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Thread: The Dunklenator (Poor Man's Z8 Project)

  1. #1
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    The Dunklenator (Poor Man's Z8 Project)

    I found this car advertised for sale for a pretty good price a little over a month ago and reached out. No reply... until last week, guy asked if I was still interested. Sure I was.

    It was advertised as a "1998 4 Cylinder Z3" which it... most certainly was not
    So I went and checked it out... the car was interesting to say the least. It seemed to have been really taken care of at one point, then just totally neglected... which did sort of corroborate with the story I was told; which was that it was owned by the seller's mom until 8 months ago or so when the son took it down to Arizona from Iowa. The top looked brand new, most of the paint was in great condition save for some clearcoat chunks missing on the trunklid. Body was all straight, other than the bumper being cracked a bit - seller said he smacked it into a curb which made sense, the damage was to the lower part. Interior was hit and miss... while it overall looked a little rough but salvageable, it most notably had an issue with the driver's window being stuck down so the door panel on that side has seem some weather... might be hunting down a new door panel, we'll see

    Most urgent was the CEL for a cam position sensor though. Luckily this is an M52TU and I have a few spare M54's at my shop, and they share those sensors...

    Anyways, how it looked when I first saw it... (sorry I don't know anywhere else to host images other than here which requires them to be clicked to be made larger lol)

    WhatsApp Image 2019-09-01 at 10.29.00 AM(1).jpeg
    WhatsApp Image 2019-09-01 at 10.29.00 AM.jpeg

    Took it on a little test drive... realized the convertible top was broken. Bummer. The limp mode from the CPS error made it not as fun to drive too, but still it was nice to be back in a roadster

    That was a week ago. We agreed on a price, then just took forever to finally make the exchange of cash for the car. He didn't know he needed the title too lol, so had to have his mom bring that back up. Really nice guy though!
    This was last night, the night it was finally mine. It was still 85 degrees at night but I had to drop the top... boy have I missed that!

    WhatsApp Image 2019-09-01 at 10.21.54 AM.jpeg
    WhatsApp Image 2019-09-01 at 10.21.55 AM.jpeg

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  2. #2
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    So this morning I got some better pictures in the sunlight, and took a few minutes to replace the CPS. Was a very very quick job

    WhatsApp Image 2019-09-01 at 10.21.56 AM.jpeg
    WhatsApp Image 2019-09-01 at 10.21.58 AM.jpeg
    WhatsApp Image 2019-09-01 at 10.21.59 AM.jpeg

    Swapped the sensor out - had to remove the intake for access to the connector, the oil filter housing cap for access to the CPS bolt, the vanos solenoid, and had to loosen the vanos line to move it down slightly and out of the way. Had all the tools ready and took me under 10 minutes. Lemon squeezy.

    WhatsApp Image 2019-09-01 at 10.21.57 AM.jpeg

    Whats on the agenda for the Dunklenator? (called such because its Dunkle Green, of course)

    Well I need to wash it, obviously. I also need to fix the driver's side window and give the interior a good cleaning. But beyond that?
    I'm not sure I'm trying to thin my fleet - I just sold my purple M3 - but this car was pretty cheap, so wouldn't mind keeping it around as the cooler months approach to enjoy some top down motoring
    Having a lot of thoughts about putting my M body stuff on it. I have a spare M trunklid and rear bumper, as well as a front bumper. The trunklid on this car could use some paint - which normally I wouldn't bother on a car this cheap except that the rest of the paint is in really nice shape. So figure if I'm gonna paint it, why not paint the M stuff instead?
    Heck I could keep the stock parts, and if I decide to sell the car, could yank the M parts right back off... hmm...

    I'm just happy to be back in a roadster! Looking forward to this evening for some joyriding with the top down

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  3. #3
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    Congrats on the pickup. Looks like a solid car that just needs a little love. I saw a dunklegrun over beige at a C&C yesterday and it is a classic looking combo
    Kelvin

  4. #4
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    Cool beans! I've just returned from a couple weeks of not driving (business trip to Sweden) and got into the Roadster as soon as I could, then tackled the steering wheel swap today.
    I'm happy for you that it came cheap, could easily be sorted, and promises fun during cooler months.

    Here in the Philly area, we should now have routinely good weather for open driving until That One Big Rain in November that brings down the last of the leaves and makes it clear Winter is approaching.

