FUBAR 528e, Gauging Condition of the M90

Tiit · Post by **Tiit** » Jun 15, 2022 8:30 PM

Good read. Thanks for sharing.

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Aug 31, 2022 5:34 PM

Another long overdue update.

Car survived the Road Atlanta Trip, was a blast to get to hang out with friends and drive an amazing track. I can't thank Jayjaya29 enough for making this happen!

Fav footage from the weekend:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD0iofy0xf8&t=51s

Fastest Lap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuXyH_cJJJA&t=29s

Footage of me Holding Jay Up can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iol9ZlgH0Z4&t=383s

Got a lot of compliments from people who loved seeing the car being slide around.

Speaking of slides, here is the slideshow of the trip.

Road Atlanta Prep by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Road Atlanta by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Road Atlanta Phone pics by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Road Atlanta by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Aug 31, 2022 5:49 PM

I have also been cleaning up the interior. I found a mostly crack free dash and used the E12 parts car for its carpet. Also got the E24 Recaro reupholsterd in the wrong shade of brown.

Interior by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Interior by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Now that the dash is nice, I gotta do something about the poorly dyed original pearl beige carpet. I always love the loop style carpet and the E12 had it! Didn't realize how similar the late floor pans were on those so gave it a go.

Interior by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Interior by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

The new parts car came with a black center console and manual seat ebrake cover in the trunk. Don't mind if I do.

Interior by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Aug 31, 2022 5:51 PM

I am still daily driving car as long as there is no rain (bald tires). I put 15,000 miles on it last year. Still need to go back and fix some more rust, hopefully the new parts car can donate the metal though. I have a lot of sentiment still towards this metal fatigued shell and the right euro slicktop one hasn't come up yet. So I will keep driving this bitch.

1st 5er · Post by **1st 5er** » Aug 31, 2022 5:57 PM

LeiseyJr wrote: Aug 31, 2022 5:51 PM I am still daily... driving this bitch.

Tiit · Post by **Tiit** » Aug 31, 2022 8:05 PM

Good story.

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Oct 20, 2023 11:29 PM

Alright so I did a shit job keeping up with the updates of this car. Did an okay job documenting it on the Instagram, follow me on there if you want better updates. @sam.the.jam

Anyway, the Vintage 2023 happened. What a roadtrip, 5 days and 2689 miles. Two cannonball trips to and fro, Tennessee to Houston and North Carolina to Houston. The rest of the 3 days were busy too. Had the pleasure of doing the trip with my friend Ryan. Absolute treat.

We cannonballed it in one day from Houston the most Southern city in Tennessee, so we could deliver some rare Mercedes stuff. Then headed back down to see Jay, our gracious host and a good friend.

IMG_3716 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

We had some extra time before Vintage so we went to see a large stance VW meet in Helen, Georgia.

1797CE24-3B42-42A8-BFC7-3327BCA1DDD4 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_3685 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

The following day we headed from Atlanta to Hot Springs for the Vintage. We did incredible roads all day, just having a good time.

IMG_3719 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_3726 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Here is some video of the final stretch of roads (cant find the original as of now):
https://youtube.com/shorts/R4c7OEA8rhs?feature=share

IMG_3735 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_3760 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_3748 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_3766 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Got to meet a lot of internet friends for the first time, truly was an incredible trip. So much not pictured.

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Oct 20, 2023 11:48 PM

Shortly following that trip in May, I headed for another annual Road Atlanta Trek. I had a different co-pilot this time.

351509170_2553767498133487_7616481213338710203_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

This trip once again featured my friend Jay,

347122636_2553767288133508_345559148356205626_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

We cannonballed Thursday. We had a Friday to go hiking, see the Coca Cola Factory and hang out with the Lanes.

347025898_2553767424800161_837927028923134002_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

350523381_2553766918133545_3209792583179221612_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

352342561_2553767318133505_6020578382741002444_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Next morning, was time to have some fun at a great track.

352351302_2553767441466826_945610939189064745_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

I didn't pay for any track pictures as money was pretty tight. Learned that modern 200tw tires are really good. Retiring from using Toyo RA1s as my street tires (RE71RS) I drove up on were 2 seconds faster. Which was still slower than the car was on the Toyo RR takeoffs from last year. Alas it was a damn good time, no mechanical issues at all besides for the A/C acting up on the way back home. There were some casualties, fog light delete, turn signal lens and a centercap went missing.

Had the most fun I've had in a car chasing this ZHP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28--BAKZmYU&t=69s

347130157_2553766864800217_1356079391257365719_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

348615760_2553767014800202_5663817595644034465_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

1st 5er · Post by **1st 5er** » Oct 21, 2023 11:05 AM

Glad you made The Vintage trip.
It'd be nice to figure out a caravan next year w/ Ryan in Casper.

