New addition to the fleet

[davintosh]

There have been a few intrepid souls who have replaced the stock M54 CCV/oil separator with a PVC valve and a catch can and had great results; no change in performance and less oil consumption. I'm not sure if I want to go down that road though.

I was just going through some of my bookmarks on the CCV system and ran across this one again; How to test the CCV System. Totally forgot about that one; definitely need to go through that before spending the coin on a new valve and hoses.

[Karl Grau]

That's a great link. It doesn't look like fun though, I hope I never need it.

[Karl Grau]

I got the serpentine belts, tensioners and aluminum water pump pulley today. The pulley is “Uro” brand which I wouldn't normally buy but I figure it is still better (and cheaper) than an OEM plastic pulley.
I didn’t want to use Victor Reinz gaskets and AutohausAZ doesn’t sell Goetze so I ordered a Goetze valve cover gasket and a BMW oil filter housing gasket from Pelican. I ordered a few other “while you’re in there” items and in my cart next to each item it said “in stock, ships tomorrow”. Since I ordered on Sunday, “tomorrow” meant yesterday. By noon today I’d heard nothing since placing the order so I checked the status and two 50 cent plastic rivets that hold the fan shroud were “on order”. I sent them an email and said, for the love of God, please tell me you aren't holding the entire order up for these two rivets. The reply was, “it turns out they are not in stock and we have no ETA for them”. So I told them to PLEASE cancel the two 50 cent rivets and ship the rest of the stuff.
Even though Pelican is always higher than Autohaus, I buy from them because I want to support California businesses but for fucks sake, if I hadn't contacted them, how long would they have let my order sit?

[Karl Grau]

The rest of the stuff for “Operation Fuck You Oil Leaks” came today. There is definitely a difference between the feel of the Victor Reinz oil filter housing gasket and the BMW one.
I decided to replace the water pump too since I’m going to have everything removed anyway. I had planned on using the EMP Stewart pump but after further research decided against it.

[Karl Grau]

I got a late start so I only did the valve cover gasket today.
The old one was in pretty good shape and I might have gotten away with just tightening the bolts which didn't seem like they were torqued down enough. Oh well, it's water under the bridge now and I wanted to check the spark plugs anyway.




The key to putting the cover back on has always been to bungee the wires and hoses out of the way by the firewall. The Greeks knew it, the Carthaginians knew it, now you know it.

[Karl Grau]

I started on the oil filter housing gasket today. I'm doing belts, tensioners and water pump too. I was also going to change the diff oil but for some reason I don't have a 14mm hex to remove the drain & fill plugs. A 14mm hex is apparently too exotic for Pep Boys or Autozone and Harbor Fright you have to buy a whole set for $29.99. I might try Sears tomorrow but last time I checked their tool section, it was more picked over than an '80s era Moscow department store.

[davintosh]

I bet Ace Hardware (or most any big-box hardware store) would have machine bolts with 14mm hex heads and a couple of matching nuts. Maybe even a 1/2" bolt would do in a pinch.

And if that oil filter housing gasket proves to be stubborn, don't forget the best gasket remover ever:

[Karl Grau]

I bet Ace Hardware (or most any big-box hardware store) would have machine bolts with 14mm hex heads and a couple of matching nuts. Maybe even a 1/2" bolt would do in a pinch.

Give me a little credit here, that was the first thing I tried.
I got some mission creep going on. There was a half assed repair done to the fan shroud at some point and I don't think it's repairable a second time.
Also, it hasn't rained in like 50 years but we have some today.



There's the culprit. That gasket is hard as rock, I can see why so much oil was leaking out.

[OcCoupe]

There's the culprit. That gasket is hard as rock, I can see why so much oil was leaking out

How long has it been since you've had something hard in your hand?

.

[Karl Grau]

How long has it been since you've had something hard in your hand?

Not since I was sitting in your lap at St Paddy's.

Everything almost back together except I don't know where I can get a fan shroud on a Saturday afternoon.

[tig]

You two!

[vinceg101]

I don't suppose we could swap cars for a week or two and you do all of this to mine ?

[Karl Grau]

I forgot to mention that this is the first BMW I've owned where I couldn't get the fan off with mild pressure on a crescent wrench. I had to use the thin 32mm and also to make my own pulley holder tool (pay no attention to the right hand side).

I don't suppose we could swap cars for a week or two and you do all of this to mine?

Sure, but you might find that your Sport seats somehow turned into comforts.

So, the cheapest quote I've gotten for painting a new primered front bumper is $450.00. I don't know what I don't understand about automotive painting but I just can't see why it costs so much.

[Karl Grau]

Changed the diff oil using the tried and true I.V. method. The old oil actually looked pretty good as it missed the catch pan and drained all over the concrete and floor jack.

