We were doing a spot more work on the M5 today (unfinished – hopefully more on that tomorrow!). I needed to nip out and grab some more tools, so I took the M3 we repaired over Christmas. A section of road between Robin’s tool shed and Ben’s workshop is one of my all time favourites. […] Read more »
What a title! Ben Smith turned up tonight with a new toy for me: Ben’s got one of these – you may well have seen it in action during our M5 clutch and M3 Evo engine swap antics alongside my red jack. My red jack’s a really hefty old-fashioned item. It’s been a trusty friend, […] Read more »
I found the notes of another BMW E39 M5 enthusiast on Pistonheads: http://www.pistonheads.com/members/showServiceHistory.asp?carId=22784 Notes from his clutch change: New clutch, flywheel & Oil Seal. Fitted by my local independent. (Previous owner changed the clutch and flywheel for the first time at 27k miles. Car now on 87k, so has done 60k on this clutch.) Vast […] Read more »
My Austrailian colleague Brenden is understandably fascinated with today’s snow, and it’s reminded me that rather than growing up I should be too. So here’s what Tregarth Place looked like at 4am in the morning – how tranquil! The faithful 106R can be seen in the foreground; the 330d lurks upper left. It took an […] Read more »
Hot on the heals of our M3 Evo engine swap success, Ben, Robin and I decided to look for another challenge before the festive holidays were over. No need (nor time!) for anything as involved as an engine removal, but a challenge nevertheless. I’d been complaining about the M5’s clutch since I got it as […] Read more »
(this article concludes a series of five, starting here) I turned up after work today to find that Robin and Ben had basically finished the job – fortunately Robin took some snaps along the way. We left it on New Year’s Eve looking like this: So the front of the car was rebuilt: New exhaust […] Read more »
I found this picture, or perhaps it’s a diagram, on a forum and I think given recent engine antics it warrants reflection. Looking at that – there’s not much of that car we didn’t take apart! Ben’s working on the car now – Robin and I will be there later so expect another update in […] Read more »
I arrived late yesterday afternoon to find Robin and Ben had decided to source and fit a clutch – they’d assembled it all and attached the gearbox to the new motor. Next job was to reattach the exhaust headers with new gaskets. This wasn’t the smoothest operation – some of the nuts had seized onto […] Read more »
A busy day today. We’ve not got much to show for the 20 man hours we’ve put in today, but we’ve overcome a lot of hurdles that we’re pleased to have behind us. We had a rounded bolt on the clutch assembly that caused a delay first thing. The clutch doesn’t look new but is […] Read more »
A couple of hours today saw a good deal more progress. I grabbed a spanner from Robin to get rid of the fan – I can’t tell you how much I could have done with that yesterday! Then it was time to get the injector wiring out of the way, which marked the point at […] Read more »