Allanw

good man, so that's a 750i, 740i, 735i... just need the 730i and 728i... and then the diseasels and manuals trans versions Plus the long ones... and an L7...

milland.co.nz - he's in dunedin, but will send it to you when it arrives from germany.

You can have the head bolt holes Time-serted (NOT helicoils!) on the M54, and I personally would do it the first time, befotre trying to bolt a head down. Probably find the block has to come out to get to the back ones though :-(

Have you recently started it from cold, then run it a very short time (20 seconds maybe) then turned it off??? That can cause the hydraulic valve lifters to pump up, and hold valves open - meaning no compression. Did it stop of it's own accord, or was it running until you turned it off, then never went again etc??? The noise is weird - I'd be interested to hear if it still did it if you cranked it with the throttle wide open, and with the coolant cap off It's clearly not seized currently, but may have a headgasket blown between the cylinders. Oil or water mixing isn;t very common at all with blown head gaskets - moreso cracked heads, but even then not in the majority of cases (usually specific engine dependent). More info around what happened would help, and why did it have a new radiator installed.

getting the warranty chucked in is always easier, because they have a pretty decent margin on them for the dealer - you get a better "discount" for a lot less "cost" to the dealer (lower margin etc). Same with finance - sometimes the finance commision is more than the commision for selling the car!

You'd be surprised how many genuises are out there.

You did a burnout when you left though, right???

Is it NZ New? They mostly didn't have cats

Ah right - I was thinking stable as in viscosity :-) The W rating is actually at 40C (which is considered cold for an engine), and the second number is at 100C. So the 10W-X when cold is about as viscous as a Xw-60 would be at 100C - average about 25 cSt, the 40 part at 100C is about 15 cSt (the SAE 40 range is 12.6 to 16.3 or something). The most I paid for Castrol Edge 0W-40 A3/B4 was $88, but last lot I got was $82 - over 15K, the difference is nothing, really. I've altered my SI figures to give about 15K, instead of 23K like they would normally (15K on 6.5 litlres is no different to a jap 2.5, holding 4 or 4.2, doing 10K, really) I suspect the improved short trip economy probably saved more in gas - I just switched from Penrite 5W-40 back to the Edge 0W-40 and even with the sudden colder weather, the economy has improved slightly on the Mrs Kindy/School run. Just .1L/100km would be about a $30 savings over the oil change interval, though Currently the average has dropped almost down to summertime levels - prior to the change, it was slowly getting worse and worse - upto 12L/100 kms (wifey doesn't do economy!), and since the change, We've had 11.5, 11.7, 11.4, 11.4 over 4 tanks. The last time we had that economy on the Penrite, was Febuary 8, and it's been climbing steadily as the weather got colder.

Huh? What is your definition of more stable? Those two oils would have the "same" viscosity when hot (within the SAE 40 specs = 12.5 to 16.3 cSt), but the 10W-40 thickens more when cold, than the 0W-40... surely that would make the 0W-40 more "stable"?

Does your Soarer not have a VHS player for the rear passengers? Not very well optioned, is it???

Nah, but it'd be freakin funny!

This isn't the only car to have this exact same issue.

And a Z3 to put it in???

15W-40 is much thicker cold, than a 0W40, so you get much poorer cold flow. 0W-40 is still too thick when cold, but it's much closer to being a consistant viscosity. Ideally, you want an oil that is the same viscosity at ALL temperatures, but that hasn't happened yet If you had an oil that was SAE40 at 100c, and didn't thicken as it cooled, your engine would be much happier - especially on short town trips!

Oooooooooor... You do what the krafty chermans do: The Golf R32 speedo I have uses about half the range to go from 0-100, then the scale changes at 100, then at 210, so the second half of the range goes from 100-300km/h. not sure it will see much action on high side, when it's in the Mrs Touran though... until I take it out by myself, or on the track Besides - Every schoolboy knows that the higher the speedo goes, the faster the car is

Guy at work just got a 1996 (reg) E34 525i, one owner from new, 164Ks...... $1800! I told him I have first dibs

Don't forget to do the valley pan gasket and the coolant pipe that leaks just after you reassemble it They're right there, and I assume you don't want to strip it again . Don't overtorque the valley pan gasket bolts (or any of them - partucularly those going into alloy!) Good job though - I need a frame like your engine lifter thingee - Don't think the rafters in my barn would cope!

You'd have to start reading a WHOLE 'nother forum! No time for projects!

They also aren't usually aware what the centreline is for. Particularly common in the SUV crowd...

Or followed one in a Hiace???

12.25 years in the E39 I'd normally change it, just to be safe, but I'm really keen to see how long it goes for! Plus manual means I can probably roll start it if required

Very rare ours would be up to operating temps on a lot of the trips . Oil usually takes longer to heat up than the coolant, and often the coolant only gets to 70C. Some of our cars trips are only 7 minutes on VERY country backroads, and to town centre is only about 12 minutes We just have to drive up and down, and round and around an extinct volcano to get anywhere The school run is the one that heats it up good - open road the whole way, but corners and hills to make it exciting Like you say, the SAE test ranges are quite wide, so the least viscous 40, is pretty much the same as the most viscous 30.

The LL rating has little to do with a suitable oil - For the M54, BMW specs said LL-01 AND ACEA A3/B4 The A3/B4 makes it a high shear strength oil, and suitable for long drains anyway - getting the LL rating just means manoey has been paid to BMW to use the name (and the oil makes the grade, of course). I just changed our M54 from Penrite 5W-40 back to Castrol Edge 0W-40. Intersting to see the fuel consumption drop sharlpy after the change, I noticed it go up when I went to the Penrite. I can only attribute this to the HIGH amount of short trips we do with thick/cold oil, and the 0W rating meaning it's thinner than the 5W Penrite when cold. Certainly no difference is noise or performance noticable... but really the fuel consumption should be getting worse, with the MUCH colder weather we've been having!

Does anyone read the Herald??? Seriously?