Betty the Black E21 BMW 320i

[Senor_Taylor]

The manifold heat shield bolt holes had rusted out, so I welded some washers on and painted it.

Also finally bit the bullet and installed a cheap head unit. Huge upgrade. The stock one wasn't outputting a good signal to the left side of the car and was barely driving any of the speakers at all.

The wiring in this car is super old school. Only a left channel and a right channel out of the head unit and it's all a shared ground.

Also swapped injectors and the car is running even worse. Hopefully new injector seals will solve any issues. If not, I'll buy some new injectors. If that doesn't help, I may run the car by EAD Motors and see if they have any tools to help me determine what my issue is.


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[Senor_Taylor]

I swapped ignition coil, ignition module, and all of the injectors around and only made the issue worse. I think of the 8 injectors I have, at least 6 are leaking. Time for rebuilds!

My roughly prioritized list for what I want to fiddle with next?


Get AC working
Battery relocate with rear shock tower brace
H&R lowering springs
New shocks
Get the engine running 100% (warm up regulator, frequency regulator, new injectors, tune fuel mix, get ignition timed)
Valve adjustment
Oil pan gasket
Control arms
Engine mounts
Revert to stock transmission mount (too buzzy)
Shifter rebuild? (Feels fine)
Replace all fuel lines
New hard lines for fuel accumulator
Rebuild fuel accumulator
Repaint wheels
PDR
Get sunroof 100% fixed so I never have to worry about it again (may not be possible?)
New headliner
New carpet
New Dash
New Blower Motor bearings
New windshield
Deep cleaning/detail of underside and engine bay
Euro Bumpers ($$$$$)
Source tan recaros (Steal from Dave's 02)
Source LSD
Source rear sway bar

[Senor_Taylor]

[Senor_Taylor]

[Senor_Taylor]

Still chasing this hot start issue and popping from the exhaust. I ordered new injectors and a tool to adjust the fuel trim. Without the lambda sensor plugged in, my O2 readings bounce between .3 and .7 a volt with .45 being stochiometric, so I believe this is correct as the frequency valve should be operating at the default duty cycle. Even with this, I still get a pretty rhythmic "pop" out the exhaust like it's running too rich or lean at idle and I get a "pop pop pop" when decelerating in gear. This could either mean too lean or too rich. I can not find any vacuum leaks and I've replaced a lot of hoses.

I'm getting a cold start injector cleaned right now, so that's my next course of action. After that, I may replace fuel lines to see if they are sucking air. Beyond that, maybe I'll try to replace the fuel accumulator (not sure how yet since this part is NLA) and replace the fuel filter again since I replaced it when I got it running again, but I assume i've shaken up a good bit of 30 years of dirt and rust from the tank at this point.

I've got spares of the WUR and some other fuel system parts that I may swap around, but I want to be sure I'm methodical with this. The car runs and drives fine after all, I can just tell something is wrong from the sound of the exhaust and the hot start issues. Other than that, it's fine, and I'm not sure those two are related.

[Senor_Taylor]

Wow, it's been a while!

New cap, rotor, and all new fuel lines. Then a valve adjustment and a reset/adjustment of the fuel/mix screw and the car runs better than ever. Starts right up.

It's for sale btw and I want to cry.

[Senor_Taylor]

Well, I got busy again. Had one serious buyer come look while I was out of town and drive it around. They got scared off by an electrical gremlin that only appeared to them and has not appeared to me since. I've put some more miles on this thing and loved every second. Thinking I'll do what I can to keep it.

It's at EDA Motorworks to get a lookover and I asked them to pull a vacuum on the AC system to see if it holds. If so, dump some R134 in there with the updated fittings and let's see what happens. I have honestly not heard of a single E21 having an issue forgoing dryer replacement or seals and everyone has had success just drawing the system down and dumping R134 in. My expectations are still low, but it can't hurt to try.

After that, I've asked Max to take a look over the car and let me know what little things he can tackle. See if he can patch up the exhaust and get me a quote on fixing the sunroof for good and reupholstering the headliner.

[Senor_Taylor]

AC work didn't end it getting done yet. I ordered a new dryer, a conversion kit, and some seals that I'll be installing before I take it back to Max.

Took the car down to Harrisonburg for the first Madison Motorsports deck meet. The students loved it and a few of them took the car for a joy ride and snagged some photos.

On the 2 hour drive back, I lost a license plate bulb cover, which I think I have a spare of somewhere in my box of mysteries. Didn't have time to replace it before taking the car on another cruise, but this time it was 8 hours of driving over 2 days to do a tour of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The car performed flawlessly except some belt squeal.

Priorities:
License plate bulbs and cover
Replace license plate fasteners with less rusty screws
Gauge cluster bulbs
AC equipment/convert to R134
Install the sunroof sliders I ordered off eBay
Oil pan gasket and engine mounts
Repaint the wheels
Get a quote on redoing the headliner and driver side head rest
Order new carpet
Front suspension refresh
Rear sway bar
PDR

[Senor_Taylor]

Sunroof slider install went horribly and I ended up making the sunroof much worse than before and it's no longer functional. I probably need to order all new everything (cables and rails) and dump this car at some shop to do the work. I'm tired of messing around with the sunroof and never getting it 100% correct.

Also finally replaced the alternator bushings with delrin pieces from AKG Motorsport. No more belt squeal.

[Senor_Taylor]

Sold!