6670charger
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Posts posted by 6670charger
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18 hours ago, Snap said:
NGK ZGR5A, gapped to .032" is my suggestion for a stock M20
I'll take a look for them. I'm sure I'll have to order them from somewhere as nobody around where I live seems to stock plugs for an M2O beyond either autolite or Motorcraft.
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17 hours ago, jc43089 said:
Ngk plugs are where it's at.
Sent from my 831C using Tapatalk
I had good luck with my Bosch plugs but would like to try NGK. Is there a particular version of them you recommend?
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19 hours ago, Snap said:
Flat spot on the washer???
Autolites are nobodys friend
Autolites weren't my first choice, but I had to have something and that was what they had in stock. I'm looking for different plugs. Ideally I'd like either Bosch or NGK.
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I think I determined my problem; spark plugs.
Upon further investigation, I found that 5 of 6 of the spark plugs had not fully tightened when I installed them. I stopped by a parts store to pick up a different set in the event that the threads on these were not quite right, and found while looking at the picture of a different set that the small silver ring that threads onto the plug was on with the flat side facing the head, which was reverse of the way I had put mine on. I pulled all the plugs, reversed the direction of the silver rings and put them all back in; all tightened the way they should. In all of my years of changing spark plugs, I never knew that the direction these things were put on the plug made any difference. In fact, I'm not altogether certain that the plugs I use in my 66 Dodge even have these rings on them.
I think what was happening is that I was losing compression at the spark plugs due to their not tightening enough to keep all pressure in the combustion chamber where it belonged. The car accelerates much better now. I may still be losing a bit of power due to the fact that my muffler is about shot, but at least the car runs more normally.
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Well, I've changed my head gasket for the second time in six months after finding that one of the new head bolts I put in the last time apparently loosened a little. When I was removing the head, all of the head bolts made a distinctive snap as the torque came off except for one, which gave slight resistance before it turned. The gasket actually appeared to have been in good condition.
Since putting everything together, the car seems to be running and idling fine except that all of the newfound power that the engine had after the last gasket change seems to have vanished. It's almost like I'm driving my 90hp 4cyl VW I had in Germany a few years back. I'm certain I have the timing set right and there are no leaks I can see or hear. After 1000 miles the engine oil is still normal in color and no loss. The coolant is also fine. I did change spark plugs as a couple of the ones that were in the engine did not seem to want to tighten properly, so I changed to Autolite plugs instead of the Bosch's that I had. Not sure what else to check.
Does anyone have any other ideas or areas to look?
Thanks.
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You're probably right. Was doing some reading on E30tech and hearing about all of the bad luck everybody has had with VR gaskets. Sounds like the goetze and FelPro might be worth a risk, but it also sounded like the BMW gasket, although more expensive, was far better quality.
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Well, it's official. Either blown head gasket or cracked head. Won't know which until I get the damned car apart....again. Leaning against the cracked head as there really isn't any reason it should have cracked in the past week under normal driving. Hopefully my work schedule will allow me to get the thing torn apart within the next week so i can get on this and get it done. Think I'm going with FelPro gasket and bolts this time, though.
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You'd also think that it would have leaked coolant all over the place too. This is why I'm thinking that cracked block or head, or even a loose coolant bleed bolt on the block are probably out of the question - no external leakage. I'm just surprised that the car is still running so well. It's like there's nothing wrong except that the coolant warning light keeps coming on, and I have to keep adding coolant.
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16 hours ago, Snap said:
I ran a Victor Reinz gasket on boost. It survived, the piston rings didnt.
That sucks. I doubt mine is the piston rings though. The only things I can think of that would cause internal coolant loss like this is either blown head gasket or cracked block. The former I can deal with, albeit reluctantly as it's only a couple hundred bucks and a few days worth of work. The latter will be the death of the car. Although an M50 swap could be cool, I don't have the money for an engine swap. This is my DD, so any new engine would require a complete rebuild in order to ensure reliability, and I don't have the money for that, even if I were to try it myself which don't have the time for or knowledge to attempt.
