Bemused and Confused

Yes, I am back at it… finally. It has been a long time with little action. Mostly because I have been very busy at work. It is also because my business trips and other things conflicted with the last few track days of the year. So, I decided that I could slow down a bit on the car since I have all winter to work on it. The good news is that things got reorganized at work and they reinstated my position. We are back to where we started from there. It is good news especially because the hash that has been made of the economy.

The block and head went to a local machine shop. I was trying hard to not spend much money, so I didn’t go crazy with it. The machinist, who is very experienced, but also not the most communicative person in the world, didn’t think that it needed boring. He said the scratches might cause a small amount of oil to burn up, but maybe not too. In either case, it wasn’t a big deal. He checked things out, did the measurements and then honed it out.

I had him check the head for seal and to make sure there was no warping. It did and there wasn’t any. I am considering taking it back to him and having new valve guides put in along with new seals. I might have him do a bit more work with the intake and the valve seats just to clean things up. Any thought on that?

Starting the Build… Almost

OK, so after I got the block back, I was in a mad rush to get everything put back together. I had two track days to do in just a few days. I even took a day off from work to try and get things done. I really wanted to go to those last few track days thinking that they would probably be my last for quite a while because of the job thing.

I had really had to scramble to get parts. I paid extra for fast shipping. Pelican Parts, who normally do a very good job, messed up my orders pretty bad. They finally told me that they didn’t have the piston rings that I needed. I was out of time. I was able to find another set on the BMA site and had them shipped overnight. They arrived early Saturday morning. I had a track day on Monday.

Now, you experienced engine builders are probably giggling right now. First time rebuilder is going to do it in two days?? I don’t thing soooo. I don’t know what I was thinking, but if I had been, I probably would have realized it was silly. I was determined to do it though. I didn’t think much about break-in time or those other little problems and missing parts that always come up.

On Saturday morning I pulled out the pistons and started to install the rings. I had the machinist install the piston pins with their new bearings after I figured out all on my own that it is not something you do in your garage without the proper tools. I was a bit worried about the rings. I had never installed ones like this before and I wasn’t sure I would need some kind of ring expander tool or something.

So, the brilliant and capable home mechanic grabbed the thick upper compression ring and tugged on it to see if he could spread it by hand. Out of the cool morning air in the garage came a sharp and crisp *PING* sound as the ring snapped in two. This was followed quickly with a howl of frustration and anguish that brought the younger son running out of the house expecting to see blood and gore and maybe a missing finger or two.

Fortunately, it was just me, the dumbass, breaking the compression ring. That pretty much did it. I wasn’t going to make any more track days this year. There is no way to get another ring set in this town or even with the two BMW dealers that are within an hour in either direction. It was over. Done. Finished before I started. Pretty funny in a morbid sort of way.

So, I cleaned my hands and shuffled back into the house in complete defeat.

It is going to turn out OK though. I have a friend who is an engine builder. He used to do it for a living and has all the tools still. He is going to take a look at things, and confirm the crotchety machinists opinion, or offer other options. My friend is now on his way home from a military deployment and should be able to look at the engine in a few weeks. It will be good having a trained eye look at it.

Butch is very good at this kind of thing and it is actually funny because I got his email while I was writing this. It will be good to see him again. He and I have spent lots of time flying airplanes together.

Braking Things

I did do one other job on the car the day before the ring disaster. I decided that I needed to try bleeding the brakes one more time. I wasn’t happy with the pedal feel. I figured there had to still be air in the system. I put the car back up on the jack stands and took off the wheels. I hooked up my pressure bleeder to the master cylinder reservoir and started to pressurize the system.

The next thing I heard was POP, PING, ping, ping and then the sound of drizzling fluid. Uhg, what did I break this time? This takes a bit of explaining, but the clutch system on the car is hydraulic. When you push the clutch pedal, it moves a master cylinder which squishes fluid into the slave cylinder which moves a little piston that disengages the clutch. The brake system and the clutch system share the same hydraulic fluid (brake fluid) from the same reservoir. The clutch slave cylinder was not in the transmission because the transmission was removed (see the previous post). It was just hanging under the car on it’s fluid line.

When I pressurized the brake system, I also pressurized the clutch system. This caused the little clutch piston to extend… to the point where it blew the piston right out of the cylinder. It was the piston making the pinging sound as it shot across the floor at high velocity. Yep, another bonehead maneuver by yours truly. Anyway, I crimped off the line, bled the brakes (which did have air in them) and then went inside to order a new slave cylinder. I didn’t feel too bad because a few days later when I was ready some posts made by a very experienced E30 race car builder, and he did basically the same thing. In his case, he stomped on the clutch pedal when he meant to hit the brake. POP, PING, ping, ping … same deal.

Good Things

I am still happy. It is good to get the job thing resolved. I now have time to make sure I rebuild the engine the right way. I can spend a bit of money without so much worry. I might even consider a roll cage and harnesses for next season. It would be a good safety upgrade for the car. There are other things that can be done too. So, it will be a good thing to putter around with this winter. I am looking forward to it.

I appreciate you all. Everybody has been very encouraging and helpful and I am grateful for your support. I hope you get a giggle or two out of reading all of this.

In other news, my friend Dennis (the guy who got me motivated to do all this) has just recently announced that he has gotten financing and is starting his own car manufacturing company. He has a new building to work out of and plans for four different models of sports cars to build. Check out his blog at www.dpcars.net. Click on the dp1 link to see the latest news and some early renderings of the car models.