Kodachrome

https://www.trademe.co.nz/1996283966 VIN lookup: https://www.mdecoder.com/decode/jm27654 Selling as I kinda semi accidentally bid on and won a 550i over my honeymoon. Kinda wanted a larger car to ferry parts for my 525i E28 project car around. This 130i is great, I had no bother with it at all. All I replaced was the MAF (with OEM version) which livened everything up again. I replace these on every used car I buy. Absolute Joy to drive and sounds great too. Buy it Now on TM is $8650 but I can do a deal for Bimmersport members is anyone interested.

It will go back as there is a laundry list to do. But they thought it felt just a little less than normal, presumably driving around town. I think it's much worse than that but don't have direct e28 experience. But I've had 520i's in e34 guise and while not fast, actually can accelerate and such. Wedding is done, this was the (very slow and bouncy) wedding car!

Well there is something wrong electrically, the fuel gauge and water temp gauge bounce with indicators and wiper movements! There is a new looking battery with it. The windows go up and down very fast however, I didn't think insufficient current. I suspect the regulator on the alternator?

Its crossed my mind too. Is there an easy way to disable the cold start injector from pumping fuel easily.. maybe just unplugging the electrical connection? When warm the car really fires up fast, faster than any of the more modern BMW's Ive had and have. But when cold it needs some revs not to cut out.

Hi there! I see you are in Welly too, maybe a good first step would be to meet up, Id love to get a second opinion on whats normal on a B25 performance wise as a baseline as right now its (I would say) unusably slow.

To update outside the performance issues the car has bad, as in non-existent shocks all round (wheels hit arches with 4 adults in car) but that was known and very spongy vague braking.. Despite all the above fixes it still needs the throttle feathered to not cut out on cold starts and more annoyingly its still stupidly slow. Like maybe 20seconds or more to 100kph and pushing the throttle hard still doesnt make much difference. Auto38 told me the cam wear means performance will be off and the 525i is no pocket rocket, but this is no normal IMO. After I get back from my wedding Ill get to fixing the suspension and improving brake feel then think how much money to put into fixing engine vs buying a 3.5litre block and converting to 535i.. which i hope is about 4x power powerful than whatever this is actually outputting.

So update, left it in with Auto38 in Wellington as I dont have my tools (or space or time sadly) to really troubleshoot firsthand. They found the following: - fuel pump leaking - replaced - swapped fuel filter - replaced - cracked HT Leads to plugs - replaced - cam wear / tapping noise - to be fixed later - air meter not reading correctly - replaced - TPS not registering WOT - cleaned and repaired - minor exhaust leak - to be fixed later They replaced the fuel pump and filter and its much improved around town apparently. I do need to replace the front shocks however, anyone got some local (in NZ) for me to buy?

Same as my last question on the other engine, is this a M30B34 or B35? B34 is preferred for me. If B35, can you get a photo of the engine mounts? The early ones had the same mounts as the B34 and would fit E28's and such. Im actually still interested either way, just next month or so is too tight for me (and I have no space to put it). I have a 525i M30B25 that I would like to upgrade. PS: Wouldnt the 525e you mentioned be an M20 engine and couldnt use (m)any of these parts (aside from a total conversion)?

I had an 850csi for 6years so indeed had to repair disti and ignition systems several times. The 850csi is basically two M20 motors on a single crank. On this e28 I noticed one of the HT Leads going to spark plus is fairly cracked looking. I don't have my code reader (and I doubt it connects to this old non-obd2 interface) or any of my tools for a month. Getting married in the meantime too, this is one of the wedding cars!

525i M30b25 1983. Ok it will move slowly off the line, but it gets to 100kph eventually and slows around 3000rpm. When driving the pedal to floor vs feathering throttle have the same feedback, kinda nothing happens. Throttle position sensor? Air mass flap thing? Possibly unrelated but the instrument cluster needles (fuel and water temp) bounce all over the place when anything electrical is used and the Odometer doesn't work.

