March 2001
03/01/2001
Right now, it's just after 3:30am and I smell like oil. In a hopeful last-ditch effort
at NOT spending a lot of money to get my 5spd transmission rebuilt, I decided to drain the gearbox and
put in some Castrol Synthetic 75w90 gear oil in the event that the people who "replaced" my transmission filled
it up with something too heavy or too light.
After about 3 hours under the car, I finally broke the plugs free, got oil everywhere,
and replaced the oil. I started the car and let it warm up to churn around the new oil. I must say that
I really do notice a difference in shifting. The 2nd gear grind is *almost* gone. All of the other gears
are fine. The only time 2nd grinds now is in a fast shift. I hope it just needs to time to clean itself.
03/02/2001
Wouldn't you know it, back to the old grinding syndrome. I can triple clutch it away
but who has time to do that during competition. Time to get it rebuild I guess. I got the fusebox
cover installed and zip-tied the battery down so it doesn't slide too much. By the way, don't take an
auto parts store's word for anything regarding your E21. Even the "specified" battery is way to big. I'm
not going to replace it until I get ready to get an optima racing battery.
03/03/2001
Actually, I was planning to yank the AC today and realign the alternator (the belt noise will drive
me insane...oops, too late) but instead, I took off all of the grillwork and replaced the headlights. Somewhere
in the process, I broke the lower screw housing on the driver's side front blinker and lost a grill screw
on the concrete (I'm sure a tire has it by now). At least it's one more item to mark off on my list. I also
came up with a good plan for radiator stone protection. Just put some 3/8" mesh BEHIND the plastic grill pieces
and paint it black. Make sure it covers the whole area between the highbeams. I haven't done it yet but I will.
Why? Well this IS going to be a rally car and if I get too close behind someone, there goes the radiator and/or
oil cooler. I need to come up with a good headlight protection system as well. It's 3:11am and I want to get
a head start on yanking out the AC. I guess I'll go have a look.
03/04/2001
Sleep-dep got me so I blew it off last night. However, tonight I got busy. I pulled the compressor
and installed a new passenger-side motor mount. Then I cleaned up the underside of the engine some so I could see
if anything is leaking. The new passenger motor mount has an extra metal bump in it that doesn't look like it should
be there. Oh well, the next one gets grinded. The driver's side mount will be harder to change out so I'll do it on the
weekend. The sad thing is, the new motor mount compressed down almost as far as the old one. I *might* fill the next one
with rubber to allow it to take more abuse.
03/05/2001
The air conditioning system goes all over the place. Next up are the engine compartment lines and the
center console blower assembly. After severely mutilating the lines inside the passenger compartment and totally removing
the center console, and radio, and speakers, and antenna, I finally yanked it out. A few zip-ties later and all is nice
and tucked away with room to make my own console if I want. The car is quickly becoming a NON date-mobile. So what. Oh,
and I installed new spark plugs. I have a nice little trick I use. Go check out the "Checklist" for a tip on spark plug
installation. I also have another idea about the distributor but I'll save it for later.
03/06/2001
After the past 2 days' progress, I can't just sit here so I flushed out the engine, changed the oil and filter,
and removed a few more straggling lines from the AC system. All that's left is the condenser up front and its fan.
After I started the engine, I removed the oil filler cap and it shut off! I don't remember that ever happening before.
Anyway, I backed the timing off a hair (it was fully advanced) and sorta fixed a few neasty air leaks on both ends of the
hose that goes from the intake to the aux air valve. It runs smoother now but seems to have a little less acceleration.
Maybe I am just looking for horsepower that just isn't there to begin with. That will change a little in the next few months.
03/07/2001
The only thing I did tonight was made a gravel guard for the radiator. See the "Technical" section under Body, Electrical and Interior
for the install. It's a simple thing and important to me since I'll be going off-road. I also spent about an hour brainstorming on how to
easily recess the headlights about 1" to 1.5" so I can put gravel guards over them as well. It turns out that the car shutting off
after the oil filler cap is removed is a sign of a good leak-free vacuum system. I guess patching up those two leaks really
made a major difference. Also, it seems the car was running a LOT better with the feel of power that didn't seem to be there
yesterday. Maybe it's just getting used to the new setup. Oh yeah, and I got insurance. Tomorrow (actually, later today) I will
try to get my tags and driver's license renewed. This weekend is going to be busy I hope. I plan on doing the other motor mount,
removing the AC condenser, flushing and refilling the radiator, and adjusting the valves (spooky).
