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  1. #101
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    May 2017
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    1998 328i
    20190523_204142.jpg20190523_204159.jpg

    I was glad to see the carpet fit back in place properly in the area behind the drivers seat. The carpet padding is thick so if the repaired panel sat too high it could make everything tough to fit.

  2. #102
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    1998 328i
    I failed to take a final picture of the painted floor pan, I thought I had one but can't find it on my phone. I cleaned up the area under the rear seat cushion. There was some surface rust on both sides from water sitting in there but it was pretty superficial and cleaned up well with a wire brush, prime and paint. The white coating on the underside is 3M 5200 marine adhesive sealant, it is some very tenacious stuff. It is the closest I could find to match the original undercoating on the car which was very thick and well adhered. Below the 5200 is 3M panel bond, I used this as a seam sealant but it is strong enough to hold non-structural metal panels together on it's own so in addition to sealing up any voids between welds, it is adding strength as well. This was a real awkward area to repair due to the additional reinforcements the convertibles have and I ended up having to do much of the metal forming in place, tack welding side in place and then hammering the rest to shape.

    I really dreaded this job from the time that I discovered the rust while pulling the original drive train out and I went ahead with the engine swap anyway but I was never going to be able to enjoy the car until I had it fixed.

  3. #103
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    Sep 2017
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    Gravenhurst Ontario Canad
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    1997 BMW 328ic
    Some great info here, thx
    sounds like you are keeping it

  4. #104
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    May 2017
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    1998 328i
    Nope, it's going up for sale. It's going to be a fun toy for someone, I finally found some reasonably priced seats for it in good shape, I'll pick those up this weekend and that should really finish off the package. I put the fuel tank back in which is not a fun task. The tank rarely needs to be removed due to the top access to the fuel pump and level sending unit but mine absolutely had to come out to complete the floor repair and there is very little slack in two hoses on the passenger side to make the connection and tighten the hose clamps. I'm glad to have that task behind me.

  5. #105
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    Nov 2013
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    Oneida, NY
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    1993 318is/who to knows
    I did the same thing to a prospect e36. At first your all about fixing and getting going, then after an extensive repair like that, theres nothing that keeps the thoaght of "its been glued back together" out of the brain pan. Its hard to really have high esteem for a car youve had to weld back together. I only welded in a driver footwell and it completely turned me off to the car after, not that no one would ever be able to tell that it happened or that it wasnt better than an original,. But because it had been injured once. Like a leg that has once been broken you can never really test its durability again because its been broken before.
    Nobody would recertify these machines after somebody screwed with them without any visibility into what they did.

    HONK! HONK! Clown car coming through!

    -Oakdizzle

  6. #106
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    1998 328i
    I really don't have any hesitation about it being repaired, I'm confident that it is solid at this point and in overall better shape than my sedan (auto) but the convertible just isn't a practical fit for me. I really wanted a cream puff sedan with a bad engine but got tired of waiting. Ideally a manual sedan with a bad motor but everything sedan I found either had bad paint, rust, horrible interior, automatic, getrag manual or was just generally beat up. I foolishly though it would be a quick dump the project motor in the car, play around with it possible mess with tuning it and either sell it as is or pull the project motor back out of it and put the m52b28 from my sedan into it. The most sensible thing would have been selling off the ZF manual drivetrain out of it and junking as soon as I found the rust in the floor.

    Once this thing is back together, I'm going to tear down the engine that came out of it, I'm really hoping it has a good head and is worth rebuilding.

    Growing up, almost every car we owned was a repaired wreck, we would buy a low mileage, 1-3 year old car to rebuild. It usually consisted of a front clip, rear or side clip, something with localized damage ideally. My graduation gift was dodge spirit we spliced two cars together just in front of the back seat. The worst project we took on was an explorer that had rolled. Because I spent so much time holding a drop light or sanding I grew to hate body work and never got into fixing them up on my own, it is only now that I'm doing more of it. Anymore, cars have so many airbags and single use safety systems that require replacement that repairing total losses is financially senseless even with "free" labor.

