My brother and I took the Great Pumkin out for dinner and cruise last nite...
After probably the best burger I ever had (Lassen Steakhouse, Vina CA), we rolled back to see what the locals were up to. After some revelry and closing the local haunt, we pointed the Pumkin homeward. Yes, gentlemen, I was being good boy and was drinking Cokes and mason jars of water.
I decided to bypass the lurking, bored town fuzz in my Euro trash hot rod with its mind numbingly annoying tail light issue by popping on the Hwy to the next exit. (That one, single, problematic 40yr old spade connector mated to the brand new, modern, complete wiring harness is a yarn for another day...)
On the way outta town, I noticed a sweet musty smell in the ****pit, "Hey?! WTH is that smell?! The Pumkin regulary sports 'Ode de 40 year old Hot Rod', so certain 'smells' are normal.. My well versed E9 co-pilot suggested: 'it smells like manure!" A logical deduction around the farming/AG regions in the north valley of CA. However, being intimately familiar with the Pumpkin's aromas, I new something wasn't right. The smell was getting stronger and there were not any farms around us at the time...hhhmmm?!....Doing a systems check by glacing at the nice row of VDOs, the temp was rolling up quick past 220! ARGHH!! Still had 4 miles to go in 5th gear...
Did I blow a head gasket?! Temp was fine earlier tonite, car is running great...the G.Pumkin never runs above 140-160 degrees.....crap. With all the mulit-day events the Pumkin has enthusiastically and effortlessly tromped over, Murphy's Law has to deal me some drama a couple miles from home after an evening's fun.
My very E9 wise co-pilot offered, "Keep the rpms down, we can make it home, we'll be OK..." I questioned his thinking that we could make it without pulling over.... The Pumpkin has endured CA's East Bay area's rush hour's traffic in the summer heat without a ever breaking a sweat many a time. This seemed and smelled a bit different. My faith in the Pumkin's awesome race ready, High-flow, re-cored/rebuilt radiator was in question, so I hit the 'Arctic Wind' switch (my 2500cfm electric fan) and WHOOSH!! Usually this will drop the temp gauge before your eyes...no effect, temp kept rising..230 and rising...ARGH!..time to abort!
We barely made it to the Shell station and rolled up to the well lit water station...WHEW! I took the hood off (itsa hood pinned fiberglass unit) and I as I set it on the trash can, I noticed the underside and the valve cover was wet..WTH!? Then I noticed the dime sized hole blown out in the upper water hose just before the water pump....CRAP!! How did that happen?! Thought I would have heard that happen. We must have been laughing to hard with the co-pilot about something...
Well, at least it was obvious as to what happened. Never had that happen before. All hoses were new when the Pumpkin got rehab'd. So we filled it water, (I didn't have any duct tape, my floor cup holder was elsewhere...doh!) and just got it home as the VDO started to hit 220 again after blowing out all the water again...whew!
A quick order from Pelican ($22 including shipping, RM was a couple bucks more) this morning has new one on the way next week. That's cool, kinda looking forward to my 8yr old son and I having an excuse to tinker with the Coupe together and doing some car guy bonding over some Cherry Cokes and burp contests. ;-)
Moral of the story:
1) Always keep the duct tape/cup holder in the car.
2) An over heating or hose blow out can smell something like sweet manure in the rural countryside.
3) Breakdowns, however inconvenient, can create humourous bonding and educational moments between men (and women), their children and their machines.
4) Thankfully BMW made gajillion M30s and parts are easily sourced and shipped via the Net....
So, keep on Coupin!
-shanon
After probably the best burger I ever had (Lassen Steakhouse, Vina CA), we rolled back to see what the locals were up to. After some revelry and closing the local haunt, we pointed the Pumkin homeward. Yes, gentlemen, I was being good boy and was drinking Cokes and mason jars of water.
I decided to bypass the lurking, bored town fuzz in my Euro trash hot rod with its mind numbingly annoying tail light issue by popping on the Hwy to the next exit. (That one, single, problematic 40yr old spade connector mated to the brand new, modern, complete wiring harness is a yarn for another day...)
On the way outta town, I noticed a sweet musty smell in the ****pit, "Hey?! WTH is that smell?! The Pumkin regulary sports 'Ode de 40 year old Hot Rod', so certain 'smells' are normal.. My well versed E9 co-pilot suggested: 'it smells like manure!" A logical deduction around the farming/AG regions in the north valley of CA. However, being intimately familiar with the Pumpkin's aromas, I new something wasn't right. The smell was getting stronger and there were not any farms around us at the time...hhhmmm?!....Doing a systems check by glacing at the nice row of VDOs, the temp was rolling up quick past 220! ARGHH!! Still had 4 miles to go in 5th gear...
Did I blow a head gasket?! Temp was fine earlier tonite, car is running great...the G.Pumkin never runs above 140-160 degrees.....crap. With all the mulit-day events the Pumkin has enthusiastically and effortlessly tromped over, Murphy's Law has to deal me some drama a couple miles from home after an evening's fun.
My very E9 wise co-pilot offered, "Keep the rpms down, we can make it home, we'll be OK..." I questioned his thinking that we could make it without pulling over.... The Pumpkin has endured CA's East Bay area's rush hour's traffic in the summer heat without a ever breaking a sweat many a time. This seemed and smelled a bit different. My faith in the Pumkin's awesome race ready, High-flow, re-cored/rebuilt radiator was in question, so I hit the 'Arctic Wind' switch (my 2500cfm electric fan) and WHOOSH!! Usually this will drop the temp gauge before your eyes...no effect, temp kept rising..230 and rising...ARGH!..time to abort!
We barely made it to the Shell station and rolled up to the well lit water station...WHEW! I took the hood off (itsa hood pinned fiberglass unit) and I as I set it on the trash can, I noticed the underside and the valve cover was wet..WTH!? Then I noticed the dime sized hole blown out in the upper water hose just before the water pump....CRAP!! How did that happen?! Thought I would have heard that happen. We must have been laughing to hard with the co-pilot about something...
Well, at least it was obvious as to what happened. Never had that happen before. All hoses were new when the Pumpkin got rehab'd. So we filled it water, (I didn't have any duct tape, my floor cup holder was elsewhere...doh!) and just got it home as the VDO started to hit 220 again after blowing out all the water again...whew!
A quick order from Pelican ($22 including shipping, RM was a couple bucks more) this morning has new one on the way next week. That's cool, kinda looking forward to my 8yr old son and I having an excuse to tinker with the Coupe together and doing some car guy bonding over some Cherry Cokes and burp contests. ;-)
Moral of the story:
1) Always keep the duct tape/cup holder in the car.
2) An over heating or hose blow out can smell something like sweet manure in the rural countryside.
3) Breakdowns, however inconvenient, can create humourous bonding and educational moments between men (and women), their children and their machines.
4) Thankfully BMW made gajillion M30s and parts are easily sourced and shipped via the Net....
So, keep on Coupin!
-shanon
