MyE28.com

Well last weekend, not today, but I continued the transfer of the good stuff from one E39 touring to another. I like shadowline, I really like it, and the old one had it and the new one didn't. Past tense. From here



to here



It's slow doing everything twice, but worth it sometimes.

Good job, Mike! That's gotta be a tedious job.

Today was supposed to be the last nice day for a while, so I took the day off to do some work on my wife's e46, but one of the control arms that showed up yesterday had a torn boot on it. Crap. Now it'll be another week before the replacements show up, and it's supposed to be cold again. Crap Crap. I did take advantage of the day though and got a few things done on the e46 and the e32.

On the e32, I replaced the exhaust bracket that bolts to the end of the transmission. The original had rusted away where it clamps onto the exhaust pipes, and the bolt that used to clamp the whole thing together was just rattling around between the pipes; really annoying. There was too much metal on either end of the bolt to just take it out so I had to get an angle grinder in there to make a good gouge in it so I could twist it apart. That was an easy job.

Next I grabbed the parts I had bought to refresh the accelerator pedal bits. The bushings that the lever pivot on were long gone, and it was pretty much metal to metal, with the lever doing a lot of flopping around. I had also bought a new accelerator cable a while back but have been a little leery of getting started on it. That whole job turned out to be far quicker & pain-free than I thought it would be; very satisfying to get the old crap out and the shiny new bits in place.

Prepping the e30 moonroof rim for new paint. Also ordered a new seal/gasket and some cerium oxide to polish out some scuffs in the glass.

It was the unloved one's turn for some today, the Ultimate Commute Machine, the E36. Oil and filter, I'd let it go to almost 9k, I've been busy but it is synthetic and the SI lights weren't even nagging me, and front brakes, pads and rotors. Some ceramics to try to eliminate the black dust and the old rotors were reaaaaaaaaly thin, about 18.6MM with 20.4 being the recommended wear limit. I knew they were thin and I'd had the parts for almost 2 years but all it does is go up and down the freeway for 30 miles each way daily. Hardly anything else. But they're new now. I hadn't rotated the tires since I put them on 30K ago and it shows, the fronts have plenty of meat and the rears need replacing. Crap, another two-fifty.

Mike W. wrote:Well last weekend, not today, but I continued the transfer of the good stuff from one E39 touring to another. I like shadowline, I really like it, and the old one had it and the new one didn't. Past tense. From here



to here



It's slow doing everything twice, but worth it sometimes.

I'm not a big fan of it most of the time. On some cars it just looks wrong, IMO. Your car looks great with it now, it all now matches. before the chrome looked out of place. Very nice change.

MikeW may be right. I suck as a mechanic and had to replace the same bulb AGAAIN! It was all "blinky blinky blinky" and Eddie next door has been avoiding me more than usual. I did a few hours of search, well, if porn counts as search, and realized I may need specific brass based bulbs, and not the shitty ones from my neighbor's crappy Cadillac. I quickly remembered and sourced a correct bulb from the E12 darkening my garage and blocking me from peeing in the utility sink. You can still pee in the sink, but you have to stand on E12's rather large bumpers, and if your wife walks in on you, she may not be as forgiving as mine. Brass bulbs For The Win.

I get to swap in a new radiator on the e32 this week. Got home last night, parked the car in front of the garage, and grabbed a shovel to clear away some of the snow left behind by the snow plows. I looked up at one point and saw some smoke/steam rising from the front of the car, so went and checked it out, and finally figured out where my missing coolant has been going. The radiator was wet in front of the fan, and looks like it's been seeping from the top for a while. About once every other month since last summer, the low coolant warning would come up on the cluster; I'd top it off, but hadn't seen where it was coming from. I replaced all of the hoses under the hood three years ago, and they all look good with zero bulging or leaking; last night was the first time I've actually seen seepage on the rad. Mystery solved.

I ordered a new radiator from Blunt this morning, and it'll be here tomorrow. That guy is amazing. My heater valve has been sticking lately too, and I think the thermostat has as well; I've got replacements for both of them, but wasn't looking forward to doing the job in the cold of winter, but I guess the steaming radiator bumps them to the top of the to-do list.

Took advantage of a very warm February weekend and taped up the 745i on Saturday.



Then taught the wife how to use a random orbital on Sunday.

The last of a bunch of parts all came off the Touring yesterday. There are a few bits and pieces coming in this week, then I can press out those last two diff bushings and start putting it all back together. In the interim it's time for some serious cleaning.

For a 22 year old car with 230K on it, it has come apart nicely. The only stuck/broke bolt was one of the water pump bolts, and it was the top one - easiest to reach, and the stub came out clean with vise-grips. The diff should come back in the next week or so, and once I've got the replacement water pump bolts I can finish the cooling system re-assembly.

I also picked up a can of wrinkle paint to refinish the coil-cover. Look at that nasty expansion tank! Yuck!

Did a Leatherique rejuvenating oil and Prestine clean treatment on the e39 sport wagon's leather. Turned out ok, just trying to preserve at this point, no tears but some wear spots in the back seat (ow ow!). I know its supposed to be more of a summer project but you can see and feel a difference even in 35° weather we've had the past couple of days.

I took the M52 out of the Range Rover Saturday.



.....better get to prepping it's replacement I guess.

I didn't get around to the e32 radiator this weekend, but did swap out a fresh set of front lower control arms on the e46. It's a pretty easy job, but very satisfying to get it done and have my wife comment on the first drive how much better it is than before.




The LCA bushing on the right side is an inch or so from the exhaust, and there is supposed to be a heat shield in place to protect it, but whoever the hack was that replaced it last time decided it was just in the way and smooshed it back against the frame. Pretty sure that's why the right front wheel moved ~3/4" back & forth when I was trying to break the lug bolts loose. Speaking of which, next time I visit my favorite tire shop, I'm going to give the manager a stern talking to about properly torquing wheel bolts. My electric impact wrench couldn't budge them. I had to bounce on the toolkit lug wrench with my full body weight to break them loose.

slammin_e28 wrote:I took the M52 out of the Range Rover Saturday.

.....better get to prepping it's replacement I guess.

and it's replacement would be...

And on my front the new to us E39 touring got new front brakes. Didn't really need it except they were dusting up the refinished wheels like crazy even if they are the relatively easy to clean daisy wheels, but my past experience with the Akebono pads was so good I decided why not just install them now and be done with it, I'm not likely to wear them out. Oh yeah, I swapped the CD changer from the old touring. Even got a call from the wife when she was on her way to work going thank you, thank you for changer install. It is a nice feature, I wish I'd taken advantage of it before recently when I really started burning a lot of CDs.

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=121656

Mike W. wrote:

slammin_e28 wrote:I took the M52 out of the Range Rover Saturday.

.....better get to prepping it's replacement I guess.

and it's replacement would be...

slammin_e28 wrote:

Mike W. wrote:

slammin_e28 wrote:I took the M52 out of the Range Rover Saturday.

.....better get to prepping it's replacement I guess.

and it's replacement would be...

Hmmm, a 6 to a double 6. I guess there's a logic to it. Is the bellhousing the same making it relatively easy?

Started a head gasket replacement on our '72 Bav this weekend...just ignore the rust.

Mike W. wrote:

slammin_e28 wrote:

Mike W. wrote:

slammin_e28 wrote:I took the M52 out of the Range Rover Saturday.

.....better get to prepping it's replacement I guess.

and it's replacement would be...

Hmmm, a 6 to a double 6. I guess there's a logic to it. Is the bellhousing the same making it relatively easy?

From all my research the 4hp22 (which the Rover uses) is the same case as the 4hp24 (which the M70 uses). The 22 wasn't used with the M70 because torques. So, I'll get a 24....and take the tail of the Rover 22 and bolt it on....then my Tcase will bolt onto the 24. The trans mount is part of the tail housing on the left, and part of the Tcase on the right....so no worries there. IIRC the bellhousing is 2" longer on the 24....but I have plenty of room in front of the engine (4+" with the M50). The steering box will be swapped to a Rover P38 box...it sits outside the frame rails as opposed to the RRC box that is inboard. Shock towers will be moved back over the spring instead of in front (RRC had air bag suspension, now it springs) with Discovery 1 shock towers and mounts. Drag link is just a rod, I can make a custom one to fit. I'll move the engine mount mounts on the frame so I can use the OE M70 engine mount arms and done. Exhaust will all be custom using the OE headers, probably splice it into the OE Rover exhaust since it has a Y from the V8. Engine management will be MS3x with M30 throttle bodies.

