HipMF

Motorcycle guys used to call them "bird strainers" back in the day. The engineer in me feels they'd function better on inlet side of the stack where air velocity would be lower though...
https://www.mcmaster.com/mesh/stainless-steel-wire-cloth-9/
Browsing around a bit, it looks like the "open area" on a mesh like that is maybe 50-60%? All the effort of going through the swap is going to be a bit disappointing if you're limited to the equivalent of 50-60% throttle opening.

Engine in the car just in time for Halloween. Good to see things are getting back to normal around here!

Late response, but nice shots. I'm a photography noob myself, so you can take this anyway you want, but I couldn't help cropping some of these. I tend to obsess a little about the margins and whether what's there really adds anything to the photo. When in doubt, I cut it out. Having a line terminate in the corner of the picture never hurts either. Not trying to be a dick, it's just trying to be helpful.





Also, I have an NEX to Konica adapter that I ordered by accident. If you want to play around with some vintage lenses, you can have it.
 

I'm aware, but I'm not overly worried about it. It was the front door to our house and never had an issue. We've left for the weekend and have accidentally left the french doors wide open on our back porch and doors unlocked without issue. Also have neighbors who watch our house and we'll have cameras. 
@The Full Banana was helping me move some furniture that was in the garage into the house a few weeks ago and a neighbor from across the street ran over at 9PM to make sure we weren't burglars. 
 
Perhaps these are some famous last words, but I think it'll be OK. 
 
EDIT: Also, my curtains are going to be Buffalo Check. So far from ugly. lol. They'll fit in with the space when I'm done. 

I don't know if I'd trust a bidder named "aimbot", lol.

Replaced the heater valve and flushed the heater core last night. It really needed it. 
 

It took a few buckets to finally get some clear water. 


After all this work, it seems like the heat is much better, but the flap door for the dash vents must be the issue. I get strong defrost and floor air, but not mid level. It sounds like the air is hitting something rather than flowing through. Might have to pull the dash apart. 
 
One last thing is I painted the wheels. It’s been bothering me because they looked so trashy. I must say the black isn’t dirty enough yet, but it looks a lot better.

 

Can't imagine the number of strange looks/people taking picture while driving something like that to Milwaukee.
Curious... what's the painful part? Rub? Steering wobble? What's this thing like to drive?

Random photo dump warning. I've been messing around with the Sony mirrorless a lot cruising around in the M3. Here are some photos i've gotten recently. 

I havent posted on this site in awhile but I did manage to go out and about with this thing. It drives really well surprisingly with the big wheels and welded diff. I even managed to (painfully) drive it to Milwaukee and back. I will need to add some clearance to the rear quarters yet again as it rubs when the suspension is compressed hard in the rear. 


I would also like to add that it still does massive burnouts with the big wheels.

You realize I don't know how to stop myself...?
 

Hmm, suspenseful. Great post so far.
No doubt that people have become achingly nostalgic about the 90s given all that's happened in the world since then. From a car-centric point of view, the 90s was when the industry finally started to catch up with the environmental and safety regulations that came into affect 20 years earlier. As an e21-loving curmudgeon, I'd have a hard time accepting any argument that the early 2000s was some golden age. That being said, riding an e46 to me feels better than an e90. The feeling of riding in newer cars feels like riding in a steel egg, lined with thin metal bubble wrap. Safe and protected, but completely isolated from the sensations of driving we remember from the older cars.

Finally sold this thing. Buyer needed a pop out window bracket and buying the whole door was cheaper than the dealer part.

Got the engine back together and was still getting breakup issues around the 3500rpm mark, but wouldn't stumble if I was spinning tire at that point, and got worse as the engine warmed up. Being unsure of the quality of the chip tune, and long time desire to see this dyno tuned, it was finally time to take it in and see if the tune was to blame.
After some wood and time to get it up the dyno ramps (it's not high off the ground...) it was nestled in and the tuning commenced. Yes the door was open for tuning.



