The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebaggery

[SlimKlim]

My latest piece of what Lauren would call "car jewelry" that I scored helping Sean tear apart that M roadster at DJs house a few weeks ago. My old ZHP knob moved on to live out the rest of it's days getting thrashed in Jake's track car.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Looks good. And more free parts await in exchange for labor hours

[SlimKlim]

:thumbup: Just tell me when.

[Jake]

Both of my cars have a ZHP knob now, I feel so fancy

Lighted knob looks good!

[Senor_Taylor]

How do they get power for the light?

[Jake]

How do they get power for the light?

Two little wires run down the inside of the knob and under the shift boot. There was an official "retrofit" kit back in the day, from BMW, but we all just say "screw it" and wire it up wherever.

I had a lighted knob on my M3 (going to Matthew next) and I think I wired it to the center console light, so it only illuminated with the headlights. You can wire to the cig lighter if you want it lit all the time.

On BMWs, brown is ground, so when you have two wires it's easy to figure out

[V1GiLaNtE]

That's some fancy shit right there, but I like it!

[Sully]

I always dreamed of a getting the lit zhp knob from leatherz . Com. I had so many maintenence things though, I could never spend money on making the car look nice

[SlimKlim]

It was easy for me because I have a rat's nest of modified wiring behind my console. I got power from the input side of my city light override switch and grounded it off of the heated seat switch. Twist and tape 4 lyfe!

I always dreamed of a getting the lit zhp knob from leatherz . Com. I had so many maintenence things though, I could never spend money on making the car look nice

That modified ZHP knob they sell is absurdly overpriced anyway, you can get the one I have for 1/2 the price.

[Sully]

But it's so new and shiny. I had an illuminated knob already because I had a '99. Doesn't matter now though. That car is probably dead by now or the new owner dumped thousands in repairing the rest of the stuff I hadn't gotten to yet.

[SlimKlim]

I'm back, bitches.

Took the car to Coho in Manasses for a leakdown test and a full inspection last week just to make sure that there's nothing I didn't know about lurking in the car before I spend many dollars to try and rescue this thing. It passed with flying colors, you know, except for the fact that the head gasket is pouring oil and coolant down the block.

Today the work got started.











I believe the head is ready to come out as soon as the UPS man shows up with my head bolt tool. Headers are disconnected under the car and I'm hoping I can pull the head with them still attached. All hoses and wires are out of the way and the VANOS / Cam sprockets are removed. In the morning I'll pull the head bolts and see if I can get it out of the car.

The HG kit is supposed to show up on Wednesday which has new valve seals in it, so I'll probably drop the head off at the machine shop Thursday or Friday this week. Then it's just a matter of cleaning up the top of the block and pistons a little bit while I wait for it to come back, and then doing all of this shit again in reverse. Mr. DJ was kind enough to offer his services in welding proper flanges onto my headers/midpipe in exchange for some cosmetic work on his race kah, so that little annoyance will be addressed as well.

[*insertusernamehere*]

[SlimKlim]

Head is out thanks to Jake's assistance. You definitely can't pull the head with long tube headers still attached. Maybe if you just took off the front ones, or maybe if you don't have A/C but, otherwise it ain't gonna happen. I hope I didn't do any damage to the head surface by manhandling it around to get to the header bolts that the machine shop won't fix.














To Do List:

-Remove cams
-Remove oil check valve
-Clean block surface and everything i can reach in the engine bay
-Take head to machine shop
-Clean up & Re-gasket all of the parts currently off the car
-Measure exhaust and order flanges
-Call shop that did the inspection and confirm which timing cover was leaking, the VANOS cover on the head or the lower cover on the front of the motor you can see in photo #5


Does anyone have any tips for the best way to clean up the block surface? I tried a razor blade, a variety of brushes, brakekleen and seafoam. It's tricky to control the debris as it comes off and keep it from going down into the oil/coolant channels. The Pelican DIY says to use a plastic cleaning wheel on a power drill, i was thinking about trying some cloth dremel polishing wheels using some seafoam as a solvent to buff it clean but be precise and keep the crap from falling into the motor.

Also I need suggestions for a good "break in oil," I need a super cheap 15W-40 because I'm going to follow the Pelican DIYs recommendation of changing the oil again ~50 miles after bolting it all back together again, as a way to flush out any solvents and debris that do fall down into the motor.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Also I need suggestions for a good "break in oil," I need a super cheap 15W-40 because I'm going to follow the Pelican DIYs recommendation of changing the oil again ~50 miles after bolting it all back together again, as a way to flush out any solvents and debris that do fall down into the motor.

Mobil Delvac regular.

[SlimKlim]

Also I need suggestions for a good "break in oil," I need a super cheap 15W-40 because I'm going to follow the Pelican DIYs recommendation of changing the oil again ~50 miles after bolting it all back together again, as a way to flush out any solvents and debris that do fall down into the motor.

Mobil Delvac regular.

That is cheap. Nice.

http://www.ecstuning.com/ES1826645/?gcli...AiRw8P8HAQ

[D_Eclipse9916]

Walmart has it for $12 and if you use that rebate thing that was posted on MM, it is even cheaper.

[SlimKlim]

Word, adding it to my shopping list. BTW Rotella 15W-40 is on sale right now at NAPA and Advance if anyone needs it, I think $13/gal.

[V1GiLaNtE]

Bravo sir. Think it will be ready for the car show? What else is on the "list"?

[SlimKlim]

Bravo sir. Think it will be ready for the car show? What else is on the "list"?

I highly doubt it, I wasn't really planning on going this year anyway.

There isn't much aside from "just" putting it back together, but it always takes a lot longer to put it back together than take it apart. I have a few odds and ends to do like sticking a new coolant level sensor in the reservoir while it's out, and I really should pull the driver's seat and install a new clutch pedal bushing so my left foot stops scraping the dead pedal.

I'll also need to sync schedules with DJ so we can get the exhaust welded up properly, and if the shop says it is the lower timing chain cover (which appears to be the whole freaking front of the block behind all the accessories) that was leaking badly, I'm gonna have to pull that off and replace it too.

[SlimKlim]

Coho says it was the lower timing chain cover that's pouring oil. That means all of the accessories and crank pulley have to come off this weekend. Oy.