My '86 535i

[Stevo12]

Sit rep: 2k on the odo since the swap. Driving it the 100 miles round trip to work nearly every day will do that.

Coolant light came on during my way home from work tonight, and I had the house to myself, so I went and replaced my heater valve, the source of the leak. This is what came out:



So far, no leaks, but I only had an around-town shakedown to go see a friend's new digs on the other side of town. Tomorrow will show whether the repair was successful in stemming my coolant leak. I also wonder if this was the culprit behind my heat loss at extended high-RPM cruising.

I also got tired of the car marking its spot on wet days...it's embarrassing at work. So after I got the cooling system buttoned back up, I put it up on ramps to check for any major oil leaks. My head gasket is seeping, I knew that, but not enough to cause a major drip. Earlier today, I dragged my finger across one of its rainbow spots and it was not oily, so I doubly hoping it was just the coolant leak making its presence known.

Then, I fixed a tiny gas leak on the feed line to the fuel rail. It was small but I would get a whiff of fumes every now and then - I thought it was the charcoal canister. What's weird is that the hose clamp wasn't really that loose, so maybe I need to cut that end off or replace the whole hose. But when I tightened it, the leak did stop.

Last, I started to look into the idle surge a little more, despite the 5k-old O2 sensor, used AFM, valve adjustment in the last year/5k miles, new ICV hose, used ICV...I checked the throttle plate clearance and its around .0015. Bentley's gives that as the 528e spec, I don't know if its different for the 535i, which they just give as a "eh, it's not touching the walls" spec (my paraphrase). While I had the engine running, I investigated if bumping the butterfly valve just a tiny bit would smooth out the idle - currently it pulses from 6-800 rpm - and it did. Couldn't tell you what the RPM were but probably around the 800 mark going by the sound (since it was like the high side of the pulse). Unfortunately that's when I got the call from my friend that he was over at the new house, so I just cleaned everything up and went over there. I just got done w/ checking the Bentley's to see where the throttle stop is (I was looking and couldn't find it....it's on the cable)

She's getting there little by little. Good news is that she's 2k miles into the swap already (I can't believe it) and things are going relatively smooth.

[Stevo12]

Parked her after the commute on Friday before the snow and salt flew yesterday. With more expected Tuesday and Thursday, and temps dropping down into the teens, it looks like the Jetta is going to be pressed back into duty. The E28 is currently sitting at 207,100 miles, just shy of 3,000 miles on the swap.



I was thinking to myself as I was driving home, I want to figure something out w/ the shift knob that I installed with the swap. The leather covering is delaminating. I have a shift knob I pulled from the E34 that I also got the style 5's from, and so I threw it on, just to see what it looks like. I'm not sure the wood goes with the rest of the interior, but damn it's in fine shape

Old knob:


New knob:


This was also when I realized that my thru-bolt solution of mounting the aluminum shift console is coming apart, I've got about an inch or so of vertical play, so I need to put it up on ramps and see what the deal is. Not today though, it's very wet outside.

Today also marks the beginning of my M30 build. As I've alluded to, I've got a the M30B34 motor from my '87 parts car with 118k miles on it. I've always wanted to build a motor and envisioned finding a SBC or SBF to build and then find a project to put it in, but after pulling the motor from the parts car, I figured I might as well do a motor build to put into the E28. So until today it's been sitting in my garage as I've pulled it, torque converter and all. This is going to be done amongst a major re-organization of the garage and some TLC to be performed on the Miata this winter.

So I set about removing the M1.0 harness, and breaking a couple of injector clips while I was at it.




I removed the starter, cleaned out a bunch of remnants from the creatures that were living in the car as it sat, and broke out the engine hoist to remove the bottom cover. Getting the converter bolts out was so much easier second time around. I stopped after getting the converter off, next will be getting it onto the stand for disassembly.

After seeing the bowels of the M30, I'm thinking I'm going to go ahead and disable the CSV on the E28 (if it isn't already - it's been pretty slow to start this winter). I'm also going to send out the injectors on the parts motor to be re-built to go on the E28 before the new motor goes on. Then the injectors that are currently in the car will also go out to be re-built to be put on the built motor.

[foolish]

Are you planning on making any changes on the motor you are going to rebuild?

