'05 Jet Black Auto/Sedan resurrection

As if I didn't have enough projects, I decided to buy another ZHP, lol.

Back in the fall of '18 a member of a semi-local FB BMW group rear ended another car in his ZHP. It took out the headlights, hood, core support and some other misc items.

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He started fixing it and somewhere along the way it decided to no longer start.

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Fast forward a few more months and he decided to part ways with the project.

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I picked the car up Tuesday night after a 400 mile round trip with the truck and trailer.

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First impressions are it is surprisingly nice. Other than the hood and a couple of small marks the body is in really good shape. The car came with a Mishimoto e-fan kit, but it's beat up so I'll probably ditch it for a mechanical fan and shroud or ZHP e-fan. Also installed is a TMS under drive pulley kit, I'll probably pull that off and return to stock as well. The previous owner already replaced the core support, rad and condenser, but I might have to pull that all back apart to audit his install.

Inside the car is a black leather interior, no heated seats and no fold down rear seats (that's a big bummer :(). It has an aftermarket Eonon style stereo in it. Alcantara steering wheel is in tact but heavily matted, hopefully it cleans up well. A-pillar covers are in really good shape, but B's and C's are rough and the headliner is starting to sag. Sunroof is supposed to work but I have not tried it yet.

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I had an idea of the cause for the no start and after a bit of diagnosis I confirmed my suspicions. The 3.0L M54 engines have tendency to flood if not run long enough in cold temperatures and this car experienced this situation. A little oil down the cylinders and some extended cranking to restore piston ring seal and it fired right up.

The new radiator he installed ended up being cracked and so it leaks water almost as fast as you can put it in. I was able to back the car off the trailer and get it parked out of the way, but much more and I'll have to get the cooling system all sorted out first.

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That is where the project is as of now. I'm not sure what I am going to do with it, maybe my wife will take it and I'll get her wagon to do something fun with. Other options could be a 6spd conversion or maybe it'll get a S54 swap?

This is awesome. GL whatever you decide.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Good find. Sounds like the car has clean title, that's a big plus.

Moving along, my wife's schedule is not a normal M-F so I try to "take off" when she is off. This week was Thur and Fri for her so I got a little bit of time to work on this project. I pulled the cracked radiator and checked out the mounts and core support. New condenser was installed with new mounts by the previous owner, it was a bit wonky and I traced that down to the LH lower mount being twisted a smidge. With the bracket corrected and everything went back together properly.

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The old radiator leaking, luckily it was only filled with water or this would have been an unfortunate mess:

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And the "new" radiator. It came off a low mileage touring that I did a S54 swap on so it'll get re-purposed in this setup nicely or at least it'll be the right price until I verify everything else is good with the car.

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With the cooling system leak free and assembled I topped up the P/S fluid and took the car for a test drive. It drives really well, surprisingly well actually. I did notice a bit of a rattle from the front of the engine in the 2-2500rpm range. It's one of those noises that I would have never had it except there is not a hood installed. I pulled the belts and no change. With my hand on the valve cover I can "feel" it. I ran out of time, but I'll start by disconnecting the DISA flap and if no change I have a new chain tensioner spring to try out, but that's probably just wishful thinking and I'll have to pull the valve cover to investigate. Next step is to determine the noise and if that checks out I'll change the oil and get the spare hood and headlights mounted, reinstall the bumper and then I think it's ready for a real road test.

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Originally Posted by fredo

Good find. Sounds like the car has clean title, that's a big plus.

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Yes, clean title as the PO had liability only. There was no bumper damage, but core support, lights, radiator, condenser and hood add up. Although with the value of these cars on the rise it would have been very close either way.

This car looks like it has lots potential. Could the rattle be the VANOS rattle?

If the radiator support is damaged then there's a good chance the aux fan is damaged. If you're not going down the electric fan route to replace it with I have a mechanical aux fan I just removed from my car (99,721 miles) you can have, just pay for shipping from 92612 (might be more economical to source one local to you, though).

I'm looking forward to your updates, keep us posted.

Will, yes it has LOTS of potential for sure.

The PO already replaced the core support, the radiator air duct and aux fan. The mechanical fan was undamaged and came with the car, thank you for the offer though.

It's possible the noise could be a vanos rattle, but this is a noise that is new to me on the M54 engine so It'll take a little bit of work to figure out. But I love new stuff like this so I'm very excited to figure it out, just hope I don't have to pull the timing covers, lol.

Looks like you're doing a great job! Do you have video of the rattle? I would be surprised if it's timing chain rattle, my money is on the VANOS.

Also, looks like you're in Austin, I'll be down there for work in about a week and a half haha.

