What's going on in my shop currently...

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Originally Posted by BMWCurves

Every time you post I'm struck by the quality work you and your shop does.

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Originally Posted by johnrando

:thumbsup

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

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Thanks guys!

Second round of updates:

Neil brought in his M3 for a RACP repair. We did a used vehicle inpsection and are knocking out the items on the list he does not have time to DIY. We did the usual, stop drilled and welded all the cracks, then CMP plates were installed. After that we stitch welded both upper coil spring and RTAB pockets along with the wheel well seams. We've seen so many cars that have been "reinforced" already and have this spots separating. I don't know if it was just missed during the reinforcing and happened after but it is becoming a standard part of our RACP repair. Then new BMW subframe and trailing arm bushings along with Rogue Engineering shock mounts.

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Next, rod bearings, we got quite the surprise when pulling the oil pan off.

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Doesn't look like it caused any damage though. These don't appear to be the original bearings but with 186k miles it was peace of mind to know they are fresh.

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And with the pan off we addressed the drain plug, it had been stripped and had a "pan saver" type plug in it. We correctly installed a time sert and then surfaced it to give a perfect sealing face.

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Sold my Imola ZHP.

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And then quickly spent the money on an M3 (probably) parts car. The guy said it needed a clutch (SMG), but from the short drive I took in it I think the transmission might actually be broken. It's in really good shape overall but it has a pretty decent scuff right on the RR wheel well opening which I think is going to make it to much investment to fix (at least the way I would want to). So it will probably live on in a sedan or touring swap.

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It did have a check engine light on and Vanos faults stored, I popped the valve cover off as the first thing I did and wouldn't you know, broken tab...

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Adam was back for a SMG conversion, we did the usual with the AutoSolutions SSK and he provided us a manual plenum to really round out the underhood change.

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And now for a different SMG conversion. We swapped out the SMG for a ZF320 5spd, Tilton twin disc clutch and flywheel with a CAE shifter.

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We didn't have the correct clutch alignment tool for a twin disc setup, but luckily we did have a broken ZF...

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And then we also "bullet proofed" the Vanos.

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Hey, George. What is this stuff ?

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Originally Posted by fredo

Hey, George. What is this stuff ?

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Alfredo,
I think that is a generic blue shop towel that people like to use. Somehow it got into the crankcase and sucked into the oil pump pickup. :facepalm

OIL PUSHED THROUGH THE WIRING HARNESS TO THE DME WTF

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Originally Posted by ZHPizza

OIL PUSHED THROUGH THE WIRING HARNESS TO THE DME WTF

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Yep, I've seen it a few times, never on a M62 thought.

Years ago the M62s had issues with the thermostat housing leaking coolant through the pins. It would short out and pop a fuse in the E-box. If you just replaced the fuse (without replacing the t-stat) often times the thermostat would catch on fire... saw more than one car get the fire extinguisher in the shop. lol

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Originally Posted by GeorgeH

Alfredo,
I think that is a generic blue shop towel that people like to use. Somehow it got into the crankcase and sucked into the oil pump pickup. :facepalm

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Oh, boy !

An update is long overdue! The shop has been so busy with big projects I generally like to wait until a project is done or near done to make updates so that's had a bit to do with it. I also because making these posts are a bit of work, but I do enjoy doing it and seeing how life in the shop progresses as we grow.


A buddy who owns a shop in Houston is thinning out his herd of projects and since we are touring fans he thought this was up our alley. It's originally a 530/auto E34 touring, but it's pretty much just most of a body that rolls. His plan was to make it kind of like a "ring taxi" with (4) bucket seats. Right now it's a bit down the road, but I'm thinking we will continue that idea with the first iteration of the engine being a S52/5MT, then either it'll get a big turbo or we'll swap a more powerful engine into it.


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The original S54 touring was back in the shop with a broken transmission. She had known this was going to be a future repair as it had been acting up, but it finally let go. We helped her source a used SMG transmission and then swapped her bell housing onto it and replaced a bunch of wear items and then back together. As a fun science project I disassembled the trans to see what happened. It was quite the challenge to get it apart and while I did, I don't think I could put it back together lol.

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Next a quick job of lowering springs on a F80 M3. There are a bunch of manufacturers of springs and complete coilover kits. I do my best to spec out something that is not only functional but aesthetically pleasing too. This is the first time we used Emmanuel Designs springs and they are fabulous, highly recommend this setup.

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Eric hit a giant pot hole in just the right fashion that bent one wheel, cracked another and then the car deployed all of the LH side airbags. I've seen this years ago, but very rare. What I think happens is the car thinks it is flipping over.

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Insurance tried total the car, but luckily he was able to stop that from happening and we went to fixing it. e took this time to replace all of the shocks and struts and went with Dinan springs on Koni shocks/struts with Rogue Engineering rear shock mounts and OE strut mounts.

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Fixing the airbags required pulling the headliner, this was a good excuse to recover that and all of the pillars in Alcantara. We have a shop in town here that we use for this service and unfortunately I didn't take any pics of it completed.

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After that we decided to tackle replacing the rod bearings. The car only had 95k on it, but it was on his mind so now was as good of a time as any. Nothing horrible, but definitely glad we did them.

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And all back together

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-------------------------------------------------------pg3



I've been lucky to get to the track a few times the last couple of months, CoTA, MSR Cresson and Hallett Teching in at CoTA for a NASATX HPDE

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Rainy weekend

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My buddy's 330/5MT swapped touring. He'll just laugh it off and say he just doesn't car about his car as much as the next guy but he's a really good rain driver, embarasses a lot of really fast cars when the track gets wet.

This is him passing the Camaro on the outside (Advanced run group).

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Heading to Cresson for a single day event with my buddy in his S50 swapped E34 touring.

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Back at Hallett for a (3) day CCA event, didn't take many pics other than this sunrise.

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Then a couple of misc items for Chris's M3 to prep for an upcoming HPDE. StopTech BBK, Rogue Engineering shifter, parking brake adjustment and oil leak repair. Unfortunately I didn't get many pics of this job, the pics I did take more than make up for it, this car is gorgeous!

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Mike brought in his M3 for an issue with the A/C cooling poorly. We found the evaporator had failed and was leaking refirgerant, very common issue with the E46 chassis. The oily dirt and debris on the evaporator is a smoking gun as to it leaking, but this car had previously been injected with dye making the diagnosis process even more conclusive.

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Next, he had a parking brake that intermittently wouldn't lock into place. Turns out the teet had worn off, something new to me. Usually we see other failures for this complaint, but easy enough to just swap out the handle while the interior is disassembled for the evaporator replacement.

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Next, he has an issue with the transmission intermittently popping out of gear or grinding when shifting. The shifter had been previously refreshed so he feared it was an internal transmission failure. We decided to pull the transmission and inspect before moving forward with a trans replacement and we ended up finding the clutch was well past its prime. Not only was the clutch overly worn, almost every thing else in the bell housing was past due and to top that off the slave cylinder was leaking. With everything replaced the shifting is now back to normal.

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We've been still chipping away at the V10 touring project. We found that with the A/C on the car wanted to overheat. We relocated the oil cooler to the LF brake duct area and that has made a huge improvement and fixed our issues on the highway.

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That pretty much brings us up to today. There are a couple of projects in the works right now, so hopefully I'll have some updates sooner than later next time.

Great update as always, George! Love seeing how the shop is developing and that have a great issue of having a lot of work/projects on hand!


Sent from my iPhone 11 Pro using Tapatalk

+1 love reading your updates. Also, damn that top-down view of the esses at COTA is mesmerizing

Great updates, I always love following along. Thanks for documenting and sharing.