Chapter 51 The Birth of a Car Enthusiast
The engine is the heart of an automobile, where a manufacturer’s most essential technology is concentrated.
Unlike modern cars, which are becoming increasingly modular, engines in the past each had their own distinct character depending on the manufacturer and model.
Ferrari’s Colombo V12 engine.
(Translator’s Note: Colombo V12 Engine — A long-running Ferrari V12 engine family designed by Italian engineer Gioachino Colombo. It debuted in Ferrari’s first production car, the 125 S, in 1947 and remained in use in various forms until 1989. Notable applications included the Ferrari 250 GTO and 365 GTB/4 Daytona.)
Ford’s Cosworth DFV V8 engine.
(Translator’s Note: Cosworth DFV V8 Engine — A British racing engine developed by Cosworth with financial backing from Ford. It won on its Formula One debut in the Lotus 49 at the Dutch Grand Prix on June 4, 1967, and became one of Formula One’s most successful engines, competing extensively from 1967 through the early 1980s)
Alfa Romeo’s Busso V6 engine.
(Translator’s Note: Busso V6 Engine — An Alfa Romeo V6 named after Italian engineer Giuseppe Busso. The production engine debuted in the Alfa 6 in 1979 and became famous among enthusiasts for its polished intake runners, performance, and distinctive exhaust note.)
Anyone who makes a living working with cars inevitably has a dream engine they hope to work on at least once in their life.
Just as every driver has a dream car.
Personally, the V10 S85 engine installed in the M5 had also been on my list.
(Translator’s Note: BMW S85 V10 Engine — A naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V10 used in the E60-generation BMW M5 and related models during the 2000s. It is known for its individual throttle bodies, high-revving performance, complex VANOS variable-valve system, and demanding maintenance requirements.)
Of course, I had not expected it to demand this level of delicate work…
Now I understand why so many mechanics want to experience working on one at least once, but those who have already done it never want to do it again.
Clearance hell.
Brutal precision requirements.
It was an exceptionally demanding engine that could not be handled by following the manual alone. It required enormous experience and sensitivity in the fingertips.
If working on Ferrari’s twelve-cylinder engine was like climbing Everest, then working on this naturally aspirated ten-cylinder BMW engine was at least comparable to climbing Mont Blanc.
“Noah, watch closely. This is the trickiest and most interesting part of this engine.”
“Oh, yes!”
It had already been five days since we began disassembling and reassembling the engine.
He should have been getting tired by now, but Noah’s eyes still lit up whenever I explained a new part, and he displayed astonishing concentration.
The work we were doing now was replacing the throttle actuators and adjusting the throttle-valve clearances.
“See those round metal plates that open and close like butterfly wings? Those are the throttle valves. Put simply, they’re the engine’s airways. When you press the accelerator pedal, they open, air enters, mixes with fuel, and combustion occurs.”
“Yes, my car has one too! But I’m sure my car only had one throttle valve…”
As expected, Noah had an excellent eye and memory when it came to automotive repair.
“That’s right. Most engines only have one. One large airway. But this engine has a separate throttle for every cylinder.”
“Then since this is a ten-cylinder engine, it has ten of them?”
“Exactly. These are called Individual Throttle Bodies, or ITBs.”
(Translator’s Note: Individual Throttle Bodies (ITBs) — An intake arrangement in which each cylinder receives a separate throttle body instead of sharing one central throttle. ITBs can provide faster throttle response and a distinctive intake sound, but they increase cost and synchronization difficulty.)
“Oh!”
Noah took out his notebook and scribbled down what I had said.
“Because each individual throttle can draw air through its own opening, accelerator response is much quicker. From an emotional standpoint, the intake sound is also excellent. The downside is that they are expensive and much more difficult to tune.”
Individual throttle bodies on a naturally aspirated engine without forced induction.
That was one of the main reasons BMW had been so beloved by enthusiasts during the golden age of internal-combustion engines.
I first replaced the throttle actuators that controlled the opening and closing of the valves.
Since they were exposed to a great deal of heat, the plastic gears inside were prone to frequent wear and damage.
This part was easy enough…
The truly difficult part was making all ten independent throttles move as though they were a single throttle.
In other words, synchronizing the throttles.
Throttle synchronization was normally performed through ECU relearning, but the problem was that someone had already tampered with the throttles once before.
That meant I had to physically restore the original factory settings.
I picked up a fan-shaped bundle of extremely thin metal strips.
“This is a feeler gauge. It’s used to measure clearances. The one we’ll be using today is this one here—0.05 millimeters. About as thin as one of your hairs.”
“Wow. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
I slid the feeler gauge into the gap of a valve that appeared to be completely closed.
Then I slowly pulled it back out.
This was a method called dragging. The firm resistance felt while pulling the gauge out told you whether the clearance was correct.
