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Specifications:
Polaris Silver over Pacific Blue Cloth
OBD I Converted S52
ZF 320z 5 speed Manual
13.7 pound single Mass flywheel
Custom EAT Ultra Chips Tune (Mark D'Sylva)
Custom Stainless Header
Custom Dual 2.25" Custom Exhaust
E32 740i Brakes
Bilstein Sport struts/Spax Springs
Koni Adjustable Sway Bars
BBS RS 198 (17x8.5 et 13)
Euro Conversion
Euro M5 front spoiler
This project started in November, 2011. Joel and I were discussing a plan to create an economical daily driver with some character. We had come up with a general plan to find a clean and straight E28 528e and do an M50 engine swap. We would also put some euro bumpers and lights on. We figured this would be a fun car to drive and would meet the criteria of being economical and posessing some character.
Within a few weeks we came across a Polaris Silver 1982 528e listed for sale on craigslist. It was only a few miles from us and the price was right at under $1000 dollars. We called the guy and went to check it out. We arrived to find a very clean and original car. All of the electrics worked, even the power atenna. Looking over the car, we were able to figure out that it had been a European Delivery vehicle. Essentially, it had been manufactured for the American market, but sold in Germany. The car had been in one family since new. It was originally purchased by the seller's grandfather and had been in the grandfather's hands until just recently. The grandfather had been stationed in Germany where he purchased the car and later brought it home with him to the Seattle area.
Being an '82 also meant it had a Getrag 265 and a lightweight M20 flywheel. It also had a manual crank sunroof, early E12 style headliner, and a blue cloth interior. We also noticed a crack free dash and a working Becker Bavaria head unit. These features may seem undesireable to some, but we found this car to be interesting because it is different. Polaris Silver is quite a rare color for E28s, at least in the northwest. We negotiated a reasonable deal and drove the car home. The motor ran great, but the noise from the transmission tunnel and vibration in the clutch pedal made it clear that the throw out bearing was about to die.
Within a week, the work began. Disassembly came first. We had to see what we were working with.
The bumpers were removed and revealed a good amount of surface rust in the tail panel. There were no rust throughs, but it was significant enough to have us doubting the wisdom in saving that panel. The front bumper came off and body work commenced.
Upon inspecting the driver's rear arch, we found that their had been a similar type of repair, though no where near as significant. Ther was a small section of metal that had been perforated in the repair process to allow the arch to be pulled out. Instead of leaving this section on the car, it was replaced with new metal.
The body work process went through many stages as we discovered more about the car's body. There were many hours spent repairing panels like the passenger rear door and the driver's fender. However, as we worked through the process, it was decided that those panels would be replaced. The driver's fender was replaced with a new OEM factory fender and the passenger rear door was replaced with a very clean accident free used door. As the work progressed, the expectations for the car slowly began to grow. We saw the improvements and the potential for this car increase as we went along.
The passenger rear quarter was the most difficult part of the body restoration. It had been hit at some point in the car's past. It was superficial, but instead of pulling the metal out, a lot of filler was used. Judging by the products used in the repair, the repair was done in the late 80's to early 90's. The decision was made to replace the section of the quarter that had been damaged. This would provide a proper repair and the most stable foundation for a new paint job.
The repairs to the quarter arches removed the only two parts of the car that had any significant damage. It also made us feel better about moving forward with the car and eventually attempting our first paint job. Attention shifted to the tail panel. Since the plan was to Euro convert the car, we decided to replace the complete tail panel with the proper Euro sheet metal. Joel sourced a Euro market OEM tail panel and shipped it from Germany.
Once the tail panel showed up, the old panel came off. The seams were cut where the factory had brazed the original in and all the spot welds were cut out with a spot weld cutter. It's important to note that the quarters and trunk were carefully braced an supported before removing the tail panel. I have seen cars where the quarters rolled in at the top because it was not properly braced before removing the tail panel.
