E12 M535i

[e21Mark]

benjj said:

I had a bit of a blip on Sunday and nearly sold the E12, in the end I couldn't bring myself to do it.

After a bit of thinking I decided that what I needed was to drive the fker more and tinker less. So this week I decided to use it exclusively as my daily.

Yesterday was good. The sun was out and the car responded well to being given a good thrashing through the Dales.





This morning however all was not rosy. Clutch pedal with no bite and all my other cars were snuggled up in the garage 4 miles away.

It turns out that the master cylinder is clusterfked and is pissing fluid into the drivers footwell. It had eaten about half a pint of fluid on the hoon yesterday but fortunately hadn't gone down below the top of the reservoir. After a bit of head scratching and chatting to Michael I topped up the fluid and pumped the clutch about 30 times - it worked. It gave me just enough to drive down to the garage and swap cars.

Looks like a new master and slave cylinder will be going on shortly. I'll probably just ask Michael to do it all together when the suspension gets reworked.

I've had that exact same problem with 02's and e21 that have been pressed back into daily use, after a period of slumber. It's as if the seals get a little dry and then throw in the towel once they're called into action.

I'm pretty sure there's a rebuild kit available. It's also worth rebuilding the brake master cylinder, if it hasn't been done already? These are NLA and the last one I saw was over £900!

[benjj]

Thanks Mark, Olly did chuck in a rebuild kit for that I think, will have a peek.

I think we'll just start from the top and see where we go in it, all the big bits are done!

[benjj]

Not had an update on this for a while because I've mainly been tinkering on the Porsche getting it ready for a rally this weekend.

However this morning I decided to tackle the busted drivers seat.

Good old TonyBMW sold me just what I needed - the back section of the standard Recaro bucket seats. Mine had warped and twisted so you never sat square on to the dash. It actually took me a while to figure it out as my back would get sorer and sorer until I just wanted to push the tt into a lake. Anyway I figured it out and got busy.

I've never done anything remotely like this and I've a new found respect for interior trimmers. Getting everything in the right place and tensioned up is a complete bd of a job.









And that was that, I'm so proud of myself

Will nip over to the workshop this afternoon to fit the fker.

[E30Addict]

benjj said:

[e21Mark]

Good work.

[benjj]

Sadl have to report that we have issues.

Compression test:

Cyl 6 - 160
Cyl 5 - 160
Cyl 4 - 150
Cyl 3 - 150
Cyl 2 - 155
Cyl 1 - 120

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

I'm busy this evening so over to the workshop again tomorrow to dig deeper. I can't remember precisely what was done during the engine rebuild, will read back tonight.

Thoughts of what it could be:

Easy stuff - valves out of spec, cam guides worn, cam worn.
Bad stuff - all the things that mean we have to take the head off, burned valve etc.

fkitinthearse.

[e21Mark]

Has your oil spray bar been modified to increase flow? I know they have a habit of blocking and leaving the cam to suffer excessive wear. Fingers crossed it's nothing too serious though.

[benjj]

I don't know but we'll have a look tomorrow.

Good excuse for a high lift Schrick if the cam needs replacing

[e21Mark]

Cat Cams do some suitable profile and are reasonably priced too.

[mark.c]

Good luck today mate, hopefully it's one of the easy ones. Good shout by Mark about the spray bar , I forgot about that issue but since your engine has recently been apart it seems it's also possible to fit the spray bar arse about face .

[benjj]

Ok, silly question coming up re the spray bar:

The 'V' on mine is at the back of the block (over cyl 6) and the point of the 'V' is pointing towards the front of the car (cyl 1 and radiator etc).

Is this right or wrong?

Etched by hand onto the other end is a little arrow and 'front', presumably done by the engine rebuild dudes.

Have they fked this up?

I'm not showing any cam lobe wear by eye.

[benjj]

Himmel schnell unt sheise, the news is not good.

Had the cam cover off today. 5 minutes from this



to this



Everything looked ok which is precisely what we were hoping wouldn't happen

The cam oil spray bar has been 'modified' in the sense that it is now on arse about face. However we turned the engine over with the cam cover off and there is a good spray from each hole onto each cam lobe.

The cam is showing signs of wear but not on cylinder 1 which is the one with horrible compression.

The cam is also not the original one. I suspect that at some point in the past the oil spray bar has been gunged up and totalled the cam. The spray bar has then been modified and a 'new' cam put in. That 'new' cam was obviously worn.

So, guess what, the whole fking thing is coming apart. I'm not a very happy man and have just had to leave the workshop before I smashed the entire fking thing to pieces with my bare hands.

I'm going back tomorrow to begin stripping it down and we'll get the head off.

Michael suspects that the valves have not been lapped in and the exhaust valve on cyl 1 has burned out. Either that or the rings were not installed properly.

Argh. ttting cars.

[e21Mark]

Bugger.

[mark.c]

benjj said:

Ok, silly question coming up re the spray bar:

The 'V' on mine is at the back of the block (over cyl 6) and the point of the 'V' is pointing towards the front of the car (cyl 1 and radiator etc).

Is this right or wrong?

Etched by hand onto the other end is a little arrow and 'front', presumably done by the engine rebuild dudes.

Have they fked this up?

I'm not showing any cam lobe wear by eye.

That sounds the right way around to me, my understanding is the the v should point to the front of the engine.

Some people turn them and drill additional holes in the spray bar and there are even some modified bars that are sold with the centre crimped. It's also possible to buy modified banjo bolts that can be wire locked in place like you would on an Aircraft to positively lock them since they can come loose.

If you want more clarification I will pull mine apart at the weekend and check for you since I don't "think" it's been messed with....but as you know the way my week has been with cars I will probably find an old garden hose in there!

[benjj]

Thanks for the offer but no need, the spray bar is operating as it should.

Looks like it's time to spec up something on the lairy side.

At present I'm considering porting and polishing the head, Schrick fast road cam, Fritz manifold, centre box of exhaust removed (it's fked anyway!)

What else should I be considering do you reckon?

In for a penny and all that!

[mark.c]

From a preventative perspective ( the dull bit!) I would make sure that the cooling side of things is tip top, as you know these engines, any Bm 6 for that matter, don't take well to getting hot.

As for the tuning side, sounds like your on the right road, good old fashioned tuning, I suppose a good combat indicator would be what Alpina did back in the day with both the E12 and 28, I'm sure they followed that route with headwork, cams, exhaust and upgraded management......unless you wanted to go down the forced induction route of course......

Do Fritz do a manifold for E12, I thought they did one for an E28, I thought they were different on ours since it's more E24 based under there...will have a poke at their website when I get in.

Or if you want big reliable grunt you could always drop something else in there... e21Mark!.....

[benjj]

Hmm, ideas ideas!

The cooling system is fine. The fan is a bit noisy and needs replacing but other than that all is well.

Fritz are just prototyping their E12 manifolds and exhaust, ready very shortly Joe said.

Other engines, hmm: E34 M5 3.8?

[Output Flange]

benjj said:

Hmm, ideas ideas!

The cooling system is fine. The fan is a bit noisy and needs replacing but other than that all is well.

Fritz are just prototyping their E12 manifolds and exhaust, ready very shortly Joe said.

Other engines, hmm: E34 M5 3.8?

Given their E28 stuff only has the benefit of sounding better, I wouldn't bother.

[benjj]

olly22n said:

Side draughts

Is there a recognised route for this? I'd be well up for a twin (or triple) carb setup. Would sound fking epic.

[benjj]

Output Flange said:

Given their E28 stuff only has the benefit of sounding better, I wouldn't bother.

Is the manifold not an extra 1/4''?