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Thanks man, I appreciate it. I've got a bit of a road ahead of me before brad is ready to actually drive again, I'd guess it'll be a couple of months after I get the car running. Hopefully by that time, I'll have my axles back
So worth it. I've currently got 6 axles sitting on a shelf in uprights that I haven't touched. I'm about to soak them in pb blaster for a month and see how many I can get out.
Haven't updated this since last weekend, but I did verify spark when Brad coughed a bit while turning over. It had been a while since I had sprayed ether into the intake, so I'm not sure if it got a whiff of that or if it actually ignited some fuel. My battery is also trashed, so I think I'm gonna steal the LS car's battery for the time being. After about 20 seconds of turning over, the car starts going really slow and even when it's not dead it's turning over pretty slow. I need to work on it some more, but I've been on a real roll with our LD e46 cage, so I've wanted to keep progress going steady while I've had the chance. Another pictureless/videoless update. Sorry guys.
Well boys, third times a charm. I finally have a running (non-knocking) 1.8 in the car.
I'm not sure where on the timeline I verified spark, if it was before or after I messed with the wiring on the coils. But anyway, it seems there's conflicting info on the wiring for nb2 coils and one of the diagrams out there is incorrect. I also suddenly lost sync midway through last week. So I opened the case back up Saturday night and re-adjusted the crank pot. That seemed to do the trick and it was back to syncing, but not firing/running.
Aidan is an awesome person and came up to help me with the car this morning before we went over to his wife's parent's house for the superbowl. We tried firing the injectors in test mode and they were working, but coils weren't. It was at that point that we figured out the wiring was wrong. We got that fixed and also replaced the spark plugs that were black and dripping with fuel. I decided to pour about a teaspoon of oil into each cylinder so that the cylinders weren't washed down. On the fourth cylinder I was talking to Aidan and accidentally poured about two tablespoons in lol.
We turned it over for a minute and what do you know, it ran! It also smoked...a lot. And there was a terrible screeching coming from the engine. Turns out the throttle body gasket had a small leak and it was making it flap like a piece of grass when you blow on it. Got that fixed, wired in the aem wideband and tried again. It fired up and idled at a reasonable level without the terrible sound. Aidan spent the next hour or so giving me some basic lessons on idle tuning, and there's still some work to be done, but I think with enough reading I should be able to get it figured out. There's still a looot of work to do to even get brad able to roll under his own power, let alone roadworthy. BUT, the car starts and runs! And that's a massive step!
Really awesome that the car runs again, and I can't thank Aidan enough. He's an awesome person and an amazing friend. The engine sounds healthy and I absolutely can't wait to drive it this year.
I don't really have any pictures and the only video I have of it running is it making a terrible noise, so he's a picture of Clyde instead.
Been slowly getting stuff done on Brad. Probably 2-3 weeks away from the car being ready to drop on the ground and roll again.
After Aidan and I verified that the engine wasn't ****, there was a lot of work to do to get the wiring and ecu into a good place. I had kinda hacked a bit of **** together while just trying to get the electronics side of things working. So I ended up pulling the diybob back apart and re-wiring it so that it was a lot cleaner and organized. Really glad that I did this, because it was a bit of a mess before. I also ran some outputs/inputs that I thought I might use in the future out and to a connector so that they're easy to access.
Next up was mounting the ecu. I mounted it to the back of the stock kickplate. It just barely fits and the kickplate needed to be massaged a bit, but it does work quite well I think. I plugged it back in and verified that it was still working after the rewire. Good to go so I put the carpet back in and it looks like it was never touched! Pretty happy overall with the mounting since it's nice and secure as well as safe from getting kicked.
Last week I dropped the diff back out because it felt a little weird when I drove it with the knocking bp5a. I checked the gear marking, backlash, and pre-load and everything looks clear, so I'm gonna go ahead and put it back in. But I'd rather be safe than sorry. I think now what I was feeling was possibly a seizing rear caliper.
Which moves me to my next subject. This week I'm replacing the front caliper which I stole for Purpl when it seized and then the LR as well. I'll probably be buying pads in the next month or so. I was thinking I was gonna try pfc11s, those are really the last thing I need to buy.
Other various small projects have included a new intake and a prop valve support/holder. My aluminum welding is pretty rusty (heh), so these have been fun little projects to brush up on. I'm still running a bit too slow/hot, but it always takes me a bit to adjust. The intake needs to be modified a little bit because it currently rubs on the hood (doh), but the prop valve holder was a success.
I've got a trackday that I'm planning on taking Brad to in mid-April, but if all goes well, I should be ready a bit before that.
Brad is officially ready to roll! Well, I have to put diff fluid in, but that's pretty minor. I decided to go ahead and take a break from the BMW yesterday and just get the car buttoned up. Katy gave me my axle/upright assemblies back on Saturday so I shoved those in and started the brake job. Giving PFC 11s a shot, we'll see how they go.
Also finished up the intake. I had originally made mounts that attached to the body, but after talking to Albert for a bit we both came to the conclusion that the silicone coupler probably wouldn't allow for enough flex for the paint shaker up front. So I remade the mounts this weekend and added a touch of clearance to the body.
Katy and I bled the brakes and clutch last night which took almost 2 quarts of fluid since the brake system was dry.
Now that it's ready to go, I'm just waiting on the weather. It's still dipping into the low 30s at night here, so the tires are still sitting in storage. I'm really itching to drive the car, but I guess I'm just gonna have to be patient. Either way, Brad is gonna roll out of the shop in the next night or two and Katy's foxbody is gonna take his place.
Thanks! It's still a work in progress, but it's come a ways from when I got it. I'm very much looking forward to having more running cars than non-running cars this year and working on the shop instead haha
Drove the car for the first time in over a year. Car seems like it'll be decently fun. I've forgotten how much I missed lightweight flywheels and the 6speed/4.3 is cool. Rear still seems slightly weird like the brakes are dragging a little, but I might be imagining things. I'll take a look at it. I also forgot how ******* loud NAs are. ******* hell, compared to my 2000se, it's like the difference between a Mercedes and an old truck. And the se isn't even that quiet. So many rattles and noises.
Tune still needs a lot of work too. Cam and Alex helped out a bit and it on and off starts cold now. Starts pretty consistently warm though, so that's good at least? Sounds like WA is opening some stuff back up (like outdoor activities) in early May, so hopefully I can make a trackday late may/early june to see how it goes.
01-15-2020, 12:29 PM
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