Rekpoint

Ended up pulling the intake side to reshim 2 lifters, all back together & timed now
FCP order showing up soonish for some stuff that I either misplaced or never ordered. 
 

The tensioner I had was from SLG (think it was a PRD one they just resell) the shitty URO part wouldn’t have even worked with their included diagram/instructions for where to drill -  @Rekpoint is my witness for that garbage 

My 1993 R33 GTS25t. Love the car to death, does massive burnouts.
Update for everyone: Sorry, with the lack of BMW and how ridiculously busy I've been recently its been hard to keep an eye on this thread. The car is still missing because when Chief Dumbass Cory Billstrom got arrested the car proceeded to change multiple hands and only god knows where it is now. The detective did his due diligence and interviewed anyone that was roughly connected and obviously anyone not obligated to talk, didnt talk. The car was last known to be in the area beginning of January so chances of it getting returned are extremely slim, and if it would be returned I am very sure it would not be in the same condition it was in when it left. The guy that stole it (Executive Chief Dumbass Chris Lamb) fessed up to everything and even admitted to doing over 130mph in it. The only reason I am upset about that is because that is faster than I ever went in it lmao.

I get to go to court multiple times over the next few months over this bullshit, so so excited. Hoping to scrape up some cash for an E36 325/328 to replace it, E36 M3 prices have gotten a bit ridiculous lol.

IDK How often he visits. This is the only update as of yesterday.
https://www.leadertelegram.com/news/front-page/police-two-men-implicated-in-theft-of-bmw-threatening-the-owner/article_444824b1-29b2-533f-8ba8-f85cc2185355.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share&fbclid=IwAR1Otjctm4X1EtTaKcSf1G3ON-TdQTijCm32RXDs8EygBpP7JbnHog1tl4Y
 

I was watching this video and all the sudden a very recognizable e36 made an appearance at ~20 seconds in!
 

Fish tank mod 

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!
 

Car still missing. He was arrested because @basedspiderrecorded the phonecall. 

Solid lifter conversion is about 99.9% done. Cams were in and out a bunch while setting lash. 
this kit uses the stock lifter/hydraulic adjuster, but the hydraulic adjuster is basically gutted and you use shims that are .010” and .008” thickness

stock adjuster removed from lifter 

 
dropping in shims


and back in the trays 

 
still using the stock s52 cams for now 

"Billstrom wanted $2,500 for the stolen BMW. He told the owner he bought it and didn’t steal it. Billstrom told the man he would never see the car again if he got arrested.... Billstrom was subsequently arrested."
I literally chuckled, what an idiot.

 
So I assume he got his car back?

I'm going to see both in April.  My wife has injected them into my Spotify recommendations so I'll have a nice bluegrass mix going then Spotify hits me with those two and I'll blind skip every time.  I'm sure they're gonna put on a great concert but the music does nothing for me.

So Hardys new album is pretty sweet. Not really a country guy but, his new album is extremely good. 

Plates arrived!


Im already getting itchy on changing to the Ice Age Trail ones in March when they release, but we’ll see.

The black looks spectacular I think so it’ll be really hard to beat. Maybe I’ll get a set for the e28 to take off after I sell it and keep for decoration?

Legend has it this car was abandoned in an unfinished garage and not driven last year. 

And the start of a new chapter begins...
After further consideration of my plans for putting back together the M52 I had picked up and throwing that in, I decided against it, rolled the car back into storage and let everything rest for the remainder of the year. Although the bottom end seemed alright to run as is, I felt foolish doing it and didn't want to go through all the time and effort of putting it back together just to possibly run into issues right away.
As things sat I slowly began acquiring parts needed for a full engine rebuild. I brought the old s52 block into a local machine shop to figure out what my options would be for piston size. After doing an inspection of the cylinder walls they said I would need to bore the cylinders 20 thousandths over which left me with going to an 87 mm piston. Initially I was good with this but after seeing possible issues with others having cylinder walls crack on them as well as not having any wiggle room with the cut rings on the HG and running into valve and piston head interference's I threw that block back up on the shelf and re-considered my options. Thankfully I had an M52 laying around now which gave me the option to run the piston size I wanted to so I landed on using that block for the rebuild.
Fast forward a few months and the block, pistons and rods were dropped off at the machine shop as well as an s52 crank that I purchased a few months prior. Unfortunately the crank main and rod journals were in rough shape and required a .010 grind and polish. I also had the machine shop do a re-balance of the entire rotating assembly. As for the block, it was bored out to 86.5 mm and honed with a torque plate installed afterwards. block was also decked with the timing cover attached and line honed for the upgraded arp main studs.
As for the cylinder head, I brought in the head that I got with the m52 and had the shop check the deck for straightness as well as vacuum testing it and pressure testing to see if it would need a valve job. Thankfully everything checked out good there. Had them run that through the hot tank to clean everything up.
Other machine work I had done included having the rod clearances checked and sized for the wrist pins and the cam shafts being polished up as they were a little scored up on the journals.
Everything when I got it back from the machine shop a few weeks later...

