1997 740IL (Non Vanos) Rebuild

[sorourke]

New to BimmerForums but not to BMW.
Have had my 1997 740 IL for several years now. Much of which it has been sitting under a cover. I love this car, and have been offered money to sell it even in its current non running state.
So, I finally feel it's time to put some love into my beautiful (to me) piece of German Engineering. I literally shed a tear every time I walk by her sitting there.

So this will be my rebuild thread.

I have been researching remanufactured engines and transmissions with 5 year warranties. The current engine is old, worn out and I think ready to be retired.

I had actually contemplated doing the (purists stop reading here, I warned you) LS swap. But after reading thread upon thread, its not the install that scares me, its the wiring and non working items. So with that said, Im going to source a M62 engine and 5hp24 engine for my 4500lb paperweight.

I know , I know, I could up horsepower etc etc, but I'm not looking to turn her into a street racer, and when she was running on her 4.4 ltr engine, i was pleased with her performance.

So stay tuned for some photos, removal, and then my trials and tribulations of getting everything together and back in the car.

You have been warned, this will be a journey for sure and isn't one that will not be done in a week but it will be fun and filled with plenty of photos and some video. Probably a few swear words and busted knuckles as well.

Stay tuned.

[sorourke]

So Im back. Sorry for the extended delay in updating anything here. The wife had me on other projects, work is transitioning to a new owner, so unfortunately the Black Beauty took a back seat again. So some updating over the last few months of thought process.

Did a ton of research. Bounced back and forth with doing an LS swap. That proved to be more costly and to many potential pit falls along the way. I know it has been done on E39s, but nobody had a fully functioning E38 outside of a place in Central Florida called Levels Performance. If you have yet to see his animal, google levels performance. Its a monster. They even make a full conversion kit (exhaust headers , engine mounts , trans mounts and drive shaft). But it proved a bit to rich for my taste. Would have ended up a 10K project cause i still needed to sort out electrical, engine and trans...

So off I went to try and source an M62 engine and transmission. Well I began growing more and more skeptical with this route as well. A used engine and transmission you pretty much had to go on word that it was a working powertrain cause they were all removed from vehicles. And they were running pretty expensive for even used. Forget a remand, easily 5500 just for engine and trans remand from what i could find..

So I got the bright idea, lets see if I can source an entire vehicle and pretty much pull what i need. Low and Behold. Today was the day it happened. I was able to source an entire 740 for $1400. Car is actually in decent condition and i may drive her as is for a few weeks or months before I start the transplant. Parts that I know werent working on mine, work on this one. But most of all. It was driveable. So I was able to test her out. Listen to her run. But the part that sealed the deal. I didn't know that this guy works at the premier shop here in FL for Europenan auto repair and in fact I had my car in there to be fixed once before years ago when I shredded a belt and was dead on side of the road.. In talking with him while the car was running, I found out, all of the timing components and everything that comes off to do it had been completed at the shop. Thats easily a 4K job down here and probably more. All tensioners done, valley pan, upper and lower oil pan gaskets, rear coolant cover gasket, intake gaskets. Transmission had been serviced as well while the timing work was being done. I think the shop pretty much gave him the car and the work was pretty much free for him as well, since he did it and just paid for parts.

So took the car for a drive, and sure enough, she shifts smooth, and the engine pulls strong. I let him drive it first and get on it till the kick down switch dropped the gear. Figured if it blew up, it was on him. We pulled over and I took the wheel. And it was strong. So I now have a donor car with my exact engine and transmission for next to nothing. Not to mention some interior bits that I will scavenge off the car and put in mine. If all goes well, with all the interior pieces Ill pull and the engine and trans, i stand to save several thousand. Which will allow me to spend it on items that I wont pull from the donor car.

OH 1 more thing, this one has the M parrallel rims on it with brand new tires, so ill probly sell those off eventually as I love my Borbitt rims I currently have.

Hell maybe Ill keep the donor and down the road turn it into a drag strip car. If the wife and my bank account let me that is...

So stay tuned check in often. Ill try to update as I move along with this project. Again sorry for the lack of info. Its been a long few months. But hopefully there will be some information to provide everyone in time.

[Zedbimmer]

As you can see from the response this place has seen this series a few times and it most likely gets cancelled before anything happens. So when you start posting pictures of a car with the hood up and random tools lying around you will get a better response. Till then I must say the pilot for this series of yours is not impressing anyone nor interesting.......right now.