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Thread: Pendulum's eventual E39 M5 Touring build

  1. #1
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    Pendulum's eventual E39 M5 Touring build

    Hi everyone, my name is David. I've been lurking on here for a while and figured I should share my current build. I started a thread on my local forum but that's pretty dead and I figured I'd find more useful knowledge and advice from the members here. I apologize since this is going to be a long first post, but first a little about me.

    I've been around BMW's for almost 10 years now, having gotten my first car, a E46 323i, back in the beginning of 2009. That got totalled a year later and for a year after that I looked and eventually found a 2005 E46 M3 Alpine White on Imola Red with 40k miles and have owned that for 7 years now. It's been heavy modified over the years with a Maximum PSI turbo kit and a few years ago I replaced the sunroof with a carbon roof myself. I'm not sure what the rule is about linking other forums here but if you want you can check out the build thread HERE.



    I picked up my first E39, a 1998 540i, for super cheap 3 years ago, and ended up spending more than what I paid for the car just to buy the parts to fix it up and it was quite rusty. I used it for a daily vehicle for 2 years and while it was a really fun car and enjoyed my time with it, it was just getting too uncomfortable, unreliable and I became tired and just didn't have anymore time to constantly fix it. I still have it and it's sitting out in field on my property. You can see there build on this one HERE.



    Now that that's out of the way, onto the touring!

    I bought a 2002 525i in Alpine White with black interior back in January of this year from a used car dealership while I was down in Chicago. It had 137k miles on it and seemed like a clean, rust free Florida car, although there was a reported rear end collision on the car fax but the frame rails didn't show any signs of damage. It had the M5/M Sport style front and rear bumpers on it and while there were a few issues with the car, but they all seemed fairly minor, and nothing I couldn't fix in a weekend. The right level sensor for the SLS wasn't working, the climate control panel wasn't working, ABS light was on and the driver's window regulator didn't work properly.They said they'd fix the mentioned issues, which at the time I thought was a good deal. I was also thinking about swapping the M62 from my 540i into this then realized it would work.




    I didn't take the car home with me right away as I had purchased an X5 just 3 days before and had to drive that home first. I was going to be back in Chicago a month later in February so the dealer let the car sit on the lot until I came back. When I went back I picked up the title and paid for the rest of the car but I had to go to Milwaukee for the weekend so I was to pickup the car on Sunday night when I got back and head home on Monday. Sunday night came around and I go to get the car and sure enough, the ABS light is still on and the SLS is not working. I thought maybe I just had to reset the codes and and it would be fine but no luck, and I couldn't say anything since no one was there that day, so now I had to come back the next day to see what they had and hadn't done. I needed the car so I drove it back into the city that night and not even 5 minutes after I drove the car off the lot it starts stalling at lights. I had the same issue in my 540i a few years back so I knew it was a cam sensor and just had to stay on the throttle when coming to a stop.

    I drove 45 minutes back to the dealer on Monday and the guy who runs the service side of the dealership isn't there. They told me he should be in shortly so I wait close to an hour and no sign of him and they can't get a hold of him, so I went to a parts store to pick up an intake cam sensor and grab a bite to eat. I get back and he's still not there. I ended up waiting almost 3 hours and when he shows up I found that they didn't replace the level sensor and they changed the pressure sensor for the ABS, but it was the module itself that was the issue, so they gave me a few hundred dollars and they let me use their tools to change the cam sensor and I was on my way.



    It was a mostly uneventful drive until I was just past Madison and my passenger wiper stopped halfway up the windshield and the driver's side wiper smashed into it and they both became mangled. I got to the nearest exit and found a gas station and with the E39 needing special blades I wasn't able to find a new one but I was able to salvage one blade and put it on the driver's side. I found out the reason the wiper initially stopped was that both nuts holding the arms down were extremely loose. I later encountered a snow storm just after Eau Claire and barely made it into Duluth for the night.




    The next morning after cleaning the 6 inches of the snow off the car and another 3 hours of driving I made it back into Canada with a very bright cluster.



    I drove the car one last time to take it to get a full undercarriage wash before I parked it for the rest of the winter and started tearing into it. One thing about me is that every time I buy a car I will look for every little thing I don't like and fix it, even if it's not important and usually that one little thing will snowball into 10. I also miss all the little things whenever I first look at a car, I guess I just get a bit to excited.

    The first thing I did was pull off all the electrical tape on the window trim.





    Pop the hatch and sure enough there's rust. I figured the rust was from when the hatch had been repaired after the reported accident.



    Self tapping screw holding in the trim. I found out the reason the screw was used was to help the butyl hold it in place...




    Broken door sills all around.




    More butyl holding trim, which is hiding more self tapping screws.




    The one thing that really bugged me on the trip home was the cheap Thai? headunit and the incredibly horrible sound system.





    The head unit power wire tapping into the rear defroster wire makes sense.



    This was a fun one. I was working in the back and had the floor out and I accidentally dropped a tool into the spare tire well. I pulled the spare tire to get at and was greeted by my good old friend rust.



    I've dealt with spare tire/battery well rust on my 540i but that was due to leaking aftermarket tail lights. This was coming from the compressor housing and the sound insulation was completely soaking wet. Has anyone ever seen this before?




