The Alpina Project
Discussion
An update.
I've sold it, unfinished to a local chap who is going to finish it himself.
Ultimately i'm too busy at work to chase it, have no space at home even if it was finished, and have totally lost any love for the project after all this time.
Not the end anyone wanted. (least of all me) but after all this time it was time to let it go.
The new owner is well known on the e30/e34 m forums so i'll make sure he finds this thread
I've sold it, unfinished to a local chap who is going to finish it himself.
Ultimately i'm too busy at work to chase it, have no space at home even if it was finished, and have totally lost any love for the project after all this time.
Not the end anyone wanted. (least of all me) but after all this time it was time to let it go.
The new owner is well known on the e30/e34 m forums so i'll make sure he finds this thread
Vixpy1 said:
An update.
I've sold it, unfinished to a local chap who is going to finish it himself.
Ultimately i'm too busy at work to chase it, have no space at home even if it was finished, and have totally lost any love for the project after all this time.
Not the end anyone wanted. (least of all me) but after all this time it was time to let it go.
The new owner is well known on the e30/e34 m forums so i'll make sure he finds this thread
Fair play Charlie !I've sold it, unfinished to a local chap who is going to finish it himself.
Ultimately i'm too busy at work to chase it, have no space at home even if it was finished, and have totally lost any love for the project after all this time.
Not the end anyone wanted. (least of all me) but after all this time it was time to let it go.
The new owner is well known on the e30/e34 m forums so i'll make sure he finds this thread
I have seen the touring up on Phil's ramp for years. I used to always have a good look at it.
I am sure the new owner will get it completed in good order and he is an E34 nut as you know.
PS I am Kumaran by the way, friend of Johannes van Manen. Had my car on your rollers years ago whilst Johannes was developing some custom manifolds for my E39 M5 back in 09/10.
Edited by M5 London on Saturday 12th August 20:06
I thought i'd sign up and update this thread. Which i did last week but some moderator on a power trip banned my account for my user name! Then wouldn't reply to my e-mail asking if i could change my user name, strong. Nice work
I had spent 40 minutes doing a nice reply to say i bought this off Charlie but i'll keep it brief in case the banning hammer is wielded with vengence again!
Here it is resting on my drive
Biggest problem has been the electrics and lots of missing parts. But i'm getting through it
I had spent 40 minutes doing a nice reply to say i bought this off Charlie but i'll keep it brief in case the banning hammer is wielded with vengence again!
Here it is resting on my drive
Biggest problem has been the electrics and lots of missing parts. But i'm getting through it
I won't link it, but it's easy enough to find.It had been on going for 8-9 years before i bought it.......i'm going to finish it.
I guess a little background, i've had a bi turbo before
No.445 fully loaded one, had it about 2 years. Rear turbo blew, clutch went, snapped 2 rockers, and alot more went wrong! Its serving its new owner very well by all accounts. These are a missle when they work, nothing on the new generation of turbo M5s but still impressive in the right situation. Sold it and bought this below
6 speed M5, so was offered said project and this had to go, i should of kept it really. Best E34 i've had was a great car, the only thing better than an M5 saloon is a touring! I'd always wanted one but this came along and its like the ulitmate E34 touring that was never made from the factory a Bi turbo touring! onwards with this thing
Sat here literally for years at CPC, still i agreed to take it on. Heres what i found intially, boxes of bits stored upstairs also and scattered all over the workshop
loaded up on a trailer and literally a van load of all the other s
t
General theme on this is, electrics incomplete, lots of parts missing. So its been Mr. Detective and observant, if only it was an E30 as i'm sad enough to remember the whole car nearly, not quite like that on e34s
Plan has been to sort all the electrics and get the car running, then strip it all back down. Sort what needs doing and put it back together and use it. Going to be a long road as its the worst thing, taking on and finishing someone elses half finished project. It would of been lovely to have got the old written off Bi turbo aswell plus this car and done it. That would of been easy!!
First job was to fit a battery and see what worked and what doesn't. Lights hmmm, tailgate wiper and washer sprag to life! Even the struts hold the glass up - thats rare on e34 tourings these days and changing the shocks is tricky
Not much else worked really, engine bay as dead as a dodo
Engine earth strap was missing, a tempory one to get the ball rolling and the battery positive from the jump point to starter motor, fairly major!
That sprang alot more into life, so windows and heated seats and lots of other bits.
clocks, missing all the bulbs and the back. Plastic screen broken in the accident. Not many bi turbo clocks going spare so will have to make do with this!
picked this up and fitted as many bulbs as were missing
Most of the wiring for the lights on the front needs repair on the connections as only 1 main beam lit up the rest nothing!
