The "I finally bought an E30" Build Thread!
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Aren't almost all of the harness connectors 1:1 ?
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This help ish?
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The 4 to be cautious of:
The positives that go to the block on the firewall and not mixing any of those up with the ground wire on the strut tower,
The idle control valve and TPS are often mixed up. Check that you can hear/feel the idle control valve humming with the ignition on to know if that is correct.
The crank sensor and cylinder id sensor (inductive pickup from spark plug wire) are often mixed up too. If you didnt mark those then its really trial and error. Id the engine cranks and doesnt start, switch those around
The coolant temperature sensor connectors are pretty simple, just look at the number if actual pins inside the connector. The single pinned plug goes to the brown sensor for the gauge cluster sensor and the connector with two pins goes to the blue sensor for the ecu
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I appreciate the help gentlemen.
@KaiserRolls We just hastily unplugged everything when we were originally pulling it, so we only marked a few things. In hindsight, this was not a good idea. That's the way of the road though.
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Thanks for chiming in guys. Ripping a motor out of a car that we're both very unfamiliar and not marking things with wasn't the smartest idea.
Anyone with a running/driving M20 (I know I'm asking a lot here) want to drive to Appleton? We can literally go back and forth and plug things in as we see them.
Willing to pay for gas, beer, food, etc. Would be much appreciated!
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Anyone with a running/driving M20 (I know I'm asking a lot here) want to drive to Appleton?
2011 E92 M3 6MT ZCP - ESS 625 supercharged
2007 Z4MR
2003 E39 M5
2002 E46 M3
2021 X5 40i -
All 3 of us running/driving M20 guys are pretty busy
Fixing said M20's?
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Might be making another run up to Appleton to pick up some more parts from 6670charger again next week. When I finish the timing belt and a few other odds and ends on the vert (I'll hopefully have that stuff done this weekend, so I could make the trip next week sometime) I could drive that up there and stop by if you can wait till then
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Might be making another run up to Appleton to pick up some more parts from 6670charger again next week. When I finish the timing belt and a few other odds and ends on the vert (I'll hopefully have that stuff done this weekend, so I could make the trip next week sometime) I could drive that up there and stop by if you can wait till then
If we're still not done by the time you come up, let me know!
I messaged Collin and he said he could probably come up sometime next week. Ideally, I'll like to try starting it this weekend.
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Coil overs for the car were purchased. They are JOM's with very few miles driven on them and we got a great deal on them. Rear strut mounts are shot so new ones have been ordered, will be installing once new hardware arrives.
Ben and I got the wiring harness all hooked up tonight. Started cranking, but no start. It is definitely getting fuel, but unsure of anything else at this point. Will definitely need to check to make sure it is getting spark, make sure all the fuel rail connections are secure, plug connections are secure, firing order is correct, etc. Will have to retrace our footsteps to see if we maybe made any stupid mistakes, potentially something not correctly hooked up by the ECU? Ben pulled the harness connection from the ECU to make it easier in the bay for a couple things, so the two remaining wires might not be properly connected? Both of the ground wires are connected, all of the sensors should be mated correctly, so my assumption (a poor one at that) is that there might be a spark issue? Who knows, time to start researching and trouble shooting.
If anyone has any M20 noob trouble shooting suggestions, please post away. Or come to Appleton and help, food and beer will be provided!
Fuel feed and return are routed like that only for potential starting purposes, so ignore that. Also the new booster hose needs to be trimmed.
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The 4 to be cautious of:
The positives that go to the block on the firewall and not mixing any of those up with the ground wire on the strut tower,
I am pretty sure that both of our grounds are correct, but will double check with these.
The idle control valve and TPS are often mixed up. Check that you can hear/feel the idle control valve humming with the ignition on to know if that is correct.
I am pretty sure that Ben checked to make sure that this was happening when we were doing our preliminary troubleshooting, but will also double check.
The crank sensor and cylinder id sensor (inductive pickup from spark plug wire) are often mixed up too. If you didnt mark those then its really trial and error. Id the engine cranks and doesnt start, switch those around
We checked online to see what the order of the plugs were, as well as them being labeled on the wire, but I am going to super double check this one because this currently our issue.
To address Snaps prior post
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Fuel send and return are hooked up correctly? Not backwards?
Sounds kind of like a crank position sensor issue. Just turns over and over with no firing.
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Friend with an 87 325is had this crank but no start issue
http://bmwe30network.net/forums/read.php?3,5624
Not sure if it fits in your case but something to rule out.
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Fuel send and return are hooked up correctly? Not backwards?
Sounds kind of like a crank position sensor issue. Just turns over and over with no firing.
Some how the send line was labeled "RETURN", double checked that before trying to fire. Sure enough, that was the send line. Fixed the routing on them. The return line is not hooked up right now, just empties into a bucket on the floor. I've read that not having fuel pressure can cause no starts?
Going to do a resistance test on the CPS today. As well as fuel and spark tests. Gonna double check the TPS and ICV too.
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Crank position sensor is good, read at 537. Icv and tps plugged in correctly, these would be hard to mess up considering how much shorter one wire is than the other. ICV is unresponsive when I turn the key all the way forward before trying to turn it over. No buzzing or vibrating, not sure if this would stop at a potential start
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ICV should be buzzing with the key on. Here's the guide I've been using to try to sort out my No-Start issues.
http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/index.php/Engines_Troubleshoot
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ICV should be buzzing with the key on. Here's the guide I've been using to try to sort out my No-Start issues.
http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/index.php/Engines_Troubleshoot
Appreciate this, Will use this next time.
Unfortunately, after about 8 hours of trouble shooting today, not really anywhere closer to the engine starting.
CPS tested in the range for resistance. Noticed it was a little further away from the teeth so we adjusted the bracket to move it closer.
ICV and TPS were plugged in correctly. ICV still not humming when turned on, but for starting purposes I don't think this would not allow it to.
After awhile of chasing the no spark issue, we thought we had determined the ignition coil to be the issue (tested out of the normal range suggested in the bentley manual). We went to Ben's shop to grab the coil from his E to get a working one. However, this one tested even further out of the suggested range, but his car had been running before it was parked a couple weeks ago. Ignition coil did not solve the problem. Confirmed that it was getting 12 volts. We tried grounding a spark plug connected to the coil plug to confirm if we were getting spark. We would get a small spark when the key was turned to the on position, but not when the motor would crank. After Ben had a convo with Snap we determined that it might not be letting the ignition coil charge, therefore not sparking. We resistance tested the rotor and it fell just slightly out of the suggested range. I honestly can't remember of testing the cap but I'm pretty sure it cleared (so many tests that I'm losing track). Both the rotor and cap contact points were cleaned with a scotbrite. Basically, should be getting power through the ignition system (wires? I don't know its been a long day) but is not firing.
We wanted to test to see if fuel was being delivered when it was cranking. Pulled off the fuel feed line and was greeted with a pressurized gas shower in the face, eyes, mouth, and shirt, so that was fun. Then tried cranking the motor with the feed line into a bucket, but was not sending any fuel. Ben was able to jump the fuel pump from both the relays and fuse, so its confirmed to actually work, the computer/car is just not aware of it working. Not sure if this is an M20 thing but Ben found it odd, is there supposed to be continuity on two pins(holes? whatever the relay plugs into) on all three relays, for the fuel pump? After lots of multi meter testing that was the odd conclusion to the night that we ended at.
I hope Ben chimes in as his description of what we did/tested will be more accurate than what I have typed. Also, big thanks to him for all of his help last night and today. Would have made a fraction of the progress had he not helped me. Also thanks to Snap for answering Ben's phone calls.
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