    As I began to clean the spare tire well I noticed more and more that the supports for the compressor were rusted quite badly and I couldn't get at it all so I drilled out the spot welds and removed them. What was interesting was I drilled a little too far on the top spot weld at the rear of the left arm and water was coming out, anyone know why this may have happened?





    With the supports out I could properly get at all the rust and remove it, treat it, cover it in POR15 and paint it all. I still have to finish the supports and get those welding back in, although they've been sitting on my bench for quite a few months now.








    Underneath the car didn't look so great either. The oil pan was leaking quite badly, power steering lines as well.




    Both the tie rod boots were torn and all the tie rod ends and control arm boots were torn.




    Had to do a bit of maintenance. Changed out all 4 struts for the rear hatch and glass.



    The air filters were all filthy.




    Sent out the ABS module for repair.



    There was moisture in the rear tail lights so I ordered Euro tail lights.





    Swapped out the regular rear view for the auto-dimming one from my 540i.



    The day I got home with the car I had ordered KW V1s since they were on sale. I still have yet to install them.



    I really prefer the original emblems.




    Whoever previously owned this car was a smoker and it became evident the day after I picked up the car as whatever the dealer had sprayed to cover the smell wasn't working anymore. I also really like black headliners, so I pulled the headliner and pillars and wrapped them in the same fabric all around. I just removed the foam backing for the pillars and gave them a quick spray with black trim paint to make sure the white didn't show through.






    While I had the headliner out I threw in some sound dampener on the roof.



    I also did the doors and as I expected, I found out the dealer never did change the window regulator.





    As I said I go through every little thing and the window trim was no exception. It wasn't bad but I wanted to change it regardless and I found more of my good old friend rust






    I tried removing it with a wire wheel but it was too hard to get at it all properly so I ended up pulling the door to sand blast that area. As you can see in the picture below the rust was so bad that it had eaten holes in the metal. For a Florida car this has a lot more rust than I was expecting.




    Purchased a Euro dash because why not?



    I had purchase some illuminated E38 handles for my 540i but never got around to fitting them so I got them ready for the wagon. Had to JB weld in the LEDs.





    When I had gotten the car home I realized the release for the rear glass didn't work so I began to troubleshoot that. At first I thought it was the switch so I tried pulling the original one off and apart but after that didn't come apart without getting damaged I got a new one but no luck. Thought it may have been the motor but that checked out. Then I check for continuity between the wire from the switch to the motor. I even checked the power at the GM3 and it all check out. Eventually I found out the wires at the hinge were damaged but it was a few inches in the boot making it hard to find.




    I picked up a Basser sub box and thanks togeargrinder's guide I was able to get it to fit but not before I found this odd piece in the trunk. It was tied into the factory harness and had BMW part numbers but they were for Beemers, so I removed it and the wiring as some of the wires had been cut by the top of the airbags. Later found out it was indeed from the factory and it was for extra power plugs.



    I also wired and mounted an 4 channel amp for the front and rear mid-bass and tweeters. I used the factory amp mount from my 540i and made an aluminum bracket to help support it. I have another mono amp for the sub.



    I removed the rust on the rear hatch but still have to paint it.



    I also found more rust under the front left door sill, so that was taken car of and painted, just forgot to take a picture of the final product.




    There's still quite a lot that needs to be done to the car, I've just been busy with so many other things and cars lately that I haven't touched the touring in almost a month. Sorry again for the long post. There's still quite a bit more that I've been working on related to this car, but I figured this was a good start to the thread, and it's getting late.


    TL;DR
    • I like BMWs
    • I have a modified E46 M3, '98 pre-vanos 540i, '03 X5 and '02 525iT
    • Wanted to swap M62 into the wagon, decided not to
    • The touring needs lots of work
    • I've been doing lots of work to the touring
    Last edited by pendulum; 12-15-2018 at 12:55 PM.

  2. #2
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    Awesome work! Keen for more posts

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by necsis View Post
    Awesome work! Keen for more posts
    Agreed...
    I do not believe in a risk free society where the thrill of living is traded for the safety of existence. Nick Ienatsch

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  4. #4
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    The reason I called this my eventual M5 build thread is because I actually picked up a donor M5 recently. As I had mentioned earlier when I first bought the touring I had planned on putting the pre-vanos M62 out of my 540i into it, then after a little research I realized how stupid of an idea that was. So the plan was to keep a look out and try and find a totalled M5 from the states or a cheap one up here in Canada, preferably.

    Fast forward to a month ago, a carbon black on black 2000 M5 popped up on a facebook group on a Saturday night for $8500 Canadian, so about $6300 US, but it wasn't running as the owner told me he had someone change the timing guides and his mechanic suggested doing the VANOS as well but couldn't get the timing set properly. I offered him a bit less than he was asking and he took it. He told me he'd hold the car for me for a few days without a deposit and wanted to make sure I saw it in person before I committed to buying it. I initially just wanted to pay for it and have it shipped home but now that I was heading down I figured I'd trailer it back myself.

    On Monday night at 11 p.m. I left from home with a friend and we ended up driving 15 hours, only stopping for fuel, from Northern Ontario down to Toronto. We got down there and went to the bank at 2 p.m., saw the car at 3, picked up the last U-haul in the area at 4 and we were on our way to a friend's place at 5. After a total of 3066km (1900 miles) and 34.5 hours of driving we got back home Wednesday at 2 a.m.


    Just picked up the car, got it strapped in the front and rear and was ready to drive an hour to friend's to stay the night.



