1988 635 Engine Rebuild and 5-speed swap

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kylefav390
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Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2013 4:17 pm
Location: Massachusetts, U.S.

1988 635 Engine Rebuild and 5-speed swap

Post by kylefav390 »

I purchased this car about 5 years ago now, as a sort of 21st birthday present to myself after selling my e30 and yearning for something to play with again. It came from a guy in New Hampshire, who was a dealer that mainly worked on Land Rovers and was doing work on it for his friend, who at some point lost interest or funds to continue. The car had no title and been sitting for sometime in his yard as it had a few wasp nests under the fender and behind the gas cap (which I found when I went to fill it up for the first time on the drive home). The title issue took me almost 7 months to sort out before I could actually drive it on the road, but with a previous registration and bill of sale the State of Massachusetts issued me a new title and registration and I was good to go. The car is an August of 1988 built 635, which at the time only had 95k miles on it. I daily drove it on and off for the last few years and only put about 20k miles on it, putting it at about 115k miles now. After trying to sell the car last winter in 2016/17 and having deals fall through a few times I decided to keep it for the summer and try again in the fall. In September the head gasket failed on my way to work, which led to it being parked at my parents house and pretty much just sitting there until I could find a space to work on it this winter. Car in question:

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February 1st we moved into our garage, which is an all but abandoned gas station that my father owns, and only has electricity.
It had a lot of character then, not so much now, but it is keeping my car out of the northeast winter and facilitating its rebuild.
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My work is seasonal, giving me about two months time to do as much work as I can. Since we moved in February 1st, I have removed the M30 and its basically as torn down as its going to be.

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I have also since removed the head to inspect the block and change the head gasket, which is mostly okay with one spot on the cylinder wall that coolant was getting into. I'm a bit concerned about so I might have to have the block checked, but i'll post some photos and try and get some opinions here first. I wasn't planning on really touching the bottom end, besides removing the oil pan and visually inspecting everything and replacing the oil pan gasket. Unfortunately I don't currently have any photos of the block/ head disassembled, but I'll do some more documenting today.

I've collected most of the major items for the 5-speed swap that I bought on craigslist, which I believe came from an 84 633csi, which means the transmission is probably a g260/5. This is not as ideal as I would've liked but I think i'm still going to use it unless I can score a good parts car before I start reassembly. I can always swap it for a g260/6 in the future if I run into any problems.

To be totally honest I've never really done much more than replace the cooling system last year on this car, along with other small maintenance items. I'm not as well versed, mechanically speaking, as I would've like before taking on this project. However the disassembly has gone quite smoothly so i'm pretty optimistic that i'll be able to have this all sorted. I'm always open to pointers and tips from more experienced people! i'll be updating as I go along.
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tschultz
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Re: 1988 635 Engine Rebuild and 5-speed swap

Post by tschultz »

Nice work.

Will be a great change once you get the 5 speed in place! Hopefully the electricity in your garage gives you the ability for a heated work space!
http://www.Drive4Corners.com
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'79 635CSi Revival
'80 635CSi
'83 633CSi Callaway Turbo continued as 1988 535is Turbo
SOLD: '81 635CSi/A
kylefav390
Posts: 212
Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2013 4:17 pm
Location: Massachusetts, U.S.

Re: 1988 635 Engine Rebuild and 5-speed swap

Post by kylefav390 »

tschultz wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 6:38 pm Nice work.

Will be a great change once you get the 5 speed in place! Hopefully the electricity in your garage gives you the ability for a heated work space!
Luckily we invested in a kerosene heater early on, but it hasn't seen much use in the last few weeks due to the mild winter were having. Which has been somewhat of a blessing, since i'm not killing my wallet buying $5 a gallon Kerosene every couple days.
kylefav390
Posts: 212
Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2013 4:17 pm
Location: Massachusetts, U.S.

Re: 1988 635 Engine Rebuild and 5-speed swap

Post by kylefav390 »

This is the cylinder in question:

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Rest of the block looks fine: no major corrosion in the cooling passages other than surface rust.
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If anyone has any insight on whether this might be an issue in the future i'd love to know. You can very slightly feel it on your finger tip, but I had no oil consumption issues before it was parked for a few months. Even when it was parked I would periodically pull the spark plug out of that cylinder and turn the motor over to clear it of coolant that may accumulate in there .

I also found that my lower timing cover was cracked, right near the tensioner.

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kylefav390
Posts: 212
Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2013 4:17 pm
Location: Massachusetts, U.S.

Re: 1988 635 Engine Rebuild and 5-speed swap

Post by kylefav390 »

Alright, so I have finally found some time to put a lot of hours into this car. The summer months are crazy busy for me so hopefully I'll be able to put many more hours in the coming months. Since my last update I had the head machined and new valve seals installed and got it mated back to the block. Started putting the accessories back on and getting the intake cleaned up and painted.

