BMW v8 engine coffee table project
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Who doesn't want a piece of a car in their living room? (besides your wife)
Well I do! Been drooling over engine coffee tables everywhere I see them, and I love model building, so it was inevitable for me to do this.
The opportunity presented itself when I bought a blown-engine e34 for the rest of the drivetrain, so I saved a bunch of the parts to make this happen.
I'm sure you've seen plenty of these projects, but usually they just take the block and spray paint it and call it a day.
I'm taking a different route and using the top end of the m60 instead of the block. It will be the heads, the intake manifold/throttle body, and I'm going to carve a replica portion of the block out of wood to save weight and size.
Step 1: Disassemble
This is pretty straight forward, and I didn't take any pics.
Only special step is I rented a valve spring compressor from autozone and made a custom tool out of conduit ( 3" long x 1" conduit), as the spring tool does not have the reach to get down in the lifter holes.
Here's a picture of the valve stem seals after the valves have been removed.
Step 2: Clean
I'm individual washing and scrubbing every part.
The heads were really gross, and cleaning inside them is far too difficult, so I had Kyle chemically wash them at his shop (Thanks Kyle)
After cleaning
Step 3: Prep and paint
I'll be cleaning/polishing all gasket surfaces that will be visible, as well as the hydraulic lifters, and some various bits.
Here i've done the polishing on one head and masked them for paint
I'm spraying the heads and various parts with duplicolor silver wheel paint. it has a good metallic finish that looks alot like bare aluminum to me. I've used it on some wheel refinishing with good results.
Paint finished on the head and lifters and valve springs cleaned and reinstalled.
I'll update with more pictures as I go!
Dan
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This is awesome. I'd pay for you to make me one
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I made one in college - here are my takeaways:
Good idea using aluminum, I did not.
Yours is going to turn out much nicer than mine as it looks like you already have more work in it.
Start looking for glass now. Random piece, old table, etc on craigslist. MUCH cheaper than having a custom piece made.
Keep up the good work.
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I made one in college - here are my takeaways:
Good idea using aluminum, I did not.
Yours is going to turn out much nicer than mine as it looks like you already have more work in it.
Start looking for glass now. Random piece, old table, etc on craigslist. MUCH cheaper than having a custom piece made.
Keep up the good work.
thanks for the tips.
sure as shit i was driving home from work today and there was some junk on the side of the road and there was a metal frame of sorts that i grabbed if I end up with a frame under the glass too. will definitely keep an eye out for some glass.
and yeah i figure the overall weight of the engine part of the table should be just around of 100lbs, which is manageable. i cant imagine what a cast iron lump with crank/pistons weighs.
also, are those shotgun shells?
Dan
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This is amazing! Nice work to the both of you. I made a couple end tables out of a brake rotor for base and crankshaft as stem before, but unfortunately don't have pics. Can't wait to see the end result on this one tho.
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Yours looks amazing! I had this piece when I lived in Milwaukee. I turned it into a wine holder when I moved in with my girl and surprisingly she loves it. It is definitely a conversation starter.
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I cant wait to see the finished product.
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Yours looks amazing! I had this piece when I lived in Milwaukee. I turned it into a wine holder when I moved in with my girl and surprisingly she loves it. It is definitely a conversation starter.
I love the unfinished style, it goes with the look of your room. its good the girl liked it! (i am getting opposition)
Dan
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the other head is finished!
started on the cams. they are pretty dull and the lobes started rusting when the parts car sat around awhile. took about 1hr/cam to get every lobe polished up.
before
one lobe 100% finished. coke/metal polish + 000 steel wool + elbow grease
taped up ready for paint. will be gloss black.
Dan
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more parts painted
i'm getting way ahead of myself, but this project may involve a custom set of headers. laser cut/cnc/wood/pvc/copper pipe who knows?!
Dan
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well the original plan was to create a block out of wood and metal brackets since I didnt keep my block from the parts car. miraculously, i found a b40 block with broken bellhousing mount on ebay that was a local seller. after negotiating, i was able to do a trade+cash for my old auto transmission.
he was even available the same day so i went and snagged it last night
bonuses: its already been stripped and is super clean. also, it has a bunch of the covers/parts: valley pan, rear coolant cover, front idler sprocket, rear main seal.
i'm fairly sure, but hopefully the b30 heads and the b40 block have aligning holes for the head bolts.
Dan
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some college football (go wisconsin!) and v8 table saturday...thats the good stuff.
cam sprockets polished up, ready to be sent off to get plated.
Timing chain tensioners and oil separator tube cleaned and polished
So here you can see the giant chuck of the block 'ears' missing. someone definitely dropped the block on that corner when it was delivered to the guy i bought it from. here i've also started drilling holes for reshaping the area.
Basic shape cut out
Surface contoured to match the original machining and sanded smooth.
I actually really like the shape it created, it emphasizes the 'V' more on the back of the engine. I might just hack off the starter side to match.
also got the other bank of cams done. here they are installed with new hardware
Dan
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throttle body done!
i actually have a before photo, since when I took it apart i figured i'd never get it back together right without a reference.
before:
i fully disassembled, cleaned, and painted the housing. also got some new hardware, and a little polishing of the throttle plate.
Dan
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been busy so not much to update. however, the pile of stuff I sent off to be professional plated came back.
i had the cam sprockets, timing chain idler sprocket, and the head bolt spacers (which I will be using for the head bolts and intake manifold bolts) all yellow zinc plated. i love all the variations of color you get with zinc plating. yellows, reds, green, blues.
idler sprocket (reassembled on the idler.)
cam sprockets
head bolt spacers
Dan
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