86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

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Gabriel
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Location: Warsaw, Poland

86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Gabriel »

Hello, first post here so I’ll say hello and show my project.

I bought this while spending the holidays in the US, took it all the way back to Poland with me. I had intended to sell it on, but eventually decided it was too cool not to keep. It has some 277k miles on it, but I’d never have guessed it and I've never had a car with such a stack of documentation and maintenance records.

I bought it with a failed 4HP-22 automatic, which I managed to replace with another second-hand trans before having the car shipped back to Europe. After sorting through some electrical issues that were keeping it stuck in limp mode, I drove it for a little while before deciding to do a manual conversion (as I had decided to keep it, I didn't really care about it being true to it's original VIN-spec.) The suspension was badly in need of attention anyway, so I had a good excuse to tear into the project.

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Back in Poland on the lift inspecting what needs to be replaced:
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Most of the suspension is still original, it seems - every bushing, ball joint, literally everything is beat to oblivion. Good thing that it shares most of the suspension with other BMWs and that the parts are still readily available.

I've been replacing various suspension components as they come in the mail, so far:

- front control arm bushings
- tie rods
- front and rear strut top mounts
- rear subframe bushings
- rear pitman arms
- rear sway bar links
- all rubber exhaust hangers

First things first:
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Box of new suspension parts:
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New coilovers to replaced the old shocks that were full of water and rust:
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Swapping the manual trans in I realised it didn’t have openings for the Motronic 1.0 crank sensors (and the flywheel I have doesn’t have the trigger tooth on it either), so I was left with the option of drilling them and trying to fab up some kind of mounts, or go full standalone ECU. I chose the second option, as it allowed me to ditch the ancient airflow meter etc. and hopefully get the old m30 running like a half-civilised engine.

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Balanced driveshaft with new flex disc:
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While swapping the pedal box I noticed that the hydraulic brake booster was leaking from the rear seal, which was the cause of oil-soaked carpet. I chose to convert it to a conventional vacuum booster - I prefer the simplicity and not having half a dozen hoses in that corner of the engine bay which can all potentially develop leaks. I used a brake booster and master cylinder from an e34 - the aluminum spacer it comes with lets it clear the heater valve which is mounted to the firewall.

E34 booster spacer mounted to the firewall:
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And E34 booster mounted to the spacer:
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Some of the lines to the abs pump need to be bent very slightly to clear the new booster, but other than that it bolts right up.

Filthy engine bay:
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All cleaned up:
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Installed the later m30b35 style harmonic balancer so that I could set up a standard crank trigger for the ecu
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Wiring the new ECU:
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Ford coil pack with the bracket I made to mount it:
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Throttle body with e36 M50 position sensor, IAT sensor mounted in the rubber tube:
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Setting up and calibrating the sensors for the new ECU
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Front spoiler warped and bent out of shape:
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Using a heat gun and some clamps I shaped it back, not perfect but will do for now:
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Rare (in Europe, anyway) imperial sized Style 7s that I bought while still in the US:
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Used some spacers to get the offset right - 20mm in the front, 25mm in the rear:
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First wash in a long time:
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Time to get the oil out of the carpet:
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Finally running and driving, still got plenty of things to work out (as always) but already much better than originally. Idle is much smoother, and fuel consumption seems to be way down.
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DC
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by DC »

good job 8)
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Slownrusty
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Slownrusty »

Fantastic work!

How do you like the Easy ECU? How much work was it to install, calibrate and get the car up and running?
Gabriel
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Location: Warsaw, Poland

Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Gabriel »

It was my first time using the EacyECU so I had no idea what to expect. The only real hiccup was that the particular crankshaft position sensor I am using required a diode and a resistor to read properly.

Other than that there were no problems, although the software they provide to set it up isn't entirely intuitive. However, it is so reasonably priced that I cannot complain. The necessary mods to the wiring harness are the same as with any other ecu I guess.
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by GRNSHRK »

Wow, fantastic work indeed :shock:

Now that's quite an undertaking, and given how far you brought this example, you should be commended for your efforts =D>

Those are some of the most tired suspension bits I think I have ever seen [-X

One item I did note, related to your flex disc installation :-k

I'm fairly certain that the bolts should alternate direction, meaning that every other one faces front, while the adjacent ones face towards the rear :-?

Anybody confirm or deny this :-"

Otherwise, congrats on your purchase, best of luck getting her sorted and welcome to the madness \:D/
:mrgreen:
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Gabriel
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Location: Warsaw, Poland

Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Gabriel »

Thanks GRNSHRK, I'll take another look at those bolts next time I'm down there.

On another note, one thing that I have yet to figure out after the ECU conversion is the OBC. The original ECU had an output labeled as "fuel rate," which I assume was the signal for the OBC and the economy gauge in the instrument cluster. Does anyone know what that signal should be for all the functions to work as originally intended?
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86_6series Online
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by 86_6series »

Gabriel,

Great job.
Grnshrk is correct. The flex bolts alternate direction.

If you come up with the OBC solution, please let us know.
It seems to be a problem with standalones.
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by GRNSHRK »

Thanks for confirming 86_6series, I finally dragged out the "Big Blue Book" and verified :roll:

Manual page below, but this brings me to a question, which I may bring up in a separate thread :-"

The manual indicates that a manual tranny should have a guibo, while slushboxes should have a hardy disc :-k

I was just under the green beast a couple of weeks ago, and while I don't have photographic proof, I have a hardy disc, and not a guibo :-?

