Another project e30: 1990 330iS

[Beej]

are there any specialists who would really be able to diagnose this for you, or is it one of these things where you'll just have to take it all apart to eventually find what it is?

I dunno. I'm pretty close to being in over my head with this thing. Just about the only thing that bolts onto the longblock that I haven't replaced or swapped with a buddy is the VANOS...but mine doesn't make that much noise, and these aren't really symptoms of one that's gone bad.

Last things I'm going to try are to go over all the grounds (for example, that one strap at the bottom is a start), and then I'm going to try and find a local guy who actually did his own swap and go over the harness wire for wire. After that...I'll throw in the towel and bring it to either Martin Motorsports in Alexandria (owner has an S52 e30 M3) or RRT in Dulles.

If it isn't something electrical or a crap swap (and I can't rule that out yet...even though a 'reputable' shop finished it, my amateur ass found two wires that weren't hooked up), then I pretty much have only the worst to fear.

Oh yeah, and I'm also down on power. Mikey beat me in a race (well, we were driving each others cars)...but the S2000 pulled, and that shouldn't really happen. It had better gearing at the speed we started at, but not one carlength worth I wouldn't think.