328i Maintenance

It has been nearly one month since I purchased the ’98 328i and there is already so much work completed. With the help of some good friends the car is almost up to snuff. Replaced so far:

• Control arms
• Front control arm bushings
• Water pump
• Thermostat
• Thermostat housing
• Upper and lower radiator hoses
• Fuel filter
• Air filter
• Cabin microfilter
• Passenger airbag sensor emulator

I am thankful for garages and hydrocarbons.

The cabin microfilter is in a very awkward position but also a very satisfying job. The glove box must be removed along with some plastic duct work in order to access the filter.

I had a state inspection done today and they found two issues. The rear rotors are slightly out of spec and there is also a leak from the power steering fluid reservoir. Both of these are considered normal wear and tear items. The power steering reservoir, which also acts as a filter, should be replaced every 100,000 miles. No doubt the hose is worn as well, allowing the fluid to seep down and coat the power steering pump. Brakes are entirely consumable items on any car and should be replaced as needed. It is probably worth replacing the emergency brake components as well. Luckily, I have 30 days to complete repairs to the satisfaction of the shop before the inspection process resets. This is more than enough time although I only have five days left before the temporary tags expire. Boo. I really just want to drive this car as much as possible but am glad it has been out of commission during the heavy winter weather and subsequent salting of the roads.

One of the tires had a slow leak so I dropped it off at a local shop to be repaired. The tire was fine but there was corrosion on the lip of the rim which broke the seal and allowed air to escape. The wheel was repaired by grinding away the corrosion. There is a lot of tread left on the tire so it’s nice that it was saved. It is also nice to know that the spare I was using holds up well.

Within the next week the power steering and braking components will be addressed. Then I get to pay the state for the privilege of driving such a fine vehicle.

E36 Addiction

The 1994 325i has been on her last leg for some time now. The motor is solid but the daily commuting and rust have taken their toll. I plan to part her out as she sits at 323k miles. The disassembly has already begun in the garage of a very good friend. Hopefully the parts will go on to serve another person well.

I began searching for a slightly newer but low mileage E36 about 6 months ago. I figured that since I already know almost everything about the older model it will save me time and frustration down the road. I finally found something I deemed acceptable from a small used car dealer in Loudoun County, VA. A super clean 1998 328i 5 speed manual with just under 116k miles was acquired two weeks ago. There is a minor dent on the fender that I hope to easily remove.

The model description is as follows:

Model description:	328I
Market:	USA
Type:	CD33
E-Code:	E36 (4)
Chassis:	Limousine
Steering:	links
Doors:	4
Engine:	M52 – 2,80l (142kW)
Drive:	Heckantrieb
Transmission:	manuell
Body Color:	Arktissilber Metallic (309)
Upholstery:	Leder Casual/hellgrau (P7TH)
Production date:	23.09.1997
Assembled in:	München

The VIN decode lists the following features as present on this car:

Code	Sonderausstattung	Optional Equipment
S240A	Lenkrad Leder Airbag	Leather steering wheel
S243A	Airbag Beifahrer	Airbag for front passenger
S260A	Seitenairbag für Fahrer/Beifahrer	Side airbag for driver/passenger
S277A	BMW LM Rad Doppelspeiche	BMW LA wheel/double spoke
S341A	Stossfänger komplett in Wagenfarbe	Bumpers completely in body colour
S401A	Schiebehebedach elektrisch	Lift-up-and-slide-back sunroof, electric
S458A	Sitzverstellung vorne elektrisch	Electr. front seat adjustment
S473A	Armlehne vorne	Armrest front
S481A	Sportsitz	Sports seat
S498A	Kopfstützen im Fond mechanisch	Headrests, rear, mechanically adjustable
S534A	Klimaautomatik	Automatic air conditioning
S540A	Geschwindigkeitsregelung	Cruise control
S554A	Bordcomputer V mit Fernbedienung	On-board computer V with remote control
S676A	HiFi Lautsprechersystem	HiFi speaker system
S686A	Antennen-Diversity	Antenna-Diversity
S692A	CD-Wechsler I-Bus Vorbereitung	Preparation, BMW 6-CD changer I-bus
S704A	M Sportfahrwerk	M Sports suspension
S818A	Batteriehauptschalter	Battery master switch
S925A	Versandschutzpaket	Transport protection package

