BMW 2002Tii (ish)

[scottos]

I was in at the engine builders i help out at last weekend, my Cometic headgasket has turned up, which is quite quickly really considering they tend to be custom order and of USA origin!

20230401_092741 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

My new cam had just turned up the day before i was in as well, i wasted no time it getting it out of the box for a look. It's a chilled iron blank and had some form of coating, so straight away i have higher hopes than using Catcams again (even though they've changed their blanks now...). I think i touched on it above, long term when i do the bottom end, i'll use a hollow billet one with internal oiling, for now im eager to see how this performs!

20230401_120259 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230401_120250 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

That is all of the parts present to crack on...! Except the head isnt done yet i'm hoping by the next time im in, that it'll be done. Still aiming to run 46mm inlets and 39mm exhausts but keeping the standard size seats the exhaust may end up 38.5mm, we shall see!

I also got my manifold finished up, wrinkle black really is one of my favorite things and i've got the method for it almost down to a T now as well:

20230329_135831 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230329_135654 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230329_135819 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

The phenolic kit came with washers too, to stop heat transfer bypassing the gaskets via the bolts, i'd also painted these so they dont look out of place.

20230329_140029 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

All fitted back together with the ITB's, linkage and filter set up:

20230329_140838 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Lastly a current picture of how it sits, its still dirty from last year and now has a lovely covering of dust, so it's looking a little sorry for itself! I cleaned the wheels properly whilst they were off, at least!

20230403_205327 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Hopefully with the next update it'll be going back together!

Scott

[scottos]

The head ended up being done a few days after the last post, excellent!

It had a very light skim, throats opened up to match the new valves (went +1mm on exhaust and 0.1mm on the inlets) and blended in, tiny bit of chamber work to 'de-shroud' the valve, multi-angle seats. Work done is to 11/10 standard, as per!

I fitted the new valve stem seals with the proper tool whilst i was in there:

20230406_163313 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230406_163434 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230406_163847 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230406_163800 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

One home i checked that the bigger valves were okay in the existing valve pockets, all looked well (old HG used for this step):

20230412_180253 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230412_180659 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Also checked the clearance between the bottom of the retainer and the stem seal. It leaves me with around 13.5mm travel and the cam is 11.2mm, so plenty clearance:

20230412_190348 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Cracked on fitting the valves, first picture is the exhaust, second are the inlets:

20230412_182653 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230412_182658 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Flat head screw driver and a bit of general grease allows you to drop the collets in place pretty easily:

20230412_184801 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230412_191633 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230412_202731 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

The tricky bit after this step it getting the rocker shafts in with the rockers and the retainers etc.its like a puzzle! The rocker pads were also poorly finished and i assume would chew the cam up fairly quickly, so i polished all the pads up with oiled 600 grit and then scotchbrite:

20230412_193320 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230412_193033 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230412_234732 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230412_235531 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230412_235524 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230413_003250 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

At this stage it was getting rather late but i thought i might as well crack on! New HG fitted:

20230413_003508 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Head on and setting timing, very easy on this engine!

20230413_011224 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Valve clearances set, clearances on the rocker locks and timing checked multiple times along with tension on the timing chain:

20230413_011232 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

It's starting to look like a proper engine bay again at this point! It was now 2:15am in the morning on a school night and i'd got far too carried away!

20230413_214617 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

I managed another long stint over the weekend just gone. I needed to finish up in the bay, securing and plugging in the loom, attaching fuel flow and returns, water inlet/ outlet to the head and then i could get on fitting the radiator and associated pipework and the electric fan. Before long it was done and topped off with Valvoline VR1.

20230415_174714 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230415_174701 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

I did the gearbox and diff oils whilst it was still up in the air:

20230415_102211 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

I also fitted some new genuine bushings to the exhaust hanger/ bracket arrangement, these were a fortune for what they are but seem a lot more sturdy than the ones they replaced (i'd assumed they were genuine but they werent!)

20230415_122516 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

With this all done i primed the oil system and fired it up. With the new cam i had to do a cam burn which involves holding the revs at 2500-3000rpm for 20-25 minutes (sorry neighbors!). This passed over quickly and the temps all stayed great too. With the new phenolic gaskets on the ITB's this sitting at those revs for that amount of time was a good test and the ITB's were nice and cool with the new inlet extensions even cooler, happy days! The inlet manifold on the other side of the gasket was too hold to keep a hold of!