    It rained 90% of the time on the drive home and even started snowing at one point!



    Finally made it home!




    The body is in fairly rough shape. Although the body is straight it's started to rust on the rear quarters and as you can see one of the AC Schnitzer reps are cracked.



    The right rear jack pad has already collapsed and most of the right rocker is pretty rotten.



    The front left jack pad/rocker aren't in the best shape either. Other than that the rest of the body is in good shape, minus the front bumper and hood.



    A few people have told me to save it but having dealt with so much rust over the last 3 years I'd personally prefer not to. Not to say that the shell isn't salvageable but I don't feel it's worth my time.

    The engine has seen better days. The plenum and intakes came in the trunk of the car but the fan and fan shroud are missing, as well as the valve cover center pieces and all the nuts on the right valve cover, which I found out are not cheap at all.




    I figured the best way to tackle this was to remove the entire front end minus the A/C condenser and pull the engine and trans out together.



    A few signs that I wasn't going to like what I found.





    It's been leaking for a while.



    Just about ready to pull it out.




    It took a couple hours but I finally got it out. I didn't remove the right exhaust manifold as the TIS suggests and I quickly found out it makes it quite difficult to remove the engine, to the point that I had to take the manifolds off mid-removal.



    It looks a little empty in here. Tied up the A/C compressor and power steering pump so that they weren't dangling all winter.





    The pressure plate is toast, although the clutch still had some life left in it. The previous owner told me it had some sort of stage 1 clutch, whatever that means, so I found it funny when I took it out and sure enough it was the stock clutch. I was thinking I could use the stock clutch from my M3 since that only has about 50k miles on it but I found out that the part number is different than the M5. Does anyone know what the difference is? Stiffer springs in the pressure plate maybe?



    The flywheel didn't look so good either. I didn't realize there was a special torx socket to remove the flywheel so I got delayed a few days waiting for a T60 bit that I could grind down.



    More to come in the next few days.

  5. #5
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    In for this build.

    I've dealt with nearly all of the issues on my touring that you've dealt with, minus the rust. I have a DIY written up for swapping a S62 into a M54 based E39. It goes over everything needed to do the swap, including wiring, coding, and some weird differences in parts/placement of things between I6 and V8 cars.

    Good luck!

    -Paul
    2003 "M5" - Full M5 conversion, AMG C63S 6 piston front calipers, Porsche Panamera 4 piston rear calipers, GC Coilovers,
    Eibach ARBs, UUC Evo3/DSSR, Borla Exhaust w/Muffler Delete, BMW NBT with Carplay/Android Auto, Bi-Xenons, e38 Style 37 M-Pars, e60 Hubs 530i 6-speed swap build thread
    2005 Range Rover 4.6is (M62TU Powered) - 4.6is Engine Swap from X5, BMW NBT with Carplay/Android Auto
    2006 Porsche Cayman S - Soul Performance Competition Headers and Exhaust, H&R Coilovers, 718 Boxster Spyder wheels, Rennline 35mm rear spacers

  6. #6
    geargrinder's Avatar
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    Oh dude... what a fright pig! Those wheels are a crime against automotive humanity. They should have been a tip off "this car was owned by some Florida Man loser douchebag! stay away!".

    Impressed with your committment and how whole-hog you're willing to go on this girl.

    One suggestion is... given that its an I6, and, this isn't the most sanitary factory shell by any stretch of the imagination.... You might think about LS swap instead. More power, more unique...

    Re: all that water in the wheel well - yeah. This car was probably left out for extended periods with either a massive seal leak in the back, or, perhaps no glass from the accident, or something like that. As you can see, the spare tire well is not "self bailing" so if a lotta water gets in there, it don't come out / evap too easily... The SLS pumps last a really long time in these cars, the times they crap out are usually when a car has had the well flooded with water for whatever reason (usually accident). If a car is 'proper' then that well stays dry as a bone. There's a little airflow down under there due to the rear quarter ventilation... oh yeah...

    That's another way water can get in there. Come to think of it maybe thats your issue. Have you looked at the vents at bottom of the rear quarters on either side? Down under the battery and the stereo amp area? If the Florida Forktards (if your median Floridian car owner is a moron/whacko/hillbilly/crackhead/dirtbag/weirdo - their body shops make them look like MENSA candidates...) did a hackjob repair back there during the rear end work, maybe those vents are either 1. wide open, or 2. the grill/flaps were installed backwards so instead of keeping water out, they trap it in... We've seen that before... "DERPDERP WHICH WAY THIS PART GO IN!?"
    2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
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  7. #7
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    In for your updates, but yeah, I have to say you are really taking the hard road on this. Both those cars you are starting with are total basket cases. Everything needs a ton of work. Good luck on the build. We are here to help you and give you a hard time along the way!
    98 540i 6, 525 whp, 120 mph 1/4, V3 Si S/C'er @16 psi, W/A I/C, Water/Meth, Supersprint Headers, HJS Cats, 3" Custom Exhaust, UUC Twin Disc, Wavetrac LSD, GC Coil Overs, Monoball TA, AEM FP, Aeromotive FPR, AEM Failsafe AFR/Boost, Style 65's w/275's, M5 Steering Box, Eibach Sways, M3 Shifter, Evans Coolant, 85 Deg Stat, PWM Fan, 10" Subs, B.A. speakers, Grom Aux/BT, Still Rolling as my DD!

