_ethrty-Andy_

33 minutes ago, Herbmiester said:

E30 prices are getting ridiculous, just buy an E36 and enjoy the fact that its a better car for less money.

Most E30 guys will even tell you that from a mechanical point of view the E36 is the better car.

But the interiors suck, the doors suck, the cooling system sucks, and it just looks like a dated 90s car, doesn't look like a classic

19 hours ago, Cammsport said:

Might look into vanos seals mid-term. Doesn't seem to be giving me trouble right now. Any way to see if it's working as it should? Doesn't seem to be any noticeable crossovers etc. Do you have a preferred engine oil? 

just in response to this, its a continuously variable system, it is not Off or On like some other manufacturers at this age.

Correct oil is 10W40, I use Penrite, but really any brand name will do. Some swear by Castrol for no reason other than thats what BMW etched into the filler cap 20 years ago.

fuel economy gain is marginal at best. as I said above, if this is the objective as is the OPs question, you are waiting your time. Parts alone will take you a long time to recover from your fuel saving, and when you do you will be back to having destroyed seals, not to mention if you have to pay someone to install.

Also there is zero mechanical damage that can result because of not tending to them, unlike most other areas on the motor that fit the OPs objective better.

good idea, worth a shot maybe, though people usually don't update the details of their plate if it is sold/purchased, and they probably aren't supposed to tell you either.

Privacy laws, for better or for worse, prevent this sort of thing from occurring.

13 minutes ago, Palazzo said:

But to sum up, it’s most likely between 3.46 and 3.64 and is LSD?

 

Certain it’s a uk car.

well it can't be between that, as there is no ratio made between them, has to be one or the other.

But now is more than 30 years old plus and I don't know milage, any previous owner could have changed it at some point for whatever reason, even small case diffs bolt in fine etc. best is always to check at this age,

VIN decoders are only ever accurate as at the date of production, and that VIN above left the factory with a 3.46:1 LSD

the numbers indicate roughly where they are in the range Getrag produce,

They are no more relevant to whats inside the 'box than any modern BMWs badge indicating what engine is inside it.

5 minutes ago, Mitch9894 said:

anything more than that its owned by an individual not a company

they aren't supposed to even tell you that much.

That Vin shows the following:

Feb 1986 build date. 

NZ New or maybe UK import etc, not a Jap or SA car anyways.

3.46 Medium case, used on both the 325i and the 325e

if the tag doesn't say 3,46 then it may say "45 13"

The later diff showing post September 1986 is 3.64 (much more common 325i ratio), tag may also say "40 11"

if it shows any other series of 4 numbers, you take the first two and put it over the second two and that will give you the ratio.

However as Grant says above, best is still to rotate the drive shaft and count the rotations. use a chalk mark on the input and BOTH outputs, yes even tho LSD the two outputs may spin at different ratios as the LSD is unlikely to still be working at this age.

Hope this helps

I really want this car mostly because of the milage, I am always interested in cars about 400,000km (except for my Hiace I took to well past that). I hope you can't sell it and it has to end up in my drive for bugger all.

ended up signing up to Amazon prime until the end of the season then I will quit.

Good to watch the first season again as well, and in better quality than the first time around I watched it too,

nah looking in the wrong place I think. Look for diff listed as a complete exchange unit, usually part number 1.

If you post your VIN I will look it up and screen capture (if I can remember how on a Mac)

if its not the incorrect oil volume because the filler hole is in the wrong place, or the inadequate pickup of oil, or the fact its not rated for the torque, it is the shifter breaking because its either on the piss, or been cut and welded and no longer geometrically correct and therefore flexing every time that it gets used. Its a bodge.

Although using the M40 box is a bodge too, just not quite so bad, as at least it is only the fact its not rated for the torque you have to worry about, the rest is okay.

if it is just a daily etc don't worry about vanos seals. Correct that they have probably failed, but the expense is not worth replacing, them even when DIY, if your only gain is to be fuel economy. A bit different if you like to throw around on a back road or on a track etc.

if you pay for the report then it shows current info, providing the owner hasn't opted out of having their details shared. By default, everyone is opted in.

having said that, you can ring NZTA and give them the plate, they will tell you if the motor is still live in the system or not, but won't tell you (or shouldn't anyways) any more than that.

