Updating the Shop

I've been constantly cleaning the garage since we moved into our house over three years ago.  It always seemed like I was doing pretty well, and then I'd actually try to do a project and the entire garage would fall to pieces.  That became much more literal a few weeks ago when my main storage shelf fell on me.  Many of the shelves fell through their frames and large car parts and all of my scrap metal, used for fabricating things, came down on me.  The bruises on my shins were the things of legend.  Legend and pain.

To tidy things up a bit, Jim and I had some whiskey, argued about optimal shelf design and then built a more appropriate replacement to the old fallen shelf.  We probably should've measured better but things generally went together just fine. Except the main pole, which is hung from the rafters, doesn't always touch the floor.

Clearly, the acrobatics were necessary.

Having built a shelf, I wanted something a bit more sustainable for storing my scrap metal bits. It just so happened my wife brought home a nice wooden crate. Which I then modified by adding a 2x6 floor and some cast steel casters.

Rolling box of metal sharps.  Reach in, feel around, it'll be a fun tetanus shot filled trip to Urgent Care.

I'm a computer geek by trade and was really excited to have the box. It was an old electronics shipping container for one of the more historically significant computing companies - Control Data Corp.

"Data Action Corp" was a pseudonym at the time.

This has allowed me to see floor space in the garage. I still have some things to sell and some items that I should just trash. (But how can I not have a wiring harness for a 1988 Lincoln Mark VII?)

The Bowels of Winter

A major portion of getting the car ready has been winterization.  This car lives in Minnesota.  Furthermore, it lives in an unheated garage in Minnesota.  Today's high was a balmy 15 degrees Fahrenheit.  I'm not really complaining about the heat but it did mandate the car get actual coolant in the lines.  During the build I solely put distilled water into the system and leaving it that way would probably necessitate installing new frost plugs in the spring.  So Jim helped flushed the system and we put in some fresh 50/50.

Explanation for People Who Don't Really Care about Cars
Every car has some form of engine cooling.  Engines generate heat and if too much is trapped inside, it will fail to really operate properly.  The most popular form of modern engine cooling is liquid cooling a.k.a. water cooling.  There are a few key components to this system:

• The engine, it actually generates the heat, and moves the car.  It also has a part on it called, "the Water Pump."  The water pump is important because it actually pulls cool water from the radiator into the engine.
• The radiator.  This is the part where all the water generally goes.  When the "low coolant" light comes on, you generally are putting water into this.

When the engine is turned off there is water left in the engine.  This good, this is how the system is intended to work.  However, when water gets below 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Centigrade) it will change itself into ice.  This is problematic.  If a pop-can gets left in the freezer for a little too long you get a mess, the same thing happens with an engine, leave it with just water in the engine for too long and you get the same style mess.

Recognizing this potential problem, most engines have "freeze plugs" which will pop-out before the entire engine turns itself into the can of Coke someone really needed to have cold fast.  The real prevention mechanism is to add "antifreeze" or "coolant."  We put in Prestone's best green goo, mixed with some water, and so the car should now be very comfortable for the winter.

Catching up, Part 1

So, it's time to dust off the blog.

The car has been running since July and I've been so busy between work, family, and getting the car running that I let journaling about it degrade.  And by "busy with family," it's important to note our family did get bigger by one:

The car made small, incremental progress through March, April, May, and June.  I'd spend a few hours on different small projects trying to assemble the car.  Between the newborn, working, and trying to pretend to sleep a few hours at a time, that was all I could ever get done.  Then came Car Craft.

The Car Craft Summer Nationals has been a long running event at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.  Since high school, I've attended nearly every year for at least one day.  No matter the rat-trap, clapped-out, ill-running condition of my projects cars, I've always tried to drag them there.  The thrash for completion began.  Every night for a week, after putting the kids to bed I spent until 2 AM working on the car.  The unforgiving alarm clock would still ring four-and-a-half hours later.  I'd clock my eight hours at work, make dinner, put the kids down to bed, and head back out to the garage.  The Minnesota weather was cooperative by handing me record high temperatures and humidity.  My long time partner in crime, Jim came down Friday night.  We were able to get it nearly ready to start up but it didn't happen.  The wires were in the right places, the oil plumbed to the right holes but we were met with a bum starter and at one in the morning it was going to be difficult for us to get a new one.