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Well, it's been about 8 months since I did the head gasket change, and now I'm loosing coolant big time.....and it isn't leaking onto the ground. Have a feeling that my Reinz head gasket blew and I'm going to have to do this again. Dropping the car off at the shop to have them do a good diagnosis on it just to make sure, but I have a really bad feeling.
Oddly enough (or not), the engine seems to run fine. Just did a valve adjustment on it a week ago and it's a lot quieter now than it was too.
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I've been following it on Facebook. Haven't seen the film yet. Need to find out where I can get it.
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Very nice video!!! Gonna have to bookmark that one.
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My most memorable drive was probably this past spring when I drove my car out to the Boston area in March, put another 10K miles on over the next three months doing work and then returned home only to turn around and drive down to Indy for work training and home again a few days later. The interesting and memorable part is that my front shocks were shot, and I was able to find someone out in Boston to put new ones in for me privately for about $300 all in, and that although i didn't know it at the time, I had a partially blown head gasket and leaking oil pan gasket. I kept up on oil fills, the car ran fine for the most part and never let me down.
Otherwise, nearly every work trip is a memorable one. I'm an insurance claims adjuster and have to carry a 17' ladder with me most of the time which I strap onto a trunk mounted bicycle rack. It does the job, and I usually get a comment about it nearly everywhere I stop. I sometimes think that I should sell this car or trade for an E34 or E32 for a little more room. A hard roof car would probably be a better year round car for what I do, but this one sure makes the trip interesting.
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So far I've checked the fuse, the switch and the rear plug. The fuse is fine as the switch illuminates when I press it. I'm not getting any power at the connector plug to the fan motor, although I'm not certain that is because there isn't power coming from the switch. The defroster fan motor has what appears to be an external resistor and possibly also a circuit breaker attached to the outside of the fan housing. Again, electrical isn't my strong point, so is there a way to test both the resistor and circuit breaker to see if they're working? My assumption at this point is that since they're there, they must ultimately provide power to the fan which may be why I'm not getting power at the plug. My wiring is fully wrapped and fine as far as I can trace it, as this car was in nearly new condition when I bought it a few years ago with all wiring unhacked.
Right now my assumption, until proven otherwise, is that I have either a bad resistor, circuit breaker, fan, or a combination of any of the three.
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I just realized after a few years of ownership that my car has a rear window defrost motor/fan behind the back seat. It doesn't seem to be working at the moment, but I haven't checked all the usual suspects as yet (fuse, switch). Plan on working on that this evening.
If it doesn't end up being the simple solution, how does one go about testing the motor to see if it's working? I assume I can test the plug easily enough once I verify that I have a good fuse and that the dash switch lights up just by touching the body for ground and then testing the pins. I see there is also a relay or circuit breaker on the thing. Any good way to test that? Sorry, but I'm not an electrical guru. It's probably my weakest area when working on cars.
I've done some looking online, but don't find much that's helpful. It would be nice to have it working this winter for a change.
Thanks!
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I couldn't get your pics to open, but I'm sure it wasn't pretty. Sorry to hear about your damage. Hope things turn out well.
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Not sure if anyone had heard of or done this, but I thought I'd share;
This past Wednesday, my exhaust fell down in the rear as the metal bracket had rusted away. Yes, I only had one connected as the stud on the other had broken a few years ago when I replaced the muffler; just never got around to replacing it until this week.
Anyway, the car has been running great (knock on everything in sight!!!!) since my head gasket change a few weeks ago, and was running great on Wednesday even after the exhaust dropped. After changing the exhaust brackets and hanger yesterday, I started the car and the engine started surging at idle. It also didn't want to run right away on startup. I know this is usually a vacuum related thing, but couldn't find anything under the hood that was loose. I know I torqued all the various bolts under the hood properly and had changed all the gaskets save for the oil pan when I did the engine. I had also changed most of the rubber hoses. My first thought was that maybe the O2 sensor in the exhaust got damaged when the muffler dropped, but I couldn't see any problem with the wiring or the connection at the pipe.
