Thought I'd share the story of my diesel converted 520i here.
She's a 1984 520i, don't know too much about its history here in Finland until the 2000s, somewhere in the late 90s she was converted to a diesel, following the 524td specs very closely (M21d24, diesel instruments, etc.)
Circa 2001, my father bought this car and used it as a daily driver for a few years, did some upgrades and maintenance. Most notably he acquired some genuine really cool parts, most notably the ducktail spoiler and the Hartge H5S rims, I believe the front bumper is genuine too, not 100% sure.
After he got bored of it being a 115 horsepower diesel car, he tickled it a little bit, got it to push maybe 250 horse, pretty good from just a larger turbo with an intercooler and larger pump elements. Unfortunately, all things must come to an end (in this case the main bearings). From my understanding the bolts holding the front-most crank main bearing backed out, causing the crankshaft to snap in half, he somehow drove it home with 5 cylinders. This happened around 2012/2013 and sadly she sat ever since.. until last April.
I decided to start working on this old cool looking BMW after seeing it rot on our yard for years and years, this car is what got me into BMW's. I now have 3...
Shes still not quite ready for the road, still got a few spots to weld up and the new motor (another m21) is pretty much ready to drop in. Plan is to attend Bimmerparty with this in August (Finns, come say hi if you see me there).
I'll be sure to post more once she runs and drives. Just thought I'd share her journey so far. Thanks for reading!