The Diesel Drifter, My E34 love affair.

Hey guys,

Let me start with a little introduction. My name is Callum Peate, i'm a fat kid from wales who now lives in Norfolk. I have been drifting since i was 14 (i am now 20, nearly 21). I'm sure many of you will have seen me about, I am staff for Norfolk Arena drift day, i also i have a little bit to do with helping on track at both BDC Trax and Anglesey in 2014.

The first car my dad and i got to learn is was an E34 525se which we still have now and use monthly at Norfolk Arena. we bought it for the grand sum of £450 fully drift ready and on the road and it was very clean.


and this was it at our first drift day.


Then 4 years of drifting happened, a shit load of twinning and many many comings together with the legend that is Team Neverdie's Ben Rowland (BDC Semi Pro second place 2014) and his very talented son the awesome 15 year old that is Josh Phillips. As well as a few other people resulted in the car now looking like this, but i love her in her ratty glory.

Lead car above is BDC super pro champion Paul "smokey" Smith




As you can see it had a hard life, but the only thing that has ever failed on it was a center prop bearing. I really couldn't have asked for a better car and therefore it has stemmed a love of E34's.

After drifting for as long as i have i realised that apart from the occasional play in a few other places i have only really drifted at Norfolk Arena. I love the blue car that we have and it is perfect for that track but as much as i am very confident with some man spec driving i could happily get it around other tracks i didn't want to strain the car any more than it already is so it was time to build a car capable of doing some bigger tracks in this country.

I started to play with an s13, i got it on the road and up and running and if im honest i was massively disapointed with the whole thing i didn't like how it drifted either so i sold it. My love of drifting came from a love of jap cars and i still am a Jap man at heart but for some reason i have a soft spot for E34's so my mind was set and it was time to build another E34 with more power but basically underneath the same setup as the blue one.

So the hunt was on for an E34, i searched high and low and realised they had gone up in price massively since we bought the Blue one. but after a while i was informed of a shell that was for sale. So i had some words with the owner and after some haggling over the price i was the proud owner of an engine-less E34, not the end of the world it means i can put my own touch on it. You may have seen the car for sale on ebay before the previous owner broke it. below is a picture of the car in its former glory.


and this is how i looked when i bought it. and i fucking love the numberplate, its perfect, it reads to me as twat at the end, and it amused me no end haha


Now the original plan was to fit a turbo m50. some proper coilovers and cage it myself (i am a welder fabricator by trade) However this shell is a 525TDS and after a good chat with Ben Rowland. We decided we should build it with another diesel lump in it. So then the hunt was on to find another 2.5 TDS bmw lump. and after many months of searching high and low i got offered a full E34 525 tds touring auto for not a lot of money, and when i went to pick it up i realized why, the shell was compleatly fucked. However it ran, and it ran fairly well considering it has 189k miles on the clock so i bought it and left it in my mates yard and it was cold, so it stayed there for a while until i built up the motivation to pull it apart. Eventually me and my old man built up the motivation over the christmas holidays to get it done so we set a day to pull it apart.

I woke up on the morning of breaking the doner car and was faced with this.


If im honest it didn't get me very excited to get working on the car however needs must. So off down the yard we went and broke out my mates teleporter and went full blown pikey on the old girl.


We decided seeing as we had a doner car and 1 e34 to build and another to keep running we would take as much useful off it as we could, so we dropped the whole engine, box, loom, front subframe, front suspension, hubs and shocks all out as 1. After a few hours of pissing around it was nearly out, whilst it was hanging we noticed i needed a new set of engine mounts haha.


after a little while longer of pissing about undoing all the bits we forgot to do before we tried to lift the shell off, like the starter motor wiring.


but eventually, it was free from its touring cave of automatic hell. and as you can see dad discovered the wheel for the first time, and was truely fascinated.


Then due to the torque this setup will be running i decided to take the shafts out as spares, then after a quick google i realised the auto touring diff is the lowest ratio diff of the diesel diff range so i thought fuck it i will have that too, then dad said he wanted the prop as a spare for the blue one seeing as it had a good center bearing. We thought we would assess the situation and see how easy these bits would be to remove.




and after a quick look we thought fuck it we will just take the whole rear subframe out, quicker, and easier to strip the bits we want when it is out of the car, so thats what happened and it was all going swimmingly until the teleporter tines fired the sunroof out the car and it swung down a touch


after me and the old man had finished scraping all the shit out of our boxers, we pissed around a bit more and it was out.


then seeing as the shell is getting weighed in and i dont need the gay auto box we thought we may as well remove it now, also with the roof ripping out the touring it basically became a big red bmw skip. and it worked really rather well so dad lifted it over the skip and we pulled the box off and it dropped straight in. ideal

 

