new member

[87M6 Chris]

Hi guys, I just found this forum and there seems to be alot of local southern Ont. members here, so I'm hoping to get to meet some other e24 owners this coming season.
I brought up a 1987 M6 from California last Feb. and am in the middle of a complete teardown. Have re-dyed the white interior and am re-building the
s38 engine and 280 tranny this winter so any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris

[Old_School]

Are you DIYing the rebuilds? The S38 can be finicky, and it and the 280 can be pretty pricy to rebuild. What are you looking at doing for rebuild?

Not much discussion here on the 6/8 forum.

[87M6 Chris]

Yeah, seems pretty quite. I'm doing the whole 9 yards. Engine top to bottom,
rebuild the head with new valve guides, seals, springs, hopeing I can get away with original valves and pistons.Hot tank the block and a light honing on the cylinder walls, new bearing caps, oil pump, all timing chain components. Also a complete rebuild on the 280 tranny. Yeah I know,$$$$$$$
I had to sell my other toy to pay for it, 1975 Triumph TR6 with a custom V8
driveline. I hated to let it go but the M6 will alot more versatile in the long run. The s38 engine has 217,000 miles and was only running at about 50% so I really didn't have a choice. I'm going to do the teardown and re-assembly so I'm hopeing that helps keep the price down.
Chris

[europrince]

cheers bro!

we look forward to seeing pics of your baby in process

[Old_School]

Hey Chris,

Ambitious project, but sounds like you know what you're in for. I'd be worried about the head though - if the lump was at 50% and you have compression or leak-down problems you may be in for huge $$$. The S38 head is 2 piece, and if it's not true it needs to be reshaped, not just shaved. The bottom end is pretty well bullet proof, you may not need to hone the cyl walls (they are supposed to be scored, uniformly, by the way). In any case, the parts for the valve train will run you a few shekels.

The Getrag 280 - well, that's just another story . It may be worth your while to source one that's already rebuilt.

Take lots of pics.