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After 7 months in isolation, I decided to get the old girl out and stretch her legs. Did a round trip from Auckland to Thames and back, over nighting at Orere Thanks to @M M for helping to get her road worthy again

I doubt anyone knows me, but I can bet many of you know this vehicle. This is the M70 swapped E34 Touring owned by Andy (_ethrty-Andy_) and built by Lance (mellowpuf). I came into the car through Euroless, who seems to have saved the car from a terrible fate. I then I got it shipped down from Auckland. It actually beat it's ETA because the transport driver was curious to see who owned it! The car itself is in a pretty poor state at the moment. It's clearly been through some unsavoury hands who had it 'for skidz'. I'm currently in the process of deep cleaning the whole car to find out just how far gone the it really is. Exterior has some serious wear and tear. Front quarter panels are both damaged. Paint is beyond saving in some areas. The front AC Schnitzer bumper clearly has a close relationship with the road, while the rear one has been poorly modified to make the exhaust and towbar fit. Left front rim is badly curbed.. Hood doesn't shut properly and is misaligned, even after some fettling with the adjustments. Rear window panel has been replaced at some point, so it doesn't open indepently like it should. One of the headlight lens are missing. The rear spoiler annoys me: as the car is a UK import it doesn't have a high stop light in it. A shoddy aftermarket one has been installed on the inside of the window instead, probably for compliance when the car entered NZ in 1996. The electrical system is going to take up a lot of my time by the looks of things. I immediately put a new DIN88 battery in it to eliminate any voltage issues. I've already cleared out some of the more interesting wiring. The subwoofer wiring was average at best, and it's gone now. Half the speakers don't seem to work and have been obnoxiously placed over factory trims. Pretty sure the double chassis looms under the rear seat is unnecessary, so that'll have to be rebuilt. It's probably also a fire hazard given that it's right next to the battery. The aftermarket fuse box under the steering column is pretty gross, can't wait to get rid of that. Coolant temp isn't wired up correctly, but surely that can't be hard to do right especially given there's a correctly working aftermarket coolant temp gauge right next to it. I swapped in the spare E32 M70 instrument cluster to see it resolved anything, but alas. The electric radiator fan and the associated wiring just seems silly. Extra wiring installed and spliced onto factory plugs for fog lights that don't even exist. Random sets of factory wiring coiled in the engine bay, not sure what for yet. Mechanically the engine is pretty close to operational. It's an early M70B50, recognisable by the oil filler cap location and the Motronic 1.2 DMEs. The mounting of the engine is actually top notch and the fitment of the ancillaries also shows great workmanship. The exhaust doesn't seem to sit on it's hanger properly though. I have no idea why someone painted the intake manifolds bright red, it looks absurd. The engine should be capable of 220kW and 450Nm, assuming it's factory. However it should not have been driven in it's current state, but clearly has been. I must admit even I'm guilty of this as I had to limp it home from work. It has a moving misfire and a knock. The right bank (1-6 cyl) distributor is arcing internally at random intervals. It requires new distributors and rotors, which are en route already. Gearbox works okay. Diff clearly works, pretty sure it's an LSD but I'm yet to confirm that. It'll get all fluids replaced and I'll carry out the Inspection I and Inspection II service items as well as check the operation and condition of every component I can get to. I won't be happy driving this car until I know it works perfectly from a mechanical standpoint. Just gotta say how disappointed I am by this: the air-con has been removed. What is the point of a big grand touring wagon if you can't be comfortable? The condenser has clearly been removed to make way for the electric fan, and the hoses to make space for some of the ancillaries. The AC compressor hasn't been sealed so it has seized and appears to also have a seized pulley despite still having a belt spinning around it. Suspension is a mess. It has full XYZ coilovers but nothing is setup correctly. None of the shocks are set to the same rebound. Preload on the front springs set randomly apparently; the right has some jounce while the left has none at all (as in it's stupidly stiff). Still need to check the rears. Will have to get it up in the air and remedy this nonsense. Right front wheel bearing is shot, despite the hub being replace a mere 2 years ago with a Repco unit. Quality parts en route to solve that. Tires are in good knick though, won't have to replace them anytime soon. Falken UHP 255 section tires on the rear and some Chinese Habilead 235s up front. Interior is "the second worst I've ever seen in an E34" says Autobahn. Headlining sagging. Door cards are an absolute mess. Front seats are filthy, "like someone has sh*t themselves and smeared it in," one of my co-workers said. Driver's interior door handle straight up just doesn't work. Glove box doesn't sit even close to straight. Everything behind the dash looks in a right mess. Boot space has look like it's never been cleaned despite heavy use. Original spare wheel and tire in there. The lower trunk lid trim is completely missing, though there is a spare piece in the wrong colour hanging around. Trims over the rear strut towers are misaligned and stop the rear seats securing the way they should. All the interior sill trims are missing. The one positive is that (surprisingly) someone hasn't run off with the Nardi steering wheel. Everything inside the car was also dirty. Very dirty. It's cleaner now though. I've removed all the older stickers, steam cleaned the carpet in the boot, cleaned the glass properly, and wiped down most of the interior surfaces. Came with many spares. Someone has clearly been down the wreckers to grab as much as they can. EMLs and DMEs and DKs and 5 wiper stalks for some reason. Couple spare sets of HT leads, which I will use. Should all prove useful, not least for troubleshooting. However I'll need to set up a donor car to replace the entire interior forward of the C-pillar, wiring, front quarter panels, air-con. It'll need a respray and some general body repairs at some point. I plan on retrofitting the pre-facelift E34 wing mirrors as I rather dislike the later E36 style ones the car has. (Fun fact: as the E34 was only available as a Touring following the facelift in 1992, so no Touring could have the old style wing mirrors or any other pre-facelift trim.) This car has some pretty amazing potential, but it's currently far less than the sum of it's parts. I feel like I've bought a $4k cert plate. Can't wait to have it running properly and get it truly nice and tidy. I'll keep you guys up to date as the situation develops.