No indicators but traced that to a missing relay
Lots more bits to come i'll up date later on
I guess a little background, i've had a bi turbo before
No.445 fully loaded one, had it about 2 years. Rear turbo blew, clutch went, snapped 2 rockers, and alot more went wrong! Its serving its new owner very well by all accounts. These are a missle when they work, nothing on the new generation of turbo M5s but still impressive in the right situation. Sold it and bought this below
6 speed M5, so was offered said project and this had to go, i should of kept it really. Best E34 i've had was a great car, the only thing better than an M5 saloon is a touring! I'd always wanted one but this came along and its like the ulitmate E34 touring that was never made from the factory a Bi turbo touring! onwards with this thing
Sat here literally for years at CPC, still i agreed to take it on. Heres what i found intially, boxes of bits stored upstairs also and scattered all over the workshop
loaded up on a trailer and literally a van load of all the other s
t General theme on this is, electrics incomplete, lots of parts missing. So its been Mr. Detective and observant, if only it was an E30 as i'm sad enough to remember the whole car nearly, not quite like that on e34s
Plan has been to sort all the electrics and get the car running, then strip it all back down. Sort what needs doing and put it back together and use it. Going to be a long road as its the worst thing, taking on and finishing someone elses half finished project. It would of been lovely to have got the old written off Bi turbo aswell plus this car and done it. That would of been easy!!
First job was to fit a battery and see what worked and what doesn't. Lights hmmm, tailgate wiper and washer sprag to life! Even the struts hold the glass up - thats rare on e34 tourings these days and changing the shocks is tricky
Not much else worked really, engine bay as dead as a dodo
Engine earth strap was missing, a tempory one to get the ball rolling and the battery positive from the jump point to starter motor, fairly major!
That sprang alot more into life, so windows and heated seats and lots of other bits.
clocks, missing all the bulbs and the back. Plastic screen broken in the accident. Not many bi turbo clocks going spare so will have to make do with this!
picked this up and fitted as many bulbs as were missing
Most of the wiring for the lights on the front needs repair on the connections as only 1 main beam lit up the rest nothing!
No indicators but traced that to a missing relay
Lots more bits to come i'll up date later on
some more wiring snaps,
Wiring for the alpina guage i'm pretty sure as i did it a while back. Had to run this through the bulkhead/fuse box
A quick test on the alpina guage shows it powers up with the ignition on, its reading too. So thats a good sign. Just needs the illumination wiring in and it will power the screens up
these pins needing wiring into the cars body loom, matching the colours up the other side of the plug. I forget what this loom is now but its bi turbo wiring not standard BMW
Body control module was missing
module fitted and then i removed the old Alarm and its wiring
Wired the old pioneer amp back in and hey presto the radio worked! Theres a whole old skool pioneer sound system in there, speakers and a big old CD changer in the boot! which doesn't work
Wiring mess, these white plugs do not match each other, one being bi turbo or M30 and the other being M50. BMW must of changed the plug for some reason along the line. So i need to source a matching plug. But first i need to identify what the wires do each side of the plug and see which ones match. Seems to me maybe its OBC as that doesn't work at all
I found this potentiometer in an oily box! A rather expensive part. throttle now opens with the ignition on. I just need to work out now how it mounts and remove the old throttle cable set up for this fly by wire. I'd seen the big black plug hanging for some time and wondered what it was for. It all came to me in the shower that these would match together!
Next up these dealer wiring diagrams from a good friend at BMW, then i needed a friend to read them properly.
Engine is dead and won't crank anything.......so testing with the voltmetre and several checks led us to................the front fuse/relay box
This is the starter motor relay, now if you have an automatic car one of these is fitted from factory. Now studying the wiring diagrams reveals that manual cars dont....
We had already established that the ECU was getting 12V's and the ignition switch was working. But something was stopping the starter from getting 12 volts. This relay
cheeky bit of wiring bodging to bridge the wires.................and hey presto the engine CRANKS! this has been mega exciting!
We have spark, which means crank sensor and rest of ECU is fucntioning. No fuel it seems, pump maybe injectors as its not run for 10 years. I did crank her over to get the oil pressure up and see if she'll fire but to no avail. So thats my current point with it really
This is the boost ECU and this little black hose runs to the inlet manifold, the way it attatches to the ECU is with this special little screw in bolt - yes this was missing so i had to get my dad to machine up a new part so it all connects correctly again
I did look at the fuel pump, hardly any fuel in the tank. Anyhow it seems dead and different from standard but not in alpina way? The hoses are all perished anyhow. A picture next to a standard fuel pump
On the subject of fuel, i managed to buy a decent metal M5 fuel tank so 90 litres instead of the standard 80 litre plastic tank in due course. Every little helps as these cars aren't good on fuel! The extra 20 litre alpina tank is missing, i'm not sure it could be made to fit in a touring anyhow
Next the intercooler, this was damaged in the accident so has been repaired. Also the 4 brackets that mount it were damaged also. These were bought from Alpina!
Stripped the front end down and mounted the intercooler in place
The front bumper needs cutting as the intercooler is in the way from it mounting properly
Some cutting in the places shown and...............
front bumper fits! Now i need to order a new Bi turbo front spoiler from the dealers, ouch. It was damaged in the accident.
