engine and drivetrain Story from Watkins Glen

[gastephens]

This report is from the September SVRA vintage race at Watkins Glen. I know it is long but bear with me, its a great story.

My '56 Lotus broke a jackshaft on the practice day so I was hanging out with nothing to do. I saw some old friends who race a 2002 and helped them out with their camera system. I was impressed with the prep work they had done to the car since I first saw it 4 years ago. It was now a potential front-runner.

The first day they went out with the ignition timing too advanced and blew a huge hole in the top of the piston, ruined the head, and the shrapnel destroyed the lower end also. Boom, their weekend was as shot as mine. I consoled them and they commenced drinking.

The next morning I saw them going by with an engine hoist so I followed them back to their paddock area. There, they showed me the nastiest engine you have ever seen. It seems that the previous evening, in an alcohol-induced bout of optimism, they decided to go to a nearby junkyard and see if they could get a replacement engine. Sure enough, they found a cockroach-infested tii engine laying on the ground under a tarp. They parted with $400 before the beer-buzz wore off and dragged it back to the track.

As an '02 guy with nothing to do, naturally I volunteered to help. Unfortunately their original motor was carbed and the found motor was injected. We tried all manner of brackets to mount the alternator and other accessories but could not so we prayed for forgiveness to the '02 gods and broke out the sawzall to hack up the beautiful tii timing cover. Now we had to get this thing running or we would be stricken dead by lightning.

Four guys standing on an open trailer sawing up an engine tends to attract attention and it turns out we needed it. After re-engineering all the brackets, our belts would not fit. We sent the onlookers back to their trailers to find belts and they arrived from all over the racetrack. We tried dozens and found one to fit.

After lots of bodging and cleaning we had the lump bolted together, carbs, clutch, and alternator mounted, and ready to go in. It slid right into place and mated up with the tranny -- that never happens! Things were looking good. It turned over but no fire. We checked suck and blow, spark, and gas so we had compression, fire, and fuel so the only thing left was timing. After rechecking TDC on the distributor and crank we discovered that the distributor was off a tooth. We moved it and it fired right up and settled to a decent idle. Wow.

At that success I excused myself to the bar while my compadres spent the rest of the evening tuning the carbs and timing and the next morning at 9AM, they not only started but FINISHED a 90 minute enduro. I even watched the BMW gobble up a couple of Alfa GTVs down the front straight! I talked with one of the drivers and he said, "Yeah, revs right up to 7500 smooth as butter!!"

So, from housing bugs in a junkyard to running an enduro the next day, that was one incredible little tii engine! Apparently the BMW gods have forgiven us.

[jgerry2002]

Damn love a story like this!

Even better is if they spend the next two seasons running the junkyard motor without any issues...

[gastephens]

Yeah me too. Could happen. They said it ran so well they were going to use it a while.

Since we never opened the valve cover or pan before installing (we didn't want to know!), I gave it 25% chance of engine start, 10% chance of starting the race and 0.1% chance of finishing. I better stay away from Vegas.

[RussTii]

Great story, Glenn. My son Nick and I just went to the local Peachtree Chapter A/X at Lake Lanier Islands where he was quickest BMW in our 71 2002 which happened to be the oldest car in attendance. M10's keep on plugging along.

Russ Gezon

[gastephens]

Glad to hear it. We need the next generation of enthusiasts coming along!

[skipsfcr]

Great story...the happy ending makes it even better. Glad to see you around. You still have your pastelblau? It was one of my favorite squaries.

[gastephens]

Thanks. I will post the story soon but here is the short version.

My car should complete its journey back from the grave tomorrow when I pick it up from the alignment shop. Here is what happened to me. It was actually worse than the picture appears. The kid's insurance finally made me whole. Monetarily, I should have sold off the parts but when you spend years building a car it is hard to let go so I put her back together.

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,50/page,viewtopic/t,283666/highlight,/

It took 4 years to find all the parts and do the work between the business and racing (life's necessities). I will post lots of pictures when I am done. Of course, the car will never be quite as good but I have made a few improvements along the way. And yes, I should have found some Euro bumpers but those ugly monsters saved my car from the scrapheap![/img]

[Mike Self]

I'd like to contact the 2002 "engine transplant" team that you helped out--that has the makings of a good column for the Roundel about how tough 2002s are...can you imagine doing that with an E46 (or even an E36?)

cheers

mike

[aa/fd]

Great story,

Now those guy are racers, hard core fix it anyway they can, because they can.

[M3M3]

GREAT STORY! that is what racing is all about.. it just ain't a proper race weekend unless you spent all night fixing a major component on a car that is not yours with friends you just met a few hours ago!

[gastephens]

One of the guys had a camera and took pictures. He was going to do a story for Grassroots or Classic Motorsports. Roundel would be a good choice also. I will look up their email addresses.