Jacko

Drives awesome, now that that 40 odd mm of toe in is gone It feels firmer than stock, but nowhere near as crashy as standard M suspension, turn in and steering feel is epic! You can feel the diff working even when driving semi normally... Unfortunately it looks like it wasnt just the input seal on the box that was leaking, ass end of the engine oil sump gasket is weeping Its not pissing out, just can see new "dampness" now its all clean. I wonder if retorqueing them is a good or bad idea (single use ali bolts) to see if it fixes it. Dropping the subframe to get the sump out looks like a lot of work.

Day D. It moves. Exhaust, heatshields, etc back together. Bled the coolant system and gingerly lowered it back down. Clutch feels fine, no noticeable extra noise or roughness from the SMF. Ill reserve judgment on the clutch until its broken in and I can stamp on it. Gearshift is epically tight, feels like its gated. In the little drive i took it for to leak check i didnt notice any vibes etc being transferred. No leaks, or fault codes ( other than the alarm battery nonsense ) Needs a wheel alignment (tomorrow) as its all kinds of crazy at the moment!

Jack stands currently under going extreme testing

Day Tuesday. Box if beers as bribery and got some mates around to install box. Cut the heads off two of the old ali bolts to use as guide "studs" It went in and about 3minutes, all lined up freakishly well. No butchery required, very minor jiggling. The top bolts were again a total nightmare to get in and torque, took about an hour per bolt, other than that all went smoothly. Pic of the extension setup used, and all the tape to hold the head of bolt in socket and the universals tight enough to guide the bolts in. Shifter reinstalled, feels amazeballs. Clutch bled, its all downhill from here! Looking forward to seeing the difference.

The F*&(^Kng bolt at the top of the (&(*)& box into the )*&(#(^ head of N52, who put that there! Need 12 foot long tweezers. Deep breaths.

Its not that clever Its purely time/mileage based for those things. You dont do a viscosity or spectrometer test to justify changing oil either.

There is a CBS item for inspection as well (looks like two SS's on the dash)

Nice catch, sorry I meant LL01. Cabin microfilter is tracked by the CBS independently, same with brake fluid life, the fuel filter is in the tank and AFAIK isnt a "serviceable" item. I agree though, there will be a bunch of crap that isnt tracked, like wiper blades, that BMW will probably replace for your first borns left leg.

Fixed. if I manage to push it off the stands, it can only drop about 5mm

LL01 oil is what they'll be referring to. Other than that its alllll BS Im sure a bunch of the independents can get LL01 spec oil (BMW Long life). They run Condition Based Servicing (CBS) so the car monitors various things and works out when to do them, by date/odo/how its being driving etc. There is no every few services are expensive deal, unless it managed to line a few things up, or BMW routine services like to line them up? You can look up the service menu on your dash and see when everythings due, and whats due next etc.

Day 108. Shifter bushes all changed, turner motorsport rear bush and UUC bushes on the front. The UUC bushes are too long, but cut down with a scalpel easily. Gearbox seals swapped, pretty straight forwards. Thought the rear nut was 30mm, its bigger, so the rear seal can stay. Its not leaking anyway. Flywheel off, all cleaned up, and the single mass flywheel and clutch in and torqued up. Easy. The original throw out bearing feels like its full of gravel, dual mass flywheel is sloppy as, and the clutch plate is well used... 236k, its done pretty well. CDV removed, the orifice is teeny..Its like BMW intended it to be an option with quick disconnects on each end. Now have a good old fashioned clutch and flywheel. New gearbox mounts, and its ready to go back together.

Cheers Glenn, appreciate the concern! No need to jack up the front of the engine, there is a block of wood in between the front of the sump and the sway bar holding it at the perfect angle of the dangle to install box. Should be as simple (in theory) as getting the input shaft on the right angle and lined up, then a little jiggle in. Its tight, but came out without interfering with the tunnel etc. Im going slow The little jack in the pictures (with the wood blocks) on the forward jacking point is taking no load, its the "jesus" jack, same with the two stands under the front subframe. So there are four 3 ton jackstands (with the adapters for the jack points), the little 1.5 ton jack and the two 2 ton jack stands as the "fallback". Since youve got me worried now, Ill also throw the wheels under there! Im not too sure what else I can do? short of dropping $5k on a hoist.

I dont remember them being on the piss in reality, I think most of the angle is simply from the photo. It may have not even been hooked up on the other side yet! I remember the front whiteline sway bar was a pig to fit, the bushes rode into the radiuses of the bend in the bar, dont recall the back being a goofy fit though.

The figure 8 hoop "wire" ones are whitelines. Fugly, but they are solid.

