Boris3

Wiring in the engine bay is done now, IAT wiring shares the same loom with my VDO gauge wiring & obviously the wideband is it’s own thing. Both have been grounded 
The only wiring left is to add the MS3 pigtail to the wideband analog output(yellow) and the MS3 Pigtail to the IAT wire(brown), both of which meet up in the glovebox. Vac source for the MS3 is waiting in the glovebox as well. 


I still need to bolt down the intake manifold, cut fuel lines to proper length, trim vac line for the FPR, install fuel rail, injectors, injector harness, throttle body, intake. 
will need to add oil, PS fluid & coolant eventually.

 
coolant will most likely be the last thing as I need to verify base timing with MS3 and it’s way easier to do that without a radiator in the way. 
intake tube also needs a bung welded to it for the sensor. 
Catch can location TBD
eventually once the intake/air filter are in their final spot I want to build an ‘air box’ of sorts or just a heat shield for the filter. Bought some 3D printed brake duct adapters that will be feeding the air filter area with air that isn’t coming directly off the hot radiator 
still need to trim that hose a bunch, just tossed it in to see if it could make the right bends 
might work on it a bit more tonight to get some more engine bay stuff wrapped up, would be fun to attempt a start this weekend
I’m using an OBD2 valve cover with OBD1 harness. I hate painting, so plastic it is. also using the m52 oil filter housing instead of the metal lid s52 OFH - mainly because when I was running the m52 I bought a brand new PS pump for it & the OFHs are slightly different with pump mounting. 

Mirrors still folded in as it’s still in storage lol
 

@Rekpoint stopped by and we got to work. Instead of just blasting away at the crank bolt with an impact I figured I’d pick up a torque wrench that went to 300ftlbs - still needed a way to hold the crank as I don’t have that tool. 
 
the Amish-Inspired crank hub holder was born. 
in case it isn’t obvious I don’t own a hole saw. Drilled out what I could with a step bit and went after the rest with a die grinder lol
 
Glen was the leverage and this stupid thing worked lol. Right around the last bit of torque, the end started to split but we made it to 300ft lbs lol

 

 
Once that was torqued we made pretty quick work of it, still a fan of lifting the engine/trans/y pipe into the car all together vs using a hoist 

 
all jacked up and bolted in

intake isn’t bolted up yet, just wanted to make sure the 45° bend pipe was going to work for the intake - won’t be running a maf with MS3 
next up is to make the car a roller again and get it down on the ground so I can get the harness in and connected as well as coolant hoses/radiator/etc etc

Yesterday morning while I was at work I received a phone call from the detective that had been working on the case and he asked me "Hey, would you like to come pick up your car?" I was pretty quick to respond with a hard yes and was on my way. The vehicle had been found by the detective via text messages from the recent "owner" of the vehicles phone, and it was hidden behind a storage unit complex here in Eau Claire. This was what it looked like when I got there:

Pretty well snowed in but from what I could tell it didn't look too rough. Unfortunately keys were nowhere to be found so I ran home and grabbed my spare set as the city called a skidsteer over to dig it out. They left about 2 feet on either side of the car by the time I got back and my cousin came by to help me dig out the rest. After another 2 hours of shoveling we were finally able to dig out a spot!

Car wouldnt start via either a jump pack or jumper cables hooked up to my truck, battery was completely froze up. Ran to the local Oreillys and picked up a new battery to just get me by. Once I threw the battery in (using the handy dandy BMW trunk toolkit lmao) and got it started a local tow company came by and couldnt sneak back there to it so we just hooked their chains right up to the hitch of my pickup and pulled it right out of its spot. Honestly it ran pretty good and seemed mostly complete aside from the fact they ripped half the speakers out and broke the speaker covers on the doors. They also did me a great pleasure of smoking cigarettes inside of it and leaving it almost completely empty on gas! How kind!

I proceeded to drive the car back to my work and got it pulled inside. Aside from the fact the brakes were trashed, the tires and everything else seemed to be mostly the way I left it which is pretty crazy. Of course theres a few new scratches and dents here and there, but nothing too crazy.

