Sunday, February 6, 2011

Time flies...

Got to work on the beater again last night. I had been waiting for a spare brake hard line for the passenger rear (which I mangled, and consequently couldn't replace the last soft line), and another rear caliper with a WORKING bleed screw. I've been fixing so many hacks on this car, it's rediculous. Oh, by the way, I was this [] close to getting it back on the road about a month ago, and as I was tightening the LAST bolt on the driver's side UCA, (with people IN the car, weighing it down, close to BMW spec...) it STRIPPED. I was NOT pleased. After I had my fit, and beat an old E30 Euro DOT bar into submission, I ordered new parts, and should put them on in the next couple days.
Like all good things, they must come to an end, though. I'm trading up from the beater. Losing my shirt on the deal, I guess, but I'm getting Fred's newly totalled 325ix. If you go back a few months, you'll see that I went to actually inspect this car when he bought it. I'm pretty excited to finally take possession, although, it will need a little body work, and some wheel bearings SOON. Otherwise, the car is a peach, and exactly what I always wanted. 2 door, 5 speed, Red, and 4WD. Can't wait.

Let's see, what else. Oh, I helped a friend instally euro bumpers on his e28 last weekend. That was fun. We cranked my space heater, got the garage up to 60 degrees, and proceeded to DO WORK. It looked great, and everything went relatively smoothly. I even got my chance to practice with my cheapo body work kit. In the end, I only had to shave off a long fingernail's clipping worth of metal to get the valence to fit snug and nice. I was pretty proud.

About a month or so ago, I helped Orlando purchase an L6 to add to his collection. It is a relatively rust free sample, has the full zender body kit, is black, and pretty complete. It's fallen on hard times in the engine department, though. We couldn't actually start it when we picked it up, but the seller assured us that it did in fact run. So Orlando brought it home, we hooked up a good battery to it, and turned the key. Nothing. So we poked around in the engine bay and I discovered that one of the leads for the starter was disconnected, and there was NO way it was going to go on there correctly. I tried though, and was greeted with a shower of sparks as I made contact with a live battery attached. Ha!! After disconnecting the battery and checking the manual to make sure that I hooked up the wire to the right terminal, we acquired some wire to reach the terminal and hooked it up. That baby fired right up!! I was so happy. Not all good news, though. The way the car ran pointed to a decent size vacuum leak near the ICV, and it was missing a little. Orlando looked in the engine bay and said that we had a MAJOR oil leak near the head. Uh-oh. I investigated and found a very wet and leaky injector. There is also a coolant leak that will need to be remedied with a new radiator. We also have to pull the windshield, clean the track, and reinstall with a new gasket. I'm reasonably assured that Orlando will be able to drive the L6 to Sharkfest (Memorial day weekend) in air-conditioned comfort. That's the goal.

Speaking of vacuum leaks near the ICV...
The 535is has not travelled 200 miles in the 4 years that I have owned it. I tuned it up and fixed a lot of garage hacks when I first got it, but then it ran worse than ever. Now that I've got a couple other M30s under my belt, I've realized that I've been missing something as simple as a hose clamp that should cure all my ills. I really hope that I'm right. I need to put the rebuild injectors in the car, fix that hose near the ICV (Gee, it kept blowing off whenever I ran the car, and the car didn't want to run... hmmmm Explanation: when I purchased the car, the hose was actually RTV'd to the ICV. I got a new hose, cleaned the RTV off the ICV, and pushed the hose on there. I had never seen a hose clamp there, so I assumed that it didn't need one. I also assumed that since it was blowing off there, that there was some deeper issue with the engine. Sigh. So much assuming), and button up the rest of the car. The interior is stripped, and so is the outside; no grills, lights, trim, bumpers, valence. My plan is to try and FINALLY get this car running and on the road by the end of the month. We'll see...

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