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#1. Re: Cam timing - from James Clay
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Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 13:14:27 -0500 From: "James Clay" <james@bimmerworld.com> Subject: Re: Cam timing Use the factory cam timing tools to lock them in the back. The attachment point is right there when you are into the engine, should be the easiest way to do it. James Clay http://www.bimmerworld.com Engineered BMW Performance
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#2. jacking problems - answer - from Dorffer, Rich
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Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 13:21:08 -0500 From: "Dorffer, Rich" <RDORFFER@CleIndians.com> Subject: jacking problems - answer You know guys, there is a way to jack up lowered cars without the use of a jack plate or boards under the tires with a fairly low jack (just one, you don't need two) to put the car up on four jack stands. No muss, no fuss, quick and safe. Matter of fact, one of the more renowned local BMW mechanics does it this way every day with a big honking jack. I have posted this method before but it must be falling on deaf ears. Also, I could also jack up one side of my M3 (from the front or rear but mainly the rear) and the whole side lifts. With the X brace and the strut brace, it does do it that much easier. So, it did it before the chassis reinforcements, it does it that much easier since the chassis doesn't flex as much after the reinforcements. Later, Rich
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#3. RE: Aftermarket seats: need opinions! - from sbacon9@megapathdsl.net
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Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 13:35:40 -0500 From: "sbacon9@megapathdsl.net" <sbacon9@megapathdsl.net> Subject: RE: Aftermarket seats: need opinions! Jon, I took the plunge for many of the reasons you cite (plus I was quickly running out of things to modify on the car!) and put a set of Recaro Sports into my '96 M3 coupe. I went with the leather/cloth combo and the comfort package, which includes heating and cooling and electric recline, along with the stock electric height/tilt adjustment (fore/aft is manual). This was not one of the quicker or more satisfying changes I've made, although the seats look great and are more comfortable and supportive than the Vaders, I've had a number of problems: 1. Recaro's quality control appears to be pretty poor. The passenger side seat electric recline was DOA out of the box, which meant that the seat was useless (they crank them forward at about a 30 degree angle for shipping). The vendor I bought from had no good way to resolve this, Recaro USA doesn't appear to have a repair facility. I ended up disassembling the seat myself and replacing the dead electric motor with parts they provided from Recaro. Took several weeks of going back and forth through the vendor to Recaro USA to get the right parts. A few trim pieces were loose or broken on both seats. Not at all what you'd expect after dropping a ton of $$$ on premium seats. 2. The bigger issue is that Recaro's E36 brackets don't align well; I've tried two sets with slightly different part nos with the same results. The seat is as high or higher than stock, I'm 5' 8" with stubby little legs and I don't have helmet room. The driver's seat is also offset from the wheel further than the Recaro. I'm going to look into having the brackets modified to drop them an inch, unless someone has a better solution? TC Kline do sell their own brackets (basically 2" box section steel with mounting tabs/holes) that correct these issues, but they are really a race car solution - you cannot use the stock seat belt receiver/pretensioner assemblies with them, you have to use a receiver on a strap, like the one from the rear seat middle position. Hard to fasten, and you're giving up the pretensioner that will help keep you from getting a nose job a la airbag in a crash. If you don't have heated seats already you'll also have to wire for electric adjustments or seat heaters - which isn't necessarily a hard job, but it adds to the complexity. We used fuse positions in the master box to keep this factory looking on my car. Hope this helps Skip '96 M3 coupe -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
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#4. lifetime? - from kitwetzler@mindspring.com
