1995 525i Black/Parchment - New Project

[Tristan36]

s52 fits aswell

[Petrolheadpilot]

Hey guys! A little update finally.. I got a garage space at my apartment, after about 3 months of waiting. So finally a proper workspace to start restoring the E34. Its much bigger than I was expecting, plenty of room for activities

I have a line on a replacement engine, hopefully that works out. Car was hit in the front pretty hard, but the seller says it runs and drives and doesn’t appear to leak... he’s going to pull the wrecked bodywork off this week and make sure there’s no damage. He’s wanting junkyard money for it, so fingers crossed it’s good.

Very exciting stuff!




1995 BMW 525i - Black/Parchment, M50/5 speed manual. Restoration project

2002 Volvo C70 Coupe - My first car, current project
2017 Toyota Yaris IA - Daily driver

[Petrolheadpilot]

Finally an actual update for this project...

I bought an engine! From a wrecked car, it runs perfectly with no problems. Got a crazy good deal on it from the E34 group on FB. Bit of a journey to go pick it up, but I like a good road trip. The seller even threw in a nice condition back seat, which I need.

The plan is to get the engine mounted up on a stand, and go through it as thoroughly as possible. Clean it up and just replace and refurbish everything I can. The car itself is still in a storage unit a few hours away, so I need to go fetch it out of there as well.

I’m excited to tear into this engine, and hopefully get it put into the car soon!
It won’t be super quick, I work a lot, and am planning on going slowly with this, as it’s a learning process for me and I want to make sure I get it right.






1995 BMW 525i - Black/Parchment, M50/5 speed manual. Restoration project

2002 Volvo C70 Coupe - My first car, current project
2017 Toyota Yaris IA - Daily driver

[theBMWbeast]

Happy to see another car getting saved. Hoping to see this up and running!

[Petrolheadpilot]

I’ve started tearing down the engine! This should all go pretty smoothly I hope. Just gonna be cleaning and replacing pretty much everything I can, to get it looking and running like new. It ran well before, so I’m not foreseeing any big issues.

Planning on moving the car out here within the next month hopefully, I’ll have to get the oil pan and wiring harness off that engine.

Really happy to finally be making progress.


1995 BMW 525i - Black/Parchment, M50/5 speed manual. Restoration project

2002 Volvo C70 Coupe - My first car, current project
2017 Toyota Yaris IA - Daily driver

[Petrolheadpilot]

Picked these up for a really good deal on Facebook marketplace! Don’t think the massive E38 tires will fit, but we shall see.




1995 BMW 525i - Black/Parchment, M50/5 speed manual, Restoration project

2002 Volvo C70 Coupe - My first car, current project
2017 Toyota Yaris iA - Daily driver

[theBMWbeast]

Nope too tall of a tire, but M pars really are the best looking wheel for the money on these cars.

[Petrolheadpilot]

Nope too tall of a tire, but M pars really are the best looking wheel for the money on these cars.

Yeah I agree totally, especially black cars.
That’s unfortunate about the tires, but I can just throw some cheap Chinese tires on there for now. Upgrade them later once the car is sorted out.


1995 BMW 525i - Black/Parchment, M50/5 speed manual. Restoration project

2002 Volvo C70 Coupe - My first car, current project
2017 Toyota Yaris IA - Daily driver

[Petrolheadpilot]

I’ve finally had a couple days off of work where I could start disassembling the engine a bit.

Turns out, it’s a good thing I’m planning on doing the head gasket, valve cover gasket and everything already... there’s coolant in one of the spark plug wells!

I’ve got 4 days off next week, and my goal is to have the cylinder head off and sent out for resurfacing. I’ll post some pictures then. After that, it’ll just be a bunch of scrubbing and cleaning! Making progress, little by little.

Car should actually be out of the storage u it and in the garage next month.


1995 BMW 525i - Black/Parchment, M50/5 speed manual. Restoration project

2002 Volvo C70 Coupe - My first car, current project
2017 Toyota Yaris IA - Daily driver

[Petrolheadpilot]

Work has kept me super busy lately. I’ve been picking up extra flying to help pay for this project, but that hasn’t left me much time to actually work on the project lol. Kind of a double edged sword.

