How to blow a BMW engine. Road To Time Attack Ep. 4
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00:00This week, Jay and I remove the rear interior of my car and we finally make it to OTA, but
00:05naturally, things don't quite go as expected.
00:13Okay, so OTA is in two days, three days, two days, it's on Saturday, yeah, we have a lot
00:24of work to do.
00:25But basically, the entire rear of the car is going to come out because I specced my
00:31car out for classing, for OTA, OTA is based on classes.
00:35So I'm in Grand Touring 4 class, which means that I checked enough boxes on my base BMW
00:41sedan that it bumped me up from T1 to GT4.
00:47So that being said, what I can do now is remove everything behind the driver's back for weight
00:52reduction.
00:53We're going to, I've never done this before, I have no idea what's going to happen.
00:57So Jay and I are going to try and remove the interior of this car to see if we can drop
01:02the overall weight of the vehicle.
01:04All right, let's do this.
01:05All right.
01:06It's all held down in one bolt.
01:11It's not all held down in one bolt, it's a safer vehicle than that, Jay.
01:13Are we leaving the seatbelts in?
01:17That's a good question, actually.
01:18There's going to be a roll bar back here, no one can sit here.
01:21So let's remove the seatbelts.
01:25Unless I get like some sort of annoying seatbelt warning, you know that's going to happen.
01:28It's a BMW, it has like four million sensors.
01:32That looked like it fit, Jay, but it doesn't.
01:34Clearly things were off to a smooth start.
01:37Wait, no, that's it, hold on, I got it.
01:41All right, I have removed one bolt, I don't know what that did.
01:47Oops.
01:48Jay, can you release that again, please?
01:51Aha!
01:52That did something.
01:53I don't know what.
01:54Should we resort to brute force?
01:55What do you think?
01:56Do you have a crowbar?
01:57Hammer?
01:58Yes.
01:59Clutch hammer?
02:00What do we got?
02:01Let's see if we can get these panels off the side.
02:02Brute force it is.
02:03We quickly found evidence of this being a family sedan.
02:04Oh my god.
02:05Look at all the change.
02:06Oh my god.
02:07Eww.
02:08Eww.
02:09Oh, what an...
02:10Hey, there's almost 10 bucks in there!
02:11Not quite.
02:12How many children have peed?
02:13Look at that!
02:14I don't know, do you think that's enough?
02:23Yeah.
02:24I don't think so.
02:25I don't think so.
02:27I don't think so.
02:29All right.
02:30It's almost 10 bucks in there.
02:31How many children have peed?
02:34Look at that.
02:35If you were thinking of using this as a DIY
02:37to remove your rear seats, you should turn away now.
02:40We were making this up as we went.
02:42Belt buckles off.
02:45This is gross.
02:46You got a good deal this time.
02:47There's plenty of money left over.
02:49Nice.
02:56Is this every time you make a wish that the car will start?
02:58Should we throw it in here?
03:03We decided that the best course of action
03:05was to just start removing every single bolt that we could find.
03:10And then eventually.
03:12All right.
03:13I got it.
03:13You got what?
03:18That's heavy.
03:19Woo.
03:21That's heavy.
03:22How did you do that?
03:24You just pivoted it.
03:25Oh, I see.
03:26It just hooked in.
03:28Oh, holy.
03:32Things were coming along, but eventually Jay
03:34almost got a little bit too excited with the crowbar.
03:37Oh, jeez.
03:38Oh, what'd you get?
03:40Almost broke your window.
03:41Oh, God.
03:43Can you imagine?
03:45Well, let's not do that again then.
03:46Jesus.
03:49You all right?
03:50Lovely.
03:51You too.
03:51Oh, I smashed my thumb.
03:54Mother of God.
03:57It's going to be so purple.
04:05Check this out.
04:06It came out in such a flurry, I'm not exactly sure what it was for.
04:09I think it covers the speaker.
04:12I bet if you went to a BMW dealership
04:13and asked for this part right here, they would say $437, please.
04:17It's not a problem.
04:20I didn't realize it was going to be so much.
04:28The amount of rubber and insulation in the back of one of these
04:31is unbelievable.
04:32I had a feeling that the interior of my car was going to be pretty loud now.
04:43Just a change in weight production isn't going to be significant.
04:46It will be massive.
04:51I took advantage of the lift at JRP and decided
04:54to drain and refill my coolant.
04:56Naturally, I spilled coolant all over the floor.
05:00I decided to refill the cooling system with just distilled water,
05:03because in the event of a cooling system failure on the track,
05:06it won't dump slippery coolant on my rear tires, potentially causing a spin.
05:09I also added some Redline water wetter, which will help with heat transfer
05:13and is supposed to lower overall cooling temps.
05:16So just like that, somehow the car was ready for the first Ontario time
05:20attack.
05:21I arrived with Team Pata at Toronto Motorsports Park
05:24with my car, which was now covered in decals.
05:27And with the official Ontario time attack banner and door cards,
05:30it was finally looking like a proper track car.
05:36I attended the driver's meeting, and they laid out the rules for the day.
05:39Lapping and practice sessions were in the morning,
05:41and the real competition would start in the afternoon.
05:44Since I was new to OTA, I had to be signed off.
05:46They paired me up with an instructor who
05:48asked me questions about my car and told me
05:50he would ride with me to check if I could handle a car safely.
05:53I also took my car for an inspection, and they checked my helmet.
05:56But I wasn't worried about that, at least,
05:57because it's a brand new HJC racing helmet, which
05:59I picked up at JRP this spring.