Captains Log : Stardate 8999.4 Gearbox removal. No one died. This is a big job (particularly on Jack stands). Installed the #savemejebus jack and stands incase i had to get rough and it went pearshaped and tried to kill me. 1 - You cannot access the upper bolts from top of engine. N54 you can, n52 and its intake runners - forget about it. I have some funky snap on ratchets and tools, and none of them will fit. 2 - Its an E14, the starter bolt, E14. Dont believe the internet and spend an hour and a half trying to get an E12 to fit. Youre welcome. 3 - Lower the gearbox, push up on the front of the crank and jam wood in there to hold the engine up and box down. I had roughly 2.5" between gearbox mounts and chassis to access the upper bolts. It doesnt require much force, i did it by hand, but it needs to be held up at the front ( and it also stops the engine dropping onto the sump when the weight of box is removed ) 4 - Long ass extensions and universal joints. The two top bolts are accessed from the back if gear box up to the back of head. Its a mare. They like to sit up there once undone, and not come out of holes, had to make a long ass hook device to pull the bolts out. 5 - The ali bolts come out pretty easily, 3/8th drive no wucking furries. The steel bolts require a big ass breaker bar as the 30 foot extensions like to wind themselves up. You will smash your fingers. 6 - Bit of a wriggle and jiggle and the box came out, lowering the jack and pulling it out in one smooth motion went really... Smooth. Shifter assembly comes out easily, my car had what I thought was a pretty decent shift feel, but the bushes are totally shagged.... Bunch of pics, most are to remind me how it goes back together! (and apparently in no order...) This PDF here was very useful http://www.e90post.com/forums/showpost.php?p=19266401&postcount=1

Springs and swaybars, shocks are old but still work fine, need new bump stops as a minimum. All the links and spring pads are fine. Box of beers, pickup only ( akl ).

Day number whatever : Waterpump and thermostat done, easy, lots of scare mongering online about these, but its simple. Took roughly 3 hours while learning how to do it, finding the torque for the bolts took awhile though! (10Nm + 90 degrees) Banged the front swaybar in, suspension done! Pulled apart driveshaft, new boots and bearings and shimthingees, easy. Now.. Time to put on the bigboy pants and deal with the clutch and box.

Just replaced my original one today (at 236k, so not exactly unreliable and it hasnt actually died yet, spat out one canbus error a month ago) Its pretty simple job, bit tight, took about 3 hours (learning how to do it on the way), theyre not worth anywhere near the amount of "scare" associated with it online. Longest part was trying to find the ali bolt torques online (10Nm + 90 degrees!)

Hit up BNT (and ask for trade) the prices RRP from whiteline etc were way more than what I paid at the time as well.

From memory there was only the one size (was a few years ago), but the rear has adjustable blades. Just bolted it on.

When I bought whitelines for mine, they were like $300 for front and rear from BNT at trade (cheap as chips)

Front end suspension done, bar the swaybar, that can wait for the waterpump and thermostat tomorrow. M3 lower arms are simple to fit. Struts are a struggle to get in, takes some brute force to get them under the gaurds. All that remains from the original struts is the washer for the upper hat, and the upper perch plate. Found a few kg of gravel and dead insects under the bumper trim, so busted out the water blaster again...

https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?listingId=458047443&referrer=%2Fcars-for-sale%2Fsearchresults.xhtml%3FstartYear%3D1991%26sortBy%3DderivedpriceDESC%26incremental%3Dall%26firstRecord%3D0%26endYear%3D1991%26modelCodeList%3DM5%26makeCodeList%3DBMW&startYear=1991&numRecords=25&firstRecord=0&endYear=1991&modelCodeList=M5&makeCodeList=BMW&makeCode1=BMW&modelCode1=M5 35k USD, and not the special edition Few UK sites have nice ones for ~30k pound. https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/bmw/m5/bmw-e34-m5-3-6-litre-315-bhp-concours-condition-throughout-hand-built-by-m-tech/6161192 So, restored, and a Naghi? $$$$$ I dont understand how someone could abuse it like that.

Todays effort, Unleash the parts cannon! Slow going getting the Diff back in, Kayne did a nice job with the Quaife innards swap (quick turn around too!) The bush kit has a big ass washer between diff rear mount and the subframe, its a mare to get in and lined up while balancing diff on jack and jiggling it around to get holes to line up. Shocks and springs fall in though, which is a pleasant change! Back ends pretty much done now, other than covers and exhaust... Just the clutch, box, shifter rebuilt, front struts, water pump, thermostat, m3 LCAs, and an oil change to go now!

Its going to be a very careful careful slow process I agree though, unfortunately carport doesnt feature a hoist or transmission jack (looked at a few transmission adapters for the floor jack, they didnt look like they would work though). If some guy didnt have to go and close up his workshop, it'd be on his hoist