1988 Salmon Silver 528E

[DOUBLEOH9]

Howdy all, I recently picked up this 1988 E28. 









It's got a Euro bumper conversion front and back, an E2I conversion, and a Bilstein B6/ red stripe spring combo.

First step was getting that awful tailpipe and the very boomy Magnaflow cannister muffler off and replacing it with a Borla XPS. 

Next was swapping the steering wheel for the included stock one, and swapping the Blaupunkt radio for a Pioneer SXT-C10PS (and removing the blown sub and fairly sketchy amps from under the back seat and replacing it with a small 4-channel ) 







Did a valve adjustment and stuck a borescope down the cylinders while chasing a tick 




Valves were all in spec so using the old methods ( 24" 3/8ths extension held to my ear lol ) I determined it was these making a racket so i've got a refurbished set on the way



The previous owner included a replica BBS front valance ( I believe it's the "Classic Euro Parts" one) 



and some old blue cloth seat upholstery to replace the very haggard original under the covers. I also have the blue cloth door panels to go back on once i get them cleaned up 



future plans include a 173 ECU with a chip from EAT, an M-tech 1 wheel that is on the way, and probably some suspension work / different wheels 

 

[turbodan]

Somebody went ahead and bolted on a B25 intake manifold in conjunction with a 7 bearing cam. Might just be an e to i swap in there, would be hard to tell for sure without a closer look. The spacer between the throttle body and intake manifold is odd, makes me wonder if they made an adapter between the 2.7 throttle body and the 2.5 manifold.

If it's got double valve springs installed that -173 DME would be a great idea. Looks like it does but it's hard to tell from the pic. I see head studs too, which is very interesting. I would be inclined to look into the throttle body, if its still got the 2.7 TB it will choke up a bit on the top end.

[DOUBLEOH9]

Somebody went ahead and bolted on a B25 intake manifold in conjunction with a 7 bearing cam. Might just be an e to i swap in there, would be hard to tell for sure without a closer look. The spacer between the throttle body and intake manifold is odd, makes me wonder if they made an adapter between the 2.7 throttle body and the 2.5 manifold.

If it's got double valve springs installed that -173 DME would be a great idea. Looks like it does but it's hard to tell from the pic. I see head studs too, which is very interesting. I would be inclined to look into the throttle body, if its still got the 2.7 TB it will choke up a bit on the top end.

Thank you for the info! It's definitely an E2i setup. Is there an easy tell on which throttle body it is? The previous owner kept very good records except for the E2i stuff. I thought the ARP studs were an interesting choice too, but I'm not complaining about them! 

[AlpinaPat]

Welcome and nice E28! Always liked salmon silver the best of all the silvers, yet somehow never owned a BMW in that color...

The blue seats are an improvement too, nice work.

How do you like that Pioneer deck?

[tuxkilla]

This thing is sick. I live in Franklin, recently I have seen like 3 euro e28s running around the recently. The e28 revolution has begun (again)!!

Sent you a PM.

[DOUBLEOH9]

Welcome and nice E28! Always liked salmon silver the best of all the silvers, yet somehow never owned a BMW in that color...

The blue seats are an improvement too, nice work.

How do you like that Pioneer deck?

Thanks! Apparently monochromatic cars are just what I like based on my CTS-V and C-10 



Pioneer deck is fantastic so far. It remembers what input you had it on, the buttons feel nice, and sound quality is very good. In retrospect, it's probably not worth the price with the import duties coming to the U.S. from Europe, but to Canada I'd imagine that's less of an issue. 

[turbodan]

Somebody went ahead and bolted on a B25 intake manifold in conjunction with a 7 bearing cam. Might just be an e to i swap in there, would be hard to tell for sure without a closer look. The spacer between the throttle body and intake manifold is odd, makes me wonder if they made an adapter between the 2.7 throttle body and the 2.5 manifold.

If it's got double valve springs installed that -173 DME would be a great idea. Looks like it does but it's hard to tell from the pic. I see head studs too, which is very interesting. I would be inclined to look into the throttle body, if its still got the 2.7 TB it will choke up a bit on the top end.

