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Thread: XCRN's 525i Build Thread

  1. #176
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Springfield OH
    Posts
    1,189
    My Cars
    1993 525i 1995 553i
    Well I am back at it and this time I was able to drive it as a manual! How ever it was just up and down my drive way since not insured and expired tags, so I can say first and reverse work for sure! I did buy a house and have been working on many projects before this one but it's time I got somewhere with it and I am more inclined to put some money into it to make it perfectly streetable. It was low on power, but I assume it is because half the vacuum hoses are not connected and it is open headers with no O2 sensor. I will be looking closer tonight to see what I can address to make it run better, though it did hold idle really well.

    It does need a fair bit of paint and body work, but I have my own place and my own garage now it is possible and interior is just in shambles.

    It is great to make real progress on the $1000 BMW I had such high ambitions for. This will make a great summer project!

    95 E34 553i6 LS TR6060 Project
    93 E34 525iA Beater with no heater
    VANOS kicked in yo!

  2. #177
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Springfield OH
    Posts
    1,189
    My Cars
    1993 525i 1995 553i
    Figured I would give an update. I am now wanting to sell the F30 335i I just bought 3 months ago to fund a forced induction engine for this. I thought I could enjoy the 8-speed auto turbo charged engine, but I just can't and it annoys me too since it is an amazing car. But insurance is high, especially being only 22 years old and the only saving grace that keeps it reasonable is it's bundled with HOI. I mainly bought it because I was tired of having to repair something every weekend. My $500 Jeep has been doing okay since I did the cooling system overhaul so I could do with only one vehicle in the meantime while I get this ready.

    I am leaning towards supercharging just because bolt on kits do exist, but is more limited in the long haul. I do not know what I want to do yet.

    I found a M54B30 that I might pick up for $100 that should have the forged crank and rods for what I want (reliable 400 whp to begin with) and I am trying to find a donor M50 block to build on that. There are still a lot of quirks on this car I have not gotten to yet but it drives, I just don't drive it right now because I am too cheap to insure a car that only will get driven to test fixes. For now I just drive it up and down the street.

    6-Speed swap would be cool too, but first thing before I can make anything happen is to sell my F30.
    Last edited by XCRN; 09-13-2017 at 12:19 PM.
    95 E34 553i6 LS TR6060 Project
    93 E34 525iA Beater with no heater
    VANOS kicked in yo!

  3. #178
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Springfield OH
    Posts
    1,189
    My Cars
    1993 525i 1995 553i
    Back at it again! So towards the end of Summer I picked up a M54B30 for $75. I did not have a hoist at the time so I just took it apart in the back of my Jeep to get the prize, the crankshaft. I was able to strip it down enough to lift the block with my hands out of the Jeep.






    I have had this lying around for now and got side tracked by other projects and as of this past week I get back at it. I was just going through the motor and realized how bad it really was.

    It's greasy and rusty and just and absolute mess. Vacuum hoses are not where they need to be and the original manual swap that I had someone helped me with was just done so poorly when putting back together. So now that I have my own house with a lot more tools and knowledge I am just going to redo a lot of the work.




    I took the valve cover into work and used our sand blaster at lunch to get it cleaned up.



    I started earlier this week disconnecting the various hoses and accessories and got it up on some wheel blocks to get under.




    And its out and sitting in the pile in the garage designated for E34 stuff, next to the pile dedicated for the sand rail project.







    So that is where I am at. I am hoping this week during our winter plant shutdown I can get it disassembled and get the block machined and checked. I plan on re-using the M54 pistons and rods with new bearings.
    Last edited by XCRN; 12-25-2017 at 05:13 PM.
    95 E34 553i6 LS TR6060 Project
    93 E34 525iA Beater with no heater
    VANOS kicked in yo!

  4. #179
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Springfield OH
    Posts
    1,189
    My Cars
    1993 525i 1995 553i
    Got another update.So started disassembling the engine during Christmas time. As I started pulling things off, the rebuild started getting more and more expensive the more I dug deep into it. Essentially the engine bores are a whole 1-2mm oversized from bore wear and it still ran somehow! So that would then require me to bore it out and get new oversized pistons or bore it even further and get S52 pistons. The M54 intake camshaft I have had pitting on the rear lobe, so that would take some welding and machining. VANOS needed rebuilding so there was more needed doing. So all this was going to add up quickly.








    I had a death in the family so I had my time occupied with that for awhile and this cold was too much for me to bear doing anything outside. Tax refund time came around and my dailys needed that money more. The XJ Cherokee got a rear disc conversion since the rear brakes just took a crap, and the F30 needed rotors and pads so I bought the M-Performance brake components. Skip to last month I got $1500 to buy another much better XJ than mine but he wanted me to give him money first before he gave me the title so I backed out and a week later bought this.



    It had one of the best sounding 5.3 LS engines I have heard, no knocking or noises so this will be a perfect donor truck! So for the last 2 weeks I have been hustling parts out left and right from this truck and the old BMW parts and was at a positive $40 over the initial $1500 last week. And the picture below is basically us pulling the engine by towing the parts truck backwards since I am white trash and parting this thing in my back yard.





    So this past weekend I picked up a built T5 that came off a LS swapped 64 C10 for $300 which I transported in my F30 (who needs a truck) so that now makes me only $260 overall into this LS swap with the major components purchased and a whole lot more to sell.\



    So my current goal is to do a LS swap for $0, but ultimately I want to do a low boost aluminum block 4.8 rev happy build with a 6 speed to make it somewhat reminiscent of a E39 M5. Today I started cleaning out the garage to be able to move the E34 indoors since I now have everything to mock it up. All I need to do is move the sandrail outside and I will be all set to start work.
    Last edited by XCRN; 03-18-2018 at 08:24 PM.
    95 E34 553i6 LS TR6060 Project
    93 E34 525iA Beater with no heater
    VANOS kicked in yo!

  5. #180
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Springfield OH
    Posts
    1,189
    My Cars
    1993 525i 1995 553i
    Figured I should update this. Still being a long drawn out project that keeps getting more in depth and more ambitious. Still working on the LS swap, but that is taking a brief pause while I work on the rack and pinion and suspension. I got made the mounts for the engine mated to a TR6060 but now it is working on all the little supporting parts of this project. But it is in pieces.



    Currently I have a 95 GTI rack and pinion mocked up with the sub frame in my office and working on mounting that to the car. And for it to work in the position it is I dropped the pivot point on the knuckle by cutting the steering arm and flipping it. I also need to make some spacers for the rack to extend the pivot points to line up with the control arms.




    I purchased a powder coating setup and have been playing with that. Did some timing covers for the LS and some suspension components. I am trying to make it look more factory than anything too wild. I kind of wish I went with semi gloss black instead of satin black, but oh well it looks nice as is and is real tough! I tried cleaning my oven racks of the cured over sprayed powder with a die grinder and a wire brush wheel and was a real PITA.






    The F30 calipers I am using for my BBK are currently prepped but not coated yet since I have not decided what color to go with or what decal to use.



    Right nowI am currently working on dropping the rear sub frame and get that ready for powder coating since I do have access to an oven large enough. But I am also working on a rear BBK that might be very economical, about on par with the F30 fronts. It will use a 328mm x 20mm rotor from a E38 750iL. I tried making rear F30 calipers fit, but it is just going to be too much of a hassle to make it work so I am working out some other options.
    95 E34 553i6 LS TR6060 Project
    93 E34 525iA Beater with no heater
    VANOS kicked in yo!

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