[tig]

I hate the smell of gear oil.

[Karl Grau]

I hate the smell of gear oil.

You and me both. The synthetic seems slightly less offensive but that might be my imagination.

[wkohler]

You know, you could get more exposure for your updates by posting a thread about the task you are doing, then also posting in the "What did you do to your other cars today?" Thread. Then circularly reference everything too.

[cddallara]

I got the serpentine belts, tensioners and aluminum water pump pulley today. The pulley is “Uro” brand which I wouldn't normally buy but I figure it is still better (and cheaper) than an OEM plastic pulley.
I didn’t want to use Victor Reinz gaskets and AutohausAZ doesn’t sell Goetze so I ordered a Goetze valve cover gasket and a BMW oil filter housing gasket from Pelican. I ordered a few other “while you’re in there” items and in my cart next to each item it said “in stock, ships tomorrow”. Since I ordered on Sunday, “tomorrow” meant yesterday. By noon today I’d heard nothing since placing the order so I checked the status and two 50 cent plastic rivets that hold the fan shroud were “on order”. I sent them an email and said, for the love of God, please tell me you aren't holding the entire order up for these two rivets. The reply was, “it turns out they are not in stock and we have no ETA for them”. So I told them to PLEASE cancel the two 50 cent rivets and ship the rest of the stuff.
Even though Pelican is always higher than Autohaus, I buy from them because I want to support California businesses but for fucks sake, if I hadn't contacted them, how long would they have let my order sit?

Just ordered a couple 'in stock' parts from pelican over the weekend. Monday's email told me the order had been transferred to their Ca warehouse. Wonder when they'll actually ship. Not griping, just a 'first timer' with them.

[Adam W in MN]

The old oil actually looked pretty good as it missed the catch pan and drained all over the concrete and floor jack.

I about that. I hate Murphy and his damn laws.

I enjoy reading this thread and the numerous updates from someone else with dunn-right and while-we're-in-there disease.

[tig]

You know, you could get more exposure for your updates by posting a thread about the task you are doing, then also posting in the "What did you do to your other cars today?" Thread. Then circularly reference everything too.

Just so you know, on Twitter, what you just did here is called a sub-tweet.

[Karl Grau]

Just ordered a couple 'in stock' parts from pelican over the weekend. Monday's email told me the order had been transferred to their Ca warehouse. Wonder when they'll actually ship. Not griping, just a 'first timer' with them.

I left a snarky feedback for that order and five minutes later got an email from the owner.

"Hi Charles. You make a good point - maybe I should change that message. Our supplier on this is 1.2 miles away, and it’s supposedly on our dock right now being processed. We use their warehouse as a supplemental one and we get eight deliveries a day or so from the various warehouses like that one in the neighborhood. With our new cart, I think I did recently change that message. I think it used to say “in process”, I should probably modify that.



I have my warehouse guys checking on your order right now to make sure I don’t look like a fool for saying it would ship today if it doesn’t. We had a 15% increase in orders with multiple people out sick in the warehouse combined with some new technology problems from the new shopping cart launch that happened Friday night. If there weren’t computer problems I’d be out in the warehouse packing boxes!



I will be watching this one throughout the rest of the day, and I’ve copied myself on this email so that I will put it in my “shopping cart” update list.



Thx,



Wayne"



Wayne R. Dempsey

CEO, Pelican Parts Inc.

[Karl Grau]

The stücks I was waiting for to finish came today.



One of the things I was replacing was an intake boot that was hard as a rock and showing some surface cracks. By accident, I found out that the e46 version is different than the e39 version. The e39 boot has a ‘muffler-silencer’ box that, while quieting intake wooosh, gets in the way of anything you’re trying to do on the driver’s side of the engine. If you want to remove the airbox, you either have to remove everything from the intake to the fender wall as one piece or remove the muffler-silencer box which is a PITA.
I guess BMW decided that the less genteel e46 owners didn’t need their wooosh silenced and I decided I don’t either.




When I drained the coolant, I also pulled the drain plug on the block, so with the refill, I’m just going to let it self-bleed overnight.

[cddallara]

Just ordered a couple 'in stock' parts from pelican over the weekend. Monday's email told me the order had been transferred to their Ca warehouse. Wonder when they'll actually ship. Not griping, just a 'first timer' with them.

Parts showed Wednesday

[wkohler]

How did that fan shroud fit in that little box? They must really be taking this bullshit dimensional weight thing seriously.

[Karl Grau]

Parts showed Wednesday

It's all back together and the good news is, I have no more oil leaks. The bad news is, I have a new coolant leak. During the course of the work, I at one point gave the radiator a stern look so that's what is probably leaking.



Also, I forgot to mention, if you own a newer BMW, for the love of god, buy one of these. It's to remove plastic rivets which hold 90% of the car together.