Unless anyone has a spare one to sell me?!?! thought not. Its quite alot of money new! Alpina list a bumper and other parts but i'd be guessing its how i 've done it.
So thats it up to date really and as she sits, a bit more in the right direction to being a car than a lump of parts. I've got lots of other good bits to fit to this also. I'll get some pictures of them in due course
I'm hopefully moving house* so will need some time to move get set up. But a much nicer place to keep this and work on it get it running and shredding the rear tyres like these can!
Wiring for the alpina guage i'm pretty sure as i did it a while back. Had to run this through the bulkhead/fuse box
A quick test on the alpina guage shows it powers up with the ignition on, its reading too. So thats a good sign. Just needs the illumination wiring in and it will power the screens up
these pins needing wiring into the cars body loom, matching the colours up the other side of the plug. I forget what this loom is now but its bi turbo wiring not standard BMW
Body control module was missing
module fitted and then i removed the old Alarm and its wiring
Wired the old pioneer amp back in and hey presto the radio worked! Theres a whole old skool pioneer sound system in there, speakers and a big old CD changer in the boot! which doesn't work
Wiring mess, these white plugs do not match each other, one being bi turbo or M30 and the other being M50. BMW must of changed the plug for some reason along the line. So i need to source a matching plug. But first i need to identify what the wires do each side of the plug and see which ones match. Seems to me maybe its OBC as that doesn't work at all
I found this potentiometer in an oily box! A rather expensive part. throttle now opens with the ignition on. I just need to work out now how it mounts and remove the old throttle cable set up for this fly by wire. I'd seen the big black plug hanging for some time and wondered what it was for. It all came to me in the shower that these would match together!
Next up these dealer wiring diagrams from a good friend at BMW, then i needed a friend to read them properly.
Engine is dead and won't crank anything.......so testing with the voltmetre and several checks led us to................the front fuse/relay box
This is the starter motor relay, now if you have an automatic car one of these is fitted from factory. Now studying the wiring diagrams reveals that manual cars dont....
We had already established that the ECU was getting 12V's and the ignition switch was working. But something was stopping the starter from getting 12 volts. This relay
cheeky bit of wiring bodging to bridge the wires.................and hey presto the engine CRANKS! this has been mega exciting!
We have spark, which means crank sensor and rest of ECU is fucntioning. No fuel it seems, pump maybe injectors as its not run for 10 years. I did crank her over to get the oil pressure up and see if she'll fire but to no avail. So thats my current point with it really
This is the boost ECU and this little black hose runs to the inlet manifold, the way it attatches to the ECU is with this special little screw in bolt - yes this was missing so i had to get my dad to machine up a new part so it all connects correctly again
I did look at the fuel pump, hardly any fuel in the tank. Anyhow it seems dead and different from standard but not in alpina way? The hoses are all perished anyhow. A picture next to a standard fuel pump
On the subject of fuel, i managed to buy a decent metal M5 fuel tank so 90 litres instead of the standard 80 litre plastic tank in due course. Every little helps as these cars aren't good on fuel! The extra 20 litre alpina tank is missing, i'm not sure it could be made to fit in a touring anyhow
Next the intercooler, this was damaged in the accident so has been repaired. Also the 4 brackets that mount it were damaged also. These were bought from Alpina!
Stripped the front end down and mounted the intercooler in place
The front bumper needs cutting as the intercooler is in the way from it mounting properly
Some cutting in the places shown and...............
front bumper fits! Now i need to order a new Bi turbo front spoiler from the dealers, ouch. It was damaged in the accident.
Unless anyone has a spare one to sell me?!?! thought not. Its quite alot of money new! Alpina list a bumper and other parts but i'd be guessing its how i 've done it.
So thats it up to date really and as she sits, a bit more in the right direction to being a car than a lump of parts. I've got lots of other good bits to fit to this also. I'll get some pictures of them in due course
I'm hopefully moving house* so will need some time to move get set up. But a much nicer place to keep this and work on it get it running and shredding the rear tyres like these can!
Amazing work - this is clearly a serious project!
I can't imagine tackling that wiring myself, it reminds me of fitting my old 205 gti with a 16V motor.... Just kept flogging away at it and somehow got there in the end, hearing the engine crank for the first time was such a great moment! Obviously a different (much bigger) kettle of fish here though.
I guess these pics were taking in the autumn, I can't imagine wearing flip flops outside at this time of year!
Fascinated to see the next installment!
I can't imagine tackling that wiring myself, it reminds me of fitting my old 205 gti with a 16V motor.... Just kept flogging away at it and somehow got there in the end, hearing the engine crank for the first time was such a great moment! Obviously a different (much bigger) kettle of fish here though.
I guess these pics were taking in the autumn, I can't imagine wearing flip flops outside at this time of year!
Fascinated to see the next installment!
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff