Spec [02/06/06] |
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Exterior
Interior
Chassis
Engine
Engine currently seized solid following a high speed meltdown
on the M6 tollroad. |
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Project Build Diary 2nd June '06 E30 M3 propshaft purchased. This is necessary to fit the e36 ZF gearbox. E36 3.0 M3 steering rack purchased. 5th June '06 New Old Stock Hartge leather gearnob and Hartge Momo Hornpush fitted. I thought these tied in nicely with the Hartge wheels. I also like the fact they've been sat around new in their packets for 16 years on a dusty shelf somewhere in Germany. I fitted the horn push to my trusty Momo Corse wheel. I originally bought it for my e30 327i Sport (GUG), but it's also been fitted to 2 of my e34 M5s and my 205 GTI race car.    Edit: I've since decided these are a fashion crime and shall be removing them. Hartge bits are fine on a Hartge car, but smack of council otherwise. 22nd July '06 I finally got my garage tidied out so was able to get the M52 on the engine stand. Before I could fit the engine to the stand I had to remove the clutch and flywheel. The standard flywheel is a horrible heavy dual mass thing. I think I'll bin that and see if there's a lighter weight alternative. UUC/Fidanza do a few options but they are pricey. After talking to Ian Haynes I think something can probably be made from other standard BMW parts - possibly using an e28 535 clutch and flywheel. First job once we were on the stand was to remove the e36 sump. I still need an e34 sump and the relevant e34 oil pick up pipe if anyone has one? Mail me if you do please.  I've also removed the standard 328 exhaust manifold as I'll be having one made based on an M3 Evo hydroformed manifold. I removed the water pump to check it was the later model with the metal impellers as the plastic impellers are a known weakspot. While it was off I removed the viscous fan, clutch and bearing as I'll obviously be using an electric fan. I need a new pulley for the waterpump too. However I'll replace that when I also replace the powersteering pulley and the alternator pulley with UUC underdrive pulleys. Now I've made a start and have sorted my working environment I can hopefully make some progress. Because the engine is aluminium alloy the bare metal can be 'polished' up quite nicely. I firstly removed any casting marks with an emery wheel and then ran over with a drill mounted wire brush.   I'll be swapping the thermostat housing for an alloy one - they are much stronger than the plastic one factory fitted to the M52 - not only that, it's one more thing to polish up! I've been removing other brackets, and ancilleries etc to clean them up off the engine. The oil filter housing won't be going back on as I'm fitting a 3.0 M3 one. This has the oil thermostat and oil cooler take off that the standard M50/M52 casting doesn't have. It also has a metal lid whereas the M52 one is plastic. Something else to polish...  The only stumbling block in fitting the M3 filter housing is that you need to fit the vanos oil feed into the place where the S50 has the oil temp gauge sensor. Unfortunately the thread is a completely different size; the oil temp gauge sensor is M12x1.5 whereas the vanos feed is M14x1.5. I'll get a local engineering company to drill and re-tap it.   24th July '06 Bought a new M52/M54 waterpump on eBay. It's a genuine BMW part and in brand new boxed condition. Best bit is it cost me the bargain price of £6.71  |