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- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1 beer (Labatt Blue was the stoutest thing we had on hand)
- 8oz. tomato paste
- Chili powder
- Transmission Mounts
- 16mm wrench/socket
- 13mm wrench/socket
- ramps or floor jack and jackstands
- Lock-Tite
- X-brace install - A quick overview of installing an X-brace on an E36.
- Transmission mount install - A tutorial for swapping transmission mounts on an E36
- X Brace
- 4x BMW M8 bolts
- 13mm wrench/socket
- 16mm wrench/socket
- ramps or a floor jack and jackstands
- Lock-Tite
Recipe for Good Chile
Brown beef, drain fat. Add beer and tomato paste, put in some chili powder, a couple of tablespoons perhaps. Stir it up, let simmer for a few minutes. Taste and add more chili powder until desired heat reached. Let simmer for 2-4 hours; the flavors will meld and intensify.
iTunes -> MP3dir
Bery Rinaldo made a script to export iTunes playlists as M3Us, which is great and the first thing you need in order to make use of my script. So, grab that off of his web page and install it into /Users/<username>/Library/iTunes/Scripts (create that directory if you don’t already have it).
I wrote this script because I wanted to be able to make a playlist and give give a friend the associated files for said playlist. To start, use Bery’s script from above and export a playlist. Then grab my script and run it, passing the name of the M3U file that you just created. My script will create a directory in the same place as the M3U that you passed to it, fill that with the MP3s from said playlist, and create a new M3U for the directory.
Gallery back up
With the help of prayer and fasting, my gallery is back up at gallery.dinomite.net. I really…don’t understand how it’s working; it required me including an alias in my Apache config that is used in the normal gallery configuration to make http://yoursite.com/gallery point to your gallery. For my site, I have a seperate hostname, gallery.dinomite.net, for the gallery and as such, I want the root of it to be the gallery. I don’t really follow what’s going on, but the voodoo was successful.
Hell Bank Notes
So, apparently in Chinese culture, people send gifts to their departed love ones to ensure that their spirits live on in comfort. One of the things that are usually sent are Hell Bank Notes, money for them to spend in the afterworld. In other cultures, such notes are used to bribe the King of Hell, also known as the Jade Emperor or Grandpa Heaven, for the earlier release of the held spirit. My favorite part of this Wikipedia article is the discussion of Hell Bank Note values:
Regardless of the presentation, Hell Bank Notes are well known for their outrageously large denominations, ranging from $10,000, $100,000, $1,000,000 or even $500,000,000; the Chinese afterlife is apparently subject to hyperinflation.
M3 Tranny Mounts
One of the well known problems with E36s is that the weak transmission mounts allow the transmission to shift slightly under load. When this happens, it becomes very easy to miss-shift and accidentally go into a lower gear then one intended. Doing so can cause a mechanical over-rev, destroying the engine. To rectify this problem, I bought UUC’s Tranny Mount Enforcers.
Parts required
Tools required
The transmission mount install is easy. Get the car up on ramps or jackstands such that you can fit under it from the side (I did all the work from the driver’s side) of the car. Once under the car, look at the tail shaft of the transmission and the bridge that goes across the transmission tunnel, supporting it. Support the tail of the transmission with your jack and then remove the bridge by undoing the four bolts that hold it onto the car as well as the two bolts that hold the mounts to the transmission. Now just replace the stock mounts that are on the bridge with your new ones and re-assemble the car.
Cars
Aside from computers, working on and driving cars is my favorite pastime. I have a 1997 BMW M3 which I do all of the maintenance work for and drive in BMW CCA track events, my preferred summer activity.
X-Brace install
Installing an X brace is easy, cheap as far as mods go and provides noticeable benefit to your E36’s handling. I got my X Brace from Circle BMW in New Jersey. You can mail order from them, as I did, or get it from your local dealer. Circle BMW and Pacific BMW are usually the cheapest prices around.
This is not the only how-to on the web, as you have may have already found. Check out Understeer’s picture-filled how-to for cars that don’t have nutserts (1995 and early 1996).
Parts required
Tools required
I wish I had pictures of the X brace install, but it’s so easy it should be understandable through writing. I installed it on two cars in less than an hour using nothing than the tools listed above. Note that you don’t even need jack stands to do this. With the car on ramps, slide under until you are looking at the bellhousing (where the transmission meets the engine). There will be a bar going laterally across the car in that area which will be replaced by the X brace. The bolts holding this bar in place are just like many others on an e36, 16mm. Take out the two bolts, remove the bar and put the X brace in it’s place, which should come with your new X brace. It’s a good idea to use Lock-Tite on all of these bolts.
You’re done! I took the long route to 7 Eleven and got a 52oz. Slurpee. You might test differently. However you choose to celebrate, remember to brake late, accelerate hard and test the horn.
Forever Young
Forever Young by Alphaville is a standard House anthem but the original version of the song, which I only heard recently, is downright terrible.
New Rules for 2006 Formula 1 Season
The new rules for the 2006 Formula 1 season were released earlier this month and they make some pretty big changes, mostly in the name of reducing the cost to participating teams. In addition to the new 2.4-liter V8 engines, which are rev-limited to 19,000 rpm, the FIA has said that they will review bodywork to reduce downforce whilst maintain drag levels. In this same vein of increacing reliance on mechanical grip, tire sizes have been increased and slick tires are back. One of the big questions from last year was whtether F1 would continue to have two tire manufacturers and it looks like all of the cars will be on Bridgestones next year. Cars will continue to have only a single set of tires for the race and in addition to three-weekend engines, transmissions will have to last four events.
Of the more obvious cost-cutting measures was the reduction of the minimum weight from 590 to 550 kilograms (1300 to 1212 pounds). The reason for this is that all of the cars in the series have been well under the former limit and to reach the minimum used expensive tungsten, chosen for it’s very high density. As always, the astonishing thing about these number is that a standard small passenger car is just shy of 3000 pounds and yet produces less than one quarter of the horsepower of a Formula 1 car.
Fry
Just about done configuring wordpress. Here’s a picture of Fry:
