Need a mechanic near Ketchum, Idaho that can tune my e9

scottevest

scottevest

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Do any of you know a good mechanic in my area?

Just sent this to Bill Arnold in SF:

"Bill,

How are you? I need some advice. My e9 was running awesomely since it last visited you, until recently. After it left your care, it sounded awesome, and ran perfectly. But, I brought the car to my local shop and simply asked if it needed a tune-up, they said no, and checked spark plugs and replaced fluids and hoses, but oddly it sounds much different than it did when you last tuned it. Sounds tinny when accelerating, not deep and throaty like it did when you tuned it.

I'm concerned that no one in my area knows how to work on these cars, although it seems that someone should know.

Any chance we could do Facetime/Skype/Zoom call together so you can try to help me diagnosis the issue, if any. I hate to think I have to drive all the way to SF area just to get a tune up, but I have done it before.

Otherwise, how do I go about trying to find/interview someone in my area that could fix this?

Thanks much.

Scott"
 
adawil2002 said:
Scott, I've looked on https://www.bimrs.org for a shop near you. Closest I found was in Salt Lake City some 4 hours away, was hoping to find a place in Boise but no member shops there.
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Yea, that's what I thought. 4 hours is closer than 11 hours to SF....
Crazy that no one near me can do this. Do I need a "BMW" mechanic, or just a good old school mechanic that knows how to "tune carbs?" Frankly, after Don Lawrence tuned it, the car sounded and drove like pure joy. I can't imagine what my local mechanic did that ruined it. It's not horrible, but just nowhere nearly as pleasant sounding.

Thanks for your help.

Scott
 
The reality is the only tuning on your car that I was involved in was to recommend Bill Arnold to you. Bill is the master of carbs in NorCal. He did the hocus pocus on your carbs and I replaced your radiator.
mind you I am very very good at radiators.....
 
sfdon said:
The reality is the only tuning on your car that I was involved in was to recommend Bill Arnold to you. Bill is the master of carbs in NorCal. He did the hocus pocus on your carbs and I replaced your radiator.
mind you I am very very good at radiators.....
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Yea, I know you HATE carbs.... There has to be someone near me that can do this, right? Do you have to be a BMW/Weber carb tuner to do this, or can anyone who knows how to tune carbs do this?
I was disappointed with my local shop. They clearly messed with something that caused this. When I got the car back, one of my fuses was blown (lighter), and now it doesn't start properly either. It has a brief pause before starting. That is new.
Let me know if a good carb guy should be able to do this, or do I have to drive 4 hours to SLC or 11 to SF just to get a tune up?
 
Fair is fair - Bill and I have to travel 11 hours to find any snow to ski on.
you got snow- we fix cars. Maybe you should pack a poodle up and go see Bill!
 
If the car was running well before you took it to the local mechanic, and if all the mechanic did was look at plugs and changed fluids and hoses, that should not have caused poor running...unless a couple of plug wires were switched or if a plug electrode broken or damaged in the process. You may want to quiz the mechanic for details on EXACTLY what was done. That might give you a clue as to where to look for the problem or at least info for the next mechanic.

If the mechanic did fool with Bill Arnold's carb adjustment then all bets are off. Finding a mechanic that knows aftermarket carburetors on a vintage M30 BMW locally will be tough. You may want to try the local BMWCCA chapter for a hobbiest that tunes his own to give you a hand. Talking Don and Bill into coming to you under the pretense of getting in some skiing is your best bet. :)

(Don...Mt. Baker yesterday. 90" of new pow in the last 8 days. 55 miles from Bellingham. 2 hour direct Allegiant flight from Oakland-Bellingham)


IMG_5340.jpeg
 
holy crap- 5’ base at Mt. Baker!!!
on opening day!!!

here in Tahoe are it is
0” base
0” snow
0” for season



FYI- I went and saw Scott in March with all my gear to ski Sun Valley.
They closed it the day I arrived.
Covid sucks
 
Look for an old school porsche, mercedes, or even VW shop, they should know carbs but I agree with @Dick Steinkamp check that the plug wires are connected properly and that they are in the proper firing order 1-5-3-6-2-4.
 
Dick Steinkamp said:
You may want to quiz the mechanic for details on EXACTLY what was done. That might give you a clue as to where to look for the problem or
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This is great advice. I'd start with this and relay your concerns about the car not running the same. If he's a real mechanic, he'll want to help you.
 
