The 1st and 2nd of June, My BMW E30 M52 Conversion part 2. This week end i want to get the E34 sump fitted to the M52 lump and get it into my Bimmer!
Other jobs to do before fitting the lump is to change the:
- Water pump
- Rear crank oil seal
- Thermostat
- Spigot bush bearing
- Fit the power steering pipes to the E36 steering rack
JT F`cked off again without leaving me his engine crane! Went to Raders to get his crane got back to the garage, Rilus gave me a hand to tow the Bimmer from around the corner to the garage.
Got straight on it, whipped the bonnet of and got the M52 lump out. Put these to one side and got started with the power steering pipes. Got the 1st pipe fitted and bolted to the steering rack, nice n easy. Not the case with the 2nd pipe!
Unbolted the rack to fit the 2nd pipe around the back of the rack and in front of the cross member. Worked out where to bend the pipe and put it into the vice. Got the Oxygen and Acetylene gas bottles out, turned the oxygen on and Hiisssss, the f`ing regulator was leaking oxygen. Removed it & cleaned it, re-tightened and still hissing…..after over half an hour got it tightened as best as i could, still a little leak but good enough to carry on.
Whilst beavering away, Mike next door who runs the Mercedes Parts garage was asking why I didn’t fit a V8 or the M3 Lump? I would’ve of loved to except for the price, M3 3ltr engines start from around £1500 for a high mileage engine or one with most of the ancillaries removed. The V8 would be too costly to run with petrol prices these days!
Mike rang a mate of his who had an M3 lump but he just sold it with the E34 sump ready to fit into an E30 for £750!! Hmmm, this sounded too good to be true but he said he would keep an eye out for another one, Nice!
So now after 2 hours of heating, bending, fitting, removing the power steering pipe and repeating several times before the pipe finally bolted up snugly to the rack and it was done!
Next job was to clean up the new E34 sump. Then remove sump from the M52. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds, as my engine stand was thrown out recently when there was a big clear out at the garage (Cheers Rilus, damn slag!!) Lying and sitting on the floor I removed all the sump bolts.
That was it for today, I would finnish up tommorow! Wanted to go and see the 2nd round of “King of the Ring” at Essex Arena but I was Just too knackered, so had to give it a miss this time. 🙁 Next time, I could be entering King of the Ring 😉
Back for more, 1st thing was to whip the sump of. Lifted the engine with the crane and got the sump of. Removed the oil pick up pipe and removed windage tray. Cleaned old gasket of and spot welded the nut on the oil pump as a safety measure, as this nut has been known to work loose and then the engine looses its oil pressure immediately, which is not good, not good at all!
Removed bracket from windage tray for the oil pick up by simply bending back and forth until it broke of. Next grinded some material of the E34 sump to stop it hitting on the windage tray & gave the sump a thorough clean up to get rid of any small metal particles.
Fitted E34 oil pick up pipe, put new gasket on the sump and carfully fitted the E34 sump whilst trying not to be underneath the engine that was dangeling from the engine hoist 🙁 Well this took a damn site longer then I thought it would but it was now done and I was feeling a lot happier.
To finish of I fitted the new water pump and other parts before finally getting the engine ready to fit into my Bimmer. I decided to fit the engine now and put the gear box in after as I still had to get the flywheel lightened and balanced and fitting the engine without the box was a doddle. Had it bolted into the new E28 M5 engine mounts within half an hour! 🙂
Final job was to refit the bonnet and get the Bimmer out of the garage until next week, when I will be refitting the flywheel, clutch and gearbox. Then I can get on with making the exhaust all fit together, which will be no easy task…….
On Monday I dropped Flywheel of to Peter, who has been very helpful at Essex Engineering in Abridge, to get the flywheel lightened. Peter quoted me £50 and said it would be ready the next day, Result!
After weighing up the pros and cons I decided to get “DanThe” from E30 Zone to get the loom sorted. Dan knows his stuff and has been very helpful with advice and tips and I highly recommend him.
Posted the M52 engine loom to Dan to get it converted to plug into the E30 wiring loom and sent him the ECU to get the EWS anti theft system deleted from it, this will save me a lot of time and trouble getting the wiring sorted. Should be done by next week, fingers crossed 😉
More parts still on way from eBay. This week end should see the Bimmer nearly up and running…..The weekend after when I have the Loom and ECU back, she will be back on road!!!!