Ari, most of the posts above are not relevant to you so don't let them lead you astray. I can tell from your posts you are on the right track.

I have done an M52 into an E30 (externally dimensionally identical to the M50 as far as your question is concerned), using a G240 box from an M40, unlike the other people posting.

You need to use all E30 320i gear, driveshaft and shifters as well. upgrading the rear axles is of course also a good idea tho beyond the scope of your question.

since flywheel came up above, I used a shaved M20 flywheel, clutch, throwout bearing etc setup in my conversion. everything behind the end of the crank should be M20/M40 stuff if you want to use that box.

M20 G240 does not bolt up properly to M5x motors and will be on a lean. It is a cheapskate bodge that doesn't last.

PM or call me if you need.

will show on RealOEM if you enter in last 7 digits of your chassis.

11 hours ago, M3AN said:

"special edition" 328's might have been a nice option, not sure there were any.

 

Plenty, just higher spec 328i etc. 318iS is much rarer.

On 12/29/2017 at 3:19 PM, Gabe79 said:

Bump.

 

Make me offers. Wife is not impressed with the garage space these are taking up.

lol how tiny is your garage??

cant beat M52 for bang for buck, reliability, good power upgrade, light weight, easy swap, a million people done it so plenty of data on the internet what works and what doesnt. i can bang a conversion out in a weekend now once you have all the bits.

Really comes down to budget, and i defiantley run with the school of thought while the motor (regardless of waht you put in) is out, change all the gaskets, seals, o rings, spark plugs, etc. If not everything then at the very least especially the stuff on the bottom like sump gaskets and rear main seal, timing cover that are hard to get to once the motor is in (again, regardless of the engine you choose. makes it a lot more enjoyable once finished if everything works as it should, doesnt leave a mess on your freinds driveways, etc.

$5k will get you a fully certified M52/ZF swap including all the other stuff to think about

i wonder if someone took the bonnet off and didnt put the shims back in at the hinge

I also edited my post above just now

On 11/19/2017 at 4:51 PM, Timythenerd said:

For what its worth my comments below. Very dissapointing to see its got to this state, but subsequent owners never look after a car the way the enthusiest does. Much of what you have said has happened after my ownership, was tidy but not mint when i sold it. 

Exterior has some serious wear and tear. yeah just starting to peel on roof as i sold it Front quarter panels are both damaged. Paint is beyond saving in some areas. The front AC Schnitzer bumper clearly has a close relationship with the road, while the rear one has been poorly modified to make the exhaust and towbar fit.
Body shop did that when i had the kit painted
Left front rim is badly curbed..Wait till you see the insides of the front wheels, take it off the hub.... 

Rear window panel has been replaced at some point, so it doesn't open indepently like it should. See KWS post of the message i sent him. All original as far as i know, and worked perfectly when the car was a 520i. One of the headlight lens are missing. send me your address i will send you a light for it. The rear spoiler annoys me: as the car is a UK import it doesn't have a high stop light in it. A shoddy aftermarket one has been installed on the inside of the window instead, probably for compliance when the car entered NZ in 1996.I put that one in, and yes because it is a UK car. when i brought it it had a massive rectangle thing, the LED one is much tidier. Interested to see how you think you could do a better job.

