BMW advice

[The Dark Side of Will]

Waited a little too long... D-oh

[CincinnatiFiero]

Glad I didn't sell you this. The body guy took the front off the car, fenders, hood, bumper etc. It was an absolute mess, whoever "fixed" it repaired it by using a cutting torch to remove any bent metal in the way.

I bought a complete E320 on craigslist with rod knock for $200, my body guy is clipping the diesel. Replacing from the front wheels forward, almost a foot of sheet metal.

He said the repair will be under $700 but I would have felt bad if you got it home to VA and saw how terrible the frame truly was, I never really looked into it until the frame guy dug in.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Appreciate the sentiment... I wouldn't have wanted to discover that either.

[The Dark Side of Will]

535 went into the garage last weekend.
Today, I removed the header panel assembly and disconnected everything necessary to lift the engine and trans out as a unit.
I've had inquiries about the pedal box, trans, driveshaft and other auto -> stick swap parts, as well as instrument panel, dash harness, and a few other E34 oddments.

I'm still trying to find a good home for the engine... maybe cleaning it up and replacing the lower timing cover + oil pan gaskets will help. Also has good compression test results: all cylinders between 180 and 195.

I was tooling around RealOEM while taking a break today and verified that the 540i and 740i use the same catalysts. Now I need to find a year in which the E32 740iL and 750iL use the same cat-back exhaust... That will comfirm that I can use BMW parts to bolt together an exhaust for the E34 550i w/ manual trans that I want to build.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Entire driveline is out with the exception of the rear output flanges at the hubs.

The chassis is in my dad's back yard pending a little more stripping.

[CincinnatiFiero]

I may have missed this... what are you doing?

Doing R&D for a V12 E34, or are you repairing your wrecked E34, or did you buy another E34?

[The Dark Side of Will]

Just parting it out.

Here's what I'm thinking for the V12 E34:

-Bellhousing from late '80's E32 750iL with 4HP24 transmission
-Adapter plate similar to this one (but better): http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showpos ... tcount=295
-Getrag 265 transmission from E28 535i, etc.
-2.65 gearset for 210mm diff from E38 740d: http://www.ebay.com/itm/170675890184
-E32/E34 210mm diff case and LSD from 540i, 740i or 750iL

Since the E32 and E34 are structurally identical forward of the firewall, if I get a wrecked 750iL for parts, it really looks like everything will bolt together... the factory 540i catback might even bolt up to the 750iL catalyst. I'd go for the 5.4 unit from the later E32, of course.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Dammit... tempting:
E32 for the conversion parts
http://www.autobidmaster.com/carfinder- ... AMENTO_CA/

E38 for the 5.4 litre engine:
http://www.autobidmaster.com/carfinder- ... _NORTH_MN/

[CincinnatiFiero]

I support you doing this lol.

My friend has a pretty nice E34 touring, an iT would be a cool thing to make V12.

[The Dark Side of Will]

I'd probably do it to a sedan/saloon...

I'm just not into nice wagons. Wagons are for moving things and I move things that are, more often than not, quite messy.

[Series8217]

I saw a beautiful beautiful beautiful red E34 M5 (or lookalike; it was debadged) last Sunday. Oh god it was so hot.

It looked just like this one: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4058/444 ... 874e7b.jpg

[The Dark Side of Will]

Oh god it was so hot.

Totally didn't expect you to say that

Yeah, the E34 M5's are very nice. The fact that the entire car was hand-built by one team of techs is wild.

I soooooo wish that BMW had brought the 3.8 litre/420G cars to the US.

I've entertained perverse thoughts about building an E24 M6 with twin turbos and 4 digit power. The S38 will do that easily.

[Series8217]

I've entertained perverse thoughts about building an E24 M6 [...]

There was a gold E24 M635CSi/M6/whatever up the street from here that was practically abandoned; it had parking tickets and cobwebs on it all the time, but it did move from one side of the street to the other sometimes. Not sure what happened to it but I haven't seen it for a few months now. I think there's some bimmer enthusiasts up there; a chick with a sick E39 wagon lives up there, and there's a stanced E30 that I see occasionally.

[The Dark Side of Will]

I've seen both a ratty 635 for sale in Tysons and a pristine M6 at the Dulles airport in this area.

[CincinnatiFiero]

A friend of mine picked up a running and driving 633csi 5speed for $350. Not rusted but shot paint and interior. Ill he he'd let it go for $500. He's put a battery and a few things in it at this point. If you need another project car will.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Yes, another project car is *EXACTLY* what I need...

E24's are *NOT* great structurally, so a high power build would REQUIRE an extensive cage in addition to simply building the power.

I've put a little bit of thought into the S38, though.
I'd need to have Euro 3.8 head and throttles for superior airflow, Euro 3.8 valve cover for the COP mounting locations, but would use a US 3.6 block because of the thicker cylinder walls.
Probably use the 3.6 crank... the extra 0.1 litre the 3.8 crank would get me isn't worth a huge expense on a highly boosted engine.
I'd love to pair that up with the Euro 3.8 420G transmission, but more likely would use a Getrag 265 from E30 M3 (already have on the shelf) with the 3.38 first gear vice the 3.82 first everything else with the Getrag 265 received.
To have a 210mm diff out back, I'd need either to start with an M6 chassis and re-gear it from 3.91 to 2.81/2.93 or find *another* E23 745i turbo diff here in the US. And with four digit power, I'd want the 102mm E38 740d/750il/E39 M5 output flanges and large diameter axles.