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A long over-due huge "thank you" to many of you.


KFunk

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Sorry for putting this off. I was hesitant to declare success on my recent engine rebuild/5-speed swap, and would only declare victory if the engine survived an autocross without problems. But, a few hiccups and life got in the way, and things had to be put off due to more important matters. There won't be any autocrosses here until Spring, but I've been driving it the last couple of days, and it seems fine. As soon as the salt hits the road again, she shall take cover.

You see, I had it running in May for 300 miles, then the shift selector seal started leaking and kept me from making it to the first autocross. Also, my girlfriend and I seriously started looking at buying a house, and we went for it. In the middle of moving, the 2002 blew a headgasket between two cylinders for some odd reason (think the problem was actually that I didn't run a tap down the head bolt threads). Cleaned them well, but didn't use a tap, and it didn't hold torque. Well I had it towed to the new house, then left it sit for a long while until I got time. Well once I got time to swap the headgasket, for some dumb reason I managed to break a headbolt while on the final torque step. So yeah, that killed my motivation, and I had plenty of other work to do and back to work full-time and teaching part time in WV.

Finally got some cobalt drill bits and straight flute extractors, and a lot of patience, and the bolt came out. I'm sick of headbolts, so I torqued it down with ARP studs. Also swapped out the junky header and put in one I found on the forum. This past weekend the weather was nice, so I finally put in some fresh gas and oil, fired it up, set the timing, and got her back out.

What it's got now:

Original block, fresh bearings in bottom end, IE 9.5:1 pistons, new IE 292 cam, HD valve springs, IE HD rockers, rocker locks, Weber 40 DCOEs, Top End Header, Hotspark, 245 5-speed, and so on, and so on...

Now for the thanks!

- Tom at 02again.com . The man is a saint. Buy anything he sells. He went to an extraordinary amount of work to pack up a 5-speed and send it to me, and a bunch of other shifter parts, all for very nominal costs and extreme patience.

- vintagebmwsource.com (Alexis Barlow) / Ireland Engineering: Supplied lots and lots of great parts, with very good service. Not sure why I got all the IE parts thru the Barlows, but it worked well. IE was very helpful when I needed any specific info or dumb questions.

- a54atii : Karl generously gave me a bare cylinder head, and other goodies, and is always very helpful.

- Oak's Machine Shop: My local machine shop doesn't know BMWs, but they're certainly good and the M10 is fairly simple. They figured it out just fine and did excellent work.

- EDIT: Steve aka BLUNT! Rapidly sent me a headgasket quick, and a whole bunch of other stuff at great prices.

- Eurotrash/Jason: sent me lots of great shifter parts that I really needed

- Jon Tinker (?): Sold me an E12 head full of lots of good valvetrain bits that I used.

- Marietta Joint and Clutch: Despite being initially afraid of it, my local driveshaft shop managed to figure out how to cut the driveshaft and balance it

- Leif Littrup sent me a great header at a good price

- Dave Owens sent me a driveshaft nose with 3-bolt flange

- TobyB gave lots of great advice on the forum, especially (there are many others that helped with this, but he stands out in my mind as providing the most helpful info)

- Most importantly, my very patient girlfriend (now fiancee as of Dec 1st). I think she'll be happy with the addition of 5th gear, and when I soon fix the door brakes, haha.

Sorry if I forgot anybody, it seems like so long ago since I worked so hard on it and gathered all the parts and ran back and forth to the machine shops.

I don't have a pretty picture of the engine in the car, but here it is in its new home!

The engine is quite strong, and I'm sure I'll get more out of it once I start tuning, and start pushing it harder. The 5-speed makes it far more civilized than I thought possible, and that'll be great when I start using it for commuting to WV.

THANK YOU ALL!

post-461-13667668311002_thumb.jpg

Bring a Welder

1974 2002, 1965 Datsun L320 truck, 1981 Yamaha XS400, 1983 Yamaha RX50, 1992 Miata Miata drivetrain waiting on a Locost frame, 1999 Toyota Land Cruiser

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Thanks Jim!

Oh yeah, my friend Dave helped me lift the engine block into the passenger seat of the Miata (the Miata is hiding behind the truck in the garage picture).

Also, some poor freshman undergrad helped me lift the block out of the Miata and onto the engine stand. I found his debit card that he left on the street, found him on facebook, and he came to my apartment to pick it up. Before he left, I got him to help me move the block. He was a bit shocked to find himself lifting a car engine, hah.

edit: and my friend Ben loaned me the engine hoist.

Bring a Welder

1974 2002, 1965 Datsun L320 truck, 1981 Yamaha XS400, 1983 Yamaha RX50, 1992 Miata Miata drivetrain waiting on a Locost frame, 1999 Toyota Land Cruiser

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That's great, Kevin. Your '02 would have been shredded ages ago if not for you. These Bavarian beasts are TOO TOUGH to quit. How many miles has it gone all told? Amazing when you think of the numerous owners, so many miles, your famous trip from Calif. to Ohio (incl. Death Valley) and loads of autocrossing more recently.

It is great to see Karl H. & Jason G. getting a well-deserved thanks on this thread! Great guys, naturally....