    IIRC, the standard '98 Z3 owners's manual is for the 4-cylinder (with an addendum for I-6) so, unless you know what you're seeing under the hood (or can recognize the difference in fender width) I would expect if happens often enough that a seller might think it's a 4-banger.
    Well bought, I assume.

    Is Dunkel the BMW version of BRG?
    Last edited by Watch Carefully; 09-01-2019 at 02:16 PM.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by KBH22102 View Post
    Congrats on the pickup. Looks like a solid car that just needs a little love. I saw a dunklegrun over beige at a C&C yesterday and it is a classic looking combo
    Yup thats what I was looking for - something I could pick up cheap and put a little love and elbow grease into to make decent!

    Normally the tan interior turns me off tbh, but with this exterior color I do quite like the combo. It's that classic british roadster look!

    Quote Originally Posted by Watch Carefully View Post
    Cool beans! I've just returned from a couple weeks of not driving (business trip to Sweden) and got into the Roadster as soon as I could, then tackled the steering wheel swap today.
    I'm happy for you that it came cheap, could easily be sorted, and promises fun during cooler months.

    Here in the Philly area, we should now have routinely good weather for open driving until That One Big Rain in November that brings down the last of the leaves and makes it clear Winter is approaching.

    IIRC, the standard '98 Z3 owners's manual is for the 4-cylinder (with an addendum for I-6) so, unless you know what you're seeing under the hood (or can recognize the difference in fender width) I would expect if happens often enough that a seller might think it's a 4-banger.
    Well bought, I assume.

    Is Dunkel the BMW version of BRG?
    The wheel looks good!

    And yeah, I think thats what happened with the listing. The guy also is an American truck guy - so didn't know a lot about the car. I wonder if it would have been available so long if it was correctly listed...

    Yup - Dunkle Green is essentially British Racing Green. It's a very cool color. A bold, but not obnoxious, flat medium green shade color.

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  6. #6
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    Good read BREAKER! good luck with it. I love purchasing stories. Good job.

  7. #7
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    Hmm, you bought a roady. Well, enjoy!
    E36/8 2000 M Coupe Cosmos Black/Black
    Shark, Conforti CAI, B&B Exhaust, H&R, Bilstein, AKG Subframe/Diff, UUC TME Red/Caps, Swapped Front Hats, Ice>Link.
    ================================================== =======================

  8. #8
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    Enjoy! Nothing beats top down driving on a warm night.
    2001 Z3 3.0i -Oxford Green/Sandbeige
    2016 428xi -Estoril Blue II/Black
    2018 430iC- Estoril Blue II/Black
    2018 330it - Melbourne Red/Venetian Beige/Black

  9. #9
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    I guess it's safe to say the PO never replaced (4...er, 6) spark plugs.

    Enjoy! I'll echo the sentiments of warm night top down driving, but must admit I haven't had my hardtop off in nearly 3 years.

  10. #10
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    Congrats! I skip the evening drives this time of year, but you can find me in the early mornings zipping around the valley
    Tony
    "You can't sign away negligence."

  11. #11
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    ...2 days shy of 1 year later...

    I am V8 swapping this car

    Why?
    Well, I had it listed at what I thought was a fair price (under $2k) but no buyers. Didnt try too hard to sell it either tbh. But since I was keeping it - several ideas came and went - raise it and offroad it. Eh, more fun in theory than practice I think. Slap in a 3.0 and weld the 4.1 diff and drift it. I have a 2.8 I use for hooning already. Just make it "nice" and stock and try again to sell it. Whats the fun in that?

    None of those ideas tickled my fancy. Ive always wanted a V8 Z3 though. I love the idea of a "baby Z8" ...so I did some research and bought myself a Vee Eight motor
    Sold the low mile M52TU ($800, not bad) and am removing it from the Z3 today and hopefully also gonna test fit the 8 cyl if time permits. Btw that motor compression tested better than any Ive ever tested personally... 135, 134, 135, 135, 136, 135

    Ive told a few of you what it is, but before I go further... Any guesses as to what V8 I am putting - or attempting to put - in my Z3? (Obviously if Ive told you, then shhhh!)
    Last edited by BimmerBreaker; 08-30-2020 at 11:43 AM.

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  12. #12
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    Wish I had known you were selling a M52TU. I need a good one.


    /.randy

  13. #13
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    M62!

  14. #14
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    I have a good M54B30 here too... I also have the good M54 2.5 out of my girlfriend's 525i wagon for sale. I dont usually deal with freight shipping though

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by kolosy View Post
    M62!
    No way Jose! I personally was never a fan of that motor...

