. The car phone is a huge ++++++. (Might have even been the deciding factor )
IMG_3003 by Alex Barroso, on Flickr
IMG_3005 by Alex Barroso, on Flickr
IMG_3004 by Alex Barroso, on Flickr
When I first looked inside the car I was a bit concerned about the missing cluster, but it just so happened to be in the trunk and the story behind it is kinda neat. The guy I purchased the car from asked the shop owner about the cluster and he remembered who he sold it to. The shop owner reached out to the guy and he just so happened to still have the cluster sitting on his shelf after 10 years. So luckily the car still has its original cluster!
And here's the literal money shot! Another big thing (that shouldn't be big) is the missing spark plug wires. Those suckers retail for $500 from BMW. I suppose it won't hurt to be starting out with fresh wires though.
IMG_3009 by Alex Barroso, on Flickr
So that's about it. We loaded her up and took her back home.
IMG_3011 by Alex Barroso, on Flickr
I think I got most of the story right as far as I know it, but I've got a stack of receipts that show things a bit differently. I might talk about that a bit in the next post though.
More to come soon!
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