Reconditioning an Engine 101

We received a call awhile back from Barri Stallworth, a great customer that was in somewhat of a tight spot. He said his 88 325i convertible was in the shop, and it needed a new engine. The German mechanic, wanting to make sure the car was absolutely tip-top, insisted on ordering a refurbished motor from BMW to the tune of $4500+... Yikes! We all know the M20 engines are fine for 200+ thousand miles, and our e30's don't exactly hold enough value for most of us to justify an engine in this price range, so we fixed Barri up with a very nice used/partially reconditioned engine for his cabrio.

Luckily we had just pulled the same engine from an '87 325is! The engine was running very well when we pulled it, but we like to do things right the first time, so we started to inspect it. After pulling the valve cover, we found that one of the old style head bolts had broken off. This could likely lead to a head gasket failure in the future, even with the head bolts replaced. At this point we decided to remove the head and have it checked out and reconditioned. On top of that, we offered our services in making the whole engine a little easier on the eyes with some detailing and powdercoating!

We pulled the dirty thing a part and sent the head and some of the top end bits off to the machinist for inspection, rebuild, and a good ultrasonic cleaning. Think of it as a baptism for your car's soul!

We pulled a head kit gasket set and head bolts (we sell this as a complete kit HERE). Important to get new head bolts since the OEM bolts stretch when you install them (the technical term is "torque to yield"). If your M20 engine has head bolts with hex heads heads, you may want to look into swapping them for the newer torx style bolts. Not all of the hex head bolts fail, but it is fairly common. We've had two engines in the shop in the last 6 months wioth broken head bolts. Both of these engines happended to have "Ribe" brand bolts (the brand is embossed on the head). We've not seen any other brands have this issue, but some will say any hex head bolt should be updated.

While the top half was at the machinist, we focused on the bottom half. The mileage on the motor is considerably low, at about 130k. The cylinder bores looked pretty fresh. So we just gave it a good cleaning and then a refinish on the outside using Dupli-Color Ceramic Engine Enamel.

Now the block is all tidy, and we got our head back from Kevin at Head Solutions. As usual we are quite happy with his work!

Now for assembly. As stated before we used all new gaskets for the top end. Of course, following the torque specs and sequence covered in the Bentley repair manual. We put both the bottom end and the head at TDC (top dead center). If you do not have the lower timing cover on to find the make on the shortblock, just put piston #1 at the very top of its stroke.

We installed a new water pump and a new timing belt. The water pump was a must, for two reasons. A. we had no idea how old the other one was, and B. The cooling systems on the 6-cylinder e30's changed in 1988 (the year of the car where this engine will be installed), using a slightly different water pump.

Next we put our freshly powdercoated valve cover, intake manifold, and timing covers on there!

So, if you're ever in a pickle and have a tech telling you to order a new engine from BMW... give us a call. We'll get you setup with a nicely redone M20 that will make all the local E30 guys jealous!

Grooming Black Beauty - Light Touch-up Work!

When Anna Sewell penned the final pages of her final novel, BLACK BEAUTY, she had not a notion of what influence it would have on pop-culture. Afterall, Black Beauty has become synonymous with romantic yet dark, subtle elegance. Needless to say, applying the age-old moniker to this 325ix might be an audacious claim, but we like to think of these old Bimmers in the same regards as Sewell's 1877 literary debut, as a CLASSIC.. a modern classic. That being said, maintaining the grandeur of such a modern classic is of great importance to us and a challenge we gladly accept!

Doing touch-up on these aged automobiles is a delicate process, especially on Diamond Schwarz Metallic! Getting the new paint to match the 20 year old vintage can be... well.. touchy. With the right tools and knowledge, however, it can be done in a relatively painless process.



We left last week, documenting the prep work, spraying the the basecoat, and starting the clear. The clear coat came out like most clear coats initially: glossy, but with a foggy edge from overspray. This is where the delicate process becomes even more precarious.. Wetsanding and Buffing.