 I was particularly excited about the seats and M sport suspension. The slightly lower ride height and beefier sway bars are definitely noticeable. The HiFi speaker system note is interesting because there is no HiFi switch on the center console nor signature Harmon Kardon markings on the door speaker covers. Regardless, after calling the dealership to get the radio code, I can say that the sound system is quite nice. I am currently using a cassette adapter to listen to music on my iPod and am very happy with the speaker range. The informational cassette that came with the owner’s manual was definitely worth a listen as I learned a few things about the car that I otherwise would not have known. For instance, if you turn off the engine and exit the car with windows and/or the sunroof open you can simply hold the key in the lock position for 6 seconds at which point the windows will close!

Despite the nice condition of this car I have encountered a few issues so far. The passenger airbag sensor is damaged (Table 2, Code 18) which can result in the illumination of the airbag light. I constructed a simple circuit which will trick the computer into thinking the seat is constitutively occupied. Clearly this is the best solution since the circuit materials cost $6 whereas the sensor, which is known to prematurely fail, costs $190. The front right wheel is rubbing the rear of the wheel well at sharp angles and very low speeds. I have ordered new control arms, FCABs and tie rods as I assume the ones on the car have never been replaced. It is about the time where these items should be replaced so this is no big deal so long as it fixes the issue. No doubt the bushings are all pretty worn. Next, since this car lived in Maryland after being imported through South Carolina, there was some rust present on the sway bar brackets. This degraded to the point that the bracket fell off along with the mounting bolts which are normally welded onto the frame of the car. I have been driving without this bracket and experienced no ill effects. Today I picked up the replacement piece to be welded onto the frame. Very reasonable part which costs $23 at the dealer. Lastly, the brake light circuit rarely encounters an error that does not actually result in the failure of the brake lights. This is a known issue with the brake pedal switch which is a quick 30 minute job. Some issues are to be expected for a car of this age so it’s off to the races to keep up with proper maintenance.

Some minor repairs and maintenance have already been done including instrument cluster light bulb replacement, OBC light bulb replacement, tire pressure checks, a full synthetic oil change and thorough cleaning of the leather, vinyl and carpet.

The car heats and cools without issue. Along with the suspension bits I ordered a new water pump, thermostat, thermostat housing and radiator cap. These will be replaced along with the cabin air filter and fuel filter this weekend. I have already been reading up on popular M52 engine modifications but quickly decided that they are not worth the effort. M3 camshafts, an M50 intake manifold and software tune is hardly worth a maximum gain of 20hp. Not for me, anyway. I’m keeping her stock with tasteful mods. Once the suspension goes I will likely replace it with Bilstein sport struts and H&R sport springs which I ran on the 325i. A strut bar and cold air intake will complete my current plans for this car. Oh and an nice exhaust.. and some headers… and some ZKW headlights and yellow fog lamp housings…..

The 325iX Lives!

By the way, we now have another E30 on our hands besides the 318i. Behold the 1989 325iX in all her glory:

Allegedly all it needed was a new starter. We will soon find out if that is the case as it was replaced by me some weeks ago. Many people said it was a huge pain but I managed to complete it in a few hours.

Since we were eager to get her running (and truly test the starter) I spent a mediocre amount of time this past Saturday with a few good friends reassembling the intake manifold. It was pretty difficult to service alone as the coolant hose assembly had to be put on with the intake manifold held slightly in place. More than two hands were required. The oil return tube was also troublesome but my friend read that compressing the spring with a zip tie would help. Once the intake manifold, coolant hoses, throttle body and air box were back together we struggled with the oil filter. I had drained the massively overfilled oil pan upon delivery and thankfully remembered that she needed some fresh lubrication. Hehe. Anyway, someone torqued the filter far too much. We spent about 15 minutes trying to remove that sucker. I ended up manhandling it since the oil filter wrenches did not fit around the exhaust manifold. After we installed the new one approximately 5L quarts of 10W30 natural Pennzoil were added. We also topped her off with 50/50 Prestone coolant since we lost some during hose removal.

