IT'S ALIVE!!!! - 07/30/2022

It's been 3 months since I was making regular progress. Work has continued on, but slower due to more pressing projects. Off the top of my head, here are a few things I was able to wrap up:

• Purchased and installed new Interstate AGM battery
  
• Jumped my fuel pump relay to pump out all my 2+ year old gas
• Installed new fuel filter / regulator + new hoses
  
• Reinstalled interior
  
• Made some gap adjustments to my rear m5tech bumper
  
• Finished exhaust with a new tuner motorsports muffler delete
  
• Removed spark plugs and puffed some fogging oil in each cylinder
• Charged my remote keys + relinked them to the car
• Finished adding the rest of my fluids including motor oil
• Put 5 gallons of new 93 octane premium gasoline back in the tank
  

At this point I checked everything over and decided it was time to see how well I did.

To start I primed my oil pressure by running the engine with the spark plugs removed via the starter. Shop towels are there in case the fogging oil tried to make a mess haha. I did this multiple times until the oil pressure light on the dash went off. For these vids I had a small audience :P

Next I reinstalled my spark plugs + coils and primed my fuel pressure by jumping my fuel pump until its tone changed and I could tell it was working against resistance.
After that it was time for the real deal:

Extremely excited that it started up the first time without any major issues. The icing on the cake was the fact that the car started with zero error codes / lights, but I would be lying if I wasn't a little disappointed with how noisy the startup was. Specifically, I got vanos rattle + a ton of lifter noise / tapping. However after running the car, fixing 1 heater hose mess / clamp I missed, then running the car at 3k rpm for 2 minutes to bleed the lifters I was overjoyed to hear it all just wisp away. By my second crank things had improved dramatically:

You can still hear a little vanos / diesel sound in the clip above, but I'm happy to say that after more run-time, it's essentially gone now. Additionally, I get zero vanos rattle or lifter noise when cranking. It just keeps getting better and better!

To celebrate I pulled this filthy beast outside and verified that the clutch, brakes, power steering, and AC were working perfectly.