My E9 burns about 1 quart of oil every tank of gas -should i use Moly E.P.?

Pictures of Carbs

here is a link to see pictures of my carbs. https://picasaweb.google.com/scottevest/BmwCarbs?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPuZms6Z8Pb4gAE&feat=directlink

I honestly don't believe the shop touched the carbs, or anything else for that matter other than fixing the tail lights. They admitted to not checking the compression when pushed, and the parking brake was not adjusted as needed/requested. Also the idle is still at 1500, even though I asked them to adjust to ~1100 or so. When I brought the car back to have them do these things, they said they spent 1/2 day trying to figure out how to adjust the idle, which blew my mind, as I thought it was just a simple screw driver turn.

I have horrible service in this area, with only 5000 people living in my community getting good service is a nightmare. I have a 1970 VW Bus, which I assumed would be easy to work on, but no one can figure it out, other than one guy who has a garage in his backyard. He restores old cars. Like I said, I am going to have this guy, or the Ferarri mechanic I know who has a shop in his garage, check this car out in the winter.

I tried to take pictures of the spark plugs, but I am embarrassed to report that I was too scared to take them off to take the pictures. I know it is probably simple, and directions are likely below. I will check again.

I am likely to trust 61Porsche for now, as the car run super strong, and is a blast.

Again, thanks for all the advice. I promise to continue to report back my findings.

You guys ROCK!

Scott
 
Yup, those are Webers with water chokes. Makes debugging a little more complicated (not per se, only as there´s quite a lot of know-how round here on how the zeniths works and what those symptoms mean on a zenith car).

I´m still guessing you have a crack in the head or the gasket anyway...

Again. Mr. 61porsche is quite correct: with the webers there´s reason to check fuel pressure and all that, but I´d ditch that basketcase engine and either rebuild it completely to stock, including the original zeniths, so you at least know what your starting pont is, or look at dropping in a motronic 3,5 Liter...

And you can drop the front of the car by almost an inch by simply removing the spacers between the front struts and the inner fender. That´s an easy improvement and a cheap success... :)
 
John was kind enough to offer his advice via PM, and I thought I would share

Scott, your rings are worn out because it smokes on start up and acceleration. If it smoked the most on engine braking and acceleration cycles then it'd be your head valve guides and seals.

If you're looking for a quick and cheap solution and your engine has less than 100k miles on it you can probably just re-ring it and be finished.
Before winter, I will be bringing my coupe to a good mechanic with a print out of all these posts to review. Thanks again.

_____


It's a pretty easy DIY job on an early 70's BMW. You pull off the intake/exhaust/cooling hoses, remove the head, remove the oil pan (might have to lift the engine up 2"), and then you can remove the pistons out the top. If everything else is in good shape, you can just install new rings and reassemble. You can chose to do new bearings and con-rod bushings, both of which are relatively cheap and easy for any local engine rebuilding machine shop. The whole job might be 10 hours of labor plus parts and maybe $150 at the machine shop if you rebush the pistons and con rods.

I've done this myself on a couple of daily drivers and they went many 10's of kmiles without problems and with oil consumption down to 1qt per 3k miles.

John Feng
__________________
John Feng
 
Update

The car has been sitting for a week and i checked the coolant AFTER driving it for about 3 miles and was very surprised to find that it was almost bone dry. Last time I checked it was fine. The oil however seem to be about where I left it last time. I don't understand how the coolant is evaporating this rapidly by just sitting and driving only 3 miles. It still is smoking quite a bit when the car is cold. I can only imagine that that is that coolant evaporating. I'll bring it to the shop in a month or so but will check coolant before driving next time, not after
 
scottevest said:
I don't understand how the coolant is evaporating this rapidly by just sitting and driving only 3 miles. It still is smoking quite a bit when the car is cold.
Click to expand...

Unless someone or something is secretly siphoning your coolant out of the system, your coolant is seeping into one or more combustion chambers and out the tailpipe. Either the head gasket or the cylinder head has/have been compromised, or both. As suggested before, pulling the spark plugs will likely reveal which cylinder/s is/are affected.

It is unfortunate, but unless you have an air-cooled power plant, this situation happens. Except in Tim Burton films, rust, corrosion and metal fatigue rarely sleep.

Best of luck.
 
