E34 540i V 2.0, The Clean Edition
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I've fallen off the map here on WIBimmers so I figured this is a good way to get back into it.
I picked this car up this summer west of Dallas, Texas. The green 540 was riddled with rust beyond repair and had to go. I picked up this car with 128,000 miles and drove her back home. It was kinda a barn find, two guys who own a BMW shop got it from someone and proceeded to do no maintenance on it.
I decided to try and do this car some good right off the bat. I dropped the money on an 18-piece Lamforder control arm kit, engine mounts, and polyurethane subframe bushings. Doing the work on this car was an experience I've never had before. I would pay you if you found rust on this car. I was rubbing the dirty off the brake lines to find unoxidized metal (see picture below).
Some other things I got done were getting my 2-piece, 18in style 5s redone. They were sandblasted down and are now powder coated, the barrels are imitation chrome, the faces are gray, and the bolts are zinc coated. I also let Marc screw around with the exhaust and this video resulted... https://youtu.be/16bq2TZDAZE
I have some maintenance I want to get done but I am still a college student so it's getting done slowly. I will be commissioning into the navy in May so I should have the money to get some more done. I am thinking about buying another car so I can be dedicated to working on this car but it's very hard to justify having two cars being a 22-year-old in the navy. I also need to find a friend to be able to do my own work down here.
Some upgrades I would like to have done very soon are:
- New exhaust fabbed up, goal is to sound like this https://youtu.be/gT3G2O6pViA
- Coilovers, still shopping around
- M60B44 Frankenstein build (M62 block with M60 head)
- General restoration
BMWCCA #499464
Current - 1995 540i/6 V 2.0 | Dead - 1995 540i/6 | Sold - 1995 318is
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Nice! Let me know if you need part pricing or have any coilover questions!
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Nice! Let me know if you need part pricing or have any coilover questions!
What is a good coil over brand to go with? I've found the BR Series for $1k and I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with those.
BMWCCA #499464
Current - 1995 540i/6 V 2.0 | Dead - 1995 540i/6 | Sold - 1995 318is
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BC's are great! For that price i'd go with that or ST. The solid mounts on the BC will increase NVH but the camber and caster adjustability is great.
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cant wait to see the fraken motor. non-vanos + 4.4 liters is best of both worlds.
Dan
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cant wait to see the fraken motor. non-vanos + 4.4 liters is best of both worlds.
It's essentially bolt on for the swap with very minor modifications. Hopefully I have the time to do it either this summer or when I'm a nuclear power school next year.
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BMWCCA #499464
Current - 1995 540i/6 V 2.0 | Dead - 1995 540i/6 | Sold - 1995 318is
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I second the motion to go with BC's!
https://www.instagram.com/_jdesigner_/ http://nevertoolow.tumblr.com/
🥳SOLD BMW E24 633CSI - BMW M30B32 🧪SOLD HCH ES9 - 1.3 LDA
👽BMW E30 325IC - Toyota 1JZ-GTE ⏰ HONDA EF9 CIVIC SI - JDM B18C5
☠️BMW E36 318i - Ford 5.0 FE302 🚴♂️ GT-Labomba - 26x2.75 Freeride
🤹♀️SOLD BMW E36/7 Z3 - BMW M54B25 🧓SOLD BMW E10 2002 - BMW M10M05 -
Finally got a chance to take this out of storage! I'm harboring @BMWben's car indefinitely while he's presently serving in the Navy. He'll be stationed in Hawaii soon but who knows in a few years where the sub program will take him from there. I think he towed this car up in April but I just moved all my vehicles up to a new storage unit in Appleton last month. This car has more or less been in storage for 1.5 years now so not much is missing from this build thread. Summer of 2017 Ben installed the BC racing coilovers, I don't know the specs on the rates. A rebuilt driveshaft and E60 short shifter were installed with delrin/poly bushings. He also put on the Supersprint Cat-back resonator and muffler.
Car runs and drives well, just needs some minor fixes, its now just over 150k on the odo.
To Do:
- Raise car, its too damn low.
- Find oil leak, lock-tight oil pump bolts, replace timing chain tensioner, change oil
- Detail everything
- Rebuild driver sport seat due to twisting
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Glad to see you doing some sort of car things, stranger.
I was shooting for Brian Redmond but the construction of this storage unit got delayed well into the summer from all the rain this spring. But yes I wanna get some miles on before winter to make up for it!
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nice! i love that the car is being driven, its mean sounding machine
Dan
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What is a good coil over brand to go with? I've found the BR Series for $1k and I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with those.
I heard solowerks is a good coilover for cheap. Some EX KW coil guys made their own company.
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I heard solowerks is a good coilover for cheap. Some EX KW coil guys made their own company.
It's on BC Racing coils now, I dug this thread back up.
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It was great spending a little time with you last weekend! Car looks good man!
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It was great spending a little time with you last weekend! Car looks good man!
Sorry I didn't end up meeting up with either of you guys. The weekends can be kind of whirlwind at the track.
I'll be there for fall vintage and World Challenge in September to close out the season(which I can't begin to describe how depressing that it's already over).
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Sorry I didn't end up meeting up with either of you guys. The weekends can be kind of whirlwind at the track.
I'll be there for fall vintage and World Challenge in September to close out the season(which I can't begin to describe how depressing that it's already over).
No problem! I'm trying to get up there for fall vintage but world challenge is on my wedding anniversary and for 5 years I've tried to get my wife to RA for Oktoberfast which falls around our anniversary and for 5 years I've failed lol.
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Thoroughly enjoyed this car yesterday! It took the beating with no issues. Noting a few things for when spring rolls around as this will be going into storage soon.
Maintenance List for spring
- R&R Lower Oil Pan, check oil pump bolts
- Replace Washer Fluid tank
- Wire in washer fluid level sender pigtail (missing)
- Replace Front Bumper
- Detail Interior/Exterior
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Thoroughly enjoyed this car yesterday! It took the beating with no issues. Noting a few things for when spring rolls around as this will be going into storage soon.
Maintenance List for spring
- R&R Lower Oil Pan, check oil pump bolts
- Replace Washer Fluid tank
- Wire in washer fluid level sender pigtail (missing)
- Replace Front Bumper
- Detail Interior/Exterior
Oh those pesky oil pump bolts. I checked them on an e32 and I think 3 were in the pan and the rest finger tight. Scary.
FCP Euro has them on sale for $200 off as well.
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