  7. #107
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    May 2017
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    Owings, Md
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    1998 328i
    Getting close to back together. I picked up a set of seats from forum member 66 6 who is a great source for used parts, he parts out steady stream of e36 and specializes in verts. Close enough for me to drive but he ships a lot of parts as well including items that require pallets. Vert seats in good condition are hard to find and the back seat is unique to them. The driver's seat bottom is torn but I can replace that separately, otherwise the difference is night and day. I've been waiting for him to get a good interior in and jumped on the opportunity.

    I really had this thing apart for too long and frankly I should have taken more pictures as I took it apart. Little things like exactly where each wire was run and which piece of trim should go in first. Fortunately I haven't had to do any major backtracks. I had one scare when I couldn't find the second set of wires wiring and connector that connects to the OBC, it had been trapped under the carpet but I was lucky enough to fish it back out. The dash is back in, as well as the console and the back seat. The radio, A Pillar trim, arm rest, front seats and plastic trim inside of the door seal are my remaining items. One of the most amusing things I discovered this weekend was the rear speaker installation, they were replaced at some point and not secured at all, the only thing holding it roughly in place was the speaker's magnet to the surrounding sheet metal. I believe I heard it shifting around on a rough road but didn't realize what it was at the time so I chalked it up to convertible noises. I need to check the other side but expect to find the same thing. This is definitely one of those jobs where I could repeat it much faster a second time. I also have a much better understanding of the dash configuration and am thinking more about a double din radio install for my sedan.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by gdavid View Post
    My intent with this car was doing the absolute minimum to install and test the engine . . .
    Oh my, what was I thinking.
    Last edited by gdavid; 06-03-2019 at 09:42 AM.

  8. #108
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    May 2017
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    1998 328i
    Still working through a list of items, I really want to run it out of the garage 100% complete and without a remaining to-do list, which is pretty hard for a car this age without a complete restore. The antenna was removed by the PO and I could buy a used factory unit install another but I'm not even sure if the aftermarket radio is wired up to power the antenna (probably not). I used some sheet metal mount the passenger side rear speaker to the irregular factory screw pattern, it was just riding along loose before. The speaker wires were not crimped or soldered but simply stripped back and wrapped through and around the speaker's two prongs. I turned my attention to the driver side rear speaker and I expected to find another loose speaker and the speaker wires pulled loose because this side hadn't been putting out any music at all. Here I was surprised to find no speaker at all.

    I recovered the arm rest with a new cover from ebay for $20, the quality was pretty good and was easy to install. I also replaced my hazard switch which had gone missing while the car was apart, perhaps I broke it when disassembling it but I can't remember.

    I still have a bad panel of leather in the driver's seat, I've decided to transplant material from the old rear seat. There should be enough good material and if I need to splice it together from two pieces, it shouldn't stand out as long as I place it where the original stitching runs across. My father has a commercial sewing machine, it's just a matter having the talent for it.

  9. #109
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    May 2017
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    Owings, Md
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    1998 328i
    I was able to replace the center panel of the driver's seat bottom. I used the panel from the rear seat which was plenty long enough but tapers in width towards the back of the seat, where the front seat does not. The covers use fabric sleeves to hold metal rods which are hog-ringed to rods within the seat's foam base. I had to add an additional sleeve for the third pleat. This was definitely not a cost effective use of my time but I learned quite a bit. Any time I mess around with upholstery, it gives me a greater appreciation for those who can do it well. I need to take some pictures but it came out pretty well. The "new" section looks completely natural because it isn't brand new and is a perfect match for the rest of the seat. It was a great way to save an otherwise good seat. The element for the heated seat was bad so I'm going to replace is with one from the old passenger's seat which tested out ok with my meter.

