The Barbara Chronicles

[Eagle 1514]

ZF 6 speed would balance that out. With the 5 speed + 2.93 running nearly 3000rpm @ 120kph and $3.00+ per litre now for 98 octane you would loose i reckon.   

[Vass 690]

On 2/25/2022 at 5:35 PM, Eagle said:

That's quite reasonably priced given it included the diff, im sure that added a bit to the shipping costs if going by weight. Never thought about using a currency converter service, good idea. 

Whats wrong with the diff? it looks like it will clean up fine with a waterblast, rust converter and paint? 

Ive got a new LUK dual mass flywheel and\or clutch kit if wanted? 

Yeah would probably been around $400 cheaper without the diff. I checked with BMWorld, Weitz and a few other places and none had 2.93's in stock so felt it was worth it.

Probably nothing to worry about with the diff as it is but the rust is an eye sore, and a bit concerning with the rust all over the flanges as well. Would ideally like to address somehow but might just see how far a scrub would take me.

Could be keen on the flywheel-clutch combo aye. I'm just having a mate price one up this coming week as well but haven't sorted anything yet. Shoot me a message with what sort of money you'd be after. Cheers

On 2/25/2022 at 7:21 PM, Gaz said:

Who did you use for shipping? DHL direct?

Seller sorted the shipping but I believe it went through a few carriers along the way, DHL taking it the last step.

On 2/25/2022 at 9:14 PM, Sammo said:

M54B30 + ZF + 3.38 = win

From what I've gathered, it renders the first gear practically useless and shoots the cruising RPM's up way too high. Looking to have this car mainly as a weekend road trip cruiser rather than a drag racer 😄 Sticking with a stock gearbox-diff combo should also save me from having to recalibrate the speedo I'm hoping?

On 2/25/2022 at 10:01 PM, Eagle said:

ZF 6 speed would balance that out. With the 5 speed + 2.93 running nearly 3000rpm @ 120kph and $3.00+ per litre now for 98 octane you would loose i reckon.   

I did consider it but reckon it would have demolished the budget completely. The higher cost of the box itself, likely difficulty sorting suitable gearbox cross member, likely having to modify the prop, that leading to needing driveshaft hoops, plus a myriad of other potential compatibility issues, figured it just wasn't worth it for what I'm going for.

 

Took the missus out for a wee cruise to Arthur's Pass yesterday. Been a while since I'd wandered out onto the open road so definitely enjoyed the drive, even if it meant the engine light decided to wake up from its slumber... So lucky to have these awesome roads right on the doorstep.

Also, picked up a set of relatively tidy style 193's the other day. Been meaning to get either these or style 135's for a while now as I'm not awfully keen on the current 194's. Absolutely love these wheels, fit them on earlier today and love how they sit. Exactly the same offset as the current ones so shouldn't have any fitment issues having rolled the rear guards already.

The front tyres are near new (even if they are Vitora's) but the rears are absolutely shagged with wires poking out so will need new rubber before they can go on. Open to suggestions as to what to go with. Had Potenzas on my old coupe and was pretty happy with them but open to options. Will probably just get the rears at the moment but might do the whole set if I get a decent deal.

[Sammo 2476]

@Vass Yeah, 3.38 isn't really good for road trips - 1st gear is usable but you would be pulling around 2800-2900RPM at 100km/h.

Wakes up the M54 big time though, grunt in every gear - perfect for windy back roads but not so much for mile munching and fuel economy.

[Eagle 1514]

28 minutes ago, Vass said:

Probably nothing to worry about with the diff as it is but the rust is an eye sore, and a bit concerning with the rust all over the flanges as well. Would ideally like to address somehow but might just see how far a scrub would take me.

Could be keen on the flywheel-clutch combo aye. I'm just having a mate price one up this coming week as well but haven't sorted anything yet. Shoot me a message with what sort of money you'd be after. Cheers

Seller sorted the shipping but I believe it went through a few carriers along the way, DHL taking it the last step.

From what I've gathered, it renders the first gear practically useless and shoots the cruising RPM's up way too high. Looking to have this car mainly as a weekend road trip cruiser rather than a drag racer 😄 Sticking with a stock gearbox-diff combo should also save me from having to recalibrate the speedo I'm hoping?

