My Touring thread - 530it

[Aradaiel]

So I've never really posted any pictures or anything about myself or my car.

I'm 28, married, 1 kid.

I'm a BMW tech by trade, I do work at the dealer here.

I got my e34 for $800. Guy was asking $3000 for it. I drove to park city and found it on his driveway. It had dents, ran like crap and was dirty. I drove it and found it vibrated like crazy.

I offered the guy $1k for it. He said he had some other offers, but needed to get rid of it because of a divorce. I told him to entertain the offers if they were more than me and get back to me if they weren't serious. He called me back 2 weeks later, I went up there and picked it up. He told me he had some extra wheels in a shed that he never got around to messing with. Ended up being a set of e46 16", two were bent so I sold them for $200. It looked like this:



I cleaned it up, all 4 wheels were bent. (shimmy issue). When I checked faults I was plesantly suprised to find it only had faults stored for 1 02 sensor. I put a new sensor in it and it ran like a champ. He had no reciepts, but I could tell that it had an intake manifold re-seal, aluminum thrust arms and some other suspension stuff done. I ended up turning the front rotors (I know, but they were warped and like new) and putting new OEM pads front and rear. (OEM pads are something that I am very particular about)

I rocked the 17" wheels off wifeys touring, they got the rattle can treatment due to peeling. I ran them for one winter, re-did them gunmetal and spent more time on them and the wife rocks them now in the winter.



I ended up getting some 16" e32 750 wheels for winter ($200) and a set of style 5s at a salvage yard (200 for all 5, score!).

I re-finished the middles due to the car I got them off being in a car fire. They were smoke damaged. I wet sanded the clear and got the lips looking good, cleared them with clear paint. I then painted the centers gold with gold engine paint. It's holding up awesome and still looks good almost 2 years later.




I then ended up scoring some lowering springs from a member off here, installed them and found my struts weren't blown and all the mounts were in good shape. Not a bad buy for $120 or whatever I paid for them.



The stock stereo sucked, and after looking into it I fould half the speakers didn't work. I found a couple e34s at a pick and pull and got the speakers I needed to get them all working. I then installed an alpine headunit, Wal-mart amp, JL 8" sub and custom made a box to fit where the cd changer went. Couldn't be happier with the stereo at this point.

(no pictures, unfortunately)

I also got some olympic stuff and put the door sills and the headrests on. Glovebox trim is different, I've got to find a correct glovebox to get it on.

(Also no pictures, I'll get some eventually)


Theme of this car has been budget, and I can't be happier. It gets me to work and back, keeps miles off the m5 and gets better gas mileage.

With a couple of bad knees from snowboarding injuries, rowing gears in traffic gets old fast. Seat heaters rule.

It's never left me stranded, almost did once due to a radiator hose blowing off. Luckily it was only 300ft from my house.

[cddallara]

Nice score. More info on sub box please, as I've been thinking of something similar for my wagon.

[T444E]

I was gonna comment and say I am more than happy with my stock stereo system but all my speakers work
A CD43 makes a world of difference, wish I still had mine but alas I don't drive the car at all.

[Psykick5]

I knew that first picture looked familiar... that's the north lot of the BMW dealer :P Nice to see my SLC boys posting some stuff up.

[Aradaiel]

Lemme see if I can scrounge some pictures of the box.

Yup, back lot of BoM. I spent a lot of time there

I'll take some pictures of it. I guess I deleted them off my phone.

Car is at work currently, I was replacing the stupid crappy FCP suspension stuff that went bad in 3 weeks and left it there. Been driving the m5.

I've got to pick my mom up at the airport tomorrow. I think I'll try and scam her into driving it to my house tomorrow.

I was gonna comment and say I am more than happy with my stock stereo system but all my speakers work
A CD43 makes a world of difference, wish I still had mine but alas I don't drive the car at all.

I had a traffic pro in my e36, it was increadible. Sounded so much better than a CD 43.

I got the alpine unit for less than a cd 43, sounded better, has bluetooth calls, ipod interface and bluetooth pandora and audo streaming.. and a USB to charge my phone. It's ultra badass.

CD43s are super cool, if you want it to look stockish. I didn't care in this case.

[Aradaiel]

Spent a lot of time cleaning the interior today. I introduced every nook and cranny to my friends "simple green", "magic eraser" and "toothbrush"

Took a couple pics of the sub box.

It's perfectly square and sits flush to the panel. I cut up this panel to try and see what needed to be cut and where. I've got a new panel to cut correctly and put a speaker grille on eventually.

It's square, I just did the volume calculation with the maximum thickness and made the other sides even.

I had to dremel/sand a bunch of things to get it in, since I overmeasured by 1/2"















My favorite hipster mod





Couldn't get any good interior pics due to bright sunlight and shadows.