The first pull on the chip tune yielded a very lackluster 236hp and 231lbft of torque, and the breakup around 3500rpm really reared its head.
I would be lying if I told you that I was happy with that amount of power, but rolled into it knowing that may happen.
The tuner then took the existing tune out and tossed on one that he had from a roughly similar motor to see how it liked that. The pull was smooth and didn't break up with the new tune, and it sounded much better. I glanced at the screen and saw 296hp flash across it, and I looked at the tuner to verify what I had just seen. He hadn't looked at the number yet, so we went over and looked. Sure shit, first pull with a different tune and we gained 60hp. We were all quite impressed, as that was nearing the highest HP S5x they have ever seen NA, and its a specific E36 shop that builds many a motor. 
More tuning commenced and the motor responded really well to any changes and kept improving in powerband and peak numbers, though as the engine would heat-soak the breakup around 3500rpm would return no matter how much fuel or timing was added/removed. That one boils down to a hardware issue somewhere that I am working on tracking down.
After a few hours of playing he finally determined that it was doing the best it could, and put down some serious numbers that everyone was happy with. 

We managed to pick up 75hp and 45ftlbs more torque on an NA engine which is simply astounding. The car is now making more TQ across the entire range than it made in horsepower on the chip tune. The rev limit is at 6600rpm right now and once I find that breakup issue when warm (affects rev limit also) I will be going back and having the limit moved up a fair bit as peak horsepower is at redline right now so I will likely continue to make more power.

The car is an absolute machine now, it pulls hard and smooth throughout the whole range and I keep hitting rev limiter because at no point does it feel like I need to shift. 

Absolutely stoked with the whole tune, and the guys at the shop were great to work with. 

 

We did better than I expected, but....
Wow, exponents!

Unpopular opinion: By the time a vaccine is widely available, the virus will already be on the decline because ~50% of the population will have already contracted it.

They say never meet your heroes...
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1993-mazda-rx-7-109/

Once in a lifetime photoshoot complete. Best money I ever spent on this car: 
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmRWk4i1
 

Good news! Insurance payout came late last week, Not Totaled! They didn't even put up a fight after I denied their initial value and took my word on the current values, so glad this didn't turn into a nightmare battle like I've read about for others. The current auction price insanity on anything old and manual sure helps.
All the parts new were available from BMW to repair this, the fender was the only part that needed to come over from Germany but I still hunted around for used parts. It didnt make too much sense to just paint a new door/fender when the whole car needs paint. Car-Part was a joke and prices were premium as well. LKQ pick and pull has a great CURRENT website for listing inventory so I scoured that around the country. There were at least 2 black E34's and several other colors as well among the Los Angeles area yards so I took the gamble on the parts I wanted being there.
Luckily a side job gave me the opportunity to drive a 2020 F350 out west. I ended up going to 3 different LA LKQ yards and pulled the front doors off one and a fender off another, all perfectly rust free in Schwartz II. The fender does have a good dent towards the nose but paint isn't cracked and should be PDR'd easily. Bought a driver's door too since the door stay was ripped out when the car was bought. $150 total for all the parts was crazy cheap.

Gonna wait to install these come spring as it's cold and I still have remodeling projects to tend too. I also want to rust proof each fender while off and clean things up.

205 vs 245 

Finally getting some motivation to do some things. Nothing BMW related sadly.
Machined this neat little brass piece for the bridge on my bass to replace the incorrect part that has been there since I bought it like 7 years ago.

I found an old 1980s CCTV security camera at work that had an interesting looking lens on it. 50mm f1.4 made by Fuji. So, I decided to make an adapter for it. It's a c-mount lens, which has a shorter flange-to-sensor than micro 4/3. They make adapters, but the diameter of this lens is to large to fit, so long story short, it's a macro lens now. Worked out pretty well.


Neat.

Registering it in a free county might be easier 

Engine in the car just in time for Halloween. Good to see things are getting back to normal around here!

Last autox of the fvscc season was yesterday at USAIR. Car performed nicely. Took 2nd out of 5 in XS-B, 9th out of 103 for raw time. 
http://fvscc.com/results/2020_Summer/event6_raw.htm



here’s my fastest run
 
 

158.4k
4/27/1991 - 10/08/2020

 

Did the Overcrest Rally with @The Full Banana over the weekend. Tom did most of the driving since I was technically the passenger and we were supposed to be in his 240. But we both had a blast and the e30 exceeded my expectations and was able to keep up with the 911s in the group we drove with most of the time. Got a lot of compliments on how quick we were on the roads. 
 
After about 400ish miles that made up the rally, the car came home with a significant number of rock chips, a season’s worth of tire removed, and very tired suspension. But it was all totally worth it.