After spraying the entire block down with mineral spirits to remove all oils used for flash rush prevention it was time to paint the block

coat of primer first



Was pretty happy with how that turned out.
Assembly time rolled around and I ran into a small road barrier right away. First thing on the list was installing the oil squirters. I went through the six squirters I had from the blown s52 and used a small pick to test the spring pressure on each one. All of them had very weak or no spring pressure. So I dug up the six that came with the m52 and tested those. I found four of them that seemed to have fairly good pressure while the other two were very weak. Instead of just replacing the two bad ones I just ordered a whole new set of six.

With the squirters on the way I went ahead and got the main bearings installed so I could get the clearances checked.

When I went to set the crank in the motor I noticed it did not want to slide into place and was getting hung up on the thrust bearing washers. Pulled the crank out to see if I was missing something but after pulling the bearing out and attempting to place it on the journal I found there was no way it was going in and was larger then the width of the journal surfaces by a good amount.

Gave the machine shop a call and found that they had not ground down the thrust washer surfaces as they were unaware that the thrust bearing was a one piece design instead of the more common multi piece style. The oem .25 mm undersized bearings I ordered also make the thrust washer area undersized instead of keeping it oem size. After some extensive researching I was unable to find a thrust bearing on the market that came undersized but held the oem thrust washer thickness. So the crank needs to go back into the shop so they can grind that up correctly.
With me unable to do anything with the crank I switched gears and began the tedious process of gaping all my rings. Went with a slightly wider gap then oem spec for boost reasons.

I did have a hard time with my newly purchased ring gaping tool and on my first go around I messed up a top ring for cylinder #1 leaving me with too wide of a gap requiring me to order another set for that piston. Thankfully another ring set was fairly inexpensive. After that one I got a feel for how fast it took off material and the rest of the rings went pretty well.

Afterwards I switched gears and worked on getting the oil pump ready to go. Original plan was to reuse the oil pump from the blown s52 but after pulling the rotor out I found there to be quite a bit of scoring on both surfaces making the pump unusable.

Dug out the oil pump from the m52 block and found everything to be in much better shape and score free!

Purchased the Achilles upgraded oil pump shaft kit to go along with it. Went ahead and got the old shaft pressed out and the new shaft installed and set at the correct distance.

Also took the time to clean up the pump housing a bit and remove all the oil staining. Decided while I was in there I might as well do a full rebuild of the pump with an all new control valve, spring and rubber washer.

Once everything was lubed up and installed I got the pump primed and ready to go.

As for now that's all the progress I've managed to get done. Hoping to get the crank back to the machinist by Wednesday and maybe see it back by the end of the week or early next week so I can really get the ball rolling.

The following message is going to be copy pasted from my last update on facebook. If anyone can offer any help, please reach out.

MY CAR IS STILL MISSING
$500 REWARD IF FOUND
IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION, DIRECTLY CONTACT ME OR THE POLICE. MY PHONE NUMBER IS 715-FIVE SEVEN SEVEN-0942 I received an update today that the person who broke into my unit has been arrested with proof and confessed to stealing my car. He is not the same person who tried to ransom it back to me. The car is still missing, but supposedly has changed hands multiple times and is still getting used. It was last seen in the Eau Claire area in the beginning of January.   I am now offering a $500 reward for information that results in the returning of my car. Its supposedly still being used and driven. Below I will list the technical specs of my car and some of the aftermarket parts in case anyone sees e46 parts come up for sale or anything like that.   2001 BMW 330i VIN: WBAAV53431FT01049 LAST KNOWN MILEAGE: ~137k mi 3.0 I6 w/ 5spd manual M-tech I appearance package Silver on grey interior BBS RC303 wheels with Hankook Ventus V12 Evo2 Tires Eonon head unit Magnaflow catback exhaust Active Autowerke headers Fortune Auto 500 coilovers E39 M5 single mass flywheel conversion kit Dinan carbon fiber intake ECS lug stud conversion 15% tint   IDENTIFYING PREVIUS DAMAGE: Car had broken front kidney grills and a damaged hood, passenger side door had some dents, red-tint painted taillights and yellow tinted fog lights, dark grey pinstriping below window line, powdercoated wheels had tire mount residue around the bead stained on the black powder, passenger side front fender has a roughly 2 inch long oval sized spot of missing paint, and small amounts of rust on body panel below rear license plate

Given that the cars current "owner" is in custody, I am not too worried about it. I imagine if it gets found itll likely have pretty minimal damage or its already made its way to milwaukee/minneapolis and is getting cut up as we speak. Best we can do now is just keep our eyes out for it. 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-1-4-3-8-1-2-in-E-Torx-Socket-Set-HETX13PC/206031060#overlay

You didn’t really think that this car was leaving the state with how much we all love it, did you?

