Venom's 95 RX-7 Feed Widebody Build

[Venom13132]

Sounds good.  I figured it would likely be ok.  Just curious about cleaning all this carbon off the pistons and valves.

[MPbdy]

My ls7 looked similar. It is a little worrisome when you see it, but it seems sealed up just fine now that it’s running. Use a catch can in the car or delete the PCV. If you run e85 at all you’ll clean that carbon right up.

You can scrape it off - try to keep it all out of the ring lands. Prefer not to see any airtools, but I know a lot use a wire brush or wheel to clean that up.

[Venom13132]

My ls7 looked similar. It is a little worrisome when you see it, but it seems sealed up just fine now that it’s running. Use a catch can in the car or delete the PCV. If you run e85 at all you’ll clean that carbon right up.

You can scrape it off - try to keep it all out of the ring lands. Prefer not to see any air tools, but I know a lot use a wire brush or wheel to clean that up.

Can I blow it out with air? or just use a vac?   I'll just give it a little clean up.  I don't plan on running E85 at any point in this car.

[MPbdy]

Yea air and vacuum should work.  You can stuff some shop towel in the bottom of the cylinder so it can catch the majority of it that'll want to fall down, or just run the vacuum while you clean it.

[Venom13132]

What brand Head gaskets are you all running?  I was looking at Fel-Pro or Mahle/Clevite

[shainiac]

I've had good luck with ELRING 475625 gaskets on my LS3. They're German-made 7-layer LS9-style gaskets. BTR white label's them for their LS9 gaskets, but they're half the price of OEM GM LS9.
They are a littler thicker at around 0.055", which you may not want.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=10404896&cc=0&pt=5412&jsn=11536

[Venom13132]

I haven't been out in the garage for a while.  But I am going to just clean up my engine and put it back together.    I got some new head gaskets, new head bolts, some simple green and I got some preservation oil to keep things from drying out while I wait.

I did some Black Friday shopping and got a set of Stance Air Cups for the front of my car.  I figured this would be nice for getting on and off the trailer and dealing with speed bumps and such.


So while I wait for my Garage to get built and my car to get Painted I needed a project so...
I am picking up a 2008 BMW M3 E93 Convertible Manual transmission car on Saturday.  Getting it for a Lowball offer.  It's got an issue with the engine.  So it could be toast or it could be an easy fix!!  Got it cheap enough to F around and Find out.   Worst case it will see the same fate as the Camaro's I parted out.

[Venom13132]

Picked up the M3 on 12/21/24.  I made a quick round trip down to Nashville and back with it the same day.  I had to rent a trailer because my trailer is in Atlanta with my FD 


The foundation for my 3 Car garage has finally started.  They are going to start framing next week (1/13) then pour the slab once that is completed.    They finished the basement last week just in time for us to get 12" of snow.  So I had to go down and shovel all that out of the basement today.



Garage is 38'x24'  with 12' celing in one bay and an apartment above the other two.

[digitalsolo]

1.  Congrats on the progress on the garage (and M3).
2.  That green house looks cool.

[Venom13132]

1.  Congrats on the progress on the garage (and M3).
2.  That green house looks cool.

Thank you.  Hopefully I will make some money for the FD with the M3.

The Green house is a 1880's build.  Its currently set up as a tri-plex.

Most of the houses in this neighborhood are late 1800's.  Mine was built in 1870.

[Venom13132]

Finally had some time this past weekend to dig into the M3.  Cylinder 3# has a spun Rod bearing and it definitely left its mark on the rod and the crank.   Lucky for me I have a friend with a similar M3 that had some top end damage due to a supercharger issue and he replaced his whole engine.  So I am getting his old engine with a good crank and rods.  Going to rebuild this engine with parts from the other engine.  Definitely a lot of work but there is a shop manual for this and a full detailed YouTube video on how to rebuild the engine.   

My buddy is supposed to start painting my RX-7 as soon as it warms up in Atlanta.  He just did the engine swap on my buddies M3 so my car is next.  I can't get down to GA to pick up the engine till March 14th though.  I might see if I can get the engine shipped for less than it will cost me to go get it.

[Venom13132]

Here is a photo of the bad bearings   


I got the engine out of the car on Friday (1/31)


and my buddy just shipped me my parts engine.   Now that he is done with all that hopefully he will start painting my car!!

[digitalsolo]

So...   why is it that BMWs eat bearings so badly?  Just a clearances thing?   Always seems odd to me.

[Venom13132]

So...   why is it that BMWs eat bearings so badly?  Just a clearances thing?   Always seems odd to me.

Yeah they basically put too tight of a tolerance on the bearings and bmw gaskets dry out and don’t get replaced cause they are “hard to work on” according to people who don’t work on their own cars l.