Warming up your engine and your oil

Recently the subject of warming up a car came up. Most modern cars warm up very quickly and the water temp gauge reads "normal" within a couple minutes of starting the engine. Based on cars I've owned that have oil temperature gauges, I have observed that the oil takes significantly longer to reach full operating temperature than the coolant does. Something like 10 minutes at highway speed in the Corvette, and a similar time in the M3. The Miata has a much smaller oil capacity than either of those cars, though, so the oil should get to full temperature a bit sooner.
It's important to get your oil up to full operating temperature fairly often so that condensation and unburned fuel that finds its way past the rings can volatilize out of the oil. So, if your daily commute to work is less than say, 5 miles, go for a longer drive every few days so that the oil can get nice and hot (~200-220+ F) for a while. Your engine will thank you.

It's been a busy few weeks! The M3 has had a ton of work done on it. When I bought it, it needed ALL the periodic maintenance. I had to assume that nothing had been done. I've changed the oil and filter, air filter, cabin air filter, NGK Platinum spark plugs, body-color front grilles (see photo), BMW short shifter kit with a new shift knob, Amsoil 75W-140 in the differential, fixed a wonky turn signal socket, cleaned the leather, changed the belts, and did a TON of little details inside, outside, and under the car. The car is really starting to shine and come up to my usual standards.

One interesting product I used is Dr. ColorChip. This is a paint touch-up system that is designed to help repair road rash and chips. My M3 has a lot of tiny chips on the lower part of the front valance and along the leading edge of the hood and fenders. You can read about how this product works on their website. Suffice to say I'm pretty happy with the result. It's not perfect by any means, but the road rash on my car is pretty bad. I'm sure I'll get the front repainted at some point. But for $60 or so, this product greatly reduced the appearance of road rash on my car and eliminated some bigger chips, too, without making a mess like touch-up paint usually does.

The other really significant thing I did with the M3 was a complete detail from top to bottom, using a random orbital buffer. The paint had a lot of very fine scratches. The previous owners of this car kept it pretty clean, but didn't do it properly and the result was a lot of scratches. I needed a serious tool to tackle this job. I settled on the Griot's Garage Random Orbital Polisher. The results are amazing. I used Griot's Machine Polish no. 3 to remove most of the fine scratches, and then waxed with Griot's Best of Show Wax. There's still a few swirls visible, so I'm going to go back with Machine Polish no. 2, which is slightly more aggressive, but overall the car looks fantastic already. I also noticed that it stayed much cleaner after this was done. In the last week I drove through three separate Florida thunderstorms, which usually gets my car really dirty from road grime and water spots. This time, though, the car still looked absolutely clean. I can only figure that the paint is SO smooth that dirt can't stick to it. The Mystic Blue Metallic paint on the M3 is really beautiful and the Best of Show wax really makes it look deep. I found that the BMW paint is REALLY hard and you have to work it hard to polish it. The random orbital makes it a lot easier but you still have to put some muscle into it. I don't think I'd be able to correct the swirls in this paint by hand.

Finally, today I tried some P21S wheel cleaner. A small bottle of this stuff is about $15, but it comes with a sponge and a little goes a long way. I chose it because something previously used on these wheels has stained them slightly and I don't want to make it any worse. It did a really nice job today of cleaning the wheels on the M3. I used to just use the same soap and water that I wash the rest of the car with but I'm sold on this stuff. It really cleans a lot better. There are some wheel cleaning products on the market that will really damage the finish on alloy wheels. Be careful what you use. I've found that paying a little more for the good stuff usually is worth it. Most of the consumer-grade products sold at your Friendly Local Auto Parts Store (FLAPS) just don't work all that well. I've been buying more and more of the pro-level products lately. I'm really impressed with the Griot's Garage stuff.

Still remaining on the M3 is a valve adjustment, new brake pads and rotors, and new shocks. I'm sure I'll think of some other things to do as well.

More on my new toy

As alluded to in the previous post, I have recently bought something new. I had been toying around the with idea of selling my Corvette and I mentioned it to the wrong person. Next thing I knew, he referred a coworker who was REALLY looking to buy a Vette. I showed the car and he made me an offer on the spot. So then I had to go through with it! Anyway, the sale of the Vette freed up my monthly car budget and netted me a little cash, so I went out and bought a 2004 BMW M3. Here's more pics.

I've had it a few days and like it very much. It is a LOT of fun to drive, and looks like a million bucks. Due to the fact I'm not made of money, the M3 I bought has a few miles on it and needs to get caught up on maintenance, but overall it's still a pretty young car and is in really nice shape. I'm not afraid of cars with high miles because I do all maintenance myself and that saves me a lot of money, and I keep my cars in top shape at all times. There is a TON of info on these cars out on the web so I'm confident I can tackle anything that might come up. Parts are plentiful and while there are a few that are priced like they are gold plated, most are reasonably priced.

We really miss the Vette, though, and will have another one before too long. We might get into a C6 or get another C5.

I don't know the history of this car, other than I am the fourth owner and it has been in Florida most of its life. I have a LONG list of maintenance items and a couple very minor repairs that I will try to document here on this blog. Should be fun.

A New Relationship Begins

Miata updates.

Well it's been a long time since I've paid any attention to my beloved 1994 Miata, but last week marked 11 years since I bought the darn thing. In honor of that occasion I've undertaken some refurbishing of the old girl. First, the rear brakes were working, but not very well. The right side had a siezed slider pin and the left side had a sticking parking brake mechanism. So I ordered up a pair of rear calipers from Mazdaspeed Motorsports Development. I put the car up on stands for a couple weekends for easier access while I took care of the brakes and also a bunch of little details that have been needing done for, like, YEARS.

