Figured I'd put something up, here's my '86 635CSi...

[ShartProject]

Great thread, lots of good info in here for us new to the shark.

[DesktopDave]

Old motor is safely out!

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I've never pulled a motor out of this car before, but a few thin plywood panels are excellent firewall & condenser protection...it was tight, no doubt about it!

I left the A/C & P/S pumps in the car, removed the motor mounts to pull the engine off the tranny shaft. I also removed the crank pulleys, hamonic balancer, and even the front bolt from the power steering pivot mount. I also found it was practical to briefly un-clip the hood pneumatic springs. That frees up another last inch or two of clearance...so I didn't have to remove the hood completely.

[DesktopDave]

I stumbled across a local bargain...a set of staggered style 40 roadster wheels off an MZ3. I'm partial to the design so I tossed them onto the car to see what they looked like. I'm not a huge fan, but my son thought they were so much better than the style 5 square set I have on the car now. I know the fronts don't fit without spacers (but I'm impatient).

Opinions? The first pic is the car as it sits currently, 2nd pic is the side view with the MZ3 wheels, 3rd pic is how the new wheels fit under the fenders. I don't think that rear 17x9 will fit without a little rolling, and I'd prefer to keep it as stock as possible.

[Bert Poliakoff]

Look again. Thats why they are a bargain. Son has a younger person's view point not that of a classicist. I say no more!! Better than the style 5s you have now? A matter of opinion for sure but they totally are out of step with the car.Better than 2 piece style 5s? For sure not. Maybe that's why they are a bargain!!

[DesktopDave]

I definitely agree. They're a little 'heavy' for the car, too much wheel & too little tire. IMHO wheels with a finer/busier spoke pattern suits the E24 lines better. That 17x9" rear wheel does fill up the fender wells more satisfactorily, despite the tire size being all wrong.

No worries - I'll be keeping the style 5 for cruising - but I always have my eyes open for a bargain!

[Nullified]

Crossed spoke wheels such as BBS are really classic and fit almost all cars well, on more modern looking cars it makes the car look a bit like an octogenerians car but hey, thats what we're looking for; understatement.
An E24 is a classy vehicle that doesn't need parts that scream 'look at me' as the whole car already does this.

Wise choice Dave!

[DesktopDave]

Updates! Pulled an old B32 out of the garage, freshened it up, getting it ready to drop in.

[DesktopDave]

Motor is (mostly) in the car. Nothing is really tightened down yet, but there's a motor in the car for the first time in six months. I'm pretty stoked, despite a bruised thumb.

[DesktopDave]

More progress! The transmission is solidly attached to the motor (even that PITA 17mm bellhousing bolt by the starter), engine sits squarely on the mounts, accessories are all hooked up, v-belts are tensioned. Radiator fan & shroud are installed.

The heater core hose from the head is too short for some bizarre reason, haven't figured that out yet.

I still have a lot of little jobs left: hook up the fuel lines, coil & AFM assembly, bolt on the exhaust system, wire the WBO2. Then I'll be filling her up with some nice fresh oil & fire her up! With any luck I'll be test driving this weekend!

[mcgiles1]

Nice!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DesktopDave]

It was another beautiful day, but I had to work remotely. After I got all my work done, I spent a little time on finishing up the cooling system. I was looking for something to extend the hose when I suddenly had a "eureka" moment. Why not use a spare part to replace the whole hose? It turns out that the coolant crossover from an '07 M5 (S85 V10) is a near-perfect substitute. I cut it to length and installed it with some hose clamps.

[DesktopDave]

The car is running! With a lot of help from the MyE28 B35 thread, I found where I'd gone wrong. There's two DME start wires in the E24 B35 harness. Spliced them together and the car fired right up!

While I was verifying the correct pin-outs on both sides, I found a critical detail I had missed in this specific post. It's part of the invaluable & magnificent B35 swap thread at My28.com.

What a day!

[DesktopDave]

The car's getting very close to drivable, just found two really odd problems. The first is the aux fan not powering up, even on A/C. No big deal, I can track that down. I don't have a coolant gauge yet, so I have to be a little careful about overheating. I still have to figure out what sender to get, and how to wire the '89 engine harness so that the '86 gauge & warning light gets the correct signal. It could also be a bad gauge cluster, I've never had the temp gauge working.

The second was a problem I've never run across. I drained the gearbox and found a significant amount of water...I'd estimate it's about a pint. Considering that there's less than 2 quarts of lube in there, that's worrisome! I have no idea how this happened. This transmission has been sitting in the car for a few years without an engine bolted up, but the 'box hasn't been exposed to rainfall. It can't be humidity, can it? I guess I found where the balky shifting came from. I temporarily filled it with some cheap ATF to flush it out, hopefully a few miles of driving will warm it up gently and evaporate any remaining water out of it.

[DesktopDave]

How was everyone's long weekend? I hope you all had a good one.