Depending on the area, wetsanding takes a little finesse, as you want the amount of clear coat taken off to be even across that area, as well as blend with the current clear coat on the car. In some areas of the car, following the contour can be tricky. For this, we are using a fine 1500-grit sand paper. Same process as before, but with a finer sand paper for a smoother, finished surface.

The final buff, is a 2-stage process we like to use by 3M. We start with a cutting pad and rubbing compound. Part of the 3M Perfect-It Kit. Starting with a large cutting pad we attack the clear, gradually working our way to the smaller cutting pad. This helps to blend the clear coats together. Like most refinishing you start more aggressive and graduate to a softer touch. Finally, we move to a polishing pad, broadening our coverage, and subtly blending and smoothing the surface.

After a good polishing and washing, we took the car out for some photos in the sun.

Details of the touch-up:

As you can see in the above photo, we've had our hands full this week with general maintenance on customer cars. With 3 different 325ix sedans coming through, if we did have a ranch we'd be set on AWD transport! For some reason, keeping these hard-to-find 325ix on the road is a particularly favored pleasure.. We can't help but love these would-be-workhorses!

Upcoming projects include (but are not limited to):

RUST REPAIR!
M20 Engine (partial) Assembly!

Happy Motoring!

The return of Black Beauty

Happy Friday! We hope you've been enjoying the latest posts about the white over red cabrio, and we'll be back soon with a wrap-up on that project, along with a little history about how our friend Sean acquired it. You won't want to miss it!

And now for this week's installment, we would like to introduce Black Beauty, who is in need of a little TLC. Our clients, a father and son team, own this week's blog subject - 1990 325ix in Diamond Schwarz Metallic. This all wheel drive black beauty was in need of a few paint touch ups. A few scratches and chips is about all that keeps this four-wheeled stallion from stampeding down the way in a blur. We will address the following areas: the driver's side door and fender, the passenger's side door and fender, and the edge of the bonnet. There were a few other small areas that needed attention, so we took care of those as well while we were at it.

(Driver's side fender and door)

(Passenger's side and bonnet)

Using some 400-grit sandpaper and a bottle of water and a little dish soap, we remove any old touch up paint in these areas. This also gives the paint a little "tooth" so the new paint will stick. We must be very careful so as not to get down to bare metal.

Unfortunately, we ran into this very situation along the edge of the bonnet, but fear not! All we have to do is spray on some self-etching primer before applying the base coat. We used SEM self-etching primer after masking off all areas to be primed. The tape protects the rest of the car from any overspray. A little lacquer thinner was applied to further clean the areas before applying the touch up paint.

Quick, light, even coats of primer are applied to all of Black Beauty's spots. (By the way, we named the car for purposes of this blog, just for fun. You might agree when you see this paint! And maybe this name will stick.) Once the primer was applied to our satisfaction and allowed to dry thoroughly, we used 600-grit sandpaper and water to blend the area. We started with 1500-grit, but decided the 600-grit was the way to go. It was a little more aggressive, and did not cut into the paint too much. Again, we had to be careful not to blend the primer down too far, or you run the risk of starting the whole process over!

We mixed up our base coat after assembling the airbrush. We mixed the paint 50-50 with reducer. It's important to read all instructions carefully so you know exactly how to find your paint to reducer ratio. We admit that we actually mixed a little (ok, a lot!) more than we needed for this project, but that's beside the point. We didn't have a proper stir stick, such as a popsicle stick, but the gasket scraper we found worked like a charm! Next, we filter the concoction into the jar, and we're ready to spray!

The basecoat dries flat, and once we get the clearcoat applied, the sheen will be back to match the rest of the car.

Safety Note: It is imperative to wear a proper respirator when painting. And, again, read all instructions on the cans of paint, reducer, and hardener carefully. Our project called for us to mix 2 parts clear coat to 1 part hardener. After mixing way more than we needed (again!), we filtered it into another jar, and set off to spray.

Stay tuned for the final showing of Black Beauty.