Project 332ti begins!!!

[cooljess76]

WTF is wrong with people? Is it really asking too much for people to be honest? If I'm not getting ripped off by a stupid shop who wants a ridiculous amount to press in some freakin ball joints, it's a powdercoating shop painting my wheels the wrong color twice and then trying to overcharge me. Traded a bunch of MINT interior parts for a valve cover and the idiot sends me a broken piece of crap(it's been 6 months and I still haven't heard anything out of him). Did a bunch of bodywork, installed suspension and replaced a bunch of parts on a local guys car, agreed to take payments and the a-hole skips town on me. Just one thing after another. All I want is to get what I pay for, for people to hold up their end of the bargain and not rip me off. And somehow, I always feel like a dick. I just sent the guy an email and told him fcuk it, I don't want to dwell on this for a month and I'm sending it back on my dime. I'm so freakin pissed, I want to go out and fcuk something up right now

Ask yourself, would you install this:



on this:

[FMD]

why didn't you just buy one on the rebuilt alternators on ebay?

[b.u.ti-ful]

Yeah, the shipping thing is always a problem.

I thought he sent you a photo before you bought it?

[BMW_Hatchback]

man everytime I see those headers, I drool. But yeah I would've got the pics first before buying. Thats a must for every deal

[Marv17]

here you go jess, as requested:

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by FMD

why didn't you just buy one on the rebuilt alternators on ebay?

I bought my last alternator from EagleAutoElectric on ebay. He's only 30 miles from me, but he only had one Valeo 80amp alternator and it was the older style.

Originally Posted by b.u.ti-ful

Yeah, the shipping thing is always a problem.

I thought he sent you a photo before you bought it?

He did, but with the supercharger installed, you could barely see the alternator. He assured me that it was exactly what I was asking for and even went as far to say that there wasn't even any grease on it. As you could see in the pics, it's covered in black stuff which most would say looks greasy. The pictures he sent were of the topside which wasn't as bad as the other three sides, lol. Besides that, I think the pictures were old, probably taken when he first installed his supercharger. He also said that's why he didn't send the other bolt because he was selling it with his supercharger. However, that wasn't the deal we made.

Originally Posted by Marv17

here you go jess, as requested:

Thanks Marv, just as I suspected, your alternator has the newer style pulley. I knew I wasn't imagining things. My M3 is a '98 and I sold the original alternator because it was rusty inside. It had the newer style pulley.

So, today I went down to Northridge to EagleAutoElectric and picked up a remanufactured Bosch 140amp alternator for $120. He had a Valeo 80amp on the shelf which he was only asking $80 for, but it was the older style. On the way home I stopped by Industrial Bolt & Supply and picked up a grade 8 stainless bolt for the lower mount:



I was a little bummed because last time I bought an alternator from EagleAutoElectric, he gave me 20 bucks for my old Valeo alternator as a core. This time he told me that he no longer sells Valeo alternators and wouldn't give me anything for the two alternators I brought in(I have one from a '95 318ti and another from a '94 325i). Both alternators still work fine, so if anyone needs one I'll sell you one for 20 bucks. They're just a little dusty.

[cooljess76]

So I just got a message from paypal saying that my dispute has been closed because they only deal with shipping matters and not the quality of an item. So basically they're saying that a seller can send you a box of tissue or a broken item instead of a car part and as long as you receive it, there's nothing you can do about it? I sent them an email asking why they even have an option of "item significantly different than described" and informed them that the seller sent me the wrong item all together. We had agreed that I was purchasing the newer style alternator when in fact he sent me the older style.

I don't think they read the entire description attached to my claim. Probably some DB just skimming through claims clicking cancel. This is bullcrap! Waiting to hear back from paypal

[BMW_Hatchback]

call them on the telephone, thats the only way to talk to someone sane

[tiFreak]

you must come across as easy to take advantage of for some reason or another, that really sucks

[milehigh96caliti]

Jess FWIW, call them and talk to a person. I bought a new screen for my LG Lotus back in August. It took me awhile to find a cellphone shop that could replace it and found out that the idiot sent me the wrong screen. By then I was past the 45 day dispute period. I opened a dispute with paypal after being ignored by the seller and received no response. I called them and they promptly refunded the money. I finally heard back from the seller and he said he would refund the money if I shipped the screen back. I told him to do the refund first and then I would ship it. HEH. Either way I got my money back. Of course it was only $24.98. But call them anyway. I still have yet to receive a refund from the seller of course so I'm just going to leave him crappy feedback instead.

[BMW_Hatchback]

calling them is vital!

[cooljess76]

In the process of making my own M50 manifold adapter. There's a few different kits on the market, but all of them are ridiculously overpriced IMO. They range from a bunch of hose clamps and PVC plumbing elbows & "T" fittings, to machined brackets with a piece of copper pipe and heat shrink. At most $15 worth of materials and they all cost $200-$300!

Well I refuse to pay that much money for a ghetto ass kit. There's a few issues when mounting an M50 manifold on an M52 or S52 engine. This is how I'm dealing with each one of those issues.

First, the most obvious difference between the two manifolds is that the OBDII manifold has a plenum mounted to the bottom of it which houses and channels air to the charcoal canister and other emissions related components.




I want to keep my car OBDII compliant and otherwise legal. Therefore, I need to mount the charcoal canister plenum to the bottom of my M50 manifold. Some of the cheaper kits just give you a bunch of hose clamps and zip ties and expect you to re route a bunch of hoses and zip tie the plenum to the manifold. I think that's ghetto. So I'm going to fabricate a hollowed out block of aluminum or plastic that the plenum can bolt to and seal against. The block will have a hole drilled in the side with a fitting that a hose can attach to and run directly into the factory hole on the M50 manifold.




The next problem is that the M50 manifold has longer runners than the S52 manifold. Therefore the hard plastic hose cannot reach the valve cover. Some of the kits include a piece of copper pipe and heatshrink. This is so you can cut your plastic hose, lengthen it with the copper pipe and seal it with the heatshrink. Again, I think this is ghetto. I just so happened to save my M44 secondary air pump hard line and it's just the right length to reach from the "Bee Hive" looking thing to the valve cover. Best part, the fittings are the same, so no cutting and no leaks!

[cooljess76]

Another problem is the fuel rail. The S52 fuel rail bolt holes are mounted in a different location than the M50 manifold. The kits include these stupid little sheet metal brackets that extend over to the M50 manifolds bolt holes. I think that's ghetto. I want my fuel rail to bolt down to the manifold the way it was intended to. So I'm going to use an S50 fuel rail. Easy fix.

And finally, the last problem. The S52 throttle body houses a rubber seal and mates flush against the S52 manifold. The M50 manifold is exactly the opposite as the seal is recessed in the manifold and the throttle body has the flat side. The solution... make an adapter plate that sandwiches between the two gaskets. So, one gasket goes in the M50 manifold, the other in the S52 throttle body, the plate goes between them and you have an air tight seal.





And here's the throttle body adapter plate that I just made today. It cost me a dollar for a small piece of aluminum, took about an hour to make. The S52 throttle body is exactly the same size as a Skoal can:

[b.u.ti-ful]

Do you have a milling machine?

[KINGAMR]

That looks clean jess,keep it coming!