johanaxelson
Well-Known Member
Some pics of my work in progress. This is where my questions stem from.
What I am doing is removing and putting the engine back in place whilst cleaning stuff up.
I should say that my ambition is not to have a show car in any way but a nice and clean car I can use.
One of the main reasons for this work is that I had two small oil leaks somewhere I needed to find and fix.
And as PMansson can attest to I have to fix those as I live in Switzerland (am Swedish though). If you come in to inspect your car and they find *one* drop of oil under the car you are sent home.
The engine was also a bit of a mess after a so-so performed conversion and needed a cleanup. Pmansson will also attest to that as he has seen it
I am doing this work where my parents live out in the sticks in Småland, Sweden. Means I can get work done cheaply but quality is not 100% but really is good enough. And I can stay with them and get nice homecooked meals.
Some costs just for reference and I am sure some of you are interested.
Painting of engine room and inside of hood - €350.
Blasting and clear lacquer of large parts cost two cakes, about €30.
I have to admit I did screw up a bit by not doing more preparatory work for the painted stuff myself. Would have made it a touch better.
For example, the guy who did the engine room first epoxyed it, painted it and then added two layers of clear lacquer but missed a bunch of little details while polishing. Strange.... Was a very good job except for that.
Glassblasted and clear coated bits.
http://i51.tinypic.com/2vnnv4l.jpg
Right side of repainted engine bay.
Mostly in progress. A/C Compressor, cables and hoses cleaned up.
Air filter is one issue, the dyno told me it eats about 10HP. Swiss regulations do not allow open airfilters. Will have to have a larger one custom made to fit someplace.
http://i53.tinypic.com/2ikslc5.jpg
Left side of engine bay.
Some of you may find this interesting. As you see the conversion was made with a hydraulic brake booster. It has worked well for 12 years now. Not as distinctive as a vacuum. The "bomb" is under the battery tray.
Otherwise it has been mostly cleanup work, cables and hoses cleaned and arranged better. Replaced when necessary. Everything else cleaned and painted.
Another nice thing about being in a rural area. While doing this I noticed I needed a new hydraulic hose so I went to a shop next doors and paid €20 to have it made while waiting. For a full 10 minutes.
http://i53.tinypic.com/jfg238.jpg
Engine.
Mostly just cleaned up, block was painted. Took forever to remove old paint.
Did not remove top and lower breastplate for now. Ran out of time.
Need to find a good way to clean the alumin(i)um though. Tried a few things but no luck.
Except for the blasting There should be something do dissolve the oxide?
I did glassblast and clearcoat the front bracket (and other stuff) myself. Not too difficult and turned out quite OK. Was able to borrow a blasting cabinet for a day so it did not turn out too messy. No dust cloud....
Ran the glass beads through a normal blasting gun with too high a pressure for glass but it did not damage the material and the glass lasted for a long time.
Headers are still original, looking into getting the ones from Jeff Ireland along with an exhaust with better flow so I did not touch them for now.
The dyno guys I used say that to their experience there are some 20-25 HP to collect there on the E34 engine. They also see that my exhaust is not working optimally because the "boxes" are discolored. "Counterpressure" was OK though, about .2 kg.
Engine already has a light Shrick cam and a chip was mapped on the dyno. Appr 185HP on rear wheels at 5500rpm. Copies of the chip could be provided
Was there for the mapping. Fun to see how they do it. In short they add a bunch of fuel for medium and full throttle as well as a few changes to the "ignition curve" and leave the rest. Very short version. These guys do BMW Ms, AMGs and Ferraris as well so I do believe they know their stuff. Come with good recommendations in Stockholm.
They also do turbo and compressor installs on BMWs etc but it was interesting to note that they do not recommend it. Say it generally does not turn out too well and componenets do not last. Main point was that to make it proper you need to rebuild pretty much the whole engine and that makes it prohibitively expensive. Got a long lecture about that.
I still think the engine is not running 100% though, probably need to find someone to finetune the airflowmeter.
http://i56.tinypic.com/52e1j6.jpg
Misc painted bits and pieces. Not all are done. Will replace some later with new parts. I was being a bit cheap here.
http://i52.tinypic.com/23tqont.jpg
Inside of hood painted.
http://i56.tinypic.com/724phs.jpg
Questions or comments?
