Other Humpty

Rating:
5/5,
Make:
Other
Model Year:
1984-1990
Body style:
Chassis Code:
General Color:
Mileage:
130,000+
Transmission:
Manual
  • History:
    1988 BMW M5 - I've had it for over 13 years. It was my daily for a long time. I then pulled out the engine to build it over 5 years ago. It was the second time I pulled the engine..
    88 M5 - "Humpty" My wife named it that as she doesn't think its going to go back together again.... well the time is coming for it to go back together. I will document the build here.

    At this point, the engine is out of the car. It was pulled 5 years ago. Why did it take 5 years? Well that is a long tail. Here is the background.

    I sold my built VW Corrado VR6 and purchased the car around 2000 or 2001 as I needed a sedan. It was my daily for a few years. I then pulled the engine to do a refresh as it had 175K miles on it. Frankly, I didn't need to pull it, but it had an oil leak on the back of the cam tower (the head and the cam tower are separate on this engine). My goal at this point was to pretty much put it back together stock. Only adding some hotter cams from a later model E34 M5. Well that turned into a complete restore (More on that later). So a few years later when I got it all back together, something did not sound quite right in the engine. With approximately 1,500 miles on the engine, I pulled it back out. This time I was going to build the engine. I worked on finding a stroker crank shaft, adjustable cam gears (turner) and looking for pistons. During this, I met Paul Burke who had a "recipe" that was tried and true for 375 crank HP. This is a significant increase to the US spec 256 HP (Euro's had 281 as they didn't have all the emissions stuff plus they had higher compression). In the end with my work schedule, I decided to send the engine to Paul. All was going well until he had a heart attack called the "Widow Maker". Most people die as it essentially stops all blood to the heart. He lived... started to recover and then had another one.... and lived. It was a long road to recovery for him. 5 years later... we are back on track.

    On Thursday I flew to Kansas city to pick up the engine. Whats really cool is my dad also flew in to road trip with me. We rented a mini van, went to the shop and picked up the engine.

    S38 Engine 1.png

    Around 8PM in Kansas City we loaded it up:
    Night Load S38 B35.png

    Then we started the 12.5hr road trip home. Made it from Kansas City to Saint Louis that night in the rain... about 1:30AM we pulled into a hotel to grab a few hours of sleep. The next morning, with our trusty Mini Van we rolled out around 7:30AM.

    BMW M5 Morning 1.png

    To our chagrin the whole drive home was like this:
    88M5 Rain.png

    We got home around 7:30 and began moving stuff around in my garage to pull the engine out of the Mini Van

    Screen Shot 2018-12-16 at 11.58.45 AM.png

    By the end of the night, all was done. Engine in the garage and on the engine stand...
    88M5 Engine on Stand.png

    Needless to say, there is a ton of work to do before putting the engine back in. Originally when I pulled the engine, I expected to have it back in the car within 3 - 6 months. Now 5 years later, I need to pull all the fluid lines and radiators, clean those and go back through the car... in some ways just to remember how it all goes back together.

    The first step, is cleaning up this mess which I'm working on this weekend.
    Humpty.png

    There she is... Humpty in all her glory. Now off to work on cleaning up the garage. :D
  • Drivetrain Mods:
    That is what I'm working on. Stroker engine with a goal of ~375HP at the crank. Will add a list of everything soon.
    Suspension Mods:
    Ground Control coil over suspension.
    SLS (Self leveling delete)
    Wheels and Tires:
    Still working on those.. :D
  • Packages:
    88 M5 only came with essentially one package in the US.
    Exterior Mods:
    Black - the only color you can get in the US.
    Racing Dynamic's front spoiler
    Repainted (black)
    Interior Mods:
    Converted from Tan to black interior with alcantara seat inserts. Will add pictures of all that later.
  • Ice Mods:
    No radio mods yet... but there will be some.

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