- Messages
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- Reaction score
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Well, after Don's successful visit (he's a flying doctor, really) a few weeks ago to fix my electrical gremlins that caused the coil to intermittently cut out, reattaching my coolant hoses to the new heater box, a valve adjustment and minor Megasquirt tuning table tweaks, my car is running like a champ again. I still need some longer drives to prove out that the wiring mess he found at the main connector on the harness (where the BMW tester goes and where a few larger wires enter and many more exit) is what was causing my ongoing problems since, frankly, more than a year now...I will get to some longer drives later this month after a few business trips are out of the way and getting my safety sticker updated since that expired several months ago when my E9 was in suspended animation in the garage for a while now.
Today I gave her the first oil and filter change in two years (Valvoline VR1) and it constantly amazes me how, if I don't do an oil change regularly, that I forget the efficient way to do that without messing up my garage floor and wrestling the oil canister down or up trying to get it out (even with the alternator wires moved to the side). A 30 minute job takes nearly two hours - good grief.
More importantly, on my last visit to California and visiting Don's shop for the first time to meet the team (Martin, Ed) and pick up a box of engine trim parts to make my E9 more authentic, I finally got around to installing all of this stuff, except the very pretty, proper length copper negative cable for the battery which is too narrow for my negative terminal so I need to widen it with a special tool first.
As a reminder, Don took a close look at my underhood after he repaired my car (his first time since coming out in 2014 to replace my entire wiring harness) and gave me quite a homework list of things up upgrade and replace like
o stainless clamps and silicon nipples for various places around the manifold and a new idle control valve rubber hose
o a new air duct to throttle opening rubber sleeve since he noticed mine was beginning to crack
o gaskets for under the hood headlamp metal covers with black twister screws to replace my beige/crappy looking original screws
o a proper brass wingnut for the power steering fluid container
o a missing water runoff tube to the engine from my driver side wiper compartment area which was causing warm air to enter my ventilation system
o the rubber pivot donut under the airbox to fender connection where I had a simple flat rubber washer and some scratches were happening as a result to the fender underneath
o He also encouraged me to repaint the airbox (now in correct satin black finish) which looks so much better now along with matching paint on the straight pipe to the throttle assembly that holds the intake air sensor
o He also suggested retaping some of the wiring harness and other connectors where the existing heat resistant cloth tape was showing its age
o what I still need to do is address one of the accessory belts which is too tight and making a sound and refill the AC with R134 now that I have a new expansion valve and evaporator from Chris' install earlier this year
A half day of putting all of this stuff in and I'll be in much better shape the next time my car is judged!
Oh, and Don had a long list of stuff for Doug Dolan to attend to on his M5-powered E9 green beauty...
Thanks Don for coming out and the "spit and polish" parts for my engine bay. The second photo is of Don after the engine repairs and waiting for the car to reach operating temperature to see how that was going after attaching the heater box hoses.
I can't wait to get some hours of driving under belt so finally put the coil wire gremlin behind me!
Today I gave her the first oil and filter change in two years (Valvoline VR1) and it constantly amazes me how, if I don't do an oil change regularly, that I forget the efficient way to do that without messing up my garage floor and wrestling the oil canister down or up trying to get it out (even with the alternator wires moved to the side). A 30 minute job takes nearly two hours - good grief.
More importantly, on my last visit to California and visiting Don's shop for the first time to meet the team (Martin, Ed) and pick up a box of engine trim parts to make my E9 more authentic, I finally got around to installing all of this stuff, except the very pretty, proper length copper negative cable for the battery which is too narrow for my negative terminal so I need to widen it with a special tool first.
As a reminder, Don took a close look at my underhood after he repaired my car (his first time since coming out in 2014 to replace my entire wiring harness) and gave me quite a homework list of things up upgrade and replace like
o stainless clamps and silicon nipples for various places around the manifold and a new idle control valve rubber hose
o a new air duct to throttle opening rubber sleeve since he noticed mine was beginning to crack
o gaskets for under the hood headlamp metal covers with black twister screws to replace my beige/crappy looking original screws
o a proper brass wingnut for the power steering fluid container
o a missing water runoff tube to the engine from my driver side wiper compartment area which was causing warm air to enter my ventilation system
o the rubber pivot donut under the airbox to fender connection where I had a simple flat rubber washer and some scratches were happening as a result to the fender underneath
o He also encouraged me to repaint the airbox (now in correct satin black finish) which looks so much better now along with matching paint on the straight pipe to the throttle assembly that holds the intake air sensor
o He also suggested retaping some of the wiring harness and other connectors where the existing heat resistant cloth tape was showing its age
o what I still need to do is address one of the accessory belts which is too tight and making a sound and refill the AC with R134 now that I have a new expansion valve and evaporator from Chris' install earlier this year
A half day of putting all of this stuff in and I'll be in much better shape the next time my car is judged!
Oh, and Don had a long list of stuff for Doug Dolan to attend to on his M5-powered E9 green beauty...
Thanks Don for coming out and the "spit and polish" parts for my engine bay. The second photo is of Don after the engine repairs and waiting for the car to reach operating temperature to see how that was going after attaching the heater box hoses.
I can't wait to get some hours of driving under belt so finally put the coil wire gremlin behind me!