I wanted to find out the collective wisdom, again may be worth another thread :-({|=
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Guibo-Hardy disc installation.JPG
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:mrgreen:
Bobbo
1980 633 CSi Cypress Green/Pearl Beige
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Gabriel
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Gabriel »

Wish they would stop salting the roads so I could drive this again...
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Meanwhile I've replaced the fuel injectors, one of the old ones developed a leak from it's housing for some reason. These pink-topped ones were used in many 90s BMWs and are a similar flow rate to the original ones. The engine runs much smoother on these injectors, there is a huge difference especially at idle.
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brickwhite
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by brickwhite »

Are e24s that cheap in the USA to be able to ship them to Europe. Hmm...
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Jlc
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Jlc »

Do you have a part number for those injectors? What models they came from? I'd like to source some for my 85.
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by hornhospital »

Pink-topped? They look pale green to me. :-k
Ken Kanne
'84 633CSi "Sylvia"; '85 635CSi "Katja";'85 325e "Hazel Ann"; '95 M3 "Ashlyn"
Gabriel
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Gabriel »

The part nr. is 280150415, most of the late 90s BMWs had them in one engine variant or another. I only bought these because they happened to be available though, any other EV1 injectors with a similar flow rating would work fine and would certainly be better than then 35 year old 270k-mile original ones.
Last edited by Gabriel on Sat Mar 20, 2021 4:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Gabriel
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Gabriel »

Got around to adjusting the valve clearance finally, amazing how clean the engine is inside after 270k miles. I did the adjustment by measuring on the cam side of the rocker arm, this resolves the problem of inaccurate measurements caused by wear on the valve stem or rocker arm.

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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by hornhospital »

The rocker covers on both my E24s looked about like that, maybe a little better on the '85 since it has only 78k miles, but I got curious how it looked under the baffle plate. Only way to see that is to drill or grind off the rivets. I'm glad I did. There was caked on filth under both. After a thorough cleanup I drilled and tapped the previous spots where the rivets had been, and attached the baffle plates with small screws (don't recall what size), using Loctite blue to secure them.
Ken Kanne
'84 633CSi "Sylvia"; '85 635CSi "Katja";'85 325e "Hazel Ann"; '95 M3 "Ashlyn"
Gabriel
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Gabriel »

Took advantage of the weather the other day to snap a few shots :)

More here:
https://bigcoupe.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=32375

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635sharknose
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by 635sharknose »

Thank god the snow is gone! I hate it.

Nice pictures!
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Gabriel
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Gabriel »

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After some practice with the tig welder I got good enough to redo the old exhaust. The back muffler is from a v6 Opel Omega, the dimensions are identical to the e24 item except for the hangers and the pipes which exit at a slight angle and need to be rewelded. However, It is inexpensive and readily available.

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Painted the back box black, so that one doesn't see the funny round egg shape from behind as much
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I'm going to cut it up again and put a resonator after the cats to try and reduce some of the raspyness. Other than that, the volume is ok, and no drone.
Gabriel
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Gabriel »

Replaced the heater fan (old one had noisy bearings and lots of play)
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...and the transistor
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...and the heater valve
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And now the heater core itself is leaking. Looking forward to that job...
Gabriel
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Gabriel »

The ebay coilovers weren't cutting it, they had no rebound damping and were horribly matched to the spring rate. I came across some Bilstein B8s and I'm building a new setup based on them, I got a bunch of different springs and parts left over from other coilovers to experiment with. I'm curious how they will perform.
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Gabriel
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Gabriel »

Finally got the coilovers put together with the Bilstein B8 inserts. I bought a set of e34 front strut housings, and cut the factory spring perch off. I took it to our lathe operator to extend the threaded portion further down the tube. I figured out that I could use e21 top mounts which extend upward through the strut tower, rather then down as in the e24. This allows an extra 40mm or so of suspension travel.

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All in all I'm pretty happy with them, obviously it's pretty subjective but they aren't nearly as stiff as people told me they would be (although a big part of that is probably my high sidewall balloon tires.)
Last edited by Gabriel on Mon Jul 26, 2021 4:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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635sharknose
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by 635sharknose »

Good (and cheap) solution that Omega muffler, not many mufflers fit. :D
Last edited by 635sharknose on Sun Jul 04, 2021 7:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Jerry635CSI
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Jerry635CSI »

Great job, subscribed! :mrgreen:
Gabriel
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Gabriel »

Got the rears installed finally...
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Finding a way to make dust covers fit took some trial and error...
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Gabriel
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Re: 86' 635csi from Oregon to Poland

Post by Gabriel »

Got around to digging out the heater core after putting the job off for several months...

For anyone planning to tackle the same job - be sure to stick the rubber seal for the water pipes on the firewall first, and then slip the pipes through it (otherwise you'll end up fighting it for hours.) You need to remove the fan housing and fan from the heater matrix to be able to insert it at the correct angle.

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I took the opportunity to give the carpet a proper wash since at that point it was pretty easy to get it out of the car:

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Driver's seat side bolsters replaced with a couple a guy from Australia sent me. I'd been looking for them since I bought the car:

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I'll have to try and clean the leather with something stronger, the "soft" variant of Colourlock didn't make the slightest difference after 2-3 uses.
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