We seem to be talking about two different things here though. Turbo'ing the M30B25 as is. I questioned this as the smaller M20B25/27 has no problems dishing out solid BHP under boost, wouldnt a M30 of the same capacity be even better? Also, in theory, wouldnt the smaller bore-same block handle higher levels of boost? But without tuning and parts etc this might be kinda moot for me as I'd rather follow a guide online. M30B34 vs M30B35 swap. The M30B35 swap is definitely do-able, I'm just dubious on the effort when a M30B34 is a drop in swap. Also the easy to drop in M30B34 (in Euro/UK spec which is what I would get) is more BHP/torque than a M30B35, not less (210bhp vs 208bhp). Its got older Motronic 1.0 DME controls but not sure that really matters given FI needs its own control considerations.

Mainly 'cos I think the boost would just make up for the capacity difference as in modern terms they are both antiquated/low BHP NA engines. I wonder if the fact the M30B25 wasnt available in the US is why no one talks about it much, not that its bad candidate for FI? Same with the swap to a newer B35 version you mention.. from my own searching it sounds like a lot of work splicing and rerouting crap, which is beside the point when the main gain by far is putting a turbo on it: http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?printertopic=1&t=60306&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&finish_rel=10000 Changing Wiring Hardness Change coolant plumbing/routing Debates over Oil Pan differences and fitment Mounting points not the same (though on the very early B35's they are, but thats a crap shoot as no one can tell them apart), so its not even an easy bolt in? etc etc List of about 25-50 things that need to be changed (to move to newer B35) here: http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?p=645012#p645012 Like, if I "need" to pop in a diff engine but the point is to turbo it, doesn't it make more sense to get a B34, do all the turbo mods and just drop it in and done? If I need to significantly mod an engine to get it in at all, then I prob wouldnt be going for M30xxx anything.

Yeah kinda figured. I presume the 3.4litre is pretty close to a drop in replacement (M30B25 to M30B34), just DME change?

All the kits and conversions Im finding are using the M30B34 version of this engine. Anyone know of a suitable setup for the 2.5litre and what the type of HP it could put out at say 17psi?

Well kinda, more that the e34 gen M30 has numerous electrical and some physical changes that make it not just a drop in replacement. If I have to make a bunch of changes I'd just use a lighter engine. Since I want to turbo it anyhow apparently the best setup is M30B34 with the M30B35 head.

Ah I see. I have (will have, bought one on TM, yet to pickup) a M30B25 based e28 525i. Googling suggests fitting a M30B35 is a lot more work than fitting a M30B34 for no real gain. My longer term plan is to turbo this e28 and I like the idea of having an engine out to make it "Turbo ready" then get it transplanted into the car.

What model, miles? ECU or wiring.

They didnt verbalise it this way, but the prices above were infact suggesting this type of uplift from the model below it. I guess its largely personal and sometimes irrational into why people value things they way they do. Im just suggesting one metric that I would use and perhaps others too. On the going rates, an Expired Listings search (you have to be logged in) on TM suggests very little interest in NZ for 135i's, certainly at the 15k+ end: https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/SearchResults.aspx?from=advanced&advanced=true&searchstring=135i+bmw&current=0&cid=268&rptpath=1-268-&sort_order=default&searchregion=100 We dont need to conceptualise as much as being suggested here, you can see the pricing publicly for the recent past.

I don't think it sold cheap, its where I thought it would end. I use the benchmark set by 130i MSports. How much more s a MSport 135i worth? 20% 30% 50% 80% I think between 30% and 50% IMO and this is where it ended up, but some of the guesses here were suggesting over 100% more. A 135i is not double the value of a 130i.

Damn that's nice. Would have been in the market a month back too.

Well with dynamix you are meant to condition the leather every year too, which is easy but it's not exactly 5 years fire and forget like a real leather dye process as you mention.

Not sure if different, but I've used dynamix dyes on several Bmw several times and the paint/dye never cracked off. Yes it eventually, after 5years got scuffed enough to redo, but it's like an easy diy.

Cool car, mental money as per usual on E30's. Bit useless on the description, noting in the text body and a lazy photo of some older listing as a photo of the advert, presumably from whoever he bought it from.

The Q&A does say Singapore. The other market for KPH and diesel is Ireland.

Not much to add other to say I've had a 530i LCI SE e60 and now have a 130i Msport and the 130i feels and especially sounds much more sporty and fun. I'm actually a 5er fan really, but grabbed this 130i (auto) as I heard they were loadsa fun but still somewhat practical daily and have not been disappointed. All 1 series need wheel spacers to complete the look tho.. still havent sorted mine!