  8. #8
    JimLev's Avatar
    JimLev is offline Artifically Aspirated Moderator
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    Wow, some story.
    Hard to believe that was a Florida car unless it was one of the flooded ones from a hurricane.
    When I started reading the part about the dealer fixing the problems you found I figured they would stick it to you.
    I'm ready to read chapter 2 or is it 3?
    Subscribed for more.

  9. #9
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    Florida 99% humidity and I think this one was a "swimmer" somewhere in it's life. Go for it the build should be of interest to one and all.
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  10. #10
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    Many years ago I knew a guy that worked for the Greater Chicago Auto Auction. He said to never, ever buy a vehicle from one of those corner used car lots, because they are the ones who end up with all of the junk vehicles that no one else wants. This appears to be the case with the white touring. A shame. But now that you are in it, it's good to see an abused vehicle get some much needed love. Subscribed.
    Last edited by Dave Sal; 11-30-2018 at 03:32 PM.
    2000 528i sport
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  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by necsis View Post
    Awesome work! Keen for more posts
    Quote Originally Posted by Santaclaus4 View Post
    Agreed...
    Thanks guys!

    Quote Originally Posted by blackknight530i View Post
    In for this build.

    I've dealt with nearly all of the issues on my touring that you've dealt with, minus the rust. I have a DIY written up for swapping a S62 into a M54 based E39. It goes over everything needed to do the swap, including wiring, coding, and some weird differences in parts/placement of things between I6 and V8 cars.

    Good luck!

    Thanks Paul! I've already read your DIY 5 times and your M5 conversion thread and have them bookmarked as well as all the touring swap threads I could find. There's definitely a lot to do although it's nothing I feel I can't do. The wiring seems a bit daunting but I think once I look at the wiring diagrams and actually get to it I'll be able to figure it out. I also see that the touring you recently picked up was from the same dealer I got mine from!



    Quote Originally Posted by geargrinder View Post
    Oh dude... what a fright pig! Those wheels are a crime against automotive humanity. They should have been a tip off "this car was owned by some Florida Man loser douchebag! stay away!".

    Impressed with your committment and how whole-hog you're willing to go on this girl.

    One suggestion is... given that its an I6, and, this isn't the most sanitary factory shell by any stretch of the imagination.... You might think about LS swap instead. More power, more unique...

    Re: all that water in the wheel well - yeah. This car was probably left out for extended periods with either a massive seal leak in the back, or, perhaps no glass from the accident, or something like that. As you can see, the spare tire well is not "self bailing" so if a lotta water gets in there, it don't come out / evap too easily... The SLS pumps last a really long time in these cars, the times they crap out are usually when a car has had the well flooded with water for whatever reason (usually accident). If a car is 'proper' then that well stays dry as a bone. There's a little airflow down under there due to the rear quarter ventilation... oh yeah...

    That's another way water can get in there. Come to think of it maybe thats your issue. Have you looked at the vents at bottom of the rear quarters on either side? Down under the battery and the stereo amp area? If the Florida Forktards (if your median Floridian car owner is a moron/whacko/hillbilly/crackhead/dirtbag/weirdo - their body shops make them look like MENSA candidates...) did a hackjob repair back there during the rear end work, maybe those vents are either 1. wide open, or 2. the grill/flaps were installed backwards so instead of keeping water out, they trap it in... We've seen that before... "DERPDERP WHICH WAY THIS PART GO IN!?"

    That's exactly what I thought of the wheels! The carfax indicated there were previous 3 owners, and it showed all the service records for the first 2 owners, making me think that it was the 3rd owner that installed the horrendous wheels and subpar headunit. Luckily I have a set of style 42's I refurbished a few years ago that will replace these wheels and a set of Hamann HM2 reps for the winter. Unfortunately both sets are only 17's so they won't fit over the M5 brakes.

    I had thought of purchasing another shell but I don't think the rust is that bad as it wasn't anywhere structural and I don't want to deal with having to travel to find a decent one. Where I live makes it extremely difficult to find decent vehicles I can actually see up close. The city I live has just over 100,000 people, with no BMW dealership so finding a car here is nearly impossible as I currently own 1 of 2 E39 tourings in the city and the M5 is the first E39 M5 in the city. The closest big city would be the Twin Cities and that's still a 7 hour drive and the airport here only really flys to Toronto and the Caribbean. The other big factor being on top of the 13% tax in Ontario it costs me an additional 6.1% duty to import a vehicle into Canada that was not made in North America.

    When I first took a look at this car I immediately checked all the jacking points and rockers to see if there was any rust or damage and was happy to see it was all in good shape. The Alpine White on black was also a bit of a selling point for me on this one as I've never liked the grey or the tan interior in any car, and the black interior in the tourings seems to be slightly more difficult to find.

    As for the suggestion of the LS swap, while they can be unique and powerful I've never really been a fan of them and I would think it requires quite a bit more time and effort to have it run properly. I believe having the full M5 donor will make this swap a bit easier and I want this to be a reliable daily drivable vehicle as my M3 is enough of a project car that I don't want another one.

    My thought for the water in the spare tire well was that Florida humidity and an air compressor in an enclosed space may not play well and that was the source of the water. The SLS pump still works as it should, for whatever that's worth. While I didn't notice any water or rust by the amp area there was a light bit of rust on the battery tray itself which I attributed to improper venting of the battery. I will also make sure to check the vents in the rear quarters. I saw some salt on the right vent and attributed it to the drive home but now that you mention it being installed backwards it makes a lot of sense.



