Stinky: The New DD: Is now the Weekend Car

[McGyver]

'grats on the house! I'd love to see some renovation pics

As requested, here’s a brief interlude of house renovations. I have several thousand pictures from the whole renovation process, but barely any from having moved in. My focus was knowing where every beam, MEP component, and framing is located behind the walls. I also installed CAT6 and RG6 cable throughout for ethernet, POE cameras, and the antenna I installed on the roof.

We bought the place in October of 2022 and it took a while to figure out what we wanted to do with it. My wife is an architect, so she went through several design iterations before we settled on one we liked. At the time, she wasn’t licensed, so we had to hire a PE to stamp the drawing set she made. The whole process through License and Inspections took several months and was a massive headache. The engineer was terrible – He suggested all kinds of dumb/expensive ideas to solve simple/cheap problems.

As a corner property, our house was zoned for mixed commercial use and had been a general store. The owner lived upstairs and the first floor was the store. Eventually the owner built a shed to store material at the end of the back yard, then built a fence for the remaining yard, then changed that to a cinder block fence, and finally connected everything with a roof. So the max 80% lot coverage turned into 100% with a legal curb cut for the garage. Honestly, I thought the house was so ugly from the outside that the garage is the only reason I agreed to look at it.





This is what the place initially looked like. At some point the house was an upper and lower unit. Then it was combined, but still had 2 kitchens, 3.5 baths, and 3 bedrooms. The plan was some paint, flooring, move a bathroom, call it a day. (Had ripped the paneling off the walls in the last pic)





Once I took down some drywall, I found all kinds of plumbing and electrical issues. We decided to take it down to the plaster/brick walls, fix all the issues, and put it back together correctly. This let us get modern plumbing, electrical, ducted HVAC, insulation, walls, etc.






It was pretty wild to see it getting framed out. All the lines from our drawing set came to life and we were stuck with them.





Getting the walls up and paint really made it feel like a house again after months of leaks, no windows, and general chaos. Fun fact: I decided to buy appliances on Black Friday sale after we bought the place in 2022 because I expected a 6-month renovation. So they got to sit in storage for almost 2 years before getting installed. Fun!






We were pretty happy with the final product. Some of the finishes and details were a little challenging for the price-point of contractor we hired. Overall, it’s a really nice space to be and nice to finally have a place of our own where I don’t have to hide my car hobby or worry about a landlord needing access.

[McGyver]

Ok, so now the house is (basically) done, the garage floor is great, and the garage is painted. I’m still unemployed and have some free time. Do we start the building the engine? NO! WE HAVE OTHER PROJECTS FIRST!!!

Stinky was fucking disgusting from not being cleaned well in years. Leo left all kinds of slime in the back, we tracked in mud and things spilled. I was tired of driving such a crusty car. I bought a portable carpet cleaner for pet incidents, so I went to work on the carpet. I must have put 10+ gallons of water through the carpet to get it looking decent again. I pulled apart all the door cards and seats to clean them. Also took the time to replace the weather seals in all the doors. The “before” pictures are embarrassing photos. The “after” result was extremely satisfying. I also replaced the inner part of the door handles on the f30. The soft-feel plastic turns to goo over time and it was just super nasty
.








Then the Eagles won the Super Bowl, GO BIRDS!!! We all climbed our light poles and ate our horse shit.



Then I got back to the last few major garage projects. I finally reinstalled the threshold to keep garage smells out of the house. It was actually a bit of a headache to get the height correct, level, and solid. But it came out well.



I wanted to protect my fresh floors from marks when rolling things around the garage, so I began replacing all of the wheels on my tool box, cart, and storage cabinet with polyurethane wheels. Then I decided to modify my engine stand to use the same polyurethane casters. The initial attempt left the engine drooping down, so I had to make an extension to raise the front of the stand. This left the engine empty block slightly lifted up, but will be just about level when I put the whole thing together.

I covered the car with a fiberglass blanket to protect it, but didn’t cover the floor. Well, my flux core splatter made a million little burn marks in the epoxy. Yay. I’m not a welder, but I feel pretty good about how the whole thing turned out.





