Das Race: My '97 M3/4/5

[Jake]

Mileage: 148,850

A lot's happened over the past week. I ordered the new cooling system bits and they arrived on Tuesday. Also decided to put my shiny new fender on the car before Hyperfest (because blingblingracecar, yo).

Fender was a really easy install - just look for where the bolts are, take them off, drill through the one that you zing the head off of, and remove. Had to sweep the garage twice after doing this - it's amazing how much silt and dirt and leaves and crap accumulate inside a fender well over 17 years. The new fender lined up pretty well. There's a bit more hood gap on that side than before, but... whatever.

Nekkid:



Dent-free!



My friend Jay came over and we tackled the cooling system. Very easy job, ordered everything from Turner Motorsports and got a decent deal on it all. Installed an all-aluminum radiator, Stewart high-flow water pump (this thing is HUGE compared to the stock WP), new expansion tank and tank cap, and lower/upper radiator hoses.



I promptly ignored the car until today, and spent oh, 8 hours or so outside spinning wrenches and busting knuckles. A few hours were spent on Joey's M3 but the rest was all mine. Bled the cooling system with a 75/25 mix of water:coolant, did an oil change, rotated tires, installed fresh shifter bushings and gave the ol' girl a bath.

The shifter bushings are not really that hard in theory. Problem is, the exhaust and driveshaft are competing for space with your hands... so unless you want to drop all that down (which I didn't) then you curse a lot and get some scrapes on your hands.

Only took ~15 minutes to get the famed "bitch clip" out - it holds the shifter carrier to the transmission and is a total pain to remove with the trans still in the car. You have to get a flathead screwdriver under the clip's release point and twist it juuust so to make it pop loose.



Anyway, after the aforementioned cursing and knuckle-skinning, I did manage to remove, refresh and reinstall everything. Went for a drive and it does feel quite a bit tighter where it counts (heyyooo).

And finally, #BecauseHyperfest, I had to give 'er a bath. The paint is pretty crappy up close, but from a distance (the distance that drunken Hyperfest crowds will see her parked near the stage on Saturday) she looks pretty good:



Man, I'm tired.