Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

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James427
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Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by James427 »

This week I was fortunate enough to pick up a bargain of a big coupe here in Florida for $1,700 in non-op condition. The car has been sitting outside on the street for almost 3 years. The original owner passed away and the car was towed from NC to Fl and dropped off in front of the daughter's house and never touched. The car is a 54k original mile 86 635CSI in Blue over tan leather. There is no rust, no dents, interior is super nice needing only paint to remedy the original clearcoat issues on all upper surfaces. What peaked my interest was the faint outline of a "turbo" emblem on the rear decklid. The highlight of the day was finding a big binder with the complete service history from day one, including invoices for over $25,000 worth (in 1989 dollars) of work actually done by Dinan in California two years after it was new. Mods include the full turbo kit, front suspension, front and rear sway bars, Chip, Dinan Stage 5 computer module, Adjustable struts, intercooler, oil cooler, trans cooler, air intakes where the fog lights were, Big Dinan brakes with drilled and slotted rotors, Hayashi 3-piece wheels, $1,000 M6 cats (to pass California smog), full Dinan exhaust, a bigger turbo and injectors, an M6 3:73 Limited Slip differential, beefed up trans, shock tower brace and much more. The folks at Dinan say this set up on this car is rated at 383hp and 460lbft of torque with 11.5 psi of boost. For comparison, the 1986 M6 has 256hp and 251lbft and the Alpina had 325hp and 378lbft. They also say that this kind of overboard modifications are rare from that era. They offer a free "Dinan" badge if your car qualifies using their point system for each mod and requiring a minimum of 10 points to qualify for the badge. As an example a Dinan sway bar is one point while the brake kit may be 5 points. They said this car may qualify for 3 badges. LOL The car also has tens of thousands spent on top notch service work its whole life. The car was $42k new plus the $25k at Dinan. That's $67k for a 653 in 1980's dollars!

I have had these in the past and loved the car and the style. I am going to keep it and bring it back to its former glory one step at a time. I will be coming out here for advice, opinions, information and just to share my joy of owning this amazing car.

For those of you that are curious, that pile of electronics coming out of the glovebox is a blue tooth device from the radio, a Sirius radio system and a Dinan Stage 5 engine management box.
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Last edited by James427 on Thu Dec 08, 2022 9:29 pm, edited 9 times in total.
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hornhospital
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by hornhospital »

Welcome aboard Bigcoupe.com! Your posting is going to create a stir I am sure. :D
Ken Kanne
'84 633CSi "Sylvia"; '85 635CSi "Katja";'85 325e "Hazel Ann"; '95 M3 "Ashlyn"
James427
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by James427 »

hornhospital wrote: Thu Dec 08, 2022 5:16 pm Welcome aboard Bigcoupe.com! Your posting is going to create a stir I am sure. :D
Because of how cheap it was or because of what it is?
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by hornhospital »

Both! Running, it's worth about 20x what you paid for it, maybe more.
Ken Kanne
'84 633CSi "Sylvia"; '85 635CSi "Katja";'85 325e "Hazel Ann"; '95 M3 "Ashlyn"
kronus
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by kronus »

Hell of a find. Good luck with it!

A friend recently bought a white Dinan E24 with a similar level of build out here in San Francisco. I'll send this to him, maybe there is some useful information you two have for each other.

I'm also curious if there's additional info on the Hayashi wheels (which seem to no longer be with the car). I have a set that seems to be very BMW-specific, was ordered in 1986, and sat in the back of a race shop in Santa Cruz for the last 15 years or so. It's probably extremely unlikely that they are the same wheels, but it would be a fun find.
James427
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by James427 »

kronus wrote: Thu Dec 08, 2022 10:14 pm Hell of a find. Good luck with it!

A friend recently bought a white Dinan E24 with a similar level of build out here in San Francisco. I'll send this to him, maybe there is some useful information you two have for each other.

I'm also curious if there's additional info on the Hayashi wheels (which seem to no longer be with the car). I have a set that seems to be very BMW-specific, was ordered in 1986, and sat in the back of a race shop in Santa Cruz for the last 15 years or so. It's probably extremely unlikely that they are the same wheels, but it would be a fun find.
I will be trying to find a set of those wheels to return the car to Dinan spec. Let me know if they are for sale.
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by kronus »

I'm hoping to hold on to mine for the moment. Just finishing a reseal up on them.

I do have clean rear bumper shrouds available, in case you'd like to replace yours.
James427
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by James427 »

kronus wrote: Thu Dec 08, 2022 10:42 pm I'm hoping to hold on to mine for the moment. Just finishing a reseal up on them.

I do have clean rear bumper shrouds available, in case you'd like to replace yours.
I will be doing that eventually but I am going to dive into the mechanicals first before I worry about cosmetics and I'm not sure how much that is going to cost me just yet.
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by sharkfan »

What a bargain - good luck with the restoration :D
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by Slownrusty »

I love these types of threads and saves.

Impressive car, impressive build.

What will it take to get it running? We need to hear this beast roar to life.

My only critique is that it needs a manual conversion to be perfect.
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by songzunhuang »

Wow, what a deal.
The color looks the same as my "donor" hood and fender used to repair my car in a recent 'mishap'. In some pictures it looks like my Dolphin Gray car. I really like the interior color as well.

Curious that all this was done to an automatic car. Is it the same ZF 4 speed auto as my car?
This is making my mind wander...383HP....
-----
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kronus
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by kronus »

Most of the Dinan boosted cars I've seen have been automatic. I'm not quite sure why, maybe marketing to American tastes specifically..
James427
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by James427 »

Slownrusty wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 3:27 pm I love these types of threads and saves.

Impressive car, impressive build.

What will it take to get it running? We need to hear this beast roar to life.

My only critique is that it needs a manual conversion to be perfect.
Not sure on what it will take, but it has bad gas in it now, so at least a fuel system reboot. I don't think it will take much because it is in such great shape and well maintained. It has a "Clifford" alarm system on it and I think that is why the daughter could never get it started.
James427
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by James427 »

songzunhuang wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 6:20 pm Wow, what a deal.
The color looks the same as my "donor" hood and fender used to repair my car in a recent 'mishap'. In some pictures it looks like my Dolphin Gray car. I really like the interior color as well.

Curious that all this was done to an automatic car. Is it the same ZF 4 speed auto as my car?
This is making my mind wander...383HP....
I think it is the original trans, but it was rebuilt twice, and the last time beefed up somehow.
James427
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by James427 »

Received my reissued "DINAN" badge today. Can't buy them. Have to qualify for them. :)
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by sansouci »

The strategy for collecting parts cannot be linear as rare parts are a randomly available. If found or offered, grab them and stash them.
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by Slownrusty »

I hope that Clifford alarm is easy to remove and was not hacked into the existing ignition harness for the demobilizer..otherwise it will be hell.

I had to do this on a car I saved not that long ago and had to end up buying a new ignition harness.
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Re: Bargain Project 635CSI Dinan Turbo 383HP 450lbft As-Found

Post by 86_6series »

I had a Clifford installed when I bought my 6.
I had the parking lights blink if the alarm went off.
That was a mistake, the spaghetti wiring was so awful
you would have thought they followed the grid circuit
from a third world country. I swear it had relays and
flashers all over the place. It did have the ignition cutout.
After 12 years of owning the 6 I didn't bother with the
alarm any more because I purchased another DD.

About 10 years ago I had trouble starting so I
eliminated the alarm. I located the harness
under the dash and systematically removed
all the connections for the alarm and siren.

No, the starting problem was a huge vacuum leak.

Bob V
86-635CSi
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71-Continental MK3
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