GunMetalGrey
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Posts posted by GunMetalGrey
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Story time!
I'm laying in bed being lazy on a Sunday, browsing on Facebook. I see someone had posted an ad for a white E36 from craigslist, and I had just told myself not to buy more cars, so I shoot the guy a message 25 min after he posted the ad. The car looked clean, and the interior was cool, that's about all I knew about it. I told myself if the dude wasn't free that day I wouldn't bother, and then he texted me back saying he was free. Cool. I pick up Mike and we go look at it after pulling money from the ATM (ATM dance game) and I intentionally pulled less than he was asking, because I shouldn't be buying more cars. We show up and look at it and find things to be questionable, but largely very clean. The ad said it ran, but he could not get it running for us. This whole time the guys phone is blowing up with messages and such and he was getting annoyed, it was obvious he had owned it for quite some time and never had it working, and he had finally decided he wanted it out of his driveway. He looked at me and said "Well, make me an offer and lets make this happen". I told him that I would need to get a trailer, and didn't have access to one right then and there, so I proposed giving him half the money now and the other half when I picked it up, and I would take the title. We quickly realized that wouldn't work out safely for both of us, and he just agreed to pull the ad and take my word to show up the next day. I had offered him a large percentage less than he had it posted for and he was fine with that. I ended up being able to grab a trailer same day and went and grabbed it, he helped us get it on the trailer and load it full of the many boxes of parts that came with it. Just like that he had more space in his driveway.
Taking it off the trailer was amusing, because the thing felt the full force of the early 2000's car scene. Fully chrome headlights, clear corner markers, chrome inserts in the grilles (wrong grilles) and fully white painted trim. It was a sight for sore eyes. (sorry for the poor pictures, it was quite dark out)
In his ad he stated that this car was 1 of 150 ever made, which I largely passed off because I don't know E36 things and it felt like a sale tactic. I knew it had a cool interior and a motor swap. Mike alluded to the fact that the car was more special than I realized, and pointed out the BMW Motorsports door handles which I hadn't noticed while looking the car over. Shortly thereafter I ran the VIN to look at the options and posted the results here. It was a fun day of realizing what I had stumbled across without ever realizing it.
Fast forward quite a ways and we come to this weekend, the first time I have truly put forth any effort into working on it.
I checked for fuel pressure this weekend, because when the guy was trying to start it there would be an occasional pop or other noise, so something was happening.
Fuel pressure checked out and the car had tried to run during the test, so without connecting the MAF I gave the key a turn and my surprise it fired up and ran butter smooth. Super weird. Plugged the MAF in while it was running and it stumbled for a second then continued to run smooth. The good news is that the motor is completely silent and is one of the healthiest sounding motors I've heard in awhile. I shut it off and tried to start it again, nothing. Unplugged the MAF, tried to start it again, nothing. Confusing.
At this point Mike pointed out (once again) all the points for major vacuum leaks and I knew pulling the manifold off would be required to address what was going on with this OBD1 conversion. I found a handful of odd things, and tons of major sources of vacuum leaks.
I also identified what motor is in it, and am frankly quite confused by it. The car was advertised as being S52 swapped, and the motor is indeed OBD2 with the M power cover, but upon further review I find it is an M52. I tried to peek at the back of the head to read the vin tag, but instead found a different type of paper tag.
Just legible enough.
So either the guy that bought the engine was duped (unlikely given this tag) so when he sold it it was sold as an S52 with no quick easy way to check.
The block has the 2.8 stamp on it for displacement so I'm certain that it is indeed an M52.
Which brings me to the question, why the heck would you swap an M52 into a sub 100k mile car? It's an incremental power gain, and a fair bit of work.
Anyway, someone did a bunch of dumb stuff to it and swapped parts around, so I plan to get all of that sorted out (small details) and get things like the seat sliders working again. The trunk needs some alignment help, and the car overall needs a bit of a cleaning.
I've got new headlights, will be ordering new grilles, and am on the lookout for stock corner markers to bring this back to its original glory days.
Until next time!- ChrisO, patsbimmer1 and suspenceful
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On 1/18/2019 at 6:46 PM, jc43089 said:
Stock wheels look better IMO... Looks good. You could always use some small spacers if you want it to look more aggressive. Those are 6x5.5 wheels right? What kind of offset? I have some Taco steelies that I used on my cruiser for a while that would be good winter wheels.
Wheels are indeed 6x5.5, and I'll be running these tires year round. It'll be nice to have the ability to air down in summer on trail without worrying about smashing a wheel on a rock lol.
This is becoming my maintenance thread....
208k miles (on the dot) front left wheel bearing was howling quite loudly. Got that replaced.
"Bolt in bearings" .... yeah okay.
