Following the help getting the head installed on the motor, I wrapped up installation of the timing chain covers, rear main seal, oil pan, and other misc items. If you notice in the pictures, I forgot to install the alternator bracket so the harmonic balancer will have to come off again to get that in place. Around this time the rear Bilstein sports and Alpina rear springs were put in. I held off on the rear camber plates for now but I have them still to put in later.

    After I got the long block finished, I borrowed an engine hoist from my good friend Bob Smith (see his Jag under the Friends Cars section of this site). Once I had the hoist, I was anxious to get the engine back in the car. I mounted the flywheel using the recommended torque for the flywheel bolts (AND threadlock). I also mounted the water pump and the bracket used for attaching the hoist to the motor in the front so I was ready to go. I borrowed a pilot bearing puller from Alex Lipowich who lives in the Chicago burbs and I know through a BMW friend (Alex has an E36 M3 LTW racecar and an E34 M5). Using the puller and Alex's slide hammer, I easily got the old pilot bearing out and put the new Sachs one in.

    The lift wasn't bad, but getting the motor to line with the rubber engine mounts was a challenge. It took a lot of swearing and sweating but it finally slid in where it should have. I used a cardboard box between the motor and firewall to protect the aluminum flywheel.

    The engine hoist happened a week before the awful, 2005 US Grand Prix Formula One FARCE (my dedication to F1 has been seriously undermined after 6 straight years of attendance at Indy). My friend Al Denovan from firstfives was coming from Australia to visit in Chicago and go to the F1 race with me. Al also owns an E12 M535i, except his is RHD. Al and I did some E12 bonding when he came and he helped me get the transmission in. First I carefully mounted the pressure plate and disc to the aluminum flywheel, being very careful with torque so not to go above 20 lb/ft and rip out the helicoils. Once that was done (I had to buy the clutch alignment tool to get the disc centered), we used a jack to get the tranny into position. This was a big pain since it would not slide all the way in due to motor and tranny misalignment preventing the input shaft from popping into the center of the pilot bearing. After 45 minutes to an hour of hard work, shifting of things, and retries, it slid in.

    Now that the motor and tranny are in, it's time to finish all the other misc items and there are a lot of them. I have put in the shift linkage in, driveshaft, and exhaust. The exhaust was a bear of course but better with both ends of the car lifted up in the air (with jack stands of course as a safety fallback) to get under there. All exhaust hangars were replaced with brand new items. Many items and hardware now are getting replaced with new. Some of the bellhousing bolts were in bad shape so new ones were put in. The tiny nuts that hold the intake manifold to the head are new. If you notice the intake manifold is super clean, that's because it was cleaned by the machine shop and not sand blasted as some other parts were. So with a clean manifold, it would look terrible to use the same hardware, and the new nuts are so cheap. I've been using Patrick BMW in Schaumburg's parts department who have been very patient and helpful. Most everything has to be ordered though so there is no instant gratification.

    The thermostat housing was cleaned by me so it isn't as good as the rest of the intake, but it's o.k.. I took it apart and put in new gaskets from the top-end gasket kit. There are so many gaskets on this motor to be replaced it's a challenge to remember them on during re-installation. The thermostat housing was just one example. The intake manifold alone has a large number of gaskets, some from the manifold, some from fuel injectors and other attachments. Speaking of injectors, they should be coming soon after getting cleaned and blueprinted/balanced by injector.com. All new copper nuts were used for the exhaust assemblies, as shown in the pictures.

    I am also waiting on a coolant hose replacement kit from BMP and new hose clamps. Then the project will start to see some real progress. The starter went in the other day and was quite simple. I still need to pull the harmonic balancer again before the radiator goes in to get the alternator bracket in place.

    She's coming together and the pace is quickening now since summer is half over and I still want to drive her before the season ends! There are still a few loose ends like the oil cooler lines, but things are getting much closer now. I celebrated today's progress (driveshaft, exhaust) by wheeling her out for some photos.