The Luger Log - The Baron Gets A New Ticker

[E21meister]

Thought I should post an update, as I've been juggling three car projects. The new car (The Bride Of Luger) has had something near a re-commissioning (well the car's only done 2000 miles since 2003) as I wanted to tackle a litany of niggling faults, so that she'll be completely reliable as a daily driver. That way I can take the Rover off the road to do the VVC swap.
A re-commissioning you say? Well how about:
New plugs, timing belt, tensioner, water pump, oil, oil filter, air filter, PAS belt, alternator belt, ballast resistor for the Bosch radiator fan, new injectors from my parts pile (a mate of mine used to work for Bosch so got stuff at cost - we filled our boots ).
Rebuilding a warm-up regulator for the K-Jet as the idle speed is erratic.
Stripping and repainting the pulleys, various brackets and crank balancer, as they were all rusty.
Degreasing the whole engine bay - 28 years worth of caked-on grease get tedious after a while.
Repairing a crack in the sump that meant evvvvvvery last drop of oil had to be drained before I could make with the chemical weld. And various little wiring bodges that had to be ironed out. Did anyone that owned this car previously ever hear of solder?
That said, I found out it's had new wheel hub bearings and exchange front brake calipers, so the car's had new bits on it recently.
Now it's getting somewhere near my standard.
Did get a chance to put an E36 325i battery cable in the green car (The Luger) and the loom for the B25 is nearly done. Next task is to mount the ECU under the driver's side dash area. Well, I wanna put gloves in me glovebox, innit?

[tommi_e21]

i have a genuine pair of linen white bmw gloves from a 7 series and matching first aid kit u want them?

[E21meister]

Racked up close to 300 miles from Friday in the new E21, was helping my mate with his engine swap (no pics at his request) in his E36 'M3' Compact, so had to drive up to Wickham. I've not done that much mileage in it and as I've just serviced it, so thought I'd rack up the miles for a while in it.
It repays me by conking out. In the middle lane of Euston Road, opposite Euston station. Grrreat, picked your spot well... I push it into a nearby street and go through the usual drill under bonnet to try & locate the problem; conclude that I can't get it started with the tools I have and go into the reception of the University College London building I've parked outside to get pen & paper to make up a sign to keep the warden at bay. The bloke at the desk goes:
- "That's an E21 isn't it?" (he can see it from his desk on CCTV)
- "Er yeah."
- "I used to have one of those."
Turns out he's a BMW nut and has owned several, including an E30 M3 and an E24 635csi. After chatting for about half an hour, I go back outside and have one more look under the bonnet before the breakdown lorry comes. For all of the cranking over, there's no smell of fuel. Notice the fuse for the fuel pump isn't sitting in it's holder properly.
SORTED!
Saturday: We went to Enfield Pageant to get various bits & bobs for his car; somehow subconsciously I've manage to find the only other E21 at he whole show, an X-reg Kasmir Gold 323i. Bloody wish my camera phone battery hadn't conked out.
Sunday: Crystal Palace Hillclimb.


Check out my other post on this and this excellent Flickr album (not mine):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/retroscene ... 10/?page=8

[E21meister]

Was on the Drive It day , which was awesome:




It was great seeing m3gaz's car in the 'flesh' yesterday, it was like seeing a ghost (I had a Henna car with 15" RAs on)! I'm thinking of pulling mine off the shelf to put on the BOL and to help me decide, a mate of mine let me try one of his 5-stud ones (off a 911):



I'm undecided at the mo whether to put mine on, as I want to get them refurbished with gold centres but wanna use the dough to get my Hatrtge Classics done for the Luger. Hmmm.....

[E21meister]

Time for an update:
Lots of little jobs to do on The Bride, a few of them getting ticked off. The exhaust downpipes had started to rattling like a bitch, so thought it would be a simple job to tighten the bracket that comes off the gearbox. Only I'd completely forgotten it didn't have one. Well, doh. Luckily I found one on The Bay Of E for a cheap price, some etch primer, Hammerite and new nuts & bolts later:



And fitted. Well not the gearbox bracket, I couldn't get it past the crossmember bush. Job done. Now I've got to fix the blow I can hear now the rattle's gone.