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Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 14:15:23 -0500 From: "kitwetzler@mindspring.com" <kitwetzler@mindspring.com> Subject: lifetime? > Heres to the Craftsman lifetime guarantee, Uh... I hope you're not drinking to that, because it really doesn't exist except for non-moving tools. Socket wrenches are 1 year, torque wrenches are 90 days. (!!!!!!!!!!!) bastards. I buy my tools at Home Depot, now... I went to Home Depot with a broken torque wrench that one of my enterprising young racing buddies had removed some lug nuts with (by jumping on the poor thing) and they replaced it, no questions asked. Sometimes you need to remind them that they have a lifetime guarantee and that they are the manufacturer. -kit -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
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#5. Re: Frozen Coolant - from Geof McLaughlin
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Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 15:15:24 -0500 From: Geof McLaughlin <gfmiiilist@attbi.com> Subject: Re: Frozen Coolant Regarding my frozen coolant saga, all appears to have ended well. For those interested, I rented a 70,000 BTU kerosene portable heater and thawed my car out in my garage for a full 24 hours. I checked the frost plugs to see if they had popped out of the engine block or were deformed and they looked fine, I then pressure tested the coolant system to check for any leaks and it passed. The final test was to start the car and let it heat up as much as possible and check for leaks and there were none. I drained what was predominantly water and WaterWetter from the radiator and engine block and replaced it with a 50/50 solution of antifreeze and distilled water. I do not expect to have any further problems this winter. Obviously I can not really stress the engine in terms of heat until I get it on the track, but hopefully everything will be fine. Thanks for everyone's help in dealing with this problem, especially Mike (95m3ltw@charter.net) and David Holeman. It certainly is not a problem that I plan on experiencing again! Geof
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#6. RE: [E36M3] lifetime? - from Michael
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Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 16:33:53 -0500 From: "Michael" <95m3ltw@charter.net> Subject: RE: [E36M3] lifetime? Bear with me, I like very nice things as much as the next person and truly believe you get what you pay for. But things like Snap On tools have always amazed me. It is one thing to pay 100% more for a well made, long lasting tool or device of any nature. But when you are paying 500% more, and the lower level tool tends to last about 70% of the snap on life, I don't get it. Especially when you could have bought 2 of everything and then you have an instant replacement on hand, then take the other back at your leisure for replacement. Granted, there are certain tools that you cannot find comparable quality for the same price. But a lot of the newer snap on stuff I have seen, is not nearly as good as they were say 10 years ago. They did change manufacturing plants and I believe home depot sells the renamed, old snap on plant stuff. I do know it looks well made and is comparable to snap on IMO for A LOT less. I can understand specialty items etc, but not $200 7 piece socket sets etc. I have never experienced any tool failure short of cheap far eastern stuff. Not a fan of crapsman of late, as their ratchets feel like dooky, but a snap on doesn't feel any better than your Home Depot, Lowes special and with the same warranty, just buy 3 of them, pocket the change vs snap on and you are covered, haha. One thing I noticed being the reason snap on is so popular in the profession, They will quickly finance most tool sets and chests. They snap on dealer was always telling me to just go ahead and buy their full mechanics set. Think it was about 7k etc. "O don't worry about that, it is only $130 a month for all of this" haha yea for 25 years. Every new mechanic I have met tends to go that route, buy 10k worth of tools, finance them at some high interest rate and pay $100 a month for years. So in that case, they are attached to those tools. Haha. Mike -----Original Message----- From: kitwetzler@mindspring.com [mailto:kitwetzler@mindspring.com] Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2003 2:17 PM To: E36M3 Subject: [E36M3] lifetime? Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 14:15:23 -0500 From: "kitwetzler@mindspring.com" <kitwetzler@mindspring.com> Subject: lifetime? > Heres to the Craftsman lifetime guarantee, Uh... I hope you're not drinking to that, because it really doesn't exist except for non-moving tools. Socket wrenches are 1 year, torque wrenches are 90 days. (!!!!!!!!!!!) bastards. I buy my tools at Home Depot, now... I went to Home Depot with a broken torque wrench that one of my enterprising young racing buddies had removed some lug nuts with (by jumping on the poor thing) and they replaced it, no questions asked. Sometimes you need to remind them that they have a lifetime guarantee and that they are the manufacturer. -kit -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . ************************************************* Please help support the E36M3 list by visiting our sponsors: Taylor Autosport http://www.taylorautosport.com Rogue Engineering http://www.rogueengineering.com BMW M3 Specialties http://www.jt-designs.com Bimmerworld http://www.bimmerworld.com DIGEST INFORMATION: http://www.bmw-m.net/resources/digest_info.htm *************************************************
