Timythenerd

It was on the road and driving for wee bit. I did bunch of maintenance items to get the car up and running, namely a wheel hub that was gone and some lights. Engine was my biggest problem as it had all sorts of developing issues that were a pain in the bum to resolve. The misfire and vacuum leaks being the first. I went through and replaced the entire ignition system - including the spark plugs which I replaced with ones that the M70 community recommends rather than the superseded OEM part - to remove the misfire. The vacuum leaks came from the damned intake to head rubber gaskets that had all cracked because the intake supports on the outside of the engine had completely failed and were straining the gaskets, so I replaced them with some custom solid mounts out of coupling nuts and sealed the rubber gaskets with a wee bit of Royal Blue. It got taken for a nice long road trip from Chch to Picton where it performed amazingly. So effortless on the open road. Exactly what I wanted. I even towed another E34 (parts car) up from down south with and it basically used no extra fuel despite the doubled weight. Actually awesome. But then I had strange over fueling issues (fuel avg. consumption would go from ~10-12l/100km straight up to 39.5l /100kms, which I'm pretty sure is just as high as the display goes rather than the true value), gearbox problems (massive lurch after shifting into reverse that shudders the whole car and other reluctant gear changes), and the odd bit of overheating. Then the smoke came. So I checked, cleaned and set the throttles, fixed exhaust leaks, traced oil leaks, found more developing vacuum leaks, replaced crankcase vent pieces, dropped and checked fuel tank/lines, tried some different oils, swapped ECUs, swapped part like FPRs and throttles from bank to bank. But nothing worked: the oil smoke under acceleration only got worse and overheating became more common. Current theory stands at minor head gasket failure that has developed into major failure on 7-12 cylinder bank. About 250hrs of work on my part only to be beaten again, though I can now take the intake manifolds off in my sleep. The straw that broke the camel's back through was the tandem pump - that supplies hydraulic power steering and power brakes - got a major leak and requires a rebuild. Car simply can't be driven without brakes or steering. To be honest it doesn't really surprise me, the more I looked through the car the more evidence I found of the car having been flogged for 'skidz' between the time you (Andy) owned it and I got it. It's clearly been through some unsavoury hands. Sigh. At this point the issues practically require an engine and gearbox replacement as parts (even just a set of head gaskets) far exceed the value of a 'new' engine and gearbox. Sadly I've yet to get to that point as I've had to return to my other ongoing project car (MR2 AW11 getting a built 7AGE) and it will have to sit until I return from Europe later this year. I'm sorry for the lack of updates guys, but it will return to the road. Hopefully better than ever.

I doubt anyone knows me, but I can bet many of you know this vehicle. This is the M70 swapped E34 Touring owned by Andy (_ethrty-Andy_) and built by Lance (mellowpuf). I came into the car through Euroless, who seems to have saved the car from a terrible fate. I then I got it shipped down from Auckland. It actually beat it's ETA because the transport driver was curious to see who owned it! The car itself is in a pretty poor state at the moment. It's clearly been through some unsavoury hands who had it 'for skidz'. I'm currently in the process of deep cleaning the whole car to find out just how far gone the it really is. Exterior has some serious wear and tear. 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. Left front rim is badly curbed.. Hood doesn't shut properly and is misaligned, even after some fettling with the adjustments. Rear window panel has been replaced at some point, so it doesn't open indepently like it should. One of the headlight lens are missing. 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. The electrical system is going to take up a lot of my time by the looks of things. I immediately put a new DIN88 battery in it to eliminate any voltage issues. I've already cleared out some of the more interesting wiring. The subwoofer wiring was average at best, and it's gone now. Half the speakers don't seem to work and have been obnoxiously placed over factory trims. 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. The aftermarket fuse box under the steering column is pretty gross, can't wait to get rid of that. 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. 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. 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 no idea why someone painted the intake manifolds bright red, it looks absurd. The engine should be capable of 220kW and 450Nm, assuming it's factory. 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. Gearbox works okay. Diff clearly works, pretty sure it's an LSD but I'm yet to confirm that. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. It'll need a respray and some general body repairs at some point. 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.

A friend just showed this to me and oh boy, does this car ticks so many boxes for me. If you're willing to do a trade I have a tidy, up-spec '99 Mitsubishi Diamante (probably worth ~$3k) here in Chch. Just got it two brand new tires and a WOF. I happily trade that + say $500 your way.