Our Lemons BMW ON FIRE!

4 cam tbird

4 cam tbird

Club Member
Linked so you can see who the pics belong to. The guys made a helluva collage of it.
http://s241.photobucket.com/albums/... OTD1/?action=view&current=20110417_5706_.jpg
20110417_5706_.jpg

http://s241.photobucket.com/albums/... OTD1/?action=view&current=20110417_5696_.jpg
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What it looks like not on fire
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Story:
Took the car to Waterford Hills to shake it down and see how it felt before we race it in a couple weeks. On left hand turns when the fuel sloshed to the right it was leaking out of the vent hose. The vent hose had an exterior knit around it and the rubber inside of that had rotted in a manner that we couldn't see it. We hadn't had a full tank of gas in the car before so we had no way of knowing there was an issue there. Once the exhaust warmed up the fire started. Obviously we're replacing the hose. We didn't think the exhaust would ever be a problem with fuel because it comes out ahead of the fuel tank but obviously that isn't the case so we'll be putting a shield above it to ensure gas can't reach it again too just to be safe even though we're replacing everything that seals fuel in the tank.
 
From a distance it looks awesome. Up close it looks like paint that was applied with a roller right over the top of rust. Flat black is great like that. Really hides imperfections. Although in this case it may not be great as it might just get us penalty laps. The lower left door is a hole. The piece below the bumper on the left side also has a rust hole. 75%+ of the driver's side floor comes from sheet metal I got from Pacific Motors. 30% of the passenger floor is the same deal. There's actually a zip tie holding the rear portion of the passenger front fender against the stuff behind it so it doesn't flop around. The floppy portion of the passenger fender is just missing from the driver fender. The cage is more or less holding the car together. there are actually tubes welded all along the rockers, otherwise there would be no structure.

I forgot the most important part of the story, the driver was untouched by the fire. He had the where abouts to park the car right in front of corner workers donning a fire extinguisher as well so there was really no damage to the car at all other than some evap lines that had we known of their existance would have already been removed anyway.
 
lucky7 said:
lol, sweet. M20 or M42?
Click to expand...

I know those are engines but I'm not enough of an E30 guy to know which is which. Car is a 325I. We had a parts car for spares and we had the ECU from it in during the track day. That car was a 325IS convertible. Well, turns out for whatever reason the ECU from that car was for a 325E. It wasn't running very good, we swapped the ECU now but waiting to have the vent hose completely repaired to start it and see how much better it runs.
 
Few more random pics from my phone while working on the thing. None of them are good enough pics to show how bad the car is, and apparently we always skip taking pics of the left side. The wheels in the top pics are from the parts car.

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I don't even have any cell phone pics uploaded of the left side to speak of. Just one of it driving away. Have some pics of the floor patching too but can't seem to find those either.
 
lol, i saw the group buy for those wheels. ugly, but really light weight and cheap. :lol:

it's an M20B25 (2.5l)
the 325/e/es is an M20B27 (2.7l). it's low revving and designed for fuel economy. known as the 325 "eta", as "Eta" is the 7th letter of the greek alphabet and is used in engineering for efficiency.
haha, sorry.

oh, and the M42B18 is the 1.8l 4 cylinder that came in the 318(is) which was for '91 only. M40 was the old 318, and M44 was the E36 318.
 
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We actually have a tire rack hook up, which is how we ended up with the charcoal wheels. They are definitely light and were cheap as hell. We were running the track day on the other wheels since they are heavier, planned to use them as the back up race set. I knew about the lower rev and what not of the 2.7. A 2.5 runs like shit on a 2.7 ECU :lol:
 
that i'd believe. you should toss the 25 head on a 2.7 block. google "E30 2.7i". some people swear that throwing a 2.5 head on a 2.7 bottom end gives you a good torque boost. 2.7 bottom ends are like a cummins in that they never die...ever. :lol:

cool car for sure though, i miss mine.


i think i met you at a CC&K one time. we were looking at a mustang inside because it was raining.
 
CC&K is the Saturday morning thing, right? I haven't made it to any of those. I think you're probably thinking of Seth. Tall, skinny kid? That's who was driving when it started on fire. Same car, different person.
 
ahh, that sounds about right.


the next one is Saturday, May 7 from 8:00 am to 11:30 am
 
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i actually might be there myself. i got my weekends mixed up. i'm either moving home from school that day, or the one before. but if i do show up, i should be in a silver civic hatch. the minivan looking one. lol.
 
I'm looking into a 91 318i right now, my current dd is a 91 1.8 Jetta, so I think the 318i would be a little "faster" Mostly looking for gas mileage and going low.
 
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