That was the day done. Now in-between buying the touring and stripping it i had a chat with Mr Rowland and we decided the specifics of the build a little more. We decided that the engine definitely needed a bigger turbo and Ben had a solution, a Garret GT22 off of a scaina lorry, the aim is for between 2 and 2.5 bar of boost. obviously the next challenge is to get more fuel in now there are 3 ways to do this, i could remap the stock ecu, i could fit the EVRY mod which is basically a resisitor in line to the electric fuel pump to trick it into dumping in more fuel, or i could find a very rare mechanical fuel pump off an E28 524td and modifying the pump and boost pin, this would be the best way to do it as the electric pump is a touch limited. Now these pumps are hard to find and i searched high and low for one. and pretty much gave up, then someone informed me of a very sketchy ebay advert for one and i took the punt, due to paypal i thought it was worth a try and if nothing arrives i will just claim my money back. I ordered the pump on the 20th of december and its coming second hand from Lithuania and as i write this it still hasn't arrived its due apparently on new years eve, i really hope it does turn up because its the magical ingredient to make this engine an animal.

Now im not chasing numbers with this at all but im thinking it should be between 250-300bhp and i would estimate between 500-600 Ftlbs of torque, that coupled to the weight of an E34 i quickly realised it was not worth pissing around fitting a stock clutch and duel mass. So i started looking at what other options were avaliable, ebay had some clutch kits but they were still for a duel mass flywheel which i really didnt want to keep and the single mass conversions were very expensive. So i thought i would ring around a few UK companies and see if they would help. When i explained the build and what i was planning 4 different companies wouldn't even sell me a clutch, then i got to the last company on my list of people to ring, and after the previous phonecalls i was expecting more of the same, however i was wrong.

The company in question was CG Motorsport, i phoned them up and they were massivly helpful and seemed interested in the fairly unique car i was building and what i was planning on doing with it, after a little chat they recommended a 5 puk unsprung paddle clutch with a heavily uprated pressure plate to deal with the torque and a solid flywheel, and i have to say at a great price, but being a cheeky fuck and the fact it was the Friday before christmas i thought id ask and see if they could do any better on the price, and they did, quite a lot. so i thought fuck it and placed the order and expected to see it in january seeing as the clutch had to be built for me. On the tuesday before christmas a knock on the door and a big heavy box was handed to me. i wasn;t sure what it was, but big boxes with my name on them normally bring good news.


So out of curiosity i opened it up and bugger me it was my clutch and flywheel, 2 working days and it was at my door. happy boy, and inside the box of many things was my lovely new clutch and flywheel.



Happy days. so that really is where we are up too. i have to order a spigot bush and some new engine mounts and a few gaskets and so on to get the engine tidied up a bit before it goes in, then fit the clutch and im hoping when/if the fuel pump arrives get that fitted too. then fit a turbo, get the skyline intercooler all mounted up, sort the pipe work and im hoping it should be up and running late january early febuary. time i have to run the clutch in for a few miles then fit my bucket seats, hydro and a few other parts. I want it fully drift ready for my birthday in April.

The only issue i have at the moment is deciding what to do coilover wise, i can either use ebay e39 coilovers and make them fit, as the front coilovers have to be welded in on an e34 as they are a single piece hub and shock. or i could fit HSD's off a jzx90. however untill i have proved the engine set up i think i am going to use some ebay e39 coilovers and seeing as i have a spare set of hub and shocks i will fit HSD's at a later date.

So this is this a little introduction to my latest mission, i dont like to be normal and follow the crowd so i made life hard and used a big heavy car and an engine with limited revs, but im confident this will work out nicely and i will be coming to a track near you in 2015. i will keep this updated as things progress.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and if your interested or have any ideas for it please feel free to fire me some feedback on here and if any of you have experience with either E34's or bmw diesel engines i would be happy to hear what you have to say.

Cheers
Callum

 

Cheers dude. That private education paid off some how haha. I have read through it and found a few spelling issues but took ages to write and i can not be arsed to go back through it tonight haha.

 

You have me thinking now. Maybe it a CT22 that also sounds familair haha

I know Ben ran the exact turbo on the same engine and made 2.2bar and when the turbo died he bought a t28 rebuild kit and it all fitted haha. However he has gone to a holset H1 vairiable vain on his diesel now though. Its massive. Running too. Should also be on track aroud the same time as mine but in an e36

 

Cheer tobi. Im interested to see how it turns out too haha

 

yeah i have seen them dude, they build some cool shit,

 

So today has been a good day for the E34, i got in touch with BMW and got a spigot bush ordered. I thought whilst the flywheel and everything was off it was worth puttting a new rear crank seal in as i dont want to ruin my nice new clutch. So that should all be with me on Tuesday. I also have ordered some uprated engine mounts and as i write this up i am considering buying some SS autowerks engine lifters as i am planning on running this car very low and i dont want to be smashing sumps out of the car. Also i started chatting to a dude who owns this E34

About what suspension he had used to make his car so low. And he explained how he had made the coilovers using e39 coilovers and told me exactly what to do. Ideal, then he went on to tell me he had another set of E39 coilovers that were basically new and they were for sale, so seeing as it was what i was looking for, and cheap, i bought them so they should also be winging their way to me next week.

