chit chat thread

[B C]

Interstate is near the top in regards to quality, but what about the refurbished ones, do
they only last 2 years or so

[patsbimmer1]

Am I having deja vu?  Do you now own 2 S Class AMG's?  What's the plan?

[B C]

Something something E36 swap something something, right?

[Daggerty]

patsbimmer1 said:

Am I having deja vu?  Do you now own 2 S Class AMG's?  What's the plan?

When you say it like that it sounds good. 

With my limited time I'm going to check all the easy stuff and if I can get it to run possibly daily it. Not worry about it rusting or getting dented or mileage. It has 130,000 miles so nothing crazy to begin with. My other s55 now that I spent a bunch of time and money on it I don't drive it. 

If I can't get it running within a few weeks I will just strip it. Save the motor for a future build and make some cash.

[Daggerty]

Snap said:

Something something E36 swap something something, right?

I'm not saying it is going to happen but what else could it be.

[B C]

I have certainly had my fair share of dream projects that never came to fruition. Fortunately for you, even If nothing wild happens, you still end up with cheap spares for the silver S55.  Win/win

[Daggerty]

wasnt m3 said:

Good deal. The econo power battery is a refurbished unit from Interstate. I have an account with them and those batteries are only $35 regardless of the size with a 1 year warranty.

Interesting, well it didn't stand up to being hooked up backwards.

[Jdesign]

Daggerty said:

Interesting, well it didn't stand up to being hooked up backwards.

So is it fixed now? New battery and fuse and on you're on your merry way?

[Daggerty]

Jdesign said:

So is it fixed now? New battery and fuse and on you're on your merry way?

No tried a new battery dome light and dash lights come on, key no turn. Main fuses are under passenger carpet and some panels hopefully Sunday I'll be able to go outside.

[Daggerty]

Dug into it today, simple fix eliminated. It appears someone else has dug into this already. Some of the nuts and such were put on hand tight the fuse covers were all removed. The main fuses are good.  I couldn't get my star diagnostics to hook up when I looked at it. Going to try a few things but if it doesn't work, stripping her.

[jc43089]

Did some more checking of stuff on the van.  Spindles are a straight line through the strut attachment, hub, and ball joint so no geometry changes by swapping left - right.  The ball joints are different and need to be kept on the correct side but it needs new ones anyway.  

Bolted on the other side.  I need to swap calipers too because of the bleeder location and also how the hose comes out.  But the stock hose will work fine.  I also need to swap the struts so that the sway bar link mount is on the front too.  The sway bar is curved to go around the steering rack.  I will just fabricate mounts for the BMW steering rack and Toyota sway bar in front.

Steering rack, you can see how it's totally in the way here.  The rear driveshaft went between the subframe and steering rack so that is roughly where the centerline of the crankshaft needs to be.

And with the steering rack and sway bar removed.  I know I will have to notch the subframe  for the oil pan/bellhousing.  I might removed the whole rear part and make a bolt in part that attaches to the body mount bolts.  Not totally sure yet.  

Hoping that the shop I am working at has some lift availability next Saturday to try fitting the engine and building engine mounts.

[B C]

So Front Sump or Rear Sump? I am giddy that you are seriously considering this

[jc43089]

Rear sump.  The front sump would not have given me enough clearance anyway and the rear sump is what I have already.  My wife said whatever is cheaper to get the van on the road.  1200 to rebuild the Toyota transmission and probably another 300 minimum on engine seals and "while it's out" type things gives me some room to work with.  And I can sell the 3MZ engine, it ran excellent, 172k miles.  It wouldn't be cheaper if I didn't already have a whole BMW drivetrain ready to go.  After work I need to shorten my m54b30 cam gear so I can get it closed up.  This engine is the one from my 94.  It's .020 overbore, light pistons, UUC flywheel w/ M5 clutch and the m54b30 intake cam.  Hopefully the stock tune works ok with the bigger cam?  Thoughts?  I never ran it with the cam yet.  Still won't be quite the stock 3MZ-FE power but good enough.

[Jdesign]

Daggerty said:

Dug into it today, simple fix eliminated. It appears someone else has dug into this already. Some of the nuts and such were put on hand tight the fuse covers were all removed. The main fuses are good.  I couldn't get my star diagnostics to hook up when I looked at it. Going to try a few things but if it doesn't work, stripping her.

Super big bummer.

[Earl]

Wait...so what is going in the 94?

[jc43089]

Earl said:

Wait...so what is going in the 94? 

Nothing right now, it's from the Arctic Gray sedan I took apart 2 years ago and I thought this would be fun and might as well use the engine in the meantime.  It will probably go back in it someday.  I still need to get my shop done before I can finish it.  And we are making a push to pay off our house in the next couple years so I may or may not fit the concrete work in this summer which is the next step.  It depends on how much overtime I work.

[Daggerty]

jc43089 said:

Rear sump.  The front sump would not have given me enough clearance anyway and the rear sump is what I have already.  My wife said whatever is cheaper to get the van on the road.  1200 to rebuild the Toyota transmission and probably another 300 minimum on engine seals and "while it's out" type things gives me some room to work with.  And I can sell the 3MZ engine, it ran excellent, 172k miles.  It wouldn't be cheaper if I didn't already have a whole BMW drivetrain ready to go.  After work I need to shorten my m54b30 cam gear so I can get it closed up.  This engine is the one from my 94.  It's .020 overbore, light pistons, UUC flywheel w/ M5 clutch and the m54b30 intake cam.  Hopefully the stock tune works ok with the bigger cam?  Thoughts?  I never ran it with the cam yet.  Still won't be quite the stock 3MZ-FE power but good enough.

Bigger cams in the bmw world is different than bigger cams in the ls world.

they will work fine on stock tune just like any engine mod is best with a tune.

[jc43089]

Daggerty said:

Bigger cams in the bmw world is different than bigger cams in the ls world.

they will work fine on stock tune just like any engine mod is best with a tune.

Good deal!  I'll just giver.  I cut the cam gear down last night, it cut no problem on a lathe with carbide tooling.

[jc43089]

Going to look at an '06 530xi with a guy from work tonight, he would like to buy it if it is nice.  I think around 160k on it.  Any odd stuff to look at with the N52 and AWD?  I think they are asking 4900.  It has an oil leak, filter housing I assume which looks really easy on the N52, and also the window has a crack but not sure how bad.

[m42b32]

jc43089 said:

Going to look at an '06 530xi with a guy from work tonight, he would like to buy it if it is nice.  I think around 160k on it.  Any odd stuff to look at with the N52 and AWD?  I think they are asking 4900.  It has an oil leak, filter housing I assume which looks really easy on the N52, and also the window has a crack but not sure how bad.

I've been doing a lot of reading/research on N52 powered cars since I'm casually looking for an e91. All N52's seem to have a problem with broken bolts on the valve covers and oil pans that cause oil leaks. These bolts are made of aluminum and I guess they eventually fatigue fail as a result of all the heat cycling. The valve cover gasket isn't horrible to do, but the oil pan requires the subframe/etc to be removed and is a fairly substantial job. The most important thing to be aware of on an '06 is the head bolts as they are also prone to breaking. It seems that BMW fixed this problem for the '07+ models. Not sure how you'd check for it though. Other common failure points are the electric water pump ($400 for just the part from BMW, $300 aftermarket) and thermostat. 

I've also heard from Andy and others that have experience with these that if the serpentine belt fails, it can get pulled behind the crank pulley and through the front crank seal and potentially destroy the engine. So check on the condition of the belt/tensioners, if they're original at 160k I'd consider replacing them asap.