The moment of truth was upon us. The starter was replaced. The fluids were topped off. The brake hard lines were rusted through. Would she fire up? We had kept a solar trickle charger on the battery so that it would remain charged. I opened the door and turned the key. Nothing. No power. Let’s check the battery! I guess connecting the battery would help! Try again and… still no power. Unfortunately, the battery terminals and wire rings were corroded. We scrubbed them with steel wool and a wire brush. The voltmeter read 12V so the battery was fine. We attached the wires and saw sparks with some jiggling. Back to the driver seat to try again. A key turn provided instrument cluster illumination. Check engine light in on… whatever. I turned the key further and she awoke!

We had to open up the throttle a bit to keep her running. After a few minutes the idle was stable but a bit high due to our hasty throttle cable assembly. The engine was running rough so we suspect that we may have plugged the crank angle sensor into the wrong port. This is easy enough to check. It is also possible that the timing is off. Also, there is a massive leak in the catalytic converter. Good thing we were given a spare! She needs some more work to become roadworthy but will definitely be worth our efforts.

 

Credit Card Churning

I stumbled upon the churning subreddit a few months ago and decided to take advantage of the reward credit cards on the market. Many cards offer additional points or miles for new customers after reaching a spend limit within a certain time frame. These cards usually have annual fees so the idea is to reach the limit, acquire the points and redeem them before the card reaches one year of age. This allows the owner to reap the rewards without paying the fee. Of course, should you accrue a balance with the card and pay interest your gains would melt away rather quickly. The general strategy involves replacing everyday purchases with the card in order to reach the minimum spend. There also exist ways to funnel large purchases that you are otherwise unable to place on a credit card through the credit card in order to reach the minimum spend should you need a boost. This is referred to as manufactured spending (MS) and, while technically against the terms and conditions of the card issuer, is not illegal in any way. One common method for MS is to send money to a friend via Amazon Payments for “goods or services” and then get that money back from your friend so that you may pay the bill. This money comes back to the card full circle with no interest or fees and counts for spending goals.

I decided to apply for a Barclay Arrival World Plus Elite Mastercard and was approved. In general, one mile or point is roughly equal to one cent when redeemed. You earn two miles for every dollar spent. The Barclay card offers a unique way to redeem miles; they can be redeemed for any travel expense on your statement which exceeds $25. The bonus that I was seeking was for 40,000 miles and was obtained by spending $3,000 on the card in the first 90 days of card issuance. 40,000 miles translates to $440 of statement credit when redeemed for travel expenses since they give 10% back if the miles are redeemed in this manner. That’s a free domestic plane ticket! You may also redeem miles for cash, general statement credit, gift cards and various products but they are not as valuable compared to redemption for travel expenses. The annual fee of $89 is waived the first year but is more than paid for with this initial bonus alone for almost five years. It is important to note that miles never expire. Another valuable feature is the lack of currency conversion fees and CHIP + PIN technology.

Another card which I recently obtained is the Hyatt Visa by Chase. After spending $1,000 in three months you are awarded two free nights in any standard room worldwide. The value of this is variable but keep in mind that you can stay in any hotel. The Park Hyatt hotels in Tokyo, Maldives and Paris are among the most expensive and command at least $400 per night. These nights will expire after one year. In addition, you are awarded a free one night stay at any category 1-4 hotel worldwide which is granted at your cardmember anniversary. Categories range from 1-7, with 7 being to most luxurious. The annual fee of $75, waived the first year, is worth it for this benefit alone. Additionally, the card automatically grants you platinum status which provides free room WiFi and late check out.

A third card and final card (for now), which I do not plan on keeping due to the steep yearly fee, is the American Express Gold Premier Rewards Card. It costs $175 a year to carry this card and I probably will not use it enough to warrant the fee. The Barclay card is much better in terms of point value as you earn a maximum of 2.2% for every dollar. AMEX offered 20,000 points after spending $2,000 in the first two months of card ownership. That equates to about $200 off a ticket from major airliners or $150 in gift cards for Hyatt. That is barely worth the yearly fee. In order to keep up the value I would need to spend about $18,000 a year on this card which is not likely. AMEX is known for customer service so I will make sure to take advantage of their help during my travels.