    Quote Originally Posted by philly98540 View Post
    In for your updates, but yeah, I have to say you are really taking the hard road on this. Both those cars you are starting with are total basket cases. Everything needs a ton of work. Good luck on the build. We are here to help you and give you a hard time along the way!
    Thanks! My overall BMW purchase history and E39s in particular has been less than stellar so far, other than my M3. My 540i had 17 previous owners and probably should have been taken to the scrap yard and this M5 had 13 previous owners and isn't much better. Just wait until you see the next update on the engine! It made me want to give up and set my garage on fire for a few minutes there.


    Quote Originally Posted by JimLev View Post
    Wow, some story.
    Hard to believe that was a Florida car unless it was one of the flooded ones from a hurricane.
    When I started reading the part about the dealer fixing the problems you found I figured they would stick it to you.
    I'm ready to read chapter 2 or is it 3?
    Subscribed for more.
    Chapter 3 should be out tomorrow if I get a chance, if not it'll be out by Sunday night. I suppose it's due to my post count being low but every post I've made in this thread I get a notification that says it has to be approved by a moderator, so it seems to throw things out of order slightly.


    Quote Originally Posted by StephenVA View Post
    Florida 99% humidity and I think this one was a "swimmer" somewhere in it's life. Go for it the build should be of interest to one and all.
    Not only the humidity but the Florida heat definitely doesn't help! 70% of the plastic I removed from the car was so brittle it broke before I could even remove it and I wasn't even forcing it. I don't think it was a flood car however as there was no signs of water damage in the rest of the car. I pulled out everything rear of the dash and the carpets were bone dry and there were no obvious signs of moisture on anything underneath them.


    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Sal View Post
    Many years ago I knew a guy that worked for the Greater Chicago Auto Auction. He said to never, ever buy a vehicle from one of those corner used car lots, because they are the ones who pick up all of the junk that no one else wants. This appears to be the case with the white touring. A shame. But now that you are in it, it's good to see an abused vehicle get some much needed love. Subscribed.
    I definitely read some horror stories about the place I bought from but I didn't trust my gut instinct and still went through with the purchase, but I view it as a good learning experience and a mistake I'll never make again. There's still some more little issues I haven't addressed yet or didn't post about but I think I may shortly.

  12. #12
    JimLev's Avatar
    JimLev is offline Artifically Aspirated Moderator
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    Once your post count is above 10 we won't need to approve them, it's just a method of keeping spammer out.
    I usually check the forum 3-5 times a day for post that need to be approved.

  13. #13
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    The air flaps at the rear placed wrongly will cause your ears to pop every time a door is closed. Also, when you turn on the AC, or the heat, with the fan on, it will pressurize the interior of the car. Set the fan speed to high, the windows, the sunroof and the trunk will fart, no lie!

    Years ago, I worked at a shop, we had this dimwit that worked there, this f$&@ing moron and a half installled those vent flaps in the wrong way, poor customer came back complaining about his ears and the interior air pressure going nuts, when I heard about it, I knew right off the bat, what that dip$h!t and a half did. Sure enough.... His stupidity got him fired a few weeks later.

    Pendelum, love the commitment! Keep it up!
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  14. #14
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    I always had some slight doubts about this engine being a viable candidate for a swap due to the timing issue. While the previous owner assured me that the engine was never run after the issues with setting the timing I still had my doubts. Even before I removed the engine I pulled out the spark plugs and used a borescope to look into all the cylinders to look for any signs of major damage to the pistons. All I noticed was some typical carbon build up on the pistons but no signs of the pistons and valves having touched. As soon as I had the engine and the manifolds removed I looked at the exhaust valves and didn't notice any damage on them.


    2 days after I found out about the special tool to remove the flywheel bolts I finally had a long enough Torx bit I could grind and remove the flywheel. I had a little difficulty at first as my impact couldn't break the bolts loose, so out came the breaker bar and 2 ft extension making easy work of the bolts. I was slightly surprised to see the rear main seal wasn't leaking at all considering the mileage. I ordered a flywheel locking tool for reassembly.



    Now that the flywheel was off I could get to mounting it on an engine stand and start taking off the front end. This is were things get really interesting. I apologize in advance if the post gets a bit overdramatic from this point on.

    The bank 2 head looks fairly good and the timing seems to be set properly on this side, making removing the VANOS unit fairly easy.





    Bank 1 doesn't look quite so good. I initially noticed the rust on the cams while the engine was still in the car and found that the valve cover was loose. It didn't look all that bad, just some surface rust that would rub off by hand, maybe a little bit of crocus cloth action to get it really clean.



    I take a closer look at the exhaust camshaft and something seems a little off. Why do the lobes have a flat spot and why does it look like someone ground them?!




    At this point I had a little freak out. How much is a cam going to cost me?! How and why did this happen to only this camshaft?! Is the whole head messed up?! Is there something worse lurking under the head?!

    I looked online and after finding that a new cam costs in the range of $920 to $1000, I look to see if there are any used ones for sale online and I even looked at full heads. I calmed down after I found a couple sets of bank 1 cams for $200 to $250 on eBay. I feel like I should replace both cams but I would appreciate the insight of those more experienced than myself. Should I replace both cams or just the exhaust cam? I'm also thinking new lifters for the different cam(s) are a must. The heads will be coming off to make sure there is no damage to the pistons and valves and I may change the valve seals while I'm in there.

