1971 BMW 1600 Project

[phreshkid]

What's up with the F360 hiding back there?

Headed to a buddy's place in the Philippines. This is the 3rd one this year.

[phreshkid]

Ran by the shop today in Fullerton.

The carb tuning is done, and they are finishing up on the custom carb linkage system. They basically scrapped the cable linkage, and modified the linkage from a set of side drafts and downdraft 32/36 carb to work with this single DCOE 45.

I only took one photo and here it is. The guys at the shop say this system will be much smoother than the cable system that I had in there before. I'm optimistic.



Car should be done before Friday.

[phreshkid]

Updates:

I picked up the car from the shop in Fullerton today.

Carb is nice and responsive, new linkage works great (MUCH better than the cable linkage), and fuel pump is now in the trunk instead of the engine bay. Car runs great, but I need to tinker with the exhaust a bit as it's hitting the rear subframe under speed.

Linkage Photos:





Because the hood is off, I noticed a puff of smoke every 30 seconds or so. I noticed that the distributor is leaking oil. I spoke with the shop and we both concluded that the dizzy o-ring is bad. They suggested that I buy an oem o-ring and swap it out for the current o-ring that is in there now. A quick search showed that this is a common problem with this distributor.

Nice puddle of oil:


Exhaust Headers getting #rekt:



But hey, the car drives and feels pretty good. I put over 30 miles on her today and though I didn't drive her very hard, there is noticeable power with a slight tap of the gas. This engine has balls. No issues with temp thus far.

My speedo doesn't want to work correctly though. For some reason, it's very slow to react to actual speed. For example, if I'm going 40 miles an hour, it will show that I'm going 20ish miles an hour. The speedo acts as if it's struggling to catch up, but never really does. The 1600 clock right beside the speedo doesn't work either. BUT the mileage works, which is nice.

I gave the car a quick wash today. It's not perfect, but I'll start devising a plan for the paint. I'm likely going to wet sand the car with 1200 grit sand paper and then again with 2000 grit, then give it a good buff. I think this will still let me keep the "patina" while making the car look a bit more presentable. I think. Will know more in the coming days.

[LJ851]

Glad to hear it is running ! I bet it was nice to be behind the wheel.

1) You need some early/euro front turn signals.

2) Tidy up the engine bay wiring.

[phreshkid]

Glad to hear it is running ! I bet it was nice to be behind the wheel.

1) You need some early/euro front turn signals.

2) Tidy up the engine bay wiring.

I feel like a small child on valentines day. Not because of the valentines cards, but because of all the free candy.

1. Have a nice set, but haven't installed them. I'll probably do that once I get the paint dialed in.

2. It's going to happen.

[jdt10768]

I have a '70, and my speedo reads about 10-12 mph faster than actual. keeps me honest. You can have the speedo recalibrated, some place called North Hollywood Speedometer ... I never cared enough to send mine away

[delatlanta1281]

Awesome progress!

[phreshkid]

I have a '70, and my speedo reads about 10-12 mph faster than actual. keeps me honest. You can have the speedo recalibrated, some place called North Hollywood Speedometer ... I never cared enough to send mine away

This car originally came with a 4.10 rear end. Now that it has a 3.91, the speedo will change. I don't know how to explain it, but the speedo shows about half of the speed that I'm actually doing. I'll look into this more once the 5-speed swap goes in.

Awesome progress!

Thanks! but I'm not out of the woods yet. Updates below.















I've been driving the car a little each day, and managed to put about 90 miles on the car over the course of 4 days. I've found new issues and and researching how to address them. I'll explain below.


Here is a shot of the front end:




Turns out the distributor is leaking more than I thought it was. I don't know what I did wrong, but I'm willing to bet the o-ring is the fault. I've temporarily wrapped a piece of towel at the base of the dizzy to help sponge up the oil, before it begins dripping on the exhaust again. I'm on my second piece of cotton towel in two days. It leaks.



Carnage of oil dripping on the exhaust from below:


The photo above also shows another big problem: the exhaust headers are coming into contact with part of the front subframe. You can see where the contact is happening and if it is the culprit, is causing an ungodly amount of vibration to the whole car under decent acceleration and higher rpms. I know the engine naturally torques to the right (when sitting in the driver's seat) under acceleration, but this vibration is huge. I may try to add a shim or two under the passenger side motor mount, creating a greater distance between the exhaust and the subframe. I don't want to modify the exhaust unless it's a last resort.

Here is another photo of the potential contact between the exhaust header and the subframe piece:

It seems to be touching when the engine is torquing, or under acceleration. I can say that I replaced the cube-like motor mount on the passenger side, but have not replaced the driver's side mount with a new unit. I'll explore my options tomorrow when I get in on a lift.


