Trans install

The car is finally at the shop, just in time too, as we are headed into a christmas snowstorm. The window motor is acting up so Brent will look at that in addition to installing the new transmission, new tie-rod ends, an electric cooling fan and a new coolant level sensor.

Maybe if its warm enough

I'll take the car down to the mechanic today. Forecast calls for +50F, almost a heat-wave in these parts.

GT5 Delayed again

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/12/14/gran-turismo-5-reportedly-shooting-for-summer-2010-release/

So the PS3 is off my X-mas list.

Finally the transmission

I finally found a low mile used transmission on Ebay. It comes from a large BMW specialist in Ohio and is claimed to only have 22k miles. I'm shipping it directly to Castle Rock Imports and will get it installed in the next couple of weeks.

High Plains Raceway - 9/27

This Sunday is a single day event with NASA at High Plains Raceway. Instead of the usual four 20 min sessions the schedule has three 30 or 35 min sessions. I think this is an improvement and I'm looking forward to the longer sessions.

The car is OK -- the trans is still leaking from the main shaft seal -- because the main shaft bearing is worn and there is a lot of play at the input shaft -- but its not too bad. Everything else should be OK.

We are having some really cold weather in Denver now but the forecast says it will warm up -- I would hate to have to add antifreeze for a track-day.

A small scare

I attempted to drive the car to work last Thursday. It was a nice day with little chance rain and it had been parked since the event at Pueblo so it needed a little exercise.

About halfway there I noticed the temp gauge was climbing and within a few seconds the high-temp warning light came on. I pulled over and let it cool and drove it (mostly downhill) to my mechanic. I feared another blown head-gasket but was relieved to find out it was just a stuck thermostat. This is the second one to stick closed, so it's gone. Brett cut the center of it out ensuring that it will never fail again.

I got the car back Friday and drove it for an hour with no problems.

Over the weekend I also installed a set of Schroth Rallye 3 harnesses. These are four-point harnesses designed to be used with stock seats and have the Schroth ASM feature. The car is pulling 1.1-1.2 sustained Gs now which require more than a little effort to stay in the seat. I tend to push against the steering wheel (illustrated by the lack of suede left on the face of the wheel) to hold myself in the seat. These should make driving a lot more comfortable.

IRL @ the track formerly known as Sears Point

This weekend Kathy and I are heading out to Cali to watch the roundy-roundy kids attempt to turn the wheel both ways for a change at the PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County. Whew, that's a mouthful.

In preparation I just dug out the Scanner and headsets that I purchased for the Daytona24 a few years ago. I took a couple of minutes to remember how to connect everything and to find a couple of missing parts, but now I think I have everything.

If you have never "heard" a motorsport event with a scanner, you are missing one of the most interesting aspects of the race. Hearing the teams discuss strategy, tactics, and problems gives a view of the event that even TV can't match.

Pueblo Photos

Thanks to Blue Fox Imaging for the proofs

NASA @ Pueblo

Last weekend's NASA event went really well. The new motor performed well, the driver scored a new personal best lap and the Dunlop tires provided a mix of great performance and even better wear in the 100+ degree heat.

I took the full rig to the event and found an enclosed trailer is a nice convenience but generally too warm without an air-conditioner. I also damaged the splitter trying to get the car into the trailer for the first time. In the future, removing the front bumper is an easy solution. Also new this weekend are a set of magnetic number panels. They turned out pretty well.

Umbau die cast

This is an example of a "umbau" M3s that show up on Ebay from time to time. This was a standard "Cecotto" version before the wheels were changed to the over-sized BBS style shown.

The German word "umbau" means conversion/renovation. Here is a link to EC-Cars on Ebay, the seller of these cars from Germany. Search the store for "Umbau" or "Veredelte Modelle" to see a huge collection of modified cars.

Rare die cast M3s

Many Ebay sellers offering 1/18 E30 M3 DTM die cast are quick to advertise that a particular model is "rare". Since most of these have been out of production for a few years, there is some truth to the claim -- but not much.

In any 60-90 day period nearly every model becomes available at a reasonable price on Ebay. There are a few that are a little less common (the BMW dealer-only cars are among these) but nearly all of them of them are readily available if you are patient.

