An automotive YouTuber recently got the shot end of the stick mid-shooting content on his BMW E30 project car. While trying to ignite the engine of his old bimmer, things went awry, and the engine bay went up in flames for a quick fifteen seconds. All this was captured on camera.
A little Recap: I started watching Keep Left YouTube channel a couple of months ago after a referral from my colleague Waweru. The host is full of wit, which makes his episodes quite entertaining. Unlike most YouTubers in our great land, he knows some car stuff and occasionally gets handsy on the engine bay.
However, what made me subscribe to the channel was his BMW E30 project build. He was swapping its M20b20 engine (not the original) for a Beams engine out of a Toyota Mark II—a donor accident car he’d acquired. This, to me, was a massive project, and I had to keep tabs on it.
On this specific episode, he’d just yanked the Beams engine out of a Toyota Mark II donor car and was preparing to transplant it into his BMW E30 project car. Since the project car still had its original engine, he wanted to run it a bit for his audience—perhaps to calm BMW purists who had their blood boiling over a Toyota swap.
Old cars and old cars, and this specific BMW E30 couldn’t start on the first try – it needed a nudge. After checking for sparking issues, they realized the engine might have been fuel-deficient – prompting him and his mechanic to do things manually.
After getting some gas into the fuel rail and spewing it all over, the guy behind the ignition wasn’t patient enough to let the mechanic finish clamping up the fuel line. As you’ve already guessed, it was a recipe for disaster. Everything went up in flames in a matter of seconds. The only option left was to pour water over the engine bay to calm the flames, which for a minute was counterintuitive. All this was captured on camera!
If you ask me, the E30 Project car wasn’t too happy about its heart transplant and had to cause a scene.
Forgive us if this post feels like we are poking fun at the automotive YouTuber – what we are doing is channeling attention to his awe-inspiring build. And if you know anything about entertainment, it gets a little boring when everything goes right. You can’t be the star who beats up all the bad guys all the time – it’s a recipe for a short career.
We’ll let you watch what happens next in the video below. To stay updated, subscribe to the Keep Left YouTube channel. Enjoy!
