My Baby Came home last night !

Luis Malhou

///Member
So after my 530 MLE restoration I was never too happy about a few things on my baby. Power never perfect, consumption was bad and and a rattly head with some smoking.

So after 4 years of living with it I decided it was time to investigate.

So with the help of classics Guru Paul we ripped off the head. Keeping in mind the head was rebuilt by a local engineering shop to my instructions of repair to new. On inspecting the head we found 1 x wrong valve, valves not seating correctly, rockers and shafts worn, incorrectly fitted valve stem seals and old worn valve guides and the worst... the wrong cam.

Now I can forgive them for the wrong cam as they used what I gave them and it seems like someone must have swapped out a cam at some point after the car was sold by my late dad till i found her and bought the car, the rest is just dodgy workmanship at its best.

So new rockers, shafts, found the correct 270deg cam, new guides, valve stem seals and some decent engineering, including polishing and porting the exhaust side, and shaving some weight of the valves.

Some late nights with Paul at his shop and we started her on thursday night. What a difference to hear a 40 year old engine sound so healthy and like a true 6'er should. Crisp and solid revs to 6000..

Carbs were also fully rebuilt by BASIL the Greek, this also after the Carb shop rebuilt them and done a shoddy job. Basil is a Guru on carbs and brought them back to me like new...

Finished up some other stuff, short-shifter, rebuild starter and alternator, new diff seals and oils, a clean up here and there and she came home with me yesterday on the trailer. Nice to see her sleep in her garage again. Ready for 0ct 10 show and shine.

For those who don't know who's my baby.......

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Jeremy

Well-known member
Beautiful car Luis, its so great to see someone take such pride in making sure their car is still in tip top shape.
 

Luis Malhou

///Member
Pics as requested..

Pics courtesy some of our best photographers on Fanatics..

Car has now been featured on Ignition, BMW Carmag UK and TOPCAR Sa mag


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prado

Active member
Just looking at those pics can transform one back to the great old days when the E12 was the symbol of BMW in SA!

What a magical piece of motoring history to behold! Well done on keeping her as beautiful as she is! :praise:
 
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