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Originally Posted by Chaplian

Looks like you're doing a great job! Do you have video of the rattle? I would be surprised if it's timing chain rattle, my money is on the VANOS.

Also, looks like you're in Austin, I'll be down there for work in about a week and a half haha.

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Chaplain, I imagine you are correct, but hate to jump to conclusions. I've got parts on order so hopefully I'll report good news this weekend.

IF you are bored stop by the shop, usually in the evenings I have friends over and we work on mine/their cars or just BS, 512-639-9182.

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Originally Posted by GeorgeH

Chaplain, I imagine you are correct, but hate to jump to conclusions. I've got parts on order so hopefully I'll report good news this weekend.

IF you are bored stop by the shop, usually in the evenings I have friends over and we work on mine/their cars or just BS, 512-639-9182.

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So you're saying if I drive my wagon down, we can S54 swap it? :thumbsup

Text incoming.

For sure, all it takes is money :rockon

There will probably be (3) S54 wagons here next week....

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Spent a little bit of time making the ZHP look like a car again. My goal was to get this car back together as cheaply as possible and then decide what to do with it. The following is certainly not ideal, but it is enough to make it a car again and then my wife can drive it and decide if she likes it. If she does we'll finish the body work and attend some of the other minor maintenance. If not then I might sell it as is, as I have to many other projects, or finish it and sell it or full S54 conversion. I'm not sure yet, but at least it's drivable now.

The original bumper came with the car, the damage was all above the bumper although there are some scratches on the top side, they might buff out I reinstalled it to check fitment. I have a good shape facelift sedan hood and tossed that on. It's black sapphire while the car is jet black. It's certainly not right, but it's ok for the time being. Here is after test fitting and you can see how dirty it is.

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*Note, I do have the LH splash shield and brake duct, they were not securely fastened when I picked up the car and I pulled them off to make sure I didn't loose them in transit.


I have some headlights from another project, they came off a M3, but the housings themselves are the same. Then I pulled some lenses off an old set of ZKWs and made one good set from the (3) parts sets.

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And All assembled.

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Going after the rattle I started with a chain tensioner, they are extremely cheap and an easy start. As noted in the picture the original spring is a noticeable amount shorter. But no luck, rattle is still present. Interestingly enough I can't hear it anymore with the hood on it, so does that mean it's fixed? Just kidding we know it's not. I've got the full M54 Beisan Systems kit sitting on my desk, hope to get to that this weekend.

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Looks like a keeper. Let's wait for your wife's comments.

Looking good! Hopefully I'll get to see the wagons and this car this week! Flying out tomorrow.

Nice work man. I started out with my latest zhp also just doing cheap restoration work thinking I may flip it, but the more I drove it the more I liked it and here we are.

Well, my wife is not really into the sedan. I think I'm going to either sell it as (the body work) or have it painted and then let it go. I've got a couple of wagon projects I should attend to and realistically it may be awhile before I can get the S54 swap done.

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Originally Posted by GeorgeH

Well, my wife is not really into the sedan. I think I'm going to either sell it as (the body work) or have it painted and then let it go. I've got a couple of wagon projects I should attend to and realistically it may be awhile before I can get the S54 swap done.

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Sad news, but more wagons is never a bad thing, right?

Just wanted to say thanks for letting me stop by and hangout for a few hours on a weeknight, it was awesome seeing how many E46s and E39s you had!

I'm already making excel sheets for the swap... RIP my wallet.

Paras,
Good meeting you too. Yes sad news about the car, but I'm probably going to finish the body work first.

You'll love the 6spd conversion. :)

Well, I currently have (4) E46 wagons and (2) ZHP sedans, plus some other domestics, bikes and a RV. I need to pair down my collection so I can spend more time driving than maintaining my fleet.

So the car is down to two fates:
1. It gets re-homed as is
2. Part it out

I really don't want to part the car, it's just to nice. BUT on the other hand for the price I have in it I can't buy the parts I could use for my track car project and then I'd still be left over with the shell and interior. So I'm hoping someone will save the car, but if I can't get close to what I think it's worth it'll be better for me financially to slice it up unfortunately.

I ended up taking the front seas, SZM, A-Pillars, one C-Pillar and the Eonon out of this car and put them in my IR ZHP. I've got the car all back together with a seat of black manual comfort vinyl seats, a stock radio and the old pillars out of my IR car. I need to pair down my projects so I can drive more and wrench less so this one is first to go.

Here is how she sits right now. The car is filthy because over sometime in the last couple of days a squirrel made a nest on top of the intake manifold and had a few babies. I'm hoping mama comes and gets them tonight so they don't die, but I'm not quite sure what will happen. I'll give her a few days to get them and then figure out what to do if that doesn't happen. But in the meantime I did my best not to disturb them or their nest.

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