cant beat M52 for bang for buck, reliability, good power upgrade, light weight, easy swap, a million people done it so plenty of data on the internet what works and what doesnt. i can bang a conversion out in a weekend now once you have all the bits. Really comes down to budget, and i defiantley run with the school of thought while the motor (regardless of waht you put in) is out, change all the gaskets, seals, o rings, spark plugs, etc. If not everything then at the very least especially the stuff on the bottom like sump gaskets and rear main seal, timing cover that are hard to get to once the motor is in (again, regardless of the engine you choose. makes it a lot more enjoyable once finished if everything works as it should, doesnt leave a mess on your freinds driveways, etc. $5k will get you a fully certified M52/ZF swap including all the other stuff to think about

Only lasted 2 1/2 sessions yesterday at Hampton Downs. Broke something But had a good droul over this M4GT4 Stunning machine

Just purchased this 83 E30, always liked the shape and think it's screaming for a Engine and Manual swap. Currently has a the 2.0 6 cyclinder with Auto. Certainly nothing to look at currently so will get the nessecary drop and wheels, possibly front and rear bumper as well... not sure what for that though. Happy to hear suggestions or if someone has a suitable engine/ gearbox that may suit this. Also if anyone want the engine and auto out of it then let me know as that will be coming out ASAP. Brent

Pm sent. i don’t suppose you’ve any clear (not amber) lens equivalents on hand?

I agree. If it weren't for these clowns putting tacky sh*t all over their ecoboxes, i couldn't have a laugh at their expense

S54 3.2L from a e46 m3 343HP my number 021433600 thanks

rubbish.

they are about $3 for 10m or so on Wish.com hardly an expencive exercise and can take it off easy enough if ya change your mind. SOmeone elses car they can do what they want

My Transit came in at about the same all round $2k+GST at the dealer. Yep can do it for cheaper no matter the brand, but you will be in tehre again in a year or two if you use chinese stuff. OE or OEM or just doesnt work out in the long run.

Thanks for the future reference @TermiPeteNZ - I think a brake service will be on the cards for next year To give some perspective though - I was quoted close to $2k just for genuine HSV front discs and pads (yes, just the fronts!) for the HSV Avalanche a couple of years ago. And that is without fluid, sundries and labour, Therefore, I think you've got a bargain haha! Who says BMW's are expensive to maintain...

That's no fun. Probably take a pretty serious quake to dislodge it, but I know I'd be getting out in a hurry in the same situation! If you'd timed things better, the shake would have helped with the coolant bleed process ;-)

Replaced coolant in e36 328i. Was under car last night with it sitting on two axle getting to back engine engine drain. Hear tell tale low frequency rumble and move quickly. Sure enough small earthquake hits with a joilt(3.8) as iI’m moving out from under it. Car moved a bit on stands but all good. Let coolant to drain and contemplated getting back under the car again for quite a while ! Added a spare wheel and trolley jack into the mix.

Keen for a spin sometime!!

And Dude - FCP euro youtube channel ! YES ! Definitely thinking doing the CCV system + Disa valve repair Car has 210,000k on the clock so making me nervous

M10B18 and an auto box. Drive it around Auckland... You're stationary most of the time anyway - no one will know! Does look lovely.

Let 's agree to disagree on the looks of this vehicle. Comes down to personnel choice for me it looks like any other coupe or sedan from the front. The Ti shape is a stand out and made it a feature of this model in the e46 range along with the sport variant just made it look better.