I did consider it but reckon it would have demolished the budget completely. The higher cost of the box itself, likely difficulty sorting suitable gearbox cross member, likely having to modify the prop, that leading to needing driveshaft hoops, plus a myriad of other potential compatibility issues, figured it just wasn't worth it for what I'm going for.

Yeah wouldn't worry about the diff, looks all surface rust to me so wire wheel would clean up that no sweat. I agree about the 6 speed, comment was more aimed at running a 3.38 diff. 

Will PM you about the flywheel\clutch

[Vass 690]

1 hour ago, Sammo said:

@Vass Yeah, 3.38 isn't really good for road trips - 1st gear is usable but you would be pulling around 2800-2900RPM at 100km/h.

Wakes up the M54 big time though, grunt in every gear - perfect for windy back roads but not so much for mile munching and fuel economy.

Yeah, true. I'll see how I go with the 2.93 but might try that out for shits and giggles, probably after I've sorted the cert. Don't think there's much value or demand for the auto diffs so I suspect it'll be left laying around the garage anyway.

[KwS 2372]

You could soak those flanges in something like Evaporust, and then paint them. Might be easier than trying to get a wire brush into the crevices. I wouldnt bother stripping the diff down myself, its easy enough to wire brush the housing and paint it. You could remove the rear cover and check the condition inside.

[qube 3568]

Style 193s are a great fit on the e46 and looks awesome imo

 

[Vass 690]

14 minutes ago, qube said:

Style 193s are a great fit on the e46 and looks awesome imo

Ohh that's gorgeous. I saw an identical coupe sitting on 193's down in Queenstown a few years ago that I instantly fell in love with. Don't suppose it would have been the same one?

[qube 3568]

Possibly, I sold it almost 2 years ago so who knows where it ended up.

[Vass 690]

Ordered a new set of rubber all round in the end. Went with Dunlop Sp Sport Maxx 050+ off Hyper Drive, 225/40R18 front, 255/35R18 rears. I wanted the same tyres all round and these were one of the few options they had both the fronts and rears in the right sizes. Reviews seemed decent enough so will see how they go.

In preparation, spent a good 6 hours on Saturday scrubbing the living daylight out of the wheels. Cleaned up really well with just a few minor black spots that I didn't want to go too hard on in fears of scratching up the top coat.

With my wrists and back absolutely killing me, sat down for a minute scrolling through FB and... stumbled upon these.

Typical. Haven't seen a set of these pop up locally forever and suddenly there's two sets in one week. When it rains it pours...

Went to check them out and was blown away. Apparently had come off a new car having done all of 800km and have been sitting in boxes ever since. And they certainly looked it. A couple of tiny marks but absolutely no kerbing. The original set I bought looked really good as is so the difference is very marginal, but the difference is there. And since I'm getting all new rubber anyway, thought I'd pass the other set on and someone might get use out of the newish fronts instead of them going to waste. So if anyone's after a clean set of Style 193's...

Funnily enough, just like the first set, bought these off a guy that got them to go onto his 130i only to discover the fronts stick out too much 😄

They look so good that I'm now looking to get them ceramic coated before going onto the car. Anyone have any product recommendations in that regard, and if it's even worth going the DIY route on?

Might also just wait until I switch to the 330 brakes with new ceramic pads as the current ones produce more dust than a bloody steam train.

[Vass 690]

Right, where are we up to...

Still waiting on the engine back from the machine shop. Instead of the 3 weeks originally promised, it's now been two months and as far as I know, they still wouldn't have touched it either. Last I called them, was told they're still a couple of weeks away from getting to it, claiming covid sweeping through the shop as a justification/excuse. Not overly bothered by it though as I haven't made as much progress with any of the other missions as I'd hoped. Keep getting distracted and jumping from one thing to the next without addressing things in an orderly fashion. Luckily with tomorrow off, I'll sit down and make a proper priority list. First thing will be to finalise the list of needed parts and put a few orders in.

Did tick off a couple of other items though with the help of some fellow Bimmersporters. Got a new clutch kit and flywheel, courtesy of @Eagle and a set of coils from @Kodachrome. Top guys, everything was as described and arrived quickly and securely.

Also, got the first set of 193's sold and the other one wrapped in fresh new rubber.

