Being an old school BMW fan I recently figured out that I dont have any of them in my possesion, excluding the E30 race car. Always been lusting after E24, but either it has been out of my price range or I refused to start another restoration project. So all in all the E24 idea has been pretty much scrapped in the recent years. But sometimes things come to you, especially when one is not looking for them. So early this year a friend of mine brought a "barn find" '87 L6 that he just bought. According to the story the car has been sitting for 18 years. After soaking the cylinders with WD40 and installing new spark plugs we tried to start it, but it turned out that the compression equals 0. After some thinking on his side, the owner declared that he does not want to spend any more money on this car and after some bargaining I acquired the title. It turned out it is a pretty complete example with a minimal wear and tear, and as being a CA car, no rust whatsoever. The worst part is the leather dashboard, but it has been already sent to the upholstery guy.
I really want this car to be original and time period correct as much as possible, but of course leaving the good 'ol M30 is out of question for me. I have missed a few good deals for M88 and S38 in the recent years, and now they are unobtainium. It has been a real dream to me to mate the heavenly E24 body with the technical pinnacle (for it's day) M106 from 745i-the supercar that BMW never made. But these engines may be even harder to find than S38(in complete condition). But it turned out things related to this car will be coming to me. The day after I bought the car I did a desperate search on craigslist and there it was my M106-only 50 miles away. Complete with harness,computers, piping and even transmission.
This will be interesting...
Sweet.
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That motor would be the proverbial needle in a haystack! Incredible.
Very interested to see how your dash comes back from upholstery, please post pics.
Will you be running a new ECU and what will happen to the turbo? And actually, with the whole engine? Will you refurbish?
As I mentioned my goal is to keep the car/motor as stock as possible. I have the knowledge and experience to boost this motor to over 400whp, but I will probably not go this route. My plan is to keep the stock ECUs, send the turbo for a rebuild and upgrade to TCD and shoot for 320-350hp(crank).
The engine rebuild is already in process. It has anywhere between 100k and 150k miles on it, but the overall condition is excellent. Unfortunately I found one crack in the head, but it will be repaired. Kinda like the stock one that says TURBO
The engine has been sitting outside for a long time and it had a lot of rust. This is why I decided to go with acid bath and it turned out a great result. On this picture it has been cleaned with the wire brush, but not painted. If ther ewas posibility to clean it in all crevices, I would have clear coated it.
It may be amazing to some, not to me, but only a medium grit honing cleaned the cylinders almost perfectly. No shades whatsoever, except a ring at the end of the stroke of the top ring.
These are the kinds of threads/posts where I want a dang "Like" button
How will the crack be repaired? I don't know anything about this, is a piece milled out and then rewelded? Or first welded and than milled?
I like this thread very much. With the M106, isn't this going to be pretty much an alpina B7s copy? Just needs the 5 speed and the boost dial to switch it up. Very nice.
1977 633 CSi RHD Euro. S38B38 3.9L M5 Transplant. 5 Speed Getrag Dogleg. 3.73 LSD. 417hp, 369lb/ft
1971 3.0CS E3 2dr Alpina Special Coupe Racer, 347hp, 295lb/ft
awesome indeed !
As I mentioned, the parts for this project are coming to me. A few days after i bought the engine I did a search on ebay, and there it was, a full Getrag 265 manual conversion for E24. Complete for a thousand bucks delivered to me! The guy got even the shifter boot. The tranny looks in very good to excellent condition, so i plan to change the bushings and the seals only and give it a try.
damn dude - this thing is going to wind up pretty cool!
Can you use a VNT-turbo to gain torque on the bottm end of the rev-sepctrum? It will need a vacuum (or electric) operated valve to turn the ring and logic in an ECU. I've heard mentioned that they get too hot and that the VNT will be fucked, is this correct?
Been a long time since the last update. Between setting up the shop, finishing a few other projects and doing a lot of skiing last 2 seasons, no time for the shark left. Mostly under pressure from my son we started working on it again. I did extensive shopping by the time I started the project, to the tune of new BMW spring washers and hose clamps. Amazingly, parts for this engine are still available, but takes extensive search for some small things.
Oldies, but goodies, the stuff that I love.
My son's first M30 rebuilt, maybe not last. He has an M20 waiting for him to resurrect it.
Good progress, it doensn't need to be fast as long as it proceeds.
Undergoing restauration; my 1982 628CSi: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...628CSi-rebuild
Still nice, still following
1977 633 CSi RHD Euro. S38B38 3.9L M5 Transplant. 5 Speed Getrag Dogleg. 3.73 LSD. 417hp, 369lb/ft
1971 3.0CS E3 2dr Alpina Special Coupe Racer, 347hp, 295lb/ft
The rebuilt/repaired head.
Coming together nicely. We use original gaskest+silicone evrywhere.
Decided to not use MLS/copper gasket or o-ring the block, only ARP head studs. Main reason is that I know myself pretty well and at one point will decide that I need more power. If the engine can take it, i will go for the number. Knowing it is not quite ready for big power may possibly keep me at bay
The 80s technology is always fascinating for me. Chip tuning is still a thing
Professional work! Why not use an aftermarket ecu? I'll be doing that with most probably an ecu from the Polish company https://www.ecumaster.com/products/emu-black/. They offer performance and tunability at an acceptable price.
Thanks, we are trying to do the best at a reasonable price.
I have extensive experience with standalone engine management systems. The M20 in my E30 track rat was developed to 460whp/400tq on MS3 and E85. But I am fan of the old school technology, and especially this engine/ecu so i will TRY to restore everything to it's original working condition, let alone some extra power. BUT, a standalone is always somewhere on the picture.
Understandable, as always cost is always the limitation and a wish to keep the technology as it was. I'm am going to use an E39 engine on my 628 shell to jumpstart into slightly newer tech.
Well, in my opinion M30 is the worst choice for big power nowadays. With M52 a ton of power can be made relatively cheap, there are million solutions out there. I spent too much money on my M20, for this amount I could have had a reliable 600whp M52 instead of unreliable 460whp M20.
In this case it's the originality and era corectness that I am after. For me, the E24 645CSi is the ultimate supercar BMW never put together. I know the turbo and electronic technology of the time was not very well developed and with M6 in existence there was little to no stimulus to create this model. But with with some bump in the power ,that's what I am after, it would have been on par with the supercars of the day. Like M6 with S38B38.
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