 Pretty sure the double chassis looms under the rear seat is unnecessary, so that'll have to be rebuilt. It's probably also a fire hazard given that it's right next to the battery. Yep the reason for that is that it is all the sundry wriing for the back seat being a 750iL, foot well lights, electric heated seats, fridge etc that it no longer has (it is all E32 wiring loom, there is no E34 wiring in it anywhere). The wires are not live, all the fuses for those circuits have been removed. Lance took care of all the wiring stuff because i am colour blind, and i wasnt going to argue with the way he did it. All the modules GM RM LKM etc were reflowed to ensure no dry joints etc as well. Coolant temp isn't wired up correctly, but surely that can't be hard to do right especially given there's a correctly working aftermarket coolant temp gauge right next to it. I swapped in the spare E32 M70 instrument cluster to see it resolved anything, but alas.After market one is on totally different curcuit. there is a reason why the factory one doesnt go but i cant remember it now Edit: now i have had a few beers and sat thinking in the sun about it, i think it was because of the dual body plugs at the fire wall, whereas the E34 only has one is expecting to recieve half a signal, as the gauge is not linear, it only gets movement when it is hot. If you ground the temp sender plug you will see it shoots to exactly half way, whereas any other BMW of this age it would go to red hot. Basically double whatever it is showing. i didnt like that and thats why i fitted the more accurate temp gauge also because i took it on track a few times. Also this is why the fuel tank when full only shows half. you double whatever the fuel gauge is showing.. The electric radiator fan and the associated wiring just seems silly. Extra wiring installed and spliced onto factory plugs for fog lights that don't even exist. Random sets of factory wiring coiled in the engine bay, not sure what for yet. Not that i remember, but maybe aircon stuff? High pressure headlight washers?

Mechanically the engine is pretty close to operational. It's an early M70B50, recognisable by the oil filler cap location and the Motronic 1.2 DMEs. The mounting of the engine is actually top notch and the fitment of the ancillaries also shows great workmanship. The exhaust doesn't seem to sit on it's hanger properly though. i have another exhaust here for it if you want it. I have no idea why someone painted the intake manifolds bright red, it looks absurd. I did that, because it was my car and i wanted to do it, i didnt do the car for anyone else lol. the intakes where off when manifolds gaskets were replaced, so you should be happy i painted them, and replaced the $300 a piece gaskets in the process (4 of) The engine should be capable of 220kW and 450Nm, assuming it's factory. factory as far as i know except running later DME software However it should not have been driven in it's current state, but clearly has been. I must admit even I'm guilty of this as I had to limp it home from work. It has a moving misfire and a knock. The right bank (1-6 cyl) distributor is arcing internally at random intervals. It requires new distributors and rotors, which are en route already. new ones fitted when i had it so that seems odd they have failed already. Probably a faulty coil or some other issue.. Gearbox works okay. Diff clearly works, pretty sure it's an LSD but I'm yet to confirm that. yes LSD tho it will be tired. i didnt rebuilt it and i doubt any subsequent owner did. It'll get all fluids replaced and I'll carry out the Inspection I and Inspection II service items as well as check the operation and condition of every component I can get to. I won't be happy driving this car until I know it works perfectly from a mechanical standpoint.

Just gotta say how disappointed I am by this: the air-con has been removed. What is the point of a big grand touring wagon if you can't be comfortable? The condenser has clearly been removed to make way for the electric fan, and the hoses to make space for some of the ancillaries. The AC compressor hasn't been sealed so it has seized and appears to also have a seized pulley despite still having a belt spinning around it. wa wa wa, i take exception to this comment, and i look forward to you making up custom hoses for it. Neither the E34 or E32 ones are close to working, and because of the heater box swap that wouldnt work nicely with it either. Because my intention was always to fit a super charger there, no point wasting money to make the air con work.

Suspension is a mess. It has full XYZ coilovers but nothing is setup correctly. None of the shocks are set to the same rebound. Preload on the front springs set randomly apparently; the right has some jounce while the left has none at all (as in it's stupidly stiff). Still need to check the rears. Will have to get it up in the air and remedy this nonsense. yeah thats what happens when idiots play with it. Had a full proper alignment before certification and i never touched it after that so was all setup for a while! Right front wheel bearing is shot, despite the hub being replace a mere 2 years ago with a Repco unit. Quality parts en route to solve that. Tires are in good knick though, won't have to replace them anytime soon. Falken UHP 255 section tires on the rear and some Chinese Habilead 235s up front. definately been skidded then, had brand new Potenza R002s all round when i had it, and done bugger all kms since then (i sold at 98 miles).

