melowpuf

What exhaust are you running Lance?

Have just shortened the standard 750il exhaust for the time being.. thats what the certifier man said to do to make certifying easy.

It is very quiet, if it wasnt for one minor thing which will bug me I would probably just leave it as it is. But because of this one thing I will alter the exhaust slightly - likely remove the centre muffler, but I hate droning exhausts with a passion so I will have to do a bit of experimenting to find an acceptable solution.

Nice Lance - when's my ride?

Are you using Marty's LSD?

Heh I want to drive it more, it was a teaser last night. We only did 2 laps.. Marty drove the second lap.. so really I have only had a mere 5 minutes at the most of driving it. All must wait for the cert man to come out on the 26th.

Yeah ended up using Marty's diff.. and I'm glad I did

All systems are a go.. and the brakes work Big smile on my face... effortless silk is how I would describe her maiden voyage around the Drury Nordschleife. Definitely a completely different machine than the E32 boat which is now where every E32 should be.. DEAD and ROTTING away in the paddock. stupid boat cars. The little burst of acceleration was exciting. I could almost feel the fear coming from the passengers seat.

All in all extremely happy with my first drive in an E34 550i. All went smoothly, always a bit scary taking something on its maiden voyage.. but brakes passed all of my safety checks, although I forgot to give my passenger warning that I was about to test the brakes... Sorry if youve got whiplash Marty... The steering was nice and tight, no wobbles or vibrations, no strange noises.

Once confident I slowly increased speed and she sat very nicely at 100km/h doing under 1900rpm. Acceleration from a standstill is definitly more noticeable than the old 750il. A combination of lighter car and lower ratio diff is a plus in every which way.

Now back to finish putting all the interior and things back together..

Wowow!

When can I come see? Keen to crack open a woody for ya man.

Come out on Saturday if ya want..should have the interior back in by then..

nice , but i like this one better .

There is the answer to what we were talking about last night Brent

Sound clip done yet?

Im still at work

Good sh*t Lance - can I vew this beast when I pop round?

maybe.. I still hate you though..

nice work ... if only you got a sound clip from when you fired her up

I wasn't actually expecting it to fire... so wasnt really prepared.. Ill take a vid with no exhaust tonight briefly though.. it is rather loud and don't want to annoy the country folk any more than I have..

ITS ALIVE!! *jumps up and down* although VERY VERY VERY loudly.. like a spitfire loud.. no exhaust sounds scary.. suprised myself with how easily she fired and started up..

My temporary measure of joining the trans lines with hose didnt work so well, - I have to wash Marty's car's now because of the explosion.

Now the process of routing the rest of the E32 harness inside the body and putting the interior back together. Quite pleased with the boot loom (tail lights/lock) being the only spliced wires in the whole transplant. And tighten the leaking power steering return line.

I opted for the "hard" way as some may say, and transferred the entire wiring from bumper to bumper across. I saw it as being too much of a headache splicing body looms into eachother which stemmed mainly from the fly by wire loom running across the front of the dashboard.

As from day one I wanted a reliable transplant if that meant transfer EVERYTHING then so be it..

I have a feeling that project is doing it the new way Lance

Ah.. I love new ideas.. lets have a bbq and everyone bring your hammers..

Oh and I thought you were being serious e30li with your 5 steps to happiness- it would not have surprised me..

What is the motor out of? I thought the E34 sump was the way to go for the e30 conversions? hence my previous post about grinding hole surround where the m20 flywheels rub from my m50 - m20 fywheel conversions.

I'm sorry Marty.. I owe you 2 car washes now.. I'll bring my bikini on saturday.. Show the punters the secret cooling weapons I'm looking forward to this next coming month.. should be lots of excitement.. maybe a christening/naming ceremony and then show everyone what a real car is..

Oh and Brent was saying the Non aircon versions had a compartment in the console which could possibly be used as an access to get to your fuses and relays easily instead of pulling the console out.. any lying around to have a look?

take to the back of the sump with a grinder where it hits.. it hits on the hole surround for tightening the torque converter on the m50 for the auto boxes.. easy 2 minute fix..

And get a bowl haircut

One other thing to check with the shimmy.. the alloys you have on it may need hubcentric rings if they dont already have them..

Not in an e30.. but driving home from Lyttleton through the tunnel.. get 3/4 of the way through and my van "ran out of diesel". luckily it was 2am and there was no traffic... rolled all the way back to lyttleton backwards...

