KwS

Get the frames, for sure. I made the mistake of not buying them initially, and ended up getting a pair later anyway. SOOOO easy to mount the plates in and allow for more adjustment (to tuck plates up higher etc).

Fully reassembled car, fixed leaking radiator hose (clamp wasnt tight enough and hose was slightly out of place) put about 30KM on it tonight and everything is working well, and drives well. Hard to tell if its any more powerful/faster, but its not slow, not at all. Finally, vanos rebuild, complete.

Nice, congrats on the purchase. Love the colour!

Its tiring, every time anyone brings up SMG, someone who has no direct experience comes along and calls it shithouse, and says its the worst thing ever designed. On the other hand, i know a couple of SMG owners ( SMG I and II) that love it. Its not for everyone, yes, but calling it shithouse is just stupid.

Mazda rotaries use it to engage the anti-flood thing (cranks engine without injecting fuel).

Sounds like the opinion of someone that has read about, yet not driven an SMG, like usual.

As you wish. Part: Something-a-rather. So, the parts arrived today, all the way from Germany. Woot. So i got a new valve cover gasket and spark plug seals, 3 new bolts and 3 new washers for the vanos unit (to replace the rounded ones and a spare), and a new oil cap as the old one weeped. New stuff The new vanos bolts to replace the rounded hex. Its obvious im not the only one to have issues, the new bolts are T30 Torx, not hex. Same deal with the new solenoid cover bolts, no more hex. Final vanos bolt in, YAY! Vanos solenoids installed. Note the placement, with wires exiting top and bottom, not both exiting down the bottom like the B32. New cover gasket Cover on, with new bolts. Also had a real quick go at polishing it the other day when i was bored. New valve cover gasket. The new gasket is much softer, and much better to work with than the old one. Note that with the S50 engines you apply the gaskets to the head, and then the cover onto that. The gaskets have locating lips, ridges and dowels. Cover on. What a prick of a thing to get into place. Took about 3-4 tries as it kept getting stuck on the loom holder above it, and the rear cam cap. Coils in Radiator in This is about where i connect the jump pack (battery died whilst it was sitting), and with the coils still disconnected, cranked the engine a few times to get oil into the vanos unit. No bad noises, cranks fine. WOO! Coils connected, key turned and it roars into life. Idles a bit lumpy and having some power issues thanks to the flat battery. Idle is to be expected, vanos isnt worn in and the ECU has lost all its learning and reset to defaults. I take it for a real quick spin down the road and back and then fire her back into the garage as i had no fan and the temp was coming up to normal operating temp quickly. Parked up, everything looking OK, nothing spewing anywhere. Installed the fan and the shrouds and took it for another spin around the suburb. Didnt want to go too far because i needed to get the oil to temp, and the coolant pressurised. Drives good, and the sound at 1800RPM is gone. Little growl from vanos when letting off the throttle, but there is still 300+ KM before its fully worn in. Its fast, i give it a quick boot, and its off. Didnt rev too high or give it too much, and i dont know yet if its a placebo and feels fast because i havent been driving it the past week or not. Anyway, i roll back into the garage for one final check before i head down the hill for a longer run. Pop the hood, slight smell of coolant, OK because i spilt lots draining radiator. Nothing else looks out of place. Jump back in car and back out of garage.... Hmmm, thats a nice trail of green. Nuts. Back into the garage i go. Looks like i derped the lower radiator hose, and its leaking from there. Will fiddle it a bit tomorrow and get it clamped correctly (think i pushed hose on too far) and i should be good for a decent run tomorrow night. Getting there!

I cant remember when mine was auto, but have you tried entering the last 7 digits of your VIN into RealOEM and seeing if there is a part # available?

I wonder where it was imported from? VIN doesnt tell much, neither does carjam. Not UK, doesnt have MPH on cluster. Japan, Hong Kong or Singapore maybe?

Buy it, and then fix those issues then.

Gotta empty it somehow, might as well be with 320HP

+1, more pictures and a better description or you are going to have some pissed off people wasting their/your time.

Be brave, take the gamble. Almost interested to take it for a drive myself to see what SMG1 is like.

Wow, 13K buy now, UK import with SMG, techno. http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-738655311.htm Someone local buy it and we can be M3 buddies!

Haha, dont be offended by a lack of replies. I dont know about others but i tend not to reply to a thread if its just to say "sweet car bro" as thats a waste of time. In saying that, sweet car bro. Looks good on those wheels, but i dont envy having to keep white mesh wheels clean! Looks like its in good condition and had a bit of good work done to it. Much want for your Remus, very nice exhaust.

Would caging the bastard fix the wobbly chassis? Almost seems like a logical next step considering all the work you have done to it.

This. I have a Honda Fit as the daily because its cheap to run, comfortable, heaps of space and the CVT makes it a lot more tolerable to be in for 2 hours every day (and still only covering 50KM a day). I used to drive manuals daily, for years, and since changing to auto for a daily, i wouldnt go back. I also have my M3, which of course is a manual, and for a weekend toy i would want nothing else. And Ron, in terms of your dislike for automatics, you come across as both arrogant and ignorant. Youre probably a real good guy outside of the internet, but on here youre a dick. Its always wank wank wank manual manual manual. Manuals are great, Autos have their place, and i like CVT. Thats all i have to say on the subject. Im out.

I tried that but its small and was really tight. Might try side cutters to lift the tail. Did you drain the res and remove the hoses to fit the clamps, or just put the clamps around the hoses in place?

Ill need to have a nosy at the bottom of my res at some point too, i have the slow occasional drip coming from my system. I hate those oetiker clamps with a vengeance. Thanks for mentioning how to release them.... theres one on my radiator hose that ill need to release before i can put the rad back in. Was going to try cutting the damn clamp off!