I spent a little time wrenching over the weekend, found something interesting to share. I was trying to chase down the rough idle and low-speed miss, so I pulled out my cheap leak-down tester. Figured I'd pull the plugs, adjust the valves, pressure test all six cylinders. This is what I found:



I have no idea how that plug got mashed. Nearly all the valves were a little on the tight side too, so I set them all at .010"-ish. Valve train looks good. After all that work, I wasn't able to get a good reading off the leak-down tester, I'm probably using the tool incorrectly. I buttoned it all up and took it for a drive. BIG difference in drive-ability! Rough idle is nearly gone, low-speed miss is totally resolved.


Now that we're opening things up again around here, I'll take the car to my mechanic for a comprehensive checkup/2nd opinion. The car still needs a lot of little stuff, but only a few things are keeping it off the road now: tires, exhaust repairs, working coolant temp gauge, classic license plate. That's just the tip of the iceberg, but this was a big project for me to tackle!

[TowJamma]

Wonderful! That motor looks nice and golden inside.
What'd you do about the trans moisture?

[DesktopDave]

I motor was like that when I bought it. The PO pulled it all for a V8 swap; chassis was a rusted out mess. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened it up. I immediately decided it was far too nice to part out, I had to use it! It's not ideal for the car, 182HP is poky with my 3.54 diff. It's only a temporary solution until I rebuild my Euro high-compression M30. I'm considering B35 valves, intake and exhaust mods, maybe running Motronic 3.

As for the gearbox, I've just been driving the car to clear out the moisture...it's been improving as I put the miles on it. The internet tells me hypoid gearboxes make enough heat to evaporate water through the pressure vent. It's been well-tested by Jeep/RR/Taco mudders, I definitely trust their opinion on gearboxes.

With luck, there isn't much water left - before I put the drain plug back in, I pumped a few squirts of new lube into the fill hole to push more of the contaminated lube out. After I refilled it, the 'box was balky in 1-2 and popping out of R. Now the forward gears shift nicely and it's only popped out of R once. I'll check & purge it later this year, before I park her in the fall. It seems the 265 has a well-deserved reputation for durability!

[carsnplanes]

I motor was like that when I bought it. The PO pulled it all for a V8 swap; chassis was a rusted out mess. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened it up. I immediately decided it was far too nice to part out, I had to use it! It's not ideal for the car, 182HP is poky with my 3.54 diff. It's only a temporary solution until I rebuild my Euro high-compression M30. I'm considering B35 valves, intake and exhaust mods, maybe running Motronic 3.

As for the gearbox, I've just been driving the car to clear out the moisture...it's been improving as I put the miles on it. The internet tells me hypoid gearboxes make enough heat to evaporate water through the pressure vent. It's been well-tested by Jeep/RR/Taco mudders, I definitely trust their opinion on gearboxes.

With luck, there isn't much water left - before I put the drain plug back in, I pumped a few squirts of new lube into the fill hole to push more of the contaminated lube out. After I refilled it, the 'box was balky in 1-2 and popping out of R. Now the forward gears shift nicely and it's only popped out of R once. I'll check & purge it later this year, before I park her in the fall. It seems the 265 has a well-deserved reputation for durability!

DD, Interesting issue with your gearbox. Just to be clear, you are using ATF for the gearbox fluid, correct? ...and you've checked to make sure your vent is clear ?

[DesktopDave]

DD, Interesting issue with your gearbox. Just to be clear, you are using ATF for the gearbox fluid, correct? ...and you've checked to make sure your vent is clear ?

I'm using some cheap ATF currently, just to flush it out. It'll get some RedLine MTF once the lube is clean. The label fell off the box, or it never had one, so it should be running 85 weight gear oil from what I've heard. Oddly enough, the vent was plugged when I pulled it from the donor car, but it's been clear for years now.

[carsnplanes]

I'm using some cheap ATF currently, just to flush it out. It'll get some RedLine MTF once the lube is clean. The label fell off the box, or it never had one, so it should be running 85 weight gear oil from what I've heard. Oddly enough, the vent was plugged when I pulled it from the donor car, but it's been clear for years now.

Wait!...you said you think 85wt goes into your gearbox? Do you have the getrag 265/6 gearbox? It is my understanding that standard ATF is the choice for these gearboxes. Gear tolerances are pretty tight in the box and don't need anything thicker. I have been using ATF fluid in my 265/6 for years now as it was originalyl in my 85 part car and now in my 88.

[DesktopDave]

Yep, it's an overdrive Getrag 265/6. You're right, those are usually spec'ed for an ATF. I'll have to check the bottle, might have been a 75w GL4, now that I'm thinking on it. I used gear oil temporarily since it's cheap & more tolerant of water contamination. I wouldn't recommend it in any, uh, "normal" situation.