Back down on its feet:

20230415_174620 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

I was full of adrenaline at this point and very happy so i went inside to chill out for a few hours but i had a nagging feeling that i wanted to get out in it to make sure it was all fine. I did a 90 minute loop to check it all and it runs quite well on the existing map, it picks up better at lower revs and still revs out nice and fuelling all seemed great on the AFR Gauge. It had a bit of a dead spot off part throttle low down but i think an adjustment to the map will overcome this. I really was surprised how well it ran as is!

It was so so good to get back out and i'd forgotten how good it is, i can easily corner as quick as the GR Yaris and that was taking it fairly steady away with it feeling unfamiliar. It just feels like home though, it really is amazing to be back out in it.

20230415_195314 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230415_195336 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230415_194708 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230415_194922 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

The only issue was that 2 of the quick release v band clamps quick released when i didnt want them to! A bit of a pain and im going to take them off and fit none quick release ones. Hopefully they turn up ASAP as it's booked in for a mapping adjustment this Thursday!

Cheers,

Scott

[scottos]

Spinakerr said:

Truly stunning. The engine work is tremendous but those final shots out at sunset are unbeatable!

Perfect timing to have this ready and on the road!

Thanks for the kind words and you couldnt be more right, im just in time with it!

[scottos]

Chunkychucky said:

Epic as always Scott, good to see the old girl back out on the road - 2:15AM on a school night, good effort! Just in time for the better weather too!

Must admit i'm somewhat envious of the car being nicely modified whilst still being usable 'on the road', unfortunately gone a bit too 'full retard' with the A35 so it's bloody horrible at anything other than full chat! Looking forward to seeing your updates over the coming months

Cheers matey, i had a mega drive out the weekend before and it spurred me on! You're right about the weather, i'm off tomorrow and will be heading over to Alston to get the map tweaked and then sample the roads whilst over that way!

I think it's the way to go for me, i thought id be doing a load of trackdays when i first started building this and instead i've got into driving out in the hills instead. I'm sure you build up to it but i dont feel like i could ever go past 70-80%, even on track and i get some much enjoyment on the roads i take it on, i cant see me getting any more on track. I'll certainly never race either, im just not a competitive guy. Are you racing with the a35, if not then it might be worth softening it off a bit and i'll see you out in the Dales/ Pennines?

[scottos]

MTW said:

Wow, I have spent the last 3-4 days working my way through this thread whenever I have a spare few minutes, what a lovely build. I love the attention to detail and all the “right” bits, everything on the car fits the theme, it looks incredible.

I love the Recaro pole positions, I had a MK2 golf a few years ago which had pole positions that were retrimmed in grey fabric and ultraviolet material in the centres to match the OEM rear seats. It was my favourite thing about the car. Great to see someone doing the same thing. It looks superb.

Great to see all the in depth coverage of the engine work also, I enjoy working on my car myself. But my skills don’t extend to inside the engine yet but I would love to carry out a rebuild and learn that kind of thing and some point.

Fantastic car, and very enjoyable thread to read! I look forward to seeing more.

Edited by MTW on Thursday 20th April 10:24

Wow thanks for the kind words and the time you've spent reading through it all, im glad you enjoyed it enough to do that!

I had a mk2 golf way back when too and i remember a car being done with PP and UV fabric funnily enough! I had a load of rainbow run out material kept spare as i was going to put OEM recaros in it and have them re-trimmed to suit, that never came to fruition, however!

If you start with a relatively simple engine you will be fine, im sure, if you are quite hands on. Most engines are quite simple to be honest, just more steps included with more heads, more cams etc.

Thanks again for spending your time on the thread!

Chunkychucky said:

Nice, I presume you're going to just perfect the drivability aspect with the new intake setup as opposed for trying to squeeze more power out? Must admit it's impressive what the old M10 can do, incredible when you consider the competition engines that the bottom ends went on to support!

Yeah it's a good call, I love road driving early morning/in the evenings during the Summer once all the slow c*nts/cyclists have toddled off home, and being able to enjoy the great roads we have up here in something like your 2002 is special Haha yeah unfortunately going to be racing it, tempting to soften it off a bit and (shock horror) raise the ride height a bit, but ideally i'd also put a carpet/back bench back in it, and not have a weld-in roll cage with door bars... need to get another one for road use really that I can tune free of the racing regulations, might have a hope in Hell of keeping your car in sight then

Thats the plan, there's zero number chasing with this car, however unimpressive things may seem Melmerbey up to Hartside Summit is the test bed for me, it's my favorite stretch of road and thats also where you tend to have friendly run in's with all sorts of bikes and cars too.

