Alex SBY

Here are some pictures, taken this weekend following epic polishing. I'll let them do the talking. Jobs on the list now are to sort the a/c, and I've decided to ditch the self-levelling suspension in favour of dampers. That clonk has to go! I'm now pressing the car into daily use this week, also if anything materialises using it this week that will be attended to as well. Fingers crossed! I advise you all buy shares in Shell. Their turnover will be a lot more this week! :lol:

I realise it's been some time since we updated this thread. Long story short, it's DONE! The PCV sorted the poor running/smoking issue, and aside a binding caliper (that was spectactular - a nice lot of smoke there too), once the PCV was done it was pretty much it done. The car came home with me to Devon a couple of weeks back. Since getting this old beast of a car back from Vard I've concentrated on the stuff which is more my forté; namely detailing, cleaning and doing some of the lighter jobs. I've waxed this car thoroughly, replaced the god-awful "angel eyes" (#one look and you're hypnotised#) headlights with proper original ones, and fixed the split washer bottle. All the latter parts came from an M60B30 engined E32. Amazing how many parts these cars share. Anyway, I diagress. The BM came up a treat, and looked so much better with the new lights in. One strange fault appeared though: The "Angel Eyes" (#You keep thinking, about his angel eyes#) had been fitted by the previous owner, and had seen the headlight leveling adjustment motors long since disappear. The E32 headlights we got had the motors in, so I duly undid all the bodged up lash wiring for the "Angel Eyes" (#he'll take your heart and you must pay the price#) and worked out how to put things back to standard, which I did no problem. I fitted the drivers side lights, tested it all, fine. Proper job. Upon refitting the passenger side light, however, I turned on the ignition to test it all, popped the lights on only for the car to tell me that LITERALLY every single bulb on the car had blown (it hadn't). I cleaned all the connectors, checked, double checked everything, and could find nothing wrong. Resigning myself to the fact this was a Jaguar XJ40-esque foible I'd have to live with I went in. After a quick google, it transpired that there was a batch of faulty headlight leveling motors issued at some point. If these are fitted to the E34 (and ONLY the E34) they can be prone to throwing up random bulb failure warnings. Thinking this was tosh, I went out to disconnect the motors. Imagine my surprise, when no fault messages came up on the dash! So, for now, it's being left with non-working headlight adjusters (no loss as the car did not have them anyway when bought), and I'll get some as and when I find them. Jobs left to do now include: * Source load cover blind thing for the boot * Investigate and rectify that infernal "clonk" from the rear end. I think it's top mounts. * Source another spare wheel - I kinda buckled one on the car (long story) a few months ago, so we had to fit the spare. * Rectify aircon leak (a casualty of the transplant) * Fit personal plate (I know, I KNOW) * Investigate why it stalls every-so-often randomly. Always when approaching junctions under clutch down. It did this when it had the 3.0 engine in, too so this is rather odd. We suspect it is because it remains running an automatic ECU (the 3.0 engine also was being run by a 4.0 auto ecu) and it could be confusing things. On the road, the car is driving splendidly (aside that occasional stalling thing). Power like you would not believe. Fuel consumption is, well, horrific. But I put that down to having a lead right foot. This car is, quite simply, EPIC.

Well, IT DRIVES! I popped back up to Vard's on Friday and since then we've had this beast running and given it a quick road test. The fact it runs still is something I simply cannot get over. We had a slight issue however, the car had a definite missfire. Now, me being a worrying git instantly had visions of more headgasket woes, however taking a step back and a more objective approach saw us tackle this issue methodically. The old M60B30 engine, whilst having epic HGF still ran on all 8 cylinders. We took the decision to swap over all the coil packs. Well, we tackled it bank by bank. To start with we replaced one bank of coil packs with the old 3.0 ones, and then started it. Missfire GONE! :D Today we've put back all the 'garnish' under the bonnet, including the underbonnet soundproofing and the engine cover. It now is really looking like a car again! That still left the issue of the bleeding clutch (no pun intended there). The Slave cylinder pipe would simply not stop leaking. In the end through a mixture of ingeniuity/desparation we elected to adopt a 'Westcountry repair' entailing copious amounts of liquid metal. Unsurprisingly this did not do the trick. But at least we had a clutch. We've since tried splicing/joining pipes with the square root of sod all luck. So we're now biting the bullet and re-making the pipe to the slave cylinder. Once that is done, it should be pretty much time to get the car on the road. And I so cannot WAIT!

From the photo I saw of it and what Vard says it sounds pretty bad and well beyond economic repair. Vard, I'm gutted for you. Being brutal though it's only a car and tbh it did its ultimate duty inasmuch as the fact you are able to tell the tale. :) It's a sad thing what's happened but we'll sort something out and out of this !Removed! occurrence something better will result. In the meantime you can enjoy V6 smoothness using the 827 for as long as you need.

Are we correct in thinking that the brake fluid is filled through the cap/reservoir shown at the bottom left-centre of this picture, rather than into the brake master cylinder reservoir itself (on the opposite side of the car)?

I've kept quiet on this thread, mainly as Vard has been doing a sterling job (see what I did there?!) of writing this up. We are so close to completion. I suspect another few hours worth of work and it'll be ready to run. It's really galling that time (and the weather) eluded us and I had to leave on Sunday. Never mind though - in a few weeks I'll be back at Chez Vard where we can finish this job off, fully service the car and give it an initial shakedown. A 250 mile round trip should cover it nicely! :D

Well, fancy seeing you here! :P Dabsy also pointed me in this direction, so to save making another newbie thread, I'm shamelessly tagging onto Vard's! I'm Alex, a bit of a nutcase where cars are concerned. I'm the owner of this barge, and working with Vard on the conversion! I too am a Rover chap, and can often be found messing about with 800s (of which I own one or two). I also own a few Jag XJs, but I am not new to BMWs, having previously owned an E38 740iL a few years ago. We've got our hands full with this conversion, and we are hoping to having that thing running by tomorrow (says he optimistically)... This looks a good site, and I'm looking forward to get involved!