[cddallara]

I love the sub idea, just what I'm thinking of. I use that cavity for a lot of crap (cd changer, jumper cables, socket set), is yours pretty useless now?

[ltflint]

I love the sub idea, just what I'm thinking of. I use that cavity for a lot of crap (cd changer, jumper cables, socket set), is yours pretty useless now?

[longwayhome23]

I like it -- green and all!

It's an Olympic Edition? And you only paid $1,000? One of the FS threads a few months went on at great length about how rare and valuable those are... Come to think of it, there was some disagreement on that point.

I like the Breyton Vision wheels in one of your pics. I have those on my sedan now. Look nice, but too soft, so I have to get something else.

[Aradaiel]

I love the sub idea, just what I'm thinking of. I use that cavity for a lot of crap (cd changer, jumper cables, socket set), is yours pretty useless now?

That cavity is completely useless now. I had to screw the panel down to keep the sub in place during "Spirited driving". It didn't have enough volume for a 10" sub box, going with an 8" kept the costs down. The stock amp rack is out of there and the stock amp is wedged against the frame with rags to keep the amp from rattling. I couldn't find a good place to relocate the stock amp without a ton of wiring. I just kinda threw it in there.

I did the subwoofer, box and amp for $180ish if I remember right. Sub was $75, amp was $55 plus wiring, liquid nails and screws for the box. A guy at work had extra particle board and he just gave me some to make the box. I ran 8 GA wire as the power supply, ground and speaker wire. I like my bass crisp and to not wash out, key to that is large wire and a smaller sub. I listen to a lot of metal/metalcore and don't like the double bass drums to muttle. I also listen to a lot of dub step, so I want the bass to be there.

I can't be happier with the setup, in a sedan I'd definatley go with a 10" due to the back seat/parcel shelf blocking most of it.

The right side still stores simple green and jumper cables under the washer fluid reserivoir.

I like it -- green and all!

It's an Olympic Edition? And you only paid $1,000? One of the FS threads a few months went on at great length about how rare and valuable those are... Come to think of it, there was some disagreement on that point.

I like the Breyton Vision wheels in one of your pics. I have those on my sedan now. Look nice, but too soft, so I have to get something else.

Not an olympic edition, just door sills, headrests and I've got a wood trim that I need to figure out how to mount. The mounts are different between the wood trims for some reason. There was never an olympic 530 or touring, they were all 525 sedans.

Those breyton wheels were as round as stopsigns, curbed and hammered. They got recycled because they weren't worth fixing to me.

[Aradaiel]

It's been idling pretty rough. I haven't dealt with it because I was driving my m5 for the last couple weeks. It was also getting 17mpg, normal for it/me driving is 21ish.

I checked into it and found I had an 02 sensor that wasn't switching.

I then smoke checked the intake manifold and found no leaks, but I found that the vaccum line between the FPR and breather plate was completely soft and kinked. I replaced the breather plate and put a new hose on it, ran it so it won't kink in the future.

Replaced the 02, and it seems to be better. OBC is claming 19.9mpg, so I'm almost there.

[Aradaiel]

Ok, so the touring is back to 21 mpg. Problem is it still has a very shitty idle.

I compression checked the motor:

Bank 1:

150
160
160
160

Bank 2:

125
150
125
135

Car has a factory block. Just clicked over 165k miles.

Had a package dropped off at work to fix idle, a gold 1993 740i. The interior was hammered, water damaged, and just generally not taken care of.



Found this guy on the local craiglistish (we use KSL in utah, for some reason)

It wasn't running and the lady claimed 200k on the clock. I checked history on it and found it had the updated block installed at 71k - 130ish on the motor, score.

I bought it and she had it towed for me. Car did not run, she said it needed a fuel pump. I had a fuel pump from an x3 (there is an update for them for hydrolocking at high altitude/ high temperatures, we see a lot of them in the summer) I ghetto rigged the fuel pump and it started within a few seconds even with the 2 year old gas.

It runs so much better on crappy gas and the valvetrain is quiter than my b30 after sitting.

I cleaned off the car and got it ready to pull the motor.

I'm going to swap the complete front and rear brakes, make a heated/lumbar seat for the e34, swap the map lights, rear view mirror and move whatever else I can move to the e34 before it's scrapped.

Haven't decided if I'm going to swap the trans/driveline/diff as the diff in the e32 is a 2.93 open. I'd rather have the 3.15 that's in the touring.

[Aradaiel]

3 hours in to pulling the donor motor. I'll seperate the engine/trans tomorrow and replace the rear main and both upper timing case gaskets. The rest of the motor is clean. I'm also swapping my near new belt and tensioner and new breather plate to the new motor

I'm also going to do the PS line behind the alternator.