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    Quote Originally Posted by BimmerBreaker View Post

    No way Jose! I personally was never a fan of that motor...
    S62?!

    I still haven’t ruled out doing that conversion myself.

  16. #16
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    Hey, no double guessing!!!

    Not an S62 swap. Have that swap pencilled in for down the road though, depending on how this swap goes. I am in the process of buying a 0 mile rebuilt S62 with full dry sump kit for $6k.. need to finish this swap first though... I cant really give any hints without giving too much away though

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  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by BimmerBreaker View Post
    Hey, no double guessing!!!

    Not an S62 swap. Have that swap pencilled in for down the road though, depending on how this swap goes. I am in the process of buying a 0 mile rebuilt S62 with full dry sump kit for $6k.. need to finish this swap first though... I cant really give any hints without giving too much away though
    haha. Nice buy!

  18. #18
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    I'm not a fan of shipping either, but my local source for known good engines is no more...


    Not a V8 fan. N74 or bust!


    /.randy

  19. #19
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    https://i.imgur.com/jsMQrDc.jpg ...cant seem to upload images anywhere these days to be posted, not even on the forum anymore lol



    Drove the car in today and had the motor out in a few hours... went the extra mile and took the radiator support off too, just to make it easier for all the custom stuff I'll be doing. Tomorrow or early this week I will get the V8 test fit in place and start adjusting the wiring. Have quite a few things to figure out for the swap still, but have spent a lot of time figuring the wiring out so hopefully that will be pretty quick and maybe I can get the engine started sooner rather than later, then move onto everything else...

    As I took a few things out, I noticed the M52TU has a lot of parts shared with the M52. So it seems like for the ease of the swap, I will

    Quote Originally Posted by kolosy View Post
    haha. Nice buy!
    Thanks lol - pretty stoked to get that motor but need to finish this swap first
    Quote Originally Posted by rf900rkw View Post
    I'm not a fan of shipping either, but my local source for known good engines is no more...


    Not a V8 fan. N74 or bust!
    If the M73 fits... the N74 should... right?
    Last edited by BimmerBreaker; 08-30-2020 at 07:59 PM.

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  20. #20
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    Cleaned the engine bay and test fit the N62, first attempt was very close. But I will need to move ABS module. So I will take engine back out and try again today after moving ABS

    Last edited by BimmerBreaker; 03-17-2021 at 02:31 AM.

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  21. #21
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    You might look to the 427 Cobra for inspiration on the shifter layout.


    /.randy

  22. #22
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    Well the GS6-37 and GS6-53 appear to be the same length in critical dimensions. There are OE parts from other models that fit GS6-37 to a Z3 as-is. Im hoping those same parts will let me fit a GS6-53 to a Z3 and work for the shifter

    Hoping to get engine IN today to measure and see if those parts will work or not

    Theres a chance that I will need very little custom parts to make this all work...
    AKA I dont think the trans will end up as far back as I originally anticipated. So should be able to shove the shifter through the OE spot.
    Last edited by BimmerBreaker; 09-01-2020 at 02:12 PM.

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  23. #23
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    I moved the ABS module and tried again...





    With the engine mount arms I have installed, it makes the engine too wide lol. The engine mount arms are rubbing on both frame rails very slightly. Will take motor out tomorrow and grind those down on the ends that are interfering and try again.



    Good news is, when engine is in the right spot the trans location seems really good. It puts the crossmember piece right near the stock crossmember bolt holes. So I may be able to use the same stuff used to fit the GS6-37 into my Z3. I will order those parts tonight so I can have on hand when I need them

    Looks right at home though Will add a picture once home
    Last edited by BimmerBreaker; 03-17-2021 at 02:32 AM.

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  24. #24
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    Ordered trans support bracket and shift linkage last night. Found some that look to be the right size and are for a GS6-37 so hoping they'll fit, or at least bolt on so I can modify length if needed

    So currently sort of paused waiting for those parts. I will be doing custom engine mounts so I will set trans in place using the parts I bought to make trans bolt in without custom stuff and then see where it places the engine. If its an acceptable location (I mean, im pretty limited as far as sump clearance and height) then I will build engine mount arms to set engine wherever the trans brackets locate the trans. Otherwise I will use a custom trans bracket and may need to modify firewall. Either way, in a move that is shocking to nobody, it is going to need a fair amount of custom work
    Last edited by BimmerBreaker; 09-03-2020 at 02:54 AM.

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  25. #25
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    pics or it didn't happen :p

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