  10. #110
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    Owings, Md
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    1998 328i
    Before, after, after
    Attached Images Attached Images

  11. #111
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    Back on the road but it fought me tooth and nail. My wife and kids left for the beach, leaving me with lots of guilt free shop time. I got the exhaust back and finished up a bunch of little outstanding tasks yesterday. I put what must have been the 4th thermostat in this thing, ordered a 176 degree one off of rock auto. I tested in in a pot and it opened at the right temp. This morning it went up to 205 degrees idling and what I was confident was a fully bled coolant system (nose way high, bubbles bled out). This was really frustrating, the upper radiator hose was too hot to keep my hand on and the lower hose was luke warm. I hot fed up, changed the thermostat with one I modified to prevent from fully closing, I also changed from a cast aluminum impeller water bump to a used oem pump I had laying around. This ended up with a idle temp around 155-165 at idle in about 80 air temps. On the road it would get up to 195.

    My real trouble of the day was self inflicted, last winter before I tore it all apart to fix the floor, I was pinging under heavy acceleration. I decided to try some e85 in it, it ran pretty well at first but on my way back from my first road test it started running like crap. It threw a litany of fuel trim codes and acted like it was starving. After scratching my head all day I started tracking the open or closed loop status while the run was running, it runs pretty good in the closed loop but when the engine temp dropped too low, it was entering the closed loop fuel trim and between the increased displacement, e85 and stock dme it was a recipe for disaster. When it was staying in the closed loop, it running well. It did enter the open loop a couple times that didn't make sense to me, once the engine temp was 185 but it slipped into open loop, not sure why but this caused it to run like crap again. In retrospect the e85 was a really back idea on a stock tune, and maybe I have something else going on but my next task getting this stuff back out of the tank. I also managed to loose my fuel guage, one of the floats may have gotten stuck from turning the tank on it's side to empty it out during the floor project.

    - - - Updated - - -

    In other hellrot e36 news, I replaced the rusted out fuel supply line on my sedan that was rusted out and leaking where it connected to the hose from the tank. It is never a good sign to smell gas when you stand next to your car.

  12. #112
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    1998 328i
    Lots of success today after work. First I extracated my head from my rear end then I drained the e85 out of it, put some 93 test in it and put some miles on it. Ran it about 35 miles, no stalling, no engine codes and a big smile.

  13. #113
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    1998 328i
    Drove it to work this morning, ~40 miles. Overall it is running well but it does bog down on a pull at highway speeds like the spark is not advancing. I'm curious if this could be a MAF issue, what appears to be a new unit came with the car but I suspect it may be a cheap knock off, they where throwing parts at the car before realizing the old engine had bad compression.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Fortunately I can swap parts over from my sedan at leisure. I'm thinking I'll try the MAF, then coils cam position sensor and injectors if needed. I'm also planning to get a Hakentt tuned DME to try out but want to figure out this timing issue first.

  14. #114
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    1998 328i
    I've swapped the MAF and throttle position sensor (from my automatic sedan which runs great) to no avail. I'm going to swap the knock sensors which are a real pain to get to but I am thinking that a fault in them could cause the dme to reducing timing. There is no OBDII engine code but I still don't have INPA up and running so I can't tell if something is going on there. I can see the real time timing advance on my Bluetooth OBDII reader but need to set up the display so I can see it safely. I'm also consider plugging a set of knock sensors into the harness but not mounting them onto the block and carefully driving it to see if it is actually preventing a knock condition. I have a full tank of 93 octane in the car now. Previously when I had foolishly dumped e85 in the car, I was watching the Open/Closed loop status on my OBDII reader and it was periodically switching into the Open loop even after the car was up to temperature which tells me that I may have a faulty sensor somewhere but it is odd that I'm not getting any codes.

    I wish I understood a little more about this stuff but suspect I will learn more along the way. I would like to get this figured out before swapping to a tuned DME.