I got to run it in a small amount of snow this weekend and man is it a different feeling now. It actually hooks up and I can slide it without fearing for my life. Stopping is massively improved, but not the same as a car with snow tires. Overall I'm very satisfied by the tire swap.
Now to see what it does tomorrow in 3-5" of snow
- suspenceful, AsparagusMike and Jdesign
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Well it didn't last long!
Got rid of the 540 earlier in the week. It was one problem after the next and wasn't worth any real money. I can use the money to keep the E36 on track as well.
I did do some upgrades to the current daily to improve its usefulness in snow.
I said bye to the bro truck wheels and hello to stock wheels with BFG All Terrain KO2's.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't like the way it looked before! But, I should see increased MPG's, the ride is nicer, the tires are quieter, and man do they grip! I look forward to more snow to see what they do.
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I'm very curious to see your clearance plans to fit a 31" tire at that ride height.
5" spacers are huge! Have you thought about making longer suspension bits? I have had all kinds of horrible/awesome ideas to make that happen with the E30.
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46 minutes ago, straight6pwr said:
nice work! looks like you went with the 3800k? I love the near halogen color, and they are brighter than the whiter colored bulbs.
Thanks! Those were the halogen bulbs I used for testing before committing to buying xenons. I went 5800k per my usual.
5 minutes ago, Jdesign said:These look great. any pics of what they looked like on the back of the headlight housing?
I don't have any pictures of the backs, it honestly looks the same as stock though.
I forgot to add the pictures with new bulbs in, so I threw those up in the original post. -
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Pictures are working on my computer and on my phone, not sure what could be going on with your end.
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Slightly off topic, but I'm contemplating playing with headlights more so than I have before.
I took on my first headlight project a few weeks ago and was greatly pleased by the results, and I had a fair bit of fun while working on it.
The headlights in my truck have always been just okay, and as many of you likely know, I don't have great eyes so I typically chase down the best lights I can get. Nissan never provided these trucks with projectors so I decided to crack my set open and make some things happen.
Stock headlight for reference.
Armed with an inexpensive set of Mini H1 Bi-Xenon projectors and an oven I got to work.
Baking headlights has always scared me, but after doing it I would comfortably do it 100 times more.
Trimming some bits allowed me to slip the projector through the existing bulb hole, and I routed the shutter wires up through a grommet type tape that was sealing a hole.
After putting the projector in you need to make sure you've got everything level, as those cutoffs are going to be hell to rotate once you get the lens back on.
Back in the truck they went, with a halogen bulb for testing purpose. Level out the cutoffs and the mark everything well so you know where you need to align it in case it spins again.
Lows (truck is at a slight angle)
High
TLDR;
Lights are fun
Buy things from TheRetrofitSource, they blow DDM kits out of the water.
I should crack open some E30 headlights and play.
Bi-xenon's are sweet, this thing absolutely pours light out of the front with the highs on. -
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It's custom, and has new piston gaskets. It's good to go!
https://sheboygan.craigslist.org/cto/d/sheboygan-custom-2005-bmw-325ci/6784798654.html- RobZR and AsparagusMike
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You never cease to amaze me with what you can make with basic tools.
It's looking awesome, and I can't wait to hear it running! -
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Cycling the glow plugs (it's on a switch, may as well just leave em on longer) seemed to help, but it wasn't super cold. So we shall see if that continues to be useful.
Got the wastegate bolted on. Which really sucked, there is very little room to put hands, let alone wrenches and the like.
And I must say....
Holy shit, major change. Didn't expect it to be so noticeable.
With the internal gate you would get up to boost pressure, then it would feel like it was getting choked out (all torque no HP) and wouldn't feel strong up top.
That has changed greatly, it builds boost like it used to but once it gets up on the wastegate it just pulls until limiter without the feeling that it's being choked out.
10/10 best mod yet. Thing scoots real good, and once I get the intercooler in I will be adding more fuel and that means we get to go even faster.
Side note; open wastegates sound real odd on a diesel. It almost sounds like a big vacuum leak when it opens up.
Side side note; $60 wastegates are complete crap. -
It's sitting in the storage unit right now, and will be there until a friends car is out of the shop (Christmas deadline)
At that point this thread will become a bit more active, and I'll type up the info.
I still need headlights tho lol @Rekpoint -
1 hour ago, Jdesign said:
That E28 is very clean.
This has to be fake.... 335i for $2k
https://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/cto/d/for-sale-bmw-335i-drive-white/6769950643.html
Ad says parking sensors, none visible.
Also says running boards. Which is just an odd thing to say.
Seeing that the pictures are pictures of a screen, I would assume it's fake. -
It'd be a shame if someone were tooooooo
Buy it and steal the engine out of it. -
^ I will try that more often to see how she goes!
What's easy to chase with a diesel engine? Speed!