“Okay, number one passes. Nine left.”
I inserted the feeler gauge into the second valve gap and dragged it out again.
This time, however, the strip slipped out without any resistance.
“Yeah, this clearance is too wide.”
I turned the adjustment screw beside the throttle by the tiniest amount, in increments of one-eighth of a turn, so little that the movement was barely visible.
“An engine is an orchestra. If even one instrument plays the wrong note, it ruins the entire piece. But when every instrument plays the correct note at exactly the right beat?”
After finishing the clearance adjustments on all ten throttles, I manually turned the throttle-actuator linkage and opened and closed the valves at the same time.
Click.
All ten valves closed simultaneously without the slightest deviation, producing a single sound.
If the clearances had been uneven, they would have produced a messy, discordant clack-clack-clack!
“Whoa! I just got goosebumps.”
Noah rubbed both hands over his arms in amazement.
“Yeah, that came out well. Of course, after this we’ll still need to start the engine and make additional adjustments with a vacuum gauge, but this is enough for the mechanical assembly stage.”
“Whew. It feels like I just watched an incredibly long marathon.”
Noah, who had been crouching beside the engine stand with only his head poking up like a prairie dog, let out a long sigh.
That was understandable. For this S85 engine to function properly, the rod-bearing clearances, VANOS replacement, and calibration of all ten individual throttles had to be completed perfectly, without the slightest error.
Even merely watching that tedious process from beginning to end would have given Noah valuable experience that was not easy to acquire.
“Then once we put the engine back in, can we start it?”
Noah quickly regained his energy and asked in an excited voice.
“Yeah. After we reconnect all the lines, fill it with oil, coolant, and fuel, and complete the ECU adaptation.”
“Wow… There’s still a lot left to do.”
“That’s why opening up an engine is never easy. But the feeling you get when an engine you assembled with your own hands runs for the first time is just as powerful.”
“I can imagine. I only watched from the side, but even I want to hear this engine run as soon as possible.”
I felt the same way.
I was intensely curious what kind of sound this intricate ten-cylinder S85 engine would make when it finally began to turn.
But before that could happen, we still appeared to have at least another day of minor work ahead of us.
And before then, there was something I had to give Noah.
“Anyway, it’ll take a little longer before we can start it. Before that…”
I handed him an envelope containing crisp one-hundred-dollar bills that I had prepared in advance.
“Here. Your wages.”
“Oh? Whoa!”
Noah’s eyes widened when he saw the envelope.
Today marked exactly four weeks since he had begun working.
He must have been so busy juggling schoolwork that he had not even realized it had already been four weeks.
“…Huh? Isn’t this too much? It’s not like I come in every day…”
Noah accepted the envelope with faintly trembling hands and looked up at me with a strange expression.
It seemed he had noticed that the envelope was unusually thick.
He really does have sensitive fingers.
His wages this time came to seventeen hundred dollars.
The restoration fee Alejandro had paid me had been generous, so it was not much of a burden.
“I just paid you according to your hourly rate. You’ve been more helpful than I expected because you work well, so don’t refuse it. Just take it.”
I meant every word.
Though I had admittedly given him a somewhat generous hourly rate for a beginner.
“In that case… All right! Thank you! But how much is this, really?”
Noah fidgeted awkwardly for a moment, then began counting the money right there.
“You’re… going to count it here?”
I did not understand why he had acted so awkwardly a moment earlier if he was going to do that.
“One, two, three, four… Oh my God… Seventeen hundred dollars? I’ve never earned this much money before!”
He ignored me, counted the bills, then began jumping up and down where he stood.
His excitement was so overwhelming that I could feel it clearly myself.
“You know not to waste it just because you suddenly have a lot of money, right? I’m not saying you shouldn’t spend any of it. You can buy a few things you’ve wanted.”
“No. I already know what I’m going to use all of it for. I told you before. When I made some money, I was going to replace Mom’s car.”
Noah’s eyes shone with joy as he spoke.
I paused for a moment when I saw him.
He had said that before, but I had not expected him to invest all the money he had earned through hard work into replacing his mother’s car.
That was not an easy decision for someone his age.
“Ahem… But you can’t buy a car with seventeen hundred dollars. Even something like the Tucson we talked about before would cost at least ten thousand dollars used.”
“Yes! I know! But I looked into it, and you can buy used cars through financing too! So please keep letting me work until I finish paying it off…”
I could vividly feel how badly he wanted to replace Rachel’s old Civic as soon as possible.
I gave a small laugh, picked up the key to the employee Ford truck hanging on the wall, and lightly tossed it to him.
“Heh. That depends on how well you work. Anyway, once we finish working on this car and the auction is over, I’ll go with you to look at vehicles at a used-car dealership.”
“Huh? Really? Yes! Then good work today! See you tomorrow!”
“Yeah. Drive carefully.”
