I think the designers of the e34 were thinking about ease of repair when they designed the car. Really, how much weight are you going to save by making the engine compartment 1.5'' larger than the engine block itself? Why not just make the hood slightly larger and save everyone the trouble of working around it. As for myself i can say that i would much rather work on a car with a more spacious engine compartment rather than one which has various components stacked together like sardines. I have heard of people loosening the engine mounts just to replace thhe alternator on a toyota 4runner.