The trunk flanges were blasted to remove any surface rust and then treated with Eastwood's Rust Enapsulator product. Eastwood's product is very good and is preferred to POR-15 due to POR-15s inability to bond to clean metal.
The new rear panel was fitted. And welded into place.
The next step was to weld up the holes left behind in the by the U.S. bumpers in the lower quarters.
At this point, the decision was made to weld up the seems that the factory created below the tail lights. This is the seam where the tail panel meets the quarter panel. The idea was to create a "seamless" look.
The body was coming along nicely. We continued to look for a low mile M50. The longer we looked, the further the conversation drifted toward an S50 or S52. Essentially, we decided that it requires the same amount of work to install and S50 or S52, so why not? A couple weeks later, we found a part out thread on craigslist. A 1997 M3 sedan with an automatic had been seriously rear ended. We went to check the car out and found a clean and well maintained E36 M3. We figured that a clean, lower mile, automatic sedan was a good bet for a donor motor. The transaction for the motor was quite interesting. The car was being salvaged by a small Taxi company near the Sea-Tac airport. The guys there were pleasant, but the "gentleman" removing the engine from the car was, shall we say, interesting. His name was Blue and he possessed "crazy eyes." He told us he was great at taking things apart, but not so great at putting them back together. They told us to give them a few days to get it out of the car. I asked them not to cut the harness or any wiring, even though we would later do an OBD-I conversion.
We waited three or four days for the call to go pick up the motor. The day we received the call, a snow storm was threatening. We knew we were up against the clock, but our excitement to get the motor won out. We drove down to "Blue's" and found the front of the E36 cut up and the motor sitting next to it. The harness was draped across the top of the motor and had been cut in half. Thanks, Blue. We loaded up the motor and Blue loaded up the automatic transmission. We didn't need it, but for free, we weren't complaining. That auto trans is still sitting in the garage, by the way. We have not been able to give it away. We got the motor home safely, though things got a little dicey. Snow driving in Seattle is always dicey.
We got to work fitting the engine to the car. We decided that we would mock everything up, build the motor mounts, and make any necessary changes to the car before progressing with body work and paint. Many BMW engine swaps can be accomplished with "off the shelf parts." This is not one of them. The M5x/S5x motors require custom motor mounting arms. There is not very much room to work with, so everything has to be just right. So, the M20 came out.
And, we began fitting the S52. The engine was probably in and out of the car six times, before we had it right. We placed the engine in the car and took very careful measurements. Once we had the mot0r where we wanted it, we pulled the motor out of the car and also pulled the subframe out of the car. It was easier to build the motor mounts to the subframe with the whole assemble out the of the car. We put the motor as far back and as low as was reasonable. We left plenty of oil pan clearance and also made sure to take the driveshaft length and shifter location into consideration. Also, take into consideration that the M5x/S5x motors sit at a more dramatic angle than the M20 and M30 motors. (30 degress vs. 20 degrees)
We had to fit an E34 525i oil pan, oil pick-up, and dipstick to the S52 before attempting to fit the motor.
We got the motor mounts mocked up and re-fitted the motor with the M50/S50 OBD-I intake manifold fitted. This led to the realization that the manifold would not clear the brake booster. A little research revealed that the Porsche 944 brake booster provides a very similar amount of boost, but has a smaller diameter. We sourced a good used 944 booster and the clearance issue was resolved. (Note: The threaded rod into the booster had to be shortened to fit)
Here are a few test fitting pictures:
Once the motor was positioned where we wanted it, we planned out the location of the engine accessories and the necessary mounting points and bracketry. We also planned to remove some of the E28 bracketry to clean up the engine bay.
New brackets were made to mount the OBD-I diagnostic port, The harness connector, the MAF, and a bracket to relocate the power steering reservoir. Then, the engine compartment was cleaned up and prepped for paint.
At this point, the slightly rusty batter box was replaced, even though it was not to be used. The battery was relocated to the trunk.
Once all of the repairs and modifications were made, the engine compartment was seam sealed, primed with an epoxy primer, painted with Dupont Chroma-Base and cleared.
