A turbo is born in Nebraska! e23 content

[Nebraska_e28]

Who’s ready for another boosted BMW thread? This one wont be cowtipping style but have a flavor all of it’s own that will manifest over time. Prior to starting in, I must give props to a few folks that gave me the e23 bug. Initially it started in 2009 when JohnnyE23 took me for a ride in his wicked azz executive. I thought at that time dang this thing is pretty fast & equally cool. Not long after that I took cruise in Mike H's 745i here locally. Then sometime shortly after (or before), Todd over at TCD brought a wicked articblau 745i back to life that had an encounter with a deer. Hmm…. That got me to thinking. Fast forward to 2013 when a nice piece of property came available in Vermont. I flew out & drove back home in the middle of winter. That car was a blast! The whole ride, feel, & power of a turbo 7 kinda had me hooked. Thanks again to Eric for the deal. I plotted & planned the upgrades I was going to do with the new found 7. Then while working long/boring back to back 12’s over the weekend I was searching the net for yet more ideas & inspiration. What else can I dig up on the interwebz? Enter one sweet youtube video sweet youtube video by some guy named Justin. After a little sleuth work I was able to trace it back to a member on the board aka SicStang03. That was enough for me! Time to get to building & customizing to my own specs! I scoured the net for another e23 in a different color that would definitely be a keeper. Enter the Spider House! I’ll use that moniker for now till I can find a cooler name. After getting it home I feared for my life several times while laying underneath it. This was an 83 745i that was in Cavour South Dakota apx 5 hours away from me. It had been sitting for at least 3-4 years. After the tranny went out, the PO severed the engine harness to hank the stock motor/tranny in order to swap in a chebby 350.

Without further ado, a few pictures & descriptions that will have little organization to them. Sorry by due to cardomain sucking arse, I’m having to make do. Oh, one more thing. Props to HitmanX for being a wealth of knowledge & TCD lately for parts requests, some of which have been trivial.

Here's what I'm starting out with:

[Nebraska_e28]

[Nebraska_e28]

[Nebraska_e28]

Going to try resizing pictures. A bit of a pita but will be more fun for reading in the long run.


I picked this handy item up courtesy of DJM1986-5.





Can you guess which chip got swapped out? I modified the stock 013 ecu to have a Jarmo chip from Finland.




Here's what a ecu/tcu sandwich looks like:




The stock harness was cut at the firewall & the fusebox. My motivation to solder/splice this declined exponentially. Thanks to Todd, he was able to provide a replacement:

[demetk]

Thanks for the pics. I admire your dedication to the cause and the fact you installed that engine in the middle of the night. Keep them coming.

[Nebraska_e28]

I saved this from a previously parted e23. It came in handy for reference of how the lines connect, not to mention I needed several pieces.

This has been hiding out in my stash. Perhaps it may come in handy? More on that later in the build.


Can you tell me what's wrong with this picture? The rear of the car already sits low, so I'm wondering what things should really look like.


I still have these in my stash but...


I stumbled on this:







And it had these...


After an perplexed call to my buddy Mike, this happened... And I'm sure you can predict what comes next.

[Nebraska_e28]

I drenched everything with degreaser & went to town with the pressure sprayer el-cheapo at home.



Aside from a missing motor & tranny & 10million nuts/bolts can you see the other depressing part here?

[Nebraska_e28]

As luck would have it, this car didn't come with a driveshaft (or tranny)... I had a spare one from this old car that popped up back in January. Unfortunately the ujoints were kinda toast. Oh well, I did more with less in the past so I figured it would have to do till I found another.

Low & behold I struck gold a few months later! Holy cow its a rare Alpina 7-series & it has a newer driveshaft! So do I buy just the driveshaft? Of course not if you know my style by now.









This ups my collection to 3 auto trannies now!



Of course you know what was next...


And then the inevitable... THE END

[Nebraska_e28]

By now the project is slowly in motion. Since I'm a man with a vision, i'm starting to envision things like this when done putting this ride together....







Oh yeah! I think I can do this now. I feel motivation starting to come over me! (or perhaps its too many late nights of wrenching & drinking)

[Nebraska_e28]

Well, things are extremely far from being done let alone being ready for the road. I know this whip is gonna need some new shoes, so one day I had Kohler moment & pulled out my stash. No, not that stash... I'm sure this will divide the purist & the radicals! *note* This car has only been gently washed by the finest of Nebraska rains since I took ownership.











I totally forgot to mock these up. Anyone got a pic with a set on an e23?

[Nebraska_e28]

In order to solve this wheel dilemma, I made call to Todd @TCD. Soon enroute were a set of staggered style 5's. And with that I'll use the 1 smiley I never get to use.





I was able to get a local professional to mount/balance tires & check things out for me. And we now have staggered wheels with 235/45-17 & 255/40-17


And here is how she currently sits in her rough state but progressive.

[Nebraska_e28]

Since the car is slowly coming together, I occasionally moved from cheap liquor to less cheap wine. Either its that evasive thing called motivation, or hanging with my buddy Franzia errrrr I mean Troy too much.



With the motor in, this thing is looking more like an actual car every other day.




Upon installing the charge piping, I found the IC mounts were busted. Luckily the Alpina I parted has a couple I was able to salvage.