I stopped by my Indy down the street to see if they could shed any light or recommend something to look for. He couldn't see or feel anything loose or unusual under the hood, but suggested that I disconnect both the battery cables and touch them together (away from the battery terminals) for at least ten seconds saying that this will often reset the car's ECU and a few other electrical items.
Not knowing what else to do, I went home and did what he suggested and then reconnected the battery and started the car. No difference. I went in the house and did some computer research for about an hour, and then back out to the car to move it into the garage. Started her up......................no more problem! Started right up and then ran fine for a good 20 minute test drive and several test restarts, and running fine today so far.
So, if you're having an issue with your engine hunting idle, certainly check all of the Usual Suspects, but if nothing else seems to work, try disconnecting your battery and touching the connectors together for 10-15 seconds, then connect and let the car sit for an hour or two.
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yeah those are good tires. same tread pattern as nokian hakkas, hancook iPike, etc. i always used 185s for the e30 for winter. less overall grip, but helps not getting stuck with the deeper snow.
Cool. That's what I want. Just don't need to get stuck. I'll look for some 60's later in the season for summer. Thinking Hankook right now as I've had good luck with them and they're reasonably priced.
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Had some Hankooks on the 520i I had in Germany a few years ago and really liked them. Not sure how they are in snow, but they sure drove nice in dry and wet weather.
I've considered 60 series tires. Maybe should look into them a little more closely too. Need to find something in the next few weeks before the snow flies. Both my front ones are nearly bald. New or gently used is fine. Just need to get some decent rubber on the road.
Thanks.
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It probably isn't a big deal, but thought I'd solicit opinions from the masses. Amongst everything else I've done with my car recently, it also needs new tires. The manual calls for 195/65-R14 as the recommended tire, however, that width is becoming increasingly more difficult to find. Would a 185/65/14 tire handle that much more poorly due to a few centimeters less rubber on the road, or would it really make that much difference? Also, snow tires seem to be next to impossible to find in 195 width.
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OK. I have to apologize for my rant above. Most of the problem was that my other car broke a driveshaft U joint the previous day while on my way to work requiring that it be towed, and then the E30 broke down on me the next day on my way to work requiring that IT be towed to0. I was just really frustrated with my cars in general and about ready to take a BFH to both of them.
Turned out that neither of them required a huge amount of work, and about half the invoice expense for both combined was the towing which I can get back on my insurance.
The E30 ended up being the bolt that runs through the cam sprocket into the head. It apparently wasn't torqued quite right and loosened up shortly after I got on the road causing the distributor rotor to stop spinning and leaving me with no spark. The oil I found under the car was just a continued leakage from my pan gasket which I need to work on next. Nothing regarding the engine. Just got the car back from the shop today, and it runs great so far. Coolant level is still spot on after some city driving and the car runs and idles better now than it has in nearly 18 months.
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Well, my victory was short lived. Got the car started and the coolant level up to where it seemed it should be. The heater was working. Coolant level seemed to be ok for an initial drive so I took it out for a short drive to let the coolant circulate with intent of checking it again when I stopped. Made it about two miles from the house when the engine lost power and shut down. Smelled like something had burnt. Had smoke coming out of the side of the car and a puddle of oil forming under the engine. The temp gauge never showed that the engine was hot, so not sure what happened, but suspect that the head gasket blew again. I'm not sure why as I had done everything the book and DIY's said to do. I know I got everything together right and timing was set properly. Had it towed to the shop this time as I have no clue where to begin looking at this point. I'm so pissed right now that I'm about ready to throw in the towel on this thing.
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Thanks!! Never thought of that. The thoughts of starting the engine on basically no coolant and running it that way for several minutes while it slowly sucked antifreeze through a straw really had me worried it wouldn't fill fast enough.
So, why exactly is my M3 sagging?
in General Technical
Posted
I had an E34 wagon in Germany that someone had put after market springs into the front of. When I bought the car, BOTH front springs were snapped and the front end sagged badly. If you have aftermarket springs in the car, I'd check there first. Seems like some of the aftermarket bits aren't nearly the quality they should be.