But the big news this week, is that the car is finally home! My dad and I made the 6 hour trip out to fetch it on Wednesday. Took a bit of maneuvering to get it in my small garage here, but we managed it.





My Volvo isn’t very happy to be back outside again lol


Check back soon for more progress! Next step will be getting the front end disassembled and ready for the engine swap.


1995 BMW 525i - Black/Parchment, M50/5 speed manual, Restoration project

2002 Volvo C70 Coupe
2017 Toyota Yaris iA

[moroza]

M50 headgasket for a first major project would've been quite a steep learning curve. Engine swap is less work. Keep at it!

[Petrolheadpilot]

Head is off, and at the machine shop to be cleaned up! Everything looks to be in pretty decent shape, should clean up nicely. I’m glad I decided to do the head gasket before the new engine goes in... the old gasket was definitely on its way out.





Only broke one head bolt off lol, guess I’ll get to learn how to drill that out.



Cams and everything look good as well. Wasn’t that hard getting them out with no help, you just have to manage the pressure on them.

Now the question is, do I want to put in S50 cams when everything is out? Now would be the time to do it for sure... Are those cams paired with a Turner Motorsports chip worth the cost?


1995 BMW 525i - Black/Parchment, M50/5 speed manual. Restoration project

2002 Volvo C70 Coupe
2017 Toyota Yaris IA

[Petrolheadpilot]

Started the teardown a little bit today! So much old brittle plastic broke... hopefully it’s available new still! All the bumper trim, headlight surrounds and grille surrounds were cracked or broken when I removed them. The joys of old European cars...




1995 BMW 525i - Black/Parchment, M50/5 speed manual. Restoration project

2002 Volvo C70 Coupe
2017 Toyota Yaris IA

[dannyzabolotny]

I'm not sure how much of the trim is available to buy new, but I've actually had really good luck with getting E34 parts from part-outs and junkyards. The plastics that BMW used in the E34 seem to hold up a heck of a lot better than the plastics in newer BMW's.

[Petrolheadpilot]

I'm not sure how much of the trim is available to buy new, but I've actually had really good luck with getting E34 parts from part-outs and junkyards. The plastics that BMW used in the E34 seem to hold up a heck of a lot better than the plastics in newer BMW's.

Good to know! Even if they are available new, I’m sure they’re pricey. Hopefully partouts will be helpful when reassembly time comes.


1995 BMW 525i - Black/Parchment, M50/5 speed manual. Restoration project

2002 Volvo C70 Coupe
2017 Toyota Yaris IA

[moroza]

I recently looked for curiosity and found that most of that kind of trim is still available brand new. Not cheap, not outrageous - about $60 for a brand new grill, for example. And yes, E34 plastic seems above-average for durability compared to most.

[Petrolheadpilot]

Little bit more progress, as winter is starting to set in here in Kentucky.

I got the new engine torn down just about all the way, I need to get it off the stand to get the lower timing cover off. I’m going to do some cleaning of the block first, do the lower timing cover, then start reassembling the engine!





The front end is almost finished being torn down for the engine to come out!



I’m having a lot of fun and learning a lot. Hopefully it continues to go well.

I do have a question for you guys. I’d like to clean out the coolant passages while the block is torn down. What’s a good way to go about that? All the info I can find online is with the engine in the car...


1995 BMW 525i - Black/Parchment, M50/5 speed manual. Restoration project

2002 Volvo C70 Coupe
2017 Toyota Yaris IA

[Singing6]

Just flush it out with a garden hose. Make sure to open the block drain. You can also change the freeze plugs if you really want to but I have never heard of them leaking on these cars.

If you are leaving the bottom end alone that is fine, but make that decision based on the condition of the cylinder linings and pop off a man cap (you will need new bolts as they are one time use) to check that as well. That said, these are very resilient engines.

