Chris’ e34 extravaganza

[ChrisO]

Well I got around to compression testing the motor this morning.

Test was dry and cold but 

Cylinder #1 gave false hope, decent number for a cold motor?

Cylinder #2-4 crushed my dreams, I triple checked all of them and they were in the 60-70psi range

And back to a more normal number in cylinder #6...

I made sure to check each cylinder multiple times in different orders to make sure it wasn't user or equipment error

So yea thats bad.

So the car needs:

• Major engine work
• All new coolant hoses
• A gas tank
• A new battery
• A cam pulse sensor 
• A intake boot
• New tires
• New brakes
• rear shocks
• every busing that is rubber in the car

I also found a hole by the battery under the rear seat where it looks like something punctured the body?? It's all rusty now

I'm still super happy with my purchase, but the amount of money and work it's going to need is gonna be too much. If the thing didn't have rusty jack points and holes in the pan I'd consider "bringing it back from the dead"

I know it's a rare car but it's a easy $7000 in parts, and even if this was driving I don't see anyone paying over $8k with the overall condition/ rust. Decent rust free ones with similar miles go for 11-15k it seems like 

I still have my new M3 I'm trying to build, and my main focus is on that, not tearing down a s38  when I have no major engine work experience

Sorry guys but I'm gonna look for a decent 535i to throw some fun parts on and beat around in 

[m42b32]

That's a bummer.... but it makes sense to part out. Spending the money to rebuild the engine/etc just wouldn't make sense if the shell isn't in good shape. Swapping the M5 parts to another E34 would be pretty sweet though (M5 touring replica??)

[ChrisO]

m42b32 said:

That's a bummer.... but it makes sense to part out. Spending the money to rebuild the engine/etc just wouldn't make sense if the shell isn't in good shape. Swapping the M5 parts to another E34 would be pretty sweet though (M5 touring replica??)

Honestly whatever comes first a e34 touring or a 5 speed 535i!

The tourings seem next to impossible to find

[B C]

Par for the wibimmers course

[Jdesign]

RIP_S38.com

[rampelsauce]

m42b32 said:

(M5 touring replica??)

Bingo.  Rebuild that S38 and make something that will make @DrLeadFoot feel bad about his S62 touring.

[HipMF]

Ain't nobody got time for that wagon business.

[DrLeadFoot]

Could it just need a valve adjustment?  If the valves aren't closing all the way that would be a problem!

[B C]

Valve adjustment would loosen up over time, not tighten up.

adjacent cylinders usually indicates head gasket carnage. 

I feel it may be worthwhile to put some compressed air into the cylinders and see if its coming through the crankcase or radiator.

dry/stuck rings, while less likely, can also be a thing.

[HipMF]

snap said:

Valve adjustment would loosen up over time, not tighten up.

I have seen valves that are gunked up/rusted to the point when they don't close after being opened. Not likely here, but it's possible. Bent valve is more likely, but still...

Put a head gasket in and go racing.

[Jdesign]

Yeah I agree. I would be hesitant to call it dead. Here's my 2 cents:

1. Was there oil in the cylinders prior to you testing it? ( I know you know what your doing, but Ive made this mistake before) you said it was "dry." The end cylinders will have the most lubrication due to the path the oil travels through the motor thus higher numbers? 
2. Valves. If that thing is gunked up at all, very likely from sitting, the valves might not be seating completely altering the test. How long would your tester hold psi per cylinder?
3. Rings wear, but being a N/A motor, I doubt they are bad, a headgasket is more likely and an easy job.
4. Borescope; did you check to see how it looks in there?
5. Nevermind, your right, its probably dead.
6. Trade me the S38 for my M30 and I can swap it into my E24. This is really the only fair option considering you owe me a finders fee. 

[RobZR]

HipMF said:

Ain't nobody got time for that wagon business.

I beg to differ!!

[Jdesign]

@HipMF asking for the BAN hammer 

[HipMF]

Jdesign said:

@HipMF asking for the BAN hammer 

Haha! Maybe...

I like wagons, but if I was building one I'd go for an engine with stupid torque. 260-270 ft-lbs in a car that weighs almost 4000 pounds isn't that great.

