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So I thought this is probably the best place for me to keep chucking up photos I take of my baby and keep my project thread for updates on whats happening with the car. I got out tonight with a mate and we managed to take some pics of the two e36's together, loving the fitment of the AC Schnitzers! This thread will probably keep on getting more added to it now that my car is good looking enough for me to justify taking pictures of it

Finally got around to putting the wheels on the E39

Righto, told myself I'd start a thread when I got my engine block back from the shop. 4 months after leaving it there, finally got a call saying it was ready. Acid dipped, everything checked (crank, block, pistons, etc) and it was all in good order, to my surprise! The goal is ~260kw (350hp) on 1bar boost through a M20B25 with B27 block, daily driveable, maybe I'm dreaming. My current (B25) block is cracked so going with the B27 was a no brainer. The block was cheap but must have been left outside for awhile as the cylinders were somewhat corroded. After a re-hone all but cylinder 3 are perfectly smooth, engine guy reckons it will be sweet I would have liked to o-ring the block, and I still might but the guy who I took the motor to talked me out of it, said it can cause more harm than good - any insight here?? I've been collecting parts in my bedroom for the past year, the first bit being the turbo which I purchased while visiting family in Sydney. It was cheap and for only $55 extra I could put it in another suitcase and check it onto the plane, I did some funny looks from customs. Parts -B25 head, B27 block -ARP head studs -All new bearings, gaskets, rings -+0.3mm headgasket (lower compression, head has been previously skimmed) Everything in the block will be reused apart from bearings, gaskets, and head bolts. -Link G4 Storm -Holset HX40, 17cm exhaust housing, 8 blade inducer (big, lazy, silly, I know) - sold -Holset HX35, 16cm exhaust housing, 7 blade inducer -Ebay (cx racing) exhaust manifold, looks surprisingly solid considering it cost just $250 landed -Ebay intercooler (600x180) -Delphi 42lb injectors, high impedance -Bosch 044 external fuel pump (yet to purchase), factory puller/in-tank pump -HKS SSQV BOV -Tial 38mm external wastegate -APSX wideband o2 sensor and gauge -APSX boost gauge -Coilovers (yet to purchase, likely D2 or K-sport) Probably forgotten a bunch of stuff, everything's in boxes Still need to purchase a clutch, still very unsure what route to go down with this, was looking at a spec stage 3 from the US but it would cost north of $750 landed. I know Troy got his resprung and it worked great, may look for a place here in Wellington who can do that for me. Purpose of the thread? Help me keep track of progress, and hopefully provide useful info to people who want to go down this route. I'm confident that I'll do a good job, despite my experience extending only to a headgasket replacement and basic maintenance I am in no way an expert and those of you who are will probably see things that I may be doing wrong, or may not work well together etc and I welcome criticism. Picked up the motor from Levin, about 90min from home. Oh if you visit Levin, do yourself a favor and buy a punnet of strawberries, they're really good. Sits nicely in my bedroom Still waiting for the garage to be built... Nice cross-hatching marks The manifold, I chose this one over the other cheapies because the turbo has a bit of support as you can see. Whether or not it will stop it from cracking, who knows. Welds look decent to my novice eye

There was an error with an order I made for the bearings. They sent me enough, if I had a 4cyl motor. Wellington had a couple of nice days over the weekend (rare!) so I thought I'd paint the block while I wait for more bearings. Any reason? Nope At first I didn't like it, but it's growing on me. For $20, why not. Next steps are obviously assembling the block, deciding what I'll do about a clutch and wiring the Link ECU to the 1.3 harness I have. The last part is a bit daunting, I've never been very confident working with electronics, but I'll figure it out, red to red, black to black, right? Someone is coming out to assess the land for a garage in the next week so hopefully the whole process won't take too long. Once that's done the B25 is coming out and I'll build the motor on a stand before dropping it (and the trans) in. Oh yeah, car is manual. forgot to mention that. I'll probably add to this over the next few days as I remember things and do stuff. Progress will probably be a bit slow to start with, but once the garage is built it will be a full time project

I've just been sorting out the little things like the air filter and washer bottle

I put the e38 fuel pump in the e46 holder

Bought some new tail light gaskets ages ago but was waiting to get the rust sorted first before fitting them. I don't have a picture of the rust previously but it was an apple-sized piece of cancer that had spread outwards from the bottom RHS of the right tail light. Panel beater did a pretty good job of the repair, blended the paint nicely. Old gaskets were pretty brittle. No wonder water was getting in. New ones fitted, about three times as thick as the old squashed ones. Then went to fit the left hand side gasket and oh no, rust. Should have known. Sanded it back and put some rust converter on it. Will repair further when I find the time.