That is fair enough if you're racing and a good excuse for a second one

SturdyHSV said:

Get an engine stand and have a go, it truly isn't complicated when it's there in front of you, and there is so much footage / content on youtube for anything you can imagine you can be pretty familiar with the process before you even start

I built a 600bhp engine from scratch with zero training or experience whatsoever, the reality is most of the bits only fit together one way really... Just don't set yourself a deadline so there's no time pressure and just tinker away.

MTW said:

Ah good to hear! Yea I reckon you might be right! Only a Duratec I’m thinking about so might just pick up a cheap one and get to taking it apart!

SturdyHSV said:

Absolutely! Take lots of pictures as you go (a Reader's Cars thread is a great place to organise them ) and then you've got plenty of material to reference back to even without the enormity of the internet to fall back on

A Duratec is a nice one to do and there's plenty around, aftermarket performance parts are aplenty too. Good excuse to upgrade 'whilst you're in there'

[scottos]

SturdyHSV said:

Great to see the car back on the road and everything is looking top notch as always! I assume it'll be in the Readers Cars section at the PH25 event? There'll be loads of us crawling over / under it

It didnt quote this for some reason but yes that is the intention but dont look too closely it's absolutely battered with stonechips now and the front airdam center piece is hanging together by a thread (well cable ties ) it's certainly not a show car haha

[scottos]

Following on from the last update, i'd ordered some none quick release vband clamps for my manifold, they turned up on Wednesday.

I was penciled in at a friends rolling road on the Thursday so they came just in time! This meant some time needed to be spent on the car Wednesday night, i needed to fit these clamps and have a general check over.

Now the engine has had a few heat cycles, i wanted to re-torque the the headbolts, that was first port of call! 2 out of 10 were still torqued, so it's definitely a step that needs to be taken on these engines.

20230418_205839 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Second port of call was to fit the clamps, hard to get a proper picture!

20230419_204757 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

I packed the car with as many spares as i could find, charged my laptop up and packed that in and good to go for the morning.

My friends place is located 5 minutes away from one of my favorites roads and im friends with Rob of Nentsport Dyno purely from going up there driving and there are many people who i can call friends, who i've initially met in the same way!

Rob's place is a wonderful place, it's an old farm house and one of the sheds conveniently has a rolling road in it its a no nonsense set up!

20230420_124827 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

It's always cold up there and we've had a couple of low powered fans blowing this cool air into the front of the car and one pointing down into the top of the engine bay to help things as much as possible. The temps stayed great and the intake temps never went into the state where the map will compensate, so that was also great, before the fan onto the bay was turned on it was only pulling 1% out after being held under loads for a few minutes.

The green boxes below are the load cells adjusted in the first 3.5 hours or so. RPM is shown down the side and the top is throttle %, so all the green boxes are essentially all the lower RPM ranges and throttle positions that come about from general driving i.e. part throttle and lower RPM's and these are ones we had to alter. It was running a bit lean on my way over to Rob so this all needed some time to sort, there's obviously more air making its way in than the previous set up!

20230420_124433 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

We spent the last 30 minutes or so messing with the >95% column, as the rest of the load cells were spot on. It's running quite rich at the top and removing fuel/ timing didnt seem to make much difference, so we got it to its happy spot and i was happy to call it a day!

I've had the car on 3 different dynos now, the one where it was initially mapped called it at 180hp, i had it on one to check results with/ without the airbox that called it 164hp and Robs initially called it 164hp too but obviously there has been significant changes this time. After the messing around above and in it's most happy spot it came out at 170hp! I was grateful to Rob for the work and allowing me to sit in with him as his assistant, always love to learn.

With Hartside pass being 5 minutes away, i headed straight up, then over and down the other side, to then turn around and do the same again in reverse. The car is miles better on/ off throttle than before, pick up is instant and there's no bogging down and i genuinely think its a quicker car now than it was before. It just feels smoother through the revs so its not as hectic but when you glance at the speedo its right up there. There's a boot load more torque lower down with this different spec of cam and new valves, which makes sense with all the fuel we had to had in from the previous set up!

All in all, very happy!

A stop on the pass, looking through the mounds where the road goes through, is the lake district:

20230420_152044 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Back up the hill:

20230420_152108 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Another stop off on the way home, just soaking up the sun and admiring the view:

20230420_165955 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Im hoping to get out plenty and i'll try for some better pictures and perhaps the odd video!