Right now the car's my daily driver until I finish my Rover. Including hauling wood around to make a flower bed. Good for traction, would have been a bitch for anyone rear-ending me. Hopefully it will be in hibernation before the Winter sets in.



Recognise these wheels? They're Retrobeemer's old Fondmetal cross-spokes (hey, my wheels have been featured in Retro Cars and PPC! ) with a good set of Toyo Proxes, I'll put them on when the spring comes, still deliberating over whether to paint the centres gold.



It isn't all roses, alas: the chemical weld repair I did to the sump I while back decided to fall out right outside my garage after driving back from my workshop on Sunday, delightfully depositing the contents of the sump on the floor. If I can't get a steel one from someone, I'll have to faff taking it off my spare M20B23 lump and even then it's gonna be a ballache changing it over.

More progress on the Luger too: Bought Jimmi's Willwoods and been cleaning/painting polishing various brackets as well as getting stuck into the wiring loom for the new engine. Little steps, but getting there.

[nas80]

crikey your having a bit of an adventure with your car arnt you! lol

[E21meister]

An update about the sump spill; last Saturday I refilled the now-empty engine with fresh oil so that I could drive it a ¼ mile (not the Santa Pod kind) down the road to my local garage so that they could fit the sump I reluctantly bought and refurbished from Fritzl’s bits. Irony was I could have got a cheaper one if I’d waited but hindsight and all that, but at least I’m reminded why I don’t buy anything off them…
Anyway, I started the car and heard a sound like the bottom end was knock-knock-knocking on heaven’s door.



The engine must have been starved of oil long enough to knock out a big-end bearing. Bollocks. Drove it down there and left it with them, as I needed to get the new sump back from my workshop. I resigned myself to the fact I would have to pull my spare B23 lump out and build up a short engine.
This is where it gets a bit weird. Picked up the car on Monday (not worth shelling out bucks to fit a sump to a knackered engine, right?) refilled the engine with the oil that had dripped right through to the drip tray, started the engine and –
No knock. At all. Took the car for a short drive (floored it to 4000rpm, took off at a low speed in a high gear), no sign of the knock. I have a theory that the oil pump had some kind of airlock (as the oil light was on en route to the garage on the Saturday) or a piece of debris blocked the pickup so possibly the gears in the pump were running without oil, hence the clattering sound. I’m ordering a new pump along with a set of big-end bearings for piece of mind. And I’m gonna build up the spare engine anyway, I need to brush up my engine building skills in preparation for the day I get down to building my dream 3.0 M20 engine…

[e30racer]

Lucky escape man! I had same sort of thing happen on my old motor. Lovin' those allys to. Where can you get them as not seen em before?? Are they like BBS??

[E21meister]

Well I'm not out of the woods yet until I see the bottom end with my own eyes. As for the wheels, they're Fondmetal cross-spokes, quite similar to the BBS RH, as below:



Both are getting hard to obtain.

[tommi_e21]

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm pretty wheels

[E21meister]

Been a while since I've updated this, what with the blogs and everything else. Have loads to post, but for now will put up some piccies from the PPC E21 shoot of my car. Must say it looked a little disheveled compared to some of the quality E21s from 'our' forum, but then it is a 133,000 mile beater.






All hail The Forgotten BMW, we doff our [s]bonnets[/s] caps to you!



It wasn't all good news for me though; the Fondmetal/Toyo combo I'd fitted just the previous night pulled one of my front arches out slightly, which is the cars way of telling me I'll need to pull out a pair of my NOS front dampers as the current ones have become too bouncy through age. That, and when I jacked up the rear to put the wheels on, I noticed the halfshaft boots look like they can be carbon-dated to the birth of Christ. Time to rebuild another set from the bunker...

[E21meister]

THE MEISTER PARALLAX

helped to pull an engine out recently...
Not my greatest effort, not helped either by a stubborn exhaust and a bellhousing bolt that put up more resistance than the Libyan people, but it got done. Thanks for all of your help Mark, much appreciated.
If you've read Mark's thread, you might be wondering just where the 2.7 engine went, Well it didn't leave the workshop, as that's my workshop. It's destined for Baron Luger himself, a useful upgrade from the standard 2.5 I was going to put in. And a stepping stone (hopefully) for the 3.0 litre M20...




The engine now has the crack team of Meister technicians (well OK, me) prodding and poking it to new heights of power. Mwa ha ha.