How do I plan to use these rewards? I want to visit Japan within a year and stay for a couple of weeks. Two nights at the Park Hyatt sound amazing and I will have at least $440 dollars to mitigate the cost of a flight. That’s about 33% off! The value of all three cards is $640 plus two nights at any Hyatt hotel. I intend to use those nights at the Park Hyatt in Tokyo with a cost of $408 per night in April. That puts the grand total at $1,456 before any yearly fees! Annual fees lower the value to $1,117. Remember that any interest accrued will further erode the gains. Keep it simple by using a rewards card in place of a debit card for everyday purchases to meet those spending requirements and pay the balances in full each month. You are ultimately earning money for the Visa, Mastercard and AMEX by way of merchant fees but it really is a huge gain if you can responsibly manage your credit.

Sony a6000 Mirrorless DSLR

Sony has decided to phase out the NEX line of mirrorless cameras and brand all future mirrorless cameras with the alpha badge. This resulted in the creation of the a5000 and a6000 cameras. They also released two full frame E mount cameras named the A7 and A7R. While I was tempted to make the leap to full frame, those are far beyond my price range. They also use a new FE (full frame E) mounting system which allows for the use of E mount lenses but results in nasty vignetting unless you set the camera to crop the images. While the NEX-5N is a nice camera it is aged now and I was beginning to see the limitations of shooting with it. I wanted a better frame with a larger sensor and faster burst mode which could accept my current lens collection sans adapter. I was considering the NEX-7 but after reading about the well-received a6000 I wondered why anyone would pay $1,000 for the 7 when the a6000 only costs $650. I concluded that the a6000 was superior not only in price but features as well. The a6000 boasts a hybrid autofocus system which uses both phase and contrast detection. Sony packed 179 focus points into the camera which results in ridiculously fast focusing. It contains a superior upgraded Bionz X image processor and can shoot 11 frames per second! This is amazingly fast compared to my NEX-5N which can only reach about 3 frames per second. Again, there are far superior full frame cameras out there but I’m not ready to make that leap.

Besides the 24.3MP APS-C sensor and autofocus system Sony has included some nice features that make this a great camera for the price. The menu layout was redesigned and is much more intuitive than the NEX predecessors. The camera comes with an electronic viewfinder which displays 1.44 million dots; more than adequate for this camera. It is equipped with WiFi and NFC which allows on the go transfer of images to your smartphone. Some have complained about the button layout but I have not had problems operating the camera with my large paws. It lacks a touchscreen which is silly but I don’t miss that at all. On the 5N I accidentally activated tracking focus more than intentionally when tilting the screen. A small flash is included and performs decently. There are also two custom buttons which streamline shooting.

Sadly, the a6000 lacks a microphone jack. I’m sure it would make one hell of a video platform but this will turn away most budget videographers. The only two cable connections are USB and micro HDMI. The USB connection can be used for charging which is excellent. You can also tether the camera and operate it through a computer. Tethering is also possible when connected to a smartphone via WiFi using the Sony PlayMemories application.

I have not tried the video yet but the image quality is amazing. I have paired the frame with the Zeiss 24 mm lens (SEL24F18Z) and am blown away by the detail in my shots. After shooting with some kittens that my friends were fostering I was able to clearly see my reflection in the eyes of the cats when cropping. The 11 fps rate is a real treat for me. I have never owned a camera that can shoot this quickly and am having a blast photographing moving objects such as animals and cars. It is wonderfully paired with the hybrid autofocus system. I find that I get more usable shots than not. There is one surprise about this camera. I found that Adobe Lightroom 4.4 will not recognize the raw files for importation. There is currently no update for Lightroom 4.4 which addresses this issue. I ended up purchasing an upgrade to Lightroom 5 so that I could edit the pictures taken with this camera.

I am more than happy with this frame and am astounded with the price point. In my opinion, all the negative marks given by others are just nitpicking. A higher resolution EVF, touchscreen and mic jack would be nice but for $650 can you really complain?

Sony SEL24F18Z Lens Unboxing

I have been yearning for a nice fixed wide angle lens for my NEX-5N DSLR platform for a while now. My kit had a large gap in functionality. I retain a 16mm pancake lens, 55-210mm telephoto and 50mm prime. I traded the kit 18-55mm for a nice Konica Hexanon AR 57mm f1.4 lens which provides a nice and slightly muted color to images. The functionality gap appears when trying to shoot while walking about on the street or casually photographing friends. While the pancake can do this it has a lot of distortion and takes in too much for many situations. The Konica and 50mm are great for portraiture but are frustrating to use unless your subject is posing for you. The problem is exacerbated by the Konica since it needs to be manually focused.

