Worked another 10 hours or so on the car this weekend. More fiddling until the motor is ready to go back in, which is should be very soon.

So our free carb and manifold came from a mid-aged 2002 it seems. The gasket for our carburetor is pretty much dead on for the primary/secondary barrels, but as you can see from this photo, the manifold is clearly not.

Went online and found on Kupper's website (bmw2002faq.com) that "hogging" these ports can help ensure good airflow from the carb into the manifold. 

Die grinder and carbide tip and I went to work. 

My compressor only allowed about 1 minute of good die grinder speed at a time, so it took a LOOONG time to get to this point. My procedure was grind until compressor kicks on, work on something else until compressor stops, grind until compressor kicks on, etc. 

I've grenaded not one but TWO BMW M10's that didn't belong to me. The cause of both bearing failures? Oil starvation. A simple baffle is cheap insurance to this occurring again. Ireland Engineering hooked us up with a CHEEAAAP baffle, which Glen welded in to our oil pan. 

Test fitted it on our short block this evening, fits no problem. 

  This is a test fit of the fuel cell. As Clint thought, it fits fine in the spare tire well, although I'd prefer to have it mounted further forward in the trunk, although this makes it rather high up.

  Glen cut up a bracket for our kill switch from some scrap metal that we had pulled from the car, and I re-welded it a bit higher this afternoon.

  With the altitude increase the switch pops out from the hood enough to satisfy the techies I hope.

  I also test fitted the newly silver-painted grill and headline surrounds. I'm really digging the more classic feel it gives the car. Next year this car will be 30 years old--does anyone else think its weird that 30-year old cars are now as full as plastic and crap as brand new cars??

  Hood pins are also installed. Going to wait on the chrome scuff plates until after the car is painted.