There is a micro-industry modifying the stock kits to make the car into something else. Most commonly the stickers are removed, the car disassembled and repainted, and larger wheels are added to mimic the "Tuner" look. Although "rare" these have never appealed to me.

I recently found a "rare" modified car that does appeal to me. It is a replica of the Demon Tweeks sponsored BTCC M3 as driven by Roland Ratzenburger and later shown at the Goodwood festival.

It appears to be a really high quality job. The owner claims that it is one of three commissioned by Demon Tweeks to celebrate running the real car at Goodwood. That would meet my definition of "rare".

So I broke my $100 rule and bought it for 102 British Pounds. This is the most I have spent on a car so far but given the unique nature of the car I think it was worth it. Here is a picture of the real car at Goodwood and a picture of the car from the e-bay auction. I'll be interested to learn which model was sacrificed to build this replica. The only visible difference between the real car and the replica appears to be the side on which the driver sits. As far as I know there has never been a RHD die cast E30 M3.

Back on Track

I got the M3 (and rebuilt motor) back from the shop a few days ago and have put ~250 miles on it. It feels pretty good. The Vorshlag mounts are mighty stiff and cause a big increase the noise and vibration -- these are not for street cars. The upside of all that noise is that the feel of the shifter is fantastic. The LTW flywheel is a nice improvement and makes the car feel faster if only a little bit.

I'll be heading down to Pueblo for the NASA event this weekend -- which almost didn't happen due to low attendance -- only a last minute plea for drivers saved it.

This will be my first weekend with the enclosed trailer. I got a proportional trailer brake controller installed and a 7" drop hitch last Tuesday. I scored a nice set of "T hook" tie down straps on Ebay. I'm taking Friday off to set up the trailer for the first time.

Assembly

So, the re-assembly of the engine begins. I am really glad I chose to replace the rod bearings. Here is a photo of the #1 rod bearing. Note the damage -- probably caused by oil starvation. The damage is easy to feel with the tip of my finger. Luckily the crankshaft was not damaged. the majority of the damage is to the lower bearing. The upper bearing, which takes the load of each combustion event, shows some pitting. In my case the lower bearing shows considerably more damage (which is not technically wear).
This explains the knocking noise coming from the front of the engine at idle. So the rod bearings are in and torqued.

Over the weekend I had a local welder tack the VAC oil pan baffle in place so that this can be prevented on the future. Here is a photo of the installed baffle. Note that it is welded in at all three attachment points -- the stock baffle uses two pins and a single weld.

Here is a photo of my new (used) front sub-frame after the Turner Motorsport reinforcements were welded in. There are two, one that reinforces the metal where the motor-mount fasteners fit and the other reinforces the area around the first reinforcement. There were noticeable cracks in my original sub-frame which these reinforcements are designed to prevent. Also since this is from a later M3 it has threaded inserts that will allow the factory "X-brace" to be installed. Many drivers report a noticeable improvement in front-end grip after the addition of the X-brace.

My next event is July 11th at Pueblo Motorsports Park. I hope to have the engine back together and in the car by the end of this weekend. I need to put some miles on the motor and clutch before the event. I'm travelling to Philadelphia for the 4th of July holiday and return two days before the event.

Exhaust Valves

Here is a closeup of my fingers and an exhaust valve. It is really clean given the 130k miles on this car. The light grey material is carbon that has built up over time. If you look closely you can see that some of the carbon has broken off. A wire wheel will be used to remove all this before they are reinstalled in the head.

Disassembled Head

Here is the cylinder head almost fully disassembled. The valves, seals, springs, caps and keepers have been removed. It's almost ready to go the the machine shop to be milled so that the bottom is perfectly flat. The machinist will also machine the valve seats and valves so they flow and seal better.

Clutch, Flywheel and other bits

Splitting engine from transmission revealed that my Exxon Valdez-style oil leak was in fact a transmission input-shaft leak. It was so severe that the clutch was soaked an gear oil and must be replaced. This is an opportunity to upgrade to a lighter package and slightly improve acceleration.