    Ok well now lets take this one step at a time and take the VANOS off on this bank and go from there, should be easy enough. Nope. The splined shafts are so far down in the hubs that it was impossible to remove the entire unit with the splined shafts connected as indicated by the TIS and the Beisan Systems guide. I ended up having to disconnect the splined shaft from the piston on the exhaust side. It's as if they set the timing fully retarded on one bank and fully advanced on the other.



    Now that the both VANOS units are out I can get to the upper timing covers. I first removed the bank 2 cover, no problems there, as expected. Take the bank 1 cover off and there's 3 pieces of the plastic chain guide broken, completely separated from the aluminum backing and lodged behind the chain and under the exhaust hub.


    I removed the lower oil pan to get at the oil pump and the bolts holding in the lower timing cover and as expected there were more pieces of the chain guide down there. I later found many tiny bits of the rest of the guide in the little pockets on the front of the head.



    Oil pump was up next. Someone really liked their extended oil change intervals, everything is stained black and dark brown on the lower end.


    Definitely time to change this guide.



    Now that the lower timing cover is off we can see how the other guides are doing. The other 2 guides showed minimal wear, although the U-guide had the plastic separating from the metal and had a few small bit broken off on one edge. If it isn't obvious by now the timing chain guides were definitely not replaced as I was told, at least I know that for sure now.




    This is pretty much as far as I got with the engine for now. I removed the timing chain and the hubs and chain for the bank 1 camshafts. The upper chain tensioners show significant wear on the extending guide so those need to be replaced as well.




    My main goal was to get the front end of the engine taken apart so that I could get a full list of what I need before Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and I got that accomplished at least. If anyone follows FCP Euro on social media you may have noticed the "one order, 10 pages, 142 different ski numbers, 364 individual parts." post, that was my order. I ended up ordering a full rod bearing kit, all the chain guides, a new chain and tensioner, all the main seals, gaskets and o-rings for the engine and trans, new cam position sensors, a new clutch and associated hardware, a bunch of nuts for the front suspension, new head gaskets and head bolts and a bunch of other random parts here and there. I also ordered a new flywheel elsewhere, but I still need the upper chain tensioners and the Beisan VANOS seals and rattle repair kit.

    That's it for now, that's everything I've done up until this point. I won't be touching the engine for a while, for the most part, as I wait on parts. The heads may come off if I have time but I have an appointment on the 15th of December to get the touring underbody wax coated for the winter, so that will be my focus for the next little while. From the next time that I get temporary registration for the touring I have 14 days to get it to pass it's safety inspection before I can fully register it for the road. I realize undercoating is a whole other can of worms and will make things a PITA to work on but I really hate rust.

    As for the M5, I pulled the shell into the field a few days ago and parked it next to a couple of my other BMWs that I won't be touching until at least the spring.



    Sorry again for the overly dramatic post!

  15. #15
    geargrinder's Avatar
    geargrinder is offline Having No Trouble Here BMW CCA Member
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    Wow! Great posts man.

    What is up with that cam!?! Are you sure there's no valve damage on that bank?!

    Lying liars yet again. Motor is a total shartshow of filth inside, hasn't had oil changed let alone guide job.

    How many damn cars you got lyin around, man!?
    2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
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  16. #16
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    I really would like to know what happened to that cam but I suspect we may never know. If was on a lobe or two I could see someone may have ground it but it's on every single lobe and in the exact same spot! I can't be sure of no valve damage so the heads will be coming off for peace of mind. I already ordered the head bolts and head gaskets for both banks. I also learned from MotorMouth93's thread to make sure everything is super clean before I remove the heads.

    I think I may to buy a 55 gallon drum of brake cleaner and run it through a pressure washer to clean up this engine.


    I have a bout 5 cars too many right now... My current lineup is an '07 VW Rabbit, '05 M3, '99 323i, '98 540i, '03 X5, '02 525iT and the '00 M5. One car for everyday of the week as my friends put it, except that the only one that is roadworthy and legal is the M3.

    The VW is going for sale within the next week. The M3 and touring aren't going anywhere for a long time. The 540i will probably be parted out and I may have a potential buyer for the shell. The 323i I may fix the brake lines and patch up the giant rusted underbody panel and sell it for cheap, I may keep it as a project ice racer, who knows. The M5 I'll need to keep for a while to pull the rest of the parts I need for the conversion, then I was thinking of selling the shell with the I6 subframe as an LS ready swappable project.


    Speaking of M5 parts, I have a question I was hoping you guys could help me answer. For the M5 swap I can go the obvious route of using the M5 diff along with the axles and driveshaft, but I also happen to have a brand new Wavetrac unit sitting on my shelf since last year and the driveshaft and axles from my 540i. Should I go with the Wavetrac and a 3.15 or possibly the 2.81 gear, or should I stick to the M5 diff and hope the clutches don't need to be replaced?

  17. #17
    JimLev's Avatar
    JimLev is offline Artifically Aspirated Moderator
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    Those cam lobes are forked. Looks like someone took a file to them.
    M5 diff for the better gearing.

