Why is it this hard to find someone local to tune carbs, and work on my baby

scottevest

scottevest

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Just sent this email to the ONE local person that MAY be able to help me, otherwise, I think I may have to ship the car to SF to Bill Arnold. Thanks Don Lawrence for your help so far.

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I have a 1974 BMW 3.0cs, in pretty good shape (I recently replaced the cylinder head), but I need a little work done, as summarized below. Note that nothing is urgent as the vehicle is running great for the most part. However, I can't find anyone in town willing or capable of working on older cars, especially with carburetors.

Basically, the car needs, in order:
  • Installation of New Carbs and Tuning Carbs correctly for altitude
    • The car has old/tired Weber carburetors. I purchased the correct, new Weber replacements. I understand installing them is fairly simple, but ensuring they are tuned properly for altitude is not simple. I do drive the car to sea level occasionally, but for the most part use it in the valley. Ideally, it can be tuned for altitude but run fine when I go on longer trips.
  • Removal of Pollution "stuff"
    • There are a bunch of things installed originally that were intended to make it meet 1974 pollution standards, but I'm told that these affect performance and are not ideal nor required by law.
  • Overheating Issues
    • I was having overheating issues when idling especially when the AC was running, but installed a new radiator and haven't had any issues since, but was told that I could benefit from installing a new electric fan (which I have) along with new pulleys and water pump, etc. Not sure how important this is, but would like your opinion.
  • Miscellaneous stuff, e.g. clean gas tank (rust) and coat to prevent future rust, replace hoses, fix small leak in power steering gearbox, and some other minor things along with anything you identify.
Again, none of this is urgent, but would love to schedule time this winter if you have time and are inclined to help out. Let me know if you want me to bring the vehicle to you to check out.

If you are unavailable to do this, let me know. My only other option is to bring the vehicle to San Francisco to have this done by someone I know that knows the vehicle well.
I really and truly appreciate all of your help on this.
 
tmason

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Hi Scott
I was told that a Guy here in Reno is pretty good with turning our cars (e9). I'll let you know the out come.
Tim
 
Ohmess

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Not sure this directly addresses your question, but I would fix the gas tank before I installed new carbs. I had precisely this same problem, had the carbs on hand and was excited to get them in, but stopped to fix the tank.

My process was time consuming but pretty simple. I used the POR 15 gas tank sealer stuff, but changed their process a little bit. I didn't think their metal prep removed enough of the rust, so after using their cleaner/degreaser, I poured a gallon of Evaporust into the tank and let it sit for 24 hours. Because one gallon only covered a small portion of the tank, I had to turn the tank wait 24 hours, lean the tank, wait 24 hours, etc until the Evaporust treated all of the inside of the tank. Obviously, if you use two or three or more gallons of Evaporust this process goes more quickly. Then drain the Evaporust, rinse with water and blow out with compressed air. Then use the metal prep followed by the sealer using the POR 15 instructions.
 
scottevest

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Really helpful information. Thank you very much. I had forgotten I posted something similar years ago. This group is awesome. Thank you.


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scottevest

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Ohmess said:
Not sure this directly addresses your question, but I would fix the gas tank before I installed new carbs. I had precisely this same problem, had the carbs on hand and was excited to get them in, but stopped to fix the tank.

My process was time consuming but pretty simple. I used the POR 15 gas tank sealer stuff, but changed their process a little bit. I didn't think their metal prep removed enough of the rust, so after using their cleaner/degreaser, I poured a gallon of Evaporust into the tank and let it sit for 24 hours. Because one gallon only covered a small portion of the tank, I had to turn the tank wait 24 hours, lean the tank, wait 24 hours, etc until the Evaporust treated all of the inside of the tank. Obviously, if you use two or three or more gallons of Evaporust this process goes more quickly. Then drain the Evaporust, rinse with water and blow out with compressed air. Then use the metal prep followed by the sealer using the POR 15 instructions.
Click to expand...

Awesome advice. Is this something that you think I can do myself or do I need a shop to do this?


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H

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If you're in Idaho and "recently replaced the cylinder head" then you should be able to address the other things you mentioned, with some use of the Search function, backup help from this list, and the usual metric tools (plus a BFH, on occasion!).

If on the other hand you meant "I had someone replace the cylinder head" the reply is still similar: use the search function, ask questions, and we'll get you through it.

If you don't want to "get dirty" then it's gonna cost... more than expected. But you still came to the right place to ask your questions.

But I'll agree, carbs, particularly Zenith 35/40 INAT items, are very "old school" and persons properly qualified to work on them (not me!) are gonna be hard to find. Try the Old Folks Home in your 'hood, but know also that same or similar carbs were used in Mercedes of the day, so a specialist there may be able to help you. I'd think an air/fuel meter would be essential stuff for getting those things right, but you'd have to be able to implement what you think it tells you.

Win... win... win.
 
Markos

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scottevest said:
Really helpful information. Thank you very much. I had forgotten I posted something similar years ago. This group is awesome. Thank you.
Click to expand...

I'd like to say that I've read every post on this forum but thankfully that isn't the case. I ran into the thread when searching for info on his project car that was for sale. I also know the name of your dog but you can thank youtube for that. :D
 
Markos

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Alternatively I'm guessing that Racecraft in the Seattle area could tackle your project effortlessly. Whether they would take it on is another story.
 
Markos

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James said:
Not to hijack, but is that the shop in Ballard just down from the fishing boats?
Click to expand...

No but the locals did spot an unknown polaris e9 there about six months ago. they do a lot of bmw and Volvo work.

Racecraft is in woodinville. It's a high end shop that does a lot of race cars. Luigi was done up there.

http://racecraftnw.com/projects.html
 
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Ohmess

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Scottevest -- It is hard to answer your question about whether you should take on the gas tank; I don't know much about your skills. Obviously, you would need to be comfortable in dealing with moving gasoline around by hand, disconnecting and reconnecting gasoline fittings and whatnot. Having said that, especially on a carbed car with low fuel pressure fuel lines, the process is pretty simple.
 
Markos

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Does the '74 tank drop from the bottom? I know that pre-74 come out through the trunk. There are only a few bolts holding the tank in. I pulled mine through the trunk with 13 gallons in it. Agreed that dealing with the chemicals is the hard part. I put my gas in there five gallon buckets and trailered it to a hazardous chemical facility. Since Scott has fresh gas I would save it for the lawn equipment. The gas tank isn't particularly heavy while empty. An alternative option would be to remove and install the tank, but take it to a shop to have coated. I would call a few radiator shops to see if they do gas tanks.
 
Ohmess

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Markos raises a good point I had forgotten about. Dip and coat would be great, but even if they won't coat the tank, finding someone who would dip the tank and remove the rust from the inside would save a lot of time. I couldn't find anyone locally.
 
Markos

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Ohmess said:
Markos raises a good point I had forgotten about. Dip and coat would be great, but even if they won't coat the tank, finding someone who would dip the tank and remove the rust from the inside would save a lot of time. I couldn't find anyone locally.
Click to expand...

It's pretty affordable also. I have a CSI tank with a small floor jack puncture. I was quoted $100 for the Seattle radiator shop to fix, and that includes all of the conditoning...
 
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