I've alluded to what happened to the race car (1993 325is) in bits and pieces, but here's a thread dedicated to it.

Basically, lost the oil pump spocket nut at the Las Vegas club race 10 days ago. Happened on Fri's first test session, after successfully making the 500+ mile journey from the SF Bay Area. The nut behind the wheel (that's me) aggravated the situation (sorry, that's all the explaination you'll get), which has lead to a complete rebuild of the motor: new crank, rods & pistons. Ugh.

Chris Welch of Bullet Performance took time on Friday to pull the oil pan to confirm the lost nut (and the damage the other nut did). I appreciated his help - he was there supporting another car.

Fortunately my mechanic, Bill Arnold, trailed a car down, so the car got back to the Bay Area without much hassle (if you call a 10.5 hour drive, arriving at 4AM "no hassle"). Block should be back from the machine shop today; Bill hopes to have the car back to me by the weekend.

As is usually the case in these circmstances, I'm taking the opportunity to do some mods :) : LTW flywheel from Turner, Rogue exhaust, 3.73 gears. And of course, gauges and a BIG, red idiot light :eek:

It having been a weekend in Las Vegas, it wasn't a total loss (lots of drinking ensued). Fellow Club Racer Nigel Burns was nice enough to allow me to drive his BM LTW in a couple of Group 4 HPDE sessions [he offered even before I loaned him my radiator :)] And I did get to visit with my Dad who lives in Vegas, but he didn't get a chance to see me race.

Anyway, it sucks, but now the motor has been totallyrebuilt in the last 10 months (top end rebuilt after overrev last Nov - which *may* have contributed to the loosening of the nut). And, like the drug we all joke tracking/racing is, I can't NOT race right now, so I'm paying to continue the habit.

If all goes as planned [snork :)], I'll be at the Willow Springs race 9/7&8, and Buttonwillow & Laguna Seca in Oct. And if things go REALLY well, I may make it to the National Championship Race at Texas in Nov. We shall see.

Thanks for reading,
Jim Bassett
1998 M3/4 - also needs some major work soon
1993 325is #44 KP - down, but not out

Jim,

Sorry to hear of your pain, but glad to hear that you are regrouping. Another Jim ("NV") had a dedicated thread on this subject, after losing his nut (haha) on the track.

Well, I spun my car at 90 mph a few weeks back. I went backwards. I did get both feet in, but not sure if I did in time. . . it all happened fast. I'm thinking that nut safety wiring or threadlock is in order.

Any thoughts on the better of the two solutions, and do you think that an off track excursion contributes to the possible failure?

I hope you do make it to the Championship race in TX. I'll be on the track with you (well sorta, won't be racing, just hot lapping) and being a pit bitch for a buddy in H stock (provided that he gets his car back together as well.)

Originally posted by frayed

Any thoughts on the better of the two solutions, and do you think that an off track excursion contributes to the possible failure?

Threadlocking apparently, as from what I've heard, the bolt is a bit small and also hardened, so drilling would be difficult. I haven't asked my mechanic what his solution is, he just said "it WILL NOT come off again". I trust him :)

I hope you do make it to the Championship race in TX. I'll be on the track with you (well sorta, won't be racing, just hot lapping) and being a pit bitch for a buddy in H stock (provided that he gets his car back together as well.)

Cool, I may have to hit you up for track tips then.

Jim

Definitely safety wire you nut on the shaft! :eek:

I had the same thing happen to me! I actually replaced my engine and had a new oil pump put in and the nut safety wired on! My old engine is sitting in my garage and some day may be rebuilt to be a better engine.

A few weeks ago I read on bimmer.org that someone lost their 2nd engine due to the oil pump nut. They had locktited the nut on instead of safety wiring it!

Good Luck

I've been searching for the best answer too. I talked with Chuck Stickley. He also said the nut is hardned and would be very hard to drill. It would seem that the oil pump shaft would also have to be drilled, while the nut was torqued on. So that the holes would line up. Anyway, he says what he does is use red loctite #272 (hi-temp version) and center punch the threads.

That's what I'm having done while my motor is out of the car.

In my travels, looking for pre-drilled nuts/bolts, I found an interesting device that might work well for safety wiring. I don't remember what it's called but it has holes drilled in it and fits around the nut. If you were doing this yourself and had some time to experiment, this might be the bulletproff answer.

I'll post again with the link to the gizmo.

Sorry for your bad deal, Jim. I'm suffering through my own. I've been without my car for almost 3 months. All my fault.

Jay

Here's the link:

http://www.mcmaster.com

Do a search on "safety wire locking clip"

Jay

Pegasus sells a jig for drilling fasteners to safety wire, I've seen them elsewhere too:

http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/images/3745s.jpg


http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/specials.htm



///badmonkey

Jim -- good luck in the upcoming races! I'm going to try to make it out to watch in October...sounds like a lot of fun...really. :)

You guys are scaring the living crap out of me! I had never heard of that problem before. Looks like I could talk about that to BimmerHaus when I get there and see what they say. Looks like 5 to 6 hours to pull the oil pan out and put it back together ...