Cheers,

Scott

[scottos]

bomb said:

Smokin Donut said:

Cars looking great! And good to see its running well and your enjoying it. Jealous of those roads, nothing like that down south.

Thanks! It really is brilliant for driving up here and the roads are never particularly busy either. If anyone wants to get West quickly then they take the a66, so these roads are generally just local traffic, with the odd person taking the 'scenic' route.The locals tend to be fairly well on it as well

EmBe said:

I saw you up above Middleton in Teesdale on Sunday, car looked fantastic and just the right size for the roads.

Ah, were you in the Cayman, or something else? I came up and over from Frosterley and down to MiT. I broke a bolt on the driveshaft shortly after, which left me with a load of vibration under any real load so it was duly turned around and limped home.

New guibo and bolts on order!

And, Thank You, you're right about the size, as a consequence you still have room to position the car but also stay in your lane generally.

[scottos]

EmBe said:

We were in the mighty Outback (family outing to Low and High Force) sadly.

When we first raced my mate's Boxter, we snapped driveshaft bolts on the LH driveshaft in quali, luckily we had spares so on they went only to find we'd also snapped the RH bolts and we were one short. Weekend over before it began

It looked great - I yelled out "Ooh! Ooh! that's.......the bloke....off Pistonheads....Scott!" - I got the eye roll she does so well when I get excited about cars

I was going to be disappointing in myself if i had missed the Cayman! If you saw me coming back from that direction and towards MiT then that was after the incident it was like a monsoon at home around 5 minutes after i put it back in the garage, so i wasnt too put out!

It is annoying when things like that happen, things you cant really account for! I got stranded late '21 when my halfshaft bolts sheared off in the diff flange, all torqued to spec with the correct thread locker and it completely screwed me getting home. When i looked into it, it's a common thing to add another 5ftlb's to the torque settings.

I do the same and get the same looks, completely understand

Bright Halo said:

That’s a great Dyno result.
I would I be correct in saying it is now producing about the same power as the turbo version?
Must be great to drive.

Thanks and yes, similar peak power (mine should be a smidge more). The turbos dont get going until 4.5k and only rev to 5.8 so that power is very short lived haha mine revs to 7.5k, with max just after 7 and it gets going around 4k rpm.

I'd love to have a drive of a proper Turbo one, i bet they are hilarious fun in their own way!

Slippydiff said:

Googles “Hartside Pass” ...
Mental note made, must take a trip up there
Wonderful photos as always Scott. Car looking brilliant too. Good to see you saw/caught the tensioner blade before it caused an altogether more catastrophic engine failure.

Dyno session sounds very successful and productive. Your man’s dyno “cell” no doubt does wonders for providing nice cool air for low IAT’s, but not so good for waiting around in for a soft “Southerner” like me.
It’s a good method to dissuade punters from watching whilst the car’s being mapped mind !!

Great to see you’ve got the old girl fixed in time for the Spring.

If I may, I’ll drop you a PM/email requesting some recommendations for other good roads in the area, then arrange a long weekend up there with a mate or two, and hopefully meet up with you too. It’d be good to see the car in the flesh

I was thinking as a read your first couple of lines, i would suggest you letting me know when you're up and we'd sort something out. Please feel free to PM me and it should go to my emails. I can certainly sort you a route out that gets the best bits in (and more, depending where you're heading from/ going to afterwards). There's a few of us now that have met through the love of driving out there so should be able to sort a small group at my end, too.

Robs dyno is great, i love the no nonsense approach! It does get chilly up there, there's the petrol station in Alston at the base of the pass and in summer it can be 28 degrees down there and at the top of the pass you need a jumper on!

Also, a friend got his Mk2 Escort rally car checked on Robs dyno and his wife made them all mince and dumplings for lunch, i wasnt so lucky this time but i cant imagine many rolling roads that would provide that service!

Edited by scottos on Tuesday 25th April 15:56

[scottos]

Not a lot to update, other than i've been getting out in the car when i can.

However, the next drive after the previous post, i had a small failure and had to limp the car home. There was an odd sudden noise and then the sound of something essentially dropping off under the car and then some relatively harsh vibrations! I was out in the middle of nowhere but there was a small carpark to pull into further up the road. It was apparent that the car was fine unless load was added!

I pulled in and had a quick look under and as far as i could see, i reversed out of the spot i'd parked in and heard the familiar noise of something falling off again i found this on the floor:

20230424_134829 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

This was either a propshaft nut/ what was left of the bolt, or the gearbox mount. I had a 50 minute trundle home and it made it fine. I even got a few overtakes in but thats more down to people doing 30 in NSL zones and causing me load issues up the next hill, it was much better to carry speed!