119,270

It probably needs no introduction to any of you, and I’m ecstatic to have it joining the fleet. The e34 will get some much needed TLC and likely be heading down the road to a new owner within the next year and daily duties will be supplanted by this. No big plans other than to do some minor aesthetic mods and general maintenance, and hopefully many many more comfortable and fun miles! Hopefully it won’t even realize that it changed stablemates, going from a white e30 to a… white e30 😂 
 
My general list of plans, for no real reference other than my own:
Maintenance:
- Serpentine belt and tensioner: Due for another (about 4yrs old) so this is the first order of business along with an oil change.
- Front control arms: Not shot yet, but I’d rather get ahead of them and sharpen up the front end some. Likely going to install the M3 arms while I’m at it. Summer project.
- Shocks/struts: Originals, going to put original sport pack Sachs dampers in to freshen the ride up. Certainly not bad at all currently but I’m a sucker for fresh OEM suspension. Also a summer project.
- Trans filter change/fluid change and diff fluid change. Probably going to have a shop do the trans, I’ll likely handle the diff. Not in a huge hurry on these.
Upgrades and such:
- LED angel eyes
- Color-matched reflector covers for the front bumper
- Not an upgrade, but the headlights are a bit foggy and I’d like to clear them up if I can. It’s the little things!
That’s really it for now, Joe has been a great caretaker of the car through his ownership and I’m excited to keep this car in the area. The 16 year newer tech is a very welcome change!
 

Well shit, so sorry to hear. I'm gonna go pull the keys out of my vehicles in storage now. I have things packed tight into mine so breaking through the wall isnt really possible but all it takes is a cordless cut off to get in the door anyways. My good friend had his pristine 1 owner 46k mi 2003 Chevy 3500 Dually he had just bought a month prior stolen in Sacramento, CA on Christmas morning. Police found it parked on a side street a week or 2 later. They stole the headlights, battery, all the tools in the bed and the cats off the exhaust. Hopefully you find your car with minimal damage and missing parts as well. Really depends on what their motive is but its usually always about the quickest way to get money out of it and move on to the next theft.
I would be happy to make a post on the WI BIMMERS facebook page as well if you'd like, just not sure how much traffic it would get but could see what the paid posts go for these days too.

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.

119.2k
Finally got around to doing the brakes over the last couple months as they were properly worn out. I built up a sandblasting cabinet over the summer and stripped/painted the 335i calipers and caliper brackets and rebuilt with new seals/boots/guides/hardware. I also painted them gold because I wanted a little color and liked the look of the oem BMW performance brake kit that's painted in phoenix yellow. I installed everything along with new rotors/pads/outer rubber lines and a fluid flush. Because of the larger calipers I coded in the performance brake option to the vehicle order that adjusts the bias/pedal feel/abs/etc. to match the larger brakes. Overall a massive improvement, should've done it way sooner. 


 
I also bought a new daily about a month ago. I've had a weird itch to get into something manual/4x4 for a while and more recently my wife and I decided we needed something a bit bigger for road trips. Decided it was time to scratch that itch and after a lot of searching I got a bit lucky (given the current car market) and ended up picking up a manual '22 Bronco Badlands out in Seattle. I've been really enjoying it so far.
 
 
The sad news is that the Bronco will be replacing the wagon so unfortunately that's where my time in the Longroof club ends.... or so I thought. After nearly 5 years and 50k miles of trouble free driving for me it decided to do this on a test drive with a potential new owner lol. 

 
Sooo I got it towed back home and did a fairly complete cooling system overhaul last weekend. New radiator, expansion tank, upper and lower radiator hoses, replaced the hose that split with the updated version, water pump, thermostat, both of the large diameter hoses that connect to the water pump, replaced the plastic 'mickey mouse' flange on the head with an aluminum version and new hose to that too, and a fresh fill of the good ol' BMW blue coolant. Also replaced every o-ring on the hose connections I disconnected but didn't replace with new peroxide-cured EPDM o-rings. With that it's running great again and it'll be headed to its new home this week. I'm definitely going to miss this one. 

The upholstery project has been going better than I anticipated and is a lot of fun. The rear bench is almost done. 
 
 

Small crew this year. Everyone must have been naughty and doesn't want coal or 37 remote controlled cars.

And four years since his last contribution! 
Though he is still on a proper course for that 2083 finish date