Its Baaaaack!

[paul e]

Yes indeedie.. After a month, most of which was waiting for Vortech, the alpine white ghost is back in her spot in the garage. So much was done to the car... General rundown:

Head rebuilt with valve job
Blower rebuilt
New radiator installed
Brake fluid change and flush
Aftercooler replumbed for kinks
New Fan clutch
New Sparkplugs
New Throttle cable
New Oil and Coolant
Asst small vacuum leaks fixed

What can I say about George? Hes the archtypical shop owner who treats the cars he works on as if they are all his personal belongings.. Theyre like his 'children' or something! When I drove up, he was just completing a handwash on it! The way he obsessed over making sure every little thing in my car was as he would want it... And the way he insisted I take it for a good long ride... 20 or 30 miles while he was still at the shop, just in case I picked up on something, so that he could fix when I got back. And the 4 or 5 phone calls I got after i left the shop, just to make sure everything was fine. And its so much more than lip srvc.. Once when I found a slow aftercooler leak out of the heat exchanger bleed screw, I could have easily tightened it myself, but he insisted I drive it right back there, for him to check.. As meticulous as he is, he still cant really make sure that the tech doing some of the work properly tightened all bleed screws.. I mean, he shouldnt have to go over each and every nut and bolt, just to make sure the tech, whos making a good salary to begin with, did his job properly.. It drives him nuts, as it should. But he Cares.. Its so evident. I just found it all very 'touching'. This, on top of the bill, which I found really really fair.. It even came in under the estimate I had used independantly to calculate the bill, as I knew it wasnt going to be cheap.. I mean, I think it was the VAC site, or maybe it was in a European Car tech article, where I saw that head r&r is usually billed at 12 to 15 hrs, not even including any repairs done, just the Remove and Replace...

The capper was when he admitted he put it on the dyno last night! I wanted to wait til the head had set, and adaption had completed, and everything was checked out... But, George, being the powerjunkie that he is, wanted to check it out with the dyno, and the afr sniffer. I wont have the runfiles til they email them to me Monday, but I did see them, and Im real happy.. I mean, no performance work was done this time around, and even so, whp had increased to 366whp, and for the first time, Im over 300 wftlbs! Next time, im going to dyno when its 60 degrees out, as last night, it was still pretty hot.. In the 90s.. Ill have to view the runfiles to see exactly how hot, but it was hot. 366whp and 301 wftlbs with obdII manifold, pump gas, an aftercooler with a slow leak, and full cats, stock accessory pullies, etc, isnt too bad.. And wait til you see the AFRs... They look the same as Fla! Gorgeous.. Wouldnt change a thing. And, on the road, the car felt smoother than its ever felt.. Idle too.... Will post as soon as I have them.

[DakarDave]

Glad you got her back, Paul...

Drive easy, my friend.... remember the license issues! :-)

-Dave

[Serious]

nice i bet your glad to have her back.

[alpinawhitem3]

Beautiful car (love the white)! Impressive power too... nice setup.

[///Dom]

...the alpine white ghost is back in her spot in the garage...

Casper the four-wheeled ghost on steroids...gotta love it!

[paul e]

nice i bet your glad to have her back....Glad you got her back, Paul...
Drive easy, my friend.... remember the license issues! :-)

Oh Man.. you guys have No Idea. For me, being without our car is one of the most helpless feelings around. And with us, its even worse, cause for most people, their car is a commodity; nothing more than a device to get them from here to there.. Might as well be a train or a bus.. But for us, its our identity; our source of enjoyment and satisfaction. We meet people through our cars, belong to clubs, and spend hours writing about them on bbses. For us, having our car out of commission is like having a dear friend in the hospital.

As for the license issues, I still have one more speeding ticket to deal with. So, until that gets knocked down to a non speeding, I still think Ill be a little careful Theres nothing like 2 speeding tickets on your license, with knowledge that a third means Mandatory revocation, to make your FI car behave like a stocker!

[sgi4side]

Congrats buddy. Nice to hear that your car is alive again. Maybe I should ship my car to ICS for a tune up.

[paul e]

Congrats buddy. Nice to hear that your car is alive again. Maybe I should ship my car to ICS for a tune up.

