weneversleep

Yes, it’s true. Lori Ann and I are expecting our first child in early September.

We saw the first glimpse of him/her at the 8-week ultrasound, which was pretty cool. Last week, we heard the heartbeat.

I’m thinking about selling the S2000. I guess fatherhood, even impending fatherhood, changes your priorities, just like everyone says. And, that’s why I can’t put a rollbar in the M3, because it would probably be nice to have more than 1 car with a backseat for a baby seat…

This HPDE was the first time to run the M3 with the new wheels/tires and the new brakes. (I still used the old Hawk HT-10 pads, which still had plenty of meat on them.)

The car performed flawlessly. Which is more than I can say for the driver. My first excuse was that I was sick on Thursday and Friday, and was marginally feeling better on Saturday. In fact, I went home early on Sunday because I was up all of Saturday night with stomach problems.

The other excuse was that the car now STOPS. (ok, that’s a good thing!) The combination of brakes that now work (really!) and the race tires means that the stopping distances are greatly diminished. Which means that I now need to essentially re-learn the track, especially my braking points. Again, a good thing, but I just wasn’t up to that kind of a challenge that weekend, given the way that I was feeling.

Still, the car is finally “done”, at least for now. (I’m not sure if I can afford to do anything else.) I’d like to get seats/harness/bar, but that will have to wait. Details of “why” is in my next post.

Yes, I finally took the plunge. I figured after 21 track events, all on street tires, it was time.

What changed my mind: I picked up a screw in one of my rear street tires (RE-01Rs, which are incredible street tires, btw). This means that I couldn’t track these tires anymore; can’t track a plugged/patched tire.

Yes, I could have gotten two new rears, but there was enough of a wear difference between the fronts and rears that I really would have had to get 4 new ones all around. But, the tires were still good for the street, so what better time to buy some race tires? Well, that was the explanation that I gave to my wife…

Of course, new tires means new wheels. I bought the Kosei K1 17×8.5 wheels from Tire Rack, a good deal at $165 each. There really was never a question on which tire; most DE’ers around here run the Toyo RA-1, due to its combination of long life, good grip, and progressive breakaway characteristics. The RA-1 has been out for many years, though, and last year Toyo introduced the R888, the newer version of the RA-1. So that’s what I got. 4 R888 tires, 235/40-17, which fit perfectly on the K1 wheels.

Everything was drop-shipped to Bavarian Machine while the car was in for its break-in service and getting the new brakes. One of the K1 wheels was bent upon arrival, which Tire Rack replaced immediately and with no hassle. I had BMS install wheel studs and lug nuts to replace the one-piece BMW OEM lug bolts–it takes longer to remount a wheel with those stupid lug bolts than it does to change the brake pads!

Got the car back last Friday, and left for TWS later than afternoon. Yes, I drove up there with the race tires on the car…

Last week, I took the M3 back into Bavarian Machine for its “break-in” service, necessary after the engine was rebuilt. They like to retorque the head studs to make sure that everything seats nicely, and that there are no more problems with the head gasket.

While it was in there (there’s that expensive phrase again), I had them look at my brakes. At the track in mid-February (LSRPCA event at TWS), I had the brake shimmy problem again. Once the brakes got hot, and only when the brakes were hot, the whole front end of the car felt like it was shaking apart every time I put my foot on the pedal. When the brakes cooled down, the shimmy went away. So, the track weekend was fun, but the brake problems were really frustrating me, especially since I thought they were solved before.

When I was changing my pads after the event, I noticed that the dust boot on one of my front calipers seemed not to be seating correctly. So, I asked BMS to take a look at all of the calipers, and briefed them on my braking problems.

Turns out that both of my front calipers were bad. Both dust seals had gone bad, and the pistons were completely rusted/scored/pitted. This explains the behavior on the track; once the brakes got hot, the pistons expanded just slightly, but enough to cause binding on the inside of the caliper, causing inconsistent caliper clamping action. Rear calipers were fine.

It was actually cheaper to put some new calipers on the front than to rebuild them, especially because the pistons would have to be replaced. So, that’s what they did, in addition to putting on new rotors all the way around.

But, the best news is in the next post.

Let’s see. Last update, I was taking the M3 into Bavarian Machine to figure out why I’m losing coolant. That was back in December.

It was a bad head gasket, like I had suspected. I had them R&R the head while it was off, which ended up including replacing 14 bad lifters (out of 24), regrinding each valve seat, and lots of other stuff. They also recommended replacing the timing chain and VANOS system, because the timing chain had stretched to the limit of the tensioner. The bottom end of the engine was fine, but the top end is pretty much now “as new”.

While it was in there (famous last words), I had them do some suspension work (fabricate adjustable sway bar end links), replace the cracked guibo, replace a cracked steering hardy disc, fix a bent wheel… the list went on and on. Once it was all done, they corner-weighted and aligned the car.

Almost 2 months later, I got the car back, and promptly took it to the track. Hey, that new engine had to be broken in, right? The car performed wonderfully, and the engine now pulls harder than ever. No more cooling loss, period.

More updates in the next post…