Vlad: The Zinno '87 535is

[tig]

I have a massive order of parts ready to go from Blunttech. I'll pull the trigger on ordering them in late June just before I get back from some upcoming travels with the plan of diving in to the "Vlad refresh" right after, with the goal of having the car ready for the Drive4Corners 2026 event.

Engine:

• I’m 99% sure the Paul Burke N21 camshaft is fine, but will get it magnafluxed to be sure. But I’m assuming the sprocket, chain and guides need to be replaced. Clearly all rockers need replacing.
• I’ll be dropping the engine & transmission and want to replace anything that should be replaced after about 40k miles. Rear main seal, timing chain covers, and oil pan are all leaking.
• I'll finally rip out the PO's weird-ass relays and stuff for the headlights. It all works, but looks wonky.
• I'm probably going to do an e-fan.
• The engine bay will become spotless again.

Transmission

• The transmission in the car is not healthy. Plan A is to put in the G265. I have a Ronald G265 shifter on order from him, but there's a chance he won't be able to finish it in time. In that case I'll put in the backup G260.

Suspension

• Suspension was last refreshed at 194k miles; car now has 214k. I can feel that it’s gotten looser, but nothing is obviously bad. Since I’ll be dropping the front subframe I might was well refresh it all. The moosehead UCAs are fine, as are the powerflex rear subframe bushings.

For now, Vlad sits ready... I had hoped Ed Lopez, who was in town last weekend to detail several folks cars, would have time to re-do the ceramic on Vlad, so I started prepping for that. However Ed had to leave early (he did coat my 911 and it looks AMAZING).

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The trusty cradle was with a friend in Seattle. He finally shipped it back to me. Still works great.











Yep, rear main seal is done. The input side of the tranny is fine, but the tranny is still toast.





#donotbroadcast - I would never admit my mistakes. Especially when I try to transfer the engine to the stand without using my hoist, because said hoist's hydraulic cylinder has decided to stop working. And, in the process the engine/cradle tip over, causing all oil and remaining fluids to Valdez across the floor, and causing the oil pump pully to get bent.








A 3-hour round trip to Farmington and Harbor Freight later....

[tig]

Luck: When opportunity meets preparation.











Bottom end seems fine. I am going to carefully clean off the piston tops to make double sure though.














Not quite sure how all the rockers aren't broken. Until I get an "iron maiden" spring compressor (one inbound), I can't really see how the valves are bent, but I'm assuming they all are.

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Who amongst you *doesn't* have a steering box fort?





Used this as an opportunity to verify the wiki has correct info on E28 Power Steering pumps: https://wiki.mye28.com/index.php/Steering

















Vlad is getting the blue-label, M635Csi, 3.0 turn-to-turn box that I, apparently, bought as a reman. Oh, for a memory that was worth a darn.

[tig]

Transmission plan A:

Install the G265/6 I have on a shelf along with an Autosolutions shifter that Ronald has been building for me since last October. He's got health issues and is moving slow; hopefully it'll be here next week.

Transmission plan B:

Use the backup G260/6 I have and the current Autosolutions shifter, which I love. The 2nd G260/6 is from the turbo car I parted out and may or may not be any better than the one in the car, but it likely isn't any worse (recall that Vlad's original has really loud "death rattle" and each fluid change has tons of metal on the plug magnet.









I may have found a tranny re-builder in Farmington that knows his stuff. If so, I'll be taking all my shelf-transmissions in to get them all rebuilt. I should have done this years ago... what's the point of having a backup transmission that's not "known good"?

[tig]

Clean, again. At least underneath.








I put the subframe and steering components back in, but didn't reconnect the steering shaft. Thinking this setup would let me move the car around.

That was dumb, because now the car is basically stuck were you see it because the dolly wheels sink in. This morning's job is to rectify that so I can get another car on the lift to do some work on it while I wait for parts.