Nothing extreme, it was in one of my E30 325i's, manual. Long story short, wet day, put the car in second instead of fourth going around a corner and slid into the curb and buckled one of the wheels! Basically since then I've done all my test drives and most people get an inspection done prior to buying anyway. In regards to the sale, its already sold subject to finance and inspection from a guy in Hawkes Bay

Hey guys. I've found another project car, so up for sale is my beautiful E39 540i Msport on genuine BBS wheels. This car has an amazing history of maintenance and receipts totalling $25k+ Car has done 188,000kms, this will go up as its my daily. Major things that have been replaced/repaired are: - The tiptronic trans has been rebuilt - $5k receipt - Cooling system has been replaced - $2k receipt ** Timing chain tensioner has been replaced - this is an important one, not many E39's for sale out there that have had this taken care of. - Belts have been done within the past couple of years. It's very tidy inside and out and drives beautifully. The leather is in great condition. Has the factory head unit but has had after market speakers, amp and sub installed, sounds very good. All windows work, sunroof works perfectly and the rear pop up blind works great too. A previous owner has installed an oil catch can and deleted the rear muffler, the car sounds lovely with a few pops and crackles on decel, but not obnoxious. Things that I would look into if I were to keep the car are: - Very slow oil leak - I think this is coming from around where the oil catch can has been installed, if not it's probably a seal. The amount of oil is very little. 3.9k ONO. Test drives are welcome and encouraged. Car is located in Glenfield. --- Note: car will come on BBS wheels in the first image. Cheers.

Sold. Thanks for the interest, and thanks to the forum for hosting the classified and saving me from trademe. Hopefully I can contribute as an owner sometime in the future. CJ

Pretty!

ARC81985ET20AN ARC81995ET22AN

I hope you document the progress on here

How much do you want to spend?

^ Yeah I had a mk4 Polo and it was a dog's breakfast when it came to sensors throwing whoopsies. I'm happy that this Golf is under warranty, so the car will continue to go back until it's all fixed - if it keeps causing problems it will just have to go back... lol

Update #9 So today was pretty much 8 hours scrubbing parts to clean them up :taser: Dad and James disassembled the drive shaft and cleaned it up ready to be painted. They cleaned up the second of the trailing arms ready for painting, and Dad cleaned up the diff (which is actually looking in such good condition paint-wise that it probably won't need to be repainted). They then spent some time in the afternoon welding up the frame for a trailer that James is making. Meanwhile I spent the whole day cleaning the following: - The black plastic under-tray pieces - The exhaust heat shielding - The exhaust support brackets/plates Wow that's a depressingly small list when it's typed out :lolhit: The reason it took so long is that the plastic under-tray pieces looked like this: It appears to be the under-body protective coating stuff (or something like that). with tar and rubbish all caught up in it. Basically the cleaning process was: Quick scrub with sugar soap to get dirt and grime off. Soak with acetone to make the protective coating go brittle. use a paint scraper to scrape off the thick gunk. use a cotton towel and more acetone to remove the remaining residue. polish up the black plastic with plastic conditioner. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of one of the finished pieces, so I'll get one and add it in here. My arm is now sore from all of the scrubbing, but it was worth it to clean everything up properly :thumbsup2: I'm still waiting for some parts to arrive, and I'm also waiting for the epoxy for the RACP reinforcement plates. On the epoxy. I had ordered 3M 8115 because that's what everyone seems to use. However after I had ordered it, a very knowledgeable person on another forum suggested that I use 3M 7333 instead. 7333 is similar to 8115, however it has the following benefits: It is rated a "structural" adhesive by 3M. It's impact resistant. It is high temperature resistant. Based on the recommendation and my own research I decided to order 7333 to use, and I'll be returning/selling the 8115. I'm very happy that this option was pointed out to me before I'd done the plates. I had looked through 3M's catalogue before ordering the 8115, but must have missed seeing 7333. I'll give an update on how the 7333 goes when I do it :thumbsup2: During the week Dad is going to paint the remaining parts: Drive shaft trailing arms exhaust support plates exhaust heat shielding Hopefully everything has arrived by next weekend and we can epoxy the plates, and I'll finally be able to take a photo of all the new parts laid out :drool:

Stripped valve covers on the M62 while it's having timing chain guides replaced. Ready for priming and painting tomorrow for the rebuild next week

It's a brand-new Garret GT1749V from Turbo Dynamics in the UK - an like-for-like. Retail on these is well over NZ$1400 plus shipping, insurance and taxes... Fortunately I got this one from Richard in wellington when his plans changed. It's a PITA job. The 320d has one of the most difficult to remove airfilters I've ever come across, and that's just the tip of a rather large iceberg. Mileage hasn't risen much recently. The 320d has been resting while we've used Miss M's 318i to ferry her around and get her some driving experience. She's off to Uni next week and the 318i may well be up for sale - she needs the money!

Just got my 3o day cable, works fine but what a wait!

Hi People, If you thought your old TV tuner is obsolete, dont throw it away just yet! I have just modded my unit with the tuner adaptor card mod from this Site: Link. Straight forward mod really, the most "difficult" part was to solder 1x wire internally - not too tricky at all! (also depends on your current tuner type.. (see site)) there is plenty of info on the site regarding the mod and the types of units are best etc.. the tuner has a usb input so you can play video files etc and PVR function also. it works well with the steering wheel controls, and the ibus adaptor has integrated the std monitor buttons to do all the required tuner functions, which takes a bit to get your head around but once its set, you dont have to play with much apart from the channel up / down... the definition isn't exactly perfect but its stepped down to basic old RGB 7 inch screen stuff so dont expect too much... see attached works ok at speed, but suffers as any TV tuner would going in and out of good coverage.. depends on your location of course.. Any Questions, just ask..