My 2 cents worth,
I went through all of these issues with a 74 Bavaria (same engine) Shop shaved the head and put it back together along with new rings etc. Shop was mystified when started up blew massive quantities of steam and smoke. Evidently a very minute crack had been missed and the head work had exacerbated it to an extreme You might look for a later model head. Send it off to a reputable machine shop and have all the parts accumulated to R & R the engine. You have a massive coolant loss which if it isn't on your garage floor its defintely going through the combustion chambers. Meanwhile enjoy driving the car and watch fluid levels, I wouldn't get too far from the house. When you are ready have your VW or Ferrari mechanic tear it apart
 
Update, plus pictures of spark plugs

I met with Bob S. (un: Nicad) who bought the Sun Valley car. He was kind enough to inspect my spark plugs. Apparently they show that the carbs need tuning. Bob recommended changing from zeniths to webers too. He said also that the car/engine doesn't seem as strong as it should, and tuning carbs, etc. should help immensely. Oddly, the coolant level has not dropped much since last time I filled it up. I am convinced someone may have drained it the last time, since it has never gone down that far. Oil level is not dropping terribly much since I last added oil. I have not driven the car much so really not much new data.

https://picasaweb.google.com/101701640282177869919/SparkPlugs?authkey=Gv1sRgCPTQ4e6CmKz7cw
 
Hello Scott, not sure you need to change carbs, but I have heard the Zeniths can be a tough carb to get right if they have wear issues. The long term owners who have more experience with these carbs will hopefully chime in. AT any rate, the compression check is the first order of business. When I removed a few plugs, the one from the front carb appeared light tan, (Less than I was expecting) while the ones from the rear carb were white.

So, once you know the basic compression numbers, then you need to know if the points are in good order and the timing is set properly. This is basic tuneup stuff and not involved for any mechanic over 35 years of age. , but I think it might be best to assume the mechanic who last worked on it and didn't deliver a smooth running car, or the right answers was not the guy you need to get to the bottom of this. The right competent person should be able to diagnose this pretty quickly. If your carbs are in need of a rebuild, then I have heard that the twin Weber replacements are easier to set up. (Not the sidedrafts).
 
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I've had Zeniths and Webers, and I prefer properly set up/rebuilt Zeniths. Back in the day they got a bad reputation from mechanics who didn't understand them and the easy solution was replacement. I'd have them honed and rebuilt before giving up on them.
 
Race fans.. if those are WR9's... you might just be , well; two heat ranges hot. Change to WR7's.
 
Finally brought car to shop!

Ok, answers finally.
I brought the car to a shop, and printed out many of these posts. Thanks so much.

In sum, the car appears to be fixed. It was, as originally suggested in my first post, related to the choke settings, and carb settings. He thinks it was related to the altitude here. He adjusted same and change points, etc. and it "seems" to be fine now. I have only run it about 10 miles, so can't tell for sure. It's been raining non stop here.

I can say that the choke appears to set easily now, and unset easily too. When you first start and set the choke, it does smoke now, but when chokes are released, it stops smoking. I had a old Mazda RX7 and if memory serves me, with a choke, and if memory serves me it smoked alot when choke was set.

He also said he found a small leak in the coolant valve/tube, as you suggested. He replaced all the fasteners.

He tuned it up, and it is running truly great, and the idle is now at 1100. Sounds much better too.

I can't be certain that the oil situation is better until I drive it more. I will report back. I am guessing it will still lose some oil but not as much as before.

So, perhaps the odyssey is over.

I got the steering tightened too, which helped.

Thanks all!

Scott
 
steering is now making weird noise

Well, after sitting for a day, I took it for a ride, and oddly it now makes odd sound when i turn the steering wheel, as if power steering is making noise of some sort. I asked the shop to tighten steering and suspect that is causing the sound/problem.

Scott
 
Hi Scott, glad it is running better. What color is the smoke that it makes? Blue is oil, white is coolant/condensation and Black means it is running rich. If it is Blue at startup then goes away, I would say it is a valve seal issue. If the car is running fine otherwise, I would not worry too much about a valve seal. The best running Bavaria of the three I had was an oil burner and that motor saw some heavy action. Did you get the compression test done?

As for the steering noise, is it a screeching noise when you are near the steering stops? If yes, then that is likely a belt. If no, then I would get this checked ASAP as maybe they did not follow the proper procedure when adjusting steering box play. In the Factory service manual it is recommended to do this with a friction meter and the track arm disconnected. That is on a manual box though, so I do not know what the proper procedure is on a power box like yours. Hopefully some forum experts know a bit more about this.
 
Drop Car

Just revisiting this. Is there any performance benefit by dropping the car, or is it just for appearances.
Tierfreund said:
And you can drop the front of the car by almost an inch by simply removing the spacers between the front struts and the inner fender. That´s an easy improvement and a cheap success... :)
Click to expand...
 
Smoke on acceleration is usually bad rings, on deceleration valve guide sels as it is sucking oil through the seals into the combustion chamber.
 
scottevest said:
Just revisiting this. Is there any performance benefit by dropping the car, or is it just for appearances.
Click to expand...

If you drop it by losing the spacers there should be some benefit. Lower CG. Since wheel travel is the same, the suspension should work about the same. If you also lower it with lowering springs, then they will be stiffer and you will lose wheel travel. It is a tradeoff. the car should corner flatter and the steering should be more responsive, but the ride will degrade. There is no free lunch in suspension, it is always about a compromise and trade offs.
 
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