Any BMW diesel guys here?

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Charger was on it to recover from the lack of working alternator when it came home. It charges fine with a new belt on it.
 
10' I think. I should know that, but the building of that building wasn't my project and my input was actively discouraged. Then mom got divorced and basically I got the garage. 30x40, its a nice size. It will fit 3 vehicles plus the boat without being too cramped to move in.

There is a stereo. If you look at the first picture, way back in the corner on the L shaped shelf its on the lowest shelf. You can make out the woodgrain plinth of the Lab 80 sitting above it. It really only shows up as a vague dark box shape just above the roof line of the car. 80s Kenwood seperates, ~100 wpc with a pair of Utah acoustic suspension speaks and a slightly hacked Mirage sub.
 
Those are actually brass with a whole lot of patina. I didn't take pics of it but the balls on the end of the antennas are actually ringed planets, basically Saturn on a stick.

I bought them to pair with my 1950s Philco TV whenever I move it somewhere to be displayed. In the meantime I needed an antenna in the garage and those were within grabbing range.
 
It will be a bit. This is a slower project, mostly because I don't need to be driving it any time soon. Its not going anywhere with those 1992 date code tires on it. Its also getting a timing belt and a bunch of other maintenance items before I tag it. I figure if its not legal, I won't be inclined to just drive it and have something break in a bad way.
 
approaching the inner sanctum. The timing belt revealed for the first time in who knows how long.

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and since this is primarily an audio forum, here are the new dash speakers. Just basic Kenwood 3.5", wired to the factory two channel Premium Sound amp. Rear speakers run from the stereo directly, door and dash come from the amp.

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ran into a hitch with the thermostat. All the usual sources show only an O ring for the thermostat. It uses an O ring and two paper gaskets. Found the BMW part numbers for that, need to see if I can source them or if I'm just buying gasket material to roll my own. Its a flat gasket with some holes, not the end of the world to make but I'd prefer to not have to.
 
The gaskets are a diesel-only part so don't expect a dealer to stock them, but the BMW warehouse in PA shows 15 of one and 24 of the other in-stock. Your local BMW dealer should be able to get them for you in a day or so. Retail price is about $3.50 for one and $4.75 for the other. Unless you're actually removing the housing you may only need the outer one: 11 53 1 279 484. The other is: 11 53 1 275 492. A BMW dealer should not charge you shipping charges to special order the part and no shipping to you if you pick it up at the dealership. Otherwise there are some listed on Ebay but for double the BMW suggested retail price.
 
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There ya go!!!! Make friends with the BMW warehouse guys,,, I'm sure they can help ya in the future!
Radio working is very important,,, it will drown out the required swearing that comes with a project like this!!!
 
I don't have a local dealer that I know of, I ordered them and the hose between the water pump and the thermostat housing from someplace online. Wasn't terribly expensive. I couldn't make myself pay ebay prices., just the two gaskets would have cost me what the gaskets and the hose did after shipping. I'll have to figure out what dealers are nearby for whatever other odds and ends I need. I need to do an evaluation of the rest of the cooling hoses to figure out which are BMW and which aren't. I think if I'm lucky the only non-BMW hoses are the upper and lower radiator hoses. That will leave me with just two hoses that I don't have a source for.

The housing basically fell off. It doesn't have bolts holding the inner piece to the engine block, so when I removed the bolts that hold the cover on and gave it a tug the whole thing came off in my hands. Its got 6 bolts, 4 of them go through both covers, two just clamp the cover to the housing. I think I'll assemble the thermostat to the housing off the car, then just bolt the whole assembly on. Seems like it would be easier that way.
 
appreciate the offer. Don't know that I have pressing need of anything else right this minute but I'm sure that will change.

Got a box of brake parts. Plan is to replace the front calipers and all the hoses at least. I touched one of the hoses and a crumb of rubber flaked off. The brakes work at the moment but I don't trust it. One thing at a time though, timing belt first. I picked up some cheap wrenches to make a fan clutch removal tool from. The one from the auto parts store is too big, and I didn't happen to have a 1 1/4" wrench. Officially I think its 32mm, but thats .010 bigger than 1 1/4". Either way I have something now that should get in there to spin the clutch off. Need to make the holding tool and then give it a go.
 
No problem,,, Wilmington may be close enough for you, if you are across the river... Brakes are a good idea also,,, that'll keep ya busy for a while...
 
yeah, one thing at a time. If I get to the point where I'm waiting on parts for the water pump / timing belt job I can just switch. Brakes are easy on this, back need the stupid turny-cube thing to screw the calipers in but the front is very standard stuff. Its not even the kooky electric hydroboost ABS thing that my 91 has. Its plain old hydroboost off the power steering pump.
 
I picked up some cheap wrenches to make a fan clutch removal tool from. The one from the auto parts store is too big, and I didn't happen to have a 1 1/4" wrench. Officially I think its 32mm, but thats .010 bigger than 1 1/4". Either way I have something now that should get in there to spin the clutch off. Need to make the holding tool and then give it a go.
I have no familiarity with your particular engine since I've made a lifetime habit of not owning any BMW with a timing belt but in every other model the fan-clutch is reverse thread. I use a bicycle wrench (crank wrench? head-stock?) and all it takes is a tap in the correct direction to loosen it usually. I did a water pump on-the-road once on an E28 535i with just the tools in the tool kit. Now I know why BMW calls the slip-joint pliers "water-pump" pliers.
 
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