hey on the topic of suspension all the Front end was replaced all new arms and bushes through out, the HD 750i/M5 stuff. Is all Lemforder/Meyle stuff. i know the guy after me broke one of the arms at one point god knows how so one of the control arms (not the diagonals) may not be a quality part

Interior is "the second worst I've ever seen in an E34" says Autobahn. Headlining sagging. Door cards are an absolute mess. Front seats are filthy, "like someone has sh*t themselves and smeared it in," one of my co-workers said. Driver's interior door handle straight up just doesn't work. Glove box doesn't sit even close to straight. Everything behind the dash looks in a right mess. Boot space has look like it's never been cleaned despite heavy use. Original spare wheel and tire in there. The lower trunk lid trim is completely missing, though there is a spare piece in the wrong colour hanging around. Trims over the rear strut towers are misaligned and stop the rear seats securing the way they should. All the interior sill trims are missing. The one positive is that (surprisingly) someone hasn't run off with the Nardi steering wheel. Everything inside the car was also dirty. Very dirty. It's cleaner now though. I've removed all the older stickers, steam cleaned the carpet in the boot, cleaned the glass properly, and wiped down most of the interior surfaces.

awesome, interior is from a 525iX not the original interior for the car. i think the back lower door piece was different colour because the iX didnt have it. i think i still have the cream seat belt trims for the back seat here. Headliner ALWAYS fails on tourings, so was only a matter of time before that happened.

Came with many spares. Someone has clearly been down the wreckers to grab as much as they can. EMLs and DMEs and DKs and 5 wiper stalks for some reason. Couple spare sets of HT leads, which I will use. Should all prove useful, not least for troubleshooting. I gave all of my V12 parts i had accumulated to the new owner (i wrecked about 4x 750iLs in the end) there should be two engines worth of spares in two fish bins in the boot when it left my place. However I'll need to set up a donor car to replace the entire interior forward of the C-pillar, wiring, front quarter panels, air-con. Lol i bet you wont. It'll need a respray and some general body repairs at some point. Yeah pulled the windscreen out and found rust, so sent that to panel beaters to be repaired which was not my usual but the one the glass shop said to go to (couple doors down). back right hand corner and the roof was resprayed at the time, and got them to repaint and repair the body kit (first thing i did to it). They actually took $1k off the bill because i was dissapointed they didnt take the roof rack rails out so you can see where they painted up to, and also for cutting the body kit instead of taking tow ball off and putting the kit over the tounge.  I plan on retrofitting the pre-facelift E34 wing mirrors as I rather dislike the later E36 style ones the car has. (Fun fact: as the E34 was only available as a Touring following the facelift in 1992, so no Touring could have the old style wing mirrors or any other pre-facelift trim.)

This car has some pretty amazing potential, but it's currently far less than the sum of it's parts. I feel like I've bought a $4k cert plate. Can't wait to have it running properly and get it truly nice and tidy. I'll keep you guys up to date as the situation develops. Gee $4k, the amount of work it has done for you i would still be very grateful for what it is. a tired old base spec 525i wagon is half of that, let alone the coilovers etc. I was in for about $20ish, sold for $7500 

17 hours ago, explodingbudgie said:

the M73 is a different beast to the m70the m73 has the same bellhopusing bolt pattern as the M50,2,4 etc there is not a manual gearbox specificly for the m73 but i'm picking as long as the crankshaft bolt pattern is the same the 6 cylinder flywheel and the 6 speeder will fit

rubbish.

they are about $3 for 10m or so on Wish.com hardly an expencive exercise and can take it off easy enough if ya change your mind. SOmeone elses car they can do what they want

My Transit came in at about the same all round $2k+GST at the dealer.

Yep can do it for cheaper no matter the brand, but you will be in tehre again in a year or two if you use chinese stuff. OE or OEM or just doesnt work out in the long run.

why didnt ya use hastings dealer?