Originally posted by badmonkey
Pegasus sells a jig for drilling fasteners to safety wire, I've seen them elsewhere too:

http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/images/3745s.jpg


http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/specials.htm



///badmonkey

John-

Problem with that is you'd have to drill the oil pump shaft too. And you'd have to drill it with the nut torqued. Plus the nut is hardened. Then you'd have to take it apart, re-install the oil pump, sprocket and nut. And, hope the hole lined up properly. It would be easier if it was a bolt, instead of a nut. I think those jigs are more for bolts than nuts.

If I was rebuilding my motor and had plenty of time, I'd do it the anal way. I am, after all, a very anal kinda guy. But, since I have a small window of opportunity, I'll do the loctite deal.

Jay

Originally posted by LUNI2NZ


John-

Problem with that is you'd have to drill the oil pump shaft too. And you'd have to drill it with the nut torqued. Plus the nut is hardened. Then you'd have to take it apart, re-install the oil pump, sprocket and nut. And, hope the hole lined up properly. It would be easier if it was a bolt, instead of a nut. I think those jigs are more for bolts than nuts.

If I was rebuilding my motor and had plenty of time, I'd do it the anal way. I am, after all, a very anal kinda guy. But, since I have a small window of opportunity, I'll do the loctite deal.

Jay


Well then, pull the pan and hit it with a MIG spot weld! :buttrock


///badmonkey

Originally posted by LUNI2NZ
Problem with that is you'd have to drill the oil pump shaft too.
Hmmmm....most of the safety wiring that I've seen doesn't go through both the nut and bolt. The stuff that I've seen has the wire going just through the nut - the safety wire is twisted around, then fastened to something to keep the nut from backing off.

Jim

I've never actually seen a nut that's been safety wired. What I've seen are bolts, where you have the whole bolt cap to work with. Seems to me the only other way it could be done would be to drill a hole through the side of the nut, off center. Doing this without getting into the threads or weaking the nut would be difficult unless you had a very large nut. Also, you'd be drilling at an angle to the flat of the nut which would be tricky. The jigs I've seen dont appear to be set up for this purpose, but I'm no expert. Just making observations from what info I have.

As I said before, I'm having the hi-temp loctite done and then center punching the threads. A measure of peace of mind.

Jay

Originally posted by ///Manuel
You guys are scaring the living crap out of me!

Good, but have you done either of the following:

- Severely overrevved the motor, or
- Spun the car and failed to put the cutch in (i.e. the motor turns backwards).

If not, then you should be fairly safe. If you HAVE done either of those, then I would venture a guees you're more at risk. Not saying you will lose the nut, just that your chances are greater.

That's my own, fairly uneducated, opinion. YMMV, of course. I made the decision, when the Club Racing bulletin came out, to forego spending the ~$600 to check & secure the nut. Now I get to spend more than 10X that on a rebuild. Obviously the wrong choice [not that I've ever made the wrong choice before :)].

Also keep in mind that at Las Vegas, my car wasn't geared quite effectively, so I was doing a lot of 2nd-3rd/3rd-2nd shifting, and the "blips" were fairly hard. The motor was doing a LOT of spinning up & down. And it is a race car, and is driven fairly hard.

A few more cents,
Jim
1998 M3/4 - will get checked soon (needs rear main seal & clutch)
1993 325is #44 KP - fixed by this weekend?

Manuel, when you spin, clutch in, when you spin, clutch in, ...

It goes: When you spin....both feet in.

Jay

Just thought I'd toss an update out, if anyone cares :)

My mechanic called this morning. The first thing out of his mouth was "It's not bad news" - whew. The next thing I hear is my motor! :redspot

Still some buttoning up to do, but it should be ready to pick up in the next day or two. Although I'm not too interested in seeing the bill :eek:

Lock-tite and center-punching the threads was the method of securing the oil pump nut.

2 quick items:
- A big "thank you" to Jamie Harris at Eastern Motorwerks (http://easternmotorwerks.com/). He supplied the gauges and spent 20 minutes on the phone with my mechanic resolving some installation issues. If you need gauges, call Jamie.
- My apologies to dqm3. This unexpected rebuild caused several "bumps", and that was not my intention at all. I would have gladly let the car sit until there was sufficient time. Sorry.

That's all for now,
Jim

Jim,

So will you be at Willow? I am going down to instruct, which is ironic considering the fact I have never been there.

Jim-

Glad to hear your pain is almost over. I hope to be getting mine back soon. I'm scheduled for 9/20 @ T-hill, but I may not be ready in time.

Loctited and punched - Jay

Is there a TSB on this oil pump nut problem? I know this topic's been discussed at length but I haven't really been following it.

Originally posted by 91M5
Jim,

So will you be at Willow? I am going down to instruct, which is ironic considering the fact I have never been there.

:) My 2nd race EVER, and first in the E30 M3 I was sharing was there. Had never been to the track before either.

I *may* be there. Just picked the car up today and have to break-in the motor. I'll have a better feel on Tues.

Caravan possibly?

Is there a TSB on this oil pump nut problem?

From BMW? Doubt it.

Jim

Jim,

I would be up for a caravan. I am leaving on Friday sometime after noon. I just want to beat the rush hour out of the Bay Area. I will check back here this week.