Thank you for the info! It's definitely an E2i setup. Is there an easy tell on which throttle body it is? The previous owner kept very good records except for the E2i stuff. I thought the ARP studs were an interesting choice too, but I'm not complaining about them! 

 

 

If there is a seven digit part number on the elbow between the AFM and throttle body we can tell by that. The B25 throttle body is much larger, all the way through, and the boot is larger to suit.

If you pop the boot off and take a picture of the throttle plate I can measure it with the eyecrometer too.

[DOUBLEOH9]

This thing is sick. I live in Franklin, recently I have seen like 3 euro e28s running around the recently. The e28 revolution has begun (again)!!

Sent you a PM.

 

 

Got your PM but don't seem to have access to reply yet! I work in Franklin so you might have seen this one around! It's become my daily at this point

[DOUBLEOH9]

Thank you for the info! It's definitely an E2i setup. Is there an easy tell on which throttle body it is? The previous owner kept very good records except for the E2i stuff. I thought the ARP studs were an interesting choice too, but I'm not complaining about them! 

 

If there is a seven digit part number on the elbow between the AFM and throttle body we can tell by that. The B25 throttle body is much larger, all the way through, and the boot is larger to suit.

If you pop the boot off and take a picture of the throttle plate I can measure it with the eyecrometer too.

10-4 thank you. I'll check it on lunch and report back.

[DOUBLEOH9]

Thank you for the info! It's definitely an E2i setup. Is there an easy tell on which throttle body it is? The previous owner kept very good records except for the E2i stuff. I thought the ARP studs were an interesting choice too, but I'm not complaining about them! 

 

If there is a seven digit part number on the elbow between the AFM and throttle body we can tell by that. The B25 throttle body is much larger, all the way through, and the boot is larger to suit.

If you pop the boot off and take a picture of the throttle plate I can measure it with the eyecrometer too.

No part number on the boot at all that I could find, so I guess its an aftermarket replacement. 



and here is another view of the spacer. I did find an old receipt from SSSquid with "spacer" as a line item so it might be from there?

[turbodan]

Looks like the correct B25 throttle body. That spacer isn't really doing anything but cramping the boot, but at this point it's not worth the trouble to take apart just to remove it.

They did all this but not the ecu? It still hits the limiter at 5300?

[DOUBLEOH9]

Looks like the correct B25 throttle body. That spacer isn't really doing anything but cramping the boot, but at this point it's not worth the trouble to take apart just to remove it.

They did all this but not the ecu? It still hits the limiter at 5300?

From what the previous owner told me, it had a 173 DME previously with a sssquid chip for the M50 injectors, and at some point it fried itself so the shop he had it at put in an old Programa 153 DME with the 325i programing. So now it runs fairly rich and doesn't have the smoothest idle. 

[turbodan]

The previous owner was doing some janky shit. M50 injectors are poorly suited to the M20, they use a dual-cone shaped spray pattern that will be blasting right into the port walls. There is also no power to be gained over the correct injectors unless the engine has been much more significantly modified. I would pull them out without delay and install the proper super eta/M20B25 injectors. These have different color codes but the same impedance and flow rate. I may have some laying around if you have any trouble sourcing them. Another difference is the AFM, the super eta unit is significantly different internally, the M20B25 housing has a different internal curvature and generates less signal for any given amount of flow up to a certain point. That should have a part number on it to identify which one you've got.

I will wrap up this latest bit of unsolicited advice by mentioning that they make Megasquirt plug and play units that will eliminate the AFM entirely and can be easily configured for whatever injector size you desire. Motronic was a great system 40 years ago but it's getting increasingly difficult to find good spares for things like the AFM and DME. Before I went down that road with my 88 I tried to drive it stock and leave well enough alone. It exhibited peculiar drivability quirks and had a tendency to bog down after cold starts which I found no cause for. I presume it was aging electronics and with MS2 this sort of head scratching is completely avoided.

The best part about MS2 is that it removes the primary obstacle to forced induction. Air density above and beyond atmospheric is no problem at all...