[Stevo12]

The short answer is yes, but I'm not quite sure exactly what I'll do to the motor at this point, I would like it to have more kick than the M30 that's currently in the car, although I could probably put in a fresh B34 and accomplish that.

Before I was thinking of doing a B35 build with it, and I still may do that. Also on the table is just doing some head work to the B34 head that's currently on it, but I'm unsure how much I'd actually gain from it. Turbo may be an option but I'm not thinking I want to do engine management as well - even though I do want to do a M1.3 swap so going MS would not be much more of a stretch (except for tuning). Part of the reason I'm expecting the motor build to take a while is not only my slow amassing of parts (I haven't started acquiring any B35 stuff yet) but also for me to make up my damn mind

[Stevo12]

This was also when I realized that my thru-bolt solution of mounting the aluminum shift console is coming apart, I've got about an inch or so of vertical play, so I need to put it up on ramps and see what the deal is.

So I did just that today. I lost the delrin bushing on the rear of the shift console, must have vibrated off.

Also, the car is marking its spot more than I'd like. I might pull the trans cover to see if it it's the RMS - I didn't re-replace it when I found that the carrier wasn't fully tightened, and my other faux-pas with that install is that I didn't use the spacer, so I may still have some leakage. My other possible culprit is that my head gasket is leaking externally. It probably needs the bolts tightened down. I think it may be the latter, because there's oil coming from higher up on the motor, and leaking on the shifter linkage. It's not the shift shaft seal, it's definitely motor oil.

[Stevo12]

Poor car has been getting dumped on the past week. As in snow, since the Miata is taking up the garage this winter. We got a surprise foot+ of it yesterday, which necessitated me needing to move out of its snow tomb to get the driveway cleared.

Sure enough, her old bones fired right up in 10-deg weather after sitting since last week's snowfall

[Stevo12]

Haven't had an update in a while, but she's still truckin'. About to round 209,000 miles and coming up on 1 year of ownership.

No pictures, sadly, but I did a spit shine on Saturday just to get the rest of the winter grime off and gave the interior a good vacuum. Saw a very clean and original E34 540i at the car wash and the guy gave the car a thumbs up even though his was in WAY nicer shape than my leaking POS.

So the RMS is still leaking, as is the head gasket. I finally got the Miata out so I can start pulling everything out AGAIN to fix the leak.

While I was doing up the interior on Saturday, I replaced one of the front speakers - the rusty 535is parts car comes to the rescue again - and in the process of taking out one of the rear speakers to replace it with one from the 535is, I found that one of the connections just simply fell off and that's why it had stopped working. So, for the first time since I've owned the car I have a true 4-speaker stereo. It's the small things in life...

I cruised w/ a friend to the CCSU car show Saturday afternoon, then promptly left. I enjoy driving the car more than trying to impress a bunch of fools in stancebro-lookalike Subarus. The steering/stability is starting to get a little spooky on the highway, so the tie rod ends and center link may need a replacement. Oh, and I think the rear right shock mount may have just given way as well. We'll find out soon.

[Stevo12]

Felt bad for not leaving some pics:

1 Year Ago:



Today:

[lizard]

This is one of my all-time favorite threads ever, on this board and every other board on Earth. I am impressed with your perseverance! Keep posting!

[tig]

What lizard said.

[Stevo12]

Thanks for the words of encouragement, guys! I can still remember mulling over the purchase decision with my then-girlfriend (now fianceé!) and I can't believe it's been a year with the car - it's been great!

On the car, I still haven't gotten to the bottom of of my shock mount debacle. Thus, I haven't driven the car much because I still have the evap collector box thing removed and the lines plugged and I don't care to drive it while it's like that - even though the internet says it won't hurt anything, it's just easier to take the other car. I will also be addressing the center link and tie rods shortly as highway stability has gotten a little sketchy. More $$ to FCP Euro.

I did, however, take the 10 mins. I had last night with the car to mess with the $12 eBay keyless kit that I attempted to install months ago. Got the system to work (albeit backwards; just have to reverse the trigger wire taps) briefly before it stopped again. Long story short, the instructions I had were useless and are now actually lost - so I'm using the "most cheap Chinese keyless kits come from the same factory and are probably wired the same" approach and using a few of the writeups I find here to get it installed. I'm probably pretty close. I just ran out of time and patience as I had just come back from a 1,000-mi. road trip and wedding in VA this past weekend.

