1974 CS...

[Manthri Srinath]

New-to-me radio. As advertised. In stunningly good condition. They have NOS Frankfurts available, too, and some later model refurbished stereo Frankfurts, as well. I was pleasantly in surprised at the selection and quality. And the excellent service.

 

[Manthri Srinath]

Transmission swap almost done. That new bracket fabrication is very nice, better than factory in terms of precision workmanship and finish, as is that custom bracket for the shorter linkage. There’s a lot of machine work in this.

 

[Manthri Srinath]

Better look at some of those bits…

 

[boonies]

Better look at some of those bits…

Very nice

 

[bmw2800cs]

New-to-me radio. As advertised. In stunningly good condition. They have NOS Frankfurts available, too, and some later model refurbished stereo Frankfurts, as well. I was pleasantly surprised at the selection and quality. And the excellent service.

I have that radio would you consider selling me a copy of the owners manual and any other documents?

 

[Manthri Srinath]

I have that radio would you consider selling me a copy of the owners manual and any other documents?

You mean just images of the manual? Sure. Lemme go look at what’s there. I’ll do that next week. Don’t need money for that

 

[bmw2800cs]

You mean just images of the manual? Sure. Lemme go look at what’s there. I’ll do that next week. Don’t need money for that

Thank you Manthri!

 

[Manthri Srinath]

Ha. That explains much. And I thought we were going in to do a ring and valve job. New pistons and an overbore coming up, it seems.

 

[Wobdog]

Let me know how you like the shocks. I will need a set soon

 

[Manthri Srinath]

Let me know how you like the shocks. I will need a set soon

Shocks? The shocks of opening up that engine and seeing that? Or you mean the pistons? I’m gonna get Carrillo 90 mm pistons, I think. I don’t think there’s that much to shop for in that regard, as I want to keep it mostly stock, really. Carl Bennett at Korman and I had a long chinwag about it the other day, and I circled back around to that, after working through my use case, and the fact that I like the matching numbers configuration. It’s mostly a stock car, and I’m gonna try to keep it that way. I’ll keep you posted. I’m hoping it’s the last surprise. The car has been pretty well sorted at this point. It’s a fine driver.

 

[Manthri Srinath]

Shocks? The shocks of opening up that engine and seeing that? Or you mean the pistons? I’m gonna get Carrillo 90 mm pistons, I think. I don’t think there’s that much to shop for in that regard, as I want to keep it mostly stock, really. Carl Bennett at Korman and I had a long chinwag about it the other day, and I circled back around to that, after working through my use case, and the fact that I like the matching numbers configuration. It’s mostly a stock car, and I’m gonna try to keep it that way. I’ll keep you posted. I’m hoping it’s the last surprise. The car has been pretty well sorted at this point. It’s a fine driver.

Actually, “mostly” is an overstatement. I’ve upgraded a lot of things on it. But I do like the matching numbers block, and a 3.3 upgrade, which is all I think I could do with it, doesn’t seem like a worthwhile use of resources to me. And that eliminates the call for big changes to pistons, rods, etcetera.

Those pistons are newer than the block BTW. The engine seized up at at some point, and it appears to me that new pistons were put in without cleaning up the cylinders. I can’t imagine why.

 

[Manthri Srinath]

I’ve owned the car for around three years, and I’ve put some 17,000 miles on it. The car has actually been down for upgrades at least half the time I’ve owned it, so it’s been driven quite a bit when it’s been on the road. I’m starting to think those pistons may have been new when I received the car, put in just for the sale. Presumably then, the seized engine had just happened, and had triggered the sale.

 

[skk]

What is the condition of the affected bores? Have you decided to rebuild or replace the engine? If the former, do you have a lead on a machine shop?

 

[Manthri Srinath]

What is the condition of the affected bores? Have you decided to rebuild or replace the engine? If the former, do you have a lead on a machine shop?

Not certain yet, but our guess is the block is good. One visible score is present where a piston looks to have gotten stuck. Other than that, a visual inspection doesn’t yield much. We’re going to magnaflux the block, and if that goes well, bore it out a half to a full mm, and go from there. Crank also looks to be fine.

Don’t want to replace the numbers-matching block. If I do have to do that, it’ll become a different deal, crossing over into restomod territory, as I see it. At that point, I’d be looking at a later M30 and a B35 crank, etcetera. Or an M90. But really not what I want to do.

My mechanic, Wayne (who’s officially retired ), has a boring machine and a magnaflux setup in his home shop. He rebuilds motors from the ground up. My project is actually interrupting one he’s trying to get going for himself. So we’re not shipping anything out, as things stand.

 

[skk]

Intrigued. I have a different inline block (mbz diesel) which needs boring to spec.
Might we incentivize Wayne to come just a little further out of retirement? ;-)

 

[Manthri Srinath]

Intrigued. I have a different inline block (mbz diesel) which needs boring to spec.
Might we incentivize Wayne to come just a little further out of retirement? ;-)

Haha. Pretty sure not, unfortunately. He just retired. The man is a minor wizard. But he’s really looking forward to working on his own stuff. He does me a big favor with my cars. He’s worked on them for a very long time, and we have a great relationship from the days he had his shop in Santa Cruz. He especially likes the old MG’s - he’s done lots of work on mine also - but he’s a BMW specialist by trade. I’ve not known him to professionally work on anything else in at least three decades.

There are a couple of machine shop places I’ve heard of around here, in Watsonville and Salinas, that do good boring work. Try looking out that-a-way? I’ll let you know if I get more specific info.

 

[Manthri Srinath]

Haha. Pretty sure not, unfortunately. He just retired. The man is a minor wizard. But he’s really looking forward to working on his own stuff. He does me a big favor with my cars. He’s worked on them for a very long time, and we have a great relationship from the days he had his shop in Santa Cruz. He especially likes the old MG’s - he’s done lots of work on mine also - but he’s a BMW specialist by trade. I’ve not known him to professionally work on anything else in at least three decades.

There are a couple of machine shop places I’ve heard of around here, in Watsonville and Salinas, that do good boring work. Try looking out that-a-way? I’ll let you know if I get more specific info.

I actually just got confirmation that the magnaflux showed no cracks, and the crank and bores are standard size, so we’ll put it on the boring machine tomorrow, and look into getting new pistons shipped Monday. Fingers crossed that they’re readily available.

 

[Manthri Srinath]

Getting ready to do some engine boring in the redwoods on a 1938 Kwik-Way boring bar. Shaved off 10/1000ths of an inch and got the biggest score mark out. 20/1000ths takes us to the first overbore size piston, 89.5, so that’s what we’re gonna shoot for.

 

[Manthri Srinath]

Some honing and polishing tools. It was all new to me, but presumably many folks here are familiar with all this equipment. Pretty cool.

 

[Manthri Srinath]

These things arrived boxed like an iPhone LOL. Never seen that before. 9.5:1, because that’s all that was on the shelf. Really nice pistons. Really nice.