[AseanAero]

Stock front exhaust pipes with mufflers weighs 12kg, the Y pipe came in a 13kg

I'm pleased with the result, at normal around town speeds the exhaust is quiet with a nice bass underneath it all

If I did this again I would go slightly smaller on the pipe , 75 to 80mm instead of 110mm, still sorting out a clearance issue, the LHS pipe is touching the LH transmission mount under hard acceleration. I have to make a clearance depression on the pipe a bit deeper (0.5cm at the moment, I'll try 1cm)

The 'butt dyno' says something good has happened, at 90kmh in 3rd gear the front of the 530i lifts noticeably when the accelerator is floored. Throttle response above 4,000rpm has improved.

The exhaust gas leaving the tailpipe at idle is a constant and steady stream , when I put my hand in front of the tailpipes I can't feel any gas pulses.

I did some calculations tonight and the Y pipe has 3 times the capacity of the front pipe it replaced.

Here's a short video taken in a not ideal place to try the exhaust out, lots of traffic around, speed humps etc. It does show you how quiet it is at low rpm. I didn't get above 3,500rpm

I took the 530i through a tunnel tonight at 6,000rpm and it sounded very nice.

 

[BlueBiturbo]

I like the way it kicks now above 5000 rpm !
And the sound above 4500 Rpm is fantastic.

Do You find less torque @ lower Rpm ? Or is it the same ?

 

[AseanAero]

I like the way it kicks now above 5000 rpm !
And the sound above 4500 Rpm is fantastic.

Do You find less torque @ lower Rpm ? Or is it the same ?

Feels much the same down low or a little bit less, it's hardly noticeable, but definitely improved on the top end.

I'll have a better impression after I've driven it some more.

It was a worthwhile mod, makes the car a lot more fun to drive.

Will sound better when the M60B40 goes in, more bass and growl

 

[AseanAero]

Taffy (bluebiturbo) had a drive and says there's definitely been an improvement in power and response.

Video shows short runs to 6,000rpm

I wanted something that was quiet at low speed and louder as power was applied and I acheived that so I'm happy.

It's a lot of fun to drive now.

M60B40 next.

 

[AseanAero]

Somehow the little M60B30 ended up sounding like a Chev big block powered McLaren M8E Can Am , one of my favorite cars by the way.

 

[AseanAero]

Exhaust done, onto the engine swap

 

[AseanAero]

I made an interesting discovery this week.

The starter is on the RHS of the engine which means this engine came out of a LHD market (not Singapore as I was told)

We also had some LHD cars imported here into Indonesia over the years.

Not a big deal, I can cut out the casting on the LHS of the engine and make a blank to close the old starter motor mounting point.

Overall the engine looks in good shape, minimal wear on the cams.

I found some aluminium corrosion on the water jacket on the RHS cylinder bank under the intake manifold which is being treated with Alodine (a formulation which inhibits corrosion in Aluminium) and then will be epoxied just in case.

Cam covers are going out for powder coating in gloss black.

The more I work on this engine the more I appreciate the design and build quality, another good engine from BMW.

The M60B40 goes onto the engine stand next week for a check of the internals.

With an almost 200kg weight difference between the 530i (no sunroof, sls, less sound proofing, manual seats) and my M5 the power to weight ratio is very similar with an M60B40 in the 530i chassis.


.

 

[AseanAero]

I've been busy with salvage projects out of Jakarta the last few months and now the M5 is back on the road for alternate daily driver duties I can do some more work on the 540 project

A small step forward is powder coating the valve covers

 

[First e28 M5]

A small step forward is powder coating the valve covers

You should have never ever power coat these M60 valve covers !!! They are made from Magnesium in order to save some weight and the magnesium when powder coated wraps enough to make your valve cover gasket to leak in no time. !

On my E31 840Ci M62-B44 I had to change the covers on both banks because the previous owner powder coat them and they leaked like crazy…I had to source a set that were 100% original and untouched. Light sand blast to remove the old and chipped paint and then with hi heat/headers Silver paint was applied to match the factory valve cover color.

In my opinion to work on V8 engines is nightmare time consuming !!! After I put my hands on the M60/S62 engine years ago….I realized and appreciate how simple and easy is to work on S38 engines….

Also I hope you did not get the early blocks with the Nikasil problem ! You can check the block # with BMW to get idea witch block you have…

One little scratch on that Cyl Cheese Block and goes buy buy buy block…will require replacement.

You should have started with M62 B44 4.4 Non Vanos engine say from E39 540i.

I hope you have luck with the 4.0L

Regards
Anri

 

[AseanAero]

You should have never ever power coat these M60 valve covers !!! They are made from Magnesium in order to save some weight and the magnesium when powder coated wraps enough to make your valve cover gasket to leak in no time. !

