1971 BMW 1600 Project

[LJ851]

Is that Petri dished ? :giggle:

[phreshkid]

If you're looking to part ways with that Petri, I might be interested in buying it.

The Petri wheel will stay with me. It's too nice to sell. But thanks!

Is that Petri dished ? :giggle:

No sir it's not!

[phreshkid]

Driving the car around with the new wheel:

[MR 325]

Awesome work so far. I really like what you're doing with the car!

[CorvallisBMW]

I'm really digging the patina look!

[phreshkid]

Not much to update here.

There have been some technical difficulties on the shippers end for the engine. Seems like things just aren't going right with that one, but I'll be patient for another week before I flip.

I also ordered a bunch of new parts: Spax suspension kit from the UK (50mm lowering kit, 28 way adjustable dampening), new upper strut bearing, rear shock rubber mounts, some misc. parts originally from IE.

I'm really just waiting on parts to arrive. I don't want to tear into the car until the new engine gets here.




Edit:

Just got home. These showed up: Spax Performance Shocks/Struts. They look good from here, but I can't comment on the performance or life expectancy. New upper strut bearings, ATE Brake fluid, and an extra pair of rear shock rubber mounts.

[delatlanta1281]

Great work so far! Did you get your motor?

[phreshkid]

Great work so far! Did you get your motor?

No! Six weeks since I purchased it. Jason's wife says it's en route as of this morning.

But then again, they said that three other times. This time they gave me a lading number and the shipping company's name. We'll see what comes of this.

[phreshkid]

Still waiting, but got a few things done.

First, the springs came in; the final piece to my suspension puzzle. Spax assures me that when paired with their dampers, the car will be lowered 50mm, as advertised. Now I don't know about you, but 50mm seems like a good drop for an 02. If it interferes with camber (too much), I'll likely rectify by redoing the rear subframe with an adjustable camber kit, and better camber plates in front. I should probably do that from the start, now that I think about it.

One thing that I didn't think to ask Spax before I ordered the springs, is whether their springs were linear or progressive. I was surprised to find out that these are of the progressive variety. This means that even if I wanted to cut the springs, I no longer can. Not a big deal. If I'm unsatisfied, I'll go with coilovers.









I went ahead and attached the side draft carb (DCOE 45) to the Lynx manifold. The end product looks great. Can't wait for the motor to arrive. Things will move quickly once it does.



Looks good to me.






And here she is, patiently waiting her turn on the lift. She will emerge a star. Hopefully.




That's all I have. I wish I had more to give.

[CabbE30]

Surf car he said... meh, not jelly in the slightest.

[phreshkid]

Engine Update:

Engine showed up at the warehouse on Friday. I didn't go to work for a few days due to a minor cold and a new surfboard. I spent a lot of time in the water, with a few three surf-session days.

Anyways, I finally got to peek at what came in. I've never purchased an engine from the other side of the country, so I don't know how they should be packaged/shipped. This looks to be ok, though I wish there was more padding. Either way,things look fine from a preliminary search.



So I cut all the straps, unwrapped the condom (get it, because it was wrapped around the head), and muscled it into a spare tire I had laying around. Don't judge me.



After a quick assessment, everything looks to be new and rebuilt. I still don't know much about the alternator, it may be of a higher Amperage unit. Engine came with arms and new motor mounts. That was nice of the seller to include. The valve cover is a pretty rare super early m10 valve cover. Nice touch.

I took a closer look at the stud holes in the head and noticed one had been repaired and helicoiled. This was not in the description.


Not a huge deal, especially if repaired properly.

Then I started fitting the rerouted coolant hoses and metal pieces. This is because I won't be running the standard downdraft carb/manifold system. The new set up will be much simpler in design and flow air/fuel better.



Next came all the cool stuff. I test fit the intake manifold a few times and every time I had to do a little grinding to gain clearance for the nuts going on the studs. But in the end, I prevailed.
Here she is, closer and closer to completion.





The exhaust header is from a local So Cal company Top End Performance in North Hollywood. It's a mild steel manifold that I will change out soon enough. I have a much cooler manifold on the way now.

So yeah, I'm pretty excited.







Forgot to post this, but I also installed IE's fixed camber plates. I haven't thought this all the way through it seems. The car will be roughly 50mm lower than stock, so there will be a natural occurrence of negative camber. Then when I install these fixed camber plates, I will increase camber even more. I just might have too much neg. camber for a primarily street driven car. And I haven't even thought about the back. The last thing I want is to destroy the RA1s in less than a year. Andrew, do you have any insight on this?



Completed:



And here is a quick shot of what my and by buddies have in the warehouse. All cars belong to one of us. E28 m5, E34 m5, E39 m5, E30 m3, 1600, and a few others not pictured.



Stay tuned.

[CubbyChowder]

damn, nice update

[tak7]

damn, nice update

Is that just a private space to work on cars? Or a shop? Nice rides!

[phreshkid]

Is that just a private space to work on cars? Or a shop? Nice rides!

Private space. We offer shop services only to close friends, and those who can pay. We mostly play with our own cars though.

[SkiFree]

Forgot to post this, but I also installed IE's fixed camber plates. I haven't thought this all the way through it seems. The car will be roughly 50mm lower than stock, so there will be a natural occurrence of negative camber. Then when I install these fixed camber plates, I will increase camber even more. I just might have too much neg. camber for a primarily street driven car. And I haven't even thought about the back. The last thing I want is to destroy the RA1s in less than a year. Andrew, do you have any insight on this?

You'll be sitting at around 1.5°-ish negative camber which will be just fine for a sporty street car (Jeremy spent 10 years driving around with 3°). The trick is to make sure the car is corner balanced and your toe set at 1/16° in on either side.