HardBall66

Hello all, would anyone have the wee brackets that attach the M60's engine cover? I have 3 out of 4 missing or broken on my old girl - items 3, 5 & 6. Many thanks.

Where are we at with the whole, "you must have a hoop fitted around the driveshaft" debacle? I won't go near a certifier if they're still going to pull that crap. If someone can put me in touch with a certifier that isn't going to be a dick about this, I'd be happy to pay the money to get my car certified, but my little country garage will keep giving me warrants in the meantime.

Amazon has a service where you put in the title & how much you're prepared to go to. I used it to track down a rare title I was looking for. Only problem is if a supplier has one they ship it to you immediately. I ended up getting what I wanted, but paid at the top of the price range I entered with no chance to opt out.

That was very enjoyable - what an engaging young chap. Looking forward to seeing how it all pans out.

Looks interesting, I'll check it out, thanks.

Avoid Eonon, guys. I installed one recently and it's rubbish. Check out Avin - more expensive, but you get what you pay for. There's a recent review of it on Bimmerforums. Also there's an outfit in Germany doing an IBUS USB adaptor which which lets you display and set/reset all OBC functions via the Avin (or any android unit) and even adds a few extra. Edit: from what I can see this looks to be an optional item as part of the Avin unit that you can add to the order.

Under your profile there's an 'Album' tab which allows you to add images you can then link to in posts or messages. It's a bit obscure, but now you know you'll be good-to-go.

I purchased an Eonon for my E39 recently and am not happy with it - the quality of these Chinese 'white label' units makes it too much of a crap shoot, and does not work out cheap at all once you add import duty and a couple of accessories. If you're going to spend that much it's better to spend a little more for a decent brand. Avin seems to be a better brand, coming in cheaper than Dynavin but getting good reviews (word is they have lifted their game recently and now offer great after-sales service). One thing I like about Avin is the optional dongle which allows full integration with the car's on-board computer, restoring all the outputs and settings you would normally have to sacrifice when you move to an after-market unit, plus it gives you access to more OBC features than your car came with, as well as the ability to leverage these outputs in apps such as Torque. This is what I was hoping to achieve with the Eonon, but the quality is just not there. My unit lost USB, so they sent me a replacement motherboard which I had to fit myself, and now it has also lost Wi-Fi. This leaves me with blue tooth only, so not entirely useless, but a long way away from what I paid for.

I can see myself doing the same thing one of these days and it's a practical way to keep these lovely old cars contemporary. If you store the ICE components they can be put back if our descendants in 100 years turn out to be horrified at what we have done.

That's the future right there. it looks like a very tidy and professional job. The key is to keep the standard engine mounts and not cut too many holes for cables and then the process is reversible and should not offend the purists too much. You're probably looking at about US$30k to do this properly, but Moore's Law will kick in at some stage so that eventually the cost curve will come down to a level where it'll be cheaper to convert to EV rather than do an engine rebuild. Admittedly you do lose all that soul-stirring sound, but our future selves can always be consoled when we realise how much money we are saving not having to maintain all those moving parts slapping ridiculously back and forth ?

Here's what I've got so far - steadily getting bits every pay day as I go...

I have a pre-facelift 528i Touring. I have sourced a 5-speed ZF and a few other parts and have identified sources for all the rest of the parts using part numbers from Real OEM. The only thing I'm stuck on so far is a diff .

Interested to see how you get on - I am getting the bits together to have this done on my car shortly.

Welcome aboard, Chris - looking forward to seeing you at the Cars & Coffee!

Thanks for posting, I enjoyed that.