William's 330Ci ZHP Maintenance and Project Thread

[704sw]

i would definitely be up for a "fly out and drive it back" kinda thing. always wanted to do that cross-country.

my wife is out of town right now. i'm sure when i bring this up she'll freak.

I feel obligated to inform you the NA Miata can accommodate an LS swap.

[slater]

I feel obligated to inform you the NA Miata can accommodate an LS swap.

i know.

[BMWCurves]

Loving that this is turning into the "enable Peter thread."

There's no rush, we'll keep it through August at a minimum to enjoy it through the summer one last time.

[704sw]

Loving that this is turning into the "enable Peter thread."

Jeez William, way to threadjack this thre---oh wait.

So, you get those LED signals put in yet?

[BMWCurves]

Jeez William, way to threadjack this thre---oh wait.

So, you get those LED signals put in yet?

Nah, I won't be picking up my car until Sunday.

[Cadeez]

Thanks! I'm okay with the rain; it's typical June in Portland and I'm loving it.

I probably won't get all that much done this weekend, as I still have to go get the car out of storage and then I'll probably be spending a lot of time with friends and family, but the following week I'll get cracking on some items. I'll probably knock out the easy stuff first like LED front turn signal bulbs, M3 dead pedal, M3 front strut brace, etc. In the following weeks I'll hopefully get to more maintenance items like coolant, engine oil, brake fluid, fuel filter soft lines, M3 motor and transmission mounts, and installing the UUC TSE3 (so excite). Somewhere in there I need to wash the thing, and detail the engine bay for the first time in its life.

I'm also seriously considering getting my car prepped for CQuartz Finest coating so that I can be lazier about exterior cleaning of my car. Waiting to hear back from two places in town that can do it and maybe some paint correction.

What else do you have left for your car? I know you're doing your side mirrors and I don't think you've swapped your interior yet.

That's a decent little list man, and all relatively "fun" in the scheme of things. You'll have to let me know how the tranny/engine mounts go, I've been debating replacing mine due to shifting into 1st & 2nd being a little tough sometimes. Why are you replacing yours? Your car still has crazy low miles, no real need to replace them. I wanna hear it when you get that exhaust installed too! I've been toying with the idea of an exhaust recently, I just haven't heard one yet that I think I can live with on a DD. What's CQuartz? Never heard of that before.

Yep I've got the M3 mirrors in the mail and should have them back in a couple weeks I'd assume. That poor lonely NB interior is still sitting in my garage waiting it's fate, still undecided there. Going up to my dad's in Seattle this weekend though and I'm taking a piece so we can use the dye I got with his airbrush. I want to see how it turns out. If it looks good, then I'll dye both fronts and stick that interior in there! We're also gonna do some maint stuff; tranny fluid, bleed brakes, check to see if the CDV is there and pull it if so, re-adhere my roof spoiler, etc. Nothing big, I don't want to work him too hard on Father's Day weekend

[BMWCurves]

That's a decent little list man, and all relatively "fun" in the scheme of things. You'll have to let me know how the tranny/engine mounts go, I've been debating replacing mine due to shifting into 1st & 2nd being a little tough sometimes. Why are you replacing yours? Your car still has crazy low miles, no real need to replace them. I wanna hear it when you get that exhaust installed too! I've been toying with the idea of an exhaust recently, I just haven't heard one yet that I think I can live with on a DD. What's CQuartz? Never heard of that before.

Yep I've got the M3 mirrors in the mail and should have them back in a couple weeks I'd assume. That poor lonely NB interior is still sitting in my garage waiting it's fate, still undecided there. Going up to my dad's in Seattle this weekend though and I'm taking a piece so we can use the dye I got with his airbrush. I want to see how it turns out. If it looks good, then I'll dye both fronts and stick that interior in there! We're also gonna do some maint stuff; tranny fluid, bleed brakes, check to see if the CDV is there and pull it if so, re-adhere my roof spoiler, etc. Nothing big, I don't want to work him too hard on Father's Day weekend

I bought the engine and transmission mounts because they were cheap(ish) at the time and I figure the current mounts are 12 years old, so why not?

We should meet up later this summer once I have the exhaust installed and you can see how that sounds to you, plus the UUC SSK. I know what you mean about a DD exhaust, I'm not sure if the TSE3 will be too much, but I've liked how it sounds in Daniel's car so we'll see.

CQuartz is a ceramic coating that you can have installed over the paint similar to wax or sealant, but lasts a lot longer. Talked with a guy for 15 mins on the phone today about it. He was very helpful and I think I may end up doing it along with some paint correction first sometime later this year.

Let me know how the dye goes, I'll be very interested to see. I'm surprised you haven't checked/removed the CDV yet! It was one of the early things I did. But that other stuff will all be nice to have done. Definitely look forward to seeing your car in person at some point.

[BMWCurves]

Mileage: 55,884 miles

Retrieved my car from storage today. Bird poop EVERYWHERE on the tarp I left over it. The tarp didn't cover everything and I had a generic cloth car cover on it that stopped the other bird poop for the most part, but still had some get through. Not a big deal.

Barn apparently lost a door during a wind storm this winter but didn't suffer any other major damage, and the car itself was fine. I went around and removed all the dryer sheets and moth balls I had strategically placed in and around the car. No rodent nests this time that were immediately visible, just a few spider webs.

The car cranked up fine like I drove it yesterday. No lifter tick or anything. I drove it out of the barn and let it idle and there was some smoke coming out of the front of the car. I think one of the dryer sheets fell back behind the block and is touching something hot behind the block because it's sort of a sweeter smell and it left this plasticky film on the engine cover (which is slightly warped for some reason). Otherwise the car drove fine all the way home. So nice to be back in it.

I plan to wash it when the sun sets a little later and then tomorrow jack it up and see if I can find the culprit for the smoke.

[fredo]

Reunited and it feels so good ... I bet.

[704sw]

Reunited and it feels so good ... I bet.

+1.

William, check for stowaways in your head and tail lights too. I had a spider take up residence in my Mazda's reverse light housing, and then die in there, leaving behind his unsightly carcass to forever piss me off.