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bk05921 is broken

16K views 152 replies 30 participants last post by  bmwdirtracer 
#1 ·
Hi guys.

Seems like I've broken bk05921. Driving Saturday, at ~`70 mph, cruising home, 5th gear. One cylinder went away.

Drove 50 miles to work Monday, because that's where my tools live/

Cylinder 4 has, essentially, no compression, per repeated compression tests, including wet. Borescope (which has straight-on and 90 degrees) shows what appears to be correctly closing valves, plus a piston that's so black and wet I can't tell you if there's anything wrong there)

Leak down is 95%; seems like the noise is out the intake, but valves show closed via borescope, and I really just "FEEL" the piston is missing a piece of compression ring.

Car drove the 50 miles just fine, but it has 5 cylinders.
Gearbox works just fine, but 3 and 4 give a "grrr" going in, in some circumstances. 4 used to balk, but not much for the last year. I have no idea why the car fixed itself,

Car has salvage title, but it's dead damned perfect straight. Paint is 5 years old, and passenger "C" pillar paint only sucks, the sealer didn't take, my fault.

Suspension is Bilstein Sport /H&R, G/C rear links, 27/19 custom sway bars, maybe RD? Strut brace, poly front UC bushes, new.

Besides this, all front control arms, center and tie rod links are brand new, as are all sway bar links. Have new center diff mount. New brakes, race or street, including rotors and pads. Two or three sets of tires and wheels available, depending on your needs, I keep the rest.

A/C inop; consider it will need compressor, evaporator, and condensor, and drier. All original parts present. I may have thrown away the air pump, but may have it. Cruise control missing.

Car is magnificent, and I love it dearly. Pisses on everything, in the wet, on a racetrack. Oh, ~190k miles. Oil pump and lower end bearings replaced at 104k, because that's a nice thing to do.

Car has been ridden hard, but very well loved. Anyone care to buy it ? I can't see myself having the money and time to fix it, right now, because I need transport for the winter.

Best offer?

bmwdirtracer@att.net

I'll remain at this forum, and you'll see me in another S38 E34, ASAP. Best car I've ever loved.

Meanwhile, I THINK I'm buying an '01 740iL to get to work. The ML500 '02 Mercedes would get me home in the winter, where the one-wheel drive Bimmer won't, even with the finest Blizzak snow tires.....but hell, I just can't quite bring myself to buy the Merc....

Chris

If no one buys the car, I will make it very fast, but it will take a while. It is greatly loved.

Sorry if this should have been in a sales thread. I can't quite believe I'd ever offer this magnificent car for sale.
 
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#5 ·
Hi Chris ,

At least the M5 went out in style and 190k hard miles is pretty good

Not too much in the way of options on this M5 so it should be lighter than most.

Sorry buddy


Vehicle Identification Number WBSHD9310MBK05921
Type HD93
Model M5 - USA
Development Code E34
Chassis LIM
Steering LL
Doors 4
Engine S38
Displacement 3.60
Power 232
Drivetrain HECK
Transmission MECH
Color Brillantrot - 308
Upholstery Schwarz Leder - 0226
Production Plant DINGOLFING
Production Date 1990-12-20



Options
240 Leather Steering Wheel Lederlenkrad
458 Seat Adjustment, Electric. F Driver/pass Sitzverstellung Elektr.fahrer/beif.
494 Seat Heating F Driver/front Passenger Sitzheizung Fuer Fahrer/beifahrer
640 Car Telephone Preparation Autotelefonvorbereitung
694 Preparation For Cd Changer Cd-wechsler Vorbereitung
818 Main Battery Switch Batteriehauptschalter
925 Shipping Protection Package Versandschutzpaket
 
#6 ·
Very sorry to hear your news. I've followed all your posts cos you clearly know what you're talking about. But for good luck there go any of us who are using these cars as they should used. Come back to the UK - there are cars here being killed by rust and leaving usable engines. Hope you're back soon.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Chris,

That's awful news. If anyone deserves to have one of these cars running and in good condition, it's you. I've obviously no advice in the way of mechanical, but in spite of my own poor tactical (to steal a line from MattH) decisions in the past, I would like to offer a suggestion that might get you back in the saddle faster-

Forget the E38 or the Merc, in fact forget even the brands for the time being. Mechanically sound 15-20 year old Hondas can be had for under 3k (at least in my area) - pick up one of those ****boxes. Cheap to run, cheap to insure, should enable you to save very aggressively, especially with a 50 mile commute. You'll be sitting on top of M5 cash again in no time.

