What did you do in your shop today?

[tmsmini]

Could be, certainly not much. But something to keep an eye on. With three Minis, it will need to be put on the list. At least we are not making any 5000 mile trips this year.

[BruceK]

1978 Mercedes 280 Se = Gas I6.... My aunt bought it used in 79' brought her son home in it +  i tooled around in it when I was young with my mom... Remembered the brown interior + HUGE inside space.
Over the years She drove it forever. kept it going and she was known around Mclean Northern Virgina with herself a Blonde driving "Blondie"
 
Late 2018 Blondie had some hiccups... wouldn't go.. slowed down.. SO my uncle took it out to ' Blow her out!... that didn't go well... Car LIMPED home...  Next day they set to go to the shop with it.   on its way there- it didnt make it = ultimate failure.. Tow to the shop. Shop gave her a 5000$ quote to fix it... I never saw the quote but it was too much / more than she was willing to spend on her... Sad.  (Northern Virginia Independent shop price). My aunt also couldn't  throw Blondie away.. so she sad in the garage. about 6 more months.  That next spring, my uncle visited in Charlotte and we were chatting about how Blondie needs to 'go' and my aunt already replaced her car with a NEW Mercedes....so  Blondie sitting wasn't doing anyone good. I said I was interested, but not interested in towing or pickup= = My uncle offered to deliver it to me... Can i say NO to a FREE CAR!   Aunt Carol was happy i would take her.. however i DID leave the disclaimer that this car MIGHT STILL go away...   He delivered it last spring to me.. I sent it to a friends garage for a place for a while.. That garage space ended.. it had to go to another lot ( under a cover ) sat for another 6 months...  Last week i had Blondie towed to the house... to get a real look at.
   She still started and moved under idle. but poorly = sounded HORRIBLE.  I thought BELTS or a pulley was letting go.so i removed all the belts.. STILL Loud.  Noise pointed to the Exhaust side.   Digging in = exhaust is blowing out from under the manifolds= and there is a VERY crunchy tube from the EGR side of things... ( no Airpump belt installed + its locked up ) so no worries about air pump/emissions controls.   well looks like the EGR is blown out= and needs 'closed up" 
  Opening is the size of a penny... with some scrap metal and a clamp  Thats blocked off now...  but now the car wont run.  or barely chugs..   Unblock it to test = Runs ..  Plug EGR  = wont run.. Clue the exhaust issue... Unbolt the down pipes from the manifolds ( easy 4 Bolts)    RUNS GREAT!   = Clogged Exhaust.   ok = someone in time has replaced the converter... a weld in..  Lets look at that..  Chop out=  EWW. Cant see thru the converter. One side is melty...  Chop it out..  plan to weld a pipe back in..EH why   Weld back in what was removed.=  Cored out the cat=  Welded back in = She Purr's like a kitten!

Well that turned into late that night.. Next day= test drives... SO far = 10 -15 miles.. no worries. eve at 70 on the interstate.
  Around the neighborhood... She purr's  - She has her quirks but she goes.. (kids like her huge backseat too). Wife strolled her around some too... Wants to do a few 'commutes with her' when we get back going to work.

100$ to basic insure with Hagerty...
  Need DMV to open to get a plate.
  Back seats are deteriorated (horse hair) working with an aphulster this week to put some of those back together.

Blondie will ride again.

So cool.  That's back when Mercedes was run by humorless stern-faced engineers who built the best damn car they could, and they didn't worry about how to sell it.   It would sell itself on its merits.  Quite different from today's company run by the marketing department intent on broadening the appeal of the brand.

[MiniDave]

I think all the German mfrs seem to be headed to the bottom line, sell as many as possible and never mind how long it lasts....

[jeff10049]

Took the intake off of the 2013 mini at 100k miles to do an intake valve cleaning. I knew it wouldn't need much but wanted to show a customer the difference between maintaining a car properly vs what they had been doing.

This is proof that quality oil at proper change intervals a good air filter and good fuel make a difference.

I have had customer cars with 40k that were almost undrivable due to intake valve build up. They were using cheap oil and 10+k interval changes. cheap gas and low-quality air filters. Once we get them set up all of the problems they were having go away.

Ours at 100k really needed nothing I cleaned it anyway to remove what little was in there.
Here is the before pic.

[MiniDave]

That's a non-turbo engine, right?

The direct injected turbo models are a lot worse I'm given to understand, due to the blowby and PCV being blown into the intake just before the valves, and no fuel to wash them off?

I know mine at 50K looked a lot worse than that, and I do proper oil changes, use factory filters and Tier 1 gasoline......I'm about due to do it again as I'm at 95K now.

[jeff10049]

It is a direct-injected turbo. 2013 countryman S All4.

Years of being in the field I have noticed the opposite of all the hype about direct-injected engines being worse. I have had plenty of port injected and even carburetor engines apart that had very bad intake valve deposits.  Not that direct-injected engines can't or don't have build up just doesn't really seem any worse from what I have seen.  The intake manifolds actually seem to stay cleaner in the direct-injected engines.

[MiniDave]

You're both right.....Audi used this method to clean the intake ports on it's engines well before they went to direct injection, and MINI recommends this every 50K for their direct injected engines like jeff10049's and my 2009 Clubby. But on direct injected engines the fuel quality has nothing to do with the ports getting gummed up as the fuel never sees the ports - which is partly why they have a problem with them clogging up, no fuel to wash them clean.

Toyota started using the dual injection first, partly for this reason and partly for performance/fuel mileage reasons and Ford went down the same road.

