Thank You to All of Those From Peak Performance in Sydney!

[Biscuit3]

Can you hear the band striking up? That would be the sound of Karl returning home! Tomorrow at 6pm which is approximately 17 hours away from now, Karl comes home!

He's been gone for the past week for what was only going to be an easy Solex to Weber carburetor swap over, scheduled to only take one day! Since then, Karl was compression tested because he had really low revs at idle and really high revs going over 100km/h. As most of you probably read and emailed me to make me feel better , he had no compression in clylinder number one. What was thought to be the result of a slightly stuck/burnt valve because of the rich running Solex, turned out to be a blown head gasket in 3 places!

Yesterday, the head got machined, reassembled, and reinstalled. Today the carby was finally fitted and jetted according the the C.D. prescription from this site (thanking you). Tomorrow, I will pick up Karl after I finish work at Hooters. My overall bill for all I know at the moment, is somewhere past the $2,000 mark. My mechanic is going to give me a major discount which I feel really guilty about but am highly grateful for. So in order to pay him back, he (garage) gets:

1) Signed Hooters t-shirt including a signature from Ms. Hooters Australia.(No oz_tom, you didn't get her's on your's!)

2) Bottle of high quality scotch for my mechanic

3) Going out for drinks with all the boys tomorrow night. Well, that is if I can convince them all to. I'm sure it won't be too hard.

These guys have been really good to me and Karl of late and I highly appreciate their patience with getting Karl back on the healthy side. I will definately be posting the end results of their labor as soon as I get the chance. I hope the majority of you who take your cars to the mechanic every now and then have the same quality of people working on your cars as I do. I love them, my dad loves them. They are part of the family now!

[polloelastico]

How come you didn't do the Weber conversion yourself? Pretty straightforward and would of saved a good deal of cash.

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/content/view/18/32/

Your 02 is going to be a very expensive car if you keep farming out all the work. I know there is no way I could afford mine if I did that.

Regardless, glad it was only a head gasket.

[SteveJ]

Glad to see the good Mojo has stretched across the globe.

I have to agree with farming out the work. These cars can get horribly expensive doing that. But, then again, yours was not just a simple carb swap.

[Biscuit3]

Well, this is just about it regarding the engine. Might get the head x-rayed at the end of the year just to make sure it's not too poreous. Otherwise, it's gonna happen again.

In light of the carby swap myself, I have no idea about carbies. I had someone help me from the forum, to find the right carby for Karl. I've learnt alot about them now, however, I'm still not confident in doing the work myself. I'm still at the bottom of the ladder with experience in only changing oil, oil filter, fuel filter, greasing nipples, and I bled the brakes once. Oh, and of course, I can change a tire if I need to .

All Karl needs now is new shocks then a steering box overhaul. Those are very easy and not too expensive. However, the shocks are uneven as the left one is hard and the right is too soft. That could be the result of me being in the driver's seat which is the right side in Australia. I'm a little 5' 5" girl who weighs around 135 pounds. And on the passenger side is usually my friend Richy. 6' 8" and weighs around 220 pounds. No wonder Karl is uneven!

I know Karl is costing me a bundle at the moment, but in all seriousness this stuff had to be done otherwise, my car would blow up and I'd be sad. Karl's just never had it so good and really, this is where all my money goes. At least I can see results and know where my money is going!

[polloelastico]

All Karl needs now

Famous last words... and I don't think the install of the front struts will be cheap, it's pretty time consuming. Also, It would be wise to check out the ball joints, tie rods, center link, struts bearings, new springs(?), control arms, bushings, etc. while the struts are out.

Seriously, I think half the fun (maybe more?) is learning how these cars work and being able to fix them yourself. The money you save on labor *will* be spent on parts anyway, at least for awhile... no sense in denying it.

Don't under estimate yourself or the vast knowledge of the community, and their willingness to help out if you get stuck.

When I first got my car, I had about the same experience as you. Years later I've touched about every nut and bolt and done things I never thought I was capable of.

Do what you will, but all the people that I know that bought old cars and farmed out the labor enventually threw in the towel and bought something more "economical".

[Biscuit3]

All Karl needs now is new shocks

Allow me to quote myself. Yee, control arms were done, ball joints are overdue, tie rods and struts, don't need them. Only shocks.

I would love to be able to do my own suspension don't get me wrong, but I have no idea where I'll find a spring compressor or whatever it's called. My garage said I can watch them do it, which I might take them up on that offer one day, but for now, I'm leaving it to the professionals.

And in saying that, here I sit in my underware in the process of getting ready to head out for the night with all of them! First round of drinks are on me. Karl looks fantastic!

[sharing_is_caring]

here I sit in my underware

What a small world it really is!

[Biscuit3]

No, I said underware, not completely naked, dumbass. Gee, I wonder who could have mistaken me in such a way. Let me count the user names...