German E36 Touring - The Phoenix

[Kielan]

Or you could just replace the head gasket?

[K.rischan]

Yes,i could that.Maybe it's still not working after changing the head gasket because the cylinder head is cracked. I will not spend another - let's say 1000 Euro - on repairs.

[Kielan]

Well I mean, is there oil in the coolant/coolant in the oil? That's a tell tale sign right there.

[Dr.AK]

I would just take this as a sign to move on, even if the engine is fixable.

The car IS bent a bit underneath the repaired exterior after all...

[P78]

I would just take this as a sign to move on, even if the engine is fixable.

The car IS bent a bit underneath the repaired exterior after all...

this

[K.rischan]

Well I mean, is there oil in the coolant/coolant in the oil? That's a tell tale sign right there.

Don't ask me why, but no, it seems to be okay. That's what's wondering me. I'll do a compression test on monday.


Otherwise i think the Doc is right.

[maxe]

yellow fog lights! but pretty nice car looks dope and almost impossible to drive with in brandenburg

grats from dresden

[K.rischan]

The yellow lights are long gone but i decided to put some yellow bulbs into my fogs for a better vision.
oh, and it is driveable. it scrapes from time to time but it's okay. i guess scraping is a part of it.

[K.rischan]

After i got some trouble with the car recently I changed everything concerning the cooling system.i then took the car for a 200km test drive. everything seemed to be okay until the engine suddenly got hot. 2 or 3 seconds and BAM it was hot and the engine ran on only 3 cylinders. i parked the car for the night 2 villages from home and a friend of mine drove me home.
the next day i tried to recover the car with my mechanic. it fired up without any problems but we noticed it got no coolant. so we refilled it.
drove it for 3 miles when it got hot again. the car burned the whole 8litres of cooling fluid :fail
So yeah, now the head gasket really is blown and the car runs only on 3 cylinders all the time. great.
I am now looking for a donor car to replace the engine or a 325i Sedan which i already have plants for. They are goooood
Why not look only for an engine? Well, it seems like these engines aren't available in my area. If they are, they cost more than 900 Euro and that's just not worth it.


Almost forgot: I guess a broken thermostat caused all of this. A thermostat which i bought directly from BMW only 3 months ago. Thanks, BMW.

[Nixxon]

Why not put an M50B25 engine in the touring?

Love your car, wouldn't trade it for a sedan, never. And I've got a sedan (3 of them actually ). Just think the tourings are totally cool.

[K.rischan]

Why not put an M50B25 engine in the touring?

Love your car, wouldn't trade it for a sedan, never. And I've got a sedan (3 of them actually ). Just think the tourings are totally cool.

That's a good question. Let me answer it.

I bought a 316ti Compact with an M52B28 engine swap. I actually wanted to drive this thing for a while but I noticed it would need lots of love. It's still fun though. 1250kg, 193hp and the 316ti's differential. Coming from a 318i it's a VERY big difference.
So i started to prepare the Touring for the engine swap. This is how I came so far:


Stored everything in the trunk:


I think it needs to go on the lift tomorrow to go on.

[K.rischan]

Soooooooo....nothing happened here for a while. I dunno when i posted the last pics or what they were so i try to give a short summary of the car's current state:

Did the engine swap(M43B18 goes M52B28), took me way longer than planned, because the pre-owner of the donor car/engine fucked up electronics and cut some important wires. Well, after we sorted out some issues after swap it now runs all fine and smooth. except for the differential since it is still the 3.45 diff from the 318i. it's still working but it's a matter of time until the torque will destroy it.
Also got a small problem with my new brakes lately, but sorted that out just yesterday.
Car now got some new H1 beams as well.

I also installed the big hifi system:


a few pics from this summer:







Clearance check:

about 1.7 inches

New headlights (two different one, the passenger side will be replaced soon. i'm just too lazy)


Then i bought some wheels. got them for cheap and just put the centers in my barrels and painted the screws gold.


Plans include:
- refinish wheels because two of them took a good beating this year
- paint two doors and replace hood
- camber plates for more low -> ordered as a christmas gift
- more low
- gold paint and silber BMW lettering for the front brake calipers


And two pictures at the end:




Stay tuned, it's going to be awesome.

[Nixxon]

Do yourself a favor and replace the driver side headlight. ZKWs are better IMHO,

[K.rischan]

Too late. I don't like the relatively big lense from the ZKW's so I replaced them. As long as my high beams are working properly i don't mind.

[Nixxon]

Personally I think the bigger lenses on the ZKW's look better. :-D Plus they are easier to take apart. Well, some of the components inside are more logical than on Bosches.