  15. #115
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    While removing the knock sensors, I realized that I had done something foolish when installing them. I did not remove my pretty red paint from the engine block, apparently the knock senors do need to ground to the block. They we probably picking up some grounding through the bolts but even they had lock tight on them so it was a bad ground. I know that these piezoelectric units are not like a resistance based unit but creates a voltage from the energy of vibration, however there is apparently some requirement for grounding them, the Bentley manual does perscribe cleaning the block mating surface prior to installation.

    I drove the car while monitoring the spark advance via my Bluetooth OBDII reader and the timing seems to be changing appropriately. I did not log the data yet but in a very unscientific manner, I watched the spark numbers while driving my sedan today and on the convertible this evening after getting the sensors remounted (had to remove the intake manifold), it appeared to be similar. Didn't have a chance to try pulls at highway speed yet. Unfortunately, I had already pulled the car apart before thinking to monitor the spark advance so it is only my theory that it was not working correctly before even though no codes were being reported.
    Last edited by gdavid; 07-10-2019 at 10:19 PM.

  16. #116
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    Ran it to work again, ran pretty well, no check engine codes but it still doesn't feel any more powerful than the stock m52 in my sedan. I ordered a tuned DME from Hakentt this morning. The new vanos piston seal is also breaking in, I've heard there can be a performance lag while that is breaking in. I'm also going to try swapping injectors between cars. Overall it's doing ok but I'm expecting to see some gains now.

    I'm thrilled that my gas gauge is working again as of this morning. It had been stuck on empty with the light on since I put the car back together. A float arm probably got jammed when I tipped the tank on end to drain the last of the gas from it but it must have worked itself free from driving around and a couple of fill ups.

    I'm due for my first oil change, an will run conventional oil through it for a couple more short interval changes.

  17. #117
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    It took about 600 miles before my stroker rings set well. But the bigger hurdle is the fuel. The stock ecu or any 2.5l tune will leave the engine veryyyyy lean and have about the same feel as it was as a 2.5 or 2.8. You will only get the seat of the pants notice of power gain when the car is still warming. Afte rit gets to ot, ecu leans out and power disapears. Ive searched for a tune for it, but with all my other upgrades, its impossible.

  18. #118
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    Quote Originally Posted by spyderg0d View Post
    It took about 600 miles before my stroker rings set well. But the bigger hurdle is the fuel. The stock ecu or any 2.5l tune will leave the engine veryyyyy lean and have about the same feel as it was as a 2.5 or 2.8. You will only get the seat of the pants notice of power gain when the car is still warming. Afte rit gets to ot, ecu leans out and power disapears. Ive searched for a tune for it, but with all my other upgrades, its impossible.
    Your spot on about running stronger while it is warming up (still in open loop and over-enriched), and seat of the pants gain. Since mine is OBDII and only a 0.2 displacement increase versus the 0.5 (my donor block was a m52b25 but the car and it's DME are a 328) increase yours has, my lean condition is probably not as bad but I suspect my injectors are a little dirty. I'm hoping the tune I ordered works out. Have you tried a s50 chip in yours? Are you still working on it, or is it a backbench project now? For all of the threads about these engines, I hear very little follow up.
    Last edited by gdavid; 07-12-2019 at 11:53 AM.

  19. #119
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    Mine is a very different beast than the ordinary stroker thread. Given 3l intake cam, supersprint exhaust, dinan big bore tb and ported polished head. The turner chip is much better than a stock 2.5 tune, but not ideal as It obviously isnt right just by the loss of power at ot.
    I attempted a custom tune chip from an ebay seller ($40 shipped from germany) to no avail with dme memory error faults and no start.
    And now with the project floating into a coupe shell from a convertible, I still have other problems to deal with before can get more information. Right now, for some reason the turner chip is the only one that can read the cheap replacement crank sensor, not even a stock chip will start it. Deffinatly something off. (Probably the crank sensor) and i have yet to get to it in the mix).

