I like your attitude. My son and I feel the same way about his track car and our off road stuff. Why own it if you can't use it for what it is. Bravo.
I like your attitude. My son and I feel the same way about his track car and our off road stuff. Why own it if you can't use it for what it is. Bravo.
What is the Spal conversion vs 'nuther clutch fan?$?$?$???? Wont an electric fan free up some HP???
Great story and glad you made it home with no issues. I really like that wagon, perfect color too. I parked my hellrot E34 next to a friends imola E38 and the difference was pretty amazing.
759NRNG said:What is the Spal conversion vs 'nuther clutch fan?$?$?$???? Wont an electric fan free up some HP???
Yeah, the Spal conversion is on my mind, at least for my 540i wagon which I actually value. This 540i/6 on the other hand, will just run without a clutch fan for now. It's not super hot here this time of year so it won't be an issue for a while. Not sure if it actually frees up any horsepower though.
atl530i said:Great story and glad you made it home with no issues. I really like that wagon, perfect color too. I parked my hellrot E34 next to a friends imola E38 and the difference was pretty amazing.
Well the 540i/6 had to be towed home, so not sure if that qualifies as making it home with no issues, haha.
And thanks! I love the wagon's color too. It's definitely a keeper.
It lives again!
Yesterday I went to my friend's house to fix the car and bring it home. I brought some tools and a work light because it was pretty dark by the time I got there.
This is an all-too-familiar sight at this point...
I started by removing the busted fan clutch, fan shroud, and radiator. That took me like 15 minutes total, I'm getting way too good at this!
By the looks of the fan clutch, it was an original one from 2001. It came from a car that had around 190,000 miles. Not a bad run.
Here's the super busted fan shroud:
And the now-punctured radiator, which otherwise looks okay.
I got the same exact dirt-cheap $99 radiator as last time, because why not?! After installing the new radiator, I used the finest in duct tape craftsmanship to repair the fan shroud to a serviceable state. It's about as good as it was before. I decided to go without a fan clutch for now, as it's not super hot outside and I didn't feel like spending the extra $100 on a quality new one.
I then filled the cooling system with the same green garbage I've been putting into it this whole time. Bled the system for a while, and then took it for a test drive. I saw temperatures between 104ºC – 108ºC, which is well within normal specifications. On the drive home it stayed close to 105ºC pretty much the whole drive, so that's pretty good. I got home with the car pretty uneventfully, with my friend following behind me in the 540it.
This morning I added some more coolant, bled the system some more, and topped up the oil (it was apparently a quart and a half low). Seems to run happily now and it stays at a steady 105ºC even while idling with the AC on.
The fan shroud is holding up great, especially without a fan in it. The only flaw is that the expansion tank is pretty loose, but the intake boot keeps it mostly in place so I haven't cared to fix that.
So now I'm thinking about drag racing this 540i/6 in January... there's a Test & Tune at the local dragway on January 12th, and the week after that is Roadkill's Zip Tie Drags in Tucson. They have a sub-$3000 hooptie class so I think it could be cool to enter that. So many chances to break this car!
If any of you guys care to watch me do this stuff in video form, I've been uploading these car adventures to my YouTube channel. This is the latest video about this car:
I have found black Gorilla Tape to be a new found friend. Glad to see it back on the road. Have fun at the Drags.
What was your 60foot , 1/4 mile ET?
759NRNG said:What was your 60foot , 1/4 mile ET?
Haven't raced this 540i/6 yet, it's broken again, haha. The radiator broke a third time last week so I got a warranty replacement and installed it. I let my friend borrow the 540i/6 so he could have something to drive while painting his 540i, but now it's having problems with the starter so I'll have to fix that. BMW's are the gift that keeps on giving!
I did run the quarter mile a few times in Phoenix with my 540i touring though. My fastest ET was 14.886 with a trap speed of 91.63mph. The 60 foot time was 2.119.
Now for my list of excuses— my rear tires at the time were worn down and out-of-round, my car was full of random junk, and I had a sizeable vacuum leak in the engine. It's also a 4000lb wagon. That being said, the factory spec for a 540it is 14.5s 1/4 mile, so I wasn't toooo far off.
I'm driving down to the Tucson Dragway tomorrow morning with all of my 540it's problems fixed, so we'll see if I can do better than 14.88. Everyone says that that Tucson track has a better surface than the Phoenix one.
Wazzup??? Life get in the way?
Love following along on this story (granted it's still fairly short). I have a soft spot for 90's-early '00 BMWs and have wanted to pick up a 540i/6 on a number of occassions. Maybe if I can track down a headcase (in the seller's eyes) like you've found here... (Love retaining the damaged hood btw)
In reply to 759NRNG :
Haha, I still have it. Not too much has happened with this car since I last posted— it needed another radiator due to a flaw in the second replacement radiator, so I got it exchanged under the warranty. Then the starter went out and was replaced by a used starter from my other parts car. Other than that, pretty solid. I let my friend borrow it for a month while his car was down, and he reported no problems with it. I got it back recently so I've been tinkering with it here and there.
LSxDreamer said:Love following along on this story (granted it's still fairly short). I have a soft spot for 90's-early '00 BMWs and have wanted to pick up a 540i/6 on a number of occassions. Maybe if I can track down a headcase (in the seller's eyes) like you've found here... (Love retaining the damaged hood btw)
It's pretty easy to find a busted 540i/6, and they usually go for pretty cheap. One of my friends picked up a 2000 540i/6 for only $500 because it was making some ominous sounds. Apparently the shop that had done the chain guides on it botched the job and one of the cam bolts came loose, wrecking that cam pretty badly. We replaced the cam, re-timed the engine, and re-sealed everything and it's been pretty solid. Easily the best value for the money out there, haha.
OK....and .......????
It got parted out, now the manual transmission is awaiting the transplant into my 2000 540it with 208k miles. In the meantime, I topped myself, by buying a $3000 M3 5-speed coupe and most recently a 1992 525it 5-speed for $350. I'll start threads about those if any of y'all are interested? The M3 has been pretty straightforward, but the 525it has had an interesting story, going from non-running with no title to running and driving and being legal.
i'm up for both stories.
M3 really interests me.
In reply to dannyzabolotny :
Of course we want stories so some of us can live vicariously through others' projects.
So.......parted out as in the V8 is no longer, and those funds accrued are being disbursed towards the other orphans????
I'll read your BMW stories. Please share
759NRNG said:So.......parted out as in the V8 is no longer, and those funds accrued are being disbursed towards the other orphans????
The V8 is going into my friend's X5 (he blew the engine in it). The 6-speed manual is going into the 2000 540it, and the parts sales off the car are funding the swap since I want to put in a new clutch, flywheel, short shifter, DSSR, bushings, clutch lines, etc. I basically want it to feel like a brand new factory 6-speed when it's done.
If anyone questions starting a build thread I just tell them that I start build threads for everything. I assume one person reads the rare updates occasionally. My junk is way less interesting than old BMWs.
What the eff are you up to yu BMW mishmaster!?!?!?!?
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