Kevin's 1990 745ti DD

Can't believe it's been about two months since my last update. Seems like just last week I was posting here.

Anywho, update time. Several weeks ago I noticed the existing leak at the distributor had gotten a bit worse, so I grabbed a spare from the junkyard and swapped it on, problem solved.

About a week after that, I noticed the small leak that my radiator had (yes, the third triple core radiator I've had in my car since I've owned it) had gotten a bit worse, and there was also a leak from the water pump to head o-ring and the thermostat housing. I wasn't sure how long ago the water pump and thermostat had been done, so I decided to replace both of those along with a brand new Nissens radiator.

Then a mere two days after replacing those parts, my AW71 tailshaft seal took a dump and started pissing ATF everywhere. Climbed underneath the car and gave the driveshaft a good shake and noticed it had a bit of play, so I assumed the bushing was bad as well. Ordered a new seal, bushing and housing gasket and replaced those in a day. Thankfully most of the old gasket just flaked or peeled off, I only spent maybe 10 minutes total scraping off the old gasket which I was happy about after reading that the old gasket removal was a nightmare.

Anyway, got it all back together and haven't leaked a drop of anything since. Other than that, the only other update I have is that I got an Ultra Racing upper strut brace to try out. Upon first receiving it it didn't fit right away, but I made it work. Here it is fitted (notice the shiny new Nissens ):



One of the four mounting points (drivers side) was too long and didn't fit over the top hat stud, so I cut about 1/4" out of the bracket and rewelded the piece back on and it fit like a glove.

Before:


After:


Just needs a quick respray of white in that area and it'll look good as new, although I may repaint it a different color altogether. First impressions are definitely a tighter front end, feels a little less sloppy in a tight corner. I've read that the real difference is noticed with the lower brace as well, just need to find or make one. I do have a set of the lower front subframe reinforcement brackets from a 960 that I haven't put on yet, but I need to get around to it.

A new distributor fixed the leak, or do you mean new seals did?

Sir Psycho said:

A new distributor fixed the leak, or do you mean new seals did?

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I tried new seals on my old distributor but it didn't stop the leak. Found one at the yard in great condition, swapped my new seals over to it and it stopped the leak. Not sure what exactly the issue with mine was.

Axial shaft play likely

Went to Orlando's Eurojam meet today. Great turnout and perfect weather for an event. Decided to go hoodless for it.

I like it. I'm not much for chrome/silver-pipes+blue housing, but the color of the valvecover makes them blend in really good!

just went through the entire thread. Really nice and clean build!

A few questions....

Did you ever figure out what the whining noise was all about on the 15g? and what did you use to paint your bumpers? Mine are really old and dated.

Thefuzz said:

I like it. I'm not much for chrome/silver-pipes+blue housing, but the color of the valvecover makes them blend in really good!

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Thanks I appreciate it! After I stripped the paint off of the valve cover and the pipes, I just rubbed/scuffed it really good with a red scotch brite pad, to give it more of a brushed aluminum look. I'm not a big fan of chrome either, the pic above is about the shiniest it will get because I had just went over them all again for that car show.

shaved240 said:

just went through the entire thread. Really nice and clean build!

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Thanks! I really appreciate the compliments. I try to not show off my car or whore it out just for the sole purpose of getting compliments, but it's always humbling to hear them

A few questions....

Did you ever figure out what the whining noise was all about on the 15g? and what did you use to paint your bumpers? Mine are really old and dated.

Click to expand...

I never did figure out what exactly was causing the whining on the 15g. Maybe the shaft was one one-thousandth out of tolerance and it was vibrating enough to make it whine. That would explain why it did it with both sets of bearings. It never seemed to affect the performance though, it held 18psi no problems.

As for the bumpers, I believe I used some semi-gloss wheel paint from autozone. It's all I had laying around at the time and it came out great, even with just mildly scuffing up the bumpers first with some sandpaper.

So I've had a pair of 25mm 5x108 - 5x120 adapters for a while now, and today for the hell of it I tossed on a couple of my buddy's BMW 16x8s to see how they looked, and I'm at a bit of a dilemma here. He has a spare set of them that he'd sell me, and I quite like how they look. It's sort of hard to tell from the picture, but they sit about perfectly flush with the edge of the fender. If I got them, I'd get some wider but shorter tires for them (they're mounted with drift tires for my buddy's e46, and they're 185/65/16).



And a same angle pic of the current Voxx 17x8 for comparisons sake.

Better with the BMW wheels!

Paint the Voxx wheels gold and drop it lower.

Or...

Paint the BMWs gold and drop it lower.

So after mulling the wheel decision over for a bit, I decided against the change for now. They're somewhat easy to come by (buddy has two full sets, I've seen sets on craigslist and I found a full set with gold centers in the junkyard once) so I might look into it later when I have some spare cash and am dying for a change. For now, I might try the centers of the Voxx wheels gold to see how I like it. I already have some gold paint so it would cost me nothing to try it, and if I don't it'll be easy enough to go back to silver.

Other than that, the wagon has been running phenomenally lately. No leaks, no major issues, no odd noises. The powerband is so much fun, merging onto a highway in 2nd gear is ridiculous, it just pulls and pulls. It's nice to actually enjoy the car, instead of taking it easy on it because of some leak or impending repair.

The only mechanical issue that I need to tend to is the master cylinder, which has been acting up more in the hot temperatures. However, I have the replacement unit sitting on the shelf, I just need to find a day where I can finally take care of it. Speaking of finding time, I should probably make a to-do list of sorts to keep myself organized.

- Master cylinder
- Buchka wasted spark board. Should arrive soon, then just need to solder it up and get a bosch 2x2 coil
- Paint wheel centers
- Locate water leak that drips into blower motor. Believe it's from somewhere under the cowl.
- Paint, possibly. If anything, just the roof. The faded paint is such an eyesore.

And now a few pictures. Wagons are quite versatile. Was the pit car for the last drift event a couple of my buddies participated in:


And the night before the event (Volvo coozie FTW):



And for anyone interested in an up and coming drifter, check out my best friend Teddy. Awesome dude with a lot of talent and a sweet e46.

www.teddysfriend.com

Seal up the area above the blower motor with 3M Windo-weld. Access from under the cowl; just did that with my old 740 in preparation for selling it.

Awesome wagon remains awesome, dude.

Got the master cylinder done a couple weeks ago with a friend's help bleeding the brakes. It all was really easy and the brakes feel MUCH better now. I don't have to dread the pedal sinking to the floor during stop and go traffic on a hot day anymore.

Took the wagon down to another FLVCOA meet in Safety Harbor on the 12th and had a great time. Beautiful weather and a shaded park and food catering from Bahama Breeze. Haven't seen many pics from the meet yet, but here's one from before when my lady friend helped me wash it:



Then just this morning I felt motivated enough to change up the wheels a bit. I've been toying with the idea of gold since I picked them up almost 2 years ago, and I finally said what the hell and gave it a shot today. I'm super happy with how it turned out:





That was done with about 3/4 of a can of Rustoleum gold metallic. One coat, didn't take the wheels off and just wiped them down with a rag before masking and painting.

Lookin good!

Sorry I couldn't make it to the meet, sounds like it was a great event. But I'll be racking up the miles very soon, first start up should actually be in a couple hours.

That paint looks fantastic. I think I may have to get a few cans myself.

Swag wheels

Just gonna leave this here:

Ruined

I like it