Saved from death car... could it become the ultimate sleeper????

[ArtemLepilov]

Hello everyone, my name is Artem Lepilov. I saw your email on bimmer.info I am a Biomedical engineering major at WPI, however one of my major hobbies is working on cars. I recently got an E34 BMW 525I with a non-vanos M50 engine, more like saved it from its evident death. I bought it for about $1200 with a bunch of problems on it as is - the windshield was busted, the coolant was low, the suspension was messed up and shocks leaked completely the transmision was leaking and slipping out of drive when warmed up and two of the wheels were banged up to the point when they wre leaking air, also headlights on one side were messed up and one of the tails was busted and there was a dent in the rear. So far i have repaired the transmission, got new nicer wheels, repaired the suspension and replaced the shocks and the brakes, and the lights, well and the first thing i did was repair the windshield. Right now the car still slips out of gear when i stop at a light even though the fluid is fine, but i noticed it does that when the tranny warms up quite a bit and when i come to a complete stop and engine RPMs go to idle (which on my car is about 550RPM, when i rev the car a little higher it gets back into gear and doesnt have a kick anymore. - The whole complete repair cost me probably under $800 --> so $2000 for an E34 525I with an M50 in it, not bad, huh?

However,

I had a few questions about the car right now, some of them are actually interesting. :-) I have fixed it up a bit and now it is a million times better than it was. I am hoping to keep it almost forever - everything in the car wrks right now except for a few problems.

The complete stop tranny slip problem i am thiking relates to the ICV. If you guys know for sure that it does, please let me know how to clean that thing :-P --> I couldnt find anywhere how to clean an M50 ICV... I believe if i can make it idle at 750 it will stop slipping. Also I know it has rather worn tranny mounts.

Upgrade question: has anyone made a paddle-shift electronic forced shift system on an E34 or a similar car? Because I would be really interested in doing that.

Engine was leaking antifreeze and i believe it is probably one of the lines that is leaking. And besides - the leak is very minimal so its not a big deal.

Upgrade question: the non-VANOS (non-TU) M50 can handle boost very well so i was thinking about doing some kind of a twin turbo setup in there using possibly the Garrett T25s, now for that I would really like more info because i would have to make a custom exhaust manifold and such, now I am a member of the WPI motorsports club and these guys love a challenge, so it is possible to even machine stuff (i would really need to know dimensions and stuff in this case). I am hoping to do a boost that will cause minimal wear increase on the engine. Also I would really like to know if I will need a specal oil filter cap that could be connected to the turbo - how I can possibly make that thing. This turboing thing is kind of a bigie cause i really want the car to produce more power and i know that the engine is really strong.

Also, there is a bit of rust on the front of the car (i hate stupid people that have to jack up the car by a random point underneath when the jacking point is even though it is very clear to see a jacking point if you BOTHER TO LOOK under the car.) well anyway - there is rust now and one of the fenders needs to be replaced because a part that is about 1.5" at the bottom of it is very rusted, the fender on the other side is starting to rust as well so if you got a fender - let me know :-) otherwise I will have to spotweld a piece to the bottom of the fender where it is rusted. Also I will need to straighten out a litle piece of the body under the car because it is rusted there and bent. I might attach some pics later on... But anyway - I was wondering if there is a best way of getting rid of rust besdes sanding it off. And I want to get the door panels at the bottom of each door - ones that are the most common rust spots on the doors.

I would also like to get some sports springs for my car... Let me know if anyone has any extras ;-) - I would like my car to look a little lower from the front than it is right now...

Well I tihnk that is about enoughto make that car almost as good as it was originally...

Thank you all in advance, Artem

[Kalevera]

I admire your courageousness, but have nothing more to say on the topic than, "sell it as quickly as possible unless you want to spend lots of money on it."

My hard lesson, one that I'm still learning, is that it's smarter to buy a true enthusiast's car at a higher price than a piece of junk (piece of art?) in hopes of fixing it up.

Otherwise, most of the questions raised have been answered in the past and can be found with a quick search.

best, whit

[Alexlind123]

You have saved an e34. A truly honorable deed. Now, about those paddle shifters....

[ArtemLepilov]

well I did just find out today aobut them and its not at the top of my list right now - what is though is a possible forced induction for that car... And I suppose it is a little over the top with the shifters... So I would like to know if there is a way i can possibly do a simple and cheap turbo setup for a little under 7PSI (so i can keep my stock injectors and ECM) and keep it cheap. It can be either one - a supercharger or a turbo, however i do prefer a super since it would be so much simpler... Also - the whole getting rid of rust thing is kind ofa pain.

PS - i dont know aobut the car needing a lot of money put into it. I have discovered a lot of tihngs that were wrong with it since i bought it, however I have almost gotten done with repairing all the problems. The final steps I will do to it before it goes back to being a nice car are replacing the control arms, cleaning the ICV and getting rid of the rust.i cannot tihnk of anything else needng attention and i did look thorougly for anything.

I owned the car for about 3 months and it starts every time, drives with no probems (except for control arms) and does everything i need it to do for now.

I will post pictures soon :-)

-Artem

Oh yea - once again, if anyone's got extra sports springs, please let me know if you are willing to get rid of them and for how much :-)

[biondani]

It's a bugger to get to the ICV as it's under the manifold. You can get it off with care but be sure not to let the rubber bracket get disconnected from the block. Once it's off I just sprayed mine with carb cleaner. A lot of people have said not to do this but I thought it's buggered anyway so worth the risk. My revs were dropping to 400 or so before but now rock solid 750 at idle.