Well, being from cal, thats a bit of a haul. But seriously, Im going to talk to george about offering this as a service. He found so many things that were sub par.. for instance, I had no idea my fan clutch was no good.. I used to hear it Whirrr when it got hot, so I assumed it was working .. What I didnt know was that you could grab the fan while it was spinning, and stop it in its tracks! Only George would stick his hand into a moving fan blade, to check it for operation LOL.. He also found my dead plugs, a frayed Throttle cable, a few small vacuum leaks, kinked aftercooler hoses, a split bypass valve vacuum hose, and some other stuff. Whatever it is he found must have contributed to the higher dyno runs, and to the way its running. And I dont think its that his dyno runs 'higher' than other dynojets, as George has evidence that shows to the contrary, that his dyno runs lower than several other dynojets.. Anyway, As a product, I believe that for FI cars, it would make a desireable offering. .I mean, why wait for a catastrophic failure like I had in order to get all of these things checked out. An annual inspection of key failure points, which hes more than familiar with, and would know what to zero in on as failings for our cars, I think, would make a real valuable offering.

[bimmerpwr]

Congrats, Paul! I am sure last month must have felt like a loooong time, Enjoy!!!

I think we should have a ICS dyno day in the Fall, no more 90s dyno numbers!.

[MrBlonde]

..
I mean, no performance work was done this time around, and even so, whp had increased to 366whp, and for the first time, Im over 300 wftlbs!
..

Great to hear you are so happy Paul and who would expect any other result from George and ICS : the best BMW tuners in the world.

[card counter]

Sean there is a dyno challange Sept.11 at MIR(Budds Creek) its a import race day also
we should go down there and surprise a few people.
Nopi at MIR people where feaking out when a car hit over 350.

[Jim M3]

Paul that is great news, I can imagine how much of a relief it must be to get the car back. I question though that you picked up 12 whp though on this car from the work, since you have no baseline dyno on George's dyno. I think you could go to two different dynojets on two different days and get the same result. A baseline dyno done before the work would have been a more reliable method of determining what your delta dyno was, rather than your dyno from Florida. I am suprised the whole time you had the car back from Florida that you never went back to the dyno to see if the cooler temps and adaptations produced more power. Regardless she is humming good now and you have the piece of mind to know that all is well or as my mechanic says "its happy".

[///MDex]

Paul, congrats on having your sled back, and tuned to perfection. I agree that an annual check-up service would be a great idea.

- How many miles [FI and NA] did you have on those plugs?
- What plugs did you go to?
- The same ones?

[paul e]

Paul, congrats on having your sled back, and tuned to perfection. I agree that an annual check-up service would be a great idea.

- How many miles [FI and NA] did you have on those plugs?
- What plugs did you go to?
- The same ones?

I had been using r5671a-7 copper plugs, and I had accumulated about 12k miles on them... I think those copper plugs need to be changed every 10k miles, and gapped more frequently.. So they were due to be changed anyway, even if they hadnt fouled. George replaced them with his favorite plug: Its the Denso Iridium plug with the 22 heat range, and the .028" gap.

>> question though that you picked up 12 whp though on this car from the work, since you have no baseline dyno on George's dyno.<<

I agree that it should be questioned. But, we have the next best thing... cars that had been dynoed on other dynojets, when at georges, have dynoed a little lower. Hes convinced that, if there is any such thing as one dynojet which routinely runs lower/higher than another, his is on the low side. But its not evidence. By the same token, I dont think its such a big stretch that, when a new head is installed, eliminating all leaks, and vacuum leaks are patched up, and temps and humidity while not low are still better than prior sessions, results will be better. I do know this.. Idle smoothness, and driveability are better than theyve ever been. Sure, this doesnt translate to higher power numbers, but it does show things Feel better. Its not a stretch that a tuneup delivers better power, and combined with cooler conditions, even if slight, 13 whp/ftlb gains arent so hard for me to believe.. But regardless, its a far sight better than seeing 13 whp/ftlb losses as far as Im concerned.

>> am suprised the whole time you had the car back from Florida that you never went back to the dyno to see if the cooler temps and adaptations produced more power. <<

Well, its almost fall. Im waiting for temps to get down to the 60s-70, and Ill be back. Ill promise you this.. Before the manifold and any exhaust work get done, Im doing a 'before' run, to instrument that mod completely. From what I can tell, 366whp from the set of mods I have, or dont have, on 100% pump gas, is damn strong.

[bähnstormer]

>> question though that you picked up 12 whp though on this car from the work, since you have no baseline dyno on George's dyno.<<

I agree that it should be questioned. But, we have the next best thing... cars that had been dynoed on other dynojets, when at georges, have dynoed a little lower. Hes convinced that, if there is any such thing as one dynojet which routinely runs lower/higher than another, his is on the low side. But its not evidence. By the same token, I dont think its such a big stretch that, when a new head is installed, eliminating all leaks, and vacuum leaks are patched up, and temps and humidity while not low are still better than prior sessions, results will be better. I do know this.. Idle smoothness, and driveability are better than theyve ever been. Sure, this doesnt translate to higher power numbers, but it does show things Feel better. Its not a stretch that a tuneup delivers better power, and combined with cooler conditions, even if slight, 13 whp/ftlb gains arent so hard for me to believe.. But regardless, its a far sight better than seeing 13 whp/ftlb losses as far as Im concerned.

new plugs, a valve job, and rebuilt head u're questioning 13whp?
come on....i've seen bigger gains just from plugs alone...
heck he even rebuilt the blower (don't know why tho?)

