I am such an asshole

#1

For your amusement.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?p=17451552#post17451552

#2

I was amused. Reminded me of when I had my E92 M3 in for its 1200 mile service and enevitably they overfilled the car so my stupid electronic dip stick is saying over full and to drain some oil. Well I hate dealerships, and I was already on the way home so I just went home and proceeded to try and drain a little oil out. Well like you I removed the plug and tried to hold it there to control the flow. I of course ended up dropping it, but luckily got it back in quickly only to find I still hadn’t drained enough out and now needed some kitty litter because I decided why waste the brand new oil and was trying to get it into a bottle of oil I cut the top off of. The damn thing needed almost a whole liter removed to get the electronic dip stick to not read over full. About a month later I proceeded to knock the topless bottle of oil over and had to clean that up as well. Lesson learned is always use an oil drain pan.

#3

I will reserve any comment until I finish my timing belt/water pump project.

I am approximately 5 lbs of kitty litter into it at this point. :laugh:

#4

Steve D wrote:

[quote]I will reserve any comment until I finish my timing belt/water pump project.

I am approximately 5 lbs of kitty litter into it at this point. :laugh:[/quote]

For anyone that’s not put on a tbelt before, it can be tricky the first time. There’s a DIY on my website.

#5

That reminds me of an incident that happened to me.

I was doing some light plumbing a month or two after we moved into our new “Old” house. Working just after the main line from the well (PVC) and main shut off (convert to copper). A copper elbow sprung a pin hole and was spraying water all over. I shut the water off at the main line. Could not get the water out of the pipes to properly heat the joint to separate it. It was weak and I started to crush it with pliers. It was held on by one small piece of solder. Gave it a soft pull and it let go. Well that stressed the old brittle PVC pipe. There I was holding the main water shut off in my hand as I got hit with a 60 psi 3 inch stream of 55 degree well water. That’s was a bit startling as it hit me in the face and soaked my jeans and heavy sweat shirt and was hitting the stair case at an alarming rate.

How much oil can drain out of your car in 20 seconds, how about how much water can get pumped directly into your house from the well via high pressure 3 inch pipe. A whole crap load! So I grabbed the broken pipe with my hand and started to slow the flow as I yelled like a maniac and my finished basement in my recently purchased house started to fill up. To bad my wife and I did not know where the well circuit breaker was for the well. She could not find it and we had two electrical panels. I saw a threaded drain valve just in front of the broken pipe. Had the wife get me a hose and I threaded it on and opened the valve. That helped divert some of the water out the door of the basement via the hose until I could find the breaker and kill the well. Now we saved the basement but had no water and a 1 year old boy. That was fun until I fixed it later that day. Shit happens and it’s not always good but a bit amusing after the fact. At least you did not almost trash a finished basement.

#6

No, I think it was really good luck and some of that ranger training. I see that you have a link for timing belt replacement but I have a question for you or anyone else. How much damage did I do when the belt broke at 35mph in 3rd gear? It’s an’84 2.7 with 235,000 miles.
Thanks
Allen

#7

allen wrote:

[quote]No, I think it was really good luck and some of that ranger training. I see that you have a link for timing belt replacement but I have a question for you or anyone else. How much damage did I do when the belt broke at 35mph in 3rd gear? It’s an’84 2.7 with 235,000 miles.
Thanks
Allen[/quote]

As you know the motor is an “interference” motor, meaning valves and pistons will meet if given a chance. I was told, in no uncertain terms. that there is no way in hell under any circumstances that the tbelt can break on a running motor and the motor can come away unscathed.

Chances are you just broke valves and rockers tho. Your pistons probably came away unscathed and that’s huge because it means all the work will be confined to your head.

Hopefully the head wasn’t damaged when the valves got hit. But it could be damaged in ways that are not obvious so a machine shop might have to assess it. If the head’s ok it’s just the replacement of some inexpensive parts and a valve job. Then put the head back on. No big deal.

#8

I’m way less adventurous than Ranger. If it were me, I’d be looking for an ETA engine for sale on BF.c rather than tearing into the one you have hoping that there is minimal, obvious damage to the head.

#9

Pull your head off and take it to a machine shop. Let them tell you how big of a problem you have. No sense worrying about problems that might not exist.

Steve’s idea is pretty good too. If you found a good deal on a relatively low mileage one, it’d be worth considering. An engine swap is a fair amount of work tho. It’ll be a long hard weekend.

#10

Mr. 410 is right. I would assume ETA engines are going for scrap metal prices – by the pound. Gotta be way cheaper than paying a machine shop to rebuild a torked head and wondering what else went wrong.

#11

or just swap the head with a used non torked one.

#12

I really enjoyed that story. You had me laughing for a while. I’m relieved to find that that I’m not the only idiot that does stupid crap like that. I have way too many stories that are eerily similar.