Once id gotten home and jacked the car up i was greeting with the below:

20230424_142042 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Only one bolt had snapped and from the fretting on the rear of the disc i saw later, it appears it came a little loose and allowed the output flange and disc to fret against one another and eventually fail. Tightening these bolts is on my checklist so it's odd this happened. I did note that for whatever reason i've put all the bolts in the same way, when youre supposed to alternate them I cant imagine the reasoon for the failure is that, though!

I ordered up 2 replacements, so i could check the quality:

20230430_211751 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

I also found an original BMW one (no longer available) in a pile of old parts i kept. Sadly this is well used, with cracks galore. It was nice to compare the original against the two replacements i ordered. The top one appears to have better quality metal bosses, where the bolts pass through and generally looks better but the other one, whilst not looking as good, is pretty much identical to the BMW one. It has the shore number etc. present too, the top one has not one marking.

I decided to fit the middle one, for better or worse! No pictures i'm afraid, it's a bit of a rubbish job and i just wanted it done and finished! A quick picture back on the floor, however:

20230430_231833 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

I had some time the next day to get out for a bit of a drive, had a great time and really enjoyed just being out in the middle of nowhere in it:

20230501_122126 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230501_122144 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230501_122239 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

I'd seen a guy i know through Instagram was in the area with a few mates, they'd come up for the weekend to explore the roads so i went to meet them at Alston petrol station, at the base of Hartside Pass. As luck would have it, another Insta-friend drove by in his GT3RS and quickly pulled in. We had a good run up and a couple of runs down the other side, excellent.

20230501_110143 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230501_110117 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

I've mentioned it before but i keep finding cars bring people together that otherwise would never meet otherwise, it really is excellent.

Hopefully ill get down to the Pistonheads meet at The Motorist, near Leeds this Sunday in it, fingers crossed the weather holds out!

Cheers,

Scott

[scottos]

Well following my previous sign-off of 'hoping the weather holds out', it didnt

I took the 2002 anyway, it's only water and its not like i drive it often in the wet. Plus with it just going back on the road, all the components on the underside etc were freshly coated in ACF50. It was basically patchy rain storms on the way down, a couple of stretches of road were engulfed by nothing short of a monsoon, the A052 tyres were great in standing water. I was in convoy with a couple of newer cars on AR1's and they were having a much worse time.

A couple of shots the photographer of the day got:

FB_IMG_1684008287671 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

FB_IMG_1684008294394 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

FB_IMG_1684008274735 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

And a good couple from Pistonheads very own Ben. L:

2023-05-17_09-43-40 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

2023-05-17_09-43-52 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Shortly after arriving the sun came out and it was almost too hot to stand around in, who'd have thought after the mornings rain

Hung around awhile chatting to various people and a friend came later in the afternoon in the grandson of the 2002:

20230507_143155 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230507_143030 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230507_143109 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Lovely thing, he's owned it a very long time, before prices went silly, so it's still driven as such and not hidden away.

On the way back i think there's some form of blow from one of the V-bands at the front, on the secondary pipes on the manifold. I think when its been repaired it's distorted slightly. Further investigation required! I've had it off and apart and back together and that was my conclusion, it's a horrible tappy sound, reminiscent of a blow, i even scared myself into checking the valve clearances and the way i built the head but it all looks good. I think i'll just give it a good drive out this weekend, or one evening and see whats what!

Cheers,

Scott

[scottos]

Yazza54 said:

Car looks awesome as usual

AR1 is really not a wise choice for an all weather tyre

Cheers! And no, definitely not!

[scottos]

illmonkey said:

Great posts as always Scott. You make me very jealous, mines laid up awaiting parts.

Keep posting the good stuff. Love reading the development.

Thanks! I know the feeling well, the nicer weather only makes it worse as well!

Fingers crossed its not for long and you're back out enjoying it!

[scottos]

I signed off the last post noting it developed a horrible blow reminiscent of a blown gasket or the vband flanges being open etc. Because i'd already spent time checking the vbands etc. i had one more look whilst it was up in the air to put my mind at rest. I loosened off the rest of the exhaust and the clamp off the gearbox and made sure everything was fully aligned and thankfully they were!