Enter the SEL24F18Z. The Z denotes that this lens is designed by Zeiss. Zeiss has a history of collaborating with Sony to make some very nice glass which provides the usual quality expected from both prestigious and experienced companies. This model in particular was introduced in 2011. It comes with a massive retail price tag of $1,100 but after some mild searching I found many sellers on eBay which had them for about $750 new in box. I was wary of these sellers at first but after reading the positive feedback they have received and assuming there is not much of a counterfeit market for E-mount Zeiss glass, I decided to bite. I am more than happy with the result. I bought the lens from a seller in Japan on a Wednesday. By that Friday it was dropped off for shipping in Tokyo. Delivery was attempted the following week on Wednesday and I picked it up from the local post office on Thursday. Tokyo to Maryland in 5 days including the weekend! Did I mention the shipping was free? Not having to pay taxes also factored into my decision to purchase on eBay. I am not interested in paying the state of Maryland $66 at a retail store or even on Amazon now that there is a warehouse in Baltimore city.

Initial impressions are positive. The lens is solid and the focusing ring is smooth and buttery. The bokeh presents itself in a similar fashion due to seven aperture blades and an f-stop of 1.8. It must be stopped down for sharpness but that is the nature of the beast. Despite the focal length the lens is physically long but I do not mind. The NEX series was designed to target those concerned with portability but professional photographers have adopted it for reasons beyond size. I would not have paid $1,100 for this lens but $785 definitely leaves no room for second guessing.

Some unboxing pictures are presented here. I will follow up with some sample shots after I have had time to play!

Maryland HQL and CHL Permits

Since firearms are an interest of mine I decided to obtain permits which allow me to exercise the second amendment in most states. As a resident of Maryland, these are the associated costs.

MD HQL and UT CHL class: $154.96

MD livescan: $54.50

Two fingerprint cards: $40.00

MSP HQL fee: $50.00

VA application fee: $100.00

UT application fee: $51.00

FL application fee: $112.00

Postage and money order
fees: $11.56

Grand total to exercise a Constitutional right: $574.02. This is 2.25% of my salary. Consider it a lifelong investment.

Bill Nye Debates Ken Ham

Is creation a viable model of origins in today’s modern scientific era? Yesterday Bill Nye and Ken Ham had a civil debate which addressed this question. If you have three hours to kill you can watch it here. While I am happy that creationists are actively contributing to the scientific community I have to answer no to this question.

After the debate some people had questions for Bill Nye. I decided to address these questions.

1. “Bill Nye, are you influencing the minds of children in a positive way?”

You must define positive in order to answer this question. If you simply don’t agree with his opinions then I suppose you would not consider his influence positive. You may not agree with him but recognize that the scientific method instills an ability to rationalize and analyze problems in a logical manner. Ken Ham makes the point that even as a creationist you can reap the rewards of critical thinking. While I do not disagree, I think for the general populace creationism tends to stymie critical thought.

2. “Are you scared of a Divine Creator?”

I don’t think Bill Nye is scared of the concept of a supreme being. He stated that if he were presented evidence that supports creationism he will be the first to accept it. Fear is a natural human instinct. If you claim you are free of fear due to the promise of an eternal afterlife you are dangerously removed from the natural world. This reminds me of the sentiments some nuke commanders held during the Cold War. They felt that if nuclear apocalypse were part of a higher purpose then it was okay if it occurred. I was stricken with fear when I read that.

3. “Is it completely illogical that the earth was created mature? i.e. trees created with rings… Adam created as an adult…”

Yes it is quite illogical.

4. “Does not the second law of thermodynamics disprove evolution?”

Quite the opposite, actually. According to this law, entropy of an isolated system never decreases. Entropy is a measure of disorder. An assembled car is less entropic than all of the individual parts spread across the planet.  When discussing thermodynamics it is crucial to define your system. If we define the Earth as the system and consider evolution it clearly obeys this second law. Genes are being selected for which confer an increased life span and greater reproductive ability. Both of these things ultimately lead to greater entropy. A longer life span enables organisms to exact more change on their environment. Now, this change can increase or decrease entropy but, taking into consideration all of the variables in the system, entropy will always stay the same or increase. More reproduction means more people and more changes to entropy (positive or zero). Even if you argue that overall entropy is decreasing due to the activities of living creatures on the Earth the sun will ultimately die, engulf the Earth and scatter all the atoms across the galaxy. A clear increase in disorder.

