Colton's $38 per Cylinder Restoration: A Probable Financial Disaster

[M73PWR]

Main things to fix right now are rear suspension, distributor seals, and tires

Tires, I have a few options, none of them are good.
I have a set of 15s with good tires, which obviously don't fit
I have the 16s that came with the car, but all mismatched tires
I have the 16s from my 740il, but they are badly flat spotted from my accident
I have 18s with bad tires, and 74.1 center
I have 18s that I need to finish refinishing, and I have a set of good tires for those
I have a couple assorted 16s from my e39

So out of all that, I don't have a single good set of wheels and tires at the moment :/
I'm running the flat spotted tires right now, which is fine because my I don't go over 50 going to work, but over 60 they are a nightmare. Considering buying snow tires while they are fairly cheap and running those until my 18s are done, at least they will be round

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Sell the wheels and tires that you do not use and buy a set of tires off Craigslist to fit the wheels you want to keep

[ColtonBH]

Still having battery troubles, replaced the top battery with the one out of my 740il. Now it will not start with that one in, I'm running just on the bottom battery right now. Im hoping it's just a charge issue, it's been sitting in the car for a month or two now without being started, so I have it on the 20a charger at work (my home charger is a wimpy 2a), so hopefully that gets it charged enough where I can start up with both batteries installed

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[ColtonBH]

Is there a DIY on doing the distributor seals?

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[ColtonBH]

Loads of used basket weave wheels around $200/set. Cheaper than buying a new set of tires, and when the tires are spent, I can scrap the wheels, or sell them for $100 or so

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[NordmanMg]

Loads of used basket weave wheels around $200/set. Cheaper than buying a new set of tires, and when the tires are spent, I can scrap the wheels, or sell them for $100 or so

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If you keep going this route your 750 will end up parked on your lawn without any chance of being back on the road

[ColtonBH]

If you keep going this route your 750 will end up parked on your lawn without any chance of being back on the road

I have a set of good wheels and tires, but the wheels need to be refinished before I mount tires. I need something temporarily that I can turn around and sell when I'm done. The only tires I have now that fit the e38 right now are flat spotted, and rather than buy brand new tires for a set of 16s that I'm not gonna put that many miles on, I'd rather get some for cheap that aren't flat spotted, and spend that money on getting the rest of the car in better shape.

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[NordmanMg]

You have few nice sets for sale in your local cl

$600 with looks to be nice tires,
https://milwaukee.craigslist.org/wto/6179981640.html


$450 for the set of looks to be very clean wheels with tires you can use for a season
https://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/wto/6193294537.html


if this would pop in Denver they would be in my garage already !
factory M5/6 fully forged wheels with nearly new Michelins? Oh boy
https://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/wto/6196299103.html

[ColtonBH]

Might spring for that top set, I missed that one. I'll throw a couple sets of wheels I don't need or that don't fit up for sale, and see where we go from there

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[ColtonBH]

Okay, attempting to figure out the squeal now.

First off, my year old, off brand battery doesn't seem to be doing a good job of holding a charge, so I put my several year old genuine BMW battery in, right now its on real low charge, so that seems to be the reasons for my low voltages.

There is an incredibly loud squealing/chirping sound coming from the front of the car. Originally, it seemed too correlate for the most part with engine temp, going away when fully warmed up. Now with the lower charge battery, it would not go away for more than a short time, even with the car fully warmed up. I had voltage up on the dash, and I noticed, whenever the voltage when under 13v, the car started squeaking, above 13.5v, the car did not squeak.

I realize correlation does not equal causation, but should I be thinking alternator? I should mention, this is with HVAC entirely off, so no AC kicking in, I can't come up with anything else that would affect both the serpentine belt and voltage, but if anyone has ideas, it would be a great help.

[oldroller]

sounds like serpentine belt from alternator load. Check all the pulleys and belt for dirt/grime packed in the grooves, condition of the pulleys themselves.
If the belt looks questionable replace it.

[bluptgm3]

Could also be a lazy or weak or seized belt tensioner that cannot re-tension the belt right after startup.


