The Budget BMW Part 2

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CincinnatiFiero
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The Budget BMW Part 2

Post by CincinnatiFiero »

1998 740i with a broken timing chain.

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In 1999 I would have impressed people
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Now its just, did you really just buy another pile of Bavarian shit? Yes I did.
The Dark Side of Will
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Re: The Budget BMW Part 2

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

The depreciation on E38's is unreal... but if you can turn a $500 car into a $1500 car, more power to you.

That being said, M62 timing chains are not what I'd call fun to replace, especially in the car. The guides are moderately expensive also.
CincinnatiFiero
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Re: The Budget BMW Part 2

Post by CincinnatiFiero »

The E38 market in DC must worse than it is here. There is nothing that runs and drives under $2,500. A particularly clean one is still $5,000. Which is insane depreciation, but not $1,500. I got this car for $600. Picked up a 92k mile motor with a warranty for $450. Its a Canadian import, which doesn't really matter, but sort of interesting. No rust, clean interior no rips or tears, body is very straight only found one ding in it so far. Literally brand new tires, it threw the chain on the way home from Tire Discounters. I think it'll bring $3,000-$3,500 when it is done.
The Dark Side of Will
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Re: The Budget BMW Part 2

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

$1500 is probably a WAY low estimate... but I pulled that number straight out of my ass, so it's perfectly valid and well withing the error bars defined by the derivation :roll:
CincinnatiFiero
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Re: The Budget BMW Part 2

Post by CincinnatiFiero »

Well, 1996 motors and 1998s are both non vanos M62s but the wiring harnesses are not the same. The wiring harnesses require pulling the intake and a lot of the front of the motor. They are also one piece, engine, trans, and oxygen sensors. The yard I bought it from had a 1997 and a 1998 with around 100 and 110k. Going to call tomorrow and see if I can look at their other motors and see if I can just exchange it. I'd rather go up 10k miles than spend a weekend swapping harnesses.

In other news the motor is almost out. We got the exhaust drops, all the bell housing bolts out, converter bolts, and all the engine harnes undone.

The trans wiring and oxygen sensors run under heat shields and under the trans cross member so I need to pull all that crap down and undo the harness. The difficult stuff is done, the tedious shit remains.
The Dark Side of Will
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Re: The Budget BMW Part 2

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

Still NV in '98? Ok.

Why are you worried about the harness? Your current harness fits everything on your current engine... you can swap all those parts over to your new long block and plug everything back in.
CincinnatiFiero
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Re: The Budget BMW Part 2

Post by CincinnatiFiero »

Large time investment for a $3,000 car haha.

Picked up BMW part 3 tonight. Stay tuned.
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Emc209i
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Re: The Budget BMW Part 2

Post by Emc209i »

CincinnatiFiero wrote: In 1999 I would have impressed people
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This is true.

I like that picture. Merc looks good.
CincinnatiFiero
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Re: The Budget BMW Part 2

Post by CincinnatiFiero »

Junkyard swapped the motors for me, they had one with the same style connectors as my ecu. Get it home, this harness doesn't have the big round diagnostic port in the harness, and the fuel rail is different. Looks like I am swapping harnesses.

Not sure why there are so many variations, he had 5 non-vanos M62s and none were the same as mine, and at this point I've see 4 variations in harness. He claims all were out of automatic E38s. I could see E39 and E39 stick harnesses being different but these were all clearly auto trans harnesses.

Shouldn't have swapped motors, the motor I have now from them doesn't have the fan and clutch, and there is a chip in the oil pan, though it seems like it won't be an issue. I just don't want to be a pain and ask to swap again. I'll just strip the new motor down, and put the old motor next to it and start swapping stuff over. I could spend the rest of my life chasing down a canadian spec 1998 E38 740i harness, or just spend a day and swap mine out.
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Emc209i
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Re: The Budget BMW Part 2

Post by Emc209i »

It has the 20 pin round because its Canadian. North American market didn't get the damned thing - which is a shame because most early cars require it to modify the DME (the OBD port only passes diagnostic information and doesn't provide a closed loop for flashing).

My E39 doesn't have the port either, which makes me sore because I have to buy a 20 pin to OBD II connector for all the Bimmer equipment. But at least its closed loop. If given the option I would definitely put in the effort to keep that Canadian harness.
CincinnatiFiero
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Re: The Budget BMW Part 2

Post by CincinnatiFiero »

Thanks for shedding some light on that, no-one else has known that. I am going to transfer the harness, there was briefly discussion of running the USA harness on the new motor, but I would be fairly pissed if I fully installed the motor and for some reason it didn't run right, had to pull it back out and put the CDM harness back on.

I ordered a bunch of parts on rock auto, water pump, belts, filters, etc. so I'll begin stripping the new motor this weekend.
CincinnatiFiero
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Re: The Budget BMW Part 2

Post by CincinnatiFiero »

So I haven't updated this yet, motor is out. New motor has a broken timing chain cover, the alternator bracket is cracked, so I pulled the timing cover off the dead motor. It too is... unusable.

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So I pulled the covers off both motors, like I said the cover on the new motor has a cracked alternator bracket, which is unfortunately cast into the cover and the old motor the cover is destroyed.

Ordered a new cover from a junkyard on car-part.com for $40, arrived and looks good.

With the cover off on the "new" motor the U shaped center timing guide is cracked up. So at the risk of dumping more money into a $600 car... I bought a timing chain, and timing chain guides for around $250. A friend has all the cam locking tools. I think if I'm doing the guide I may as well do the chain, its good insurance for the few months I'll drive it, and it should make the car much more desirable when I sell it as craigslist in Columbus at least has four M62 powered cars listed as "needing a chain" and reading online 100-120k is fairly common to be due for U shaped center guide. Its a $1,500+ service so I think it adds value to the car.

In other good news the transmission has a rebuilders sticker on it, and a bright new torque converter with 8/2013 written on it.
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Emc209i
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Re: The Budget BMW Part 2

Post by Emc209i »

One day, I'll have to change my tensioners. Looking at your pictures is not helping my already non existent enthusiasm for the job. Keep up the good work.
CincinnatiFiero
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Re: The Budget BMW Part 2

Post by CincinnatiFiero »

Guides arrived late last week, timing chain was back-ordered, supposed to show up today, we will see. I will post pics of the factory tools and the chain replacement process when we take it on hopefully one evening this week.

One of the pot-metal door handles is broken on the car, picked one up at the junkyard for $2.50, one of the headlights has a stone hole in it, got a new one for $10. Let the penny pinching continue!
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