  18. #18
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    The engine pictures make my tear up. Poor thing... Find the abusive person who did that and punch them!!!
    I do not believe in a risk free society where the thrill of living is traded for the safety of existence. Nick Ienatsch

    The law does NOT determine "right" from "wrong". They are unrelated.

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  19. #19
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    I must commend your commitment. Dems be some horribly treated cars you've picked up.


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  20. #20
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    I'd pull it all apart to fully assess before buying all that kit of parts for it. Might have been run for a bit low on oil or with really bad oil. Check crank, pistons and bores. Hopefully it wasn't run overheated. Hoping the best for you on this and that everthing is still useable.
    98 540i 6, 525 whp, 120 mph 1/4, V3 Si S/C'er @16 psi, W/A I/C, Water/Meth, Supersprint Headers, HJS Cats, 3" Custom Exhaust, UUC Twin Disc, Wavetrac LSD, GC Coil Overs, Monoball TA, AEM FP, Aeromotive FPR, AEM Failsafe AFR/Boost, Style 65's w/275's, M5 Steering Box, Eibach Sways, M3 Shifter, Evans Coolant, 85 Deg Stat, PWM Fan, 10" Subs, B.A. speakers, Grom Aux/BT, Still Rolling as my DD!

  21. #21
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    hats off to you, man, it's a LOT of work. But you seem to be fixing it correctly and have the patience for it. Subscribed and will be watching your thread.
    I have an '03 540iT that needs lots of work as well as it sat outside for almost 2 years, it now needs more work that it started with.

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  22. #22
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    Subscribing to the thread. My touring is banged up but nowhere near the amount of rust you got going on. It gives me some hope to restore mine (hit in the left rear door by a FedEx truck) even though she'll wear a salvage title for the rest of her life. If mine was a normal color wagon I'd just toss it but being a 1 of 27 in Anthracite with a manual makes me want to revive it.

    Hats off to your commitment!

  23. #23
    geargrinder's Avatar
    geargrinder is offline Having No Trouble Here BMW CCA Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by philly98540 View Post
    I'd pull it all apart to fully assess before buying all that kit of parts for it. Might have been run for a bit low on oil or with really bad oil. Check crank, pistons and bores. Hopefully it wasn't run overheated. Hoping the best for you on this and that everthing is still useable.
    ^^^ I'm with Chris as usual. Get the ol' micrometers and calipers out.

    Re: the diff...

    Functionally theoretically I like the torque-biasing diffs for real-world-daily-driver-snow-ice-rain-etc driving, and clutch diffs for sporty-track-car-stoplight-launching, but either one is 100% fine and great honestly unless you're building some kind of race car or something.

    Given all you're gonna do, and, your obvious mechanical aptitude, I'd crack the case on that M5 diff and have a look inside, as well as inspect the fluid that comes out of it and see how shinymetal it is or is not. If it was treated like the engine (abused + never fluid changed), and it probably was... then it might be severely needy.

    Obv parts are available for that diff to freshen it up, but since you've got the WT sitting on the shelf already I'd prob just use that if the M5 diff needs a full work-over. Then you could stash the M5 diff and rebuild it at your leisure later and re-sell or swap it as needed in future. Having extra E39 LSD's is an excellent problem to have.

    The one thing I'd do in that case would be perhaps nab a set of 540iT flanges for the 540 diff so you can use it directly with the M5 axles now and then have the M5 diff be plug and play later if you decide to use it, or, have the M5 diff be whole for selling on / reuse elsewhere.

    Re: the ratio, I agree w/ Jim - the lower gearing is certainly preferred, but since you clearly built the WT diff up yourself (and I assume that it has the 2.81 from the 540 in it now...), you obviously are capable of grabbing a (nearly worthless cheap) stock 540iT diff and then swap the gearing into it... that'd be the way to go there that'd get you to the same 3.15 ratio.
    2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
    2002 540iT Sport Vortech S/C 6MT LSD TiAg
    2008 Audi A3 2.0T DSG (the daily beater)
    2014 BMW X1 xDrive28i (wifemobile)

    Former:

    1985 MB Euro graymarket 300SL
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  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by JimLev View Post
    Those cam lobes are forked. Looks like someone took a file to them.
    M5 diff for the better gearing.
    Ok, so the 3.15 gears are the obvious way to go then.


    Quote Originally Posted by Santaclaus4 View Post
    The engine pictures make my tear up. Poor thing... Find the abusive person who did that and punch them!!!
    With 13 previous owners it may be a little hard and time consuming to do that.


    Quote Originally Posted by snikwad View Post
    I must commend your commitment. Dems be some horribly treated cars you've picked up.
    I'm a glutton for punishment I suppose. I keep buying beat up junk and try and make it reliable.


    Quote Originally Posted by philly98540 View Post
    I'd pull it all apart to fully assess before buying all that kit of parts for it. Might have been run for a bit low on oil or with really bad oil. Check crank, pistons and bores. Hopefully it wasn't run overheated. Hoping the best for you on this and that everthing is still useable.
    It may be a little late for the parts as the order already shipped, although I could and would use all the same parts on another S62 if I had to buy another one. I'll absolutely be pulling apart most of the rest of the engine to further asses it. I'm was hoping to avoid having to do the main bearings but it can't hurt to do them while I'm in there. What should I be checking for? I'm guessing main bearings and what on the crank and any damage to the pistons and bores?