Noah carefully placed the envelope containing his wages into his backpack, checked several times to make sure the zipper was securely closed, then hurried toward the Ford truck.
Judging by the way he skipped a few times on the way, he truly seemed beside himself with happiness.
“Woof! Woof!”
Seeing him, Dusty began barking excitedly into the air without understanding what was happening.
I could not stop the corners of my own mouth from rising either.
“All right. We’re starting the priming process now.”
I spoke while pressing the M5’s clutch pedal all the way down.
After working from last night through the entire morning, we had finally finished installing the engine.
With the fuel-pump fuse removed, I pressed the start button.
The engine began turning dryly with a grinding whir.
Without ignition, the pump alone circulated the oil, creating an oil film between all the newly installed bearings.
A moment later, I reinserted the fuse and nodded toward Noah.
“Starting it now.”
Gulp.
Noah’s Adam’s apple moved visibly up and down.
I pressed the brake and clutch pedals simultaneously, then pushed the start button again.
Whirrrrr—roar!
After a brief crank, a booming thunderclap battered the walls of the shop.
It was a magnificent and strange harmony unlike anything I had ever heard before.
A distinctive sound unique to a ten-cylinder engine, existing somewhere between the rough pulse of a V8 and the smooth scream of a V12.
The engine seemed to gasp for breath for a moment, then gradually found its own rhythm with a low growl.
“Wow… It actually started…”
Noah stared into the engine bay with a flushed face.
Then again, even I found it remarkable that what had been nothing more than a collection of metal parts for days had now been assembled into one machine and was functioning properly.
The vibration transmitted through the steering wheel gave me an indescribable sense of accomplishment.
It felt as though I had overcome a wall called the S85.
“Noah, want to take it out for a quick lap while we break it in?”
“Oh, yes! Absolutely! Let’s go right now!”
I attached the shop’s repair plate to the car.
Restoration shops could obtain plates that allowed them to conduct test drives.
This made it possible to legally operate vehicles temporarily on public roads without registering separate insurance for each individual car every time.
The M5 rolled heavily out of the shop.
Until we reached the main highway, where the pavement was good, I drove leisurely while keeping the engine speed relatively low.
Once the oil and coolant temperatures had risen properly and I could feel that the engine was in excellent condition, I pressed the clutch pedal deeply and shifted down from fourth gear to third.
“Now let’s really drive.”
The instant the clutch engaged sharply, I applied a little pressure with my right foot, and the RPM needle snapped upward like a whip.
At the same moment, the engine note transformed instantly from the purr of a cat lying in front of a stove to the growl of a cougar.
The rear wheels, carrying 507 horsepower, pressed into the road and hurled the body forward as though launching it.
“Whoa! This feels just like a roller coaster! My whole body is sinking into the seat!”
Noah shouted while gripping the overhead handle tightly.
The scenery that had been passing slowly on either side stretched into long lines.
As the speed climbed, I flicked the transmission back into fourth gear.
The well-tuned engine continued building speed without the slightest hesitation.
A high-speed corner appeared ahead, but the perfectly tuned chassis swept the body cleanly through it as though mocking the lateral acceleration.
The instant the corner ended, I shifted back down into third.
Bang!
With a heavy shift shock, the rev-matched RPM gauge surged close to seven thousand.
At the same time, both Noah’s head and mine were thrown backward.
Whoooosh—
The intake sound of all ten individual throttles drawing in air resonated through the cabin like a whistle.
“Woooooaaaaah!”
Beside me, Noah was shouting so loudly that it was impossible to tell whether he was screaming or cheering.
Adrenaline coursed through my veins, and it felt as though the fatigue accumulated over the past several weeks vanished in one electrifying burst.
After the short drive, we stopped at a combined gas station and rest area.
I bought two cold canned drinks from a vending machine, handed one to Noah, and asked,
“How was it?”
Noah held the can without even thinking of drinking from it and merely stared blankly toward the road we had just driven.
“Jason, I didn’t know a world like this existed. It felt like flying through the sky.”
The afterimage of the road rushing toward him seemed to remain in his eyes, while the phantom roar of the engine still echoed in his ears.
“Heh. Looks like we’ve gained another car enthusiast.”
I lightly tapped his shoulder and opened my cold can.
Tink. Tink.
From the M5’s exhaust pipes beside us came the intermittent sounds of heated metal contracting as it cooled.
It was a car enthusiast’s favorite sound.
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[Restoration Complete]
Vehicle: 2010 BMW M5
Restoration Skill Enhanced
$Human Torque Wrench$
(Using only the sensation in your hands, you can accurately tighten all bolts and nuts to the manufacturer-specified torque in Nm or ft-lb. Margin of error: less than 1%.)
Coins Acquired: 7,200
Total Coins Owned: 30,055
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[E60 M5 V10 Engine]