[Stevo12]

Got the keyless working the other day. Thank god for Chinese standardization - I found some other kit instructions online (mine were long lost) and figured out what made it work. Next, I'll need to get the range to be more than 2-ft, but at least I won't have to use the drivers door lock.



Next, the seats. Last night I went over to my buddy's house to help install some Corbeau racing seats in his E36 M3. That inspired me to get off my ass and install the Sportsitze from the 535is. With the lady off to Boston for the day, and almost killing myself from an allergy attack post-yardwork, I decided that if it was going to be my last act, it would be to get those sportsitze into the '86.



I started with the passenger side. Quickly figured out that the bolts that go with the comfort seats DO NOT fit the sport seats (need longer bolts). Fortunately, I had a stash of new bolts - don't know what size they were, but they were the same size and pitch as what came out. Getting the fit right was a pain, even though they are supposedly bolt-in, there's a lot of massaging to be done.

The seat belts look to be different between the sport seats from the '87, and the comfort seats in the '86. First tip-off was the buckles:



The '86 comfort seat buckle is on the left, '87 sport seat buckle is on the right. Obviously the bottom brackets are different, but the seat belt in the '86 does not fit the '87 recepticle. I don't want to pull the seat belts from the '87 because they are buried in my stash of parts. Plus the ones in the '86 are nice. Ideally I'd like to take the bracket off the '87 buckle (especially since there are pieces rolling around in there, so the buckle is probably fubar) and bolt it up to the '86 buckle.

Since the installation is not finished, and I was sick of working in the driveway at night, I will pick this back up tomorrow. This leaves the other project I had hoped to start sitting on my porch:



It'll go in my garage tomorrow where I'll start prepping it for paint.

I came inside to find my helper doing what he does best: not helping. He is incredibly good-looking, though. And being a rescue, I didn't think I would be at this point (no anxiety from him being inside vs. me being outside) less than a year in!

[Stevo12]

Somehow, the drivers seat was much more painless to install than the passenger one was. Got the seats swapped in about 30 minutes, vacuumed out the interior and cleaned the front and back seats. Need to run out and get some conditioner later. All the motors work, except for the power bolsters. From what I see online, the harnesses should be somewhere in the car already.

Still gotta figure out the seatbelts. Shame, because I would like to take the E28 to the cookout we're going to this afternoon. But I think we'll take the Miata instead. Basically the issue is twofold:

1) The recepticles and mounting brackets are different - the receptacles and brackets from the sport seats are different than the comfort seats. Seems to be a late vs. early seat belt? It seems weird since I'm dealing with a late-production MY1986 (6/86 production date) 535i and an early-production MY1987 (9/86 production date) 535is parts car.

2) The bottom mounts of the seat belts (where the belt mounts to the seat) are also not compatible. Might just find an extended bolt and spacer. Not sure how the originals mounted, the car was cut up last year.

Pics for clicks:

[Stevo12]

Sportsitze and seat belts are in. Cruising to the shoreline tomorrow!



Bent the comfort seat receptacle bases. I figured if I regretted the sport seat install I can always bend them back. Truth be told, I really like how comfortable the comfort seats are given the 'cruiser' role of this car - cut springs and all. Which reminds me, if I'm expected to drive people

Last but not least, my FCP parts delivery service came to the cookout with my center link, tie rods, and oil filter for the 210k-mile oil change due in (probably) a few weeks.



Oh, and the helper stopped by. Just to see if I needed help. Thanks, dog.

[Stevo12]

Last Sunday, I cruised to the shoreline (Noank) for some good seafood. I didn't get a good picture of our caravan, but we had a good selection - E36 M3, E92 M3, a couple GTI's (Mk5 and Mk6, as shown), an Audi S4, and of course the E28. I was backed up to a bunch of boats and only got a front-end shot of the E28. The car sat in traffic for a good half hour or so and didn't overheat, which was great. Sport seats feel pretty decent!



On Thursday, I met RoyW up in Sturbridge, MA. Great guy, I have to go back and see the barn (thanks for the invite Roy, will definitely take you up on that) so I can see what a real E28 looks like. When I drove the BMW up, it looked like absolute garbage due to all the pollen, and I was hoping given the forecast that it would all be washed away. But while thunderclouds raged above us, rain didn't fall until we were parting ways, and even then, I encountered all of 2 mins of rain before it was back to being humid and disgusting out. Why do I live here?

Yesterday, I decided to give the whole fleet a wash - only enough time to get the pollen off all 4 cars, no time to wax or detail since I worked yesterday and we had plans that night. But I did give the seats a once-over with Griots 3-in-1 leather cleaner since I desperately wanted to condition the sport seats. I started to drink the Griots koolaid and between the 2 products I've tried so far - their wheel cleaner (magical) and now the leather cleaner/conditioner - I'm hooked.

Oh, pictures. Right. So here's the E28 with its brothers and sisters:



Another shot from the side:



And a little bling I added (the FCP sticker has been there since last year), which also got added to the Frontier (they came as a mirrored set). I have some "Respect Your Elders" stickers coming as well.



Today it's finally raining here. Sucks, because I just washed the cars, but the way I look at it they would have looked like shit if I hadn't, so I'm glad it did. It also sucks because I was going to give the E28 another good vacuum. Also "one of these days" I'll do the tie rods and center link replacement.

[tig]

Good stuff! Keep it coming.

[bkbimmer]

I like that old house.

[Stevo12]

Thanks! It's a 1951 cape, most houses in my neighborhood look just like it. Its been a pretty good house for the last 4 years, just needs some work in the garage (or just a bigger garage)

[Stevo12]

Of course, I take it to downtown Hartford and the sunroof stops working. Thanks BMW for knowing this would eventually happen and supplying the appropriate Allen wrench in the tool kit. Much appreciated. I thought it was peculiar that the stop switches in the sunroof mechanism started working as they should in the last day or so. I hope it just caught in the right place to not actuate, and that the motor didn't shit the bed...

Finally getting down to replacing the center link and tie rods this weekend. Contemplating taking this up to New Hampshire next weekend to round out 210,000 miles.



Edit: of course, the doucher worked later...carry on...

[Stevo12]

Added more bling

[Stevo12]

Sit Rep: car is up on stands in the driveway. Most of the oil that's leaking seems to be coming from the head gasket. That's good news, I think I'm safe on the RMS job (remember I was never confident that it took...I did it successfully on the Miata so I at least know how to do it...). The bad news is that the trans is also leaking oil. Probably out of the shifter shaft seal. I knew I should have R&R'd the trans when I did the conversion. Oh well. The engine will probably come out this winter anyway, I'll just pull the whole gambit which should make things easier...in theory. But back to good news, brakes look solid for 5k - I was worried that the brake pull was due to a dragging caliper, but I know now that the RF tie rod is bad (a lot of play) so I'll just replace both (LF seems to be OK but I should do it anyway) and hold off on the center link, which looks to be in good shape. FCP return policy FTW.

Here she is, getting new tie rods and she'll get an alignment later this week before NH.

[Stevo12]

Ended up replacing the tie rods, center link, and idler arm. Steering is MUCH better, no more popping in the front end (yes, I checked the steering box mount for the 4th time!), and no more brake pull.

The RF tie rod, and center link swivel on the idler arm side were bad. The RF tie rod was a Genuine BMW item, LF was a Lemforder. My guess is someone replaced one without the other.

Replaced both with Meyle units, same with center link. Ordered an idler arm last minute because I noticed some play in the bushing. That ended up being Lemforder.

She's Boston-bound tomorrow, depending on how my friend feels about road tripping in a 30 year old trap, she'll ride all the way up to NH

[Stevo12]

Not a good start to the week....



After replacing the steering, I drove it to Boston and back this weekend with zero issues. Since it was the last car in the driveway this morning, I took it to work. When I got to Hartford, there was a bang (didn't hit a bump or anything) and the front right dropped like I had a flat tire. Got the car pulled over and checked, no flat tire. Then I thought a ball joint had failed, but the tie rods aren't hanging, and I still had steering. In fact, nothing is hanging. I checked the strut bearings, and they're not poking through the strut tower.

So by process of elimination, I've either broken a spring or spring perch. What a great way to celebrate 210,000 miles.

