So my friend has this beautiful 1987 535is. I've driven and love it, but I deemed it to be a little quicker? There is something wrong with the idle...a bimmer mech. says that its either a leak in the intake, the cams are messed up, or the head is starting to give out. Which to me is a pretty broad range.

Anyways, before I started to do stuff to my car, I raced my friend (my e46 323i vs. his 535is). Each time I walked away from him pretty easily in my 323i. At the time all I had done was an intake I put together myself and exhaust.

The past few months I've been tossing around getting an e36 M3, maybe an Mr2 turbo, 9000 aero...the 535is is the slowest out of all of those, but I can't help but smile everytime I drive behind my friend.

I've learned a lot about them in the past few months since my friend bought the car. So now I'm left with just a few things to find out. Do you guys do valve jobs yourselves? Do i need any special tools? If I had good directions, I'm sure I could do it myself if other people who aren't certified mechs can. Anyone know the stock weight of a 1987 535is and hp/tq and 0-60 times? The reason I ask is because I've found a few different numbers on all those things.

My last question, to which I was getting at before, I was kind of put back that I beat a 535is? I thought they were faster than that? It just doesn't seem to have any grunt compared to my car. Should they be faster than a basically stock 323i?

TIA, help is much appreciated!

e28 5ers are the shit. I love mine. The motor is a single overhead cam, and they're pretty damn durable. Sounds like it might be the idle control valve. Change it and see if it makes a difference.

If your friend's 535is is stock, then yeah it'll feel pretty slow. A 3.73 LSD rear end and good chip really wakes the car up. Stock they have roughly 182hp/217tq.

Valve adjustments aren't hard, all you really need is a set of metric feeler gauges from Sears and a few wrenches. The guys at www.mye28.com can help you out with it, or just get a Bentley manual and follow what that says.

They're not very fast cars, but a 5 speed 535 is a blast to drive.

Glad to hear that your considering a 535is. They're relaly fun cars to drive and maintence is really easy that even I can do a lot of the basic things myself. I'm 17 and I've changed my own pads, adjusted my valves, chained my fluids etc. And all I used was the Bently manual, some help from the boards, and talked with a BMW specialist about the work that I was about to do.

But for speed it's tough to say. Though I do get smoked by some newer cars, I can still keep up or beat some ricer cars around my area. I've done some modification on mine and on the lower end of the rpm band, I get terrible pick up. But once I get to 3k-5k that is when the engine really picks up and distinguishes itself.

A 535is isn't a fast car, BUT, for a car with 4 doors and 20+ years behind it it'll hold it's own against most newer sedans in the twisties. If you're trying to beat the new engine technology of today without forced induction forgetaboutit!

These are a blast to drive with a 5 speed and you can do some basic mods that'll help with the power shortage.

Bosch type III 19# injectors, a free flowing exhaust, a quality performance chip, a cold air intake and a 3:73 rear end would be the best places to start. I THINK the head off of an 89 3.5 engine, with larger valves, will bolt up to the older block, and this is supposed to help some too. If your still not happy there is always turbo charging.... a real nice kit is available through TCD.

If your budget will aloow for a 95 M3 then you might be able to snag an 88 M5. Now that's a pretty quick E28 :)

Just had some engine work done on my e28. Had to have valves replaced and all that jaz. Guy asked when the last valve job was done, apparently it didn't seem to really need the valve job just to replace a broken valve. Answer to his question....never.

"Pretty damn durable" as someone so eloquently put it a few posts up.

i love my 535is in my search for fun cars I keep coming back to bmw sport models and the big six is such a strong engine and easy to take care of compared to the m50 and m52 in newer model bmws