Some of you are aware that I own a project car that I've been poking and wrenching for the past couple of years now. Depending on your personal perspective I'm either destroying the car slowly or building a track toy...I'm not sure there's any difference between the two. What I do know is that since I've taken possession of this basket case Bimmer by measures of mechanical reliability and handling it is vastly improved. It's has been a pretty fun on-going project.
It also spawned a side project when I decided that I wanted to swap the car's [second] 2.5L M20 single overhead cam inline six cylinder engine with a 3.2L S52 dual overhead cam engine from a late E36 chassis M3. Down this path lies madness. And Ebay. Lots and lots of Ebay. And more madness.
First, I sourced what I thought was a pretty screaming deal for an S52B32 out of a salvage title car in Florida. (collision, not flood) I knew that there was a little bit of damage to at least the intake manifold but that's literally a $50 part on Ebay. Yep, you can get M52/S52 intake manifolds [sometimes including throttle-bodies] for $50 on Ebay. So done and done. Bought it. Had it shipped to my house where it sat in the garage on a pallet for a few months while I did other life things.
Last month a friend helped yank the transmission to mount it up on a motor stand and this weekend I started the necessary tear down to replace the broken manifold, remove the AC compressor, and replace the water pump. This is where a simple project took a left turn to Looniville.
The Ebay ad wasn't too specific about the collision the car had been in, just that it had been one and that car was totaled. From the damage I've found I'm guessing a front offset impact strong enough to tweak the frame but not crush the front end. Apart from the busted manifold the cast motor mount arms were shattered, the AC compressor bracket was broken, and the power steering bracket and pulley were obviously damaged. Not really all that big a deal, that stuff hangs off the motor and I was likely going to do rebuilds, replacements and deletes of much of it anyway. The main goal was to strip the wiring harness off and get the intake manifold replacement sorted out.
Then I noticed the timing case cover is fubared. Not obviously. You wouldn't know if you just look at the motor casually and you'd certainly never notice it if I hadn't pulled the main crank pulley off to remove all of the accessories. But it was. Looking closely I found a spider's web of crazing covering the entire timing case cover. Running my fingers over it I felt the slight drag and roughness from the the network almost invisible fissures. Fuck.
And here lies madness.
The crazed condition of the timing cover means that without question I'm going to have to replace it. While I've got the timing cover off I might as well replace the main seals, timing chain, chain guides and tensions. I'm going to have to pull the VANOS unit to do this and while I'm up in the head I might as well replace the chain tensioners and guides there as well. It's also a good time time to inspect the cams, check the valves and springs, and replace the lifters as a preventive measure. This is about 50% into a full rebuild.
Have I mentioned madness? I think I have.
If I'm going to go through that much trouble with the head I might as well pull it off and ship to a machine shop to be cleaned, reconditioned, and blueprinted with new valves and springs. I might as well completely tear down the bottom end too, shipping the block and crank off for similar work. And then, for reassembly, forged internals 'cause why the hell not at that point.
Madness. Complete. Utter. Madness. (Not Sparta.)
Sounds to me like you're Doing It Right™. :D Good on you!
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