Still sitting in the garage, waiting to go onto the car at the moment. Got some Carpro DLUX (as well as some other goodies from Detail Depot) and want to try my hand at ceramic coating them before I subject them to road grime, will hopefully preserve the near-new look for a while longer.

Apart from the flash stuff, the rusty old diff is cleaning up pretty nicely. Will still have a few more stabs at it with some brass brushes but looking noticeably less crusty already.

Stripped the trailing arms down to the bare shell, will also get some brass brush treatment, a couple coats of black paint and then brand new bushes and bearings.

Liberating the wheel hubs of all the bearing bits was a bit of a mission but got to try out the wee rotary tool I'd picked up from SCA.

With help from @adro managed to figure out one of the reasons why my rear wipers don't work. The extended list of PO's botch jobs got another addition. He'd changed out the clock spring for some reason and of course replaced it with one off a sedan/coupe, the wiper lever on which you can only pull towards you to activate the front washers, but doesn't have the backwards push function that activates the rears.

What it is vs. what it should be

Turns out the trusty wee ti's also have a rear wiper (who'd have known) and have the same washer lever. Luckily there was one at the local Pick-A-Part so went an nabbed this crusty old thing.

Gave it a good ol' clean, fitted it on, powered up aaaaand... a big fat nothing, with the added bonus of the front washers now also not working anymore 😄 Beautiful. I suspect it's still the sheared ground wire at the rear hatch. Really need to get that sorted already. But instead of doing that, I went out and bought this bloody thing...

Shoot me.

[Vass 690]

Pretty chuffed with my sudden plunge into 330-life. Having only had 325's so far, I never actually felt a need for more power, but have been pleasantly surprised by the difference. I haven't really pushed it yet, only doing city driving this past week, but even still the power delivery is so smooth and feels way more effortless. A great taster of what the wagon will be like in the (hopefully) not so distant future.

Probably my best car purchase yet. Both bumpers are a bit banged up and needs bringing up to speed maintenance wise, but by and large is fairly tidy and unmolested, and only cost me a third of what I paid for the wagon with 50k less km's, so I'm totally over the moon with that. Drives beautifully well, engine feels healthy, no clunks or bangs apart from a wee vibration from the brakes when going around 80. Also already left a few puddles of oil on the driveway from the leaking valve cover as well as the oil pan as advised by the PO. Will be tidying those up shortly. Have already chucked in a new air filter, replaced the front badge with a cheapo roundel I had spare and clipped in some black kidney grilles I had left over from the engine donor as the old ones were held in place with a web of wires.

Love a good side-project. As if I didn't have enough sh*t to do 😄

On the Touring front, have been combing through the schematics, compiling a comprehensive shopping list.

The question I ran into was with this one. I'm going to be installing the exhaust off the 330i but won't bother hooking up that butterfly flap in the tail pipe. So with that, does it mean it renders this whole system obsolete? Is that vacuum canister (#9) used for something else as well or can be lost altogether?

[Sammo 2476]

@Vass Welcome to the CarPro Cult

Perl is amazing on tyres at 1:1 dilution for a beautiful black look without being greasy. Also great undiluted for exterior trims (E.g. shadowline trim etc).

I'm a big fan of Hydro Lite as well. And Inside, Reset, Elixer, Fixer and Essence.

Got some Clearcut and Ceriglass waiting to be put to work.

Pretty packaging does not hurt either.

[Eagle 1514]

18 hours ago, Vass said:

The question I ran into was with this one. I'm going to be installing the exhaust off the 330i but won't bother hooking up that butterfly flap in the tail pipe. So with that, does it mean it renders this whole system obsolete? Is that vacuum canister (#9) used for something else as well or can be lost altogether?

Yeah all that can be removed then you just need a cap on the manifold nipple outlet

[Vass 690]

As a bit of a distraction from my engine woes, did a bit of exploring around the underside of the new 330, which was good fun. Oil ahoi!

Needed a decent cleanup, which I'm hoping will help pinpoint where all the oil is coming from, but by the looks of it, the answer is... EVERYWHERE.

No wonder she's been marking her territory everywhere she went. At the very least, the culprits look to be the valve cover, OFHG (easy enough to do) and the oil pan (a bit more involved). Have all those gaskets spare so will see if I can occupy my mate's hoist some weekend to make the task of dropping the subframe a bit easier.