I started it up and the noise was still there it pointed towards the gasket being blown or something else. It's a noisy car so it's hard to pinpoint. I decided that as it steadily got worse on the way home from my previous trip, that i would go out and do a local loop and give it some stick so that it would hopefully get a bit worse and make itself a little more apparent!

I met up with my friend for this little run out and he brought along an appropriate car that would mean i would have little choice than to give it some stick in an attempt to keep up

20230527_164203 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Up over a certain speed the aero seems to kick in on his car and it rooster tails dust and gravel up into the air, its amazing to see and more memories made that ill be reminded of by my inevitable new stone chips

I find the pictures below hilarious, possibly a combo never to be repeated. Chalk and cheese.

20230527_172635 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230527_172614 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Back to reality, my intended outcome had become apparent and the blow WAS worse. It still wasnt easy to pin point so i bit the bullet and stripped the manifold off. From this i noticed the below:

20230604_155717 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230604_155316 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230605_180544 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

It's bolted up to a spare head here so i could check alignment properly. Everything else was spot on, so off it went on it travels to the guys that built it so i could take advantage of their lifetime warranty again. Everything has to be strapped down in the boot of the Yaris, you get used to the corner speeds and stuff can go flying quite easily!

20230609_211346 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

I got this back and all buttoned up with a new gasket a friend had spare and fired it up, the noise was less but still there, not happy, so i just left it for a few days.

I'd ordered an Elring gasket that hadnt shown up by the time i got the manifold back, so used one from a friend, the quality seemed short of the Elring one i ordered albeit it was half the price when i looked.

I got a bit of motivation back so went to strip it all off and start again, this time with the Elring gasket (this is what i normally use), new k-nuts and some exhaust gasket paste (not something i like to use if i can help it but at this stage i was past caring!).

The gasket got a light touch of the paste and i got it all back together as quick as i could before it went off. No alignment issues and it all seemed great. I was nipping up the last nut that needed it and it gave way, i hit my knuckles off everything around them and had thought i'd perhaps rounded it albeit it just 'went' and didnt go gradually, like rounding something does. When i looked i'd snapped the top of the stud off. I just laid there for a few minutes, as you do when things like this happen.

I wasnt about to strip it all off again to fix this right now so i decided to finish up and just fire it up. The noise had gone completely, which was both a blessing and a curse! I let it get up to temp and gave it some rev's, it was perfect. My current thinking is just to drive and enjoy it for now and if 75% of the fixings being present on that flange dont hold the gasket down enough and it burns through, i'll fix it at that point!

I've not much planned for it this year, it feels like a bit of a come down from last year, where i took it to the Nurburgring and drove it flat out pretty much every week, at least once! Well aware we are approaching July already and i've probably only managed a few hundred miles.

Im back into the anxiety stage with the car, after rebuilding/ replacing the top half of the engine and the re-tuning and now the cracked manifold, so i need to get out in it and get my eye back in properly and get used to it again. It's a seriously fun and capable car, despite its age, on the roads we frequent when it all comes together, so that is my only plan for this year.

Oh and the below, Pistonheads very own 25th anniversary show at Bicester:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

It's a dull 4+ hour journey each way but im committed to coming and look forward to it!

Cheers,

Scott

[scottos]

Bobberoo said:

Fantastic, look forward to seeing the car in the flesh and hopefully meeting you!!

Thank You, it will be great to meet the people that post in the thread and are interested in the car, just don't look too closely, it has some battlescars now haha

[scottos]

gary71 said:

Will see you there, and remember battle scars are built in memories Show pieces are boring and lifeless.

Awesome, looking forward to meeting you and having a look around the car! You are right of course, most of the rock strikes or other damage on mine are associated with good memories and im happy to keep them there

illmonkey said:

Great update as always Scott! A bit take aback by your challenger, did he even get a look in?!

Hopefully at PH25 they don’t put mine next to yours! Or maybe an oem vs what you could have had type thing…

Thank You and he just about kept up! Of course im joking, that car just reprogrammes your mind for what is 'fast', bonkers! Luckily the roads we all frequent dont have many straights and plenty of bumps to slow the fast stuff down, we all tend to have a good even bit of sport across the board albeit im attempting to exploit a much higher % of performance from the poor 2002!

Ahh they would look great together, a subtly modified round light car is a lovely thing and was my original intention before this bastardised turbo arched car came up, way back when

Tom4398cc said:

Hello Scottos
I think I must have been living under a rock or something- I have only just stumbled across this thread. Luckily I’m on holiday this week, so I’ve been able to enjoy reading all 36 pages over the last 24 hours. By any measure: what a thread; what a car; and what an owner/builder!