The other thing that you should do is change out the oil pump chain, sprocket and crank sprocket. That is the best way to prevent oil pump failure problems (most people resolve it with a safety wire on the oil pump nut or welding the nut but this is just a solution to a symptom, not the problem)

Check the exhaust valve guides in the head for wear (put a valve in and see if you can wiggle it). The OEM guides are out of spec in 20k and have play by 100k according to a master tech and friend of mine. This is backed up by the fact that every M50 I have been around with over 100k on it has an audible “rasp?” (More of a harsh sound that is unpleasant when the hood is open and you are standing next to it) starting at about 3200rpm. (No, this is not vanos rattle, that sounds much different).

Also keep in mind that the Getrag 250 that the 93-95 525i’s had are known to be weak. Inspect the input shaft for any play, as they go bad the input shaft starts to load the thrust bearing in the engine and will destroy it.

On the note of oil leaks: these cars leak from three places: oil filter housing, oil pan, and valve cover. Take your time to get those gaskets right. I would also suggest getting a valve cover new from BMW ($230) as it does a lot to make the engine look great and appears to have gotten an update in material to make it work better (originally Magnesium aluminum alloy has been replace with just aluminum which is great for all the things that have to thread into it)

Hope the swap goes well. It is always fun to dive into the project to learn!

[Petrolheadpilot]

Thank you very much for the reply! I’ve made note of all your advice.

The cylinder linings look good to me, but I will post some closeup pics here so you guys can help with that decision. I’m not planning on running this engine forever, so I’m hoping just to get a few more years of weekend driving out of it really.

The machine shop is checking the valve guides as part of their service. Good to know about the trans as well, I didn’t realize they were weak. Might be worth having it looked over by a professional as well.

Thanks again!


1995 BMW 525i - Black/Parchment, M50/5 speed manual, Restoration project

2002 Volvo C70 Coupe
2017 Toyota Yaris iA

[Petrolheadpilot]

The replacement front seats were taking up way too much space in my tiny garage, so I decided to go ahead and swap them out.

Got the carpet vacuumed and cleaned while everything was out, they cleaned up very nicely!



Of course, this turned into a bigger project than I anticipated lol. The E32 seats have a different harness on the drivers side, and the front part of the seat frame that hooks into the car is bent up on both seats!
So I’m working on swapping the rails over from the original seats, as well as the electrical harnesses.



Hopefully this works out, next step is to tear down the replacement seats. I think the new drivers seat might be twisted a bit unfortunately... which I’m not happy about. We shall see though.


1995 BMW 525i - Black/Parchment, M50/5 speed manual, Restoration project

2002 Volvo C70 Coupe
2017 Toyota Yaris iA

[Petrolheadpilot]

Today, I started to clean up my new block a bit.. Amazing how much grime accumulates on an engine over the years haha.



Recently, I bought a small, self contained pressure washer. It’s powered by a rechargeable battery, and comes with a big bucket that sits on top of it. It’s a total lifesaver, living at an apartment with no access to a hose anywhere. It doesn’t put out a ton of pressure, but it’s done a lot better on this engine than I expected! Still a lot more scrubbing to do though. What’s everyone’s favorite degreaser to use?





I’m back inside now having a cup of tea, letting the garage floor dry lol.


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[Petrolheadpilot]

I’ve been fighting with the crank bolt for a couple weeks now. I got frustrated with it, so I stopped, and worked on my Volvo for most of December.

But I went back in full attack mode, and creative garage engineering mode... and got it off!



It was hard since the engine is out of the car, I just couldn’t get enough leverage on it. And living by myself in a new town, I don’t have any car buddies to come over and lend a hand unfortunately. BUT I figured it out.



Now I just have to get the block cleaned up, new gaskets ordered, and start the reassembly! Fun times.




1995 BMW 525i - Black/Parchment, M50/5 speed manual. Restoration project

2002 Volvo C70 Coupe
2017 Toyota Yaris IA

[moroza]

Good job! No air tools?

[Alex E34 525]

Well done


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[Petrolheadpilot]

Cylinder head is back from the machine shop!


1995 BMW 525i - Black/Parchment, M50/5 speed manual. Restoration project

2002 Volvo C70 Coupe
2017 Toyota Yaris IA