Just saying hello

It looks to be in very nice exterior condition from those pictures.

Good to see someone so happy with a purchase too!

 

I don't have the equipment necessary to do it myself i.e. no workshop, but was having a good snoop round the head this afternoon and everything looks fairly straight forward. Been told that once you put a spanner to them, they more or less come apart in your hands, such is the quality of engineering. No seized bolts or rounded heads (so I'm told!). There is a specialist literally across the road from my flat who builds up track day E30's for fun, and when I told him I was thinking of getting a 525e he almost wet himself. Problem is that if the head itself is cracked, the whole thing may be a boat anchor as I understand these heads are like hens teeth.

Anyway, I'm taking her across for a once over on monday. When I had her jump started, I noticed that there was a puff of smoke came out of the engine in the area where the manifold joins the head - is this likely to be manifold gasket, or something related to the head gaket? Doesn't really matter anyway, it will all be coming off to fix the blown head gasket. Once that's done, I'm a very gentle driver (I drive a chevette after all) and the lazy torque of the 2.7 should be happy for another 77k miles. Think of me on monday afternoon and pray!

Doive, you've done well for yourself there geezer. Hope I can find one that looks as nice.

You don't NEED to fit another 525e head. I took one
off a car I scrapped for the 2.7 short engine and sold
the head on ebay for 20 quid.
The best head to fit would be a standard 320i/520i
unit complete with the 2 litre cam, the numbers on
the side for which ends in '731' (yours is 200). The
head and cam goes straight on and will give you an
extra 25 bhp and make it into quite a decent old bus.

Unfortunately I'm a bit of a stickler for originality, so if possible I'd like to keep her standard. Of course as a last resort I'd put a 520i head on (nothing to do with that 25hp extra), but will the valve duration not be completely different so changing the power delivery? Been told the 2.7 is a lovely lazy torquey old beast, with decent fuel economy when you are taking it easy. This is all speculation at the moment, as we haven't had the head off her yet.

I found myself last night at 2am sitting in the freezing cold inside the car, staring around in mild to medium disbelief at what I'd bought. It's addictive. Went out this afternoon, opened the bonnet and stood staring for about ten minutes. It's very sad. Thanks for the encouragement guys, although as you can probably tell from my posts I had no intention of ever letting her go back to the scrapyard!

  Boing!

Please don't tempt me to take more pics, I only have 15Mb web space!! I would completely fill it with pictures of the car if I had the chance. I'll get some more pics of the car some day when the sun comes out, or else when I get a chance to polish her all up. I'll take a picture of my flatmates face when he comes back this evening to see the big beast parked in our space. I like photography, so over the spring/summer I'll try and get pics of her in scenic locations across Scotland.

Excuse my ignorance, but is the head being talked about the M20 engine ?

I know the later E28's and early E34's like mine shared the M20 engine.

The 525e is definately the 'small 6' M20 cam belt engine.

There was a 325e (saw one in Australia) but not for the UK market. So, if the car you saw advertised was in the UK, it could be an import, or someone has fitted the wrong instrumentation.

The 520i and 525e have identical bhp's, but the 520 with an auto box was a bit of a 'slug' - the 'eta' was just so powerful by comparison which shows bhp is not the be all and end all.

are there any 524t's still around? I saw one on eBay last year, looked sound, but was told parts are almost impossible to find over here!

Quick very happy update on the 525e - Doive one happy chicken. Turns out the oil pressure switch is faulty, causing the oil light on the dash to flicker on. The last owner just kept on chucking oil into it, of course it had nothing to do with oil pressure! My specialist drained SEVEN LITRES of oil out of the car - the sump holds three and a half. He said the oil was everywhere, blocked the breathers and the idle control valve, and completely coated the spark plugs so causing the severe misfire. After all his work draining the oil, cleaning the plugs and sorting out the idle valve she runs as sweet as a nut, and pulls like a train. Big brutal old school power, not much off the line but absolutely loads when you put your foot down. And the noise is fantastic. Best of all, he valued the car at two and a half grand. Not bad for 150 quid.