Either way, I couldnt be happier to have the car back in my possession and overall could have been so much worse than it really was. Insurance claims will be submitted pretty soon. The odds of it being recovered at all, let alone almost complete is absolutely insane. I guess I've used up my luck for the year haha.

Appreciate all the kind words, hope everyone can look forward to updates on getting this thing sorted out and ready for the upcoming summer!

Wow, what a stupid pair. The full ride at 15 years would be a nice touch. 

Got the crankshaft back from the machine shop. They got .010 removed from the thrust services and the thrust bearings fit much better now! With that figured out I got to measuring all my main bearing clearances.

All seven mains came in at .002 clearance which was right within spec so I was good to get things lubed up and installed permanently.


So something that I did with the last rebuild which I decided to change up this time was involving the arp main studs. Straight from arp when you receive their set of main studs they end up being too short and the nut only engages about halfway. On the first rebuild I dropped small 1/4" ball bearings in the holes to raise the studs and be able to bottom them out. I wanted to look into this a little further then I had and see what arp actually recommends to solve this issue. Two options... Back the stud out tell you get full thread engagement or ditch the washers. After reading through what a lot of others have done it seemed the option used with the most success was just ditching the washers. So I did just that. Torqued them all down and followed the proper torque procedure and checked my crank end play with a dial indicator which came in right at .003, right within spec.

With that complete I moved on to assembling the connecting rods and pistons. For this setup I chose JE for my pistons and got them in a lowered 9:1 compression ratio. I plan to run this on a flex fuel setup so I wanted the extra room for pump gas. As for the connecting rods I chose a set of H beam rods from Molnar technologies. The fit and finish on these are very nice and will fit my power goals nicely.

Time to start dropping them in the block. In the past I've used an adjustable piston ring compressor for piston installs. There is a lot of headaches that come with using one of those and I wanted this to go nice and smoothly so I purchased a ring compressor specific to the bore spec. It was well worth the extra money spent as they made this part of the install a breeze! I also wiped all the cylinders, piston skirts and rings down with some marvel mystery oil prior to install as recommended from JE.

Checked my rod bearing clearances as I went a long and all six came in at .002 which was right in spec.


With that complete I moved on to installing the windage tray and oil pump. I got a new oil pump chain and crank sprocket which paired with the Achilles sprocket really tightened up the chain slack.
New guides and timing chain installed as well.

I got the timing cover installed as well as the rear main seal and all hardware for those torqued to spec.
On the previous motor I had my fair share of oil leaks, especially around the pan gasket area. Unfortunately when I had the baffle and turbo oil drain bung welded on it slightly warped the pan gasket service. I figured this will most likely continue if I used an oem gasket again. Instead I decided to ditch the gasket all together and run a small bead of the right stuff gasket maker. I have used this stuff in the past and it works really really well and should help fill in areas where the services may not sit completely flat.


Next on the list. Start getting the head prepped and ready to be installed!
 

Wow, what a stupid pair. The full ride at 15 years would be a nice touch. 

Sorry to hear this hasn't turned up yet. Hope it does.
In my pre-BMW days I had a Honda Civic sedan stolen from my driveway in New Berlin. There was a theft ring working the west side of Milwaukee/suburbs for a couple of years stealing Hondas/Acuras. Not to strip but for weekend transportation / joy riding. Car was locked but they had an inside guy at a Honda dealership that would help with key access. My car turned up a few days later parked on the street a mile from my house when someone called it in, and police caught the guys a few weeks later as they were scoping out other rides. Head guy of the ring happened to out on parole for car theft. Go figure. I went to the trial at the Waukesha courthouse in case they needed me to testify but he pleaded out, did some time, and I received notice later that he was out on supervised release/parole again after a few years.  I wouldn't be surprised if he returned to what he knew and is back in jail.   

"You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"

Well, I wish I wasnt making this update but here we are.