On my E31 840Ci M62-B44 I had to change the covers on both banks because the previous owner powder coat them and they leaked like crazy…I had to source a set that were 100% original and untouched. Light sand blast to remove the old and chipped paint and then with hi heat/headers Silver paint was applied to match the factory valve cover color.

In my opinion to work on V8 engines is nightmare time consuming !!! After I put my hands on the M60/S62 engine years ago….I realized and appreciate how simple and easy is to work on S38 engines….

Also I hope you did not get the early blocks with the Nikasil problem ! You can check the block # with BMW to get idea witch block you have…

One little scratch on that Cyl Cheese Block and goes buy buy buy block…will require replacement.

You should have started with M62 B44 4.4 Non Vanos engine say from E39 540i.

I hope you have luck with the 4.0L

Regards
Anri

Thanks for the tip Anri, if they leak I still have an untouched set of valve covers on the B30 still in the car which will fit the B40.

Both engines (and most here) are still Nikasil , we didn't have the sulphur problem like in the USA, my 530 engine has 164,000kms and still going well.

E39 540i ? I think there is one in the country, we're a bit limited to what's available

 

[AseanAero]

M60B30 retired

The day has finally arrived to retire the Nikasil M60B30 at 183,400km (19.4k kms after my last post on this thread)

It's been hard to start the last few weeks but now it's really loosing compression (one cylinder down to 100psi), it's puffing smoke like a steam train out the oil filler cap (with the cap off) so at least 1 cylinder is pressurizing the sump on each compression stroke and using a liter of oil every 400kms. The inside the intake manifold it's coated with oil residue.

Last night the water temp gauge was right tangent to centre for the first time since the new cooling system went in so things are starting to heat up in the engine.

There's at least 1 but maybe 2 cylinders that are not producing power.

We started to see the power drop off 6 months ago on the dyno.

Today I'll do a final compression test and have a look with the borescope before we pull the engine.

We don't know if the junkyard M60B40 runs , it turns over by hand and looks ok so we'll see in a few days.

Jacob has new gaskets and a MAF he bought in the USA for me but he's 800km away. We'll put the engine in to see if it runs first then pull it out and do the gaskets etc.

Update: Compression on all cylinders between 140 and 160 except cylinder 7 which is 95.

 

[AseanAero]

M60B40 installed

This junkyard engine has been sitting in my workshop for over 2 years and probably sitting around for another 3 to 5 years before that.

Visual and borescope inspection found the engine in good condition.

Today we started it for 20 seconds without coolant, MAF , using B30 ECU

It started on the second attempt.

I burned a new 540 chip and we'll try the new chip and 540 MAF on Friday night.

530 flywheel , new clutch and pressure plate and the stock 530 ZF SF5D 5 speed used.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ8dpGYZjME&feature=youtu.be

Next steps are a base line dyno run then tweaking the intake air box and chip

,

 

[bmwdirtracer]

Nothing brings a bigger smile than a newly installed engine starting right away! Good job Tony !!!

 

[AseanAero]

Nothing brings a bigger smile than a newly installed engine starting right away! Good job Tony !!!

Especially a junkyard engine that I bought without getting to have a look at it first.

Engine is an import that someone brought into Indo for a project , it had a LHD starter motor, we had to drill out the RHD starter motor blank and put a cover over the other hole. Officially you can't import used engines.

My only concern on this swap is the clutch as the 530 uses a 240mm clutch while the 540 is 265mm

If it starts to slip I'll adapt or buy a TTV aftermarket single mass flywheel for the E36 M3 aftermarket clutch , Sachs does some M3 clutch kits up to 480NM.

The 530 (ZF SF310D or 320D THDQ) and the E36 M3 (ZF SF310D or 320D THOR) use almost identical gearboxes, the difference is the bell housing.

I'm not heavy on clutches anyway so hopefully it will be ok.

It will be interesting at the next track day, last time my 530 was 1 second behind Taffy's M5 over the 1/4 mile so it should be real close now particularly as my '540' is about 150kg lighter than the M5.

In 3rd gear the M5 killed the little M60B30 , it starts to pull away

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enlXzG33hks&feature=youtu.be&t=14s


,

 

[Fordkoppie]

Dont stress about the 240mm clutch.

My friend owns 2x 540s.

One genuine individual 540i/6 and the other is a normal auto 540 that the previous owner converted to manual using the 530 5spd gearbox and diff ratio.

It has survived a lot of punishment, and even though the clutch is now finished, it actually stood up very well for quite a long time.

Remember that the e39 M5 and e39 540/6 also came with mere 240mm clutches. It will last if you dont abuse it.

Just as a matter of interest - He has since fitted the SMF and 280mm clutch from the 850CSi to the 6 speed car, so that is also doable, but I don't think the clutch plate spliens on the 5spd and 6spd gearboxes are the same.