If I can get the b30 out of the touring as fast as this one, I'll have everything done next weekend.

[AustinK425]

OMG thank you! haha I have an 525it and its been getting shitty mileage as of late and suspected the 02 sensor gonna have that on my list now 227k on the motor though
m50tu. nice to see a wagon on the first page I just joined btw

[Psykick5]

Do you have a smoke machine or how did you run your smoke test?

[Aradaiel]

Do you have a smoke machine or how did you run your smoke test?

Yeah, the shop I work at has one

Made some progress today, I divorced the engine and transmission, pulled the rear coolant manifold and ordered some gaskets. I had the fckits really bad about 2pm, was going to pull the b30 and realized I didn't have room to store 2 engines, 2 trans and 2 exhausts.

I'll redo some seals (rear main, might have to do the manifold to swap knock sensors depending if the engine harnesses are different.)

I put the 740 back together as a roller and pushed it out.

Looks like next weekend will be when I'll finish it, or sometime close to that.

[Elekta]

Ugh, I wished you lived in Austin and could help me restore my M5T

[Aradaiel]

Ugh, I wished you lived in Austin and could help me restore my M5T

Your car can't be that bad

Worst case we just swap cars

[Aradaiel]

I need some motor mounts... any opinions?

I'll just order some stock ones tomorrow if I can't find any others I like

[Aradaiel]

so I ordered stock motor mounts, painted the valve covers hastily and prepped some things to pull the motor tomorrow. I also installed this:



Yes, that's an e90 sport wheel. Wasn't easy.. took a lot of file/sanding and a ton of drilling to get it to work. I still need to wire the horn and airbag, but I wanted to make sure everything fit and worked before I wired it and ordered a trim without the opening for MFL buttons.

[Aradaiel]

Motor/trans are out. Subframe was rusted to the frame rails pretty bad. It took myself and another friend/co-worker about an hour and a half of prying and hammering to get the thing loose.

Gotta swap PS pump, ps lines, cooler lines, motor mount, alt belt, tensioner, rear plate and change all the PS lines and then re-install.

Should be a "fun" day tomorrow.




Car runs and drives. It's in failsafe for a temperature sensor, just need to move a pin or add a wire or something easy. I'll drive it home tomorrow.

[T444E]

So you're running the B40 on the stock trans? Neato. I'm really curious how it copes with the power difference in the long run.

[HE53]

Any updates?

[Aradaiel]

So this is the update from yesterday.

I started the day at 9 am, like so:



Divorced the transmission and engine at about 10:



I then married the old trans (5hp18) to the new engine (m60b40)

I moved over the compressor (I knew mine worked, donor car had 0 refrigerant in it), power steering pump due to the car having extra lines for the SLS that the car doesn't have. (Still don't get that), tensioner and belts (just changed those a few months ago on the b30), and the rear breather plate (Just changed it diagnosing the rough idle).

I replaced ALL the power steering lines and both motor mounts



The 5hp18 and the 5hp30 flywheels were different, as were the rear coolant manifolds. You have to use the proper one, respectively.

Moving componets and cleaning/replacing the leaky power steering lines took the largest amount of time, I was ready to mate the engine/trans back into the car at about 1pm.

Pre-rewire, just after suspension was re-attached.



I got the subframe and the rear transmission brace mounted into the car, put the car back together, topped fluids, re-ran the wiring and started the car at 4pm.

This was insainely easy to do, I couldn't believe everything just worked.

Car is using the m60b40 dme, with the 5hp18 egs.

It currently has a fault for "EGS, sump oil temerature sensor open circuit" wich means the pin isn't there or is wrong. I've probably just got to move a pin.


I did a little research before I chose to use the 5hp18. I found the specs from ZF and found the m60b40 puts out 50ft-lb more torque than the 5hp18 is rated at. I know there is some wiggle room with ratings, but the 5hp18 weighs about 200lb less than the 5hp30 and I don't have the correct driveshaft for the 5hp30, plus I'd need to swap the e32 diff.

I saved the transmission, coolant manifold, 5hp30 egs and I'll pull the diff from the donor car and hold on to it, just in case.

If anyone knows where I can get transmission software for an e36 m3, that would be awesome.

I'm trying to find a shift kit for it, but I can't find anything.

The 5hp18 is the same auto transmission used in the e36 m3 with different software and a bellhousing.

[Aradaiel]

I got the harness swapped over, charged the ac, re-installed the exhaust, changed the oil and got everything going. I didn't have time to swap over the knock sensors so I think the car isn't giving the motor any timing.

It's only marginally faster than my chipped b30.

I hope it gets better after the knock sensor install.