'75 Sahara 2002 Dieter (sold)

'14 Blazing Red Metallic Mini Cooper

'73 Sahara 2002 Franz

 

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That's great, Kevin. Your '02 would have been shredded ages ago if not for you. These Bavarian beasts are TOO TOUGH to quit. How many miles has it gone all told? Amazing when you think of the numerous owners, so many miles, your famous trip from Calif. to Ohio (incl. Death Valley) and loads of autocrossing more recently.

It is great to see Karl H. & Jason G. getting a well-deserved thanks on this thread! Great guys, naturally....

I was trying to think of a reason to throw in a thanks to you Jim, but couldn't remember any parts you contributed directly to this project. You did give me brake light lenses a long time ago though, so thanks for that! They're still doing fine.

No telling on the miles, who knows. Somewhere in the 200K to 300K range is my best guess. I've swapped odometers a few time, and who knows how many times the first one rolled over.

I actually drove it with no air filters on the velocity stacks from 2006 until 2011, haha. Just sounded awesome, and I had been looking forward to rebuilding the engine since it was already down to ~100psi of compression on all 4. The machine shop seemed to think it had low miles though, and all the bearings were fine.

There are more adventures in store for it. This summer I will probably drive it down the east coast through the Carolinas and the Outer Banks. Then for a honeymoon in Spring of 2014 we will probably take it to Maine.

Also on the the to-do list:

-Insulate/finish garage

-New rings for XS400

-Head gaskets for Subaru

-Paint stock wheels red and put tall skinny tires on truck

-Procure new winter beater

-Hack up rusty Miata and do evil things with drivetrain

-Wedding

-Obtain sweet vintage lawnmower

-Many, many other little things around the house

So if I can't make it to ridge runs and meets, that's what I'm doing (on top of working both jobs). There's only so much time in a day.... I'll try to make an appearance sometime, if it works out.

Also, 02ers are always welcome to stop by here if you're ever around. It's kind of the middle of nowhere, but we have some great curvy backroads.

Bring a Welder

1974 2002, 1965 Datsun L320 truck, 1981 Yamaha XS400, 1983 Yamaha RX50, 1992 Miata Miata drivetrain waiting on a Locost frame, 1999 Toyota Land Cruiser

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I put 'em in the correct order, as you should, to promote domestic tranquility).

Hope that means you'll be on the road with us to Mid America and/or Vintage in 2013, not to mention one of Jason's Kentucky road trips!

cheers from slightly further west in Ohio

mike

'69 Nevada sunroof-Wolfgang-bought new
'73 Sahara sunroof-Ludwig-since '78
'91 Brillantrot 318is sunroof-Georg Friederich 
Fiat Topolini (Benito & Luigi), Renault 4CVs (Anatole, Lucky Pierre, Brigette) & Kermit, the Bugeye Sprite

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I almost forgot a few thanks!

- Steve aka Blunt! He sent me many parts quickly. I forget how many I got from him, but he was a great help

- Ron Ewing: I picked up a getrag 240 from him, and shared some stories at a Wendy's I think. In the end, I opted not to use it because I got to lazy to MacGyver a speedo to it (and the lady wanted me to have a working speedometer). That 5-speed got donated to Charlie R., who can use it if he wants.

- Charlie R.: Provided me an oil filter housing so I could tap it for an oil sender, after messing up the rocker plugs. I later fixed the rocker plug situation, and you can have that housing back if you want it.

Bring a Welder

1974 2002, 1965 Datsun L320 truck, 1981 Yamaha XS400, 1983 Yamaha RX50, 1992 Miata Miata drivetrain waiting on a Locost frame, 1999 Toyota Land Cruiser

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No, I don't deserve any thanks, so none is indicated. I am not a gearhead, but I certainly appreciate well-engineered automobiles.

You will be busy with your new home and upcoming nuptials. I'll have to drop in on you when I head to OU for a visit with my son. Congrats to you and your bride-to-be.

'75 Sahara 2002 Dieter (sold)

'14 Blazing Red Metallic Mini Cooper

'73 Sahara 2002 Franz

 

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I'll have to drop in on you when I head to OU for a visit with my son.

Yup, lookin forward to it. Just don't make it Valentine's Day weekend though (got other plans for that whole weekend...)

Bring a Welder

1974 2002, 1965 Datsun L320 truck, 1981 Yamaha XS400, 1983 Yamaha RX50, 1992 Miata Miata drivetrain waiting on a Locost frame, 1999 Toyota Land Cruiser

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That's great, Kevin. Your '02 would have been shredded ages ago if not for you. These Bavarian beasts are TOO TOUGH to quit. How many miles has it gone all told? Amazing when you think of the numerous owners, so many miles, your famous trip from Calif. to Ohio (incl. Death Valley) and loads of autocrossing more recently.

Oh and Jim, I'm hanging onto those original pistons, and want to turn them into some kind of garage art of some sort. Hard to believe those little guys pushed me all the way across the country and through so many hard times.

Bring a Welder

1974 2002, 1965 Datsun L320 truck, 1981 Yamaha XS400, 1983 Yamaha RX50, 1992 Miata Miata drivetrain waiting on a Locost frame, 1999 Toyota Land Cruiser

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Congrats on your engagement! And glad to see the 02" is back on the road.

I'm no longer affiliated with Maximillian Importing Company in any way, please address any questions directly to them.  -Thanks.

2002 "tii" coupe 1970
E21 320/6 2.7 Stroker 1981
E23 730 1978

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