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Today I spent a few hours battling the fuel lines that attach to the fuel rail, along with replacing the fuel lines in the engine bay, and some miscellaneous power steering lines. But the intake is finally back together and ready to be attached to the head. I'm excited to make some decent progress lately because the last six months or so has felt like the project is pretty stalled, which has sort of killed my motivation. I'm stuck in a cycle of either having the money to buy parts, but no time to work on the car and having plenty of time during the winter when I don't work for two months, but no source of income. It's been interesting to say the least, but i'm enjoying the process and love learning new things as i go. This forum has been a huge help along the way.

Here's where i'm at now as of a few hours ago
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Once I get the engine ready to go in I'm going to focus on getting the manual transmission ready. I have a getrag 260/5 with associated driveshaft. However i'm not too keen on using it and would rather try and find a 260/6 or better yet a 265 if possible. Any input would be appreciated!
kylefav390
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Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2013 4:17 pm
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Re: 1988 635 Engine Rebuild and 5-speed swap

Post by kylefav390 »

This project has stalled on me many times over the last 3 years or so and has mostly sat stagnant, which has led to a lot of stress because I could never decide if I could/should finish it. A lot of the photos I took of this car recently were intended to be used in an ad for an upcoming part-out. Due to recent events however I have found myself with plenty of spare time to spend in the garage and I figured I had already spent a lot of time and money getting to the point I was at I may as well finish. Most of what I needed to do was work, since all the big money items were already paid for and waiting to be put together.

I got the engine ready to install
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I got the car ready to install the engine
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Loaded it up on the crane
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and with little fuss put her back in her home.
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Now the fun part starts of buttoning everything back together to see if it would start for the first time. I was pretty intimidated by the wiring, being the 1988 model my research led me to believe it would be quiet the task. I eventually troubleshot most of the issues with the wiring diagram pamphlet. I could get the car to crank after jumping the starter relay under the dash. After that it would only crank. I wasn't getting any power to the fuel pump relay. I replaced the fuel pump relay as a precaution and jumped power to fuse 11 to test the pump. The pump worked and I quickly found a fuel line on the rail wasn't clamped properly.

I tried starting the car by cranking it with the fuel pump relay jumped, and still nothing. I moved on to spark, which I had none even after a new cap, rotor, and wires (had power to the coil) At this point I was pretty frustrated and willing to admit my incompetence and just bring it to a shop. Took a few days break, did some research, and came back to it. I ordered a new crank position sensor as it seemed to fit most of symptoms I was having. I installed the new sensor and still nothing. Now I moved to the ECU as it was the next most probable issue, only to find I had not plugged it in fully or properly in my early haste.

So I pulled a spark plug to test spark, cranked it with the key, and it came to life (albeit on 5 cylinders). Put the spark plug back in and tried it again.

(video below)

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It sounded pretty healthy, even with open headers. I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, since I could finally wrap up this project knowing that it will run. At this point the transmission still is not in the car, so the next job is to order all the shifter parts and crossmember, install everything and bring the car to an exhaust shop to have a header back exhaust fabbed up.

I'll hopefully update this more frequently, with my new found time off. i.e. unemployment. :D
baders
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Re: 1988 635 Engine Rebuild and 5-speed swap

Post by baders »

Nice work kyle ! Sometimes its damn difficult to keep up the enthusiasm for a project.
1986 635csi LOCUTUS / Arktis Blau Metallic / Pearl Beige / S38B36/ Close ratio dogleg 5sp
2002 E46 M3 / Topaz Blau Metallic / Black Nappa / 6 speed SMG software tuned / Bilstein PSS10 Coilovers / CMP RACP reinforcement
kylefav390
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Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2013 4:17 pm
Location: Massachusetts, U.S.

Re: 1988 635 Engine Rebuild and 5-speed swap

Post by kylefav390 »

baders wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:38 am Nice work kyle ! Sometimes its damn difficult to keep up the enthusiasm for a project.
Thank you. I've learned that first hand with this project. I often find myself putting it on the back burner to most other things in life. Luçkily I never dropped it for good.
songzunhuang
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Cheering from the sidelines

Post by songzunhuang »

Just throwing good vibes your way. I really like the color of your car.
My car is an automatic and I waffle on a manual swap, but I use mine as a daily and don't want it to be out of commission. I've put over 40K miles on my car in the past 5 years.

I'll keep an eye on your progress and learn!
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Song Huang
1984 633CSi
Last 7 of VIN: 6997383
kylefav390
Posts: 212
Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2013 4:17 pm
Location: Massachusetts, U.S.

Re: Cheering from the sidelines

Post by kylefav390 »

songzunhuang wrote: Fri Apr 24, 2020 12:56 am Just throwing good vibes your way. I really like the color of your car.
My car is an automatic and I waffle on a manual swap, but I use mine as a daily and don't want it to be out of commission. I've put over 40K miles on my car in the past 5 years.

I'll keep an eye on your progress and learn!
Hey sounds like you've got your moneys worth out of it so far! So far the manual swap has been pretty easy. Seems daunting in theory, but once all the parts are gathered it can really be done in a day or two. Mind you, before I dove into this project I had only really done basic maintenance on any of my cars. I'm sure it'll all be worth it when it's finished.
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