TL:DR it's not bolt in, but bolt in with swapping components.

Researching it I came across a guy named Kito....he did the same swap. It's pretty glorious. He's got a vid or two on Youtube.

slammin_e28 wrote:

Mike W. wrote:

slammin_e28 wrote:

Mike W. wrote:

slammin_e28 wrote:I took the M52 out of the Range Rover Saturday.

.....better get to prepping it's replacement I guess.

and it's replacement would be...

Hmmm, a 6 to a double 6. I guess there's a logic to it. Is the bellhousing the same making it relatively easy?

From all my research the 4hp22 (which the Rover uses) is the same case as the 4hp24 (which the M70 uses). The 22 wasn't used with the M70 because torques. So, I'll get a 24....and take the tail of the Rover 22 and bolt it on....then my Tcase will bolt onto the 24. The trans mount is part of the tail housing on the left, and part of the Tcase on the right....so no worries there. IIRC the bellhousing is 2" longer on the 24....but I have plenty of room in front of the engine (4+" with the M50). The steering box will be swapped to a Rover P38 box...it sits outside the frame rails as opposed to the RRC box that is inboard. Shock towers will be moved back over the spring instead of in front (RRC had air bag suspension, now it springs) with Discovery 1 shock towers and mounts. Drag link is just a rod, I can make a custom one to fit. I'll move the engine mount mounts on the frame so I can use the OE M70 engine mount arms and done. Exhaust will all be custom using the OE headers, probably splice it into the OE Rover exhaust since it has a Y from the V8. Engine management will be MS3x with M30 throttle bodies.

TL:DR it's not bolt in, but bolt in with swapping components.

Researching it I came across a guy named Kito....he did the same swap. It's pretty glorious. He's got a vid or two on Youtube.

You almost make it sound easy. Almost, but not quite. But as long as you can bolt the engine to the transmission to the transfer case it doesn't sound too over the top. At least that's the part that would intimidate me. Was there a problem with the M52 in there or just a more is better thing?

Mike W. wrote:You almost make it sound easy. Almost, but not quite. But as long as you can bolt the engine to the transmission to the transfer case it doesn't sound too over the top. At least that's the part that would intimidate me. Was there a problem with the M52 in there or just a more is better thing?

M52 was a bit anemic. I sold it. It's going to be put in another RRC but with a 3.2 bottom end. I wanted to build the 3.2 deal, but I'd rather swap than build and engine. Plus too I've kind of been falling into the parts I need.

...and the M70 will sound oh so good in this thing.

"What's that sound? A Ferrari? A Lambo?"

"I...I...I think it's coming from that Range Rover..."

End goal....with the appropriate use of diff lockers....is to spin all 4 tires at once. Break the Rover axles and I'll find some Toyota FJ80 axles with E-lockers. ^_^

So, where's the build thread on that beast, Jeff? (if you don't have one yet, you need one. )

Good Gawd man. And here I can barely get that bulb to stahp going all "blinkie, blinkie, blinkie".

davintosh wrote:So, where's the build thread on that beast, Jeff? (if you don't have one yet, you need one. )

I'm waiting until I actually get the engine in the truck, lol. Way too much on the plate now. Maybe I can bring it to V@V 2016....

I did put a 3" exhaust on the e34t. It's pretty ridiculous now. I lovvvvvve it. IE headers that fit too.

I put a new radiator and thermostat in the e32 yesterday -- boy do I loathe working on cooling systems! Now the temp gauge pops up to the 12 o'clock position pretty smartly, and I actually get heat in the cabin! Woot!

New o2 sensor and e46 M3 trans mounts went in to the M5. Next up, oil pan gasket, valve adjustment, and motor mounts.

Alternator bit the dust on the touring. Gloriously.

...in other news, the Discovery 2 is fantastic at towing!