[JakeWilson]

Hello all,

Firstly a post to say hello and what a great forum. :biggrin:

I've signed up in the search for advice if possible.

A few years ago my father purchased a 1993 3.8 M5 Touring.

The car's avus blue, throwing stars, and black suede and cloth interior.

He purchased the car as a project as the previous "specialist" had not checked the valve clearences whilst maintaining it for the previous owner. The result of this is that the car has burnt out an exhaust valve and the plan had been to get her back on the road ASAP. However, dire family circumstances and lack of finances has meant that my father has been unable to start working on the car.

I, however have recently sold my MG ZT-T and want to try to source the parts for him. However, to the untrained newbie, finding parts (BMW Main Dealer aside) has been very difficult.

I was hoping that you all may know some good stocksist/places that do such parts.

Best regards,

Jake

 

[legacy260]

Jake, I would suggest initially joining the BMW Owners Club which will save you 10% on parts and publishes an interesting monthly magazine and is packed with news, parts suppliers and articles etc.

I would also suggest that you jump onto RealOEM.com Online BMW Parts Catalog and enter the cars's chassis number. This site offers diagrams of parts etc. Then call Motormec (a major parts supplier of OEM parts) and have a chat about wat you need and see if they can supply it at a decent price.

Welcome and most people on here will help as often as possible where and when possible.

 

[JakeWilson]

Sadly our subscription lapsed as at one point we had three e34's: The M, a TDS and a 525ix, but I do think it's time to renew!

Thanks for the links - both sites I've never come across before, but the RealOEM site was quoting nearly $200 for an exhaust valve! :grrrr:

When we get down to it, I'll aim to get some pictures of the rebuild and post them up.

Best regards,

Jake

 

[AndyHudds]

Hi Jake, welcome and good luck with your touring.

If you are close to huddersfield, i can put you on to our BMW parts guy (good mate of ours), he gives a discount due to the car been bmw classic status, as well as any other discounts he can wangle.

My bro (who own 2 M5's) had a head rebuilt a few months ago, it needed an inlet and exhaust valve, these parts are special order 'M tax' parts and cost £120 each

Cheers James

 

[JakeWilson]

Hi Jake, welcome and good luck with your touring.

If you are close to huddersfield, i can put you on to our BMW parts guy (good mate of ours), he gives a discount due to the car been bmw classic status, as well as any other discounts he can wangle.

My bro (who own 2 M5's) had a head rebuilt a few months ago, it needed an inlet and exhaust valve, these parts are special order 'M tax' parts and cost £120 each

Cheers James

Hi James,

Thanks for the immensely kind offer - I shall certainly take you up on that if it's going to be £120 a valve. We are near Lincoln so not that far as we used to use Victoria for our other parts.

I've found a guy on e-bay selling inlet valves allegedly for a tenner. They are however for the S38B36 engine, so I assume different to the 3.8 valves.

BMW M3 / M5 Engine Inlet Valves ---NEW--- on eBay (end time 17-Feb-11 20:39:14 GMT)

There are also head gasket sets at £50, but they're not a make that I have come across so I am dubious as with all the work that's going to be involved, I want to make sure the parts are up to scratch!

Out of interest, do you guys have meets and gatherings?

Best,

Jake

 

[Steve Mac]

Welcome Jake

Hang in there mate. A few engines have been cooked of late so somebody out there could be able to help. One word of warning these are notoriously expensive to repair and not cheap to maintain.

Forum member Davido is a seasoned recycler of parts for our beloved Ms

Make good use of the search function on each forum as there is a wealth of info on here for you to use. Keep asking questions as lots of us who can will help

Good luck and get a few pictures up too and we all look forward to you and your dad bonding on this mission??????

 

[JakeWilson]

Welcome Jake

Hang in there mate. A few engines have been cooked of late so somebody out there could be able to help. One word of warning these are notoriously expensive to repair and not cheap to maintain.

Forum member Davido is a seasoned recycler of parts for our beloved Ms

Make good use of the search function on each forum as there is a wealth of info on here for you to use. Keep asking questions as lots of us who can will help

Good luck and get a few pictures up too and we all look forward to you and your dad bonding on this mission??????

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the welcome! We've done a few rebuilds together now, so I've learnt when's a good time to leave him swearing and go and put the kettle on!

Thankfully we had some idea of what we were getting into when we bought her, the £25k of history that came with her was some indication of how high maintainance she would be. Stupidly though, the only reason she's broken was that the "specialist" who was maintaining her, hadn't checked the valve clearances, which I have read need to be checked every 15,000k

As it as the moment, she runs, but very roughly! (Enter Monty Pyton Julius Caeser here!) I've read that the s38 engine isn't the smoothest at idle.

I saw that a company on e-bay called e-motive I think they're called were selling a complete engine with ancilaries and gearbox, also I've seen someone breaking a load on there too.

I've managed to drag a few pictures off the old PC from when there were three E34's in the family:

The IX was a low mileage 2 owner car, that had been sold to it's last owner as BMW approved in 2001. Sadly we had to downsize and I sold her to my old Commanding Officer, who I have been told, subsequently traded her in the scrappage scheme! grrrrrrrgrrrrrrrgrrrrrrr

Out of the three we just have the M left!

 

[davidoli]

Great pics of the 3 Amigos Jake .

Welcome to the forum ............. There are some truly knowledgable guys on here that are sure to offer some great advice and assistance .

This may be a great time to completely rebuild the head on your S38B38 , which can provide great results in terms of performance .

I had a 3.6 with 185t miles on the clock that had a CPC Head rebuild and put out 309bhp at Surrey Rolling Road , before having a tune up and becoming even better .

