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

[Senor_Taylor]

Sorry man. I honestly hope nothing does happen, but you know, cars are bitches.

[*insertusernamehere*]

The car has been bad for like a year and is just now getting fixed, plus i went to go double check my own car today it was looking bright for all of 10 mins and then went right back to shit. Issue is still the same. Not Joey's car but it counts.

The karma has been reset. Carry on.

[Jake]

The car has been bad for like a year and is just now getting fixed

It's been longer than that. Way longer.

[SlimKlim]

I think I've paid my dues to the BMW Gods in the past, hopefully my offerings have pleased them enough to allow me to walk unmolested on the path to glory that is owning an unbroken car.

[CaptainHenreh]

I think I've paid my dues to the BMW Gods in the past, hopefully my offerings have pleased them enough to allow me to walk unmolested on the path to glory that is owning an unbroken car.

[SlimKlim]

Oh yeah, I also pulled a 1/4in long metal shaving out of my shoulder last night, I guess it got in there while I was sliding around to do the headers and somehow survived 2 showers and a day at work sticking out of my shoulder. :dunno:

[Senor_Taylor]

Or maybe you're turning into Tony Stark?

[SlimKlim]

Yeah probably that.

[SlimKlim]

It runs! .... poorly.

Exhaust is on! ....but it leaks.

Taylor this is all your fault.

We took the bumper off the car so we didn't have to worry about getting it onto the trailer. Here she is with Mr. Jakemaster-Trailer-Loader at the helm with open headers.

[youtube]TPBhmH72oU4[/youtube]

My buddy ended up not having a full day's work at his normal shop, so we went to his friend's place next door. It was a limo/coach bus shop, and had some of the biggest goddamn equipment you've ever seen in your life. Jake was like a kid in a candy store.






The lift was so wide that half of each front tire was hanging off, and you easily could've parked two cars on there nose to tail... maybe 3. On the plus side it doubled as an excellent shelf, and the lift was so wide one person could work from the top of the bay and the other person could work from below.

It took us until 11:30 to get it wrapped up. Just a shitton of measuring (but not quite enough, heh) lots of welding, and then another solid 90 minutes to get the headers back in the car, get the midpipe hung, put the bumper back on and finish bleeding the coolant.

I suspect the reason for the leak is just another reason you shouldn't use shitty eBay parts. The headers come down from the motor at whatever angle suits them best, making it nearly impossible to get two v-bands flush against each other. I'm ordering a couple flexpipe sections from Summit Racing today, then I'll bring it back over and he'll put them in the midpipe for no additional charge. Once that done it should seal up nicely. It's already an improvement the way it is, it leaks but at least that goddamn awful rattle is gone.

On the drive home the car had intermittent vacuum issues, at least I think that's what it was. Occasional rough idle, occasional hard stutter and CEL flash, occasional throttle hanging. I am almost certain it has to do with my cheap ass DIY intake boot. It would explain why the issue is intermittent because I cut the holes for the vacuum lines pretty precisely, but apparently not well enough.

Tonight I'm going to break out the RTV for the vacuum lines that go into it and make sure it's sealing around the throttle body, then drive it again and see if the issues persist.

Other than that it drove well, with the exception of a couple minor screeches and rattles, probably due to sitting for several months and/or a heat shield hitting something. Once it was up to temp I gave it a good romp in second gear (when it was choosing to behave) and it felt pretty stout. I checked the coolant this morning and it had only sucked a smidge more down on the drive home, and let out a satisfying amount of pressure when I opened the cap. That's something I haven't heard in a loooooong, looooong time.

It's over the hump.

To Do List:
-Order flexpipes and find some time with Cory to get them installed
-Sort out vacuum leak / teething issues
-Reinstall crossbrace I forgot to install on the lift last night
-Clean & Organize the car, garage and basement.

[D_Eclipse9916]

[youtube]TPBhmH72oU4[/youtube]
.

:finger:

[SlimKlim]

Haha, I think it was a compliment, as in "why are we bothering to connect the exhaust, this sounds fine."

Welp, 2 sections of flex pipe have been ordered, and I'm going to treat her to some Water Wetter because I plan on beating the snot out of it this summer and I don't want to do this again. I'm also aching for this gauge kit now that the car is back together and seems to be working properly.



I need to have a water pump and t-stat done on the VW, but once that's done and out of the way I might pull the trigger on it. $300-and-change always seemed like too much for a set of gauges, but now that I've spent god knows how much and no less than 40 hours to fix the last fuck up, having accurate oil temp, pressure and water temp gauges seems like relatively cheap insurance.

[Senor_Taylor]

Taylor this is all your fault.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Yeessss!! I love this! Its gonna be fully back together in no time! Congrats man!

[ScottyB]

yeah buddy! car sounded pretty good to me backing out.

that gauge set is pretty sleek as well, i'm a fan.

[Kaan]

if you run antifreeze you don't need water wetter.

Also... a drop of dish soap will do the same work as water wetter.

[SlimKlim]

Huh, good to know. I've heard the water wetter will still help reduce temps when used with antifreeze but I dunno.

[Jake]

:finger:

Pfft, I meant that in a "why are we gonna fix it" way. No exhaust is best exhaust.

[SlimKlim]

I poked around in the car and tried to determine a source for the vacuum leak but didn't have any luck.

I took my ghetto throttle boot out and RTV'd the shit out of the plastic fittings for the IAC hoses. I was going to drive it but with the amount of RTV I stuck on there it needed to dry over night or i was going to mess up the seal on reinstall.

Tonight I'm going to trace the CCV hoses to the bottom to make sure they're still connected, feel the fuel rail vent line to the manifold and see if it's cracked or anything, and make sure the ignition coil plugs are firmly in place because one or two of the clips has broken. Then I'm gonna put the throttle boot back in and take it for a test drive.

If its still having issues then I guess it makes sense to swap back to stock injectors, intake, MAF and chip to rule out the MAF or Chip as the culprit, considering they are used parts. Both from bimmerforums sellers with good reputations, but still used.

I'm optimistic it was as simple as a little air escaping past the fittings into the throttle boot. My theory is it would explain the intermittent nature of the problem because was almost a perfect seal, but leaked when the hose wiggled a certain way while driving. The car is pretty sensitive to vacuum leaks, I was messing around with it while the car was running and popped one of the IAC hoses out and it was like you killed the ignition, just immediately shut the motor down.

[.RJ]

Do a smoke test before tearing anything apart at random.

[SlimKlim]

I don't think you can rent those can you? I'd have to limp it back over to the shop and have them do it.