 

[AseanAero]

I haven't done a test drive yet so I'll have a better idea on the clutch over the next week.

We're still idling the engine and checking for oil and coolant leaks.

The car sounds very different , the M60B30 sounded very ok before with my custom exhaust but the bassier exhaust note from the B40 is EVIL

The chip I burned seems to be working ok (my first one ever).

 

[AseanAero]

First test drive

.

At first I didn't feel much difference between the B30 and the B40 at around town speeds other than instant throttle response in any gear at any speed and I was a bit disappointed.

Where I really felt the difference was on the tollway over 120 kmh , the 540 is approaching M5 levels of acceleration in 3rd and 4th gear

Some glitches tonight.

1. The hydraulic pump made all sorts of awful noises as it awoke from it's years long rest. There was a lot of air still trapped in the system. Lots of turns lock to lock and pressing the brake pedal saw lots of air bubbles coming up into the hydraulic reservoir. This problem seems to have cleared up on the drive home tonight.

2. ABS light is on , not sure if this is related to problem 1 ?

3. The clutch DID slip , full throttle in 3rd gear on the tollway the clutch slipped for a second at 4,500 to 5,000rpm (when the engine really starts to pull) and then gripped again. Not sure if this is the clutch and pressure plate bedding in or an early sign I'm going to have problems. I haven't managed to slip the clutch in the lower gears yet , I'll test this more tomorrow.

4. The M60 exhaust manifolds are right sized for the B30 , I feel they are undersized on the B40. I'm going to modify the secondary pipes with a step pipe arrangement and open up the inlets of my exhaust system.

Engine temp was good , engine is smooth, no valve train noise, no oil leaks.

I took it briefly to 6,500rpm with no dramas other than the rear wheels breaking traction in second gear so my chip is working.

I would say while the M5 is fast the 540 is 'quick' , it's a bit softer than the M5 but this engine is a lot happier sitting at idle in traffic compared to the S38.

M5 is definitely more fun on the track

Next week onto the dyno for a baseline run before making changes.

.

 

[Eero H]

Did you check oil pump bolts?

 

[AseanAero]

Did you check oil pump bolts?

Yes , one bolt was a bit loose but still in the pump and while in there also retensioned the oil pump chain which had nearly 2cm of movement.

The clutch has stopped slipping now also.

AFR is very lean at low rpm , a few times the engine has stopped when coasting to a stop , I suspect a lean condition engine cut at around is causing this (throttle off at very low speed 10 to 15kmh and coast)

Baseline run for further mods to chip , exhaust and intake.

Some background on this M60B40

It's a $1,000 junkyard engine and has been sitting for at least 3 to 5 years and although it's not using oil it is down on compression (should be 210 psi)

Compression down a bit but I can live with it.

C1 160psi
C2 170psi
C3 170psi
C4 170psi
C5 160psi
C6 150psi*
C7 150psi*
C8 160psi

* cylinder 6 and 7 seem to drop quicker than the others , this happened on my B30 also.

The M60B40 is putting out 25% more power than the B30 which measured 166.5 RWHP on this dyno

I think this graph is interesting as the M60B40 usually has peak power at 5,800 but in this case it's still producing power up to redline

Peak torque has dropped from 4,500 rpm stock to 4,400 rpm

I put these changes down to the custom exhaust.

I have a WAR chip coming so I'm going to modify the fuel maps and increase the RPM limit to 6,750rpm , at the moment I'm using a 540 manual non lambda bin file I found on a Russian website which I burned to a new chip.

I've done about 400km on the engine now and it runs well , very quiet and smooth.

The hydraulic pump failed yesterday in spectacular style (front seal blew) and was replaced with the 530's hydraulic pump.

ABS now working , a wire was pulled during engine out and engine in (as suspected).

The bigger engine transforms the old 530 DD , it's a lot of fun especially on the tollway when this old beater BMW with a grey haired old man just pulls away from aggressive drivers in underpowered Toyotas.


,

 

[bmwdirtracer]

I'm confused. I see that everything's okay now, but what does this mean?:

Some glitches tonight.

1. The hydraulic pump made all sorts of awful noises as it awoke from it's years long rest. There was a lot of air still trapped in the system. Lots of turns lock to lock and pressing the brake pedal saw lots of air bubbles coming up into the hydraulic reservoir. This problem seems to have cleared up on the drive home tonight.

2. ABS light is on , not sure if this is related to problem 1 ?

Hydroboost? Hydraulic pump made lots of noise, and lots of turns lock to lock makes sense to me....that's the power steering pump. But how could pressing the brake pedal send air bubbles into that system? And you wondered if the ABS light was related, too. All that makes me think of hydroboost, but I haven't seen that on a BMW since my E28.....

But anyway, GREAT JOB on getting that thing up and running, and faster!