Last week I drained the fuel tank & about 1 cup of lacquer smelling stuff came out. I even tilted the car a bit to get it all out, not wanting to drop the tank (yet). I filled it up with gas, & disconnected the feed line from the fuel rail. It was my hope I could run the pumps manually & see what came out, but nothing despite hearing them kick on by jumping the fp relay. (after putting a few gallons of fresh petro in) That failed & I was done for the night. The next day I put in a new f. filter & surrounding lines. Again I ran the pumps. It took a few second but then spash it came gushing! Things actually looked pretty damned clean! I ran about 48oz out to verify what I was seeing. I'm also putting a secondary inline filter before the rail for cheap insurance.

[Nebraska_e28]

As luck would have it, I found that 3 of the 6 injectors were seized or something. Luckily I had some spares in my warehouse. Dropped these in & now we have fire! Albeit NASCAR style with no exhaust. Knowing it would be a bit before I got an exhaust installed, I decided to try my handy work. Everyone knows the neighbors don't like open header exhaust at 2am in the morning. If you recall in my previous build, a Honda civic gave it's life so that my e28 could have boost. civic radiator = e28 intercooler This time a trip to the yard yielded me exactly what my evil genius was thinking. Coincidentally it came from another civic.


A cut cut here & hack hack there... Voila! My latest creation! I call it my Texas Track Pipe. (small jab @Sherman)
Who ever guessed making a y-pipe could be so simple & barbaric???









Also, I got a pretty good deal on these but will be returning them as I got a better deal on a complete exhaust from Todd. Thanks again!

[Coldswede]

LJ, let me know when you get to the HVAC system. I'm getting pretty handy trouble shooting the e23 system.

Your project looks pretty damn nice. You taking it to The VIntage next Spring?

[Nebraska_e28]

Thanks for the pics. I admire your dedication to the cause and the fact you installed that engine in the middle of the night. Keep them coming.

Thanks! It'll be a long road building this car with purpose. I'm planning it for regular DD status including all the creature comforts in addition to being a sleeper. The ultimate test will be at TexFest next month when I'm kicking arse & taking names in my couch on wheels!

LJ, let me know when you get to the HVAC system. I'm getting pretty handy trouble shooting the e23 system.

Your project looks pretty damn nice. You taking it to The VIntage next Spring?

Thanks for the offer, i'll keep you in mind!

You know I haven't thought that far ahead but it's definitely possible! Being a long haul cruiser it'll be super comfy, not to mention the cool factor will be there also. If I could bring both my turbo cars, that would be the ultimate!

[davintosh]

[M. Holtmeier]

This project has come a long way in short time! I can't wait to see the car cleaned up, I personally think the body and paint are going to be super nice. Good job, my friend!

[davintosh]

... If I could bring both my turbo cars, that would be the ultimate!

Just saw that as I was ogling your build again... Keep me in mind if you need a wingman (or a copilot); I'd love to hit Vintage again next year, but not sure if I'd want to make the trip solo, and the wife may not be up for a repeat trip.

[tig]

[JesterMX6]

subbed

[Nebraska_e28]

This project has come a long way in short time! I can't wait to see the car cleaned up, I personally think the body and paint are going to be super nice. Good job, my friend!

Thanks man! TexFest is around the corner!

... If I could bring both my turbo cars, that would be the ultimate!

Just saw that as I was ogling your build again... Keep me in mind if you need a wingman (or a copilot); I'd love to hit Vintage again next year, but not sure if I'd want to make the trip solo, and the wife may not be up for a repeat trip.

Will do. I'd like to try & get down there again next year.

Thanks Sir!

[Nebraska_e28]

A package arrived today. It's marked fragile. Hmm, maybe it's more imported euro glass from Germany for me to destroy?




What do we have here? Well the wait is over! It's a 3" exhaust courtesy of Todd & fabbed by Sweeny. Be sure to send your fab man my regards!
I guess my Texas Track Pipe will come off & this will replace it. Oh well, anyone trying to keep up will end up behind me so they can listen to the tone from the back!







Not much to look at, but another teaser:

[Nebraska_e28]

Small update:

Car is back from the muffler shop & the new exhaust is tucked under there nicely. They made a custom y-pipe to go from the m106 twin downpipe into the 3" exhaust. Car sounds good! Despite some cabin noise due to no carpet or sound deadening. It's currently bumperless or I'd post a pic.

On the agenda for this weekend:

I need to figure out why there's a blasted misfire due to some weird arching near the dizzy. I installed new oem cap & rotors. In addition I swapped wires & the plugs are newer.
Also I'm hoping to fab some brackets so I can get the Alfa Romeo seats bolted in.

Stay tuned!

[Nebraska_e28]

Spent $$$ on more parts that should be here at weeks end...

[oldskool]

Damn son. Do work!!

[Hit Man X]

Glad I can be of assistance on resurrecting another 745i

[1st 5er]

2 weeks.

Can't wait to see this beast in action.

[Nebraska_e28]

Not much to report.

I converted the car over to an e34 tps. Also I'm fighting with an intermittent misfire that comes from arching near the dist cap.

[SteveCO]

Sweet car man

[Hffvdbl]

Nice work!