I like to wrench on my own cars. Admittedly, I often end up cursing both my car’s and my own existence after a couple hours worth of breaking my knuckles on rusty bolts, but I do enjoy it. I think. However, I do not envy Mat Armstrong, who seems to be a glutton for punishment. He regularly buys crashed, forgotten, and overall completely hopeless seeming cars and attempts to bring them back to life. One of his more recent projects is an F90 BMW M5, which has given him quite the rollercoaster of a time.
This new video from Armstrong shows just how much he seems to enjoy pain and frustration, as he attempts to repair the BMW M5’s 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 while it was out of the car and then has to put it back in. That’s not something I’m particularly jealous of.
Armstrong’s BMW M5 was bought after it had been in a severe front end crash, which damaged no only the front end of the car but damaged engine components and even ruined most of the front of its frame. It had a hole in the passenger side (driver’s side in the U.S.) strut tower, bent front fenders, and a damaged crash structure. All of which forced the previous owner—who also bought it after it was crashed, in hopes of repairing it—to sell. However, with a bit of research and some can-do attitude, Armstrong was able to not only repair it all but do it properly with BMW parts and tools. He even had it primed and painted afterward. After he was finished, the whole front end was as good as new.
Then came the engine, though. The engine was struggling a bit, so Armstrong had to pull the big V8, and its accompanying ZF eight-speed automatic transmission, from the M5. And this video shows whether he was able to repair the engine before putting it back in.
I often have grand ambitions of buying a car like Armstrong, a crashed exotic that I can actually afford, and repairing it myself. Then I see videos like Armstrong’s and am reminded that my mechanic skills are weak at best and that it’s best I just stick with unbroken, inexpensive normie cars.
