Dope. #48

Photo courtesy of Haris(?) on Flickr

What to watch this weekend (May 5 - May 8th)

• Speedmakers. A look into all new Lotus Evora sportscar. Thursday @ 9pm - 10pm (SPEED/SPEEDHD) replay at 8pm Saturday 
• Chasing Classic Cars. Friday @ 9pm - 11pm (Discovery's HD Theater) 2nd season replays
• Isle of Man TT 2010 - Episode 2 of 2010's seasonal coverage. Saturday @ 12pm - 1pm (Discovery's High Def Theater) replay
• Formula 1 - Turkish Grand Prix; Istanbul, Turkey/Istanbul Park Circuit. Qualifying. Saturday @ 7am - 8:30am (SPEED/SPEEDHD) live
• Formula 1 - Turkish Grand Prix; Istanbul, Turkey/Istanbul Park Circuit. Race. Sunday @ 7:30am - 10am (SPEED/SPEEDHD) live - replay @ 1:30pm
• Australian V8 Supercars. The Trading Post Perth Challenge. From the Barbagallo Circuit in Perth, Western Australia. Sunday @ 11:30am - 1:30pm (SPEED/SPEEDHD) replay from 4/30-5/1
• Top Gear (UK). Season 13 Episodes 3 and 4. Sunday @ 5pm - 7pm (BBC America/BBC America HD) replay

A great weekend of racing entertainment lies ahead. Formula 1 is back at it again, this time in Istanbul. The winners of the first few races will make this an entertaining season to watch unfold; McLaren must have done something right in the off-season. The wildly competitive V8 Supercars series goes to Perth for more bumper to bumper action. And on the automotive entertainment side of things, Speedmakers is back to take a look at the new Lotus Evora sportscar; this more refined, Toyota V6 powered, MR gem is looking to take on the big boys in this segment; based on projected pricing ($76k to ~90k) it's aiming at the 911 and M3...having high aspirations can be both good and bad.

Image courtesy of formulawallpapers.com

Classic Vid: Golden era DTM BMW E30 M3 and Mercedes-Benz 190 E (DTMenthusiast)

The one and only 'DTM Enthusiast' put this video together quite a while back, but thankfully someone has hosted it again. This is some of the best footage of the legendary battles between the BMW E30M3 and one of the last Mercedez-Benz models to have a manual transmission, the 190E 16valve.


Video hosting courtesy of CrazyLeoNet.

The Red Coupe - More Power Pt.2

After what felt like a power nap, I rolled out of bed and back to the garage. On the list for today was some game planning, late research and cleaning the engine bay. First things first, it seems I didn't get every detail lined up as I should have when I acquired this new motor. While taking my original motor out the night before, I noticed that the engine harness connector had two more functional pins in it than the new motor's harness (from an 87' car). Upon further online research before getting to the garage, 325i motors from early 87' had a couple of differences from 89' 325i motors; no real differences mechanically, but mainly in what was run through the ECU. For the sake of keeping things working properly in my 89' car, this just means my original harness will need to be used on the new motor, as well as my ECU (which isn't chipped like the new ECU). This isn't terrible, it'll actually be interesting to see what this motor puts down with completely stock management. Lastly, in order to keep my coolant tank as is, my old coolant hoses will need to be swapped over.

The first thing I tackled was cleaning the engine bay. I went through and covered up as many frayed wire connectors, as well as all the important electrical components, as I could. Then I removed the windshield washer and coolant reservoirs. I started off with soap and water for the upper areas, then followed up with multiple cycles of Spray 9 with a coarse brushing, then (hand powered) high pressure water blasting afterwards. This was a long, greasy, task which ended up taking the lions share of my time. Between old power steering fluid that has sludgified with road dirt and seeping seal run-off, there was a good coating of black everywhere you could think of. After surface cleaning was wrapped, I took my engine mount brackets to the parts cleaner then mocked them up in the bay with the new mounts. Here's a good ol' fashioned before and after of the results.

Before:

After:

Tim and I went to town with Griot's hand polish and 3M rubbing compound after drying the bay, and the results were pretty damn pleasing given the fact this was all original paint. Once all this was complete I attempted to get my powder-coated intake manifold and valve cover on the new motor. The intake manifold swap wasn't as easy a task as I imagined, so after thorough picture taking and removal of wiring and nuts, I stopped work after removing the intake manifold.

During this bay cleaning afternoon I took a running tally of parts that we would need going forward; all gaskets for the intake manifold, throttle body and thermostat housing. Lower snap in guides for the radiator. Upper radiator bracket, which was cracked but fully functional (a new one was only $5 bucks so why not). And a new snap on cover for that little box next to the fuse box that appears to be a diagnostic port, but isn't...I'll clarify during the next episode.

Car Pron: Players 2010 (BAMracing)

Car pron is a good thing.


BAM at Players 2010 from BAM-RACING on Vimeo.