yng_750

ok so my e39 is confusing me i will give as much detail as possible 1998 4.4 v8 540i nonvanos 3 weeks ago i did an oil and filter change, no flush just drained hot. Replaced oil with castrol gtx modern engine 15w40 only did short commutes since then. a few days later i noticed a coolant drip from the radiator vent nipple. hasnt over heated, was still full of water. ( i checked secret function on dash and it was sitting at 103'c at idle which is normal for these. Disassembled, took out rad, expansion tank and intake piping. car has not moved in three weeks. replaced radiator with new nipple installed and filled with water. yesterday bled coolant, went easily. this morning coolant level was good. car started nicely though idled a little lumpy which is not uncommon on this car in the past. and i drove 5 mins to work sedatly, putting in $50 of Z 95 octane along the way. car got to 87'c according to dash function. After work i put a bottle of rislone injector cleaner in the tank. and drove out on the open road for about 25kms just to give it a good run. coolant got to 107'c and stayed constant the whole trip. Car ran great though i thought the brakes felt abit spongier than normal. gave it a couple of good bursts of acceleration to pass people. Got home, popped bonnet with car still running, all seems normal. turned car off, all normal still no funny noises and coolant hoses were at good pressure. an hour and a half later, check under bonnet, all normal but notice air temp sensor is unplugged so plug that back in. car starts but idles at 1300 for 20 seconds before dropping to a relativly rough idle of 500 or so. pull out of drive way 500 meters down the road (pulls normally, no rough running) smoke appears behind me turn around go home with smoke following me. Park it up, smells like oil smoke and looks blueish. left it alone for over an hour, start it up. Instantly white smoke comes out fairly thick, smells funny almost like burnt plastic. havent pulled anything apart yet. oil level is about 5mm above full mark. water normal, no bubbling options that occur. 1. cheap oil got rooted by temp of engine on long drive and is now burning off as its too thin. 2. something in the ignition circuit has died from sitting for 3 weeks. 3. it may be brake fluid via booster if something broke sitting. would explain spongey brakes but arent these hydraulic boosting or something different? 4. blown head gasket? but didnt overheat and it only has fresh water in now so coolant shouldnt be smoking anyway. 5. CCV valve is leaking? but why now? why just after all this? 6. injector cleaner f**king with it? but have used this stuff before with no issue any ideas are welcome, will pull plugs tomorow see whats up. thanks

not sure if this one is different from one for sale as this one says biturbo and one for sale says supercharged

saw a dark green on in dubai, much nicer colour parked between a mclaren mercedes slr and a bently continental GT This was in the park and ride carpark for the bus funnily enough... different culture towards public transport over there

i have heard some people swear by bmw filters but ive always used ryco and never had an issue. They make them to OE standards so should be good. Would avoid whitebox or repco branded filters as these have been proven to be lower quality. always check that the oring has come off the block cleanly, part or all of the oring stuck to the block will cause huge oil leaks when you install new filter.

how are the tyres. would you be ok shipping via mainfreight depot to depot?

yea has rego paid till 2019 @$6K a year it makes it worth it.... if you want to drive a 318 for 7 years

price and pics?

not sure about the computer side of it but i would definantly chuck a manual in it.

many cheap scanners will show you whats wrong but only some better ones actually let you reset stuff. best to get it to welly but i would trailer it if possible as they dont like limp mode too much and a trailer is cheaper than a gearbox also triple check everything is finished before you get it scanned you dont want to be using paid time on someones lift plugging stupid things back in that you missed.

decided the head was toast so got a new one rom a friend who got his head planed, crack tested etc trying to find his lack of compression then found the broken ring land... Did abit of work on the car yesterday, seems to have had oil changes but the filter looks older than the internet. Had to pull the adaptor off the block and hold it in a vice to crack the filter off even then took a big screwdriver through it.... damn tight. cleaned out the oil pump and sump so it can make the most of the castrol edge 10w60 ive got for it. Block has a couple of liters of degreaser sitting in it to dissolve all the oily scum still stuck in there. Radiator has been flushed out wasnt tooo much oil in it but was a little blocked so its all clean now. Got a new heater valve unit coming as i really dont want to bother playing with that one. Got the head back on and bolted down. used copper coat on the gasket so it should seal perfectly. Only f**kup so far was i bolted the exhaust back in but forgot to reinstall a flange gasket, so at least part of it will have to come off again. Next time i have time off will reinstall the cooling sytem the timing gear and the intake then i should be set to go.