Back in December I got a fun phone call from a local police department asking about my E46 and told me they had a traffic infraction that they wanted to discuss with me. I responded with "Wow, thats really interesting given the fact I put my car in storage back in October." The cop proceeded to tell me that there was no traffic infraction he wanted to discuss, but that he was investigating some storage units that had gotten broken into in Chippewa Falls. I immediately ran to my storage unit here in Eau Claire and lo and behold, she was long gone! And not only that, they ripped the wall off the unit to get into the 2 next to me. Enjoy this photo of property damage and a sadly missing space in front of my skyline.

And then to follow everything up, they drove up to Chippewa Falls to use my car to break into more units up there the day after it was stolen which is where I originally got the call about my car from. Heres a fun security camera shot given to me by the owner of the other units:

To say the least, I wasnt very excited about this news. I got police involved right away and started posting on Facebook trying to locate my car. A couple people had seen it here and there, but no solid leads aside from the fact the car was still local. Eventually I had a woman reach out to me that explained that not only did she know who had my car, but she had actually ridden in it! Saw my facebook posts and reached out. Pretty cool, but I still didnt have my car back yet. Turns out she was the roommate of the new "owner." We talked for a few weeks, and eventually I figured out that the current "owner" of the car was going to try to ransom it back to me for a very good price of $2500. Its at this point that I've realized I have reached and met the bottom of the intelligence barrel in this town, so I downloaded a phone recording app, got the number from her, and gave this asshat a call. I told him I was not going to get cops involved and that I was willing to pay $3000 just to get the car back. He was apprehensive at first but told me he'd give me a call back.

We are just getting to the fun part now. He gives me a call back and lays out everything, where to bring the money, and even admitted to having the car but did not admit to stealing it. Also threatened me which was really nice! So, I did what anyone would do, and recorded the entire phone conversation and gave it to the detective in charge. The next day he was taken into custody with my skyline keys in his pocket, but the car is still nowhere to be found. He was already on parole until 2030 so it is fair to say he's pretty screwed. The cops are now working through the download on his phone to hopefully track the car down but it's still no longer in my possession.

If anyone sees any parts go up for sale (Active autowerke headers, fortune auto 500 coils, bbs rc303's with hankook ventus v12 evo 2 tires, eonon head unit, etc) please have no problem reaching out to me, I'm scared the car is likely getting parted out already. Hopefully I get it back, but chances seem slimmer by the day. Ill be sure to update if the car gets found but I have a feeling this thread is closing in on the end.

Speeds may have been a factor as well 😬

Congratulations on the new "pit crew" addition!

Awesome, great to know. Provided it runs, I’ll take a headlight set and grille set. I’ll kill over the interior, I can’t decide if I want to just replace the rear seat so I can put people back there in a pinch, or if I want to go all out and put door cards and some of the other things back in. The old rear seat looks solid but has a few spots of mold at the bottom edges on the side, anyone have tips for removing that to try and save it? I’m thinking I’ll steam clean or just soap and water scrub the rest of the interior, it honestly doesn’t look bad but I want to make sure I get rid of any mold, mildew or mouse turds that are still lurking. 
 
Diagnosis process I’m thinking is something like this: Put a battery in and check if the fuel pumps are running, and then make sure it’ll turn over (disconnect fuel pump relay and just bump the starter), drain fuel tank and put some fresh stuff in there, and replace fuel filter. Drain and refill oil with the cheapest crap I can find just to have fresh stuff again. Crank without fuel pump to circulate oil. 
 
Check CPS to make sure the wire isn’t just cut or something. Make sure all other obvious things are plugged in and appear to be functional. Give er a crank and see what happens. If no start, check for spark and pull plugs. 
 
I’m taking a vacation next week so I probably won’t get to it for another two weekends, but I’m excited t get the old thing revived!

Tried my hand at making a splitter and side skirt extensions. First made some cardboard templates that I fitted to the car and spare front bumper.



Once I had it where I thought looked good, I went to a local sign shop in New Berlin and had them cut me some rough sized aluminum composite. Also know as poly-metal. It's two very thin sheets of aluminum with composite plastic sandwich led between them. Super lightweight yet strong and sturdy.
I traced out the templates and cut the pieces out of the poly-metal with an oscillating tool.