• The airbag computer was fritzing out for some reason, beeping at me every 30 minutes after startup and generally just being an annoyance. The driver side airbag has been gone since 1999, so I went ahead and disconnected the computer and ripped out the front airbag sensor, just to clean up the wiring a bit.
• Back in '97 I had installed a cold air induction and it involved splicing an extension into the wiring for the Mass Air Sensor. The kit is long gone so I finally removed the extension and soldered the wires back at their original length. As the connections were just crimp connectors I think they had been a bit flaky at times over the years.
• A switch on the clutch pedal had begun clicking loudly every time I depressed the pedal. Fixed that.
• Removed the silver vinyl stripes. Now I have to figure out how to get rid of the "shadow" of where the stripes used to be. I think I'm going to buy one of those really good random orbit polishers and do it up right. The paint still looks pretty good from 10 feet away. Properly polished and waxed it might pass at 5 feet as well. I figure that's good enough for a 15 year old car.
• Discovered the source of a mysterious coolant leak that I was thinking was the water pump. I found one of the lower radiator hoses leaking around its fitting on the hard pipe due to corrosion of the pipe. I cleaned that up and flushed out the cooling system and refilled with fresh coolant. Will have to watch it going forward.
• The FIAMM air horns had degraded over time from a trumpet blast to a pathetic "frrrrrrrrrrrt". I pulled the compressor out and filed the corrosion off the wiring connector, and ran WD-40 through it and the horns. Much better now.
• The TEIN coilovers had sagged a bit since I installed them 4 years ago, so I cranked each corner up 2 turns on the adjusters. Not a huge difference but the car rides better so I think it may have been sitting right on the bumpstops.
• Changed the differential fluid to AMSOIL 80W-90 gear oil.

There's still a lot that needs to be done. There's an oil leak at the rear of the engine. It's coming out the shift fork boot so I think it's the rear main seal. Gotta drop the tranny and remove the clutch to get to that, so it's a major job. I don't want to let it ride for another year, though. When I do that I'll probably swap the flywheel for a lighter one, as long as I'm in there. Next, I need new tires. I recently traded my 16" Rage wheels for a set of 15" Rota Circuit 8's but the Kumho MX tires on them are completely bald. I might get another set of wheels and keep these for the track since I plan to do some track days next year. Next, my buddy Steve is going to sell me a Hard Dog rollbar that he is not using so I can replace the one I removed and sold back in '04. Then I'll be ready for the track again, pretty much. Finally, I'm planning to reupholster the seats in some sort of leatherette/vinyl/ leather-like material. Full leather is too expensive. I've found some decent vinyl that looks and feels very much like leather. It needs new door panels, too.

My other vice

I went a bit insane this weekend and ended up with the guitar you see on the left in the photo. It's an Epiphone Les Paul Classic Quilt Top in Transparent Amber. I've never owned a Les Paul before and this one is really nice! For the pittance it cost, it's hard to believe that it actually plays nice, but it really does! The fit and finish are excellent. I can't find a flaw anywhere. The tones this thing puts out are sublime - and totally different from any of my other axes. This is guitar #8 in my rapidly growing collection. This time a year ago, I only had two, and I'd owned them for 15 and 20 years.
The guitar on the right is #6 in the collection. I got it a few months ago when Lulu bought it for me as an early birthday gift. It's a Schecter C-1 Hellraiser in Black Cherry finish with a maple quilt top and mohogany back and neck. The inlays are all abalone and very nicely done. The pickups are EMG 81 and 85, and this thing just shreds! I'll have to get the whole collection togther for a group photo soon.

Corvette Weekend

This weekend I spent some time with the Corvette, removing the factory body side moldings (BSMs) and polishing the doors so you can't tell they were ever there. It took about 20 minutes to get them off, and then two hours of cleaning off the adhesive and buffing the paint out with 3M Perfect-It fine cut polish. The result is stunning. It's like a new car!

I've been really enjoying the Vette. We're taking it on a short trip to Savannah next weekend. Can't wait!

Spec Miata is sold

I made a deal this week with a gentleman from Sebring to buy my Spec Miata racecar. He coming to pick it up in a couple weeks. I hate to see it go, but there is always another Miata. When the time comes for me to go racing again, I'll just buy one and go! In the meantime, this starts to pave the way towards me getting something different to drive every day.

Short Day at the Track

I was back at Sebring yesterday for a racer testing session with Chin Motorsports. Even as daylight broke, the skies were threatening rain, and it had rained hard on us Saturday evening on the way down to Sebring from Tampa. Still, I went out for the first session of the morning and put in a bunch of laps. The car felt good, although the track was very green and I felt like the car was sliding around a lot. Finally, about 30 minutes into my session, just as I was reaching my heat/exertion limit, I went a little too hot into turn 1 and looped it just after the 85mph apex. I spun 180, quickly got both feet in, then spun 180 back the way I came, ending up sliding sideways off the track and just into the dirt pointed in the right direction. A Radical that was following quite closely took evasive action and managed not to hit me. I put it in gear and drove slowly back to the paddock.

Even before I got out of the car I knew the results of my long, lurid slide. Both of the Hoosier R3S04's on the right side were flat-spotted down to the cords. Not having any spares, I packed it up and we went home just ahead of some very heavy rainclouds, so I probably didn't miss much track time after all.

Dead Cat

Just a data point - the Jackson Racing catalytic converter on the supercharged '94 died a couple weeks ago. It's been on the car for 8 years and around 90,000 miles so I certainly can't complain. The failure mode was one of the elements inside the can broke loose and turned sideways. The car lost power big time and sounded terrible. I ordered up a replacement from RSpeed which ended up being a Magnaflow unit. The new unit looks identical to the JR unit, with the exception of the JR tag welded to the old one. I installed it late last week and all is good with the world once again.