Wait, that's not right....
I want to extract more out of this thing, and an easy place to start is an external wastegate to get some top end power back.
I bought a 38mm wastegate after hearing that you can usually bolt them to the EGR valve location with a bit of modification.
I ended up needing to make an adapter, but since the new wastegate came with flanges it was quite easy!
@HipMF I haven't welded in a year or so, and this was my first go (I went a bit fast it appears). I think you'll be good to go for your manifold!
Gotta clean up the splatter and try to paint it, but I look forward to seeing how this will change things!
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On 12/7/2018 at 2:55 PM, snap said:
1) "New BMWs suck. My old M10/M20/M30/M42/M50/M52 etc. powerd BMW ran for 400k miles with only 3 oil changes, a spark plug, and 1 alternator belt replacement, now you can't even drive a new one 100k without some big issue....." What, in your opinion, is the last BMW chassis or engine that you personally wouldn't hesitate owning to 200k or more.
I think the E90 is pressing where I feel normal, but that may simply because that's the newest chassis I've dealt with. I do know that newer stuff requires more software to be able to work on. The bolts and clips are all still about the same.2.) Is it harder to be a car enthusiast today than it was 10 or 20 years ago and why/why not?
Not at all, if anything it's easier! There are so many forums and other quick resources that you have access to. You can find pretty much any info in a matter of minutes.3.) VW/Audi claims their next generation of IC engines will be their last. These will be rolled out in 2026. Are your jimmies rustled, or are you anxiously awaiting the electrification of vehicles.
I think electric is cool. Have I personally driven one? Nah, but I would like to. I do think the lack of easy modifications and cool noises will be sad though.4) Autonomous cars are scary because they will be hacked/what happens when a computer has to choose between a pedestrian vs its own occupants etc. vs. Human-driven cars are scary because humans are idiots. vs. I will NEVER stop driving my own car ("from my cold dead hands!!")
Autonomy is scary because you are leaving the critical decisions in the hands of the software. The software will choose the least number of people to harm, and that may be you and you have no control over that. I think the overall benefits are massive, but for those benefits to be possible we largely need to eliminate the human involvement in all vehicles and that I'm not a huge fan of.
5) Cars, in general, are way too expensive
New cars or old cars?
New cars are getting increasingly more expensive largely in part to what I would assume is the ever increasing amount of standard equipment required in new vehicles. Things like airbags, TPMS, Reverse cameras, increasingly complicated emissions systems, and many non required safety options (lane departure, blindspot monitors, adaptive cruise).
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On 12/7/2018 at 3:01 PM, suspenceful said:
1) As one of the few "modern" BMW owners/enthusiasts on this forum, my N54 seems more reliable than any "M10/M20/M30/M42/M50/M52 etc. powered BMW" on this forum. It seems that everyone with an E30 is constantly fixing it or trying to get it running again for the next meet.
Keep in mind that some of the older cars here are still using their original engine
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30 minutes ago, Jdesign said:
Any diesel is grumpy in cold temps. How new and what amperage is your glow plug relay and the glow plugs themselves. Does it improve as it warms up? do you cycle the plugs a few times before starting it?
Also is that the same window, you just pulled it to remove the tint?
I know the pump is timed a bit hot, so I was going to back that down a touch and see if it helps. I do think there is a touch of air somewhere.
I run the plugs once before starting, but maybe I'll run em twice?
120A relay for the glow plugs, battery cables feeding them, stock relay was 80A so I've got plenty of overhead. New plugs were put in this one.
New window (junkyard) -
I still enjoy this view
New headlights in and wiring for them fixed!
Did an amp draw test and it settled down to drawing about 10mA, so there is no drain and that is exciting!
Reverse lights don't work though, and the bulbs are fine, so I gotta dig into that next! -
Did a few things with the 540 now that I've got a bit more space.
Brought it in, changed the oil, threw the snow tires on, replaced the tiny battery with a massive H8 AGM battery, and started swapping the headlights out.
The car had either a bad battery or a decent electrical drain. I am going to test the current draw for about 20 min with the car off to see if it is going to "sleep".
I found broken wires behind the headlights and went to the junkyard and grabbed a bit of the headlight loom to replace those wires with.
It's been starting well in the cold, and the idle has been pretty good lately, and I feel like it's been improving every time I start it.
It still makes glorious V8 noises and slides quite nicely.
The biggest things holding me back from daily duty are the stuck drivers window (window slightly open) and not having titled it yet.
Updates today lack pictures, which is lame, but it's on the brain.
An E36 Investigation
in Members BMWs
Posted
Also a question, the car came on a special set of wheels that seem to be the only time these wheels made it to the US.
BBS RC041
I'm questioning if it's worth the $1500 to put these wheels on the car to sell it.
Thoughts?