Ian

[ArtemLepilov]

It's a bugger to get to the ICV as it's under the manifold. You can get it off with care but be sure not to let the rubber bracket get disconnected from the block. Once it's off I just sprayed mine with carb cleaner. A lot of people have said not to do this but I thought it's buggered anyway so worth the risk. My revs were dropping to 400 or so before but now rock solid 750 at idle.

Ian

awesome - that is exactly what I am going to do... Please let me know how you got the carb cleaner stuff off of it. Also did you just take the entire manifold off? so you had to replace the gaskets and all...? Or did you take the airbox out and everything else and then somehow were able to take it out or what? Also - about the rubber bracket... is that the thing that the ICV sits in or did you mean one of the lines going to the engine?

BTW - At this moment the car has about 136500miles on it. Carfax verified :-)

-Artem

[pyro]

Hi,
The ICV was the first thing i thought was wrong with my car. And I made the mistake of removeing the intake manifold. you can get to it by just takeing it off but i think if you take off the air box you have plenty of room to get your hands in there and feel around to the icv. if you look through one of the holes in the intake manifold you can see a round cylendrical thingy that is your icv. there is a electrical connector on the front of it which is twards the front of the car and two pipes that come off of it. one of them is eazyest to take off underneath the intake manifold which is a little snap thing. its hard to explain but if you look at it (feel it) you will know what im talking about. folow the pipe that comes off of the top of the icv to where it attaches to the intake manifold and that piece pulls out after you move the little clip. and the bottom tube you should just remove from the intake boot before the TPS. hope this helps heres some pictures.
Also unless you don't feel like removeing the injectors and all of that don't remove the intake manifold.

http://0401.netclime.net/1_5/J/A/H/skgi_523953_24151.jpg
Thats what it looks like under your intake manifold.

[liquidtiger720]

Your pics arnt working pyro.

[biondani]

awesome - that is exactly what I am going to do... Please let me know how you got the carb cleaner stuff off of it.
It evaporated after a few seconds.


Also did you just take the entire manifold off? so you had to replace the gaskets and all...? Or did you take the airbox out and everything else and then somehow were able to take it out or what? Also - about the rubber bracket... is that the thing that the ICV sits in or did you mean one of the lines going to the engine?

I took the cover off the oil filter and covered with a cloth and then I found had space to get inside under the manifold. I would not recommend removing it. Have you got a Bentley manual as I think that it would be wise to get one to help you out?

Ian

[infinity5]

define "cheap" turbo setup :)

[ArtemLepilov]

I do have a bently manual :-)

Well about the ICV - I will do that sometime tomorrow or maybe later next week. Control arms are going in most likely wednesday.

I am getting rid of the rust as we speak on the car and I took about all the panels off of it and fixed one side... well by "fixed" I mean I cut out all the real bad rust and primed and put rubberized undercoat all over the rest. That should do the trick for a while, until I will decide whether I need to keep the car or get a new body or whatnot... I also found a rather excessive amount of bondo work on one side where the car has been previously hit with a lot of rust underneath that I sanded down and primed before reaplying bondo, so that made me change the mind about keeping the car (at least an amount of time to keep it - i was thinking for like a decade... lol) but anyway - everything else works fine, ICV will be cleaned hopefully tomorrow and I will have no mechanical isues with it. I will keep the car until my college is done.

One thing I am wondering about really is if I put duct tape and cardboard to get the fenders look the way they should look (there is about a 2" part that will be cut off tomorrow...) - I wanted to do that and see if it will look any good, because now it just lookes like there is nothing there - i am talking about the part of a fender that always has dirt in it and rusts easily - it has rubberized coating on it... usually. And I wanted to know how well that primer and rubber coating works when you dont get rid of 100% rust - does it hold up well against more rust or what? The car is mechanically solid, it just doesnt look like it should look. I just fixed the rear bumper and now it is aligned the way it should have been aligned - before it was saggy closer to the front.

Hopefully I will make it lok good tomorrow. I will be thinking of buying new fenders meantime, but I dont really want to spend money on a respray and a bunch of parts that I can go without. - I am considering keeping the car and getting money for a different E34 525I or an E39 M5 if i get really lucky with internships :-P

Please let me know if anyone has been able to get rid of rust on E34s before... that info would help a LOT...


define "cheap" turbo setup :)

Umm... I was thinking going a real "ghetto setup" lol - getting a working used turbo off a junkyard and putting it on the car... Its one of my least problems though... However I am thinking about it. If everything goes well and get a new 525 without rust I just might turn this one into my track car and definitely put some kind of a forced induction in it. I know a supercharger is a million times easier since I dont need an exhaust manifold or anything like that for it. And that is like 70% of the trouble with the turbos. I heard the stock injectors and ECM can handle up to 7PSI boost. Let me know about that. Also if anyone knows something about a supercharger setup then let me know. Perfect one would be if someone knows a car that came stock with an S/C and I can just go to a junkyard and take it off of it.

Sorry if I sounded too "ghetto" on the duct tape thing lol but that is the most plausible way I can see to fix that rust thing...

-Artem

[pyro]

you waisted so much time on the rust... stuff calld rust converter converts the rust to paintable primer... wallmart carrys it

[biondani]

you waisted so much time on the rust... stuff calld rust converter converts the rust to paintable primer... wallmart carrys it
Does it actually work? If so, may have to hunt some down in the UK to catch the rust spot under the driver's door handle as that will be a right pig to cut out and replace. The paint has bubbled under the handle and it looks terrible. It's the only visible spot of rust on the car.

Ian

[mattyb]

rust converter works but only if theres something for it to work on. if theres bits of car missing it aint gonna fill in the gaps.

[biondani]

rust converter works but only if theres something for it to work on. if theres bits of car missing it aint gonna fill in the gaps.
No holes yet, so will have to get onto it before a hole appears.

Cheers
Ian