The engine comaprtment was more or less prepared for the engine. Work progressed on the motor, the wiring harness, and Joel went back to work on the body.
All of the mounting holes for the plastic U.S. bumper mounting trim were welded up to match the Euro front end.
The frame rail ends were modified and the factory Euro market bumper mounts were welded to the frame rails as seen in the picture (above right). The rest of the front end was carefully cleaned and prepared for paint. Again, everything was seam sealed and epoxy primed in preparation for paint.
We chose an all aluminum Mishimoto e36 M3 radiator. It required minor modification and custom mounting, but overall was an easy conversion. We also used the E36 M3 fan shroud, fan clutch, and coolant reservoir. We were able to use the stock E36 coolant hose routing.
Next, we turned to the exhaust. We sourced a stainless steel header with the plan of customizing it to fit the E28. It required a large amount of cutting and welding to make it fit.
At this point, we had test fitted the motor, created all of the custom mounting, located all of the wiring and associated components, and prepped and painted the engine compartment. We installed the transmission and engine as a complete assembly when it was time to do the final assembly.
The transmission is a ZF 320z 5 speed manual from a 2000 Z3. We had originally considered using the original transmission to the car, the Getrag 265 with an M20 bellhousing, but we finally settled on the ZF unit. The ZF unit actually fit better than the Getrag due to the difference in mounting angles.
The motor was resealed top to bottom. All of the gaskets and hoses were replaced with new OEM parts. The Vanos unit was also rebuilt. Originally, we had planned on trying to polish an M50 metal intake manifold. However, we quickly learned that the magnesium alloy would be quite difficult to polish. The casting of these manifolds is also not very clean. These castings are rough. We cleaned it up as well as possible, epoxy primed it, and applied Chroma Base and clear in Polaris Silver to match the car.
We used a 1993 E34 525i Harness and a red label 413 ECU. Of course, the motor had to be completely converted to OBD-I specifications. Some of the important points are the intake manifold, coil packs, valve cover, engine covers, idle control valve, and various sensors. We contacted Mark D'Sylva (EAT Ultra Chips) and told him about our project. It was our lucky day. He had just finished dyno tuning an identical engine build and had already done the hard part. He was able to provide a chip for our exact application. The motor he had just tuned put out approximately 240 RWHP and 240 RWT. We were pretty excited to hear that those numbers were possible with no internal modifications.
From the headers, dual 2.25 inch pipes lead into a dual 2.25 inch in and out center muffler with a built in X-pipe. It flows back to a custom made round dual 2.25 inch in and out muffler. The exhaust was completely custom fabricated.
We spent many hours researching the wiring for the car. We set a standard that we would maintain all functionality of the E28s features while adding a fully functional check engine light. Some of the things to consider were the oil level switch, coolant level switch, air conditioning, and the check engine light. Fortunately, we were able to successfully accomplish all of these tasks. The car has complete functionality of all gauges, the check control system, air conditioning circuitry, and a proper check engine light in the instrument cluster. See the custom wire harness adapter below. The 20 pin connector on one end connects to the engine harness and the other end connects to the E28 fuse box. Note the two separate wires exiting the harness adapter. These are the oil level switch wires and need to be separated because these wires are not part of the engine harness.
We found a reasonably priced low miles unit locally. We resealed it and filled it with Redline. The clutch selected was a custom application from clutch masters. It is a heavy duty pressure plate and a heavy duty un-sprung clutch disc suitable for the output of the S52. The flywheel used is a 13.7 pound M20 flywheel. To make this work, we had to use a M2ob25 starter. It is a direct bolt on and wires up directly. We also used a Getrag 260/5 cross member and e21 320i transmission mounts.
Once the motor was finally in the car, wired, and the drivetrain was installed, it was time for the first start-up. We had waited quite a while for this and we were a little nervous. Fortunately, start-up was uneventful. It started right up and settled into a nice smooth idle. The first drive around the block was eye opening. The motor revved incredibly quickly and instantly demonstrated how unsafe the car was with 14" bottle caps. The car returned to the garage for work to continue.