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#7. Fw: Fw: [E36M3] Re: New AA Superchargers - from Ben Liaw - Rogue Engineering
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Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 16:35:21 -0500 From: "Ben Liaw - Rogue Engineering" <ben@rogueengineering.com> Subject: Fw: Fw: [E36M3] Re: New AA Superchargers >From the BMW software guru, Jim C. Regards, Ben Liaw Rogue Engineering . 201.444.8150 . http://www.rogueengineering.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Conforti" <lndshrk@xmission.com> To: "Ben Liaw - Rogue Engineering" <ben@rogueengineering.com> Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2003 3:44 PM Subject: Re: Fw: [E36M3] Re: New AA Superchargers > Unfortunately, the Rotrex is nothing new, it was tested and > then summarily rejected by us back in 1998. I think if I > look to the back of a dusty shelf in our shop, I can still > find the culprit. > > We went so far as to design/build custom bracketry and piping for > the Rotrex and actually install it on a vehicle only to find that > the compressor maps purported by the manufacturer were "mostly > a fantasy". In short, the Rotrex made a great HEAT GUN, but > a rather poor air compressor if you wanted COOL compressed air. > > It's efficiency (that's the amount of pressure increase due to > actual density increase, versus the amount of pressure increase > that is due to temperature increase) is quite low at the speeds > and pressure ratios needed by a 3-3.2 BMW engine. > > The use of an intercooler in this case is strictly a bandaid. > > I'd suggest waiting for one of the multiple "fixed displacement" > forced induction kits that are coming out this spring. > > Jim > >
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#8. RE: [E36M3] lifetime? - from Zack Steinkamp
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Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 14:41:24 -0800 (PST) From: Zack Steinkamp <edsarkiss@yahoo.com> Subject: RE: [E36M3] lifetime? it's the exponential relationship between price and performance. 200% more $$$ doesn't get you 200% better. look at home theater stuff. you can buy a system that will get you 95% of the way to "perfect sound" for $XX. to get the last 5%, the price is commonly $(10*XX). it's worth it to some (e.g. McLaren F1 vs. Honda Civic). zs --- Michael <95m3ltw@charter.net> wrote: > Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 16:33:53 -0500 > From: "Michael" <95m3ltw@charter.net> > Subject: RE: [E36M3] lifetime? > > Bear with me, > > > I like very nice things as much as the next person > and truly believe you get > what you pay for. But things like Snap On tools > have always amazed me. > > > It is one thing to pay 100% more for a well made, > long lasting tool or > device of any nature. But when you are paying 500% > more, and the lower > level tool tends to last about 70% of the snap on > life, I don't get it.
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#9. OT: Z8 Driving experience - from Joseph L Bachman III
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Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 18:55:52 -0500 From: "Joseph L Bachman III" <josephbachman@hotmail.com> Subject: OT: Z8 Driving experience A bit off topic, but interesting none the less: I just got back from the Z8 driving experience down at BMW's Spartanburg SC plant. Absolutely fantastic! The performance center is a top notch facility complete with irrigated skid pad, road course, water-wall collision avoidance, etc. The row of cars out back is to die for: M3s, M5s and Z8s as far as the eye can see. Kind of makes you indifferent to the cars themselves. Their instructors are top-flight, and when we weren't driving the wheels off of the Z8s, we were being slathered with fantastic meals and gifts. To have some fun with our training there were some timed dry and wet events, and even some head-to-head match racing on an autocross course. It was the experience of a lifetime to wail on a 400-hp, $130,000 dollar exotic car like it was a rental car. We also got to use the Michelin tire testing facility, which is apparently a closely guarded facility for tire testing. Numerous tracks, enormous asphalt lakes, and irrigated road courses. They also let us drive any other BMW we wanted to, so we covered the whole gamut with a 'buffet:' 745, new estoril X5 4.6, M5, M3 6spd, M3 SMG, Z4,. If any of you want to go participate in a high caliber DE with more seat time than you know what to do with, I highly recommend one of the BMW classes down in SC. These guys run a top notch school in every way. I'm sold on BMW for my next DE course. The only drawback is that my M3 feels like a slug! :-) Regards, Jay Bachman '99 estoril coupe