Another time.. same van.. drove down a boat ramp along the beach a little bit.. talking away and one our conversations was.. what would you do if you got a flat battery right here right now?? (another 2am adventure). went to start up and well what do ya know.. ended up about 3 metres away from the water after our previously discussed plan of roll starting down the beach didnt work. No one in sight for a jump start.. hrmm ah there was a truck further up the hill.. no lights on in the house.. its a bit rude to wake them at this hour.. ill borrow the battery on the truck (every intention to return it after jump starting). ran back got a cresent, ran back up.. was about to start removing the battery and YAY a car is coming..

standing in the middle of the road shirtless waving them down with a big screw driver and cresent in my hands.. once the glare from the headlights faded.. oh its a Police car.. umm err "What are you doing??" welllll my van has a flat battery down on the beach and the tide is now about 1 metre away from its wheels I have come to borrow this battery to jump start it.. "You're what???".. umm I'm not a bad person really... "I think you better get in the back seat".. can we please go get my shirt from my van down on the beach?..

they drove me down to the beach and saw our predicament. The cop was like "whoahhhh how many tickets are we going to be writing tonight?? is it warranted and rego'd?" yes of course it is Couldnt get the patrol car down the side to put jumper leads on because the water was too close.. by this time another police car turns up to see what the commotion was.. YESSSS 2 police cars now.. the older cop gets out "hey I used to drive one of these back in the 80's as a Paddywagon"..

"Umm soo yeah do you want a tow truck to come pull you off the beach?" Ok, please sir. oh wait do you have a jump pack? I've seen them on motorway patrol.. "No the 'Sergeant??' has it tonight, I'll see if he's in the area" So a 3rd cop car with flashing lights and everything comes zooming down the road with a jump pack.. the water was touching the passenger side wheels by this stage.. walk around in the water.. lift the carpets up to get to the battery, Reliable "Mary" started first crank of the engine as per usual.. much to the amazement of the crowd of Police and I drive off the beach..

Lesson learnt.. when driving onto beaches at 2am take a spare battery..

Ducatiss might remember "Mary". I drove to his house in the middle of no where (Roxburgh) and towed an e30 back to Chch..

dont get the impression i am an autowhore haha. my 320i was auto and i hated it and i loved it when i conveted to manual. I got the impression this was going to be primarily a tow vehicle hence the auto thing. as a DD i would got manul of course! sorry for confusion!

Ah sorry, its primary function will be a weekend play toy.. the E34 doesnt have a towbar.

If it was to be a daily driver then I agree auto would be the way to go.. the E32 was a nice cruise mobile.. slap it in drive and off you go..

but as a play toy I would get bored very quickly with an auto..

Slightly more than the m60b40..

factory specs are as follows:

Max power: 220 kW (295 hp) @ 5300 rpm

Max torque: 450 N·m (330 lb·ft) @ 4000 rpm

so take into account it is now 20 years old.. so probably half those figures???

nothing spectacular..

Im already onto that gearbox Brent

if it was me i think id be leaving it automatic. towpigs are always better in auto imo and it wont cost you anything because you already have the auto box (i assume?)

Corners.....sideways.....controlled.....

Have you not heard an auto change gears?? they sound DUMB.....

But yes as you have said.. cost wise.. for now she is an auto.. but definitly in the game plan to get that 6speed behind her in the not to distant future. I dont mind towing with a manual, thats what real boys do..

An E34 550, just makes so much sense!

Why didn't BMW do it?

Excellent project!

Why didn't they?? I still ask myself this after tinkering away, everything is there.. it fits.. I think it may have eaten into the e31 sales too much.. I also ask myself why the m70 is so de-tuned.

The whole excercise is definitly not for a "performance" upgrade.. I could spend the same amount of money on modifications to a 6 cylinder and get alot better gains from it..

Its about a dream and a little boy fulfilling that dream. I'm almost there..

I want to keep everything OEM, by the time I buy a gearbox that will be suitable and have an adaptor made up, I think I would rather just wait to find the right box.

Hahaha well wicked

Want a hand?

You can never have too many hands opening bottles of beer for you...

Nice project Lance (not enough power for you ), hope i see it one day.What sort of manual gearbox do you need for the pwr/trq?

I am on the lookout for an S6S 560G.. 6 speed used in the 850ci.. and you m60 auto boys thought you had it hard... I will keep trawling the intarwebs for one.... speaking of which.. Anyone have any contacts or family in the UK willing to forward a gearbox on for me?

Yes she is another tidy example you have there.. I especially like the donut skid marks Nicola left in the carpark.. she's getting the hang of them now.

Are you going to put mufflers on it or nah?

Eventually.. for certing purposes it will be standard.. The V12's are a fine line getting them to sing the right note I have heard. Last thing I want is a 12 cylinder fart machine.

Lance you are nuts my boy, I heard you were doing this and was like nah, he's not that crazy... and then

Low ratio LSD?? Would do one hell of a power skid.

Yes I am definitly not normal.. Still deciding on diff options.. have left the ASC-T in for now. Mainly because I want to do some experimenting with an LSD and traction control. Easy enough to turn off the Throttle side of the ASC but leave the Traction control still controlling rear wheel slip. That and I still like the safety if someone else has to drive it heaven forbid.