The final major project was getting a utility sink installed. I had the builder leave a hot and cold water line sticking out of the garage wall. He also left a drain stub.

I decided to get the biggest sink possible so I could fit big car parts. I also decided to get stainless steel for durability. The sink came with legs, but I wanted to wall mount it in the corner so it would be easier to mop under it.

So I got some angle iron and C-channel, cut it to length, welded it together, and mounted it to the walls using concrete anchor plugs. I stood on the mount and bounced a bit to test, it held me just fine, so I’m sure its solid enough! I cut the legs of the sink short to get it to the right height while sitting on the mount. Then I installed a shelf up high, then realized I should have a lower one too for soap and things.

Since the garage drain runs into the kitchen drain line, I installed an Air Admittance Valve to ensure I didn’t suck a p-trap dry or run into other drainage issues. I also made sure to install 1/4 turn ball valves in an accessible spot to shut off water to the sink. This ended up being really handy because it took several tries to stop all the leaks from the cheap hardware that came with the sink.

For some reason, I convinced myself that my house was plumbed with PEX-A (expansion). If I had looked at it, I would have noticed that they used PEX-B (with compression rings). I had bought PEX-A fittings and an expansion tool, so I had to make adapters connect the two. I suppose returning the tool and getting PEX-B was an option, but I didn’t think about it.

You can also see the storage rack I bought to hold all my power tools and batteries, freeing up a drawer in my tool box.





Another key project was getting the fire extinguisher hung. It’s in a great spot and even has room for my boots under it.



The giant drain line going around the garage collects the water from the main roof and the garage roof (soon to be a roof deck) and channels it into the sewer. It’s also in a terrible spot right in the middle of an otherwise flat wall, forcing my workbench to be 6” off the wall. So I made a little wooden shelf to cover the gap.



And now, we are finally ready to start measuring and building the engine.

[AWDBOB]

House and garage build look great! I've been following Chris Hytha's Philly row home project on youtube for a while. I think you'll really enjoy the 2.7L build- assume you'll manual swap at the same time?

[2mAn]

I gotta step up my garage setup… place looks great

[McGyver]

House and garage build look great! I've been following Chris Hytha's Philly row home project on youtube for a while. I think you'll really enjoy the 2.7L build- assume you'll manual swap at the same time?

Yeah, I've got all the manual stuff in the basement. My manual driveshaft got roughed up when the coupe got t-boned, so it needs to be rebuilt or replaced. I'm thinking the engine swap will be a winter thing when I don't want to drive the car.

I gotta step up my garage setup… place looks great

It's been a long journey to get it to this point, and I still need to get more storage on the walls.

Putting the heater in was great as a quick source of heat, but the summer heat and humidity is a killer here. Its currently 82F and 79% humidity in the garage. Spending money on a mini-split AC/Heat Pump probably would have been a better choice. My fan helps, but I'm worried about humidity growing mold, rusting metal, or damaging electronics. I just don't think $1500 for a minisplit is in the budget right now, so I may get a dehumidifier and mount it high above the sink.

[McGyver]

With the garage functional, it was finally time to get started on building the new engine. I was getting a misfire on 1 or two cylinders at startup that went away after a few minutes. I was really only using the car for short trips around Philly when I didn’t want to lose my street parking spot and spend forever trying to park. I figured I had plenty of time I was taking it easy with the build.

Then the car started getting an occasional misfire after running for a while. Then it started smelling like burnt coolant. Then the white smoke started. I decided to park the car until the new engine was ready to preserve what’s left of the factory cat. I didn’t think the build would take too long and I didn’t want to waste time/money on replacing the head gasket.

Well the engine was taking longer than expected. Plus I need the driveshaft rebuilt. And I need to pick a performance clutch. There’s probably other things that need to be pieced together. So I convinced myself that if a timing belt can be done in 2-3 hours, the head gasket is probably only another hour or two. The bolts are only $16, a head gasket is about the same, and a full gasket kit is only $67. I got the full kit so I could remove the intake and exhaust, making it easier to pick up the head. This ended up being a great idea. I also realized that my timing belt was about 5 years old, so I grabbed a new one and tensioner.

