Well, All of my lower intake bolts and the lower valley pan gasket bolts were loose, and half of the end gasket was missing on the rear. At this point, I decided I might as well do the headgaskets while I had it this far apart... Remember, I'm over 165k on OG headgaskets here. Today I ordered the headgasket kit from Lucky8, in addition to the EBC pads and extended brake lines I mentioned above. If I'm lucky I'll get it back together before the end of the weekend, but that all depends on UPS/USPS.

I'm starting to make a dent in the list for sure- I think after I get these leaks sorted, I'm going to move on to front suspension. Planning to go with Overtym Fab caster correction arms, and whatever bushings I can do within reason

Sorry for the crappy picture, my phone camera lens was recently destroyed. Better pics from here on out hopefully

 

My only recommendation is arp studs!!!!! Makes a world of difference and easier in case you have to do it again. Ask away if you need help. There are a ton of us that have recently done them, myself included.

 

Welcome back, and nice looking rig. Good luck, with your head gasket job.

Brian.

 

have you checked that the lifters have any action? if they are not springing on the rod seat then you either have to replace them or disassemble, clean, soak, reassemble and prime the originals. Every single 1 of my lifters was frozen and it took me a long a$$ time to strip each 1 down and get them operating properly.

 

Maybe its the lighting... but that valley looks awfully black. Have you dropped the oil pan yet? I'd take a peek in there. And post pics of the valve train once you get those covers off

 

for real..

 

Oh it is for sure. I just had the oil pan off doing timing cover gaskets. I cleaned the pick up tube, but it really wasn't too bad. This thing has been a 3rd vehicle for a long time, it does a lot of sitting and short trips, fluids changed based on time more than mileage, lots of leaks, etc. It is certainly not in great shape, but I'm starting to give it the love it needs.

 

Sounds like a good rover dad in the making

Is there any sludge?

 

Do I know you? The screenname sounds familiar and I've been around BMW's my whole life, just like you and currently DD a Disco 2. Local to Marietta as well, just off Lower Roswell Rd. My Disco:



And my garage queen:



And my recently-sold Spec E36:



Sorry for the thread hijack, I just had to introduce myself!

 

Making some progress... Got the heads off Friday but I decided to have them cleaned/machined, so I'll have to wait a few days for that. Still waiting on my brakes from Lucky8, so not much to do in the meantime, guess I'll go back to working on racecar stuff.

Really need to replace my windshield cowl panel, I accidentally touched it while reaching into the engine bay and its even more destroyed now.





Nice M5! I don't know if we've actually met, but I used to autocross with BMWCCA quite a bit back in the day and I am friends with Jason and Airik. I have a white late model e30 that was euro m30 swapped, and later s54 swapped. I don't do much BMWCCA stuff anymore, but I do hang out with some of the SE30 guys. We're building my e30 (now M54) into a WRL/AER enduro car currently.