I used the stock mounting screw locations to also secure the splitter pieces which worked out well. Sanded them down and gave em a coat of semi gloss black paint and done. 


Paint isn't perfect as the coating on the poly-metal was still uneven even after sanding. Good part is I can always unbolt it, sand again and repaint down the road. 
I think it turned out nice. The subtle look goes well with the car I think. On to the next project, whatever that may be. 

Great turnout, About 70-90 cars showed up throughout the day. Seemed that the raffle was rigged as 85% of the winners are active chat/forum members. 
@Jdesigninstantly flipped his win for somecash. Honestly I expected no less from him.  

Bump on this, This weekend.
Saturday, May 28th, 2022 10am-3pm
Kiwanis Village Park 
Pewaukee, WI 53072

I've got this up on Craigslist but just in case anyone might be interested, or knows someone who might be, I'm listing here. 
Description:
OMP 6-point harness with camlock, used for only one race season (2021), FIA tag valid through December 2025.
Harness consists of: 3" clip-in pull-up lap belts, 2" clip-in sub belts with attached camlock, 2" shoulder belts (KEY these are for use with HANS only) can be set up for clip-in or wrap around mounting. Shoulder belts expand from 2" to 3" at the camlock attaching point.

All mounting bolts and clips that came with are included. Asking $175 obo on CL.  
Reason for selling is that the pull-up lap belt adjusters didn't work well with my seat in the e30 cockpit. Replaced them with a new pull-down RaceQuip set.   
 

2022 Schedule: Blackhawk Farms (June 6), Blackhawk Farms (August 12); Road America (September 30 - October 2)
 Event #1: Blackhawk Farms Raceway Driver's School! Monday, June 6
All students and instructors get four 25 minute on-track sessions. If you have questions about the event email David Burman (DEC@BadgerBimmers.org). Please read the requirements for the event before registering. All participants at our DE events must be members of BMW CCA.   Registration and event details:  Blackhawk Farms Monday June 6, 2022 (motorsportreg.com)   Note: entry fee for Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced is $260 through May 1; $275 starting May 2; and bumps up to $310 on May 23. Registration closes May 31.  

Racing my e30 down at Blackhawk that weekend (un)fortunately. 😁 Will miss seeing folks at the picnic. TJ has been doing a great job and the new location has plenty of room. More BMWs that turn out the better!  

Great video. Good luck with the sale, and here's hoping for bidding wars!

Thanks Rich! We'll miss you there. Have fun at Blackhawk! I think we should have no problem having 100 cars or better this year.

Racing my e30 down at Blackhawk that weekend (un)fortunately. 😁 Will miss seeing folks at the picnic. TJ has been doing a great job and the new location has plenty of room. More BMWs that turn out the better!  

I've been working on a side project for the Coupe. Knowing that you have to remove the entire interior to access the top rear strut mounts, wasn't ideal for coilovers and dampening adjustments.
Took a chance to design some 3d printed access caps that can be installed in the carpet humps that cover the strut tops. Will allow dampening adjustments for coilovers or regular access to the strut tops for replacements or repairs without the need to remove the interior. 
First go around was a little ambitious with a threaded cap into a flange set that sandwiches the carpet for mounting.


Got the opinion of a true mechanical engineer (aka Brian) who gave me the idea of making it a press fit with oring instead of threads. Made designing and printing easier. Also added a slot on the side for a flat head screwdriver to pry cap off when removing. Seems to work pretty well. 




Next up is test fitting to the carpet and if all is good, getting these printed in ABS for longevity and heat resistance. 

And Finally here is the video for the listing.
 

What's better than having 5 vehicles? Having 6! 
A poor picture for intro, but its the only one I have right meow

This was a spur of the moment decision, and is planned to replace my truck and 1 series. 
2011 x5 35d Sports package, HUD, 360 cam, premium package, pano sunroof, and a set of snow tires + to go with it

More details / photos later