jeffbebe

They were pretty bad on the inside when I took them off. Presumably the previous owner didn't replace the gaskets or oil often enough. All new gaskets now and cleaned covers plus regular fresh, good quality oil should see it looking much better next time I need to replace the gaskets.

This is like the Playstation v Xbox fanboi debates. Horses for courses. I'd take a manual on the track any day of the week but if I was driving across Europe I'd take an auto. I enjoy driving both - I'm actually really enjoying my auto box at the moment since upgrading the s/w but would also be happy with a manual (if the conversion costs weren't so high!).

The short answer is yes... Wiki says this: If it's the B12 5.7 it would be epic!!

The Alpina E31!!

On its own probably not worth too much but a good project for someone. If you've got the rest of the kit (side skirts, rear and roof spoilers and wing mirrors) it'd be worth plenty. I've got a set of genuine ACS mirrors that I paid $250 for and patted myself on the back for a good deal.

Turns out the high temp powder is too brittle to use on the inside of the cover anyway so I'm going to have to rely on baking it too! Outside will be a silicone-based powder with a ripple (rather than a wrinkle). Won't hide everything but will look a lot better... At least for a couple of years until I can afford some new aluminium covers.

Picked up the stripped valve covers. Quite a bit of pitting particularly on one side. Also found out that high temp powdercoating is too brittle to cover the inside of the cover and too much risk of the oil breaking it down so no way to really protect the metal from future oxidisation. Going to still go ahead with a black ripple on the top to hide as much of the pitting as possible but with a view to replacing the covers with new aluminium ones in the next 2-3 years.

Show off.

haha! If I found that I would have gone into shock. Seems to be a fair bit of this kind of thing on the US boards because owners stuck to the 'oil change every 20,000 miles' advice. More frequent changes is a must with these engines in my opinion.

I can probably take it apart okay... Are you going to help put it back together, Martin?

I can vouch for Woolf but can also see where Mike's coming from. If you are supplying parts or have a mate that can weld then they will seem very expensive. If just want a good quality exhaust mod from some guys that have a lot of experience then Woolf's a good bet. Very happy with my exhaust setup from them and wouldn't have been any cheaper if I supplied the parts short of welding it myself.

I'm pretty confident powdercoating inside and out will significantly slow any further oxidisation and it's pretty cheap to do (around $75 for both if you don't choose any fancy colours!). Asked my mechanic about oil flushes, etc and he reckoned it's probably better not to. The reason being if the cleaning agent works too well it dislodge a lot of crap into the sump which could cause worse problems. He thought it was better to leave it or, if you really want it clean, dismantle the whole engine and clean the parts individually before reassembling. I'm going to run with the former and just continue to do regular oil changes.

The tune will do a lot more than the de-cat. I don't think Josh is suggesting he can remap the ECU but he can flash a S. African version of your engine s/w onto the ECU. Cats were not standard in SA so the s/w is setup to run without them. Tuning would be separate.

Interesting. Haven't heard of people having problems with paint other than the oxidisation reoccurring underneath. I went for powder coat as I prefer the finish.

Drank a couple of beers with Martin (breakmywindow) yesterday and prised off the valve covers between swigs. Going to strip and powdercoat them this week. The horrible oxidising magnesium alloy does nothing for my OCD - plus all sorts of crap is flaking off into my engine. By the looks of things the previous owners weren't changing the oil as often as I would but it's not terrible and a fresh change once the covers back in will is a must. Not quite what I hoped to see inside but not the end of the world. Can't really risk scraping it out as it'll probably loosen even more than will then get into the engine and cause more problems. Will flush and change the oil once the covers are back on. Can anyone recommend any effective cleaners that won't do more harm than good? Not about to pull the whole thing to piece to clean it so will try and tidy it up as best I can for now.

Sunny day and she's still clean since last week's Wenderholm meet so thought it was worth taking a quick snap.

It's your car!! As you say not everyone's cuppa but we don't have to drive it everyday! Will look good lowered as Josh says.

The y stops the drone dramatically. It's an exceptional design!!

'fraid I agree with Jay. Beautiful wheels and a beautiful car but not when joined together IMO. I'm not a huge fan of wheels that are the same colour as the car. Would look better lower but I reckon it would look better if you painted the centres silver.

Do you run a p-plate business, Kyu? You seem to have an awful lot of them!

I've decatted an E39 528 and 540. The 528 had no post cat sensors so it was easy. I replaced the cats with straight pipes, removed the y-resonator and the stock muffler with a high flow muffler. Sounded good from the outside but without any resonators was horrible in the cabin. Learnt my lesson with the 540 and replaced the cats with two bullet resonators and kept the big stock y-resonator (you won't get a better design for keeping cabin noise down). I also replaced the stock muffler with a nice high flow oval box. Sounds great, just loud enough without sounding common and very little unpleasant noise in the cabin. The 540 had post cat sensors but they were fine without spacers or ECU flash. It's possible that the DME will try and compensate but I've found fuel consumption is way down (it has had a tune though). I reckon if you remove the muffler altogether but replace the cats with resonators and keep the stock y-resonator (if it has one) it will be loud but not unpleasant. Whether it will sound loud and good is another matter - I think a decent box at the back is a great help or it can send a bit rough.

Tristan's just come back from the US so I'm guessing he picked up a cheap US spec one and now needs NZ power.

Love the comment at the bottom of that when someone suggested it was lowered - "Cant imagine anyone doing something silly like that to a car like this." - but they painted it pink, with pink lips on the wheels. Hmmmn.

Good work, Dave! I didn't have the guts (or skill) to do the M62TU double vanos. Fortunately, Ray to the rescue!!

Yep, awful. To live and never be the same as you once were or to die slowly in a hospital. Hobson's choice. If he lives I really hope he is able to enjoy his life whatever it may be like. If not, it may not be best for his family but possibly best for him.