Getting the head off was pretty quick. I was cleaning everything I took off the car as I went so that reassembly would be more pleasant. The steam cleaning and excess coolant was very visible in cylinder 3. I notice that the head gasket didn’t look too bad, but I assumed that I was just missing the failure point.





I pulled apart the head so I could clean all everything in the ultrasonic tank and then scrub them. Then I noticed the crack from the valve seat to the coolant channel. I was really upset that the simple job now required a new head or welding/machine work. I was hoping to slap it together and get another 3-6 months of driving in the nice weather and do the swap over the winter. So the car just sat for a couple of weeks while I looked for a new head.




I found some local stuff, but I felt like it was a little overpriced. Then I found a head for cheap, which turned out to be free because the guy felt it was too rough to charge anything for. It was caked in grease, was rusty, and full of grass/leaves. But it didn’t look cracked!





For those counting, I now had 3 heads floating around: 1 cracked, 1 dirty, 1 built for the new engine. I also picked up a spare intake and valve cover. Plus I had the engine. The garage became a mess of parts everywhere in various states of cleanliness.



The first step was getting the cracked head back together. I installed the valves, cam, and rocker shafts, but kept the rockers in a bag so the head can be stored flat without bending a valve.



Step 2 was a full cleaning of the new head, which required stripping it. Small parts went into the ultrasonic tank, larger parts got scrubbed with purple power, aluminum got plastic scrub brushes and steel got brass to remove all the gunk. Its not pictured, but the cam and rocker pads both look ROUGH. This is a 3-6 month engine. The rockers can be tossed and the cam can be reground later (or tossed).



This left me with some ugly valves. We have buffers at work that take laser etchings off steel without removing much of the steel. For better or worse, I decided to use a buffer to get all the carbon off the valves. They look great, hopefully they didn’t have a protective coating!






Now I had pretty valves with pitted sealing surfaces and valve seats that were equally ugly. I lapped in all the valves as best as possible. There’s still some deep pits, but that’s going to take machine work to fix. The goal was good enough to putz around town.





Reassembly time. New valve stem seals. Springs, seats, retainers, and valves all lightly lubed. Cam, rocker shafts, and rockers heavily lubed. The head actually looks pretty great. Obviously it should have been machined, but I wanted to save that for a real rebuild. I kept telling myself this is a 3-6 month engine.






The block got degreased as best as possible. The blind holes for head bolts got cleaned out. Everything else in the engine bay got wiped down with Simple Green to make it all look a little better. Again, it all looks pretty good! Just don’t look at how worn and pitted the some of the cylinder walls are. This block would be great for 1.0mm overbore for a 2.9L stroker. It’ll also be good enough for 3-6 months.

[McGyver]

Hi everyone, how’s it going? In this post we’re going to start the car! (best YouTube impression)

Buttoning it up was pretty simple, except for forgetting that the bitch tube goes in BEFORE the intake manifold. I had to take the thing off twice before I got everything on in the correct order.

I wiped the head and block with acetone to clean it. Then installed the gasket dry. Head bolts and washers were lightly lubed with motor oil. The head went on smooth bolts got torqued to 33Nm (wait 15 min), 90* (wait 15 min), 90* – All while the engine was cold. (we’re coming back to this) I’m fairly certain that I didn’t miss any of the bolts during the torque sequence, but I did get interrupted mid-process. Next time I’ll mark them for each step.

New oil filter and exhaust manifolds went on next. Followed by the timing belt and tensioner (water pump wasn’t removed). I torqued the cam gear and checked that the timing marks lined up after many rotations. Then I set the valve clearance to 0.010” cold. Then the timing covers went on.
Notice how pretty the exhaust manifolds are; Someone grabbed a can of enamel paint instead of high temp paint and didn’t realize until too late.

Eventually the intake, hoses, fuel lines, radiator, pullies, and other stuff was on. I also put in new plugs, filled it with oil and coolant. It was nice to have it parked on a slope for the bleeding process!