Body work progressed slowly and smoothly. Along the way, the car received a complete suspension rebuild and a brake upgrade. The upper and lower control arms and bushings, strut mounts, sway bar links, and all steering components were replaced. The car also received Bilstein Sport struts and new Spax springs. A very hard to find set of early Koni sway bars were also sourced. A big brake upgrade was also installed utilizing the calipers from an E32 740il and all new Balo vented rotors. We also installed stainless steel brake lines.
For several months, we were mired in body work. The car was primed and blocked many times to try and get it as straight as possible. The plan was for all of the body work to be completed and then we would hand the car off to Uncle Tim for the paint application.
As the car came together, we started making some styling decisions. All along, we had planned on keeping an understated feel to the car. After careful consideration, we selected the Euro taxi valance with fog light delete. We also selected the Euro M5 front spoiler. We feel this provides a very clean look for the front of the car.
The proper coating was applied to the rocker areas where any repairs had been done.
The body was getting close to paint. Final sanding began. Things were looking pretty good at this point. We decided to jamb the car before painting the body.
Wet sanding the car took several days in preparation for paint.
As the day drew near, nerves ran high. The project was coming to the most important stage and a year and a half of work had led up to this point. The car was due to be in the booth early Saturday morning 6/1/13. The booth was secured and the car was ready.
The sealer went down without an issue, followed by the basecoat, and clear coat. The paint was Dupont's Chroma Premier.
The paint seemed to be going down nicely. The color had laid out very evenly and the clear was looking good. The car was left overnight in the booth and we came back to get it the next morning.
We got the car home the next morning and put it away. We had vowed to let the car sit and cure for at least a couple of weeks before we would touch it.
The car sat for about three weeks before any assembly began. We started out with the front end. The euro M5 front spoiler was applied to the new and freshly painted euro valance.
A new windhsield was installed as well as the original rear window. They were installed with new OEM window seals and lock strips.
We then began assembling the front of the car. Brand new bumpers and bumper strips were installed.
Work continued all over the car. There was an immense amount of cleaning to remove all of the sanding dust. The exterior trim was all replaced or reconditioned. The engine compartment continued to receive attention and we replaced the 2.93 differential with a 3.25 limited slip unit.
Months earlier, Joel had worked out a great deal with a good friend of ours for a rare set of wheels for this car. The wheels were a very nice set of BBS RS 198. These are a square set of 17x8.5 et 13 wheels. They were in very nice shape when received and only required some refinishing.
The wheels were disassembled, cleaned, and polished. The centers were refinished in base/clear. The bolts were all cleaned and hand polished.
The wheels were properly sealed and assembled. A new set of Continental Extreme Contact DW 225/45/17 were installed.
A new set of Billet 1/2 height BBS caps were ordered along with new BBS center logos.
We also were getting to work on the interior. Shortly after purchasing the car, we purchased a very nice set of Blue E30 sport seats in blue houndstooth.
Joel made a beautiful set of adapters to install them. Joel found some great replacement material to replace the shrunken material on the door cards. While not an exact match, it compliments the seats and looks quite nice.
We also installed a Blaupunkt Madison.
The car was slowly coming together as we neared our self-imposed deadline: 5erWest 2013. As the weeks went by, we grew more confident that we could have the car done.
In the final weeks leading up to 5erWest 2013, we were putting the final touches on the car. All of the trim, door handles, and other pieces were installed. The interior was assmebled and the new seats were installed. The car is better than we had hoped or imagined. We were excited to bring it to the show. Here are a few pictures from the 5erWest weekend.
5erWest was, once again, an incredible amount of fun. We were honered and flattered to win best E28 over some tough competition. The following weekend, we took the car to the Northwest BMW CCA's Concour de Elegance. We put the car in the display class. We were not interested in participating in the clean car contest at this point. Here are a few pictures from the Concour.
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