Hood is off. Everything is disconnected except the mechanical oil pressure sensor which is stripped.
You can see my one engine bay rust area by the passenger brake line. That line needs to be replaced anyway so it's a good time.
I found a guy locally selling an engine hoist which saves me having to pick one up in two weeks when I go to Raleigh.
Please disregard steel-toe flipflops, I work in a surf shop.
My goal is to spend at least 30 minutes per day somehow working on this car. To maintain that goal, soon I'm going to need either electricity, a drivetrain or paint.
Here's my idea on how I'll mount the wing. Thinking I'll make a plate for the top of the trunk, and tie it into the internal trunk structure. Then I can make a male "plug" attached to the plate. The wing will have the female side of the plug that I can attach with 2 crossbolts. I'm planning to do the wing this time with insulation foam, 4oz e-glass and surfboard epoxy. Between layers of foam will be the power lead to the high mounted brake light, using a 59 cadillac lense.
In reply to buzzboy :
Close. Another 'Chucker named Jamie got the car from his dad. I think his grandfather had the car originally.
Edit to add: great to see you still working on the Express.
Jaws theme begins playing
I spent the day sanding and mudding what will become my personal bay next door to this one. I just don't like drywall work.
This car showed up in a Facebook group I'm a member of. Picture taken from behind it at a stoplight near Lowes.
The photo taken by a cop? If that's the one, it's from right after we finished it. I was on my way to Harbor Freight in Spartanburg SC.
In reply to buzzboy :
Yep, that's the photo. Originally taken by a Spartanburg LEO and posted to r/Futurama. I love that it still makes the rounds.
Progress on the racecar was slowed by me working on my garage space. My BMW and all my tools will live in this spot. Finished up sanding the drywall and got it painted today. The walls are a very light tint of BMW Avus Blau
Bought a hook for my hoist this morning.
The guibo was so crusty that the front of the driveshaft came with the engine.
Feels good to have it out. Time to start cleaning up the bay and looking for a new engine
My i suggest the mopar 5.2 magnum?
Those have 8 more sparkplugs than I want.
I've got a friend with an om602 and trans but he's in western Michigan. Hoping to find something a little closer though
Nothing provides motivation to work on the racecar quite like going racing! Two of my teammates and I got invited to run Lucky Dog at CMP this weekend in a 1980 TR8. What a lot of fun that car is on track. Small and nimble, great brakes, neutral handling and a gutless V8. Although gutless the car has dual sidepipes and sounds super mean. Mostly bark, a little bite. The weekend involved the first transmission getting stuck in 4th on lap 1 of qualifying. So we raced in 4th all Saturday while searching for a trans. Somehow we found one in Raleigh and had it delivered in the Frunk of a 911. I turned a 2:03 with only 4th gear and a 2:01 with the ability to use 3rd. Sadly we were made non-competitive by running the wrong tires as LDR doesn't sell the right size, although Hankook does make it. Back home and back to Planet Express!
Great cars have been built in much worse situations, but damn if I don't find it hard to get motivated to work on my car by drop light after a full day of work. Plus, I've been spending my free time in the day setting up my new garage space.
I think I'm done removing and labling wires and hoses in the engine bay. I need to fix the brake line and weld in some patch panels in there. Still waiting on the world's slowest electrician so I can get real power out in the shop.
The car has an extension cord run through it(was for the block heater) which makes for a handy place to plug in my drop light. Does this make it a plug in hybrid?
Time to start officially looking for an engine donor . I think I know what I'm putting in it...
Electricity and light in the garage. No more excuses. Time to work on the car. I'm also checking Marketplace and Craigslist daily for an engine donor. I think she'll be a 190SD by the time I'm done(I hope).
I just saw the photos from race day, and I have to say I'm totally chuffed to see a 911 doing some honest work by delivering a TR8 transmission. Neat.
Happy 617!
I started removing rust. This is just about the only rust on the car which is great. I was planning to only remove the passenger seat support but I'm starting to wonder if I should remove the drivers' side to nip that FeO2 in the bud. I don't want to, as I like the factory seat mounts but I'm worried about the way this side was full of old mouse bedding that was soaking up water and rusting.
Speaking of mouse. The car smelled pretty interesting(not bad) last summer in the storage unit. I know why
The only mascot this car shall wear is Oh My God Bear
I don't have a spot weld cutter therefore I hate spot welds. I also found more rust that I was hoping to. Gonna be getting slathered in POR15 and having a bunch of new metal welded in.
I finally made a decision and bought an engine/sheetmetal donor. Time to get working again. The BHW weighs 200lbs less than the OM617. There are adapters available commonly to about 20 different transmissions. The engine should do 150whp/300ft*lbs with just a tune.
Can't believe I just found this thread. Subb'd now. Good luck. Tunachuckers have something brewing, too, it looks like it'll be a race to see which of us gets our tired old pile of E36 M3 onto a race track first!
As always, if I can be of any help (my experience with MB diesels is only with non-turbo W123 stuff, and I don't really have any parts left, but I can fabricobble [although maybe I _shouldn't] and enggineer some dealies) feel free to PM, or call me out here.
Thanks for the kind words and offers. I have to finish this project eventually. Failure is not an option like my ill-fated Mialvo project.
I can't guarantee anything but encouragement, but we're all here to help and support the best we can.
I happen to know jackall about benz or diesel....
Goodnight sweet prince
Tonight's goal was "service position." I failed
I've never needed a T45 before. Oh well, off to NAPA tomorrow.
Very cool. Those engines are basically bulletproof from what I understand
This engine has some great specs. With no bolt ons and only a tune people are seeing upwards of 170whp and 300ft*lbs. That's better than stock OM606 numbers but in a package weighing 200lbs less. Even driving the Passat it felt quick. Curb weight about 3000lbs which is about what the curb weight of Planet Express should be after the swap. I've also got about 20 different manual transmission to pick from. The BHW has two downsides:
The stock cam both actuates the valves and pressurizes the injectors. This puts a lot of stress on it which requires specific oil or your cam dies an early death. There are cars with bad cams by 50k and cars with 350k all depending on the oil you run.
Also the Balance Shaft Module found on the BHW and BRM in the US is a weak point on a car driven hard. Lucky for me you can backdate it to the earlier ALH or BEW oil pump which doesn't have the BSM.
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