Mike's Alpine White 1991 318is

[D.Martijn]

Haha, yeah. That is a really nicely done E21. The body is very straight, it has great paint, and it has a well put together turbo kit. The owner says it puts down about 250hp at the wheels.

Thanks, I'm very glad to have all new rubber fuel lines in the car. Next up I'm going to replace all the rubber brake lines. They've held up well for the last few HPDEs, but I don't know how old they are so I'll be replacing them for safety's sake.

Yea, it does look very nice!

Are you planning on upgrading to braided stainless lines?

[jeenyus]

I personally wouldn't run braided lines if I had to the option to run Chase Bay's teflon lines. Braided seem like they can get completely filled with crude from the road and deteriorate inward without you even knowing till it's too late.

[mike.bmw]

Yea, it does look very nice!

Are you planning on upgrading to braided stainless lines?

Yeah, I am leaning towards replacing all 6 lines rubber lines (to include the hard-to-reach pair over the subframe) with a braided stainless kit. Not sure which kit yet though.

[jeenyus]

Yeah, I am leaning towards replacing all 6 lines rubber lines (to include the hard-to-reach pair over the subframe) with a braided stainless kit. Not sure which kit yet though.

Chase Bay's. Eliminate the divided rear lines to be a singular line. They are also not braided.

[mike.bmw]

I personally wouldn't run braided lines if I had to the option to run Chase Bay's teflon lines. Braided seem like they can get completely filled with crude from the road and deteriorate inward without you even knowing till it's too late.

Good to know. I'd go with oem replacements, but the last time I looked I couldn't find all the lines. There are other brands like ATE that sell rubber replacements, but I have read terrible reviews about those failing. So I figured a kit from Garagistic or another vendor might be my best option.

At the moment my only other necessary Vintage prep items are the brake lines and replacing my 7 year old battery. Of course I have a long list of unnecessary items too. ;)

[jeenyus]

These things won't fail ever and remove that unnecessary section of hard line nobody needs.

[mike.bmw]

Chase Bay's. Eliminate the divided rear lines to be a singular line. They are also not braided.

I will check those out, thanks for the suggestion!

[D.Martijn]

Good to know. I'd go with oem replacements, but the last time I looked I couldn't find all the lines. There are other brands like ATE that sell rubber replacements, but I have read terrible reviews about those failing. So I figured a kit from Garagistic or another vendor might be my best option.

At the moment my only other necessary Vintage prep items are the brake lines and replacing my 7 year old battery. Of course I have a long list of unnecessary items too. ;)

I went with Bosch brake lines, in Belgium it's not allowed to use braided stainless steel lines by the technical inspection
So far I have no problems with them...

[mike.bmw]

Blackstone Labs Used Oil Analysis

I got my Used Oil Analysis report from Blackstone Labs yesterday. Everything looks great. I only had 2500 miles on this oil which included 4 hours and 170 miles of track time. If you read the comments in the report, they wanted me to keep an eye on the copper levels. I responded to Blackstone's email with the report and told them about the track time. A Blackstone analyst responded with this:

The hard use you mentioned more than likely factored into the slightly high
copper level. But even with a bit of extra copper, this engine is still
wearing quite nicely and you'll be in good shape if copper is at least
stable from here. Nice report.

Best,
Joe Adams
Analyst
Blackstone Laboratories

Report:

BlackstoneLabsUOA-M42-200129 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

And to make this slightly less boring here are some photos from last weekend!

DSC_0498 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0549 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0561 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0536 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[mike.bmw]

More photos. I went back to a location from last week. I think this building is super cool.

DSC_0527 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0505 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0535 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[D.Martijn]

Those shot are very nice!
Cool that you can see the E30 in the windows again

[mike.bmw]

Those shot are very nice!
Cool that you can see the E30 in the windows again

Thanks! It's a very unique building. Lots of angles. When I went last week I wasn't aware this little traffic circle existed. I purposely caught myself taking the photo in the first one. :)

[dmanb2b]

Great pics Mike!.. I am a huge T6 fan. I may try M1 5w-40 Turbo Diesel Truck after T6 in the S52 ;>)

[mike.bmw]

Great pics Mike!.. I am a huge T6 fan. I may try M1 5w-40 Turbo Diesel Truck after T6 in the S52 ;>)

Thanks! T6 is magical. I've used it in my motorcycles, Subarus, Volvo 240, and now my 318is. Blackstone UOAs show it's a great oil with a wide range of applications.

[jeenyus]

This is a beautiful picture. Love the angle. Love the car in the reflection. Thank you for sharing.