My E28

[alan1272]

yes but it's using the m52 windage tray dont forget
318is gearbox, standard diff (lsd when i can find/afford one.)

the prop is waaaaaayyyyyy too long, anyone know if the 520i prop is longer or shorter than the 518i prop? i assume it'll be shorter whilst keeping the same PCD of holes on the front drive flange?

[alan1272]

sorry for the lack of progress but i've been distracted by rallying and buying a reliant scimitar for my dad.

only got back to the e28 in the last couple of days, the early nights are curtailing my sessions on the car as i have no power or lighting in my garage.

so anyway, i've tacked the engine mounts together and fitted them to the car and they seem to fit quite well.



next i looked at fitting the clio servo. the clevis on the clio servo is a lot shorter than the e28 one (it's a lot closer to the length of an e30 one) so i needed to extend it. the easiest option appeared to be to cut off the clio clevis, weld a stud to the linkage, then use the e28 clevis on it.




i could then use the stud to adjust the length of the linkage and when i was happy with the position i weled it fully.



i then fitted the servo to the car and inserted this little spacer i made up into the MC to make up for the clio's shorter pushrod.



so with the servo in place i fitted the inlet manifold to ensure it cleared.




loads of room!

next job is exhaust manifolds.

[snakebrain]

This is coming along nicely..

[Simon13]

Nice project, thats a Guildford Registration PK hence why its probably not a rusty wreck. Been down sarf innit

[alan1272]

Nice project, thats a Guildford Registration PK hence why its probably not a rusty wreck. Been down sarf innit

yeah, i've posted a similar thread to this on the 5 series forums and one of the previous owners saw it and let me know some of the cars backstory, which is nice.

although after a bit of poking around i've found it needs a bit of work on the drivers footwell, nothing too bad though.

[Rosc0PColtrane]

This is a nice project. Keep it coming!

[alan1272]

after some serious fucking about, the front manifold went from this


to this

[alan1272]

i've spent today searching round the internet and getting a few pin out tables and diagrams for m50 conversions and e28s and compairing them to the plugs i have to create a table of the connections that i need to make between the plug on the side of the e28 fuse box (c101?) and the e36 m52 engine loom plug (c101 equivalent?). as you can tell i've spent lots of time learning the correct plug designations

the sticky here was very useful as it appears a lot of the wires on my e36 plug correlate with the e34 m50:
http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... c&t=158933

here's my table, a few things are missing still.



if i'm missing anything please tell me as i'm literally making this up as i go along and i'm not doing a very good job of it

[alan1272]

the gear linkage has been shortened on both the selector rod and aluminium shifting arm.







did some head scratching with regards to the prop today. the e28 518i prop is too long by around 10cm, it also has a CV joint where it bolts to the diff. i've not seen that before on bmws that i've owned, they've always had a 4 bolt UJ there. it shouldn't be a massive hurdle to overcome it i need to change the drive flange on the pinion shaft of the diff for a 4 bolt one if i need to, but it's another pain in the arse.




i have an old e30 320i prop in my spares store so i fetched that to try. with the sliding joint in the middle extended as much as i dare it was still nearly 10cm too short.





so, my options are:


1. have the e28 prop shortened and balanced by a company that specialises in such matters.


2. spend some time researching bmw propshaft lengths to find one suitable, change the diff input flange.




while i consider my options on that i decided to crack on with routing the wiring.


first off, the ecu needed mounting. i made a cage for it out of some alloy angle and bolted it into the place where the old ecu sat.







i then took a look at the wiring harness for the ecu. when the m10 was in the car it ran through the hole in the panel on the right of the picture then in through the bulkhead via the hole in the centre of the picture.





the harness for the m52 ecu is not long enough to go this route and reach the ECU. so two options; extend the wiring or re-route.

i had it in my head that i was going to extend the wiring to make it look neat and factory, but looking at it today i think i can do a nice neat job of re-routing it and avoid a load of potential problems with dodgy electrical connections (which, on an engine i have never heard run, is probably a good thing.)

so i intend to now send the wiring through the removable black panel and then straigh through the bulkhead. the hole in the bulkhead needs enlarging slighly to fit the ecu plug through.





this is where the wiring will now run; i'll cut a hole in the black panel and grommet it so it'll look neat enough.


i've also started stripping all the standard heatshrink and rubber tubing off the loom so i can get it all to sit nicely. i'll wrap it all in self convuluting tape when it's finished to make it look nice and protect it.


another quick job i did was running a couple of wires from the X20 to the C103 plug behing the glovebox.


here's the c103




it's the black (tacho) and the white with black trace (fuel rate) that we want. so i had a search through an old loom to find a corresponding male plug then soldered some wires to it.




i also now have a lightened m20 flywheel to go on it courtesy of magpie

[alan1272]

i've been thinking about the propshaft over the last few days, and after a bit of googling and watching videos on youtube i'd decided to have a go at shortening it myself.


most props (fords etc) are just a tube with a yoke welded in the end. most yokes fit into the tube like a cork into a bottle, and then are welded in place. to shorten it you just grind the weld off, remove the yoke, cut the tube in the new position, make sure everything is square, then weld the yoke back in.


IF the bmw prop was like that it would have been fairly straight forward. i had the front section of the e36 prop in the scrap pile so i decided to disect it to see if it was possible.





it appears that the bmw props aren't constructed like that. to shorten this one it would require sleeving and the chances of getting it right and balanced are minimal with the gear i have. i'm gonna call a couple of prop places in the week to get prices to have it done professionally.



apart from the prop dilemma i finished off the wiring, and with the help of a couple of mates stood by with fire extinguishers, i connected a battery to the cars new wiring for the first time. no smoke, good start.


i wanted to try to start the engine, but with no oil in it and PAS and coolant pipes unconnected this seemed a foolish idea. so i pulled the starter out and attached a jump lead to earth it; the sweet sound of the starter spinning when i turned the key will have to keep me goin for now.

--------------------------------------------


slowly plodding on with this still, i had hoped it would be ready for the end of may but thats looking highly unlikely now.


with the wiring complete and most of the fab work done (bar the prop) it's time for the engine to come back out!




with the donk back on the deck it's time to rid it of this horrible sprung two-lumps of modern bollocks pig iron.

(right) and replace it with my super-duper 5.6kgs piece of rotating art (left).




but not before a trip to the stealers!



the spigot bearing in the end of the crank also needed to be changed from the 15mm one to the 12mm one. so out came my hugely expensive, precision slide hammer.



old and new.




insert the new bearing using a tool designed specifically for the job.




then bolt the flywheel up using new, shorter bolts and a shim. the clutch and starter are from an m20 engine as well.




i also finally managed to remove the viscous fan which was on tighter than any other i've seen!

[alan1272]

as soon as i sling an air fliter, exhaust and prop on it i'll be doing do'nuts in the yard.