I suppose I had better update this, really.
Fair warning, epic thread update, lots of pictures. 56k'ers, might as well put the kettle on.
We chose a bad week to undertake the conversion really - mild for the last three weeks, and this week it choses to get
really bollock-shrinkingly cold.
Left to right, my mate Ian and Alex SBY.
God save us... :-\
Bonnet off first thing.
This is what we discovered upon unearthing the DME - it appears to already be a 4.0 automatic unit... Curious, but possibly a contributor to the abysmal fuel economy, and constant smell of unburnt fuel....
"Well, I've got no use for it... would you put down that bloody camera and take this!!"
Plus some completely redundant wires - this is 90% of the contents of the O/S bank's wiring box. Mildly unsettling to us Rover boys, this - we're not used to the idea of having all the wiring in place for every possible option, and just blanked...
We reckoned it must be all the wiring that would've gone to the plug on the slushbox.
This photo was taken at about five to nine, the frost had been on the cars for a good two and a bit hours at this point;
After this evening, we celebrated the progress with a litre bottle of Morgan's Spiced rum between Alex and myself, followed by six or eight pints of Magners.
The following morning I was not the happiest of bunnies, and progress on Sunday ran at two speeds - slow as hell and stopped for a break.
Now, us being Rover boys, and used to transverse mounted lumps, we've not played with anything like this before. That's not really a defense for not looking well enough though, and we didn't spot that in order to remove the engine, we needed to remove first the exhausts, and second the gearbox - otherwise the exhaust manifolds foul on both the bell housing and the steering column.
Yours truly;
Alex and myself looking rather disheartened by the lack of continued progress, thanks to our ignorance for what needed removing.
Then Ian showed up...
... and managed to get us enthused again for half an hour
Achieved nothing with the grinder except two f**ked N/S bank exhaust manifolds, but it felt rather good for a few minutes.
The following morning we removed the loom to prevent it snagging, as we decided to reuse the 3.0 loom to simply do away with the surplus plug for the slushbox, and then realised that with the lump lifted up by about a foot, we had enough access to get the exhaust manifolds off - and then with a bit of pushing and pulling we could work the engine off the input shaft and out of the bay.
Loom off.
Engine out.
Empty engine bay.
Choice of new powerplants, though all likely to die in the traces.
The next morning we were joined by my mate Joe (possibly known to some BMW forumgoers as 'Munky', particularly in e30 circles?), who had come up from Plymouth to help out.
We removed the clutch and the nightmare that spanned three days began. There's a goddamn dual mass flywheel on the M60B30. Why is there a dual mass flywheel on the M60B30? It's unnecessary, irritating, and frankly, somewhat anachronistic - never encountered a DMF on anything pre 2000 MY until now.
Inside the DMF on the '93 M60B30, you will find nine T50 headed captive M10 Torx bolts, only accesible with a proprietary BMW tool,
part number 11 3 380.
N.B: this changed in 1994, when BMW began using T60 headed bolts - something we nearly didn't realise before trying to find the right tool for the job!
Before we discovered this, we attempted to recreate such a tool using a standard T50 Torx bit, and grinding the hex points off the shaft to get it through the hole in the front of the DMF.
It got one of them undone, but in the process we managed to twist the points on the head the first time we used it, and wrecked it.
We then however went to Dick Lovett Swindon, and through my friendly tech, managed to get two 11 3 380 tools, for the princely sum of £13.somethingity something each.
They still did not do the trick, until we put the whole lump in the back of Ian's Mondeo, and let him take it away with him to use the compressor at work, a mighty 450lb-ft jobby. That also failed, so it's no wonder we were having grief with impact screwdrivers and 2' breaker bars.
Plan B then, off to T. H. White's, where he used an airgun developing a peak of 1000lb-ft of torque to remove them.
As you do.
Et voilá!
Once the DMF was off, progress was resumed.
Munky looking (presumably in a satisfied fashion?) at the DMF on the new M60B40.
...
Finally.
Joe having a crack at getting the gearbox on; it took a fair bit of jiggling to get the splines to mate.
Gearbox on, loom on, inlet manifold on, coolant rail swapped over, stat housing changed for the new item we bought for the M60B30 - no sense not using the new item - keeping the old M60B40 item as a spare.
Lifting it into position to drop it back into the bay;
Issues with supplied equipment? Perhaps just a minor one.
Joe manoeuvering the new lump into place, Alex looking happy for the first time in three. miserable. days.
Absurd angle to lower the lump in, required us repositioning the straps twice at various points of progress.
Engine pretty much slotted into the bay, with much heaving and shoving to try to squeeze it between the aircon pipework and the ABS module.
As I speak, the engine stands supported by the crane, with a jack under the gearbox drain plug.
Today we will refit the new downpipes and then lower the lump onto the engine mounts and prop shaft.
After that point, really it's just a case of plugging things back in, doing a few securing bolts back up, banging in the new 4.0 DME and off we go.
Once this whole thing is done and running, I will do a bit of a write up, and get Alex to edit the OP with a list of everything we needed for the conversion, hopefully this thread can help someone else afterwards!
2011 BMW E38 728i
Linear Mode