My wife was graceful enough to give me the time to put in a near-24-hour push on Saturday.  She was even brave enough to help run the drill press and get her hands dirty after the kids went to bed.  Sunday morning, I fired up the car and headed to the Fairgrounds.

I met quite a few people who found the car interesting. One, Alex Bellus, a local beater-racer, and excellent photographer was kind enough to send me a well-shot picture of the car at Car Craft:

I'd like to extend a special thanks to Alex for sending me this picture and encourage you to visit his website.

The Waiting Episode 1 Part 2

After a significant amount of annoyance to my wife, friends, and strangers, I finally made some decisions about the car and am waiting for the results of those decisions to arrive.

The first major decision was made after spending hours, that I should have spent sleeping, pouring over a mountain of turbo specifications. I had a few selected and then finally took the advice of a friend and called a local shop that actually spent their entire day working on these types of problems. The shop did recommend one of the three turbos I had been considering and answered all of my questions in the disassociated but knowledgable way I've come to expect from a speed-shop answering a phone. They probably only make a sale once for ever ten to twenty callers, so they develop a significant apathy about calls that start with, "I'd like to talk to someone about..." Or they expect to give a recommendation and be immediately hassled over the price. As much as I do love to hassle a sales person, I do tend to feel bad for these guys. They are trying to make a living running a business that caters to a demographic that is notorious for using price as their only selection criteria. This particular shop gets it even worse as they tend to cater to vehicles driven by younger, less knowledgable, and even more financially strained drivers.

And the last bit is dealing with gauges. The little dials and instruments seen on a typical factory dash board is generally lying to driver. Auto manufacturers decided long ago that the average driver simply will not understand why the needles move so much on their oil pressure and water temperature indicators. There are other useful bits of information to know also. On a higher powered turbocharged car it is useful know the oil temperature, the fuel mixture, the exhaust gas temperature, and the amount of pressure being produced by the turbo. Part of the build goal for this car is to avoid decorating the interior like a carnival ride with lights and needles pointing everywhere. My hope was to allow people to sit in the car and find it to be unobtrusive, easy to drive, and brutally quick.

My initial thought was that I could find a nice looking gauge that integrated more than one of these read outs into a single display. The results of the research of that thought proved I was entirely correct -- if I was willing to spend $400 or more to get the proper setup. I decided to eschew with this and get a few repair parts for the gauges I already own. This will lead to a more carnival like atmosphere in the car but it will be a savings of over $300.

So now I wait, the turbo is schedule to ship from the manufacturer today and the gauge parts are scheduled to arrive tomorrow.

The Agony

This blog has never been shy about spending money on car parts. The title itself is wrapped in the concept that racing, cars, the "gear head hobby" costs money. In all fairness to the hobby, that money does purchase some really neat pieces of steel, plastic, and aluminum. Some of the parts I've bought through the years are a venerable showcase of the evolution of the capabilities of on-demand manufacturing and fabrication utilities.

Despite the cost I've kept quite a bit of pride in keeping my overall costs low by comparison. There exist more than one person that I have spoke with over the years with more investment in their project cars than they had in the down payment on their homes. It also does not help that I cannot stand to do anything that is popular. "Popular" in the gear head world tends to be projects which garner a lot of "me too" reactions. They also tend to be popular enough to inspire companies to offer kits. I am not performing an engine swap for which there is any kit, nor is there any guide, or anyone else with previous experience to help with a variety of conundrums found along the way. This means there will be parts that I try to put together that will not fit and need to be refit. Fundamentally, if I have a question I must answer it myself, no end of Google searches will provide me with a direct answer.

