Project Chronicle

One of the better updates I've gotten lately from Jay is that the engine is back in the LX450. Which means we're:

- a few days closer to it being fully tethered to the car and getting its first start (right now, the bellhousing is loosely attached, but that's it);

- a few weeks closer to it going to the bodyshop for rust repairs in the rear door inner fenders;  

- and then off for a quick stereo install, and hopefully, headed down to Maryland to resume daily driving duties. 

I haven't driven it since January, so yes, I'm excited to see it comes this far - but we're not home yet. 

Progress is progress these days, no matter if it's an inch or a mile. 

We pushed through an incredible amount of work before moving to Maryland, with the Audi S6, BMW 325is, and Mercedes-Benz E55 all getting long-simmering projects wrapped up before leaving town. 

The E55 was a pretty solid car overall, but a few lingering issues remained: the A/C showed signs of previous dye testing and my shop assessed that the evaporator and compressor were in need of replacement. Well, we charged the system back in May and guess what? It lost barely any refrigerant, meaning the system was far tighter than expected. 

We did flag a few other issues, including a weak auxiliary cooling fan (replaced); a busted HVAC resistor (caused the system to run full-blast at all times); and a fan clutch near death based on how slowly it was rotating. With those components replaced, we now have a fairly buttoned-up HVAC system, and hopefully have bought some time before the evaporator and compressor someday do reveal themselves to be problematic. 

I also elected to have the shocks replaced, as the car still had the OEM Bilsteins and it had previously been lowered on H&R springs, which I believed contributed to a very harsh ride. Koni Sports were swapped in and definitely increased the composure of the ride.

With all that done, the very daily-friendly E55 is already more so than before.

The bulk of my recent move to Maryland is complete, meaning the parts from the garage are in a storage unit down here and the three cars (+1 for the Eurovan) that were ready to leave are safely on the ground. 

This was a big lift and doesn't even get into the usual stresses and hurdles of moving out of state. The S6, E30, and E55 got loaded up on a trailer with a new hauler who was extremely competent and affordable, a rare combination these days. 

I'm always amazed by how you can tell whether you're working with an experienced transporter. The way they latch the cars down, the condition of the truck and trailer, and their general confidence when faced with challenges. We couldn't get all three cars on until we arranged them in the order you see here, to the point that the Audi had to kiss the bumper of the E30 to fit. But the E30 has a thick, rubber insert running the length of the bumper, so you can get away with this in order to get the cars on. Not so with any other combination. 

Overall, it's a relief to have this much done. The 911 will come down in the coming weeks, with the Trooper RS and LX450 unknown in terms of an arrival date. And the Cosworth, of course, is anyone's guess.

I swung by Jay's 4WD today to leave my beloved Trooper RS with him while we move on down to Maryland. Jay will fix the leaking headgasket and button up a few other details while it's there, which hopefully won't be for an extended stay.

In addition to dropping off the Trooper, I also checked out the LX450 which is getting closer to completion. The engine is reassembled and awaiting installation. Jay also installed the three-inch lift kit I bought from Old Man Emu, so plenty of other work is getting down while he prepares for the labor-intensive aspect of dropping the engine back in. Jay recommends getting a different caster kit than what came with the kit, along with longer rear sway bar brackets. 

Jay removed the full wiring harness to make egress easier, and also cleaned up some old heater hoses that serviced the now-inop rear seat heater. The truck still needs a good deal of sorting before it's running and driving, but at least we can see some major work has been done and that we're on the home stretch. 

While I hadn't intended to put any more money into the Trooper RS before relocating - especially with the news that the headgasket had started leaking - logistics demanded that I do something with the truck before moving it over to my mechanic Jay's house as a fall/winter project. 

The bodyshop I use has been performing some smaller projects so I can focus on simply maintaining the vehicles going forward rather than also dealing with cosmetic repairs. When the bulk of the rust was repaired on the Trooper, it was a grueling, messy project. The shop hit a breaking point where they just wanted the truck out of the way, so we left one section of rocker un-repaired on the passenger side.

With a gap in their schedule and the Audi S6 Avant not quite ready to come over to the bodyshop to replace the windhshield and fix some very small rust on the A-pillar, the Trooper slid in to get the remaining rocker rust taken out and repaired. As of now, the RS is effectively rust-free - which will make parking it outside at Jay's place for the colder months a little less unnerving. 

