The "I finally bought an E30" Build Thread!
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We do actually still work this, albeit not a ton in the past couple of weeks. However, last night we did make a good amount of progress. As soon as the clutch/flywheel and the transmission is mounted to the motor it will be ready to go back in. Probably would have been this coming weekend if I weren't leaving for vacation on Saturday morning. Hopefully the following week.
Also noting, we pressured washed the bay as well as pulled some of the unnecessary crap out. Also pressured washed the block. But we are morons and did it right next to the car, so the whole driver side is covered in a bunch of the crap that was on the block. It’s going to need another good wash after it gets running.
Actually looks like something now.
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Fresh paint means it's rebuilt (craigslist logic)
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Fresh paint means it's rebuilt (craigslist logic)
It's actually a race prepped M20, bro.
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race prepped
Valve cover and intake are wrinkle black, it checks out.
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Motor is back in the car. Trans is all hooked up an mounted. If any of the resident M20 experts wants to make a trip to the Fox Valley area, we will wine and dine you for your knowledge of M20 wiring harnesses. I'd say we probably know where 60% of it goes, but are unsure about the rest.
Car is close to starting, probably one more solid afternoon/night of connecting the wiring/hoses before its ready to (hopefully) start.
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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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