KwS

on a related topic too, anyone got any ideas for getting baked on silicon shine stuff off the engine bay? Degreaser? Dealer went apeshit with the shine when i got the car, didnt have time to clean it off and now its left everything looking manky (discoloured plastics, paint etc)

Isnt it as simple as, if its from Japan its got a Jatco, if its not (NZ new etc) it has ZF? Having just done the vanos on my own E39 525 i would highly recommend doing it, if it hasnt been done already. Chances are thats where the power has gone. Are the tourings much heavier than sedans?

yeah, both my pistons has side to side movement, and quite a bit of it too. Did another hundred or so ks today, still getting better.

So yeah, did the valve cover seals and rebuilt the double vanos unit today. Its as hard as i expected, but very time consuming. Wouldnt be too keen to do it again. The vanos failure mode on these is that the seals on the pistons stop sealing, and you end with with rough idle (mainly when cold), hesitation, loss of power. Mine was quite bad for the symptoms, and when i checked the clearance of the pistons in the bore they could freely move, in all directions. Guess thats what 250,000ks does. The vanos rebuild has had an immediate effect, with the idle being smooth and rock solid now. no more hesitation when cold and ive gained a bit of power up top but a huge whack of torque in the low to mid range. Ive only done around 60 ks so far, but apparently it gets progressively better until fully bedded in at 300ks. Seems economy it better too, the OBC is already reporting better milage, but ill give it a tank or two and average it. The valve covers on my car were basically solid plastic, barely sealed and leaked a fair bit of oil. Protip that really helped me, if you have stuck, plastic spark plug gaskets like i did, use a heatgun/hair dryer to heat them up. Makes them soft and you can pry/lever/pull them out easy (without heat they just chipped and cracked) Very impressed with the state of the engine too. At 250,000ks i kinda expected sludge and crap when i took the cover off. No such horror, just nice clean, golden, sludge free internals. I already knew it was really well serviced in the past, this just confirms it. One thing i regret is reusing the crush washers on the vanos pipe. i replaced both when i did the OHF gasket, and thought i could get away with reusing them again. Theyre now seeping oil >_< luckily easy to get at and cheap to replace. Just a couple of pics of the process. Sorry for the quality, used my iPod touch as i dont care much if i cover it in oil. Valve cover off Vanos unit off Vanos unit Back together

Dont think ive ever seen a motorsport diesel E39 before

You cut the harness?! FFS, not a good move. Take it to a sparky and get it done right, you obviously arent cut out for the task.

I loved driving my old 156 V6. The sound the engine made was amazing, and oh so rev happy. Even the 6 speed box was smooth and sweet to shift. I kinda miss it, but dont miss the 2 times it stranded me and the couple of grand i burnt fixing it in the 3 or so months i owned it. I want that engine and box in something more reliable... hmmm The 147s are good looking wee cars, and your example with the mods looks fantastic. Not a fan of the GTAs, only because every 147 GTA in welly seems to be owned by an atshole that cant drive (and think he can just cut everyone off).

Good to hear that my old display worked for you Its an OEM BMW 16:9 unit from either an E38 or E39, usually later model. I got mine through Ray at HellBM. Plug and play for the most part. Im still needing to fit a replacement video module to fix the 4:3 image on the wide display, but need to do my vanos seals first (which will be happening next weekend).

AFAIK the fittings are the same as E39? If it is, just did this on my E39 and it was straight plug and play. You may need to upgrade the Video Module to get the image on the screen to be 16:9 not 4:3 though.

pick up good used engine and get it going again? Pisses me off when people wreck a perfectly good car because they cant be arsed fixing it. Sell it on trademe as a complete car if you must, but dont part it.

Ordered Vanos seal kit... time to fix my lumpy cold idle and surging, yay!

Amused myself on the way home from work as a identical E39 Motorsport in Titansilber pulled in behind on Jervois Quay and followed for a little. If youre a member here, you have a foglight out

Exactly how i did it, easy as pie.

My advice would be to do a cooling system overhaul. Waterpump, fan clutch, hoses, thermostat, expansion bottle, and possibly radiator.... or alternatively find out where the coolant is pouring from, and why it overheated in the first place (if you do the overhaul chances are unless its the headgasket or heater core itll get fixed in the process). The "water" in the exhaust could be condensation if it hasnt had a decent run. Also, a quick check, is there oil in the coolant, or coolant in the oil? Dont give up just yet!

as per title, selling a faulty E39 4:3 monitor. Good for parts. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=466867900 Also got brand new M3 style mesh to suit motorsport bumper. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=466869276

I hate emissions gear with a vengeance, always a PITA. My old Honda had EGR issues, and my E39 has some stupid air pump that sounds like a jet taking off when i fire her up cold. I think next pay ill jump on the vanos seal wagon. Did you just order them through Beisan? Sting you much for postage?

Once i got the fan and shroud out (which turned out to be easier than i anticipated) its only a matter of unbolting the alternator and PS pump. Pretty easy really, just very time consuming. the seal i removed was hard as a rock and VERY flat. The block was covered in oil. One tip i found that seemed to be kinda important was to remove the oil filter housing cap so the oil drains down into the sump. My car had been off overnight but the canister still held heaps of oil until i removed the cap and let it drain. If i didnt drain it i imagine itll all come pouring out once you remove the housing from the block. Oh, and make sure you keep the OHF bolts in order as they are all different lengths.

Finally stopped procrastinating and replaced the Oil Filter Housing seal which since i got the car has been leaving an awful mess on my garage floor. 4 hours and many bashed knuckles later, not a job i want to do again in a hurry, but its done. Whilst i was there i also removed the trumpet on the airbox and reset the ECU, goes much better now and hopefully this will mean no more having to clean the garage floor. Next job is valve cover gasket, spark plug seals and vanos seals.

well, considering my E39 has done 250,000ks.... be interesting to see how much of an improvement i get. I take it you have to remove the fan and shroud? I think thats the only bit really putting me off.

Going to do mine soon as ive got the same hopping symptom when cold (mines auto), so its either wait for it to warm up for a couple of minutes (with a really lumpy idle) or attempt to roll along without throttle (easy, but slow). All symptoms go away after around 2 mins of running and then its sweet. I'd be interested to hear if it clears all those symptoms up and if you see any noticeable power and economy difference. And as per above yes they do recommend doing the valve cover and spark plug seals whilst there as its all got to come off (and if the seals are old they will be useless when refitted)

Spotted black M3 Evo roaring up featherston st lunch time today, gawd it was perfect.

I had a 4 cylinder box put into my old 6 cylinder E36. Came from a 318iS, only difference was the shift linkages in the 4 cylinders are a different length to the 6's. If youre converting to manual i believe the M43 still uses a twin mass flywheel? If so, look into converting to single mass. I think the M20 flywheels still fit them. More reliable, cheaper and more options for clutches.

Damn thats a good looking car!

now that ive got this working i finally found out how to use the 3.5mm aux input thats been wired in, yay, ipod. What im wondering is if there is any way to change the TONE settings for the AUX tv channel? As soon as you hit TONE it goes back to CD. The sound is a bit flat (not enough EQ settings in ipod) and i want to change the fade/balance settings.

yeah, plan is new VM, MK4 nav conversion, reverse cam and replace the standard old jap FM tuner for an updated NZ one.