Where are you based ?

D

 

[JakeWilson]

Great pics of the 3 Amigos Jake .

Welcome to the forum ............. There are some truly knowledgable guys on here that are sure to offer some great advice and assistance .

This may be a great time to completely rebuild the head on your S38B38 , which can provide great results in terms of performance .

I had a 3.6 with 185t miles on the clock that had a CPC Head rebuild and put out 309bhp at Surrey Rolling Road , before having a tune up and becoming even better .

Where are you based ?

D

Hi David,

I think we had initially looked at doing a full engine rebuild, with perhaps some alterations to the internals as we had seen some uprated forged pistons for it on ebay. However with prices looking as they are, I think standard guise will be more than enough for now! :biggrin:

Those figures you give sound very impressive indeed - was that just a rebuild, or were enhanced parts fitted?

We're based south of Lincoln.

Best,

Jake

 

[davidoli]

A decent , well sorted S38 provides more than enough power for most owners Jake .

That 3.6 had standard valves / internals and was simply refreshed .

Good luck with your build .......... I regularly visit Notts and went to Southwell Minster Grammar School in the days when I listened to people that had something educational to say , so we may be able to get together some day ?!

D

 

[JakeWilson]

Hi Everyone,

All the best wishes for 2012. I cannot believe that it is a year ago since I started this thread. In that year alot has changed and as such the M has still been in the garage.

Due to time constraints we've decided she'd be better off going to someone who would appreciate the car for what it is and give her the attention she deserves.

The question is, given the current market, what is a fair price to ask? despite the issue above she does run and sounds well, has over £25,000 pounds worth of history with a wealth of new parts and including us, only 3 owners from new I believe. Mileage is 232,000 kilometers, having probably done no more than 7 miles since we bought her (and she had just been serviced.)

I am going to get some more recent photos tomorrow (should weather here permit) but would be grateful if you guys could give us some idea of what you think she's worth. We'd like her to go to a good home and wouldn't want her to get broken!

Thanks everyone in advance.

Best,

Jake

 

[Donati]

Does it still have a broken valve, or was that repaired?

Finn Donati (BK04544).

 

[MattH]

Jake, very belatedly, welcome to the forum and I'm sorry that you need to sell. I loved that picture of the three E34s.

To price your car, there are obviously many variables. Two major ones are rust and suspension. Any buyer will want to know what state the bodywork is in, particularly the sills. As you may know, renewing the EDC suspension can cost thousands, so if yours is working (I think tourings have the override switch which should light up green) and original that would be a major advantage. History is also a big one, if you have a folder full of bills thats a real help (particularly if the suspension has been renewed and you can prove it).

An obvious worry is what else the "specialist" got wrong and whether the burnt valve is actually hiding other issues in the engine. I would expect a buyer would want a discount greater than the cost of a head refresh to reflect the risk involved that it might need a full rebuild.

So as you can see, it all depends on these variables. At one extreme (rust, leaky shocks, questionable history) then it might be a parts car. At the other extreme (immaculate bodywork, working EDC, wedge full of history including new shocks) then I would expect someone would take it on. The tourings are also rare, and seem to attract a slight premium, so thats in your favour too.

Good luck, and keep us informed.

 

[JakeWilson]

Jake, very belatedly, welcome to the forum and I'm sorry that you need to sell. I loved that picture of the three E34s.

To price your car, there are obviously many variables. Two major ones are rust and suspension. Any buyer will want to know what state the bodywork is in, particularly the sills. As you may know, renewing the EDC suspension can cost thousands, so if yours is working (I think tourings have the override switch which should light up green) and original that would be a major advantage. History is also a big one, if you have a folder full of bills thats a real help (particularly if the suspension has been renewed and you can prove it).

An obvious worry is what else the "specialist" got wrong and whether the burnt valve is actually hiding other issues in the engine. I would expect a buyer would want a discount greater than the cost of a head refresh to reflect the risk involved that it might need a full rebuild.

So as you can see, it all depends on these variables. At one extreme (rust, leaky shocks, questionable history) then it might be a parts car. At the other extreme (immaculate bodywork, working EDC, wedge full of history including new shocks) then I would expect someone would take it on. The tourings are also rare, and seem to attract a slight premium, so thats in your favour too.

Good luck, and keep us informed.

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your comprehensive post, I appreciate it. I think I am right in saying that the car just before we bought it had replacement rear dampers, I need to trawl through the history today and have a loook but the folder supplied is a good 2 inches thick including the original bill of sale to the first owner in Germany. Other things I know that it has had is a new genuine exhaust. The car itself is completely original, even down to the original headunit, glove box torch and also I believe rubber floor mats.

I take what you say about the potential work needed, we did do some exploratory work when we first got it without taking anything major apart and compression came up and and the one trip we did take to try and see if something we had done had worked, I can safely say it was damn fast! :haha2: I'm spending my time between the UK and Germany at the moment and as it was a few months ago managed to source a US supplier for some parts for it for not daft money (45 dollars per exhaust valve) and a head rebuild set for around 400 bucks too.

Sills are solid, the only corrosion I can see is the usual E34 bleb on the door and also under the black trim on the tailgate glass (as it has started to lift in a few places. It has a few scratches don't get me wrong, but it's been a well cared for car.

Thank you all for the supportive comments, I shall keep you all posted.

Best,

Jake

 

[MattH]

Interesting. If you can document that you have rear shocks with hardly any miles then those are a significant asset that should reflect in the value of the car.

 

[JakeWilson]

Just an update,

We took some pictures and I took her for a drive just before flying back out to Germany. My father did the same and as a result we've come to conclusion that we'd be daft to get rid!

Back to the parts search it is!