I love this group. I don't believe he messed with the carbs; at least he said he didn't but he did do something. I asked him to take a look at the wires from battery and confirm if spark plugs need changing. He said the spark plugs did not to be changed, but their receiptionist told me that they didn't have them locally and needed to order them. I didn't think they were anything special and was suspicious. Then when I got the car back and it wasn't starting properly, idling much higher, and had a slight delay when starting up, I got even more concerned. Then, on top of all that seeing the fuse to cig lighter blown.

Generally, it's running "ok," but just not signing the way it was when Bill took care of it. It was like night and day.

I will quiz him. Just doesn't seem that it should be this complicated.

Thanks so much.

BTW, we have good snow coverage here. Mountain opens on Thursday. Love to ski with any of you.

Scott
 
The simplest likely explanation for your problem, given what you have said the mechanic did to the car, is spark plug wiring. My guess would be that the mechanic only pulled one spark plug, looked at it and determined that the plugs are ok. If this is the case, your troubles arise from that wire not being properly seated when he re-installed the plug.

It is a very simple process to slide your hand down the spark plug wire onto the connector, and then push on the connector to see if is is properly seated. If so, it won't move, or if it does any movement will be very slight. Start with the plug closest to the firewall as this is the least likely plug to have been removed. If I am right, and he didn't remove that one, this should tell you what a properly seated wire feels like. From there, move away from the firewall, one plug wire at a time. After you do all six of them, evaluate whether they all have the same feel.

In addition to Steve's suggestions, older Alfa Romeos and Jaguars had Webers, as did Ferrari and Maserati. And if can find guys that are into the early Datsun Z cars, they had a Japanese carb made by Mikuni that was very similar to the Webers.
 
scottevest said:
I don't believe he messed with the carbs; at least he said he didn't but he did do something..... Then when I got the car back and it wasn't starting properly, idling much higher,
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I can't think of how messing up the spark plug wiring would result in a higher idle speed. A loose plug connection or crossed wires might lead to your other symptoms (e.g., hard starting, lower power) but not a higher idle. Only playing with the carburetors or perhaps increasing the ignition
advance, would cause that.

their receiptionist told me that they didn't have them locally and needed to order them. I didn't think they were anything special and was suspicious.
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No there is nothing that special about the plugs used in e9's; many of us use something like NGK BP6ES. Maybe this shop has some obscure brand they prefer. Or maybe the receptionist just meant that they didn't have any suitable plugs in-house. Or maybe the owner decided that just replacing the spark plugs was too small a job to be worth his while.

Still no snow here at the Southern California beaches!
 
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jmackro said:
I can't think of how messing up the spark plug wiring would result in a higher idle speed. A loose plug connection or crossed wires might lead to your other symptoms (e.g., hard starting, lower power) but not a higher idle. Only playing with the carburetors or perhaps increasing the advance, would cause that.
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Perhaps accidently knocking one or both of the retard and/or advance hose off the dizzy? Knocking the retard hose off would increase the idle. Knocking the advance hose off would reduce power. Or, maybe knocking them off but replacing them on the wrong port on the advance/retard can?
 
Problem with Sun Valley is airfare with Delta.
363.00 and Huge charges for baggage
luggage bin on plane - 48 bucks
2 bags- 70 bucks
almost 500.00


Southwest to Denver is 118.00 round trip
2 free bags
 
Increase idle would be more advance or vacuum issue.

if he connected the retard hose to advance you would have hard starting, higher Idle and worse performance.
 
Make sure you shoot each exhaust manifold for temp
look for the cold cylinders or the cold side.
 
At the very least put your hand over each intake and verify both throttle bodies are open to the same degree.
 
Scott ... Don has provided some very basic, easy to perform checks to diagnose the issue. these are great common sense checks from a pro who knows what he's doing. give it a shot. an infrared thermometer pointed at the individual exhaust manifold pipes will give you some answers. to check balance on the carbs there are 2 basic tools you can use. a synchronometer or a uni-syn. the uni-syn is cheaper and is not as precise ...
 
Did you get a detailed receipt from the mechanic? It should list what they did along with a list of of new parts. By chance, did they adjust the valves?
 
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