Also in other news i have been keeping an eye on the tracking number of my mechanical fuel pump. it has been to Lithuania, then a different bit of Lithuania, then spent a couple of days in Poland, then popped to Germany for a few days and is finally in the UK as of today. With the tour of Europe its been doing im surprised it didnt stop off in Amsterdam and pick up a joint and a hooker for new years eve. However at least its finally in England so hopefully that will also be here next week.

 

So i decided it was a good idea to order the SS Autowerks engine lift kit. I love running my cars low but i have not got time for smashing sumps out of engine. Far too much of a pain in the dick.

In other news. The saga of the backpacking fuel pump its decided that its had enough of touring Europe. And not only is it in England but its in Bury St Edmunds which is a result as its only up the road so hopefully it will be with me early next week. Happy days.

 

well today something major happened. the unbelievable, the holy grail, literally more excited than a prostitute in a football teams changing room.

the fuel pump has arrived.




If you have ever looked into tuning one of these engines you will understand just how rare and hard to find these pumps are. Its an E28 524TD pump. It cost a fair bit and i still have to have it modified more which is yet more money but totally worth every penny. This is what will make this car. The magical ingredient. i so happy it decided to stop backpacking around Europe and turn up.

 

Yeah so am i dude.

So in the last 2 days i've had a couple more deliveries.


This car is going to end up pretty much competition spec apart from the roll cage. I don't think you should compromise on safety at the end of the day its only there for you. so i have bought a plumb in fire extinguisher and an FIA power cut off. i will also have a hand held extinguisher in the car.



All of this kit was bought second hand off Initial J on here, pleasure dealing with him and i would happily buy again.
Whilst i was buying the saftey gear i noticed he had a Driftworks Snap off boss. I have looked at them in the shop a few times and not been sure if they were worth the money. Now i have seen one first hand, i would happily buy one new. Fantastic build quality.

I also had some engine mounts turn up today.



Still outstanding as we speak are, Coilovers and my SS Autowerks engine lifters. but hopefully they will be here soon.
Also i need to go and collect my spigot bush and rear crank seal from my mate Adam who collected them from his work for me (BMW dealer)

Soon after i have earnt some more money and recouped some funds, it will be assembly time. and honestly, i can not wait

 

Well i was on the hunt for a water pump, not because i needed it but because it makes sense to do it before i drop the engine in. Whilst i was ordering bits from BMW i got a quote for a waterpump. £96 quid plus my old pump in exchange. that sounded a lot so i rang a buddy who works for Thetford Autoparts and he mentioned he just had a a pallet of old new stock. He just so happened to have genuine water pump for £15 quid, result haha


Now i have also been talking to the E34 legend that is Meathead. so i have some plans for lock and also been talking roll cages. got another guy to talk to about cages but its a strong possibility to be happening in the future once i have tested the engine setup and the car.

Next weekend the plan is to get all the parts up to Ben Rowland and hand him some money. He has quoted me a Fantastic price on the work on the car that i have to say makes it not worth me building it myself. Look for Team Neverdie on facebook and message him is is also offering retarded lock kits for e36's. You give him an idea and the man will make it so. he is one skilled mother fucker haha.

Also this weekend i went to my mate ash's and went hunting in the barn for parts so i now have some more vital bits i needed for the E34 puzzle.
Intercooler

intercooler pipework, its all skyline stuff but should be able to make something out of what i have, this is only about half of it.

and an electric fan, this car needs all the help cooling it can get.


I also got some old 3 inch exhaust systems that we have fucked around with and cut up so im hoping to piece together a system for the E34 from that.

I also got a hydro and few other little niggly bits. big thanks to ash for that.

 

Well today was a big step forward for the E34 today. It's heart and its parts were dropped off to Ben Rowland at Team Neverdie headquarters to be forced together into a massive orgy of awesome. i cant wait to see progress. Ben builds things strong and reliable thats exactly why i want him to be working on my car, i am not gentle for my cars. Had our first drift day at Norfolk arena drift team yesterday and i have to say really enjoyed my driving, gave me another boost of excitement for this car. Also Chris Hawkins a man that got me into drifting as heavily as i am was at the track yesterday and was a nice change to take him out and show him what i learnt from him as well as others. He also gave me a boss kit for the car which i am very grateful for.

Was a pleasure to be part of a day dedicated to Mark Callf the Motorsport and BDC photographer that is so tragically ill. Was awesome to see him up there and be part of a day for him.

Irritatingly the coilovers are yet to arrive and proving to be rather a pain in the arse dealing with the guy i bought them off but hopefully will be sorted soon.