I can see that it will be an ongoing thread that I will add to as an when various stages occur throughout the build.
So to kick things off, I picked up the M60 lump on saturday morning.......
Engine came from a spares or repairs 1992 740iA nikasil engine, serivce history up until 135k ish, but not been run for a couple of years and was laid up.
There was talk about iy having covered somewhere in the region of 170-180k but it doesn't really matter as I intended to take it apart, inspect and rebuild.
The guys I bought it from were sound as a pound and threw in the prop, the virtually new radiator, all hoses, the ECU's and all wiring looms, the brake hydraulic servo/cylinder, engine mounts, alternator, water pump and all other ancillaries, exhaust manifolds, and even the boot badge so I can make a 340i badge, if I want to!
I got the beast home and then had a fight with it to get the bugger out the back of the van without the aid of a hoist!
My best mate was there, (and will be throughout the build), and brought his engine stand so we could attach the engine to it whilst it was in the van. After stretchig a few ligaments we finally got the thing bolted up to the stand!
Next step was to drain the oil, (or should I say tar - it was old and thick), petrol and coolant.
Then came the fun part - we stripped the engine down in a logical order and labelled as we went, starting with tracing the engine sensors to the loom with the aid of the wiring diagram. Once everything was labelled on the loom, the housing was removed from the engine and stored in the electrics box!
We then went ahead and removed the fuel rail - I wanted the injectors stored in a clean environment so I butchered a pair of marigolds and pulled the fingers over each injector to seal them off from the outside world, works a treat!
Then the inlet manifold came off and on inspection had a coating of oil and grime on its inner surfaces and in the breather pipe
Then, looking down the exhaust port of number 8 cylinder i could see alot of heavy black oil and grime - uh oh I thought!
Still, we pushed on, stripping bits away until we were able to remove the coil packs, spark plugs and cam covers. The spark plugs were drenched in oil because the inner gasket of the cam cover had begun to perish and let oil inside and into the plugs. It was the same story on both banks and is apparently a very common problem on M60's - the outer gaskets looked fine.
We then whipped the cam covers off and the cams are in perfect condition - hurrah! They look brand new, no wear on the lobes and shiny clean metal (albeit coated in oil). The chain was well tensioned and the back of the valves looked clean, well the bits we could see anyway. I didn't go ahead and take the heads off because I wanted to wait until I have got a complete gasket set and other bits I may need for it, before I fully strip it.
So the final part was to spin the engine upside down and take the sump off.
On doing this, and to our suprise/horror, we saw there was 3 bolts sat on the oil scavenge, one in the sump chamber, and two loose bolts on the side of the scavenge housing
But looking at the crank and bottom end in general we could see no damage, the journals and bearings were all sound and we could see the honing marks on the cylinder bores, and it hand cranked really smoothly.
So obviously the bolts were removed, the sump put back on and I was a releived and happy chappy - it looks like the engine is a good one and will run in the touring for many more miles to come
We also removed the aircon pump which is a heavy and unecessary beast and its pulley.
So it is now sat on the stand half stripped until I get the parts I need including ancillaries to rebuild it back up, but all in all, I am chuffed to bits with the weekends work, and can't wait to get back to it for the next stage.
To me this is half the attraction of an engine conversion, yeh I should have a fairly quick sleeper, but the building of it is awesome banter and you really feel like you are building your own car rather than taking parts from exisitng cars and boshing them together.
I deffers recommend it!
Cheers for reading, I'll update when I can
Rob
Give us loads of pictures and inspiration please ! I'm thinking of the same conversion or even a later 4.4 V8 so come on pics please lets see everything !
