Welcome Guys and Gals to this weeks write up on FJD Performance!

Today we’re covering our trip from California to Mississippi for the Mare’s new engine. We started our trip Tuesday morning with 282,815 miles on the clock, and finally got to work on the car Friday afternoon with 285,078 miles. The drive to Louisiana (where we did the swap) was a hard one. Being that the BMW is a daily, we don’t drive the Mare as much, so we don’t constantly check to see if the A/C works. Well. Wouldn’t you know…the A/C was all out of R134a. Excluding the fact that the A/C didn’t work, and the rubber shift boot was thrown out and letting heaps of hot air into the cabin the drive wasn’t that bad. Yes, we did that whole trip without A/C. And to make things even more exciting the A/C system that was fixed in LA got broken again somehow, so the whole trip back was without A/C too! Luckily though we got a new shift boot on, so the drive was a lot better.

Friday afternoon we took the Mare to the shop, and at 1430 the swap began. Around 1930 friday night we took an hour break to get some delicious food, and then around 2100 got back to work. The new engine was installed and all squared away by 2330, and at that time we called it a night and went back to the hotel.

Saturday we got to a late start around 1100 and got to getting some new parts at the local auto parts store. A couple hours later we started up the engine, and celebrated with the occasion. First try and the engine fired right up. We finished off the day around 1800 with the car nearly ready to come back down.

Sunday morning we got started around 830, and spent the majority of the time doing minor miscellaneous bits like rebuilding part of the Steeda STB so it would clear the JLT, wideband install and o2 sensor extensions (soldering involved), clearance the hood, painting, and adjusting the K member.

Monday we dropped off the car to get tuned by Wednesday night so we could leave first thing Thursday. Unfortunately Wednesday night we ran into a hiccup…

The Mare’s computer was essentially rejecting the tune which made getting the car tuned practically impossible. Fortunately enough Mike at RKG was able to get things tweaked in the computer so we could have a safe trip back to CA.

A couple thousand miles and 30 something hours later we finally got back home, and are now in the pursuit to get the car tuned and on the dyno to find out our number, so stay tuned for that!

Saturday morning

Sunday Morning

First start up with open X pipe

2nd start with full exhaust bolted on

A very, VERY special thanks to Will, again, for everything he did, and for being on board with this crazy plan of ours! We couldn’t have done it without you brother, thank you again for all your help, wisdom, and hospitality from one SN95 fanatic to another.