All of these things combined have left me with an overwhelmingly disabling complex. I simply cannot ever seem to get myself to spend money on higher cost items even if I need them to complete my project, include the purchase of a new turbocharger. The old turbo was fine for the Capri. It worked well for drag racing but this car is not setup to simply go drag racing and I wanted something that was a little smaller. After over a week of Google searches, posts on forums, and finally chatting with a local tuning shop I bought one.

Of course, now I'm questioning myself over and over again about the wisdom of the choice. The agony only amplifies itself because I won't know how well it works until the entire car is assembled and running. I need to actually have the car drivable before I can even check that my instincts and research are correct.

The Fuel is In!

Last week the fuel lines running from the BMW hard-lines to the Ford fuel rail was finished but that did not complete the fuel system. Since this engine will see some serious boost it was necessary to upgrade the fuel pump. I have replaced the fuel pump on one other BMW (Susi's car) and can say with much authority that BMW's are the easiest fuel injected cars on which to change the fuel pump.


Step 1: Remove Back Seat.

"Oh, why hello fuel pump."

Step 2: Remove Fuel Pump.
I was busy soaking my self in old gasoline to take a picture for this.

Step 3: Assemble new fuel pump, reinstall.

Walbro 255 LPH fuel pump, some hose, some wires, some clamps, and a new sock.

This has been the second largest feeling of accomplishment with the car thus far -- the engine mounts being the first. This is actually the first complete "system" to be completed that allows the engine to run inside of the new car. Tonight, tearing the engine back down to try and stop those damned leaks.

The Girth

Accusing me of enjoying a joke laden with sexual innuendo is akin to accusing a polar bear of being white. On Friday a number of items arrived:
* The big parts orders containing the new press-on hoses to make fuel lines, the new breather for the valve-cover, and the fuel pump installation kit.
* I was able to retrieve the new custom Ford-to-AN clutch line.
* The new, shorter, driveshaft.

The transmission connects the engine to the driveshaft. The driveshaft is what connects the transmission to the differential. The differential connects the driveshaft to the wheels. Different manufactures have different opinions on how to best perform this task but they all have what is essentially a pipe connect the back of the transmission to the front of the differential.

The new driveshaft fit perfectly -- lengthwise. In automotive engineering as in biology, a 'shaft's two most important attributes are length and girth. From the factory BMW's have extremely small shafts. They are both short in length and narrow in girth. Fords are quite the opposite. A Ford driveshaft tends to be reasonably long and have a pretty solid girth. When I went to bolt up the driveshaft to the transmission and the differential, it was not possible. The driveshaft was hitting the floor of the car.

After a few "Oh, shits," a Coke and some "really good ideas," we settled on making a few spacers that allowed the transmission to be dropped 1/2". This let the driveshaft bolt up but left some pretty minimal clearances. I did a little more research and found that most people selling kits are selling 2.5"-diameter driveshafts while mine measures in the neighborhood of 3-3.25". Luckily the driveshaft is pretty easy to swap and the conclusion is that it will make itself fit over time. That, or the shaft will bend and we'll need to get a new driveshaft made anyway.

More encouraging were the fuel lines and clutch slave-cylinder mounting. The fuel lines were the easiest part. Using the appropriately purchased adapters we were able to get these ready to run in less than an hour. I haven't installed the fuel pump yet but it appears that the fuel pump swap will be one of the few well-documented processes I will be undertaking with this project.

The slave cylinder may yet again be a bit of an issue. I had the custom line made to convert from the Ford to -4 AN believing that I could get pretty much anything to eventually convert to -4 AN. What I probably should have done was remove the BMW line and then make a conversion from the BMW metric brake-line fitting to the Ford part. I may need to have the line re-cut and re-crimped with a new fitting if I cannot simply purchase an adapter or small set of adapters. Off to Custom Hose Tech again.

Custom Hose Tech will also need to help me with the power steering line. Those guys are going to start recognizing me by scent by the end of this project.