06:02In no time, we were in the car, and the instructor
06:04told me that I should point out my braking and turn-in points.
06:07But I explained that I don't really use them.
06:09So I might have to look for the turn-in point,
06:12because I'm usually looking towards the apex before I turn in.
06:15OK.
06:16So that's what dictates my turn-in point, usually, right?
06:18As opposed to memorizing marks in the field.
06:20OK, I want to make sure, I just want to make sure
06:22that I'm interpreting what you're interpreting.
06:24Yep, OK.
06:24That's why I'm asking you to call it out.
06:28After the typical synchronized wristband dance, we were on the track.
06:32The instructor watched me for a while, and I
06:34did my best to just focus on driving.
06:36I wasn't pushing hard, but I was paying attention
06:39to how the car felt, so that I could have as much information as I could
06:42to make adjustments before the timed runs.
06:48I talked him through my inputs and my line,
06:50and showed him that I was watching the marshalling stations for flags.
06:53It was good to see that OTA ran such a high standard of safety.
06:57We had a good session.
06:59Yeah, a very good session.
07:00If you didn't spin the car, that's an accomplishment.
07:02Well, that's important.
07:03Yeah.
07:08OK, so I will sign you off, give you the paperwork, and we're done.
07:12You're good to compete.
07:14Thank you very much.
07:16Have a good day.
07:17See you later.
07:20Of course, between sessions, I had to take a walk
07:23to check out all of the wild cars that showed up to compete.
07:26Finally, it was time for my first solo practice session.
07:30My plan was simple.
07:31Warm up slowly and then gradually push the car harder and harder.
07:35Let me know when you're ready.
07:36I'll wait for you.
07:37Then we'll get going.
07:38OK?
07:39All right.
07:39Thanks for coming.
07:40Thanks for having me.
07:41Bye.
07:42Bye.
07:42Bye.
07:43Bye.
07:43Bye.
07:44Bye.
07:44Bye.
07:45Bye.
07:45Bye.
07:46Bye.
07:46Bye.
07:47Bye.
07:47Bye.
07:48Bye.
07:48Bye.
07:49Bye.
07:49Bye.
07:50Bye.
07:51Bye.
07:51Bye.
07:52Bye.
07:52Bye.
07:53Bye.
07:53Bye.
07:54Bye.
07:54Bye.
07:55Bye.
07:55Bye.
07:56Bye.
07:56harder and harder. This run wasn't timed by OTA, but I still had my personal lap
08:01timer running. I wanted to set a decent time right off the bat, which would
08:05hopefully give me confidence for the afternoon. I know this track very well. I
08:09was relaxed and I was taking my time.
08:17At this point things were going swimmingly. The HSD coilovers that we
08:21installed felt fantastic. They kept the wheels planted and the car flat. My
08:26StopTech brakes showed no signs of fading. In fact, everything was going
08:31very, very well. Too well, as it turned out. As I rounded the corner to start my
08:37first hot lap, I made a very costly mistake.
08:51I didn't know what happened. In my mind, I did nothing wrong. I just upshifted it
09:04to fourth. I could tell something catastrophic had happened to my engine. I
09:08pulled off to the side and waved other racers by. I tried to start the car in
09:12neutral, but nothing happened.
09:21I just exploded my engine, or the driveline, somewhere. Completely. Now when
09:42I try and start the car, I can hear it spinning against the... the starter is
09:46spinning. It's not catching any flywheel, so I don't know, I blew up my
09:49transmission or something. I hope it's not the engine, because I can do a
09:53transmission and a flywheel swap overnight if I need to. I would just
09:58really love to not have to do that. Like, really, really love to not have to do that.
10:05This is what racing is all about, I guess.
10:13I was towed back to the pits. Friends from the Pinnacle Driving Academy and
10:18other competitors were eager to find out what had happened. I explained what I
10:22thought went down to fellow BMW owner Val, who suspected a money shift, meaning
10:26I put it into second gear instead of fourth. Naturally, I denied this at first.
10:31But sadly, that's very clearly what happened. The question now is, how bad was
10:37the damage?
10:41I was amazed at how quickly people came over to offer help. This is grassroots
10:50motorsports at its finest. I can't thank these people enough. We pushed the car up
10:55on a trailer so I could take a look underneath. There wasn't any visible
10:59damage to the drivetrain or the flywheel, but we couldn't figure out why it felt
11:03like the starter was spinning, but not turning over the engine. So it was time
11:08to get to work. Val and I removed the valve cover, and I
11:11found that the engine was turning over, but there was no compression. We started
11:15tossing theories at each other.
11:19Come on man. Timing. I can barely feel even the piston moving up.
11:24It's timing change. You get to pray that you've skipped enough teeth that the
11:31valves open too soon, but they haven't banged the top of the piston. Usually when they're
11:34bent, you're going to hear knocking in here. That chain in that guide is in too
11:41good of a condition to skip a tooth. And if it did skip a tooth, one of any of
11:46these gears would have a marking on it. We spent some more time with it, but we
11:50realized that I had no choice but to remove the head to find out how
11:53extensive the damage was. There was only one thing for it. Time for a tow.
11:59Let's go. Push. Push. Nice.
12:08Afternoon. It dawned on me that I only had two weeks to fix this thing before
12:14the next Ontario Time Attack, and I was not going to miss another one.
12:20On the next episode of Road to Time Attack, stay tuned as I go through the
12:30most difficult two weeks of my life. I'm going to bed.
12:50you
13:20you