Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Return of the Beast!

The M3 is back on the road in a big way. I called in the Wolf (Adam) to help me out with his specialized tools and his can-do attitude. We replaced the two broken belt tensioners that turned the Serpentine belt replacement into a month-long delay fest. Speaking of festivals, I worked most of Friday afternoon to get the M3 back together in time for BMW Chapterfest in Bowie, Maryland. I reinstalled the radiator, hoses, MAF, Air filter housings, connectors, and all associated tidbits. I never got to wash the car, but I didn’t care. I bleed the cooling system as the Bentley manual instructed me too; with the car OFF. Then the battery died. No worries, I charged the battery overnight and got ready to meet Adam (who took the E83 BMW X3 instead of the E30 BMW 325i) and Brian (who took his ever-nicer E38 BMW 740i).

I got to a stop light about a mile from home when I saw that the temperature gauge was creeping up. This isn’t good. I shut the car down IMMEDIATELY and cruised into the Shell gas station to avoid overheating and cracking the cylinder head on the S50 engine. I called Adam and Brian, who were waiting at the meet up location. They came quickly and helped me properly bleed the system by keeping the engine running while bleeding the coolant. After about a half hour, the car bubbles were gone and the cooling system was good to go. I took the M3 home and drove the E46 instead. I had delayed the group enough. I drove the M3 on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and today, Wednesday. The car is still a beast. I love to drive it, and it loves to be driven. I rewarded her patience by buying her a new OEM M3 muffler that I found on Craigslist. The guy selling it had it in the back seat of his 1986 325 two door. Good times.

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