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[ColtonBH]

Okay, cool. I will probably just buy both belts and tensioners, then I won't have to worry about it, I don't want to have to pull the whole front end apart more than once

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[KSEADUB]

Might want to think about the alternator too while your in there. A healthy one shouldn't be putting out anything below about 13.5, even under full load.


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[ColtonBH]

Might want to think about the alternator too while your in there. A healthy one shouldn't be putting out anything below about 13.5, even under full load.


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It's weird, the voltage will be anywhere from 9.0 to 13.8, its such large swings.
Anyway, I lost half a belt on the drive home from work, so I can't do anything until I get parts in the mail

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[NordmanMg]

It's weird, the voltage will be anywhere from 9.0 to 13.8, its such large swings.
Anyway, I lost half a belt on the drive home from work, so I can't do anything until I get parts in the mail

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Maybe sometimes, before you got the car, the alternator been replaced with a V8 one?
You have to measure alternators pulley, V8 have larger pulley, V12 have smaller one due to lower idle rpm range
if so, it will not gonna charge or give enough power to keep battery alive

[XAlt]

Both pulleys work, in practice it doesn't really make a difference.

[NordmanMg]

Both pulleys work, in practice it doesn't really make a difference.

V12 with V8 pulley discharging battery on idle rpms

[ColtonBH]

Driver side hood latch isn't opening :/

This car really isn't playing nice with me
Anyway, I ordered a used alternator, I'm guessing that was the cause of my problems, considering my alternator belt shredded, and the weird voltage crap. If the one on the car currently is just a bearing issue, I'll put in new bearings and keep it as a spare. Anyway, with both belts and tensioners, as well as an alternator in the mail, I'd like to think all my issues will be solved.

Since the car is out of commission for a few days, I'll start getting rear end parts pulled off of my 740il to go in this car, I'll get the rear coilovers in, sls deleted, and with any luck, I'll be good for a little while.

I should note that I'm getting a P0740 code, torque converter lock up something or other, which is fortunately the only code the car is throwing. Since I don't drive highway that much anymore, I'm not going to worry about it for a while. It hasn't affected anything that I can feel with the car.

[ColtonBH]

Also, if anyone in the southern Wisconsin/northern Illinois area wants to do a facelift conversion on an orient blue e38, hit me up. I like the pre facelift front end better personally

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[franco90]

I have some wood tissue holders coming out, I promised Nord one of the first since he sent me a wood part.

WELL i AM ALSO WAITING BUDDY

[ColtonBH]

2.81 rear in 750il, 2.93 in 740il, right?

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[ColtonBH]

Got new tensioners and belts in, so now I just have to wait on the alternator, and I get her up and running again. Until I get into the rear suspension, then we'll be back into it.

[ColtonBH]

Here is my first interior mod for the car. This is a piece of e39 trim that I had lying around, so before I destroy my e38 trim, I would test it out. Boy is that finish tough, it took me many coats of aircraft stripper to get that far, I might have to try out a few more strippers just to keep my sanity. There is a little bit of the finish left on, but some stripper on that should get rid of it easy, and then I will do one more coat all over in order to pull as much of the original color out as possible. I also need to figure out a finish to go over, I would like to do a one part, since doing many coats of a 2 part would be a huge pita. I'm planning on spar urethane, and maybe baking it for a few hours to see if i can get it reasonably hard.

IMG_20170708_192619 by Colton Hatcher, on Flickr

IMG_20170708_192615 by Colton Hatcher, on Flickr

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I should note as well, the cracks that were in the original finish seem to go all the way through the wood, so there will be a couple lines coming through when it's finished, however, since it will be black, I don't think it'll be noticeable to be worth finding a full set of uncracked trim to strip and refinish. I am also very happy that the stripper isn't pulling whatever glue or epoxy is used to hold the veneer to the backing.

[ColtonBH]

Seems as though my cable has either come unhooked from the latch itself, I can't get it to open by the usual methods. Next step, I'm going to try to break the hood latch with a crowbar or something, I just really hope I don't have to cut open the hood.

[NordmanMg]

Seems as though my cable has either come unhooked from the latch itself, I can't get it to open by the usual methods. Next step, I'm going to try to break the hood latch with a crowbar or something, I just really hope I don't have to cut open the hood.

You can try to cut hood hooks , remove kidney grills off and you might be able to cut with saw blade