5. “How do you explain a sunset if their is no God?”

The same way I can explain grammatical errors. With reading and education. It’s cute that some people consider a sunset magical, and even I concede that nature is quite magical, but it is often easy to explain. The Earth is in orbit around the Sun due to gravity. The Earth also spins due to inertia. The sun setting is actually due to the section of Earth on which you reside rotating away from the sun. As one would expect, once it rotates all the way around the sun will rise!

6. “If the Big Bang Theory is true and taught as science along with evolution, why do the laws of thermodynamics debunk said theories?”

See number four. If you think those laws debunk the big bang theory then you cannot grasp them properly.

7. “What about Noetics?”

Well, what about it? The human mind is truly the least understood thing that humans have encountered so far but that does not mean it is above the laws on the universe. The universe is infinitely complex. Since we are made with the same building blocks it does not surprise me that we can be immensely complex as well.

8. “Where do you derive objective meaning of life?”

While people can try to be as objective as possible there is no way to be truly objective since we are the ones ultimately forming opinions. The genesis of the opinion is in our mind. Anything we use to analyze our environment was at some point connected to us. That includes the Bible. It has been rewritten by humans over the ages and is undoubtedly biased. Thankfully there are many methods to aid objectivity such as double blind experiments and peer review. Scientists are often not free from bias and it is important to recognize this when making claims.

9. “If God did not create everything, how did the first single-celled organism originate? By chance?”

Well, yeah. The universe is one big probability machine. If the trajectory of the giant body in the giant impact hypothesis were larger then we might not even be here. By the way, given the size of the universe it is probable that there are other planets orbiting stars which lay in the habitable zone. The Miller-Urey experiment demonstrated that an atmosphere containing only water, methane, ammonia and hydrogen was able to form complex organic compounds including amino acids when subjected to sparks. This environment mimicked the atmospheric conditions on early planet Earth.

10. “I believe in the Big Bang Theory… God said it and BANG it happened!”

He said it in English, did he? You can explain the universe as an invention of your God. I have no problem with that. In fact, I think the dialogue between Bill and Ken can strengthen the arguments of either camp and is important for the progression of the human race. There is an inherent danger in explaining away natural phenomenon with religion. Doing so tends to halt interest, exploration and progress of our world which ultimately hinders and threatens the existence of the human race. I know some people don’t care about such things since they believe in an afterlife. Personally, I believe this life is all we have.

11. “Why do evolutionists/secularists/humanists/non-God believing people reject the idea of their being a creator God but embrace the concept on intelligent design from aliens or other extra-terestrial sources?”

People are free to believe whatever they want. I suppose some consider that explanation more reasonable than the traditional concept of a creator God. Perhaps they have some evidence that validate their theory. In any event anyone who embraces such a concept without clear evidence while rejecting the idea of a creator God is a hypocrite.

12. “There is no in between… the only one found has been Lucy and there are only a few pieces of the hundreds necessary for an “official proof'”.”

3.2 million years provides a nice window for the elements to destroy bone. Also, the planet likely did not have a vast population of hominids back then.

13. “Does metamorphosis help support evolution?”

Yes.

14. “If Evolution is a Theory (like creationism or the Bible) why then is Evolution taught as fact.”

I would fault the teacher or institution for that. It absolutely is a theory and should be taught as such.

15. “Because science by definition is a “theory” – not testable, observable nor repeatable why do you object to creationism or intelligent design being taught in school?”

Science is not a theory. Science is a collection of knowledge accumulated through experimentation. It is the experimentation which tests theories, collects data through observation and should be repeatable in order to support a hypothesis.

16. “What mechanism has science discovered that evidences an increase of genetic information seen in any genetic mutation or evolutionary process?”

Evolution describes the flow and progress of genetic information. There is no stipulation that the amount of genetic information should be increasing. The genetic code is essentially capped for each species. What genes are expressed depends on the environment, the genes of question and the interaction of the genes with the environment.

