Touring build from Costa Rica.

[Cheche]

Hello folks,

I have been lurking around here for quite some time, asked a few questions (more than I should have) but I have learned a LOT from all of you, I am starting this to keep track of the progress.
I am a huge E34 fan, its the car that I love the most so I had to have one and when I found a Touring with a bad engine selling for cheap I bought it without thinking too much, the car was a 1994 US Spec 530i touring

Dont have pictures of the car when I first saw it, but here are ones when it all started



New to me M60B40 engine


Engine in place


some of the parts that have been installed during this time, cant list them all at this point.










The first ever bath it took during my ownership


Full headliner all done by me



the car is now a 5 speed manual with a 3.23 LSD I will update with more stuff later

cheers!

[93FIM5]

Looks like solid progress, what are your end goals?

[M540fella]

Nice work my friend! I was wondering when you were gonna start one of these.

[Cheche]

Looks like solid progress, what are your end goals?

for now I want to rebuild the front and rear suspension, I am still on the fence if I should stiff it up a little with better springs and shocks (Koni/vog) and nurburgring bars. but, I must be honest... it will never corner like a small lighter car, so I am thinking I should buy everything stock. Then I will refinish the Alpinas and put them on, dont want to use them right now, suspension comes first

Nice work my friend! I was wondering when you were gonna start one of these.

Thanks Josh! I always though about doing one, but never did.

[LeckenE34]

I don't think you would want to touch that steering wheel without a hazmat suit.

[ross1]

for now I want to rebuild the front and rear suspension, I am still on the fence if I should stiff it up a little with better springs and shocks (Koni/vog) and nurburgring bars. but, I must be honest... it will never corner like a small lighter car, so I am thinking I should buy everything stock. Then I will refinish the Alpinas and put them on, dont want to use them right now, suspension comes first

Thanks Josh! I always though about doing one, but never did.

Before altering the suspension try a refresh of the shocks with good quality "stock" parts, the bigger sways won't effect ride so have at that.
EVERY lowered car I've been in rides like a lumber wagon. The stock suspension is very good when fresh. Better tires will improve your handling.

Oh, nice work on that headliner. That big sucker had to be a bear to do.

[Cheche]

I don't think you would want to touch that steering wheel without a hazmat suit.

hahaha yeah the car had been sitting in a shop for several months before I purchase it, old lady bought it in FL and brought it back down here in 1996 when she moved here, interior is cleaner now.

Before altering the suspension try a refresh of the shocks with good quality "stock" parts, the bigger sways won't effect ride so have at that.
EVERY lowered car I've been in rides like a lumber wagon. The stock suspension is very good when fresh. Better tires will improve your handling.

Oh, nice work on that headliner. That big sucker had to be a bear to do.

Thanks for the advice Ross, yeah I am concern about the ride quality, specially because we have terrible roads.

The headliner was challenging, but I think overall easier to do, since the parts are smaller, compared to doing a sedan, where, yeah its just one piece, but if you get it wrong, you need to start from 0, thankfully it went well.

- - - Updated - - -

ok second update, so the car was still an autotragic for like a year, then the transmission starting failing and I knew I had to do a manual swap, issue was... there are not many 530s with manuals down here and even less 540s E34/E39, so I was looking into buying a transmission from the states, but the cost of importing one would be over $2K, for one in good shape, around the same time a close friend crashed his car 530i/5 from 94, just what I needed, here are some pics from that car.

The whole front of the E34 was totaled, but the other car was far worst


that car was in really good condition, but I bought it to continue my project, I dont have many pictures from the manual swap, but at that moment we took the LSD, driveshaft, Gearbox, and clutch system from the donor

testing some nice wheels from a friend

Open Diff out


Car ran fine for some time, I even went to a track day, but the car started overheating during the 4th lap, so my brother cut the video, excuse his excitement, it was the first time he had gone to the track
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Q1qaJHjyM

but then starting Dec last year, just when I was considering buying an E12 to start a second long time project, the clutch died... after some searching I decided to get the UUC E39 240mm flywheel and I found a new Clutch system from a 328i E36 within the forum, had to wait over a month to get the flywheel from ECS, to be fair, it was UUC´s fault, anyway, got them a few days ago and on everything went well.



and I Also got a grey cargo cover, its in almost perfect condition

And some toys that will go into the car soon



and my friend who sold me the Alpina wheel also has a set of 18 inch Hartges, he will install them in his 530 soon and we shall do a photo shoot, but I would love to have a set like that for the touring!

[M540fella]

Fatality! E34 wins! Lol

[Kinghorn]

Your a lucky man! Car looks like you cleaned it up big time! So m60b40, 5 Speed, & A Alpina Kit? Definately is one sexy touring!


(how long did your headliner take you & where'd you get the material?)

[Cheche]

Fatality! E34 wins! Lol

LOL

Your a lucky man! Car looks like you cleaned it up big time! So m60b40, 5 Speed, & A Alpina Kit? Definately is one sexy touring! (how long did your headliner take you & where'd you get the material?)

Thanks! yeah 5 Speed for the moment, want to take of everything and then I in a few years I will think about a 6 speed, first comes suspension with brakes, then some interior items, then Exterior, then I will look into more power along with the 6 speed. I dont know how many hours it took me, I dont think it was that much in total, but I worked shorts periods of time during several days, I got the materials locally, we have a lot of shops that sell this kind of stuff, it was just generic fabric, nothing OEM. if you need to do yours, do it! dont hesitate, you wont regret it

[Cheche]

Here we go again!

So I had bad luck with the engine, it always ran fine, but I had trouble with emissions, change cats a couple of times, O2 sensors and nothing, problem was the engine was a Nikasil block, probably got here with no signs of wear, as I had no many troubles when we first installed, our fuel is terrible and so the Nikasil problem just grew from there.
The only solution was to import a new engine, god lucky and found an Alusil block in good shape for good money, we brought it in and went with the installation.

how the engine got here


its an M60B40, same size as I had before, maybe some day in the future I will import an M62 and build a stroker with the parts from the Nikasil block, engine almost ready to go in



Got the intake clened up



Engine installed and ready


The car is running great now, I have a high igle issue, but it must be a vacuum leak, I have tested with anothe ICV and without the throttle cable connected and it stays around 1K rpms, will look into that this next weekend.

Now, I have been planning on rebuilding the front and rear suspension for some time now, I finally bought everything and will be going in soon.



I am not replacing any components of the struts at the front yet, the shocks were isntalled like 10K miles ago and in some time I will change those, but for now they are in good shape.

I havent smog it yet, but I will be doing that soon, hopefully everything will go well and I should be able to drive it legally pretty soon.

[mgoods50]

Very nice. I bet it's a blast to drive.

[Cheche]

right now its like driving a very fast waterbed hahahahaha the new suspension should fix that

[Cheche]

Install of the rear suspension has began




Just a normal day at the shop