    - - - Updated - - -

    But i drove over 800 miles before a rod bearing went. (Used 10-40 instead of 5-30 in super hot 110 degree summer on tighter race spec clearances is not ideal btw) but mostly because its paired with a 3.91 lsd that put 55mph at 3k or more revs for the majority of the driving.

  20. #120
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    I see, I didn't know what else you had changed. I believe I recall you were looking at supercharging in the future I didn't know about the oversized TB. I doubt the ported head or exhaust would make that much of a difference in terms of fuel trim.

    Mine does have the m52b30 intake cam as well. I bought the set of "sorta" s52 cams (s52 intake, m50 nv intake trimmed for exhaust) that someguy2800 had for sale but haven't installed them in anything yet. Once I get this car fully sorted out, I'm going to tear into the motor that came with it, if the head is good it will my next engine build and may get those cams.
    Last edited by gdavid; 07-12-2019 at 12:25 PM.

  21. #121
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    I received and installed a tuned dme from hakentt today. Motor runs much stronger than with the stock m52b28 tune. Specifically, with the stock DME it was gutless accelerating at highway speed and idled poorly after the car was running in the closed loop fueling control. I haven't had a chance to drive it much but those syptoms are gone. I would not recommend doing a stroker with a stock tune, this thing rips now. Can’t wait to put some more miles on it.

  22. #122
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    I haven't put many more miles on the car, typically running a kid to practice one day a week on local roads, but it still wasn't as strong as my stock m52b28. I dropped the exhaust expecting the cats to be clogged up from the last motor which was burning oil like mad, they where clear but I finally figured out my muffler was almost plugged. It is an eBay cheapo and the inner baffle tubes rusted out and collapsed, the loose fiberglass strands then plugged the passages. I gutted it for now and will give it a spin once I have the muffler welded back together, but will replace it with something nice and quiet soon. I’m itching to get it back together again.

  23. #123
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    I didn't take any pictures but the ebay muffler is back together and going back into the car tonight. I ended up making 2 "perforated pipes" out of rolled up 1/4" gap galvanized wire mesh wrapped in fiberglass cloth in the first chamber. The mig welder I used extensively to repair my floor pan is at my brothers and I was too busy to pick it up so I stitched the thing back together with an arc welder and some 1/8" round stock to bridge the gaps. Definitely not the right tool for the job and looked like crap but I ground the ugly welds down and sealed the pin holes with high temp epoxy to hide my sins. I'm curious just how loud it will be and even more excited to take it for a spin.
    Last edited by gdavid; 10-30-2019 at 09:10 AM.

  24. #124
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    Exhaust is back on with the practically gutted exhaust and it sounds mean but it's raining tonight and tomorrow. I just don't take it out in the rain if I can help it, after repairing a rotted out floor, I don't want to take any avoidable chance of getting the interior wet again. The suspense is killing me though. I've been waiting to see what this motor can really do for 2 years now and I think I finally have it right.

  25. #125
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    I finally have this motor running right and it is fun. The entire reason I bought this car was to test out this motor and over the past year I ended up putting far more work into the car than planned but I'm pretty happy with it in the end. The plugged up muffler really had me confused for a long time and I feel pretty sheepish for not figuring it out but in hindsight the symptoms were clear. It never overheated but the entire time that it was running warmer than I thought it should (210) and kept swapping out thermostats was caused by the backpressure.

    Ironically, the sedan that I had build this motor for originally which is my daily driver, was sideswiped a few weeks ago and while insurance treated me fairly and I came out ok financially, the car isn't worth putting right financially. It has damage down the entire passenger side and it isn't worth fixing considering the rust developing in the rocker panels. I'm looking at a supposedly clean white sedan tomorrow morning with a bad motor and transmission that may be my next daily. I'm not looking for perfection but if it has any rust underneath or hiding behind the side skirts, I'm going to pass and just daily the convertible for a while. The vert has historic tags now so I will need to get it inspected to be legit but it should breeze through inspection.

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