Back in May, I was trundling south down the A1 in my mk 7 Golf GTi 3 door manual to go to the PH meet at the motorist. Four or five interesting cars came past me (I’m not a quick driver, the shame) and one of them was your silver 2002! It looked absolutely brilliant and was a real treat to see it on the road. Once we were at the PH thing at The Motorist, it was great fun looking round the hundreds of different cars people had brought. But your 2002 was my clear favourite car of the day. I thought it was perfect.

So to then find your thread yesterday has been brilliant. I’ve really enjoyed reading about how you’ve rebuilt and developed the car, and everything you’ve been through with it. Massive thanks for going to the trouble to write such a detailed thread. It is massively inspiring. Hats off to you.

All the very best
Tom

Hey Tom, firstly, thanks for the very kind words! It's always a small world with these cars, you did well to spot it as it seemed most of the journey down was spent in rainstorms and the spray off the car was ridiculous but im glad you enjoyed seeing it!

Thanks for taking the time to read through the thread as well, im glad you have gained something from it, top man.

[scottos]

gary71 said:

Looking fine in the sunshine on Saturday

Thanks Gary, you're a gent!

I loved having a look around your 911, i went back a couple of times!

The only issue with these shows is that once the owners are away from their cars, know one knows who owns what!

[scottos]

gary71 said:

Exactly. I occasionally went back and got something out of the boot and always ended up in conversation, but we are also there to look at other stuff and I’m not old enough (yet!) to set up a picnic chair at the back of the car

I think we spent most of the time in the car park, some amazing things turned up. Great to finally see the 911 anyway!

Sf_Manta said:

Saw the car but didn't think to get a picture of it.
Looked great though a bit soggy after the 2 rainshowers blew through.
Not sure if i spoke to you during the show though..?

It was nice that it got a wash i think 98% of attendees were more dedicated than me, cleaning the cars once parked up.

Quite possibly, chatted to a good few people. Similar to Gary above, it was every time i popped back to the car to get something, which was cool.

Still find it amazing that people take their time to be interested in my little old BMW.

Court_S said:

I’m still working my way through the thread, but your car looked stunning on Saturday.

The care and work that have gone into it, with the attention to detail are all very impressive.

Thank You very much, its appreciated!

Im sure you noticed and can tell but its certainly not a show car and has its fair share of war wounds now. Its nice to hear you looked past that to see whats beneath

[scottos]

Court_S said:

That makes it cooler!

The coolest CSL I’ve ever seen was one at C&M a few years ago; manual conversion, 140-odd K on the clock with a million dead bugs on it from a recent Welsh road trip. Used as intended.

Excellent! I decided to clean it a bit for PH25, this is usually the look :

20220517_114909 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

[scottos]

Well, the final update on this car from me in this post, the car has gone on to a new owner and it is no longer mine, sadly!

All the way back to August and PH25, i attended with a few mates and we took the 2002 down and his 812 GTS, it was a great weekend (despite the rain storms!) and i got to meet some great people off of here and see their awesome cars in person.

20230812_121556 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

BMW 2002 3 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

BMW 2002 1 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Petrol Front by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230811_204354 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

The car had some 600 miles to do it total across that weekend to attend and it did so fine, rain, shine, cruising and hooning; until we got 20 minutes from home and a caliper bolt dropped out. I do think it actually fell out some 60 miles earlier but it was a quiet evening and there was no braking to be done until i left the motorway, doesnt bare thinking about if i had to brake harshly on the motorway.

20230813_193700 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20230813_193627 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

A quick bodge with a borrowed strut brace bolt and we were on our way. The bolt wasnt the right diameter but it worked well enough to stop the caliper swinging one way or the other and locking the wheel. I got it home rather happy/ relieved, another 2002 story to add to the collection!

20230813_202201 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Since the works earlier in the year with the new cam and head mods etc. the throttle had been sticking on the last 1% so any engine braking was lagging and it wasnt so enjoyable to drive and this was something i couldnt seem to sort. It had been doing this on the way back from PH25 and it was grating on me by the time i got it home.

After this, life just seemed to become a little busy and there didnt seem to be much time to enjoy the 2002 and im sad to say my interest in cars and the 2002 had waned. Other factors, I blew an engine on a friends car, it wasnt my fault but it was me driving it so it felt like it was, the other halfs daily was playing up for weeks, we fixed it, sold it and bought a Caravelle for day trips etc and that immediately started playing up, it may sound all woe is me but i was fed up with cars!