A gutted e24 would be a good thousand pounds lighter and more likely to use the power at the top of the rev range.

[B C]

HipMF said:

Haha! Maybe...

I like wagons, but if I was building one I'd go for an engine with stupid torque. 260-270 ft-lbs in a car that weighs almost 4000 pounds isn't that great.

A gutted e24 would be a good thousand pounds lighter and more likely to use the power at the top of the rev range.

Horsepower wins parts, torque sells races

[jc43089]

You need to put oil in the cylinders and recheck.  I have seen dry cylinder walls cause extremely low compression.  I had a flooded M50 show 30PSI on compression test and with a little oil it jumped back to 180.  It also wouldn't start because compression was so low.  I just cranked it over with the plugs out and injectors unhooked to dry the fuel away and added a squirt of oil to each cylinder and it started right up.  That was on my e36 a couple months ago when it was extremely cold out and had a failed start attempt.

[Jdesign]

jc43089 said:

You need to put oil in the cylinders and recheck.  I have seen dry cylinder walls cause extremely low compression.  I had a flooded M50 show 30PSI on compression test and with a little oil it jumped back to 180.  It also wouldn't start because compression was so low.  I just cranked it over with the plugs out and injectors unhooked to dry the fuel away and added a squirt of oil to each cylinder and it started right up.  That was on my e36 a couple months ago when it was extremely cold out and had a failed start attempt.

This.

I had a two stroke inline 6 that had numbers roughly all over the board; 60,50,110,80,130. I was super worried. Added oil, rechecked compression and it was 160's all the way across. I was shocked.

[RobZR]

rampelsauce said:

Bingo.  Rebuild that S38 and make something that will make @DrLeadFoot feel bad about his S62 touring.

Here you go. find a perfect box for that S38 diamond like this one and make a nice faux M5.

https://fortmyers.craigslist.org/lee/cto/d/bonita-springs-94-bmw-525i-mint/6852122107.html

https://sanantonio.craigslist.org/cto/d/schertz-1995-bmw-525i/6848522043.html

[ChrisO]

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, very busy with school and weather is just finally getting nice where I wanna be in my garage

I appreciate all the suggestions from everyone, I'm going to put some oil in the cylinders and re-run the compression test. I also visited home this past week and grabbed my borescope so I can check out the cylinder walls and pistons.

I can easily hook up pressurized air to the hose that came with my compression tester kit so I'll do that also if the compression numbers are still low

For now I've been pulling the car apart, I had a moment today in the garage as I was gutting it (easily lost 400lbs today) thinking how cool it would be to rebuild it, completely simplify the car, cage it, put some light bucket seats in it and use it, until the carpet came up and the skirts came off 

I had a lot of fun getting this skirt off. A PO jacked on the fender seam and bent the fender/skirt up into the body of the car with the bolt holding the skirt on smashed inwards. When all this shit fell out after the skirt came off I knew it was no good

Yeah its bad up front. Extending beyond this hole towards the frame rails under the undercoating is completely soft. The metal has rusted away just leaving a sheet of just undercoating haha

Can see the hole to the front right of the jack point, although it looks mostly intact it's made up of multiple layers of metal and they are all swollen with rust in-between the layers.

Rear wheel well, same story as the floor pan, completely rusted through under the undercoating up about a solid 6in beyond what you can see

random firewall rust holes on the passenger side

Hard to tell but this is a hole into the rockers

Same story but worse on the passenger side

Mysterious rusty puncture hole in the battery area

Yeah so I've played this game before and I'm not going to again. I'm sure the inside of the rockers is horrifying

Funny thing is though, parts of this car are really rust free, the rear jack points, pan and rockers dont even have surface rust. No rust on the quarters, no rust on the rear trunk lip, fenders aren't rusted through. This was a texas car until 2002, The rust is probably from sitting uncared for in a wet environment with trapped water for 11 years and not salt. Shame

Making progress

Idk what I'm doing with everything, I want the shell gone and all the regular e34 parts gone. I'm just kinda gonna hang on to everything M5 specific for now

It sucks doing this to this car, it really does. I feel bad every time my garage opens and you see such a special car with nothing but a M5 badge left on the rear.

[straight6pwr]

sad the shell isnt a keeper!