Mini build - E12 528i 1981

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okorn
Posts: 14
Joined: Jun 02, 2022 5:31 PM
Location: Argentina

Mini build - E12 528i 1981

Post by okorn »

I always wanted to buy an E12 but when I first stared looking into cars (12 years ago) I did not have enough money to buy one.

First of all I want to clarify that I am from Argentina.

So, a friend of mine one evening sent me the link to an ad of an E12 528i, the car was located 900 miles away from where I live. I contacted the seller and quickly decided that this was a car that I wanted to buy. The current owner had the car for 3 years and was not that aware of all of the specs and details. I searched for any possible history about this car and found a previous ad on Facebook that stated that the car had the dogleg gearbox. At this point I had already confirmed the buyer that I would pick it up.

I asked my friend if he would go with me to the trip, one hour later we had two flight tickets purchased. The plan was to travel back the 1000 miles with the car. For this I transferred the owner some money to buy used but better tyres so that we could go on the road.

Well, we arrived and this was the car:
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The paint is not perfect but no rust to be found. When I first saw the car I was like, what did I do?!?! But when I drove it with the dogleg gearbox I fell in love immediately. I decided to buy the car and travel back. It was becoming quite late and we decided to stop after 500 miles to stay the night and travel the rest on the next day.

The car has:
AC
4 electric windows
Dogleg gearbox
electric sunroof

One road pic:
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The size of the tyres was not matching the specs and the car was lowered. The combination was not that good as the roads in Argentina can be quite harsh.

We arrived without any issues on the car, I mean I dont know when this car had travelled so many miles as once during its lifetime, it was quite an adventure.
Last edited by okorn on Jul 10, 2022 12:03 PM, edited 1 time in total.
okorn
Posts: 14
Joined: Jun 02, 2022 5:31 PM
Location: Argentina

Re: Mini build - E12 528i 1981

Post by okorn »

Later on the day that we arrived I wanted to show the new car to my girlfriend, I went for a round around the block and started hearing a clicking noise.

A few days later:
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I sent the car to a mechanic workshop and they took off the valve cover and noticed that one of the rocker arms was broken.

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To change this one we had to take the head off, the head was not cracked or anything so we replaced the rocker arm.

We took a look at the engine and it seems that the engine was renewed not so long ago as the cylinders had sleeves and looked quite ok.

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But they did have some marks (one of the cyl):
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My mechanic said that it would be fine in the meantime, we can assemble it like that.

Head is already on the engine and in the meantime I decided to repair all shocks (getting new ones in Argentina is impossible) and get some new brake rotors and pads.
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I was not able to find any brake disc rotors so I had to buy used ones and amend them. You can get the ones for the e28 which are 4mm bigger but finding ones for e12 is impossible. I found one set of front but they wanted 300 usd for them, that is way too much for me. Importing these to Argentina is illegal so at the moment I am stuck with what I have.

Here is how the brake discs look after the amendment:

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I did get new pads, that was easy to find. Now I need to wait for the shocks to be finished so that I can finish and use the car again.
Last edited by okorn on Jul 08, 2022 2:49 PM, edited 1 time in total.
okorn
Posts: 14
Joined: Jun 02, 2022 5:31 PM
Location: Argentina

Re: Mini build - E12 528i 1981

Post by okorn »

I started thinking of what to do with the car and my mechanic said why not stroke the 2.8? Well, at that point I thought that getting an 3.5 engine was not possible and based on what I heard you could stroke the b28 to 3000cc but that is too much effort. As per magic an E23 735i 1979 appeared and I decided to buy it. The car is an automatic and quite rusty but I plan to just use the engine (maybe keep the electric windows as they would fit my E12) and sell the rest. But I have not yet decided what to do with the E23.

I also bought a Speeduino ECU so that I can have a better fuel system on my car after the swap and the idea is to turbo the engine. So from the initial M30B28 I plan to go the M30B35 Turbo route. I will post updates on this thread. Good thing is that having an extra engine I can still use the E12 with the B28 in the meantime.
muleskinner
Posts: 1339
Joined: Sep 08, 2007 11:17 AM
Location: John Graham ATL

Re: Mini build - E12 528i 1981

Post by muleskinner »

If all "newbies" to the board started like this, we'd all be happy. Looks like quite an adventure already. Also, sounds like you have to be pretty brave to own an e12 or e28 in Argentina given the unavailability of parts, etc.

Look forward to seeing the progress on this car.
Tiit
Posts: 290
Joined: Oct 06, 2017 6:27 AM
Location: Canberra

Re: Mini build - E12 528i 1981

Post by Tiit »

Sounds like the e23 is m90 3.5L 93,4 bore and 84mm stroke.
okorn
Posts: 14
Joined: Jun 02, 2022 5:31 PM
Location: Argentina

Re: Mini build - E12 528i 1981

Post by okorn »

muleskinner wrote: Jul 09, 2022 7:38 PM If all "newbies" to the board started like this, we'd all be happy. Looks like quite an adventure already. Also, sounds like you have to be pretty brave to own an e12 or e28 in Argentina given the unavailability of parts, etc.

Look forward to seeing the progress on this car.
Hello muleskinner, I appreciate your feedback :)

Well E28 you can almost not find anything, very few cars were imported to Argentina. As for E12 you can find many cars that are being dissembled but most of them are not in the best shape ever so you need to be careful on which used items to buy. The only real problem right now is the brakes but hopefully I will sort it out in the future.
Tiit wrote: Jul 10, 2022 1:09 AM Sounds like the e23 is m90 3.5L 93,4 bore and 84mm stroke.
Due to the entire car being quite dirty, the engine block is very hard to read so I was not able to see if there is an L. But the manifold has the following form:
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And not the banana shape one, for this reason I think that the car does not have the M90 block. But once I take the engine out of the car I will know for sure. The car is an EURO 735i.

--

Update:
I found a Holset HX35 for a very good price and therefore I decided to purchase it.

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And well here we were thinking on how to build the manifold and where to place the turbo.

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Its a twin scroll turbo so we need to build the manifold accordingly.
okorn
Posts: 14
Joined: Jun 02, 2022 5:31 PM
Location: Argentina

Re: Mini build - E12 528i 1981

Post by okorn »

Update!

The car is back on the streets, the 2.8 engine runs much better than before. Driving this car with the dogleg-gearbox is FUN!

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And I also finally had the chance to get the 735i (donor car) to the mechanic. A shot of both cars:
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We will try to start the M30B35 engine but the car has no fuel tank nor any fuel lines in the engine bay. This car was running on Compressed Natural Gas , very common here in Argentina as the fuel prices can be expensive. But the idea is to take it apart and rebuild it completely as it is almost impossible to get another B35 haha, I will take care of this one.
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