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Oct 23, 2023 11:38 AM

I am not big on maintenance however, before doing a big trip or track event. I like to do what I call a "nut and bolt check", this is jack the car up ,check all fluids and put my hands on all the fasteners. Just get my hands on everything and make sure no glaring issues or thing beginning to fail.

In the next post I will share, you'll see the trip I was preparing for. However, I noticed something odd.

IMG_8431 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

That looks a lot like a crack....

After some brake cleaner...

IMG_8432 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

So I headed to my parents house to use my dads welder and lift. Sure enough...

IMG_8450 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Since the genuine BMW M5 mounts go hard to get, I finally made the plunge into aftermarket motor mounts. So instead of my fuse being the mount, it was now my subframe. This subframe was already reinforced for the steering box so I wanted to repair it if possible or die trying. I had a spare front subframe just in case as well, and a junk one I think I got from when Sherman was clearing house.

I only had a day to do this repair, but I knew it needed to be stout. So I sacrificed the junk subframe to fix this one:

IMG_7495 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_8459 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

So I welded in the broken piece, and grinded it down. For a less spiritedly driven car, I think this would've been good enough. However I am a monkey, so I wanted to reinforce it.

IMG_8464 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_8458 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_8476 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_8482 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_8485 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

I hope that doesn't go anywhere.

IMG_8486 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

My dad was moving after I got back from this trip to Huntsville. Which if you aren't familiar with Texas. That is about 82 miles from my house one way, so I wanted to take care of my cracked rear floor pan that I have been ignoring for a couple years or so. Reinforce that before he moved. One of the skills I don't have is knowing how to use a Mill or Lathe, well I can it just won't be precise or pretty.

IMG_8705 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

He made a reinforcement plate for me, using an old Diff mount I had a template. I don't change the diff mount often, probably once every 3 years. When I went to replace it last time, I noticed some cracking around the bolt holes. Since then I have pretended I didn't see that. I am not that happy with this reinforcement but at least it is a reinforcement not a repair.

IMG_8701 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_8704 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_8705 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_8707 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_8713 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_8721 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

As I'm sure some of you can clearly see, I did not grind away enough undercoating. Which I found out the hardway.

IMG_8726 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_8727 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

EBADF056-99CD-4628-B5EB-96901D5DA2BE by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

There would be many things I'd do differently if I were to do this again. However I think it's reinforced.

IMG_8734 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Post by **tig** » Oct 23, 2023 7:27 PM

I love how hard you are on your cars, Sam.

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Nov 01, 2023 6:16 PM

cek wrote: Oct 23, 2023 7:27 PM I love how hard you are on your cars, Sam.

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Nov 29, 2023 12:20 PM

Still catching up on updates but Road Atlanta Trip has 3 parts, so here is part one.

Absolute beautiful drive up to Georgia. Typical one shot strategy, this time I was solo left at 3am. Was able to arrive there with daylight left. I did not bring the right tires to set any records but a blast of a weekend, did every session I could.

380816294_2674086049434964_1376366513722799211_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

384098743_2674083282768574_5657351240307390849_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

384103907_2674083279435241_189725709552572392_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

380891580_2674085859434983_5720647474413416125_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

380796359_2674086119434957_3305860818204760920_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

382236441_2674085969434972_3752035176532954767_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

382232129_2674085936101642_5005250841408311439_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

I did all my red group sessions and car was doing great, tires were spanked but I wanted to squeeze out one more session.

380828192_2674085882768314_7008537115175548846_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Engine went boom. I am very far from home, engine isn't repairable. I need the car for my capstone so it can't be left in Georgia.

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Nov 29, 2023 12:29 PM

Second Road Atlanta Trip for 2023 (2/3) So I have never really towed before. So naturally a rented box truck and trailer is a good idea. Uhaul giving me a trailer with a bad tire and no lights hooked up, and then dicking with me for 2 hours was not paticulaly fun. Thankfully Strictly German was 5 min away from Road Atlanta, so I went shopping for a new engine and just to see the empire. It was quite an incredible place. Hopefully I can go and meet Bobby and his team again soon. Long story short, I ended up spending another hour finding out I had to go to Gainesville to get it sorted. After losing 4-5 hours, I decided just to stay the night again at the Lane’s. Helped @jayjaya29 do his gas tank which was a good time. Woke up at 3AM in Georgia, and cannonballed home. Basically just used the 75mph speed limiter as cruise control, got a dead flat from some road debris. That was only a 2 hour delay luckily. Eventually I ended up at @thachileandude to drop the car and it’s new engine off. After all was said and done ended up home around 10pm.

