Fear and Loathing in My Garage

I bought an E36 track car with a blown motor week before last for a solid price to use when instructing while my "real" race car gets a complete overhaul.

I figured it was a no-brainer... my old race motor will drop right in over a weekend, easy-peasy. So... I took it easy. Popped the old motor out... A little here, a little there. Cleaned everything up nice... then I got sent away to CA for work all week. I got back this past weekend and started to rush the car together because I leave for Summit Point Friday AM. Worked late in to the AM MON/TUE nights to swap to the E36 oil pan and fab up oil baffles... etc. Everything got buttoned up tonight - and Ifired her up.

BANG-BANG-BANG at engine RPM.

I'm going to just bet the berkeleying windage tray I snagged all bleary eyed and slapped in is for the M50 and not the S52... motherberkeleyer. I hate myself for rushing this E36 M3. Who knows... maybe I spun a berkeleying bearing. Goddamn it. Best case scenario I'm out $60 in oil and half a day wrenching. Worst case... the crank is coming out for a polish.

Tomorrow I get up 3hrs early to drop the front subframe and oil pan before work so I can reassemble after work. So I can try to bring a car to the track with me. I must be crazy... or maybe it's the ether.

That sucks. Sorry

I wish I could offer more than moral support.

That sucks. Hard. Hopefully you've only wasted some oil.

We already knew you were crazy.

Duuuuuuuude.....that sucks. Internet bro hug.

That sucks......and unfortunately I've been there before with the whole rushing thing.

Condolences. That does indeed suck.

You better pray to God there's some Thorazine in that engine, mister, or you're in some serious berkeleying trouble.

better get some golf shoes....

Time for an all nighter! Get that thing done!

Bats!

You can't stop now. This is Bat Country!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHS3qJdxefY

Subframe is down... off to do some work that pays money.

"No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride...and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well...maybe chalk it off to forced conscious expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten."

To empathize:

Several years back, 2 days before an SCCA rallycross event, I swapped the worn-out B18 in my Volvo 122 for a B20 I'd just pulled from a parts car, that was supposedly "good". It fired up, ran strong (it had the 'E' head, high compression, big valves) and the next day I drove the car to work as a shakedown for the engine. Driving home that night, the engine began to knock, and it died on the side of the highway.

Had the car towed the 20 miles home, rolled the car into my garage, and by 3AM (much pizza and beer later) had a second spare B20 in the car, running and ready to go. Got a nap, headed out at 6AM for the event, drove 3 hours there, thrashed the #$%& out of the engine all day, drove 3 hours home. That engine eventually did some duty in our LeMons Amazon, too.

The moral? Once you've paid your dues, it's all going to work out fine. hugs

Yup. that's racing.

It's all part of the program.

The sad part about this is - it's not racing. This was a stop-gap measure to have a track car while I rebuild the race car. Now I have two broken, non-street legal cars and one night to push one back into service before I head out in the AM.

Track car? Race car? Sure sounds like racing to me.

What really sucks, is when you do something like this, get the car on the track, you're doing well, and some dick head over drives into a turn and takes you out.

always with the negative waves Moriarty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuStsFW4EmQ

well chalk it up to "wont make that mistake again"

"Good decisions come from experience, experience comes from bad decisions"

If you were closer to Philly I would off to help.

I'm sorry. That sucks a lot.

If nothing else, this thread has shown me that I should actually watch Kelly's Heroes someday.

But seriously, I hope things fall into place from here on; that's a lot of work to have things come apart on you. Fie!

Lunchtime root cause analysis reveals that I used a crank wipe tray with a dent in it. Ball peen hammering the berkeley out of it... picking up a new gasket at 4:30 and... as the manual says... assembly is the reverse of removal (only with more swearing and blood loss). The oil pan really wasn't designed for on-vehicle removal.

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

No, it'll be fine. I always have more blood loss during removal, when the bolts are coming unstuck. If you're not already woozy, you'll probably make it.

The swearing, on the other hand...

Gah. Reassembling an e36 M3 and leaving directly for a NASA event is something I know way the berkeley too well.

As I have A6s w/ only a few cycles on 'em and the M-sled should be ready to run, maybe I'll sign up for TTC and come visit.

motomoron wrote: Gah. Reassembling an e36 M3 and leaving directly for a NASA event is something I know way the berkeley too well. As I have A6s w/ only a few cycles on 'em and the M-sled should be ready to run, maybe I'll sign up for TTC and come visit.

I'm instructing with the BMW club on Jefferson SAT/SUN, cmon over! We usually have a pretty decent cookout in our trailer compound. At the very least - there will be good, cold beer and a big blaze.

PM me for contact info

ransom wrote: If nothing else, this thread has shown me that I should actually watch Kelly's Heroes someday.

One of the best war/anti-war movies of all time. When they wrote the screen play for Saving Private Ryan, it's like they copied Kelly's Heroes scene for freakin' scene... (except for the opening D-Day scene... which really had little to do with the plot of SPR).

But seriously, I hope things fall into place from here on; that's a lot of work to have things come apart on you. Fie!

Ditto - but it sounds like GPS has it under control... I;d be berked right now...