Monday, April 18, 2011

The Nine Man Month Baby

So, 9 months after starting the motor swap project it's finally back on the road. Here's a summary of what's happened and lessons learned:
  • The E46M3 six-speed was a tremendous pain in the ass. I got it for an absolute steal, but didn't do the proper look-over and it ended up having a hairline fracture on the bottom rear case (leaking significant fluid) and the shifter centering springs were busted. I ended up getting a replacement transmission, and will be repairing the old one to sell.
  • The six-speed was SOOOOO worth it. Gear shifts are snickety-snick, and with the 3.73 rear end, it rips through the gears like nobody's business
  • I forgot to replace the coolant temp sensor for the E30 gauge with the correct brown-top version. Luckily, there was enough room to throw an 18mm deep socket + universal on there and replace it.
  • The 3.5" MAF is another one of those questionable mods...it made the intake fitting problematic, and it's also throwing a CEL now under WOT after 5500RPM. It looks to be a known failure mode related to turbulence hitting the MAF (the cone intake is attached directly to the MAF). I'll have to get some piping and put some distance between the filter and the MAF one of these days.
  • I need to roll the fenders and trim the lining...with the Z3 1.9L rack at full lock, the fronts are rubbing. And over mild bumps, the left rear is scraping.
  • With no primary cooling fan, the coolant temp creeps above halfway in mid-seventy degree weather while idling after a hard run. I'll do a debug session on the thermo-switch to see why the aux cooling fan isn't turning on...maybe get a lower temp thermo-switch.
All in all, the car is an absolute hoot to drive. I can't find enough excuses to take it out for a drive. Nailing 1st gear will smoke the tires (and these are 235/40-17 NT-05s!) ...in the rain, forget about it! I'll definitely get in trouble if I'm not careful.

Once I solve the engine oil level sensor issue (maybe a bad sensor?) and fix the tire scraping, I'll try and grab some videos.