After a bunch of research I chose a ~10 lb JB Racing Flywheel and Clutchmasters FX-100 Clutch kit. This combo weighs about 14 lbs, 12 Lbs lighter than the original combo. I originally planned to buy a kit from UUC as their Stage-1 and Stage-2 kits are a little less expensive but their sales department seems unable to return customers repeated calls, so I spent my money with VAC Motorsports instead.

In addition to the clutch/flywheel combo I also ordered a VAC oil pan baffle, ARP Head and Rod bolts and 24 valves worth of hardened valve keepers. This represents the final order -- I hope -- for the rebuild.

Die Cast cars

Ok, I'll admit it, I have a secret collection of model cars. I only collect one kind of car and in only one scale. I am totally obsessed by 1/18 scale BMW E30 M3 DTM race cars. I currently have 17 of them. Not all of them, but pretty close. I'm missing one of the two "Tic-Tac" cars and I don't have either of the BMW issued E30 M3 "Art Cars" -- mostly because they really aren't race cars.

There are only two companies that make these models (AutoArt and Minichamps) and April marked the Minichamps release of the the 1988 "Eifelrennen Nuerburgring" winner driven by Kurt Thiim. It the first new car in a couple of years.

I have a rule that I won't pay over $100 shipped for any car. The best deal I have found on-line is for about $120 shipped so I will keep shopping. E-Bay is a great source for these.

UPDATE June 23, 09: I bought a #31 (as above) for $95.45 shipped on eBay.

Disassembly

Head rebuild and new rod bearings.

With confirmation of the blown head-gasket and the likelihood that the head is warped means that it has to be removed. Given the audible rod-knock and the oil leak at the rear main seal it appears the easiest solution is to remove the entire engine to fix everything at once.

This leaves two options, rebuild or replace with used. After checking a number of sources, I wasn't comfortable that any of the used engines currently available were going to be any better than a partial rebuild.

After discussing my options with a number of reputable engine builders, I think I'm going to completely rebuild the head to OE spec, replace the rod bearings with the pistons and crank still in the block. A full rebuild is tempting, but the additional cost of machining the block and rings/bearings is prohibitive ($2k). Most builders think the mains are bulletproof and BMW rings should be good but will need a good look while things are apart.

Some early decisions include using ARP head bolts and rod bolts, installing a VAC Oil Pan Baffle, and upgrading the valve keepers.

Bummer -- Blown Head Gasket

It looks like I lost the head gasket at the PPIR event a month ago. It slightly overheated and I thought I pulled off the track in time but it appears that I did not. The car shows no symptoms on the street but on the track after extended sessions (20+ min.) it starts to slowly overheat and after pulling off the track the cooling system is fully presurized and spit about a half gallon of coolant. I drove a couple of days at HPR with it blown but it was cold enough (30s-40s) that it was also asymptomatic. However in the 85 degree heat of Pueblo it failed pretty quickly.

My options are:

1. Replace just the head gasket.
2. Replace head gasket and rebuild top-end
3. Rebuild entire motor
4. Swap to used motor

Option One is a bad choice for a track car as the head is likely warped and will need to be surfaced to provide reliable sealing for more than a couple of months. Not gonna do it.

Two is pretty attractive. It's relatively inexpensive, will provide a long-term solution and can be done in a home garage. There is really only problem with this. It's not enough. In addition to the headgasket, I also have a Exxon Valdez style oil leak from the rear main seal. So to get to that I need to pull the engine or drop the trans.

Rebuilding is also attractive -- it seems better than a used motor of unknown history but it is really expensive. This on only really an option if I do the work myself. Labor on a full top and bottom rebuild is well over $5000 and can approach $10k. It appear that this can be done at home for about $3500k in parts and tools

The final option, a motor swap, is pretty attractive, 3.2L S52USs seem to sell for $2500-$3000. This is a little more displacement than my current 3.0L S50US and by using all my OBD-1 accessories it is a simple swap.

The real decision here is: who does the work? I have the technical ability and the tools to do it myself. I just don't think I have the time. I spoke to a local shop and they reccomended the swap as it is the most labor effiecent option. In fact they think the full motor swap is cheaper than a top-end.

So any way you look at it, this is a $2500 -- $5500 unbudgeted expense. Shit.