380279079_18386121670051303_915272461032521281_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

380279966_18386121679051303_4841217282962152408_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

380933137_18386121736051303_3679697395966978626_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

381019709_18386121700051303_3413911331160337545_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

382583630_18386121691051303_4253796925913899668_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

381003621_18386121718051303_4196450955627757609_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

381365381_18386121709051303_3851221611901041409_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

380289391_18386121745051303_469738044364867441_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Nov 29, 2023 12:36 PM

Second Road Atlanta Trip of 2023 (3/3) Just want to preface, I can’t thank @thachileandude enough for letting me total his shop and being there to help swap in the new heart. Without that I couldn’t have gotten the car running a week after it blew up across the country. Which I needed to do since my senior project uses this car. It was my first time dropping an engine from the bottom, can’t say I enjoyed it too much but good to try new things. I had pretty good faith in this M30, looked like it was taken out of the car it was last in and someone cared. They went through the hassle of painting the block and all the letters, new timing chain parts and in general was super clean inside. There was some fiddlefuckery with marvel mystery oil and compressed air for some corrosion on the valves from sitting. It started cranking evenly and the compression numbers came up to non abysmal levels. Still wasn’t 100% sure if it’d be good but didn’t have a choice but to carry on. The old motor was completely sacked out, besides the timing failure. Burning all the oil and discovered the thrust bearing play on removal. Took the entirety of the weekend to swap it out, but made the 50 mile drive home right after being swapped. Hopefully the new mill will be good placeholder until after I graduate.

383823846_18386274214051303_3645520466122220047_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

383372660_18386274259051303_8579692343328788460_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

384552960_18386274241051303_2482982185870713169_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

383383600_18386274232051303_3939976490698343220_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

383375038_18386274268051303_3007254994448400929_n by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Good noises after a long weekend
https://www.facebook.com/10000500784209 ... 5626556025

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Nov 29, 2023 12:37 PM

If you wanna read more about the engine failure and see where I will update it when I found out what blew up

viewtopic.php?t=150964

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Dec 06, 2023 2:14 PM

Went to a local BMW shop that has been in business for over 40 years.

IMG_2139 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Unfortunately I have a problem and noticed this engine sitting under a carport. The port welded on for EGR(?) for federalization was my giveaway, to dig deeper.

IMG_2143 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Sure enough it is a 1981 Motronic M30, so I bought it and took it home

IMG_2174 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

tschultz · Post by **tschultz** » Dec 06, 2023 4:05 PM

Guessing you got it for a steal! Bonus you have the oil cooler filter housing already there. Looks like the '81 M90 to me (without the raised water jacket).

Are you going to try to run it on M1.3?

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Dec 07, 2023 10:51 AM

tschultz wrote: Dec 06, 2023 4:05 PM Guessing you got it for a steal! Bonus you have the oil cooler filter housing already there. Looks like the '81 M90 to me (without the raised water jacket).

Are you going to try to run it on M1.3?

Yes that's exactly right on the non raised water jacket. Still really weird to me it has a E28 based pan on it, but it looks like it has never been off.

It has a new head on it, looks brand new in there. It compression test at 180 except for cyl 1-5 @ 160 they have very minor surface corrosion in the bores. Guides might be original. I paid $1000 for it, which I think is fair as I only knew it turned over when I bought it. Didn't realize it had a new head and good compression until I took it home.

It also came with a lightweight flywheel core. I have a E28 M5 Oil Cooler setup that I need to install in the car, I went back to no oil cooler. Wasn't happy with the lines on the 745i one.

I will not be running it on M1.3, I am very comfortable with M1.0 so I want to stick with that. I probably need to sell the M1.3 stuff that is collecting dust in my attic.

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Dec 07, 2023 11:27 AM

IMG_2141 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_2142 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Took the VC off and was praying it would look decent. Was greeted with this pleasant view.

Everything is incredibly clean in the top end.

IMG_2177 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

94F57709-3E98-4050-80C5-390F9334EFA7 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

After some more digging it definitely had a head put on it, as there are signs someone has been in here. Gasket sealer, painted rear cover, missing bolts, and new exhaust manifold gaskets.

IMG_2208 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_2181 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_2180 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

IMG_2206 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Plugs looked great as well on all cylinders.

IMG_2195 by Kurvenkamph Motorsport, on Flickr

Drained the oil and checked the filter, no glitter. Compression test was good as said in the previous post it was 180-160. I have access to a leakdown tester but with the numbers like that not too worried about it.

Looking at the engine and things replaced on with date codes, ignition parts I believe it has been sitting since around early 2000s. Newest date code part on it is from 1999.

Ideally I'd do the headgasket as preventative, but they are very hard to get. Just gonna throw this in and see how it does.