yea a 2.5L bottle of nulon long life green concentrate would be ideal. about $30 i believe. pour the whole bottle in then fill the rest of the way with water

also take your christmas lights down already haha

to be honest id try to find longer bolts you have already spent shitloads so far would be a shame for the huge cornering forces of an m3 to break your bolts and mess the car up

after a new head for the m20 closer to taupo the better came out of 1989 525I

pulled the head tonight. blocked water galleries in the gasket around cylinder 4 on the exhaust side. and right beside it is a crack from the valve seat through to the water gallery. shows what not flushing your radiator does but now on to fix it. Anyone know if you can get them repaired. Or better yet anyone selling a m20b25 head?

yea a 13 x 810 should be fine Its a V belt so a larger section by .5mm wont bother it. And there should be plenty of adjustment for either length to fit. If you go into supercheap or repco the part number will likely be in the format 13A810 or 13A0810 but you could go anywhere from 790 up to 840 and it should fit. Bit of trial and error if they dont have the right one on the shelf

Ordered my parts today. Got a headgasket, head bolts, rocker cover gasket, intake gasket set, exhaust mani gasket, 2x exhaust flange gaskets All for $94. so not bad Also got to get the Torx head socket set from Supercheap, they out of stock but have one being delivered today so should get everything i need by tomorow morning.

no wing has holes but looks like its been removed a while back. prob wont sell the kit but how much would it be worth out of interest. got the engine mostly pulled down. got 2 pesky exhaust studs left to remove ( way to small clearance for a proper socket) and got to remove timing belt. Will try to leave radiator in just because of the trans lines. couple of pics to follow shows the engine bay as it stands. All and all this car is fairly clean. clean engine block no oil under the car from trans or rear main.... what could go wrong.

started pulling it abit today. over night the vast majority of black oil it that was in the radiator has leaked out of the water pump and ended up on the floor. So apart from the engine issues im guessing everything rubber in the cooling system will be poked. ran a compression test. had 140-150psi in 5 cylinders but only 60psi in cylinder 4 will pull the head on friday. if the head is recoverable i will get it planned and chuck a new gasket in there but if its cracked will prob go for a whole new engine. Cylinder 3 also had the lead broken off from the boot so prob didnt help it

yea brent will give you a good deal

judging by the amount of changes needed to do an m30 swap i may end up selling this and buying an auto 535i and converting it to manual. especially seeing as a 535 is more likely to have more equiptment optioned out. how much would those flares be worth just out of interest.

Hey brent, thanks for the info yea i think a m30 might be the go, though i will try to make this one run enough to get a wof etc and sell the e39 if i can. Would rather have the money on hand to do it properly the first time. As far as the engine swap ive been told the looms are similar enough to use the original loom and just modify it somewhat. Only other questions. Do i need a whole m30 exhaust, or just the headers? Ive heard some things about mount angles for the gearbox being wrong when doing a conversion, i presume if i use all m30 bits and mounts i presume it will bolt straight in. Can i retain the original ancilarys, alternator, PS pump and lines etc or do i need all m30 stuff. Trying to decide wether im best off getting an engine and bits or a whole donor car.

got the car home engine starts but doesnt like throttle, hesitates but eventually picks up revs. heaps of oil in the radiator and lots of crap stuck under the oil cap. So might need a new engine. in other news the battery is from 2006 and at 0V will see if it takes a charge on my 7 stage charger. paint is fairly faded but looks like it should take a good polish and come up ok. wheels have chipped paint but no chips in alloy so a good repaint they will look mint. Have friday off work so will have a good look then.

seeing your v12 on stuff hasnt helped me remain rational in planning my goals haha

Just picked up a e34 525I. ACS widebody kit and wheels 160km apart from that i dont know much as i havent seen it yet. Apparently its got a blown headgasket but from what ive heard about it ive deduced that there is a 63% chance the gasket is blown and a 37% chance its an electrical issue. Plans for the future. I have a complete manual conversion out of a 535I. Getrag 260 i believe Though from what ive seen it will only bolt up to a m30 not the m20. So plans are... fix the engine and drive for a while, sell the e39 and do a conversion on it or find out the engine is stuffed and do an m30 swap now. From what ive seen the engine conversion is fairly straightforward. extend a few plugs to reach the front of the longer m30 and swap ecu?? will pick it up tonight and post pics, will know more soon.