Blown motor!

#1

The weekend started off great, car was prepped really well and felt strong in qual with a couple of things I need to work on in a few corners. On the race start the car was awesome and after about 2 laps I was hopeful of having a good showing mid-pack. Around the 3rd or 4th lap I started noticing the car loosing some power and looked for fuel or overheating - which everything looked fine. Thinking it might have been just my imagination, I kept my foot in it and somewhere around the exit of 9 on lap 10 or so I radioed to Kenny that the car was loosing power, in that same second I noticed the oil pressure light came on, and radioed that the oil pressure light came on ( thought perhaps from the 8/9/10 complex would have oil sloshing around) and in the next second as I’m coming through 10 - the motor just dies and I’m heading towards the wall at 90mph; I had about 30’ of pit out lane left and dove off track to not leave oil in a heavy braking area ( didn’t know if I was loosing oil but assumed I was) and came to a stop safely off track. A little white smoke and a push to the paddock revealed a leaking engine that won’t start.

I wanted to also thank Kenny a ton for his heads up plays as a crew chief this weekend and was a invaluable help in making sure everything was ready to go, comms and support throughout .

So, now it’s time for a donor or a motor, we are searching craigslist, so if anyone has a 89is motor or donor let us know! We plan on having a strong showing for 2010!

#2

Tough luck :frowning:

Was it just a crazy oil leak, or do you suspect deeper issues? How many miles were on your motor before it blew? Did you have a crank scraper?

You can find auto e30’s with blown transmissions for $500 on CL if you search. 87-91 325i cars are all candidates. The earlier motors have some minor differences (coolant routing is the biggest one). My '90 car has an '87 motor in it.

It may also be worth calling double 02 salvage and asking for pricing on what they have in stock. You can spend a few more bucks with them and save a bunch of time. Actually, the hot ticket would be to get a 160whp PointSix built motor :wink:

#3

for future reference, are engines out of 525’s also good candidates?
bruce

#4

Why not? Same motor.

#5

The 525I mounting points for the motor mount brackets are different on the block. I ran into this before

#6

May be picking up another car this weekend, the M20 has approx 250K on it, feel free to shoot me an email if you have any interest.

#7

Thanks for the offer! We have a lead we’re going to follow up on tomorrow, but if it falls through I’ll send you a PM.

#8

Well we have the motor out and looks like the cylinder closest to the cabin has the rod smashed through the bottom of the engine. So much for a good bottom end to salvage…

#9

On the flip side, swapping out a whole junkyard motor is a lot easier then opening up a problem motor and replacing lots of stuff.

-Ranger the eternal optimist.

#10

dgorman:

I was at the LA BMW Club School at AAA Speedway, I was the guy that gave you or your brother (can’t remember which) a ride from California Speedway to your Hotel in Ontario… At that school was a guy named Neil Daly, he’s one of my Car Control Clinic instructors. Neil is a great guy and E30 freak, he’s a San Diego member and has a line on quality E30 325 motors. Let me know if you’d like to contact him:

kgobey at charter dot net

Regards,
Kieran

#11

Oh cool! I appreciate the heads-up, however, the motor has just been sent out to be rebuilt :slight_smile:

In the mean time, the car is fully stripped and we’re prepping for paint so it’s another mad dash before the season begins again!

#12

Heh - Good point! :slight_smile:

#13

Anything to help out. :slight_smile:

#14

The motor is back from vmwerks and in looking at the box of parts that were taken off the original motor everything is so dirty and old, that I can’t in my right mind bolt it all back on a shiny new motor. So I’ve put in an order for all sorts of new stuff, we’re going to do a time-lapse photo rebuild of my car.

Oh, and the car is silver now :slight_smile:

#15

dgorman wrote:

[quote]The motor is back from vmwerks and in looking at the box of parts that were taken off the original motor everything is so dirty and old, that I can’t in my right mind bolt it all back on a shiny new motor. So I’ve put in an order for all sorts of new stuff, we’re going to do a time-lapse photo rebuild of my car.
[/quote]
You’re nuts.

An endearing trait .

#16

Ranger -

Heh - I’ve been following your rebuild thread as well. The slope is slippery … "well, if I’ve already gone this far why not … " Not much is really original at this point. :slight_smile:

#17

So the car is back together and ready to race!

The “send the motor for rebuild” turned into the following really slippery slope.

Interior
– Removal of heater core and blower
– Painted “Arctic Silver” interior

Exterior
– Painted “Arctic Silver” by Jerry Woods Enterprises
– Fixed/Repaired a few body dings
– Various trim bits
– Cleaned / polished

Engine
– New plugs/wires
– New cap and rotor
– Cleaned /mapped injectors
– Power steering delete
– Painted engine bay “Arctic Silver”
– Custom Oil Cooler
– New radiator and hoses
– New fuel filter

Electrical
– Paired down loom to minimal needed and gator’d
– AiM Pista dash delete with Oil Temp, Oil Pressure, Water Temp, Pressure, RPM/Speed

Mechanical
– Removal of 4.10 diff for legal 3.73 :slight_smile:
– New clutch
– Engine and Tranny AKG bushings
– UUC Ev03 shifter w/ DSSR

It’s quite a laundry list! We will post the details soon as we also have pics/time lapse of the 4 day build process to post.

Again HUGE thanks to Kenny and family who unselfishly donated a ton of time to help get it all together in such a short time.

#18

Congrats!

We’ll look forward to seeing you out there at T-Hill. Sounds you will look awful pretty! I hope Shake downs go well!

#19

Yeah, really nice build… It’s nice to see such well prepared cars running. Hopefully you’ll bring it to a Central or SoCal BMW Driver School sometime!

Edit - to promote the series that is.