Big old boats!

Thanks again Patrick for the kind words.

Yesterday's maiden voyage was only a round trip of 26 miles on the country lanes, so no high speed work yet. I am expecting the 3.5 E23 to have more pep than the 3.0 E32. It felt really nice to be driving an E23 again after a gap of 3.5 years. I reckon VJ's front shockers are a little soft; luckily I have a new pair of Boge struts in my hoard.

Both cars are great designs, but are totally different in design outlook.

I find the E23 easy to drive. the rear pillars seem a little slimmer than E32, and I like the higher up feel of the E23 driving position. the e32 is a more sporty coupe like driving position, due to the angles of the windscreen pillars no doubt.

The E23 throttle pedal requires a good prod, quite a firm resistance. the E32 has much softer controls.

Philip

The car is looking superb.

Regards

I got to the bottom of my ongoing coolant leak yesterday. The radiator drain plug that BMW in Wakefield say doesn't exist has a steel washer integrated as well as a neoprene seal on the threaded shank. I added a seal from a B&Q multipack that cost 98p for about a dozen and all was fine yesterday when I went for a spin.

I must have looked like a tramp in Asda yesterday, I had been jumped all over by the muddy huskies when I was was fitting another gate, I had been soaked by the pressure washer when I tried to connect the bayonet fitting with the water on and then the E23 dropped a pint or so of antifreeze mix in my hair and up my sleeve.

That black box from the 735i that I asked about that was causing missing and stuttering on the 728i until I pushed the connections home home from under the drivers fascia panel (that you said was for central locking) was in the boot of the 728i in case it packed up. I spent half an hour going through the basics of how to start an engine with no spark on Saturday (on the 735i) until I remembered the box in the boot.

I looked at the wiring looms and the 728i (Jetronic) has a relatively thin loom that runs through the bulkhead next to the drivers door. The 735i (Motronic) has a thicker loom that runs to the same place. Surely those looms must connect to the ECU and to a live somewhere so swapping 2.8 to 3.5 should just be a case of disconnecting and reconnecting all the sensors.

I didn't look at the passenger side to see if there was another ECU for the switchable box, but again surely it will just be a wiring loom to remove and swap over after tracing some wiring.

General lethargy has set in with the snow so apart from having unfreezable hair I haven't been too keen to crawl around under the 735i.

Current view is that if the engine and box can swap fairly easily then that will happen, otherwise the 735i will be up for grabs, I'll not split it. I don't think I could be bothered to swap seats, AC, cruise etc.

[QUOTE=robs e23]hippy, do you like to smoke a pipe pipe pipe.

Rob, you old clubber. I like that track too !!

D'you smoke, fool ?

Nice looking car Philip, but what about a nice set of BBS on it.

Tetleysmooth wrote: Sorry Simon, got to pull you up on your spelling here. In the second paragraph, you use the word 'pressure', now everyone knows this is spelt 'presher'. Minus one team star and go and stand in the corner with the pointed hat on.

Sorry chaps.

I was using my Yorkshire spellcheck. It doesn't recognise presher.