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Thanks for the heads up Allan. Just added another E38 to the collection.. lol Bought it as another parts car. Pre facelift 750il with a lot of options. Black Nappa leather seats with picnic tables and vanity headrests, rear climate control, leather double stitched dash and center console. Will pick it up next weekend. Back to 4 again..lol

Went halves with Jooles in a 96 323i coupe on the weekend. Paid $400 for it and was able to drive it home. ? Registered until the end of October and the wof ran out last Thursday. The po installed a new radiator and thermostat, but skimped on a flush so one of the first jobs is to drain and flush out the poo water. Plan is to fix some engine problems, Manual swap, suspension and brake restoration, then enter it in the 2kcup series and have some fun. Scanned the dme, cleared the fault memory and these returned after a drive. -Vanos jammed -CPS -Bank 1 and 2 fuel trim limits. To be continued..

We often get negative threads and not enough praising threads for good hard working businesses out there so I thought these two deserve a post from me. Some will have known that I've been looking at a M3 down in Christchurch. Not knowing anyone there or the ability to hop on a plane and view the car personally I decided to enlist the help of Jeff Grey BMW in Chch. I gave Kent the service manager a long list of things I wanted personally checked out from the car plus their usual PPI. They were most obliging and perhaps the most professional and easy going people I have ever dealt with. Arrangements were made with Niki at Chch European - very accommodating and easy to deal with great prompt communications (all emails or txt). They dropped the car off and let it sit overnight. checked PPI, spoke with Kent over the phone about few things, negotiated a bit with Niki, signed the papers, they gave it a good clean up, WOF and booked freight. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Kent and his team at Jeff Grey or Chch European if you are in the market. Now the fun begins : ) ps I don't mind the colour and it's the mechanical side of things that matter to me with my intention for this : ) Post would not be completely without a self serving photo

Dismantled the intake side of the engine which sadly is a m50b20tu block with m52b25 manifolds, injector rail, dme, maf etc. I think how we've ended up with this frankenstein fail motor is because the original m52 overheated, so an m50 block and head was installed in place. Engine numbers below confirm it's an m50 cast iron block : The head has an extra coolant temp sensor with no plug for it which according to realoem is the m50b20tu head. Got a wee shopping list of gaskets and hoses to fix some vacuum leaks. If it's easy enough we might just flash the m52b25 dme to become an m52b20 manual as there isn't really much difference between the engine setup we have and an actual m52b20. One day we'll empty the boot out.. We also need the Shifter arms from a 220 box e36 6cyl as the ones we have are from a 4cyl. If anyone can help us that would be awesome. Not too keen to shorten the ones we have as we want the manual conversion to look as factory as possible.

86.5mm so not much over factory, I measured the bore in different places and it was all over the show I'd say this block has had a pretty good life lol

So it looks like 1.5m wide should be enough to do both the left and right seat panels (assuming you're not doing the bolsters) and 2m in length should be okay to do the front and rear seats but that probably won't allow for any cutting errors so I'd go for 3m. Of course it will depend on the seats and I only have experience with mine. If you measure the outside of the panels as rectangles and add 100mm to each dimension you'll be safe.

It does indeed say get murked lol, just a bit of a piss take

Awesome to see you add to the fleet Tom! Looking forward to see where this is heading.

make sure you use a ZF manual and not a G220. recommend fitting new clutch kit and master and slave cylinders since you are in there, second had parts are 20 tyears old and a waste of time fitting

So, I took a 130i for a test drive. Absolutely loved it. The compactness, the solid and planted feel on the road and the noise from the gorgeous 3.0L straight six. That engine really sings.

Not much happening atm, however i did take a brief look at the transmission, and noticed the guibo had the slightest crack in the rubber and starting to perish, i haven't removed it to get the part number which is hidden on the opposite side, in other news i've ordered some new Slotted Brake Disc Rotors from Darren at NZAD, also need to acquire Brake pads from them, but i am distracted with many other priorities haha. Still looking at Clutch and Flywheel options, i really wanted to get a lot done this long weekend, but whatever i have atm is what i'll work with for now. Adjustable suspension is on the to do list, just researching and trying to figure out what is best suited for me. I did contact Speedfactor, regarding the XYZ suspension, but i haven't finalised anything. Patience is key here, has anyone had any experience with running XYZ adjustable suspension?

320iS.

320i coupe paddock basher from a few years back loads of fun even as a auto . also had various overs like 316ti 5spd 318is 5spd etc etc but the stripped down coupe went quite well

Looks like we scored ourselves an underpowered 323i as the engine appears to be a b20 not a b25. Must have had a budget transplant. On the bright side, we may have found a wrecked manual parts car.

What a great tribute. Your brother would be proud.