Next up, which might be a larger problem is what I think is "engine blow-by". There is oil blowing out of the filter coming from the valve cover vent. It's not much, but it is oil and does concern me. I know this is a new engine, and the piston rings should have theoretically seated by now. I spoke with the engine builder and told me to give the head another 400 miles of "breaking in". He also suggested that I pull the valve cover and see if the passenger side of the upper timing chain cover for leaks. He says they are usually hard to seal up and I may have a leak there. Not very reassuring, but I'll check it as well. And if it is leaking, then what? What are my options?
Photo of leaky valve cover vent filter:

You can see the oil splatter below and on the filter itself. I'm concerned.


Here is a shot of the gauge cluster. The temperature doesn't get much hotter than that, regardless of driving in traffic, or constant speed. Shouldn't the engine run at a higher temperature? I know that there is a lower-temperature thermostat installed. I wonder if changing it to a higher temp unit would help raise the operating temperature.




And lastly, my headlights don't work. They used to work, but no longer work. Last time I checked them was a few weeks ago while on the lift. I haven't checked them since and last night when I wanted to drive the car, I couldn't get the headlights to work. The interior cluster lights, daytime running turn signals, and rear tail lights worked when the headlight switch was pulled two notches out, but no headlights, highs or lows would work. Any suggestions to this?

I know that the headlights are unfused, and un-relayed on the 1971 1600. Where do I begin searching for the culprit? I'm going to pull the headlight switch and check the contacts. I'll try to play with a test light to see if I'm getting power to the headlights.


That's all I have for now.

Your suggestions are important.


Regards

[LJ851]

A breather filter on the valve cover will drip oil even on tight engine. That originally had a hose going into the air filter housing. I'm not suggesting the amount of oil leaking is not excessive however.

Cylinder heads don't break in. Piston rings do, are they new?

Temp gauge looks like it is sitting at the low temp thermo # to me, a higher temp one should raise it but i'm ok where it's at now.

Your headlight dip switch (LH stalk) is probably the culprit.

[BuzzBomb]

Next up, which might be a larger problem is what I think is "engine blow-by". There is oil blowing out of the filter coming from the valve cover vent. It's not much, but it is oil and does concern me. I know this is a new engine, and the piston rings should have theoretically seated by now. I spoke with the engine builder and told me to give the head another 400 miles of "breaking in". He also suggested that I pull the valve cover and see if the passenger side of the upper timing chain cover for leaks. He says they are usually hard to seal up and I may have a leak there. Not very reassuring, but I'll check it as well. And if it is leaking, then what? What are my options?
Photo of leaky valve cover vent filter:

You can see the oil splatter below and on the filter itself. I'm concerned.

Your suggestions are important.


Regards

If you're venting to the atmosphere, your best and environmentally friendly fix is an "Oil-Air Separator", or oil/vapor separator(ovs). In from your valve cover, out to a fitting on your air filter backing plate. It will either need to be drained periodically, or there are versions that use a smaller vacuum size hose to return separated oil to a nipple on the block or pan. Summit Racing, lots of people carry them in different configurations but all do the same job.

[ahlem]

You'll get great info at bmw2002faq.com
All these issues and more have been addressed before. It's a great forum.

[LJ851]

You'll get great info at bmw2002faq.com
All these issues and more have been addressed before. It's a great forum.

He is there.

Our info is great here, too.

[jimsill]

Had the same problem with headlights, switch was the culprit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[phreshkid]

I bought one of these (unpolished). Thanks for the suggestions and advice.



I also messed with the distributor a bit. No updates yet.

I removed all the beltline trim and giving it all a good polish. The perfectionist in me is holding off from just buying all new trim, since this trim is slightly beat up, but is cleaning up rather nicely. Photos to come soon.

Buzzbomb stopped by today and we had a good chat about cars.

Oh yeah, it looks like the 5-speed swap will be happening much sooner than I thought, and I'm not even mad. I can either have my current driveshaft rebuilt/balanced at the tune of $200, or I can throw that $200 into having the 320i driveshaft shortened/modified for the 5-speed swap.


Things I need to collect for the 5-speed swap:
-323i throw out bearing
-longer speedo drive (I think a Bavaria unit will fit)
- SS clutch line
-rebuilt pedal box for hydraulic clutch (have a core in stock)
- clutch master cylinder
-clutch slave cylinder
-metal pivot pin (might as well)
-various gaskets and rubber seals
-6-bolt guibo
-new CSB
-shortened driveshaft
-Shortened shift plate/selector rod
-and other things that I usually forget



I need a vacation.


More photos to come.

[rturbo 930]

I would get a regular rubber clutch line. From what I've read, there isn't a noticeable difference in feel between a new rubber line, and a SS line. It's just a marketing gimmick IMO, especially on the clutch line, although I'm sure others will disagree with me.