Project: neglected E36

[getfast]

Good news: new plugs and related oil cleanup fixed the intermittent misfire.

Bad news: it came right back 12 miles later.

So tomorrow I'm gonna replace that valve cover gasket set, because oil leaking down into the plug tubes isn't good for anything, whether it's got something to do with the misfire or not. And now I'm pretty sure the miss is coilpacks.

Did the valve cover gasket today just on the off chance that the oil leak was causing the miss. Top end is in great shape, no sludge whatsoever, lots of shiny metal and the gold color of a happy engine. If you look closely you can see the pools of oil in the #1 and #2 tubes:



So that helped. No more oil leak up top, at least not 15 miles later. Misfire came back of course, but it's still so intermittent and not causing a CEL... new used (but known good) coilpacks are going in soon to hopefully fix this problem forever. BTW, whoever installed the last valve cover gasket on this car needs to be punched. Nothing torqued to spec, various rubber grommets cracked or in the wrong place, etc. No wonder it was leaking everywhere...

Otherwise, making a plan for this car. Gonna deal with the throwout bearing (possibly the input shaft bearing) noise in the next few weeks. It wouldn't surprise me if a new clutch kit, rear main seal, slave cylinder, guibo, etc were all installed "while we're in there." Chassis stuff is next. Lining up some used, but known good, suspension parts. Maybe two tires also. Otherwise, clicking right along, 300+ miles so far, doing this as cheap as possible and enjoying it. More updates soon...