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Sell or upgrade?

1K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  BryanM 
#1 ·
Have been watching a few threads with great interest. I tucked my 6 speed 3.8 away in storage a year past in June for three weeks when I was going on holiday and sadly, other than a couple of runs to keep the oils and everything circulating, there it has stayed. I got involved in another couple of quicker car projects here and, as everyone knows, they quickly soaked up all the spare time and more importantly money and the M5 was temporarily forgotton about.

With the current economic situation I thought it would be a good idea to rationalise the hobby cars, and since I haven't driven the car for 18 months, I thought it would be first to go. However the thread and youtube piece on the induction kit quickly changed my mind as it does make the car sound superb. The follow on to that was I was doing a hillclimb with the car a couple of years ago, and thought before I did it that the clutch slipped one night out testing, so I ordered a new one from the local BMW agent but didn't get time to fit it before the event. As it turned out, it didn't slip and the new clutch is still in my garage, so the recent thread on changing to a lighter flywheel and clutch sent more ideas of changes through my head!

The final idea was to change the diff to a 5 speed one, and hence lower the gearing and improve the ingear acceleration. These three changes wouldn't cost a fortune but, as a combination, would make a marked difference to the performance and, more importantly, the noise it would make. The whole Evolve induction kit and custom re-map sounds good, but £7 or 800 for a rolling road remap is a bit rich for my tastes. I appreciate we are talking BMW here so don't expect cheap prices, but I took my K-series engined MG midget to Dave Walker at Emerald, who make the ECUs, in the summer and for a map check and adjust and an 'economy' map installed, he charged less than a quarter of this.

The other small issue is why spend extra money on a car when that money would probably almost allow you to upgrade to an E39 M5, have you seen how cheap some of them are at the moment?

Anyway thoughts from those have done these changes would be most appreciated.
 
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#2 ·
Hi Bryan ,

Having actually carried out or driven E34 3.8 M5s with each of the 3 modifications i.e. SMF , 3.91 LSD with 6 speed Gearbox and Remap , I would suggest that you keep your rare beauty and gradually improve upon her performance , if that is what's required to keep the relationship fresh and exciting !

D
 
#5 ·
I suggest you sell her to me for a paltry sum and save yourself thousands on upkeep:hihi:

Keep her, she is a highly desirable 6speed and if the bodywork is good she is def a keeper. If classics are not your thing then make a list of what needs doing and look at the mileage and advertise her for a reasonable sum and she will sell. Remember there is no cheap upkeep on these cars and the insurance is on collectors policies now so to run them is not too expensive. An e39 is a great car but in so many ways not an upgrade. In terms of speed they are an upgrade but still not cheap when things come unstuck.

I for one would be interested but I do have a lovely 6speed too.I did the 3.91 LSD upgrade and love it, kept the 3.23 original just in case life takes a torrid turn. If you need the money for other projects and that makes your mind up you will be disappointed after not too long:crying:

Good luck with your decision but don't be hasty
 
#6 ·
Hanging on to the car is probably what I will do, I just got the insurance renewal in last week and for the M5, a Maestro turbo ( I know I have strange taste!) and an MGF it was only £240 total for all three.

While a 3.6 is an option, I am under strict instructions no more playthings (it was 9 at the last count!) although they have been gathered up over the last 14 years. The bother is, and I am sure I am not alone in this, we see something we like,( ebay is a killer) and we have to buy it NOW but we tell ourselves we will sell something to make way for it. Usually what we are going to sell needs a few things done before it is sold, but with a new toy arrived, time gets spent on it first, and next thing we start to think to much time and money has been spent on the old toy and maybe we'll just put it out the way for a little while!

We have a local BMW breakers so the diff and flywheel wouldn't be to hard to get hold of, although Davidoli's lightweight flywheel looks very nice, but my sensible head must be worn somedays.
 
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