    I never really thought of it possibly having been run low on oil or having been overheated so I will have to keep that in mind when I tear it down further. I'd assume that overheating would mainly affect the heads and head gasket, in the form of a warped head or blown head gasket, or would it have a large effect on the block as well since it's aluminum? Is there anything I should be looking for in particular? I didn't notice any coolant in the oil or oil in the coolant, so I feel like the head gaskets and coolant jacket should be intact.

    Looking back I wish I had done an oil analysis but 99% of the oil was drained into a previously used container. I didn't notice any metallic flakes in the oil or in the bottom of the oil pan which makes me slightly hopeful.

    How's your Wavetrac after 4 years? I'm leaning towards the Wavetrac over the M5 diff but I'm still slightly concerned about the no load situation as I take my car out on frozen lakes a handful of times a year.


    Quote Originally Posted by eunique View Post
    hats off to you, man, it's a LOT of work. But you seem to be fixing it correctly and have the patience for it. Subscribed and will be watching your thread.
    I have an '03 540iT that needs lots of work as well as it sat outside for almost 2 years, it now needs more work that it started with.
    Thanks! After waiting 2 years to get my M3 fully fixed and back on the road after I found subframe cracks this doesn't seem all that bad. I was hoping to have it ready to go in the car for the spring but if I have to wait longer it won't be the end of the world.

    I know all about leaving a car outside for 2 years. On my 323i all the brakes rusted and seized, the rear shocks and springs were broken and blown from the weight of the snow, the underbody was rusting horribly and I even had some mice make a home in the glovebox, intake, intake manifold and even under the shifter. I guess you don't have to deal with the snow and rust as much down in California.


    Quote Originally Posted by itsbrokeagain View Post
    Subscribing to the thread. My touring is banged up but nowhere near the amount of rust you got going on. It gives me some hope to restore mine (hit in the left rear door by a FedEx truck) even though she'll wear a salvage title for the rest of her life. If mine was a normal color wagon I'd just toss it but being a 1 of 27 in Anthracite with a manual makes me want to revive it.

    Hats off to your commitment!
    Thank you! Everyone keeps saying it's a lot of rust but I guess having had to deal with a lot more it seems quite minimal, just a inconvenience more than anything. This was the amount of rust I had to deal with on my 540i.




    Quote Originally Posted by geargrinder View Post
    ^^^ I'm with Chris as usual. Get the ol' micrometers and calipers out.

    Re: the diff...

    Functionally theoretically I like the torque-biasing diffs for real-world-daily-driver-snow-ice-rain-etc driving, and clutch diffs for sporty-track-car-stoplight-launching, but either one is 100% fine and great honestly unless you're building some kind of race car or something.

    Given all you're gonna do, and, your obvious mechanical aptitude, I'd crack the case on that M5 diff and have a look inside, as well as inspect the fluid that comes out of it and see how shinymetal it is or is not. If it was treated like the engine (abused + never fluid changed), and it probably was... then it might be severely needy.

    Obv parts are available for that diff to freshen it up, but since you've got the WT sitting on the shelf already I'd prob just use that if the M5 diff needs a full work-over. Then you could stash the M5 diff and rebuild it at your leisure later and re-sell or swap it as needed in future. Having extra E39 LSD's is an excellent problem to have.

    The one thing I'd do in that case would be perhaps nab a set of 540iT flanges for the 540 diff so you can use it directly with the M5 axles now and then have the M5 diff be plug and play later if you decide to use it, or, have the M5 diff be whole for selling on / reuse elsewhere.

    Re: the ratio, I agree w/ Jim - the lower gearing is certainly preferred, but since you clearly built the WT diff up yourself (and I assume that it has the 2.81 from the 540 in it now...), you obviously are capable of grabbing a (nearly worthless cheap) stock 540iT diff and then swap the gearing into it... that'd be the way to go there that'd get you to the same 3.15 ratio.
    This is the most I've torn down an engine. This is going to be fun!

    This would be almost exclusively for day to day driving, half of the year being in the snow, with the occasion jaunt to a lake in the winter to do some frozen lake drifting.

    The thought of rebuilding the clutch packs myself never even crossed my mind. I figured that was always something best left to the professionals. I suppose if there's information available on how to properly rebuild a clutch pack differential I wouldn't mind learning how to do it.

    To be honest, my plan since I knew I was going to buy the M5 was to sell the diff, driveshaft and axles as a whole to help offset the cost of the engine refresh and swap.

    I never knew the automatic 540's had option of the 102mm flanges, I always thought that was limited to the M5. Do all of the 540iT's come with the S204A option?

    The 540 currently has the 2.81 yes, but I never got around to installing the WaveTrac in it, it's still in the box. If you and Jim are advising to use the lower gearing then I'd be a foolish to do otherwise, and it makes absolute sense as to why you recommend it. Finding a 540iA/540iT diff shouldn't be difficult as long as I can find a place willing to ship it, and I've already purchased everything I needed to install the LSD into the diff myself, so that won't be an issue either.

  25. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by pendulum View Post
    I also learned from MotorMouth93's thread to make sure everything is super clean before I remove the heads.
    Lol I'm glad my pain has helped someone. I wish you the best with the motor, it might be good to do a leak test on the cylinders to get an idea of what you're working with before you tear into it too far. It would suck to do a bunch of work on the motor and then find out it burns more oil than gas when you start it up.
    Last edited by MotorMouth93; 12-02-2018 at 04:28 PM.

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