One of the lingering details about the E30 - the 1987 BMW 325is - that has always bothered me is the lack of an OEM windshield. Or, for that matter, even a windshield from a respected aftermarket manufacturer. About five years ago, when the bulk of the bodywork was done, I had a new windshield put in before I knew how bad the domestic glass market had gotten.

What I'm speaking of is the prevalence of Chinese-made glass from a company called Fuyao. In the blink of an eye, Fuyao has essentially taken over almost every domestic glass manufacturer's operations, leaving virtually no other options when you call the local installer to replace your busted glass. I've made a point of visiting junkyards and grabbing OEM used glass whenever I see it, and had a very nice piece of BMW-stamped Carlite windshield in storage after spotting it at a New Hampshire wrecking yard. 

I finally found a guy willing to install it, despite his protestations that it made no sense to remove a good piece of glass with virtually no imperfections - aside from being made by a Chinese company. The replacement OEM glass also has the very elusive bronze tint strip at the top, which is virtually unheard of with almost every windshield having a teal visor. The final bonus? It still has the factory sticker with break-in instructions. 

Overall, this is yet another one of those projects that got expedited with our upcoming move, and while it wasn't anything I wanted to get done on any sort of timeline, I really dig seeing OEM glass at every corner and the bronze tint is surprisingly distinctive - and handsome. 

As mentioned previously, we've got this big move coming up where I'll be leaving my trusted shop of 10+ years. Accordingly, there are some ugly jobs I've been avoiding that now have to be fast-tracked for fear of not being able to find a specialist willing to take them on, at least not until I establish a few months' worth of track records.

The S6 Avant has had a noisy blow motor since I got it. To fix this, you have to remove the heater box, which requires removing the windshield cowl on the outside and the lower console inside the car. Of course, once you do this, you discover that someone else has attempted this and broken a bunch of clips and arms in the process. The arms are connected to servos that (obviously) adjust air direction and mixture. With at least one broken arm, we had to stop work to order spares from an Audi breaker in New Hampshire.

Then, from the "while you're in there" department, it makes sense to replace the heater hose and heater valve attached to the heater box, which (shockingly) are still available. I ordered those, and we'll do that along with the heater core, in addition to the offending blower motor that started all this nonsense. 

All of this is to say, it's a pain in the ass job without much in the way of pay-off beyond the HVAC not acting possessed. And God willing, I will never have to tackle this project ever again while I own the car. 

The Lexus LX450 project is one of those unfortunate scenarios where things have definitely gotten out of hand. As mentioned previously, a long-festering headgasket leak left unabated by the previous owner resulted in the inline-six going from a basic gasket job to a full-on rebuild. 

This was obviously an unplanned level of expense, as this truck was supposed to be the most reliable vehicle in the fleet and been pressed into daily duty after I sold my 2010 BMW 328xi wagon. We're well past that plan coming together, but the good news is Jay has at least crossed the Rubicon as it relates to progress on re-assembly. 

While the truck has been a relative kick in the gut as it relates to the disappointment of discovering an issue like this, it is at least rewarding to see the engine cleaned up and looking quite tidy. I try to remind myself that as it relates to this level of investment in a vehicle, an 80-Series Land Cruiser is one of the more rewarding options out there in terms of ROI. 

Hopefully, we're on target for the truck to be ready by Labor Day, at which point I'm going to have to manage rust repair and a stereo refresh from across the miles. 

I recently had an engine oil analysis done by Blackstone Laboratories on my 1999 911. As you may know, Blackstone has earned a name for itself as being a sort of fortune teller with Porsche engines, especially as it relates to helping to understand potential IMS failures and other issues that can lead to material deposits of the unwanted kind in the first water-cooled engine.

I held my breath deciding to do this, as in some ways, ignorance is bliss. After all, what do you do with the "bad news" should you receive it? Not drive the car? Park it out of fear of doing more damage? There's no good answer, and you can go down a total rabbit hole of then trying to sort out problems that may not rear their heads for years to come.

Fortunately, my first report with Blackstone returned with good news all around. Based on the mileage of my engine, their findings indicated all was within spec without any significant concerns resulting from excess deposits of materials like silicon, magnesium, or aluminum, among other unwanted substances. 

The smart thing to do (and also why Blackstone continues to make money) is to perform these analysis over a given time period to form a baseline and see if anything changes significantly. I may do this going forward, but for now, I am just thrilled to see these initial results on what is a high-mileage 996 engine.