Meet Hans, 1 of 1 '95 540i/6, "Mauritiusblau Metallic"

[m60power]

Awesome video on the Ground Control install! I'm loving your attention to detail on everything!

[staystackin]

That was awesome! Nicely done.

Mooseheads do require washers on our cars, just FYI.

Thanks, Brent. Appreciate the insight!!


Still to come is a JB racing flywheel, new OEM clutch and slave, new lower oil pan with sender and gasket, and I'm having the original Mtech2 I had in the car rewrapped... It seems the one I bought during the interior swap has a slightly different connector and just doesn't fit right when you bolt it on... seems like it's rubbing into the steering column plastic. I'll be selling that one, it's maybe just for a slightly later model e36 idk. I'll post pics soon.

happy quarantine bros (and ladies if you're in here, doubtful buy hey)

[staystackin]

We got back after it and replaced the Clutch for the first time since I've had the car (it must have been done relatively recently when I got it, because after owning it for 9 years and 35k miles it still looked fine for the most part).

New OEM replacement clutch, new slave cylinder, and a JB racing lightweight flywheel that I said was 14lbs in the video a bunch of times then realized it's 13lbs - LOL. That's a cool 20lbs of weight savings, which is definitely noticeable when you rev the engine now!

Hope you enjoy the video, I'm enjoying making them... Even if it's still a little awkward putting myself on camera and also my brother doing 90% of the work :p

-Wes

[staystackin]

More YouTube- seems to be my preferred method of keeping this up to date


Recent updates to the build include sorting out the cooling system. Back in the day I had installed a Volvo electric fan and used zip ties and a Dremel to make the Volvo fan shroud fit. This was paired with an e36 all metal radiator using euro rad mounts and modified rad hoses. I swapped back to an OEM radiator, OEM fan shroud, and had the shop install a SPAL 16inch electric fan. I bought the fan and mount kit from CATuned.

At the vintage, Tom Mercer was inspecting it and proceeded to roast me for the "universal probe sensor" that was used to set it up. I suppose in the future I'll be switching that to a more OEM setup, he said he's developing something so that's fun.

[staystackin]

What's up Bimmerforums? After extensive "prep" via my shop, AutoCouture Motoring in NJ, I took my 540i on a 1863 mile road trip to North Carolina.

The video above is part 1 of 2 in the video blog series I made about the 4 day trip. Tons TONS of other e34's in the video, and part 2 is the actual show where we took an epic e34 photo.



Work completed to get the car ready for the show, and some new updates not mentioned in this thread yet...

SuperSprint Catback exhaust mounted *as seen in the above video*

ABS Wheel/speed sensor issue sorted since ground control coil over install - We were chasing this gremlin... turned out that I used one early and one late model strut housing when I sent cores to ground control and thus I needed one early and one late model wheel bearing in order to get proper ABS/wheel speed sensor readings. There was a 15mm gap using the late model wheel bearing in the early model housing. easy fix, hard to figure out.

The wiring inside the connector for the fog lights had found its way loose and was intermittent. We replaced the rear caps with NOS before figuring this out, happy to have them all sorted and working though.

We wired the electric fan to switched power instead of constant power because it would remain on too long after the car was turned off - this was a definite battery drain issue. Happy to report all is working well there.

The shop added resistors to my HID headlight setup and for the first time since installing that the dashboard is completely error free. I used to turn the headlights on immediately after starting the car to avoid the error lol. I got so used to the chime when I turned the car off that I was waiting for it and then it didn't happen... it was almost a mind blowing moment LOL. No errors on the dash is too good.

The 02 sensors got replaced with the exhaust going in so no intermittent CEL either.

and lastly I bought continental extreme force contact tires in 225/40 and 255/40 for the 8.5 and 10inch wide 17inch OZ futuras. We raised the stance a bit, moved the 10mm spacer from the rear up to the front, and then machined the 20mm spacer that was on the front down to 5mm and put that on the rear for inner clearance. It fits perfect! No rubs, a little more ground clearance, and MUCH better performance from these tires wow. The mountains in NC were incredible. The car felt so dialed. All the mods finally came into place and worked together. Incredible driving experience down there.

Part 2 of the vintage video coming soon. I don't wanna be that guy... but I'd appreciate any sharing or subscribing on the YouTube channel those thumbs up's go a long way lol

edit: ... and then super sprint ran a 20% off sale and I might have bought myself some Italian stainless steel headers :

-Wes

[staystackin]

OEM, but for display only as its 30 years old lol


yay for photos again! Photobucket killed the beginning of this thread I think, Flickr preserved the middle, YouTube and IMGUR will carry the torch now.

-Wes

[staystackin]

Here's part 2 of the journey to NC and back from NJ in my 540i. The car continues to provide me such joy, more and more over the years. I'm so glad I've still got it and continue to make it better and put the miles on it. We are just over 169,000 and never looking back!

-Wes

[staystackin]

https://www.instagram.com/vhvbmw/

I started a separate car specific instagram where I've been posting photos of my e34 and also my 2002 and z3. its hard posting pics here, as seen a few posts above apparently they stop working too. dumb.

anyway, the e34 has been great since the vintage. after coming back the guys at Autocouture installed the Super Sprint headers. I also bought the 4-1 collectors and the cat delete race pipes. I'm not entirely sure why, but we got no CEL going on. Could be from the DUDMD engine tune chip that's installed, probably, but idk. The headers now complete the car having a FULL on stainless super-sprint race setup from the engine block to the rear bumper. Any feelings of "damn this is too quiet compared to the rowdy magna flow setup I had" have gone away. The car rumbles at low RPMS now in a different way. it's epic. SCREAMS at wide open throttle, feels like it changed the power band a little too. different feelings at different rpms. feels to come awake sooner.

So now that's the lightweight flywheel from JB racing, the 3.15 LSD from an e32 750, the full super-sprint race exhaust setup, the DUDMD engine tune and the e60 545i short shifter combined to really get the 540 driveline into the OEM+ territory that I like my cars to be in. I'm really really happy with it.

One current downside / potential issue to look into... Since the cats went away and the headers went on... if I let the RPMs drop too fast, like clutch in as I come up to a red light too early rather than let it engine brake down into the low rpm's - it will stall. its avoidable with a little driver mod but to me that feels like it shouldn't happen. My current theory is that the DUDMD engine tune is looking for something from the 02 sensors that isn't there and the car stalls... idk. I'm planning on taking the car to KASSEL performance in PA as they tune cars and have a dyno - perhaps they can improve upon the base tune that's on the car. I'm a little worried they're going to say "let's go full standalone and modernize the car" and open a new can of worms and project trajectory lol. I'll update ya when I finally get the car over there.