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#10. RE: [E36M3] lifetime? - from Michael
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Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 19:11:09 -0500 From: "Michael" <95m3ltw@charter.net> Subject: RE: [E36M3] lifetime? Actually, that is different, Stereo etc there is a measured improvement. The last 5% is always hugely expensive to achieve, my point being there is no last 5% improvement in decent tools. In that example, you are also paying for state of the art technology that hasn't been mass produced yet either. Give it a few years, it will be cheaper due to the volume. Well with tools, they haven't invented or used any new technology that I am aware of in their 17mm wrench! Haha. Now, according to the price, it should be pure Titanium, glow in the dark, heated, beep when lost, and double as a cell phone plus remote for the TV. It comes down to personal feel of the tools etc. As to quality, I think it can be argued to the last degree, you wont find much difference in the xyz brand that used to be the snappy vs the new snappy stuff. In fact, I have found the products produced by the old company factory actually feel better IMO. I can promise you in a blindfold test, you cant tell the difference between the sockets, 2 good ratchets etc. I have an old craftsman swivel ratchet. I swore the day I find ANY brand that worked as well and smoothly as it does, I would gladly pay a few hundred for one. The snappy feels like crap compared to it and I wont even mention what the crapsman of today feels like. I took it in to get the insides replaced when it started to feel loose. They have kits, they do it on the counter. It felt so bad that I made them put the old stuff back in, haha. -----Original Message----- From: Zack Steinkamp [mailto:edsarkiss@yahoo.com] Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2003 5:47 PM To: E36M3 Subject: RE: [E36M3] lifetime? Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 14:41:24 -0800 (PST) From: Zack Steinkamp <edsarkiss@yahoo.com> Subject: RE: [E36M3] lifetime? it's the exponential relationship between price and performance. 200% more $$$ doesn't get you 200% better. look at home theater stuff. you can buy a system that will get you 95% of the way to "perfect sound" for $XX. to get the last 5%, the price is commonly $(10*XX). it's worth it to some (e.g. McLaren F1 vs. Honda Civic). zs --- Michael <95m3ltw@charter.net> wrote: > Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 16:33:53 -0500 > From: "Michael" <95m3ltw@charter.net> > Subject: RE: [E36M3] lifetime? > > Bear with me, > > > I like very nice things as much as the next person > and truly believe you get > what you pay for. But things like Snap On tools > have always amazed me. > > > It is one thing to pay 100% more for a well made, > long lasting tool or > device of any nature. But when you are paying 500% > more, and the lower > level tool tends to last about 70% of the snap on > life, I don't get it. ************************************************* Please help support the E36M3 list by visiting our sponsors: Taylor Autosport http://www.taylorautosport.com Rogue Engineering http://www.rogueengineering.com BMW M3 Specialties http://www.jt-designs.com Bimmerworld http://www.bimmerworld.com DIGEST INFORMATION: http://www.bmw-m.net/resources/digest_info.htm *************************************************
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#11. RE: [E36M3] OT: Z8 Driving experience - from Michael
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Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 19:16:29 -0500 From: "Michael" <95m3ltw@charter.net> Subject: RE: [E36M3] OT: Z8 Driving experience 2 questions Is it free besides buying a new M or have they lowered the price yet? Haha And do they use anything besides the small track behind the Performance center now? If you think it is fun in a stock M, you should try that small course in a B modified M3 race car. I think I remember doing about 110 around the back corner. Very scary considering the elevation of the track and the soft ground it was built on. Kind of surprised they did not have a more safety oriented track in mind. Mike -----Original Message----- From: Joseph L Bachman III [mailto:josephbachman@hotmail.com] I just got back from the Z8 driving experience down at BMW's Spartanburg SC plant. Absolutely fantastic If any of you want to go participate in a high caliber DE with more seat time than you know what to do with, I highly recommend one of the BMW classes down in SC.