Also chucked some new tyres on the rear. One side had a slow puncture that I thought I'd just get fixed but upon closer inspection I found it had collected not one but FOUR nails all sticking out from different places so didn't bother. Just went with some Laufenn's from Hyper Drive that were on the cheaper side as this is just a neat daily. Actually seem decent enough for the price.

On the parts scavenger hunt, received the new piston rings for the engine rebuild as recommended by @dirtydoogle in the other thread. Went with a set with the M52TU-style 3-piece oil control rings. Should do me nicely.

Compiling the shopping list is still a work in progress, for anyone that might care. Have a few parts already ticked off and a bunch of bits in there are optional that I'm still weighing up. Probably a bigger research effort than necessary, comparing FCP Euro, Rock Auto, ECS Tuning, Spareto and Schmeidmann. I'll likely waste more time compiling it all than the savings warrant but wanted to scratch my curiosity itch anyway. Might be of some use to someone on here as well...

[Eagle 1514]

32 minutes ago, Vass said:

Certainly the PS high pressure line to some extent. I don't think ive seen one that doesn't sweat oil at least a little bit. IIRC they are very expensive being RHD specific.

[Vass 690]

1 minute ago, Eagle said:

Certainly the PS high pressure line to some extent. I don't think ive seen one that doesn't sweat oil at least a little bit. IIRC they are very expensive being RHD specific.

Yeah does look like it. Will have to tick off the OFHG to see how bad it actually is as currently it's all just soaked from above. Level looks steady though so hoping it's just a little weep.

Cheapest I've found so far is around $150 from Rock Auto.

[adro 1052]

mine looked VERY similar and the culprit was the oil return line from the CCV….and the VCG and the OFHG 😝 but mainly the return line. 

[Vass 690]

24 minutes ago, adro said:

mine looked VERY similar and the culprit was the oil return line from the CCV….and the VCG and the OFHG 😝 but mainly the return line. 

Yeah mine's most likely shot as well. Didn't manage to dig that far into it. Unfortunately ran out of time on Sunday as I... had to attend to the pressing matter of... going to the cinema to see the... new Downton Abbey film...

Shut up.

[dirtydoogle 383]

Jeepers, it's raining oil!! And people mock British cars 😅

[Vass 690]

227,8XXkm

Well, looks like Barbara's on her last legs. Showed no signs of trouble coming to work yesterday, on the way home however, the engine felt really rough and sputtery right from the go. Sure enough the yellow engine light soon lit up. Somehow managed to limp home without having to get a tow truck but car is essentially undriveable in its current state and it doesn't seem like a quick & easy fix either.

Suspected her to have a vacuum leak somewhere, but now with fuel cutting off as well, it could instead be a fault with the injectors/fuel pump or any number of other issues. With the new engine in the process of being built, it doesn't look like chasing down the issue is worth the hassle, so might be time to park her up and start prepping for the engine swap.

Was fun while it lasted. Managed to squeeze a whopping 13,000km out of her in my ownership so far. What a solid return on investment. f**k me.

I've been guilty of taking dragging this project along at an overly relaxed pace up to now, was honestly due a good kick up the ass. Unfortunately, a few weeks back  I  we decided to use up all of my remaining budget on some silly, childish endeavour of getting all the windows double-glazed at home. Something about the cats being cold in the winter and whatnot. Ridiculous. Still a few weeks out now before I can order in the rest of the parts on my shopping list, but do have quite a bit to sort out in the meantime anyway. Long weekend will be fun.

Just hoping the new 330i won't need much for its WoF this month, otherwise I'll be left with my pushbike...

[Eagle 1514]

Could just been a failed coil but if you have the 330i it seems pointless not driving that.

19 hours ago, Vass said:

I've been guilty of taking dragging this project along at an overly relaxed pace up to now, was honestly due a good kick up the ass.

Yeah i thought so too but wasn't going to say anything hehe. Too bad you are so far away, otherwise id certainly offer you a hand.

[Vass 690]

About time I told you something I guess.