It was at this point that I was annoyed that the engine and bay looks like crap after spending so much time cleaning all the other stuff I took off. Whatever, it’s together.




I left the coil disconnected and cranked it a few times to get oil pressure. Then realized the fuel was still connected and I was probably flooding it. No time to worry about that! I plugged in the coil and it fired the first start!

I was annoyed that I spent so much time and effort working on the car, only to have it functional again. I mean, it drove, so that was an improvement, but it was still a tired m20 with a half-assed head.

So I decided to toss the Strömung exhaust on it! It definitely louder and deeper than my stock exhaust. It sounds great at idle, but it also drones a ton around town and on the highway with the constant RPMs of an autotragic. That may be partially due to an exhaust leak from not having the 75mm seal. I just ordered one, so I’ll see if that helps.

I drove about 12 miles around town and it seemed fine, so I figured it was ready for the 30 mile drive to work (which includes highway). I can't tell if it feels down on power, or I'm just used to the tuned 335i, but it had plenty of power for the next few months. I’ve got too much rear toe-in that needs to be fixed and the tires aren’t balanced, but overall it was fine!



Now the bad news. The exhaust manifolds look terrible – whatever.

I also have oil weeping from the passenger side of the back of the head gasket, the two bolts next to cylinder #6. Can I torque those bolts more? How risky is it for them to snap?

It does NOT like to start when hot. It always started on the second turn of the key, but now it takes 3+. I have a new blue coolant temp sensor that I can toss on. Any other ideas?

[AWDBOB]

1) The head bolts are TTY, so in theory now that they’re already stretched, they would just stretch more vs getting tighter. If I recall correctly TobyB was talking about this in an old thread. Perhaps he has more insight.

2) All of the M20 head gaskets on the market I’ve used recently seem to leak oil from either the front or the back of the head where yours is leaking. There’s a thread on using a small bit of anaerobic gasket maker around the silicone oil rings between the block and the HG to keep them from leaking.

3) When you do your 2.7 if you’re shaving the deck 2mm, make sure you run a tap all the way down the head bolt threads since the bolts will now be engaging a few that weren’t used before. EDC Matt spoiled a HG and a set of bolts that way.

[Northern]

I used Rustoleum RockSolid for the floor without using any of their chips to make it easier to find dropped hardware. I bought a 2.5 car kit and a 1 car kit as a backup based on what I had read about people being short. Since I wasn't going to use the chips, I wanted to use their anti-slip additive. They told me to pour everything into a bucket and mix it together, then apply it. This caused the epoxy to cure lightning fast and go on super thick. I had to use everything i bought and it took 3 or 4 days to cure enough to not be tacky (vs the 24-48 hour spec). The finish was splotchy and looked terrible, so i got another 2.5 kit and poured the anti-slip into the epoxy bag this time. It went on like expected, but the total cost was just under what it would cost for the professional stuff. I complained to Rustoleum and they refunded both of the original kits, so i feel like it was a good deal, but I would get the professional stuff next time. I've been very careful with the floor, but even my rolling chair has scratched it like crazy.

I used their cheaper Epoxy Shield kit and I had some serious issues with there being chunks in one of the kits. I should probably complain and see if I can get something back. It's a bummer because all the chunks are soft and just look like wads of gum stuck to the floor everywhere. Otherwise it's held up pretty well for the past 2 years, but that's not saying much.

[uturn]

Long cranking to start when hot is usually a bad check valve on the fuel pump or leaking injectors. Put a gage on your fuel pressure line and see if it's dropping off when you shut down the car.

[McGyver]

I'm a little over 130 miles into the driving it after the repair. The oil weep continues, but its so slow that it's not registering on the dip stick. I think I'm just going to have to live with the "rust-proofing".

I also had a small coolant leak, which turned out to be a pinhole leak in a hose that goes to the throttle body heater (which is currently bypassed). It was simple enough to cut the hose back an inch to get to a solid section. I also replaced the old blue CTS with a new Bosch CTS I found in a box of spare parts. Then the simple task of tightening the plastic radiator drain bolt introduced a new problem when the head of the plastic bolt snapped off. I moved the o-ring to a steel bolt, which seems to be holding. I'm excited to switch to a new Mishimoto radiator without the transmission cooler when the engine gets swapped.