/Johan
What I am doing is removing and putting the engine back in place whilst cleaning stuff up.
I should say that my ambition is not to have a show car in any way but a nice and clean car I can use.
One of the main reasons for this work is that I had two small oil leaks somewhere I needed to find and fix.
And as PMansson can attest to I have to fix those as I live in Switzerland (am Swedish though). If you come in to inspect your car and they find *one* drop of oil under the car you are sent home.
The engine was also a bit of a mess after a so-so performed conversion and needed a cleanup. Pmansson will also attest to that as he has seen it
I am doing this work where my parents live out in the sticks in Småland, Sweden. Means I can get work done cheaply but quality is not 100% but really is good enough. And I can stay with them and get nice homecooked meals.
Some costs just for reference and I am sure some of you are interested.
Painting of engine room and inside of hood - €350.
Blasting and clear lacquer of large parts cost two cakes, about €30.
I have to admit I did screw up a bit by not doing more preparatory work for the painted stuff myself. Would have made it a touch better.
For example, the guy who did the engine room first epoxyed it, painted it and then added two layers of clear lacquer but missed a bunch of little details while polishing. Strange.... Was a very good job except for that.
Glassblasted and clear coated bits.
http://i51.tinypic.com/2vnnv4l.jpg
Right side of repainted engine bay.
Mostly in progress. A/C Compressor, cables and hoses cleaned up.
Air filter is one issue, the dyno told me it eats about 10HP. Swiss regulations do not allow open airfilters. Will have to have a larger one custom made to fit someplace.
http://i53.tinypic.com/2ikslc5.jpg
Left side of engine bay.
Some of you may find this interesting. As you see the conversion was made with a hydraulic brake booster. It has worked well for 12 years now. Not as distinctive as a vacuum. The "bomb" is under the battery tray.
Otherwise it has been mostly cleanup work, cables and hoses cleaned and arranged better. Replaced when necessary. Everything else cleaned and painted.
Another nice thing about being in a rural area. While doing this I noticed I needed a new hydraulic hose so I went to a shop next doors and paid €20 to have it made while waiting. For a full 10 minutes.
http://i53.tinypic.com/jfg238.jpg
Engine.
Mostly just cleaned up, block was painted. Took forever to remove old paint.
Did not remove top and lower breastplate for now. Ran out of time.
Need to find a good way to clean the alumin(i)um though. Tried a few things but no luck.
Except for the blasting
There should be something do dissolve the oxide?I did glassblast and clearcoat the front bracket (and other stuff) myself. Not too difficult and turned out quite OK. Was able to borrow a blasting cabinet for a day so it did not turn out too messy. No dust cloud....
Ran the glass beads through a normal blasting gun with too high a pressure for glass but it did not damage the material and the glass lasted for a long time.
Headers are still original, looking into getting the ones from Jeff Ireland along with an exhaust with better flow so I did not touch them for now.
The dyno guys I used say that to their experience there are some 20-25 HP to collect there on the E34 engine. They also see that my exhaust is not working optimally because the "boxes" are discolored. "Counterpressure" was OK though, about .2 kg.
Engine already has a light Shrick cam and a chip was mapped on the dyno. Appr 185HP on rear wheels at 5500rpm. Copies of the chip could be provided
Was there for the mapping. Fun to see how they do it. In short they add a bunch of fuel for medium and full throttle as well as a few changes to the "ignition curve" and leave the rest. Very short version. These guys do BMW Ms, AMGs and Ferraris as well so I do believe they know their stuff. Come with good recommendations in Stockholm.
They also do turbo and compressor installs on BMWs etc but it was interesting to note that they do not recommend it. Say it generally does not turn out too well and componenets do not last. Main point was that to make it proper you need to rebuild pretty much the whole engine and that makes it prohibitively expensive. Got a long lecture about that.
I still think the engine is not running 100% though, probably need to find someone to finetune the airflowmeter.
http://i56.tinypic.com/52e1j6.jpg
Misc painted bits and pieces. Not all are done. Will replace some later with new parts. I was being a bit cheap here.
http://i52.tinypic.com/23tqont.jpg
Inside of hood painted.
http://i56.tinypic.com/724phs.jpg
Questions or comments?
/Johan
Last edited:
