M5 at Pick-a-Part?

[Hutty008 61]

[Vass 1079]

Wonder where that ended up. Would assume @Kees would have noticed it if it had been laying anywhere near the M5 itself. What a bloody waste. 

[Kees 668]

2 hours ago, Vass said:

Wonder where that ended up. Would assume @Kees would have noticed it if it had been laying anywhere near the M5 itself. What a bloody waste. 

Yep what a huge waste! Gutting because I'd originally gone to scope out whether the engine was saveable as it would just be a cool thing to have, whether that be in a car or in a man cave as something to look at.

Definitely wasn't near the car. To get the engine and gearbox out would have been an ordeal - and then to not take it?? So strange!

Judging by the photo it's in front of stock no. 950 Subaru Impreza which you can see is in a container - these line the perimeter of pickapart and have a green roof. So it seems someone removed the engine and gearbox, and then moved it away from the entry / exit and to the outskirts of the yard. 

Perhaps to hide it from others? Although I have a more plausible theory.

The M5 is roughly here (no. 900):

 

My theory is the staff must have removed it before the car was put on the yard. Then for whatever reason dumped it with a forklift next to that Subaru and away from the M5.

If you look at the photo I took you can see the fan shroud and stuff is still there - indicating the engine must have been dropped rather than removed through the front - indicating it was done prior to the car being publically available to be "pick[ed] a-part".

I just can't see that engine, gearbox, subframe and brakes (which must be in excess of 400kg) getting cleanly removed with the car half a meter off the ground, and then being moved with those crap engine crane things they have there.

Edited July 15 by Kees

[Kees 668]

Doing some more thinking, and I reckon they probably removed the whole front end to get to the cats as I'm guessing it has cats integrated into the headers? 

What a bunch of idiots. Ruin a very expensive and desirable engine for the catalytic converters... yeah nice one guys. 

[paulo 89]

Great intel work @Kees to narrow down the engine location. Hope that a bimmersporter can head down there asap to rescue it. 
Would be great to then pull the sump and do some forensics on it to confirm if the car was scrapped due to bearing / crank / piston failure. 
 

In my observation, the cats are removed on most of the PAP stock before the cars are dropped into the general magpie yard. They likely reclaim at least half of the vehicle purchase price right there. 

Edited July 15 by paulo

[Driftit 2243]

Seen it posted in a few places online now.  It is causing some outrage.  And so it should.

[Vass 1079]

I think I found the diff

[Neil McCauley 477]

Might just be coincidental, Mal has been working on putting a big diff into his E30 for a while - was even 3D scanning and modelling the underside of his E30. He’s a good dude so very doubtful he’d be involved with any shenanigans. 

[e30ftw 435]

Pretty sure the engines now for sale on FB. 

https://www.facebook.com/commerce/listing/3142047495960134?media_id=1&ref=share_attachment

 

Edited Saturday at 10:57 AM by e30ftw

[topnotchrally 176]

On 7/2/2025 at 11:39 AM, sillyfrog05 said:

Didn't look too bad one upon a time.

The suspension seems to be broken.😉😆🤣

[paulo 89]

The FB listing says:

"Sump has damage around oil pickup and needs to be repaired. Will come professionally repaired at asking price"

I wonder if that was the reason for wrecking the car, or if the damaged sump occurred at the P-A-P yard, if the forklift dropped it to the ground?

The asking price for the engine (around $9k) is probably OK if you were wanting to replace an existing engine that had catastrophic damage. It's just the uncomfortable thought of knowing that it probably only cost the vendor a few hundy...

 

 

[Cannonballer 3]

Hes not gonna get 9k - who knows if its been run w/o oil. 

[slideways 48]

I'd be very wary trusting anything that seller of the engine says. I know of an E30 he sold earlier in the year that had no mention of rust but turned out to be absolutely riddled with it. There was no chance the seller couldn't have been aware of it either. We are talking multiple holes around the place. Seemed to have a dodgy WOF put on it and flicked off to an unsuspecting out of town buyer sadly.

That motor sitting outside in the mud at PaP for 2 weeks wouldn't have been good for it but there must have been a reason it was there in the first place when it wasn't crashed. You would think he would have done a leak down test on it. He probably did but would have got some bad news so didn't want to post those results.

[bradgalbraith 220]

3 hours ago, slideways said:

I'd be very wary trusting anything that seller of the engine says. I know of an E30 he sold earlier in the year that had no mention of rust but turned out to be absolutely riddled with it. There was no chance the seller couldn't have been aware of it either. We are talking multiple holes around the place. Seemed to have a dodgy WOF put on it and flicked off to an unsuspecting out of town buyer sadly.

That motor sitting outside in the mud at PaP for 2 weeks wouldn't have been good for it but there must have been a reason it was there in the first place when it wasn't crashed. You would think he would have done a leak down test on it. He probably did but would have got some bad news so didn't want to post those results.

Mate, some pretty hefty claims in there.. we don’t know each other and have never spoken before so please don’t make me out to be a liar or dishonest. 

That E30 was never presented as an immaculate rust free car - it’s an E30, they all have rust to some extent unless fully restored. I was not aware of any rust holes and did not get a dodgy wof. I wouldn’t even know where to go to get one! The buyer never raised any issues with me? He got a very nice & rare BMW for not much money. 

Reason why the M5 was there was gearbox/ pump related - at least that’s what the guy at pick a part said after we had loaded the motor up. I’ve got about 100 photos of the crank and rod bearings and there are no issues. Sump is not from that motor, it’s been swapped over. Haven’t done a leak down test on it (thanks for the accusation though). Anyone interested is free to do all the testing they want to satisfy themselves. 

Message me if you have any questions, otherwise, please don’t speculate. 

[Vass 1079]

You do you but $9k for an engine plucked out of a puddle is f**king wild. Would hate to be the guy that shells out even half that only to find out of its origins after the fact.

Was always going to happen though, wasn't it?

[Harper 612]

1 hour ago, Vass said:

You do you but $9k for an engine plucked out of a puddle is f**king wild. Would hate to be the guy that shells out even half that only to find out of its origins after the fact.

Was always going to happen though, wasn't it?

Especially considering a crash damaged V10 M6 was sold for just under $7k the other day lol. Higher mileage granted, but I'd take that over that engine all day.