Bought a bimmer....broke it

[DingleBerry]

We are going to do Calais to Casablanca this year. better yet we've managed to get a BMW 732 to do it in!

Unfortunately the 300mile trip home finished the engine off.

As you can see we've rather snapped the end of that rocker off. Its almost certainly down to oil starvation because the numbnuts who owned it before thought that oil changes were for whoopsies. We then thought we might be wanting a haynes manual....but there isn't one...so we thought we'd get a bentley manual...there isn't one of those either. Apparently there are no manuals at all for e23 7 series. Not only that but we have a rather rare engine that a BWM mechanic told us didn't exist.

We're also informed that to change that rocker is a head off job. On the plus side we got some welding done cheap!

From this:

To this:

SPLENDID!

 

[Mat]

Lemon... the car. Well... and you really. How much was it?

 

[paradigm]

Whats the engine code?

 

[flat-6]

I can think of a lot of extremely cheap cars I would trust to get me to Casablanca and an ancient 7er ain't one of them.

 

[Housey]

Bin it, put it down to experience and get something else.

 

[dirtydog]

SPLENDID!

Or not, as the case may be

How much was it? No more than £50 I hope

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

That looks similar to buying the Rover group, i.e. a bottomless pit of costs to deal with, closely followed by unweilding unions.

Did the previous owner pay you to take it away, as BMW did?

 

[DingleBerry]

£100 which is as much as you are allowed to spend.

Its quite clearly a shed..but that's half the fun of it. If it wasn't for that rocker it wouldn't be too bad. Everything else works fine and its in fairly good condition. The only bit of rot was that bit we've patched the rest is just "gingering"

We could do it in a volvo and get there ... or we could do it in a straight six bimmer and get there on 5 cylinders in a cloud of smoke and debris. The crunch point will be when we get that head off and try and change that rocker. If it needs much more than that new rocker...and it probably will...i think its going to the scrapper. Shame as its really quite quick still and looks GRR!

edit: Shockingly everything works (apart from the engine...a mere trifle) even the trip computer! Gearbox is spot on...suspension is made from cake but I think they built them that way. Central locking's a bit temperamental...we had to break into the fuel tank for the first fill but we'll probably just disconnect that and just put padlocks on.

Bottom end is good as far as we can tell. Top end is a bit noisy but its got good compression. Just a shame about that rocker.

The engines a 3.2 litre m30

 

[Lopéz]

Fill it with Wynn's Stop Knock and hope for the best

This will not actually fix your problem

 

[FiremanSam]

Fill it with Wynn's Stop Knock and hope for the best

This will not actually fix your problem

LOL nice disclaimer

 

[Scania]

I think your in the clear mate, it was obviously well on its way to broke when you bought it!

Brave man buying that car for such a trip!

 

[silversurfer]

Are you allowed to spend 100 on the car and then 2 grand on fixing the engine

Rover probably is your best bet imo, its a challenge right and you could buy another engine for bobbins if it were a similar case

 

[THE CHOPPER]

I'd of gone for an old Volvo 740 or sommat. I picked up a white 760 gle on an A reg years ago in white with cream leather interior (in good condition) and alloy wheels with only 50,000 on the clock(or so it said) for £100. What a motor for the money, it would've run forever had my mate not smashed the sump and whatever else to death. It was ******* out water underneath and I didn't know that much about cars then. I had changed the engine mounts but the that was easy. The thing did 140+ on the motorway, not bad for a £100 motor. Guzzled petrol though, them old vovlvo's are pretty bombproof. How many layers of paint did they get?

 

[benneh]

Can you not drop a cheap engine in?.

 

[Siliconslave]

hehe - nice buy

Totally worth getting something a bit more interesting to get you there - i've done two of the other street safari rallys in the last two years and total relyability and vague fuel economy is totally overrated

the volvo 740 we used to do home 2 rome was really pretty dull - great cruiser but really didn't need anything doing to it. However the £100 scirocco was 100% more amuzing - needed coaxing to life, burned fuel and oil nicely, sounded great (huge arse hole in the zorst) and was a hoot to drive

Just make sure you come up with a decent theam for the car decoration

 

[James_N]

I'd of gone for an old Volvo 740 or sommat. I picked up a white 760 gle on an A reg years ago in white with cream leather interior (in good condition) and alloy wheels with only 50,000 on the clock(or so it said) for £100. What a motor for the money, it would've run forever had my mate not smashed the sump and whatever else to death. It was ******* out water underneath and I didn't know that much about cars then. I had changed the engine mounts but the that was easy. The thing did 140+ on the motorway, not bad for a £100 motor. Guzzled petrol though, them old vovlvo's are pretty bombproof. How many layers of paint did they get?

The paint on mine still shines up like new when i can be bothered to clean it properly