Fast forward a few months and i received an email from a great chap called Malcolm, he'd been in touch a few years ago through a mutual acquaintance and was wanting to have a 2002 built and wanted to see mine in person and have a chat for some ideas, turns out he was 275 miles away and popped up for the day, great dedication to the cause! He ended up selling his project, funnily enough to someone else i knew and i helped out with it a little bit!

This time his email was full of enthusiasm and fire for doing the 2002 project once and for all, kind of at the time where i was feeling quite opposite. His email picked my enthusiasm back up and i happily gave all and any advice i could for his project and finding a car and thought that i really needed to sort mine out!

It dawned on me that Malcolm was so into building his dream 2002 and it sounded remarkably like mine but he also had the resources to really create something special, especially if mine were to be used as a base. I've brought the car on so much from when i got it but my timeline with the car naturally seemed to be coming to an end, dont get me wrong i had lots of plans for the future but it was all money dependent and none of the plans were particularly cheap nor did i think for certain they would make the car any 'better'. I had a think and a discussion with my other half and decided to broach the subject with Malcolm to see what he thought and it turned out he hadnt asked if i would sell out of respect and politeness.

I would never have put the car up for sale but this was the right person at the right time and we struck a deal that was fair to both. I must say i've never had such a pleasant car selling experience and i really am happy Malcolm is the next custodian of the 2002!

Obviously for this to take place i wanted to sort the niggles on the car, it was just to review the caliper bolts and then sort this sticking throttle out essentially.

I got some marginally longer caliper bolts and ensured i loctited them this time, along with new spring washers, job jobbed in 20 minutes!

I then set about looking at the sticking throttle.All the linkages were free and springs returning but it was the last 1% down to 0 that i was having issues. I got in touch with Jenvey to send them off and have them rebuilt, assuming the throttle shafts were bent, or the bush bearings had become sticky. Turns out they no long offer this service but they could send me all of the parts to do myself!

I replaced everything and it was pretty easy in all honesty, so i thank them for just making me do it, sometimes the best way to learn! The bodies werent bad off the car but did feel a bit 'gritty' on one side. I bolted everything back up and it was smoother but was still sticking at the same point. By this time i'd spent hours on this job going over everything and just went inside to call it a day, try again another day! I had a brainwave later that night whilst laid in bed and quickly went down to the garage and i loosened off the bolts that hold the bodies to the manifold a tad and there we had it, perfect! It turns out the phenolic gaskets i'd fitted whilst waiting for my cylinder head to come back allowed the bodies to twist the tiniest amount when bolted down and ruined my fun for the year! Off them came and everything was perfect, i doubt the bodies even needed a rebuild, it was just down to those gaskets!

With this i serviced the car and had it ready to rock. The car was amazing, i set the throttle stops again and the idle etc. it had never ran so well for a long time! Typical!

20231030_111005 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20240203_120901 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20240203_115909 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20240203_115922 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

I'd also cleared a small leak from the oil temp sensor in the sump (not my welding, it was a sump i aquired with the car!), so it really was the best it had been in a long time. I dont think you'll ever stop all oil drips out of a 51 year old bmw!

I got the rest of the car sorted for Malcolm and took it out for its last shakedown in my ownership. I took the missus with me as it was potentially the last drive id ever have of the car! She loves the car but doesnt really like coming out in it, its an assault on the senses and really shouldnt do corners as fast as it does, i was happy she came with me, even if she did look a little white and shaken when we got back!

20240203_162554 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

I love this angle, i think its my favorite!

20240203_163158 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

My little lad had his final sit/ play in the car too:

20240211_182337 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20240211_182101 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

And with that the next day Malcolm drove up the 275 mile each way journey once again but this time it was to see his 2002! It was a really nice couple of hours with him and he loved it. I then organised transportation for him later in the week, which was a very strange experience for me, putting it in a trailer, not to be seen again for the foreseeable! I will miss this car dearly but im happy with where it has gone to.

20240212_145806 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

20240212_145814 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

The final picture to sign off this thread, the 2002 in its new home at Malcolms!

IMG_3253 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr

Thanks again as always for reading, i've had immense pleasure from this project and documenting it on here. I've met some great people through this car and this process and owe a lot to it.

Obviously i cant not have something in the garage so i'll start a new thread soon enough! This time it will have more than 2 seats and be able to take a child seat and perhaps require slightly less tinkering but not too much less!

Scott