The new annoyance is that the exhaust is sitting too close to the passenger side of the cutout, so it clanks around some over bumps. I just replaced both doughnut and the one double-d exhaust hangers, so I'm not sure what the issue is. I did notice that the cat isn't mounted to the transmission, so maybe fabbing up a bracket for that will pull it into alignment.

I put another 60 trouble-free miles on it on Friday. It seems like the car is back!

I used their cheaper Epoxy Shield kit and I had some serious issues with there being chunks in one of the kits. I should probably complain and see if I can get something back. It's a bummer because all the chunks are soft and just look like wads of gum stuck to the floor everywhere. Otherwise it's held up pretty well for the past 2 years, but that's not saying much.

You should 100% complain to them. They asked for pictures of the issue, my receipt, and the lot code on the boxes. They processed the complaint and just sent me a check in the mail. My floor is already getting pretty scratched and discolored from where my rolling chair scoots around. I don't have much expectation for it to stay looking nice, but for $200-ish, its way better than "good enough". If we sell the house, I'll give the floor a light sand and then lay down another layer and it'll look amazing in there (for a short time).

Long cranking to start when hot is usually a bad check valve on the fuel pump or leaking injectors. Put a gage on your fuel pressure line and see if it's dropping off when you shut down the car.

That's kind of what I was thinking. I suppose I could get a pressure gauge on it. Its just strange that it always starts first time when cold, so the pump builds pressure quick. I guess leaking injector(s) could flood the cylinder(s) and need some time to eject the excess. Sometimes I do get a really strong smell of raw fuel, but I've never been able to find a wet spot or leak.

[Northern]

That Reno was a massive undertaking. End result looks excellent.
Garage glowup is impressive. Love how the floor turned out, mine is much darker and I think the lighter tone looks much more like a professional job.
I love the sink - I really thought about running water/drains to my shop (even seasonally via hose and dumping the water outside) but decided against it because there wasn't room and I have a plastic set tub in the basement that I already ruined cleaning car parts. It's just not in a convenient space to get to, and it also means I can't wash my hands before coming in the house...

With that roof drain, would it make sense to notch the tool bench to get that 6" back? I know I'd kill for 6" more width in mine, but my layout is also different.

Edit: I meant to edit my other post with this yesterday, but kid woke up and I had to run.

[McGyver]

That Reno was a massive undertaking. End result looks excellent.
Garage glowup is impressive. Love how the floor turned out, mine is much darker and I think the lighter tone looks much more like a professional job.
I love the sink - I really thought about running water/drains to my shop (even seasonally via hose and dumping the water outside) but decided against it because there wasn't room and I have a plastic set tub in the basement that I already ruined cleaning car parts. It's just not in a convenient space to get to, and it also means I can't wash my hands before coming in the house...

With that roof drain, would it make sense to notch the tool bench to get that 6" back? I know I'd kill for 6" more width in mine, but my layout is also different.

Edit: I meant to edit my other post with this yesterday, but kid woke up and I had to run.

Yeah, it's all been a ton of work, and we still need to paint the exterior, build a deck surface, and build a cornice to replace the one that was removed. I also need to focus on parging the basement walls to repair crumbling mortar, level some of the floor areas and pour new concrete, paint the ceiling (bare underside of the first floor), and run power/water for a washer and dryer in the basement for car-work clothes/towels. Its all just time and money, but it'll be well suited to our needs when its all done.

Oh, and you may have noticed the mold in the corner of the garage. I need to work with my neighbor to make sure his concete back yard drains so I don’t get moisture trapped in the CMU wall. I thought this might become an issue, and it definitely has.

The utility sink is a game change: Dirty mop water and other junk can be cleaned up away from the kitchen sink, I can get car parts clean, its so nice. For you, running hot/cold water it probably a pain to get it buried deep enough to be below the frost. You're drain is probably also an issue, but you could have everything dump to a tank below the sink, and then a level sensitive pump to push it to the house drain. The benefit of this process is that all sediment will get trapped in the tank instead of potentially clogging your drain line or damaging the pump (but you have to clean it regularly).