The 330i daily got its WoF with just a few minor hiccups - one number plate light was dangling off and both the horns were shot so switched those out with replacements from Pick-A-Part and she flew right through. With that sorted, I then proceeded to spend a good few weekends getting her up to standard. Replaced the oil pan, oil filter housing and valve cover gaskets, as well as the noisy alternator and blown engine mounts, and did an electric fan conversion. The interior got a thorough clean too, seats out and all, shampooed the carpets, rubbed off the scratched up rubberized finish on the plastics and cleaned & conditioned the leather seats. Pretty happy she doesn't feel the need to take a huge piss in the middle of the driveway every time you park her up for the night anymore...

The garage also got a big cleanup, put in some additional shelving so that all the various parts scattered across the floor are neatly tucked away and you can actually fit a car in to be worked on. Gave the lighting a bit of a spruce up with the sad old pair of halogen bulbs getting replaced with a couple of neat LED light strips so it feels less like a bloody cave. Being able to actually see what the hell you're doing does come in pretty handy. Much better place to be and work in now.

With those tangents out the way, finally got to concentrate on good ol' Barbara. Haven't been having much luck trying to find a new cylinder head since the one off the donor engine turned out to be too soft to use. Had a few leads I was chasing that ended up not materialising for various reasons, so finally decided to box on with the head off the current engine. That's been just about the only agenda item this past week.

Having stood there for a few weeks since the last drive, Barbara had seemingly gone into hibernation and refused to start up at all now. Endless cranking without any go, so had to call a few mates around to push her up a slight incline into the garage and started digging in.

The fatal issue became apparent straight away...

On 6/1/2022 at 5:33 PM, Eagle said:

Could just been a failed coil but if you have the 330i it seems pointless not driving that.

Bingo! The coil on cylinder 3, the one that the codes suggested had been misfiring, came out all sorts of discoloured compared to the rest of them, suggesting that had been the culprit.

Normally, I'd have been inclined to throw on a brand new set of coils I've already got sitting on the shelf and get her going again, but we're past that point now. Otherwise, all seemed in decent nick. A few minor oil leaks from seemingly the oil pan gasket and rear main seal, the expansion tank had somehow managed to drain itself of coolant at some point, the ICV had gunked itself up completely but overall, nothing catastrophic. Also, seemingly found the cause of an annoying metal rattle I'd been experiencing occasionally.

Exhaust is now off, although it was a struggle at times. Managed to squash a few of my fingers trying to overcome a few stubborn studs. 2/4 ain't bad I guess.

I've had a few gripes with some of the PO's handiwork but credit where credit is due - that is one bloody clean engine.

Out of the 4 M54's I've worked on, this is the highest mileage one, yet is by far the tidiest. Mightily impressed. Almost a shame pulling it apart. Bit OTT on the RTV though.

That's about as far as I've gotten to up to now. Most of the auxiliaries are now off, both manifolds are ready to come off, then onto the VANOS, camshafts and the head itself. Plan is to get it into the machine shop early next week, then can continue with dropping the rest of the engine and gearbox and concentrate on a few other tasks. Have received my big packages from Spareto and earlier today from FCP, still waiting on Schmiedmann and RockAuto to come through, as well as a few bits from BMParts, but have most the bits necessary to start reassembling the engine once the head's been given the all clear from the shop guys.

Will try and ramp the pace up a bit now. The boxes of shiny new parts are a good motivation.

[Olaf 3235]

On 2/8/2022 at 4:51 PM, Vass said:

Annoyingly, whilst I was at it, I discovered a patch of rust peeking out from beneath the rear right door sill. Not really sure how to deal with it as I'm always hesitant to mess with paintwork but probably worth cleaning up and addressing somehow. Just don't trust myself to do a tidy enough job with it. Product recommendations very welcome.

Mine had one in *exactly* the same place!  it developed very slowly over about 7 years to about half of what yours is.  I got it attended to by the panel beater while it was in for minor damage repair (a small dent and broken tail light).  Had ours 10 years now, not parting with it any time soon!

[Olaf 3235]

I've just caught up with your project @Vass, very impressed.  I like that you're going M54B30, and 5 speed.  The extra torque of the 3.0L really makes a difference over the M54B25.  I plan on refreshing the suspension on my e46 touring (last done about 8 years ago with Sachs OE and ///Msport ARBs) with Konis and Msport springs, and in future a 5 speed conversion.

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