Das Race: My '97 M3/4/5

[Jake]

ah man bummer! whats up with these BMW's trying to steal subaru's party piece? is this an age thing or just from abuse/coolant bleed methods?

bet that denali never felt nicer on the way home.

I dunno, maybe mine heard me talk with Justin about his Forester and got jealous? :dunno:

I'm guessing a combination of age and abuse. The car does have what, 3k track miles on it by now, and who knows how the previous owners treated it - particularly the college kid who had it for five years prior to my ownership. I think I recall it randomly puffing some white smoke at the last few events, just here and there. So, it might have been on its way out and I finally managed to kill it?

The water pump, radiator and thermostat are all roughly six months old. I never let it overheat per the stock temp gauge when I noticed the WP leaking - that said, the stock gauge is heavily damped, so it could have gone a bit warm and I didn't know it, way back. I think the gauge is damped to 220* or something. My aftermarket gauge was reading 235-240 and that matched the "3/4 mark" on the stock gauge when I cut the car off.

The past year-and-change of the car's life have seen some highway miles and then a lot of "nothing -- 7k rpm for 15 to 25 minutes -- nothing" driving. So, I think it's ultimately just time. :evileye: