The engine was degreased to make the work a little less messy.

I like a clean engine compartment, so while it's apart to change hoses, the intake and valve cover will be detailed.

When the coolant was drained, a lot of coolant escaped the pan. Keep all animals away until this can be hosed away. Anti freeze is poison, and has a sweet smell the dog likes.

The engine has a lot more room to work with the manifold off. After a lot of disconnecting and hidden nuts/bolts, it is free.

I was quite surprised to find the upper engine CLEAN. No signs of sludge or crap in the rocker area. This engine was taken care of in the past.

BMW sent these cars over on the boat with the engine compartment sprayed with cosmoline. This is being removed with a drill mounted wire brush. This will also prep it for paint.

The raised fins are masked off with masking tape.

I found a full can of high temp BBQ paint in the garage, and put on enough for even coverage. My grandfather used BBQ paint on engines for years, and it holds up to underhood temps.

With the paint flash dry, the tape was removed, revealing the shiny metal fins. The cover is then coated with high temp engine clear paint to seal it up.

The intake manifold needs to be stripped of the fuel rail, injectors, and other items so it can be painted like the valve cover.

This took a little longer because of all the small areas to clean and more masking to keep paint out of the runners.

With a little elbow grease, a few bucks of paint and some time, these pieces look better than new, and will give a custom look under the hood.

Whenever injectors are pulled, new o-rings should be installed. The new one is on the left. In time, these o-rings break down. New rings are cheap, and there is no reason to not replace them.

The new o-rings were coated with a thin coat of Vasoline to aid in their installation. It will also help seal them when installed. The injectors and fuel rail were cleaned.

Manifold is ready to install.

The throttle body is not bolted up yet. I m waiting for a new gasket.

A box showed up at the door with all new hoses, air intake elbow, shift knob, gaskets and gas lift struts for the hood, trunk and top boot.

New parts include: belts, coolant hoses, fuel line, vaccum line, timing belt, spark plugs, ignition wires, K&N air filter, air intake elbow, window washer pump, and a few fuses. Any exposed electrical wires were repaired or replaced. The engine compartment was further cleaned of that cosmoline crap. After all of this, it came back togther. I didn't take pictures of this work because it was a real PITA, and my hands were turned into black hamburger.

Engine runs like a top, and looks a lot better too. I will say the Germans are great at compacting 100 pounds of stuff in a 50 pound package, and access to a lot of things is really tight.

Time for a new muffler. The installation kit included all new gaskets, hangers, rubber mounts and bolts. This is required when changing out the exhaust.

The muffler was what came from the factory. The baffles were gone due to rusting from the inside out, and was starting to get some holes. It sounded like one of those fart cans on a Honduh.

The muffler is an Eberspaecher brand. This is what BMW installs at the factory. The sound is 1000 times better than with the "gutted" muffler. The popping at idle is gone, and an increase in low end torque is noted.