[jeff10049]

The biggest thing is oil use oil with low evaporation rate like Castrol synthetic for GDI engines.
 
The evaporation of oil is called the NOACK test certain oils score poorly
Amsoil is one of the best.

It gets more confusing NOACK score isn't everything some oils that score poorly actually performed better in GDI engines due to the evaporated oil not being able to polymerize back into larger molecules on the back of the valves.

This is due to the compounds that are evaporating from the oil. What base stocks did they start with? what processes were used to create a synthetic oil from them? all play a role in how the evaporated oil will react with oxygen and moisture in the intake system.

The soot on the back of the intake valve is a great place for that oil to hang out and form a polymer chain. Using the oxygen and moisture in the air to help do this. It will actually form a polymer very similar to certain plastics. That's why it can be so resilient and hard to remove.

Mobile 1 is one of the worst for polymerizing from what I have seen and their formulation probably has something to do with it.
I won't say its bad oil because it does most things an oil needs to do pretty well but I would never run it in a GDI engine.   

My car has had Castrol and only had dry soot on the back of the valves most of it blew off with the air bower. A quick soak with some carb cleaner and blow out into a rag and the valves were spotless. No need to blast at all.

I also noticed that my intake pipes had very little oil in them most new customer cars I do before we get them switched over to good oils and change intervals have oil puddled in the manifold and pipes a couple of teaspoons worth usually.

[MiniDave]

What does the Castrol cost per quart? I buy Mobil One at Wally World for like $22/ 5 qts on sale

[jeff10049]

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Castrol-EDGE-5W-30-Advanced-Full-Synthetic-Motor-Oil-5-Quarts/34039135

[MiniDave]

cool, similar price deal. I always use the factory oil and air filters (or Wix equivalents) as I used a regular auto parts store version one time and it collapsed!

[94touring]

1st time at the shop in awhile.  Got the POS clubman moved to take pics of the 67s shell for a guy.  It took effort.  Took some inventory to continue on Mark's Aussie. 

[MiniDave]

Shipped out some more of my uncle's tools, I'm down to just the specialty stuff now but I've had some luck marketing them on the HAMB, which is dedicated to custom cars and traditional hot rods all pre-1964, so right up the alley for those guys.

My uncle was a Mopar man so I have some stuff specifically for those older cars - and have found guys looking for the exact tools I have. It's been interesting figuring out exactly what some of these things do - for example, I found a dial indicator setup that looked like it might be to set TDC - turns out old flat head Dodges and Plymouths had a plug you remove to insert this tool to set the timing chain up or something - anyway, found a guy with one of those engines who jumped on it the moment I listed it!

He has some buddies with similar cars so I sent him the link on the set of special transmission tools I have too. I'm down to just a few things now, I'm glad they all went to guys who - even if they flip them on Ebay or something - eventually I think they'll wind up in the hands of a guy who will use and appreciate them.

[MiniDave]

Got new parts washer solvent today, they don't normally deliver to a house, but I knew the guy from school, so he makes an exception. I call him direct in his truck and he's usually here in an hour. $167 for 25 gallons delivered and old stuff hauled off.

Crystal Clean - 1/3 the price of Safety Clean for basically the same stuff.

https://www.crystal-clean.com/services/parts-cleaners/

Since the solvent tank is all the way in the back of the shop, I have to get everything moved to the other end to get access, so I can take the tank off the barrel, and since I'm doing THAT, I take the opportunity to clean and sweep up....lord knows it needed it!

Now I can go ahead and strip down the automatic transmission and clean the case up - it's pretty encrusted with grease and crap. One tip - don't ever use red rags to work on an automatic, it leaves red fuzz in it and that can clog the filter really quickly. Always use lint free rags.

I won't start on that till after the parts get here so I can take the head and block off to the machine shop, I just don't have room on the bench for all this stuff.

[MPlayle]

Tackled changing the front passenger side power door lock on my 2016 Jeep Wrangler.  What a pain in the *** that was. 

It is not overly complex, but some aspects are disassemble/reassemble in a jig-saw puzzle manner.  Lots of having to move the window glass up & down to get the various plastic brackets back together without breaking.

Got it all done and the locking system on that door all works properly again.

[Jims5543]

When I put my new tires and rims on my FJ, the tires now stick out a little past the stock fenders. I bought some Bushwacker fenders and tossed those on. I did this a lot at a time over a week after work.

[Willie_B]

When I put my new tires and rims on my FJ, the tires now stick out a little past the stock fenders. I bought some Bushwacker fenders and tossed those on. I did this a lot at a time over a week after work.

Little things make a big difference. Looks good with the new fenders.

[Jims5543]

Indeed.. It feels faster too now. I think I picked up 20 HP.

[94touring]

Added a heavy bag from my gantry crane to hit on for when I get pissed at a car.

[tmsmini]

Added a heavy bag from my gantry crane to hit on for when I get pissed at a car.

I need something like this!

[94touring]

Trying to post a pic but keep getting an error.  Who runs this dump?

[tmsmini]

Trying to post a pic but keep getting an error.  Who runs this dump?

Some crazy pilot dude!
   Where's the picture with the wig?

[BruceK]

Added a heavy bag from my gantry crane to hit on for when I get pissed at a car.

Here's some inspiration Dan.

[Jims5543]

Trying to post a pic but keep getting an error.  Who runs this dump?

I was getting errors last night, I though it was a drunk detector.   ;D

I resized my photos on my phone and they uploaded fine.

[94touring]

Added a heavy bag from my gantry crane to hit on for when I get pissed at a car.

That's fantastic

Here's some inspiration Dan.