Part Zwei. The CRC worked a treat, all the bolts in the oil pump cover came out OK. The cover its self was a real sh*t to get off but some persistence and brute force popped it off. Insides were a bit black but no chunks or sludge. Gave it a wipe down and replaced the seals. Yeah boi, i own a Rolls. Vanos unit all back together Next up was the solenoids. I had done a lot of research on how best to approach this, and the E39 M5 boys have some pretty good info about it (same solenoids). I decided it was best to replace the seals, remove the gauze ring and clean the solenoids. The gauze ring is the brown bit you can see in some of the photos of the solenoids. Its a plastic ring with some gauze filled slots. My gauze rings were fooked. No gauze was missing in places, and the rest was blocked. Used a scalpel to lever it off slightly, and then some pliers to break them and pull them off. I then turned my attention to the cleaning of the innards. Obviously i cant disassemble them, so had to find another way. The best way people tend to use is to flush them with brake clean whilst actuating them. I went with this method. Out came the 9V battery and connector. The solenoid leads are moulded with the polarity on the connector, so just join + to + and - to - and hopefully you should hear the solenoid click. I didnt. It turns out the top solenoid was dead. Nothing at all. A began to flush it by blasting brake clean into the ports, and after a few tries i finally get a faint click from it. Yay! I spray and actuate a few more dozen times until im getting a nice, solid, hearty click every time and then move on to the next one. The lower solenoid wasnt as bad, it clicked first try but was very faint. A thorough cleaning fixed that, although some of the sh*t that came out was pretty nasty. Replaced the seals on both, and put them aside. Replaced the vanos filter. Old one was black and you can see blockage in the gauze. Its cheap and easy to get at so ill replace this again in a thousand km or so. Since the vanos unit was done, i moved onto the anti-rattle kit. You need to replace the splined, helical gear from the intake cam. It wasnt easy, mine was reluctant to move forward enough to pop out until i game it some help. I also noticed it was hard to get into the Beisan tool so i gave the spline a real good scrub and it moves much freer now. Once removed the cause of the rattles was WELL obvious. There should be no axial play (wiggle)..... mine had a ton of movement. Loose as a goose. Pulled it apart with my Supercheap li-ion rattle gun, worked a treat. The innards were dirty, with chunks of something inside it and noticable wear on the end washers. The Beisan kit replaces the outer ring and both end washers. All fitted up with the discarded bits in the background Back in the engine. Pile of spare parts And this is where im at now. The vanos unit is back on, just waiting on the bolts to completely finish the vanos and then i need to reassemble the valve cover and cooling system. Now for the waiting game.

Right, back with some more Vanos fun! So, the other day, stuck bolt came out. This finally meant i could remove the vanos unit and begin the rebuild. DISCLAIMER: THIS IS MY EXPERIENCES WITH THIS. THIS IS NOT A STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTION, IT IS MEANT TO COMPLIMENT THE BEISAN INSTRUCTIONS TO FILL THE GAPS AND HIGHLIGHT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE 3.2 AND 3.0. PLEASE FOLLOW AT YOUR OWN RISK. First step was to clean up as i left a lot of my destructive tools lying around. Next up was to begin the removal. First you need to remove all the bolts from the front of the vanos unit (two already destroyed and removed), 6 short, 1 long for 7 in total (not the 9 Beisan says). Once this is done, remove the 4 bolts across the vanos bridge, and remove the bridge. Note, all 4 bolts are the same length (not 2 short 2 long like Beisan says) Proceed to carefully slide vanos unit forward a little. Beware of the oil pump driver which is a disk that goes between the vanos unit and the exhaust cam. If dropped, this will take a swift trip to the bottom of the oil pan. Beisan has no picture to show what you are looking for with the driver, so i took a few. The driver is a disk that sits here. Looks like this When removing the vanos unit, my piston got stuck to the shaft that sticks out of the intake cam. I had to use my tack lifter to gently lever it off the helical gear. There is a wee notch in the top of the gear above where the piston is stuck that i found to give just enough room to lever from. Removed! Minor marking from bolt removal Remove piston (push out with finger) Eww gunky. Pull the intake cylinder apart Bag of seals Once removed, ALL parts get a thorough cleaning in a mixture of brake clean and degreaser. The vanos bridge and bolts came up mint. This is another part Beisan was clear about. When you replace the seal on the cylinder and you are refitting to the bore, DO NOT PUSH THE CYLINDER IN. Let is rest, and then use the cover to push it in with the tightening of the screws. If you push the cylinder in you WILL ruin the seal. Rest it like this Put on cover (aligning the indent in the side with the vanos filter next to it). Make sure you remove the oring on the cover as per instructions, first. And slowly wind the screws in, bit by bit and doing them in a star pattern until the cover is seated completely. Remove cover and cylinder should looks like this, Nicely seated. Clean the cylinder cover and renew the seals on that too Another thing Beisan missed is that the cylinder cover has a dowel to align it, and MUST be aligned correctly. Thats that side done. Next up is to remove the oil pump cover. My bolts were really tight, so i soaked in CRC (penetrating oil), cracked then, wound out 3 turns and then put more oil on them and left to soak. Rest time. Will resume after a drink.

Its a love or hate thing i find. I love it, so much smoother than a conventional auto and its easier to keep in the power band. It has its quirks, sure, but so does everything. Plus, being able to put your foot down and having the car hold at peak power whilst accelerating is great fun (as much fun as a 120hp 1.5L iVtec engine can be).

We are a bit more advanced than 2 speed yank autos now though.... Do you even know know what modern autos are up to? I love manuals as much as the next (normal) guy, but i also love having a CVT for my daily. Wouldnt go back to a manual daily.

Cruise and Burnout?

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