[Jim M3]

I wasn't questioning if he got 13whp I am saying it would mean more if he had a baseline from George's dyno. Hell maybe he picked up 20whp. A rebuilt head isn't going to automatically make more power either. Engines usually make more power after their new components are broken in.

Does George routinely dyno cars without asking the customer? I always like to be around when my car is getting strapped up.

[ICS Performance]

Guys, Guys, Guys whats the problem here? Paul is happy with his car it is running extremely well, he is happy with the product, why all the questions? and assumptions? His car runs so smooth its incredible, and yes my dyno does run on the low side, I have compared it to dynopacks and other dyno's, ive had s/c stangs with heads cams and intakes 10 psi approach my dyno, and say, i should make 450rwhp and only make 372rwhp, so every dyno is very different, Paul is welcome down anytime for dyno, complimentary to the shop.

[carcrazed4life]

Paul, saw your car when I went to go pick up mine. Like the tag George and Brain are very modest. I have yet to show my charts either, but I can tell you my car is making more power then those charts. If they really wanted to show hyped up numbers, they would have swapped out my climate control panel and turned off my A/C that stayed on constantly through all my runs for a few more HPs. They didn't... because they honestly don't car for a few rwhp, but rather they care about the quality of the build. And yes they make great figures BECAUSE they have great products and service...

[Jim M3]

It would love to see the dyno on your car, please post!

[paul e]

Paul, saw your car when I went to go pick up mine. Like the tag George and Brain are very modest. I have yet to show my charts either, but I can tell you my car is making more power then those charts. If they really wanted to show hyped up numbers, they would have swapped out my climate control panel and turned off my A/C that stayed on constantly through all my runs for a few more HPs. They didn't... because they honestly don't car for a few rwhp, but rather they care about the quality of the build. And yes they make great figures BECAUSE they have great products and service...

Exactly... I was really happy to see that, despite the change in climate, and dyno conditions, and the new head, and it being a year later, and the leaks fixed, etc, etc, the shape of the afr plot was Identical to what it was a full year ago in Fla! Ive seen supercharged Ms from different 'tuners' in our industry, who had to launch their dyno plots at a given rpm level, in a certain way, otherwise different maps were used, causing the afr results to be horrible. Different load conditions, and so forth, would produce very different afrs because All the maps were not properly tuned.. And thats par for the course for some folks in our trade. Look at the afrs plots produced by Nicks' software, and the shape of the plots for any given car, will be identical.. Sure, the entire plot may move up a few tenths, or down a few tenths in response to small adaption changes. But the plot as a whole maintains the same shape. And thats the proof of software thats properly written.

Youre very lucky to be having his software on your engine, as well as using George to wrap it all up.... I know I sure feel that way. As I feel fortunate to have George looking after my car. Its no wonder that hes gotten as busy as he has. The trick is going to be continuing to be able to deliver the 'personal touch', which is part of which sets him apart from most of the others.

[carcrazed4life]

It would love to see the dyno on your car, please post!

Only if I get a sick deal on some cams...

I'm still holding out because I want to make sure the car has FULLY adapted just to be safe and compare before and afters... As well as get the AC control unit fixed so the AC compressor isn't constantly on and run more dynos.

[GG///M3]

Only if I get a sick deal on some cams...

I'm still holding out because I want to make sure the car has FULLY adapted just to be safe and compare before and afters... As well as get the AC control unit fixed so the AC compressor isn't constantly on and run more dynos.

what kind of tq did you make?

[DefactoM6]

Paul,

Glad to know that your car is alive and kicking on the road. Can't wait 'till mine is doing the same.

[carcrazed4life]

what kind of tq did you make?

~345 rw lb.ft. I hit 300 lb.ft. @ approx. 4200rpm.

[Jim M3]

Only if I get a sick deal on some cams...

I'm still holding out because I want to make sure the car has FULLY adapted just to be safe and compare before and afters... As well as get the AC control unit fixed so the AC compressor isn't constantly on and run more dynos.

PM me we have the best price in town on Schricks. We just shipped some Friday for another kit like mine getting put together.