Before I throw it in, I did need to track down some obscure parts. I will go over that in the next post.

austin8753 · Post by **austin8753** » Dec 07, 2023 11:40 AM

wow, cool find. those are super scarce in today's world.

tschultz · Post by **tschultz** » Dec 07, 2023 1:02 PM

Fyi, there is a cheap headgasket if you don't want to pay $200 for a new one.
AJUSA brand 10043410 is for the equivalent m90 hg with steam holes and is less than $100. I thought about buying it but decided to go with oem on my latest m90 engine (re) build.

Will be. Curious to see if that head is original 81 marking or a later head. Does it have the m90 text behind the front timing cover or is it a later replacement head?

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Dec 07, 2023 2:53 PM

tschultz wrote: Dec 07, 2023 1:02 PM Fyi, there is a cheap headgasket if you don't want to pay $200 for a new one.
AJUSA brand 10043410 is for the equivalent m90 hg with steam holes and is less than $100. I thought about buying it but decided to go with oem on my latest m90 engine (re) build.

Will be. Curious to see if that head is original 81 marking or a later head. Does it have the m90 text behind the front timing cover or is it a later replacement head?

The date code is 1980 on the head and the stamping on the block is September of 1981. (using this thread to decode the stamping on the block https://bigcoupe.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=32013) I'll have to check if the head has the M90 stamp behind the timing cover.

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Dec 07, 2023 3:25 PM

It does say M90 on the head

LeiseyJr · Post by **LeiseyJr** » Jul 07, 2024 10:11 AM

So it was a M90, had a seized oil ring on 5 and coolant passages were too clogged as well as a bad headgasket.

I put the 8:1 back in, spent 4 days swapping that motor and the other one back in, in total around Christmas.

Took it to Barber, broke another front strut housing. Hoosiers were gripping too good. This led to me to get Ground Control coilovers for the car. I honestly hate them, but work has been busy so theyre still on the car. Just took it to Road Atlanta again in June and no real issues.

Current goal is get a 10:1 back in the car and revisit the suspension. Eituer put in the old stuff or put in Double Adjustable Race Inserts in these housings.

thrty8street · Post by **thrty8street** » Jul 07, 2024 1:33 PM

LeiseyJr wrote: Jul 07, 2024 10:11 AM So it was a M90, had a seized oil ring on 5 and coolant passages were too clogged as well as a bad headgasket.

I put the 8:1 back in, spent 4 days swapping that motor and the other one back in, in total around Christmas.

Took it to Barber, broke another front strut housing. Hoosiers were gripping too good. This led to me to get Ground Control coilovers for the car. I honestly hate them, but work has been busy so theyre still on the car. Just took it to Road Atlanta again in June and no real issues.

Current goal is get a 10:1 back in the car and revisit the suspension. Eituer put in the old stuff or put in Double Adjustable Race Inserts in these housings.

What do you hate about the Ground Control coilovers? I was thinking of picking up a set but have not seen much information about them.

MyE28.com

MyE28.com

FUBAR 528e, Gauging Condition of the M90

Re: FUBAR 6/22 R12 Cold A/C, E24 Recaros, accident repair , track stuff, Junkyarding etc

Re: FUBAR 8/31 Road Atlanta Trip!

Re: FUBAR 6/22 R12 Cold A/C, E24 Recaros, accident repair , track stuff, Junkyarding etc

Re: FUBAR 8/31 Tracking E28 at Road Atlanta, almost crackfree dash

Re: FUBAR 8/31 Tracking E28 at Road Atlanta, almost crackfree dash

Re: FUBAR 8/31 Tracking E28 at Road Atlanta, almost crackfree dash

Re: Vintage 2023

Re: FUBAR 528e, Catching up on Updates

Re: FUBAR 528e, Catching up on Updates

Re: FUBAR 528e, Cracked Subframe and Rear Floor Pan (diff mount)

Re: FUBAR 528e Cracked Subframe and Rear Floor Pan (diff mount)

Re: FUBAR 528e Cracked Subframe and Rear Floor Pan (diff mount)

Second Trip to Road Atlanta 2023 Pt. 1

FUBAR 528e Second Road Atlanta Trip Pt. 2

FUBAR 528e Second Road Atlanta Trip Pt. 3

Re: FUBAR 528e Second Road Atlanta Trip Pt. 2

Finally found a M90

Re: FUBAR 528e, Finally Found a M90

Re: FUBAR 528e, Finally Found a M90

Re: FUBAR 528e, Finally Found a M90

Re: FUBAR 528e, Gauging Condition of the M90

Re: FUBAR 528e, Gauging Condition of the M90

Re: FUBAR 528e, Gauging Condition of the M90

Re: FUBAR 528e, Gauging Condition of the M90

Re: FUBAR 528e, Gauging Condition of the M90

Re: FUBAR 528e, Gauging Condition of the M90