17. “What purpose do you think you are here for if you do not believe in salvation?”

I believe we are here simply because the universe allows us to exist. Nothing more, nothing less. As far as purpose is concerned, you can view humanity as one big effort to increase entropy if you like.

18. “Why have we found only 1 “Lucy”, when we have found more than 1 of everything else?”

See number twelve. Also, how can we know how much of everything else exists? Do you know of all the species that ever existed on the Earth before this time?

19. “Can you believe in “the big bang” without “faith”?”

No you cannot. You do need faith to believe in anything. This faith does not have to be religious in nature. You do not need faith to believe facts. The big bang theory is not a fact though, it is a hypothesis. You do not need faith to believe a hypothesis regardless of whether or not it proves to be fact.

20. “How can you look at the world and not believe someone created/thought of it? It’s amazing!!!”

It just doesn’t make sense. While I do agree that the world is amazing I have never felt the need to explain it away with a creator. Why can’t nature be a creator? Why does there have to be some semblance of order? Some things are beyond our control. We are not the masters of the universe. We are not special in the eyes of nature. A black hole would gobble us up and think nothing of it. Is that scary? Of course it is but it makes perfect sense to me.

21. “Relating to the big bang theory…. Where did the exploding star come from?”

Excellent question! That infinitely concentrated mass cannot be considered a star. We don’t really know what to call it. We do not have the mathematics to fully understand it. It is truly mind-boggling.

22. “If we came from monkeys then why are there still monkeys?”

Evolution enables speciation. Speciation does not require that the ancestors of the newer species go extinct.

E30 Progress

The 1985 318i is in the midst of an overhaul. Our generous friend Ryan allowed us to tow the Bavarian beast to his house where the replacement engine awaits. We removed the A/C system, engine fan, water pump and power steering pump from the blown engine. We also removed the radiator, condenser, A/C hard lines and electric fan. After this we disconnected the drive shaft from the transmission and hoisted the engine. The cylinder head, intake manifold and exhaust manifold were already removed during our previous tinkering sessions. Subsequently, the wiring harness was already out of the way. The only remaining connection was a hard line from the brake fluid reservoir to the slave cylinder.

Our next immediate steps are to replace gaskets on the replacement engine and clean up the engine bay. We have a new water pump and thermostat. All the other required parts are in place on the other engine. With any luck we can have this car running this week!

Oil Leak Conquered!

I have been neglecting a rather persistent oil leak in the E36 for some time now and decided it was about time to rectify the dinosaur juice hemorrhage. I would lose up to 60% between changes in total. I was in the habit of monitoring the oil level and would top off in between changes but this is downright wasteful. At first I had plans to drop the subframe and remove the oil pan in order to replace the lower oil pan gasket as this was my primary suspect. However, after noticing a steady drip from the bottom of the oil pan and researching common E36 leak points, I decided to remove the oil filter housing for inspection.

As predicted by many, the gaskets had failed years ago. They were hardened, cracked and likely original. Once removed it was clear this was the source of the leak. There was oil caked on the block, steering rack, power steering lines and various hoses. With the aid of gravity and a low coefficient of friction the oil had been traveling down the side of the block and to the bottom of the oil pan. I spent some hours cleaning it as best I could but there were some areas I could not reach.

The oil filter housing has three gaskets. One which seals the housing to the block and two o-rings which seal two holes on the housing itself. I do not know what purpose these holes serve. They lead nowhere and are blocked by metal caps. I was told by the stealership that in order to obtain these o-rings I would need to order a whole new housing. No thank you. Pelican Parts had some but they appeared to be far too thick. I found some at Home Depot which fit the caps nicely.

To remove the housing only the alternator and air box need to be completely removed. The power steering pump which bolts to the housing needs to be unbolted but not fully removed. The housing has six bolts and only two attachments; the VANOS oil line and oil pressure sensor plug. With all this space I was able to clean up! Since replacing these seals I have not noticed any oil drops where I park and the level on the dip stick is constant.

That “M” you see on the block was completely obscured by old oil and dirt. I am running Pennzoil 10W30 natural oil with a Mann filter. 7 quart oil changes occur every 3,000 miles on the nose. I also use a magnetic drain plug. There is always some small amount of debris present but nothing dramatic.