(B) Time for some head work

The Beemer has been acting up the last week. I had three things going on: low on coolant in the morning, white smoke at start up, and sometime it wouldn't turn over, it would just sort of "clunk" when I tried to start it. I ran a compression test and it came out at 205, 205, 205, 300(!), 205, 135(!). So I've got 2 bad cylinders. Looks like I'll be doing a head gasket at the least and a head replace/repair at the most. Parts are about $400-$500. That beats paying a shop $2500-$3000 to do the work. I know this, because I had head work done about year and a half or two years ago. I guess the oil change and Seafoam knocked something loose in the car.

(P) Out with the Front Differential!

In my ongoing attempt to fix the front right axle leak, I ended up pulling the front differential to convert the car from an AWD to RWD. I found a really helpful thread at http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/996-turbo-gt2/51662-rwd-conversion-complete-one-word-awesome.html. If it's good enough for the 996TT guys, it's good enough for me! In reality, I needed to get a car working that I could drive to work and I hated seeing my Porsche up on stands. I had to enlist the aid of Ken to help me get the wheel stub flange off the axle. It has the speed sensor ring on it, so you have to put it back in. Overall, an easy mod to do. It took me about 6 hours.

Should've spent the evening drinking beer...

I reran the power wire for the external control/ignition panel. It then proceeded to melt the wimpy ground wire when trying to start the car. I reconnected the keyed ignition switch and it worked with no problems. I'm trying to remember why I put the control panel in and my memory fails me, so it will come out permanently.

Ed and I were able to get the car started and running. I had to keep my foot on the gas or it would die. Which it did when I got out of the car and let it idle on its own. With the exhaust heat shield and emission pipping off, it sounded pretty throaty for a 32 year old inline 4 engine. We'll plug the 2 emissions holes and other cracks on the exhaust manifold to fix that. We tried to restart the car, but it wasn't playing nicely again. It did kick over with starter fluid, but seems like the carb isn't getting gas. I think I'm going to wire and plumb the external fuel pump.

On the cage front, we worked on getting a backstay in, but I was unable to get my brain to engage and figure out the angle of the cuts to make it work. We got it almost there and decided to call it a night. A bit frustrating, but that's how it goes some evenings.

I also discovered our door bars are too short! We set the main loop back as far as possible, and our door bars are about 8-12" too short. I'll contact the roll cage guy and see what he says. I'm up for just doing this locally. We probably won't get to them until after the first of the year at this rate, so I'm not stressing on it.

A big thanks to Ed for putting up with me and we hope to see Eric next week!

The continuing saga of BMW brakes...

The hold down clip on one parking brake came loose when I went over a speed hump. It made a lot of nice grindy noises and got chewed up real good (as we say in the South). So, I removed the shoes and hardware from that side. Well, I forgot to remove, or otherwise secure, the shoe spreader that's attached to the parking brake cable. I started in for work and got about 3 blocks from the house when it broke loose and caused all kinds of havoc. I completely destroyed the spreader and damaged the dust shield. I've got the shield bent back into place and all the metal bits cleaned out. Now I have no spreader on that side and I'll have to get a new cable and spreader.

Lesson learned.

Weber Part II

I ended up pulling the intake manifold yesterday. I need to remove smog attachments on the manifold and hoses that run under and around the manifold. I'm going to plug the ones I pull off the manifold. I also need to make a few block off plates for the smog equipment that was attached to the block. I really shouldn't be amazed at how much carbon builds up on a 30 year old car.

Work may be slow for the the next week as we've got a lot of family stuff coming up.

Weber part I

Ed and I installed the Weber 32/36 carb last night while Eric is away at a spa vacation business conference. It looks so shiny sitting on a 30 year old engine. We plumbed it as best we could and had to get the jumper cables out to start the car. Looks like the used battery is on its last legs. The car ran for 3-5 minutes. I had to keep on the gas, as it would not idle. Eventually it did die and we couldn't restart it.

I'll go over all the connections again. The Celica forums have some good information and I'll reread them to see what I missed. It may be as simple as a vacuum line missing.

BMW brakes next...

I wasn’t sure I was going to make it in this morning. I changed the brakes on the BMW this weekend and they were acting up. Nothing like random “clunking” when you’re driving to get the adrenaline flowing. I think I’ve got it fixed. I backed the parking brake out some and the "clunking" seems to have stopped.

I put on 4 new rotors, pads and attempted to replace the parking brake shoes. For some reason the new (and old) rotor won't fit over the new parking brake shoes. I'll call Rock Auto about that today. I put the old shoes on until I hear from them.