[Stevo12]

Was hoping for a broken spring, got a broken spring perch.

Funny story: Steve and Gareth were working on Steve's E28 last week, replacing steering parts. Both front wheels were up and off the car. Gareth takes a look at the RF strut tube and peels off a couple flakes and says that doesn't look too good. Steve says yeah it'll hold. WRONG. Gareth didn't say I told you so, even he was surprised it blew today.

It's a good thing the BC Racing kit uses the lower half...

Here are pics of the carnage:

[wkohler]

Wow. That sucks. Do you have struts from the other car? You will probably have to get that wheel rebalanced!

[Stevo12]

Wow. That sucks. Do you have struts from the other car? You will probably have to get that wheel rebalanced!

I do, but quite honestly I don't trust those either. They are a lot more scaly than these ones. I was only keeping them around because 1) they still have the Bilstein inserts from the 535is (which even those are in unknown condition) and the collars are seized on, and 2) I could MAYBE use the bottom half for a BC Racing/IE coilover build if that ended up being the direction I wanted to go in - and even then, I'd probably end up replacing the bearing/hub assemblies.

Since I now have a failed strut tube w/ good hardware, I will probably just use this opportunity to install BC Racing coilovers. As much as I hate for my garage to be taken up once again by a disabled car, I think I'm going to find a way to get it in there so I can work on it over time - my free time in the upcoming weeks is pretty limited.

And yes, that wheel is gonna need some love Thanks for the condolences.

[Stevo12]

Yup...not using these.




Instead of drowning my sorrows in bourbon, I decided to remove the spoiler and inner trim from the 535is spoiler. I did so, then went inside for some bourbon.

[Stevo12]

Bought an Ireland Engineering coilover sleeve kit. Going to grind down the strut tube and install the collar and repaint the housings, then install the sleeve. Will convert the fronts to run 2.5" ID springs at the stock rate or bump it up slightly, I have to check my stock. I can covert the rears later, but I've also been losing steam on this car. It's been down this whole time, and maybe that's part of it, but I don't well up with tears at the thought of selling it (already have an ad drafted up for it). Maybe it is time, because to get it perfect, it's going to take a whole lot more money than will be in my bank account in the next couple of years. And the car deserves to be driven...

[Stevo12]

Alright I listed the car FS, but thought it would be prudent to at least fix the front suspension and see where I'm at before I jump ship. So , the past couple of evenings I have been breaking it down in preparation of getting the IE coilover kit installed. I also put the Style 5's on the rear, and they will be placed on the fronts when the repair is done.





I made the mistake of not loosening the strut retaining collars before I took them off the car. I did a quick search, and one of the threads suggested bolting one of the wheels to the strut to get a stable base. With the tools below, I got the left strut out first.



The right one was a little more difficult. After a couple whacks, it didn't come out like the other one, so I used the jack handle on the pipe wrench and it came right off. Found a nice pair of Bilstein Tourings as my front struts.



With my new-found retaining collar-removal method, I decided to give another try on the 535is front struts to give me an option when I go to replace them. Sadly, they will not budge, the collar is different - meaning my small-azz pipe wrench doesn't fit - and the big guy is nowhere to be found.

So, still figuring out what I want to do with these:



Rebound seems fine, but other than that I have no idea the condition of these. If the Tourings can handle slightly increased rates - say, 250-300 lbs/in, then I'll keep 'em in because I know they are good.

edit: I guess they don't take too well to lowering springs, so they're probably out. Hopefully I can get the 535is struts out, and that they work

[Stevo12]

Well I went ahead and ordered Bilstein Sports. That'll give me some time to get the 535is Bilsteins out and see if they'll do. Or find a used set of Sports to go on this not-so-perfect car. If not, then the new Sports will go on. I think the Tourings are starting to leak anyway, there was some hydraulic oil that came out of the bottom of the left strut after I went and posted, but I'm not sure if it's from the Tourings (they look pretty new) or from the previous struts. Anyway, the Sports and IE kit will allow me to use my arsenal of 2.5" ID springs from my various Miata suspension builds and have a halfway-decent lowering setup instead of the cut springs, so I suppose that's a win.

I also ordered a Limited Slip Engineering front sway bar bracket kit to replace the old crossthreaded ones and finally have a front sway bar again.