I'm getting my 'boxes mixed up, I think. I'm not sure when Getrag started messing around with new synchros and shift fork materials (mid-80s?), but they concurrently used several different lubricants. It's especially bad with the 220, 240 & 280 'boxes. BMW's recommended lube was determined by the label. IIRC a green label was BMW/Castrol synthetic (LT2?), a red label was standard ATF, and no label was 75w GL4 hypoid gear oil. My guess is that Getrag was switching to the cheaper moly synchros and aluminum shift forks during that time, lubes were changed to match the materials.

I've run ATF in all of my manual gearboxes for years, usually Valvoline synthetic. Recently, I've gotten to prefer manual transmission lubes (MTL). My current favorite is RedLine MTL. I've also heard good stuff about their slightly heavier MT90, I'll probably try it if I get an abused high-mileage gearbox. Royal Purple & Amsoil also make some great stuff from what I've heard. I haven't had any used oil tests performed yet, so I can't comment on actual durability or performance. I do have two first-hand experiences though:

• My old '91 318i (Getrag 240) was spec'ed for ATF. It had really high-mileage, almost 300K by the time I sold it, so I used it as a test mule for different fluids. Conventional ATF was adequate, GL4 gear lube was too thick, synthetic ATF was better, MTL was hands-down the best. I noted MTL & synth ATF both slightly improved fuel mileage, so I'd guess they're more effective lubricants.
• My brother's ND Miata (Aisin 6-speed) was balky even on synth ATF. We heard about a really light Ford Motorsport MTL in the forums, so we tried it out. The gearbox instantly improved...from merely adequate to a really slick experience. Possibly the best gearbox I've ever had the pleasure of shifting!

[DesktopDave]

I hadn't done anything on the car for a week, battery was dead. The car must have a small parasitic drain somewhere, haven't nailed it down yet. Could be the battery too. It hasn't really held up very well.

I tossed some old wheels on the car to get it ready for inspection, 16" Borbet CA with old snow tires. They don't really match the car's styling but I'm hopeful they have enough tread to pass inspection.



Speaking of tires, anyone have opinions on mid-priced summer tires? Just popped on over to TireRack, the Kumho Ecsta PS31 is only about $90/each and has some decent reviews. They'll be replacing some Riken Raptors. I didn't think the Raptors were that bad - despite being pretty old they handled OK, but they have some pretty significant sidewall cracking now.

I'm intending to run a staggered set of M3 wheels instead of the 8x16" style 5. The fronts are slightly narrower (7.5x17"), rears are slightly wider (8.5x17"). My current thoughts are to maintain the original rolling circumference of the TRX 390mm (~25"). There's a consensus recommendations for 225/45R17 in front and 255/40R17 in the rear. I'm planning on 15-20mm front spacers in front to get the 41mm offset wheels near the 'proper' 20mm stock offset for 7" wide wheels.

In true 80s style...I had my daughter see what they looked like in a light titanium gold. What's the consensus?

[Bert Poliakoff]

Look at Hankook tires

[DesktopDave]

Hankook does make some tempting tires, I'll check out their summer selection. Coincidentally, I have a set of Hankook all-seasons on the wife's Sorento. It's not the best comparison, but they've been decent tires.

Found another derelict vehicle to raid for parts, early '90s 525i 5-speed. Popped up on my local CL. Seller kept the transmission, sold a lot of the interior parts, but I needed some suspension parts to mess around with. It'll also need some major cleaning, it's filthy. This poor car has led a very rough life.

I just pulled the engine today...maybe it'll end up in an E30 or something else fun. It's a complete early M50B25, non-vanos version. I'm told it was running, but I won't be very confident until I get some leakdown numbers. The radiator & expansion tank are OEM but they're from an automatic. There's some oil sheen in the coolant, more than the usual amount of aluminum corrosion, and some flaky grayish deposits. I suspect the gray stuff is a StopLeak type of product. There were quite a few aftermarket hoses & clamps too, that's usually not a good sign.
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Pittsburgh is pretty heavy on the salt, but Michigan really takes it up a few notches!

[DesktopDave]

Just got an unexpected bonus...that parts car had a surprisingly clean rear exhaust section. The rear pipes have a thick coat of black spray paint, looked like a cheap aftermarket muffler. When I looked very closely, I noticed that they had some branding on the tips. Turns out it's a BillyBoat Tri-Flow rear section. I've heard they're too loud and drone too much, but I'll swap it over this week to check it out. It'll definitely be quieter than the rusted out stock E28 exhaust I have on there now. Can't wait!

[DesktopDave]

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BillyBoat is in. It's a bit hacked up, and pretty loud, but it's still quieter than the rusted-out stock exhaust I had on there! I also took some time to install the updated SAAB fog lights. They're a perfect fit. I opted to remove the blue Hella stickers, although they were pretty.

A/C has decided not to share in our progress. I'll dig into that if I get a chance, but it's not looking likely in the near term. I'm travelling down South this Thursday...