I thought about cutting the bench short or notching the bench, but I decided that the little wasted space behind the bench isn't super critical. I also don't want to screw up my nice long/deep workbench. I ended up making a small shelf to cover the 6" on one side and have my battery chargers on the other side.

[McGyver]

We’re finally at looking at the engine that’s supposed to be in this car!

My original plan was to use a super eta bottom end for the displacement with an m20b25 885 head for flow and cam profile (and more oil journals), and then boost it. I knew I was leaving CA soon, so going turbo wouldn’t be an issue for the last bit of time there. In January 2020, I picked up an engine, then locked up the brakes and slid into a Prius on the way home. So I got some smoked Depot Smilies. The piston skirts were all really worn. One piston had detonated, causing a chunk to push against the cylinder and left a heat mark on the block from where it was contacting. All six pistons had valve marks. So this was basically a waste, but I got a crank and rods. I ended up scrapping the block and selling the head. I still have the pistons somewhere.





The new plan was to build a 2.7i and turbo it. So 84mm bore m20 block, 81mm crank, 135mm rods, b25 pistons, 885 head, b25 cam, deck the block 2mm to restore compression, adjustable cam gear to restore timing.

Before I left the Bay, I had some engine work done by Star Machine in Emeryville, CA in March 2022. I cannot recommend Shawn enough for your engine work. He’s a genuinely nice guy and will take the time to talk through your plans with you, offer suggestions to make things better, and does a quality job. The head got jet washed, pressure tested, surfaced 0.005”, refaced valves, new valve guides and seals, and valve seats 3 angle cut. He had the m20b27 (81mm) crank magnafluxed and polished. The b27 (135mm) rods got cut, bored the big ends, and honed the small ends. I brought the head disassembled and without a cam, he put it together for me and tossed in a b25 cam he had laying around. This was about $884.

I also bought some goodies from Bimmerheads in January 2021. A 280/274 regrind camshaft, ARP Head Studs, Main Studs, and Rod Bolts, Nuke Adjustable Cam Gear, HD Rocker Arms, ACL Race Main Bearings and Rod Bearings, Bottom End Gasket Set, and Head Gasket Set. This was about $2,006.

In April 2022 I moved to Philly where I rented an apartment without any workshop space. So basically all my parts and tools went into storage.

Around October 2022 a BMW workshop/garage/hangout space in Philly was closing down and trying to get rid of their entire hoard of parts. They didn’t have much that was interesting, but they did have an m20b25 short block leaning against a wall. According to the seller, this engine came out of the convertible that drove down the Philadelphia Museum of Art “Rocky Steps” around October of 2013. They say the parking brake failed and the car rolled, so they had to drive the rest of the way down. The car was impounded for a long time, people got arrested, it was a huge deal. The car almost got crushed, but ended up being saved.



The seller also mentioned that it MIGHT have had a rod knock. Well I was able to pick it up and set it in my trunk, but it was too heavy to take out without some disassembly. So I pulled all the pistons and rods and most of the main caps. I remember struggling with getting the crank out, something about the front balancer bolt off and/or front/back covers. Well, several of the rod bearings were beyond fucked. Luckily all I needed was the block.




So I took it to BMS (Budz MotorSports) to machine the block in February 2024. They hot tanked it (safe for the oil pump intermediate shaft bearing), magnafluxed the block, surfaced the block 0.075” (to restore compression), bored and honed the cylinders for new 84.5mm pistons with a torque plate (double over), cut and align honed the main caps, and CC’d the combustion chambers in the head. This cost about $1,195.




Once the garage was done, it was finally time to get the engine together for spring, LOL!!! I wanted to blueprint this engine, so I started by measuring and grinding rings, then realized I bought late block (double tang) main bearings and I have an early block (single tang). Waiting for new bearings meant painting it to keep progress going. This was definitely out of order.

