TDesire

Bumping this to keep the spirit alive until Earl can come give us hope. 

Calendar marked!

Its time for an UPDATE!
Holy shit has the past month been a stressful but rewarding in the end, so thats why I have been slacking on updates here haha
For starters the street tuning went well. There's still some touch ups the tuner wants to make which I'm fine with but the car rips pretty well!
20210526_200253.mp4
 
Here is the completed version for now. I made some delete panels for the rear diffuser, it turned out good enough lol.


And with the tune being safe to drift on that meant it was time for some testing at DD80 at USAIR.

 
The car did well, stayed cool the whole day even though it was not super hot out. The power difference is definitely noticeable although I still can't run 3rd. (Might have to consider playing with a different diff, but it does not hinder driving at all)



 
20210530_161118.mp4
 
The bumper fell off and got scratched to shit so that's lame but oh well lol.

 
The biggest issue that arose was the clutch was slipping once the car cooled down at the end of the day, not surprised that it glazed over lol. The current clutch was a FX "HD" kit with a single mass flywheel.
Now began the headaches....
We unloaded the car on Thursday and put it on the lift. Pulled the trans and installed a brand new FX stage 2 kit (e36 style without the self adjusting pressure plate).

While that went smoothly and the car was back on the ground and driving that Thursday night there was a vibration between 2k and up in almost every gear.
I ended up bringing the car home from the shop anyways. I then decided I was not okay with that vibration, so I jacked the car up and pulled the trans out on the following Saturday. 

I replaced the pilot bearing as I was ignorant and didn't do it the first time at the shop. I checked and retorqued everything without finding any true smoking guns.
I drove the car Saturday and Sunday and the vibrations still persisted. So Monday night I went back up to the shop and snagged Sam's old FX stage 4 kit since we know it is tried and true. 
Then on Tuesday I pulled the trans again and threw in the stage 4 kit. At this point I'm getting way to fast at this job lol had everything taken apart and back together in about 3 hours and 15 min hahaha


I then test drove the car on Wednesday and the vibrations were gone thankfully! I also should have mentioned that the vibrations happened when free revving so thats how I knew it was clucth/flywheel related.
 
Now the reason there was such a big rush to get this clutch situation solved is because we had a big event coming up at the Milwaukee Mile hosted by Track Day Direct.
In final preparations for the Milwaukee Mile event I added some seems legit garage axle spacers.


 
Now on to the fun!
We made it! 

 
The track was FAST and took quite a few runs to get the balls up to really send it. This was my first time drifting using 3rd gear and eventually I figured out how to set myself up to get back into second for the final turn, she didn't seem to have enough to let it eat in 3rd on the last turn but I would like to try again next time we are here.
Here are some photos! There was a night session as well and I will share a few photos when they become available!

 



Here's an in car. I really struggled on turn 1 and had to straighten and re-initiate into turn to but when I did that she absolutely ATEEE and thats where the speed came in! Super fun!
received_499992047905259.mp4 received_499992047905259.mp4
received_318451406669939.mp4
received_681255366018396.mp4
And here is proably my favorite clip I have seen so far.
VID_23610504_061746_537.mp4
 
All in all it was a great event. I learned alot and was able to put on a show too. 

 
I do have a few things I want to address before the next event hopefully. But summer and this season is off to a hell of a fun start! 
 
 
 

I guess I do have a little update here. Earl told me last week that he plans on moving the engine for this car to my shop as he is tight on space with moving. So having everything in the same spot again is forward progress! 

Nice find!  Hope you get it running without too much hassle.

A couple of years ago, I was at a friend's party when I saw this X5d roll up. Intrigued, I found out the owner was the mother of my buddies wife.  I got to chatting and found out she bought it new, and had it meticulously serviced at a local BMW dealer. 
I asked that she was ever to sell it, to let me know.  She firmly said she doesn't plan on selling anytime soon because she loves it so much.
Well, in December she called and said she is finally getting a new vehicle in the springtime.  We worked out a deal to purchase and I brought it home a week ago.  It had a CEL for the  glow plug module when we picked it up, and knocked some money off.for us 😁
It is emissions in tact, with a recent DPF replacement.  I immediately checked the coolant temp and found it to be at 158. 🤷🏼‍♂️. You would think a dealer would check this.....  Otherwise it needed absolutely nothing.... This lady brought it to the dealer for every little thing, with over $14k in service work in the last two years, with a total of all repair receipts since new of $38,844.42! 😳
Off to Cascade German Parts and FCP Euro I went and filled up my shopping cart with a thermostat, glow plugs and module, gaskets,  swirl flap delete, coolant flange, and a pcv hose. 
I went to work this week and got it all fixed up.  I don't plan on hitting a pothole until a problem comes about since everything is new.  CBU was surprisingly not bad considering the 145k miles.    
This will become the new garage queen, with the potholed 2011 becoming the daily. 
  
Sometimes we get lucky!!