Tom
 
#17 ·
Thank you my friends. Tony, I'll very likely be taking you up on the piston offer; gut feeling says that's what it is, since borescope says it's not valves. I am HUGELY appreciative of that immensely kind offer !!

Right now, I'm hustling to find another car. Drove the 740 home for two days, very nice car, but with 1-wheel drive, it's not getting me home in the snow, like the M5 did, with great snow tires.

Drove the ML500 home tonight....actually signed a usurious contract with my boss to buy it, but I'm going to reneg, before I give him money. The vehicle's a pig, and I can't afford to pay it off in three months. Any X5 puts the Mercedes to shame, any day. Torsion bars? Oh damn, I'd forgotten what it was like, to have the front end going around in circles at 75 mph, like an ancient Dodge, every time it hits a bump!
 
#20 ·
Thank you my friends. Tony, I'll very likely be taking you up on the piston offer; gut feeling says that's what it is, since borescope says it's not valves. I am HUGELY appreciative of that immensely kind offer !!
No problem , let me know how you go when you tear the engine down.
 
#18 ·
Chris - sorry to hear and good luck resolving. It certainly seems like you have the knowledge and experience to work toward a good solution.

Following on from Tom's suggestion on Jap cars, I recently switched my DD to a Celica GT4 WRC ST205. Cheap to buy and to insure (for a middle age dodderer like me) whilst being very interesting and loads of fun. I dont know if you got the GT4 in the US though ? Certainly Japanese reliability is to be applauded - but I'm sure you're across that.

Tom / otk - I hope I didnt come across on the other thread of accusing you of bad tactics. That wasn't my intention. The only reason I now think that way is because of the various mistakes i've made with cars over the years. And I'm sure that's true for the vast majority of people here.
 
#22 ·
Hi Chris, really sorry to hear the sad news. Like many others on this forum I take your advice as gospel.
(purists look away now) When I rebuilt mine the original pistons were ludicrously priced (and unavailable) so after a lot of research I went for the Wiseco option, cutaway skirt, teflon coated, big valve pockets and serious weight saving over the originals. Final positive? A third of the cost and inclusive of rings, gudgeon pins and circlips.
 
#23 ·
Thank you, Spyder, and to all of my wonderful friends here, who have been so incredibly gracious and supportive! I have ~15,000 posts at Bimmerforum's Mechanical forum, and have magnificent friends there; but in just 1/30 of the posts, here, I feel an even greater sense of "family", in this E34 M5 forum.

I bought a '97 Subaru , ummmm, Subaru....ummmm, well, hell, I forget what model ;) Who cares? Hell, I dunno, it's a damned appliance, isn't it? It's got a recurring code (and check engine light) for Torque convertor solenoid. Alldata shows 0.9 hours to fix it, so that it can pass inspection. It runs fine, fans work, a/c and heat work, cruise, radio, etc.

Eh, yeah, who cares?


Best interesting side note: Suddenly realized we needed a Notary Public on a Saturday afternoon. A family member is a regular customer with the local Mercedes dealership; she called and found they had more than 1 Notary.....and the place was 1 mile away. The notary was apparently an Allstate insurance person, judging ENTIRELY by the huge wall decoration..... I really didn't care who her boss was.......because she was just INCREDIBLY, MAGNIFICENTLY BEAUTIFUL BLONDE, with perfect paint and bodywork, and damn, what a smile.....

Oh, they had a lovely black AMG something too. Given the choice, since the AMG isn't a manual box, I'd take the blonde, thank you very much.

The Subie seems fine, for the appliance it needs to be.

If I'd have bought the 740 or the ML, it would have sucked an additional $3000 + away from fixing the M5.....understand please that this ~~$3000 is entirely hypothetical.

Subie's advertisement said "good tires"; they are crap...winter coming. a set of Blizzak WS 80's is in order, probably all rotors and pads, the solenoid and trans service, oil service, whatever else I find when the car's in the air, and it's not raining like mad.

Wish the M5 were fixed, and I owned the Subie for the snow, the 740 for a daily driver, and the M5 for magnificent fun. Not too much to ask, really. I really love the E38 740, by the way....best big car ever made...

The M5 is at my work, I'll be taking it apart in the not distant future. Hey, at least I have whatever tools I'll be needing ;)

I'll be here guys; it's a wonderful place to hang out. Many thanks for your good wishes, and even assistance, from the other side of the world! (Yeah, you, Tony!)

Eero, my friend, I recognize that this southern place in the US will likely have less severe winter conditions than your own. But perhaps we are also less prepared?. I had to drive the M5 through 6-8 inches of snow several times, last year, up a steep and winding unplowed mountain road part pavement, part wet moss-- with a really high crown. It took the best winter tires in the world (Blizzak WS80), and all my training, to get me home, with a great rear drive car, with a limited slip diff. I promise that the 740 would not have gotten to my house, with Hans Stuck driving, and monster mudder tires. The plows take many hours, and sometimes days, to even get within a mile of my house. The last mile is the toughest, and my M5 has driven past LandCruisers and Jeeps in the ditch. Plows do not go here.

I'm babbling, sorry guys. Hard to think of driving a Subaru 100 miles a day.

bk05921 will grace racetracks and roads a soon as I can make it happen. Keep that piston warm, Tony.

As for Wiseco, Spyder: great choice. I've installed them in several special BMWs.

Chris
 
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#28 · (Edited)
Thanks, my friend. If I had $14k, I wouldn't be driving an old Subie right now. Eh...life happens.

I'll be rebuilding a good friend's /student's E34 M5 engine next month; vin is 50 numbers away from mine. Eats coolant, internally.

I'll be doing the heads, including likely new VAC valves, plus rings, bottom end bearings, 3-angle valve job, all cooling system components. A lovely car! Owner (and magnificent A-group driver) wants the car to be ready for another 150k miles. His track car is a well-prepared 135.
 
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#30 ·
Glad to read that your planning to repair your M5 :)

Matth In the USA the gt4 wrc was called the 'alltrack'. I had one years ago, it was lovely but it was also new and unmolested, went like stink and was amazing in the snow / bad weather - literally saved my bacon on many ocassions
 
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#32 ·
Oh no, Chris! You of all people don't deserve this, considering just how well you use the M5 for all of its Garching-intended purposes. 190k of well-driven miles is not bad, IMHO.

I wish you luck and the speediest possible exit from Subaru ownership (assuming this isn't a WRX or something).

Matth In the USA the gt4 wrc was called the 'alltrack'. I had one years ago, it was lovely but it was also new and unmolested, went like stink and was amazing in the snow / bad weather - literally saved my bacon on many ocassions
Just wanted to point out that we in the USA never got nearly as hawt of a Celica as the ROW. The best we have are DIY clones, but nothing close to the homologated specials, or even the full-fat turbo AWD models.
 
#31 ·
Chris,
Super sorry to hear that your M5 is on hold for now. For selfish reasons I really encourage you to hang on to it and keep the fire in your belly alive. You have an obvious passion and extremely deep knowledge of these cars. Your advice and input has always been appreciated man. Thank you! This forum would most certainly miss you in a substantial way. Keep us posted as to the status of the vehicle. Glad you have something to keep you mobile in the meantime. :)

Cheers!
Dave.


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