jeffbebe

Got the old compressor repaired and all good but a costly excercise. At least I'll get a refund on the new unit and half the shipping. Had a pretty sh*t day today with the car. Pulled the front spoiler off in the repco car park when the rubber splitter along the bottom caught on the bump stops they have on the parks. Would normally reverse into parks but haven't driven it much lately so wasn't thinking. Fortunately the spoiler was virtually undamaged and only took 5 mins to put back on. Though had to drive home with it sticking out the window.

Also found out the previous owner scrimped on the respray. My water blaster pulled a chunk of paint off the bonnet and the red paint underneath was barely sanded. No wonder it hadn't stuck to well. Guess I better start saving for the full repainted.

When your water blaster pulls a chunk of paint off the bonnet and you realise the previous owner scrimped on the respray. F$@$$&@&&$$ck!!!

I think I'd miss those extra 4 cyls too much! For the same money I think I'd rather use an M73 5.4L block with the M70 head, schrick cams and a tune which is good just under 400bhp.

 

Much more affordable to turbo or supercharge the existing engine I imagine. You'll probably be able to see the fuel gauge moving when you put your foot down though

BMW's recently announced 760 has a twin turbo V12, wonder if it has similar potential...

The current 760 has the N74 twin turbo that manages around 540bhp I think. Presumably the recently announced 760 has the 6.6L N74 that Rolls Royce have been using with 560+.

What a great swap that would be for my E31 but would pretty much need a complete 760 to put the E31 shell on top!

That kind of power is only useful for doing burnouts

Then again I could see you doing such when out for coffee in Ponsonby

DO IT

I think a modest 500-600bhp would suffice for the school run.

This has probably been posted before but a recent bimmerforums post said the owner has driven it for years without issue and is about to transplant it into an E31 chassis (where it belongs!).

I'll put this on my Xmas list.

Yep, I think I phrased badly in the earlier post. It's designed to disengage the compressor if the RPM is more than 20% out from engine to stop it f***ing the engine if the compressor seizes (and therefore stops the water pump working).

What problem would it be to simply replace it with a common type relay?.

No idea. I'm not very electronically minded so don't know exactly what it needs to do. As I understand it, the relay thingy is meant to bypass the lock sensor - which compares the compressor RPM to the engine RPM and disengages the compressor if they're out of kilter to prevent a seized compressor stopping the water pump. The new compressor doesn't have an RPM sensor, so without the little relay/control unit thingy, the compressor won't engage.

Kind of all moot now as I've just paid to have the old compressor repaired instead... Anyone want to a buy a brand new Behr A/C compressor w/o RPM sensor!

Say wut? Doesn't seem very BMW.

To over engineer something and then create a very costly retrofit solution in later years? Seems totally BMW to me. Or were you being facetious... Can't tell without sarcasm emojis.

Seems very "euro" though...

Aye

XBone

Being over 40 and still kicking ass on Star Wars Battlefront fighter squadron... Always knew I'd have been an awesome X wing pilot!

looks like the rpm sensor can be bypassed? http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/885452/

I saw that but just couldn't find enough info to convince me it would work properly and since the compressor will also shut down the water pump if it thinks something's wrong, I didn't want to chance it.

Bugger, what makes it so special apart from being a bmw part <_>

Nothing. Just a crappy relay that probably costs less than $5 to manufacture.

It was the right part... I just didn't know you also need a small relay that costs twice the price as the frickin' compressor!

And super expensive!

A quick story about the lows and high (prices) of owning an 850i. As you may know the a/c compressor breathed its last breath just before Xmas on my 8er. A quick price check for a new one at BMW NZ led me quickly overseas and I picked up the correct listed part from Rockauto in the US for just US$159 (compared to over $1k in NZ!!). I thought I'd scored the deal of the year until the new compressor turned up a week ago. A quick test fit revealed that the new compressor alone was not going to work. What I'd fail to realise, and BMW did not tell me, is that the new compressor doesn't have an RPM sensor so it also requires a retro fit kit (effectively a little relay that overrides the overengineered rpm sensor lock down). I have since discovered the relay is twice the price of the freakin' compressor. WTF?

Anyway, looks like I'm going to have to try and repair the old compressor which is likely to cost at least $500. B*gger.

Got anything that would fit on up with a V12, Ray?!

I sprayed him black to torment him.

Since I'm waiting on a new AC compressor ex-US and it's too hot to drive the 8er without AC, I've embarked on a few long overdue jobs...

• Trans service and solenoid filter clean (to fix clunking gear changes)
• Sort rear springs (I went a shade too low)
• Clean/paint calipers
• Detail undercarriage ('detail' might be an exaggeration for a bit of cleaning)
• Paint window trim

Is that your 'kill room', Dexter?

I use flickr.com also excellent.

The AC compressor on my 8er died just before Xmas. New Denso compressor in NZ $1K. New Denso one ex-US $200... Just got to wait My E30 daily has got no AC so now both my cars are very hot!!

More likely external conditions. If one was garaged and the other not, for example.

Not quite so exciting... Wheels! Nice ones too (For the E30 I assume by the stud pattern). 

Correct. Turns out the seller misled me in the Q&As a bit though. I asked if correct centre bore and he said yes but turns out they are much bigger with plastic hubcentric rings to fit an E30. Wasn't ideally what I wanted but still a pretty good price so might proceed regardless.

_{Have some drive shaft safety loops you can have to ease the financial pain a tiny bit if you do the M54 swap.}