For any future build, I plan to
1. Start with making piston-rod assemblies that are the same length. This is done by measuring rod end center-to-center and piston wrist pin center to bottom of the dish, then combining them to make equal length assemblies.
2. Then measure TDC height of a single piston in all cylinders using old bearings for the mains and rod. This gives you a measurement of the deck compared to a constant piston assembly. (Is the deck tapered or bowed?)
3. Then measure all pistons in the same cylinder using the same rod bearing. This gives you the actual height of each piston assembly.
4. Figure out which cylinder each assembly will go in to get as close to the same TDC height as possible across the deck. This may require swapping pistons/rods.
5. Now measure piston to cylinder clearance to know everything fits correctly.

At this point you should have the same combustion across all cylinders and you know the cylinders are bored/honed correctly to the pistons. You can also measure rod big end for bearing clearance. Now you can file piston rings to the individual cylinders because the diameter isn’t changing. This is also a decent time to paint it because you know all the machining should be done – The piston to valve clearance still needs to be measured, so you might need to deck something.

BMS had sprayed the block with self-etching primer and I kept WD40 on the exposed metal. I used wire brushes on a drill to remove all rust and paint, bringing it back to bare metal. I kept some light oil (WD40) on it overnight to prevent rust. Prior to paint, I torched the whole block with MAP gas to burn off any water or oils. Then I wiped it using a blue shop paper towel with acetone to remove the burnt oil residue. Then I hit the whole thing with MAP gas again until it looked fully dry.





I had been watching Uncle Tony’s Garage and he suggested using Rust-Oleum Protective Enamel for engines. There weren’t many exciting colors at Home Depot. I kind of liked the idea of a gold engine in a white car, but I did gold in Luna. I didn’t want a black block, and I liked the bare cast iron look, so I picked “Aluminum”. I masked all the machined surfaces, and then painted it with the White clean metal primer. (Use a foam brush and throw it away). It looked pretty uniform after two coats a day or so apart. Then I put two coats of the silver paint on it a day or so apart. I went kind of thick with all of it, but tried to avoid runs. It came out really great, but I do have some spots to touch up. We’ll see if it holds up to grease, oils, and solvents. I also wire brushed some stock exhaust manifolds and hit them with high temp flat black paint. They look good enough for stock cast manifolds that I don’t intend to use for long.








The final step was to replace the freeze plugs. I ordered a set of genuine BMW steel plugs from BMW of South Atlanta for $52 shipped. They sell in volume online, so they have really great prices. Sometimes you can use them to price match at your local dealership. I used Vibra-TITE 550 to seal them. When replacing them, you just hit one side to get it to rotate, then grab the edge and pull it out. PAY ATTENTION to where the cylinder is in relation to the plug: One side may bottom out into the cylinder whereas the other side wouldn’t have this issue. None of the plugs looked too bad, so maybe they wouldn’t have leaked, but this was cheap and easy with the engine on a stand.

[JasonWilson48]

Wow. I just did a deep dive through your project threads. Awesome stuff. Crazy to see your transformation form your first E30 to now. I'm also super jealous of your garage setup. Assuming your down in South Philly? Looks awesome. I have a detached garage setup at my place up in Germantown. I store my E30 in there, but it is currently not in a spot where I can actually work in there, so I do all my work on it right out side of the garage. I also can't keep my tools in there since I need to fix the door and rekey the locks. I'm hoping to get it in a better spot soon, but funds aren't there right now to do so. I need to rip the roof off and re-run the electrical out there. All the previous work was shotty DIY work that needs to be inspected and reworked. Alas, when the funds permit me... I will forge ahead with it.

I am typing out my project thread(s) now and will hopefully post some of them soon. Maybe one of them will include my garage renovation like yours lol. I am just a newb to the E30 game, but hope to document my journey here soon as well. It would be awesome to have a thread I can look back on years from now.

I am also battling my clutch/transmission at the moment, so my car is currently out of service. We will have to meetup sometime soon once I get mine road worthy again.

Anyway, I'm subscribed and can't wait to see this engine in stinky soon! Good luck