03/08/2001
Today it rained and as I went out to lunch, I got a shower from my sunroof. That thing's gonna get welded
for sure. Anyway, I got the car title transferred, new tags and inspection. The only thing left on the legal side of things
is to renew my driver's license. I probably won't work on the car tonight since I can't think of anything "simple" to do.
03/10/2001
Saturdays. It's hard to get up sometimes. I'm selling some stuff on eBay to generate funds for the upcoming
expensive mods. As far as progress goes, I need a drill to install the mudflaps, and a lot of buckets to flush the radiator.
I think I'll have someone else do the radiator and maybe get an electric fan at the same time. I adjusted the valve clearance today.
It went pretty smoothe actually. See the "Technical" section : "Engine, Fuel and Ignition" for a walkthrough. Almost NO valve chatter now. I think I might even
have restored a little lost power and balance as well. The largest single valve clearance was about .0085" (.006" being the recommended distance).
The manual recommends replacing the springs at this point, but I don't have any and I'm afraid I'd dump a valve down into the engine effectively
ruining the next week.
03/11/2001
Today I bought a Dremel and installed mudflaps on the rear wheel wells. Nothing too spectacular but I like them. The
only problem is that the driver's side one gets close enough to the muffler that I can smell it heat up (1/2"). I'm not sure
if these OEM flaps will be good enough for an official tech inspection, but they are adequate for my RallyCross efforts and
are the first visual piece on the car that might suggest it's more than just an asphalt crawler.
03/12/2001
All I did tonight was fix the passenger's door. It wouldn't open from the inside. It turns out, the handle had rotated
one click up on its mount, making it just short of actuating the release mechanism. Removing the door panel afforded me the opportunity to tighten
up the vinyl covering. Well I found my random electrical short. It turns out, the end of the power lead at the fusebox to the driver's foglight
had come loose and was touching some circuits. One shot - two kills :)
03/13/2001
How foolish I am. I remember why I called my electrical short "random." Well, it's back. I supose the timing was just right to make
me think I had fixed it. This means war. The whole fusebox will get worked over tonight and maybe just for this stunt, I adjust the valves - AGAIN.
LATER THAT NIGHT...
Things didn't go as planned. I decided I wanted to make a coolant bypass for the intake manifold to reduce the incoming air temperature
when the engine was warm. Sounds easy - remove 2 small coolant hoses, replace them with one that connects both leads from the block. Three hours later,
I'm finally done. I'll do a writeup for it under the "Technical" section since it was very difficult. I'm too tired to do anything else now. I did
a preliminary check for leaks and all seems to be fine.
03/15/2001
Tonight I went to my first SCCA meeting. There wasn't a good showing but it was nice to finally see others
that are in the club. I got my rulebook today so I went ahead and took out the rear seats. That's all for progress for
today. It seems I can almost do anything in G2 (Group 2) to the car. I have to use an engine block from BMW, keep the
overall appearance of the car similar to original, can't mess with the front windshield or A or B pillars, and can't
mess with the floorboards or firewall. What is REQUIRED is more interesting, but we'll get into that in a few months.
03/23/2001
The past week I've been working on a few things and have been busy. I got a special waterpump, removed the condenser,
flushed out the radiator, fabricated a temporary alternator bushing to help realign it, moved the battery
to the trunk, installed headlight covers, cleaned up some wiring, clean the car up in general, removed the
accent trim pieces for the exterior and replaced them with a 1 1/2" stripe of black fabric tape, and installed basic
shielding for the exposed fuel and brake lines so the RallyCross events won't be so harsh on them. I was busy
with eBay and have more parts on order.
03/24/2001
The Houston SCCA ran its monthly RallyCross today. It was the largest turnout yet. Not bad since it's just starting to catch on.
See "SCCA Rally" section under "EXTREME" for event photos and "Action" under "PROGRESS" for just the BMW and my event summary.
03/31/2001
Salvage yard hopping was ok I suppose. It gets a little hot and if wasps aren't your thing, you'll become paranoid in a hurry. No 323i's, no 320is', but I did find a few early 80's 320i's and a '77 320i. I may nab a throttle body from one and send it off to get ported. I haven't done any work on the car since the race on the 24th. I've mostly been doing some work at the office to get more money to put into the car. Some parts are on the way for the first week of April.