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Plan-ish:

• Pull all PS hoses and take them to a local shop that says they can rebuild them.
• Rebuild the PS pump; seal kit inbound.
• Vlad's engine bay wiring has always been an eye sore. I will rip out all the PO headlight wiring/relays, install the very latest rev of the Holy Grail Labs BMW E28/E12/E23/E24 Blade Fuse Box Upgrade Kit (a prototype is currently installed), and completely clean up all engine bay wiring.
• Rebuild the oil pump. When I built the engine, I opened it up and cleaned it all, but didn't know what I was doing. I always figured THAT is what would fail on this engine, and I don't want to lie awake in bed worrying about it anymore.
• Disassemble the broken head and assemble the new one.
• Double check the pistons are ok.
• R&R all suspension stuff (I haz all new parts).
• Put engine & transmission together and back in (see transmission note above).
• Re-ceramic coat the car.

All before August 7, in time for Drive4Corners 2026 - Aug 7-9, Durango, CO.

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Oops, forgot one other item on the list:

I've ordered another ECU from Classic Daily and will finally replace the Miller WAR chip/MAF. I'm pleased with the same setup in Maytag and Jake's been great help.

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Got the PS lines out and am starting in on the electrics.

Found a place in CA (Mesa) that will rebuild our PS lines. I’ve shipped them and the guy said he can do a quick turn…

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Mike Holtmeier has lent me his Iron Maiden. Came today.

All went smoothly except for the broken rocker. The IM wouldn’t reach it because of the break and it wouldn’t rotate because the non broken part was hitting the spring. I thought about cutting it, but figured a whack with a drift and hammer may break the rest off… and it did.











Camshaft goes to a machine shop Monday to get magnufluxed. Guy says he’ll do it while I wait.

I now have all parts to reassemble / seal the bottom end so that will start this weekend.

[tig]

I hope y’all buy from Blunttech. Such great service and help.

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The power steering lines were leaking badly in 2013. This time I was determined to get them rebuilt.

I failed to find anyone local who would do it.

Someone suggested these guys and not only did they nail it, but I had them back 4 days after I sent them in.

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My original Paul Burke specified M30B35 head was not ported. I now remember when talking with him I decided not to port it as he suggested because I wanted to keep thing simple as I was such a noob.

The head he built is definitely ported!

My intake manifold is not. And the gaskets I bought have the big bump on them and are even slightly smaller than the stock intake portsl. I've already tossed the ones that were on the car, so I don't remember the shape, Hopefully they were these, and not those ones with the hump.



These are still too small for the head (but ok for the stock intake).

I'm torn on whether I should get the die grindr out and take the time now to port the intake to match. Using gasket material I got from Blunttech, I've made one correct gasket and will make 5 more for sure. But whether I actually do the intake is up for debate. I'm running out of time for the event this weekend...

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[MLastovo]

I dig the new box!

The kid's come a long way,
D.

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We all know that death rattle sounds like.

This is what it looks like.

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This is the spare.

Better-ish.

Of course right after I got the engine and transmission back in car the new bearings showed up.

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Thursday afternoon...























Travis showed up at about 8:30pm...

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By 11:30pm:














Sadly, while we had it running, the car was not drivable in time for the drive4corners drive saturday morning. It was overheating because, of course, I had put the t-stat in backwards.





So I drove the 911 instead.

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By about 2pm after the drive Saturday, I swapped the t-stat and took off the Fikse's which I really don't love; they were just on the car so I could use up the rubber.

35 degrees of final torque...





Now with BBS RS VLAD IS BACK, BABY!

[Tiit]

Very cool inspiring read. Thanks for sharing.
 I assume you didn't port the intake manifold? It could be hard work and probably impossible to improve b35 intake significantly. Ported head deserves ITB setup.
  How well did your firewall insulation held up. I remember you did something with it years ago. 
  Cheers. 

[tig]

The head unit in Vlad seems to have lost the rear channel.

I decided to give the Blaupunkt Skagen 400 DAB a go (see viewtopic.php?p=1549915#p1549915).

Vlad has a po installed amp and sub in trunk.

Fantastic. Simple. Clean sound.

Haven’t tested BT calls yet as it has a 2.5mm in and my mic has a 3.5mm out. Adapter should be here tomorrow.