B10 V8, No. 388

[simon13]

theres a few quid there!

i see no issue with the manifolds the originals are shite and everyone knows this. It will sound epic im sure

[ScooBeeFive]

Hi Paul,

Same thoughts here, don't want to change the character of the car as such, simply a bit of gentle titivation. With that in mind, 'some' bits have now arrived!

It looks like Christmas morning!!

[KennyP]

Cheers chaps! I have just ordered new bolts/washers/nuts from BMW so I can nail all the new bits on....£127!!!!

[KennyP]

Well spring seems to be trying to err spring...? So, nice warm sunny day here, time to get the dust cover off and see if 388 has survived the winter

All seemed good under the bonnet, fuel pump fuse removed and turning over nicely. Fuse back in and started first turn Out into the light, opened all the doors, windows , boot and bonnet and left everything to come up to temp. Front left and rear right looked a bit soft so went round all four with 'Gilbert' ( I kid you not!) the stirrup pump. The cheapo light car cover did a good job keeping off most of the dust so still fairly shiny underneath.

This then reminded me that I was down to my last wheel key. The local key shop did the honours for £13 quid for 2 new ones. Up and down the drive a few times to check and all good so far!

Now waiting for a couple more Supersprint exhaust adapters to be sent from USA (hopefully tomorrow.....) as it makes joining the extractor manifolds more straight forwards. Once arrived it will be off to RD motorsport who were extremely helpful on the phone a few months back re fitting the manifolds and suspension arms/bushes.

Meanwhile gratuitous pic....

[KennyP]

The road salt has finally disappeared up here and the sun made the odd appearance for Easter too. Bought some tax and £50 quids worth of Esso 'supreme' 99 and the 5 of us had a 50 mile ish trip to St Andrews. Very gentle on the way there up and down the gears and put some heat into the brakes. Some beans applied on the way back, had forgotten how well this thing just pulls through the l-o-n-g gearing with that lovely quad cam zing & flutter on the over run.

Supersprint adapters promised to be here by mid-week (were in Indianapolis yesterday) so fingers crossed for that. Good to be behind that big ole' thin rimmed wheel again!

[KennyP]

Car getting dropped off Saturday 20th for all the bits to be nailed on! Supersprint adapters are here, also splurged on outer track control arms, genuine BMW rear ant-roll bar bushes, Powerflex 'heritage series' front anti roll bar bushes (these are supposed to be OE spec) that do feel quite soft to the touch. I also managed to source a brand new Franklin rear subframe bush removal tool to save having to drop the whole assembly, fingers crossed on that one

Hopefully not too many dramas getting everything to fit!

[KennyP]

Update time for 388! Still over at RD Motorsport with lots of work completed but a little left to do. All the suspension bits are now on, the subframe bushes are on and the Supersprint manifolds are on too. We still need a little fab work to mate the S/S bits with the original cats and Alpina system (which is not what it said on the box.....) but Rob is somewhat of a perfectionist and wants it 'just so' which is what you want to hear. After that its button everything up to the correct torques and geo it as close to bang on as possible. We are hoping mid-July so fingers crossed

[simon13]

that is going to sound so good!

[ScooBeeFive]

You must be very excited to drive it! Hopefully the suspension refresh will really improve the way it drives and as Simon states, it's going to sound superb! Look forward to further updates....

[KennyP]

Thanks for the comments guys, yes very much looking forward to it! New dampers would have been the icing on the cake but this is good start.

Cheers

[CHELSEA@2023]

I have the B10 V8, bought it from a dealer in Abbots Langley , Herts
1999 - very low mileage and FSH - mostly BMW
I have it serviced from a guy at Turners Hill, East Sussex- knows these cars inside / out
done lots of stuff over the years - bits and pieces and a respray also

[KennyP]

Collection this afternoon....

[KennyP]

Update time! Drove back from Edinburgh this afternoon and the car is transformed. The suspension bushings, arms, subframe bushes etc etc have retuned an accuracy to the drive that wasn't there before. It moves once dealing with bumps then immediately settles again, there is no correction needed to keep online. Rob completed a full geo with the car up on individual wheel stands so everything was loaded correctly and everything sat square. Prior to this (despite a basic geo being done for my purchase) the wheel always sat very slightly off to the right. Lovely and straight now with crisper turn in and the car tracking through the corner and how I imagined how they might feel when newer.

What about the manifold...? Very pleased there too, it proved far more of a faff to fit and join correctly with the Alpina cats/system but Rob used an experienced fabricator to join everything together. This was always going to be the case but was more involved than Supersprint would lead you to believe.......Noise wise at a cruise perhaps a tiny bit louder, slow speeds allow a little rumble into the cabin but no drone and still extremely subtle (as an Alpina should be!). Lifting off sharply from higher revs gives a sharper crack from the tailpipes instead of the muffled version before. Low revs and wide throttle gives an almost nascar v8 rumble and idle is just as before dB wise but a little crisper.

Rob had his detailer give it a nice scrub up for collection and we managed to fit a coolant change in too. Got fresh oil and filter sitting in the garage so will get that done over the weekend. Great to have it back!

Cheers

[ScooBeeFive]

Update time!

Sounds perfect - glad you are pleased!

[KennyP]

Cheers Paul, got the oil changed yesterday as it was nice and sunny here. The 'old' stuff had only only done just over 1k but I already had it and the filter sitting in the garage so why not. Some tootling around yesterday just getting used to how the car feels now, drain covers in particular where you would often feel a shimmy before are dealt with just so. Performance wise there is definitely a crisper response throughout the rev range, not huge but it is there.

Slow speed 2nd/3rd gear but with a wider throttle results in some gentle Nascar V8-ness and the rears just slightly over rotating (which it didn't do before). Bum dyno says slightly quicker/sharper which is fine by me!

Pics below shows just some of the old a bit knackered bits....Any doubters about BMW's V8 exhaust manifolds should check out the last pic, quite why Alpina still used them (too close to M5 performance?) after all the engine work they did seems a bit silly. Oh, and the old cast manifolds and downpipes weigh an absolute ton!