patrick.net

Oh and for reference, here is where I am SUPER glad that the car didn't break down on me!

Highway 247 to Barstow:
http://maps.google.com/?ll=34.724467,-116.990333&spn=0.034743,0.052314&t=h&z=15&layer=c&cbll=34.724467,-116.990333&panoid=q1UNQe_dzUSvMkBz3LHo1w&cbp=12,337.78,,0,4.5

Highway 58 to Bakersfield:
http://maps.google.com/?ll=35.011684,-117.906604&spn=0.017381,0.026157&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=35.011684,-117.906604&panoid=Rua_t7qOI06LByWa4-iUhg&cbp=12,100.11,,0,-0.59

Kettleman City is about 164 miles form my parents' house (and they are cool with me dropping my car there when it needs work since my father has every imaginable tool). I live about 20 miles form them, so I can get over there for projects pretty easily.

Anyway, I could have had AAA tow it at no charge, but I was really irritated with the motor & decided to drive it as far as it would get me. Well, as it turns out, revving the motor over ~2500RPM got the oil pressure high enough that the hydraulic tensioning piston for the chain pushed hard enough to keep everything in good alignment! So, 162 of the 164 miles were actually trouble-free since I was on the highway at constant RPM. The car still pulled 29MPG and the motor had full power. It was just the last two miles of stop lights where the car was really unhappy.

The car actually gave a death cry as I was driving home. I consider it a sign that I should toss the motor rather than fix it (again). The f***ing horn button started sticking about 5 miles from home on highway 85. So here I am, clunking down the highway and randomly honking like a goober. Sheesh. At least the horn button is an easy 5 minute fix.

I was trying to up load a picture of one of my hot-rods but goofed up....I don't know why.

It's cool. That rosemary picture makes me want to pan-fry some pork chops!

bmwman91:
I love it when you talk dirty!

You should have SEEN the gunky shit that built up on this motor when I cleaned it off last year. There was 1/4" of road dirt & old oil built up on most of the front-facing surfaces of the motor. I had to get a metal pan, a gallon of paint thinner & a toothbrush out to rectify that, since the motor was mostly disassembled. The ultrasonic cleaning tank also helped. I love showing up for my office job with cut up hands & perma-grease that doesn't go away because it is IN the outer layer of skin. The only other guys at work that I know of that work on their cars at all are our lab techs. The engineering staff...I don't think that they change their own oil.

Funny side-story:
The skid plate under the motor was really nasty with leaked oil & power steering fluid, and all sorts of dirt. Basically, due to its design, I needed some sort of very large pipe cleaner to get the crap out of the worst spots on this thing. I went to a local hardware store & asked the guy if they had large pipe cleaners of some sort...like 3" in diameter and at least 24" long, for my car project. He sort of looked at me for a minute, and told me that they had just what I was looking for. He also informed me that I was the first person to ask for one of these that DIDN'T ask him where they could find "bong cleaners." I got a good chuckle from that.

The skid plate.

Why does the car have one? Well, yet ANOTHER misadventure led me to it!

Yeah, that's all of my motor oil on the ground. I hit a rock on my way out to my favorite cliff jumping spot on the Stanislaus Rivver in 2006. Oops. 12 miles from cell service...bummer. Still, it was a fun fun day on the river since I didn't notice this until we were done & back at the car.


Story & pics: http://bmw.e30tuner.com/my318is_pic_panbreak.php

I don't understand how you could be going through timing chains so often.

The timing chain is fine, I have never heard of one breaking in my 12 years in the E30/318iS community. It is the rest of the assembly that seems to have issues. A couple of people have had the bearings on that little sprocket blow out, and I guess that seems reasonable after 200,000 miles. The busted timing case casting is another thing though, and it is bullshit. I know of one or two others that have had that happen, and in the last year too. Maybe the cast ribs are a bad design & cause a stress concentration or something. Being aluminum, there's no endurance limit, so it is bound to fail at some point. Anyway, it is feasible that the casting was damaged when the sprocket failed last year. Even a small nick in the rib could be all it took.

But, since this motor seems to be of dubious reliability (previous owner didn't maintain it well, I drove it really hard), I am putting in a completely refreshed one with a modified timing assembly. The guys that are building my new motor change it to a single-row chain, which greatly reduces the inertial loading on the components. The single row chain has been track-proven to be just as reliable as the overkill double-row one. They also knock off like 4kg of reciprocating mass from the valvetrain & crank assembly, and around 15lbs from the flywheel assembly.

The REAL question though, is can I even use the motor I want in CA? I am not TOO concerned about SMOG since the car's emissions are about 3% of the allowed limits in stock form. The fuel injection & ignition are fully electronic, so the built motor can still be tuned to pull 30MPG on the highway & run clean when the throttle is not fully open. However, 11.5:1 compression might not play nice with the 91 octane pump gas we are stuck with here.

RE: skid plate. Years ago I was driving I-70 in Colorado/Utah and there was a dead deer in the road. I could feel the skid plate connect with the carcass but it was winter & possibly black ice weather, so I couldn't avoid. We drove all night - when we got home the next morning the dogs were eating the "treats" off the skid plate. They're really handy for that.

10:1 is the max on pump gas, and the computer will keep retarding the ignition if you get any pre-ig going on, and that kills performance and mileage. Plus, 11.5 to 1 requires a very stout crank, main saddles, main caps, and head gaskets. Plus, crank case pressures will be puking oil out of every breather if you dont get great ring seating.

double row chain vs single makes ZERO difference in parasitic drag. The valve springs are the biggest drag, and the cam bearing drag is next. If you remove the valve springs the cam spins pretty darn easy. Just saying, but do as you wish. I'd look at some performance info and try to back up that chain idea.

In those motors it makes a little more sense to keep the compression down and use a blower or turbo to make it run. Easier to pass smog, easier to tune. A bone stocker with an air pump aide will see instant gains.

Just my uneducated opinion.

I recommend Jasper engines. I have had once in my car for more than 10 years now. Expensive, but worth it.