barf

thermostat failure is the first thing that comes to mind pretty easy to check the sensor with an ohmmeter too. my old E30's thermistor is negative temperature coefficient type. the resistance decreases with an increase in temperature. you can use use a resistor wheel to check the gauge. Deg C Ohms -10.0 9300.0 20.0 2500.0 80.0 335.0

you can't tune a megasquirt? if so, don't blame the equipment. pretty sure there are some records still standing held by Megasquirts on the salt flats... i've had zero problems with unwanted lambda transience on the ones i've built, tested, installed and tuned.if you want to insult me do it in a PM please, there was a thread here with someone asking for advice on M20 tuning.

so you aren't able to realise that air flow restriction leads to poor volumetric efficiency which will effect a ceiling on the torque you can produce? go troll a honda forum?

I'd encourage you to question anything you read on the Internet ;-)on NZEFi's dynapack i put down 74kW and 140Nm (roughly factory figures) but I've made gains since by street tuning. only could afford 1 hour on the dyno its bloody expensive. that e30 class based racing sucks, you're not allowed to change the engine management system so of course ppl are remapping. duh crunchy....

i'll probably start a flame war for saying this, but remapping an old ECU is like polishing a turd. remapping still leaves you with the poor throttle response which is characteristic of the old control systems like the potentiometer-style AFM. only mods to my M20B20 are Megasquirt 2, pod filter and Bosch direct ignition. (i removed the distributor and blanked it off). embarrased a cefiro and B16 integra yesterday.

hey Jono, yeah it does actually. just changed the pinion gears over.and $660+shipping for an E36 Getrag 220? dreams are free i guess.

but if you just open up your wallet and buy another engine you miss out on the engineering challenges of going faster with what you have ;-)the b23 is my favourite but i've got a b20 which eats RB20 skylines - much to their displeasure, only mods i have are megasquirt 2, pod filter and direct ignition with Bosch IGBTs

AFAIK they're just 27C-family EEPROMs and are worth $4 but an old ECU is still an old ECU... a programmer costs up to $50 maybe.

dunno about post-quake but Cylinder Head Specialists / CHS were good to me. although i didn't take them an M50 head http://www.heads.co.nz/

mainly because it's an old design, with limited capabilities and resolution. to be fair, cars havn't changed as much as electronics have but even at the time Japanese cars had superior electric systems. Toyota were doing electronic spark advance as early as 1979. AFAIK the M20 didn't see this until 1987.

thanks polley! appreciate the concerns raised but these don't seem like major engineering challenges at all.already aware that cert is required for prop shaft and engine/transmission mount modifications, and if the oil filler hole and shifter are slightly on the piss then well, meh, it's still a better option than fixing a gas guzzling hydraulic transmission. (ok i'm a racist; i hate autos) so far this isn't costing more than a Megasquirt, clutch and fabrication of a transmission mount. I don't think it's possible to do this any other way without winning lotto - unless someone has an E36 MT they're willing to part with?

AFAIK the only timing source the ECU needs is the 60-2 trigger wheel. i believe the spark lead sensor is an inductive pickup which is only wired to the diagnosic connector for timing lights. in my experience the best thing to do with a BMW engine management system is replace it (you can't polish a turd). although if these chips are just 27C-family EEPROMs, they only cost $8 - $16 which could be a cheap fix :-)

argh if I could afford to "just buy" a $700 transmission I wouldn't be asking for tips on installing a Getrag 260 into an E36 on Bimmersport forums.... :-\

soz for diggin up an old thread, though i'd mention that the spark map is significantly different in AT compared to MT tunes, the VE table may be different too. there is more advance at idle and off-idle for the torque converter, less "tip-in" and there is no low-MAP advance for smooth gear changes. the standard BMW tune leaves a lot of room for improvement on top of all that, using a Megasquirt II here for our E36 MT conversion project.

BMW used switch type throttle position sensors until the introduction of the M50. almost any switch-type TPS should work. the EFI control systems started with the Telefunken distributor-less firing the coil thru the dizzy (when dizzy found on passenger side), they moved onto 60-2 trigger wheel systems later and about the same time the dizzy was relocated to the front of the cam. some production resulted in 60-2 sensors in the bellhousing and later the trigger-wheel was put onto the crank pulley. in my case it was easier to just change the front crank pulley with a late-model M20 one which has the same sensor in a much easier-to-service location. O2 sensor is not required, except to satisfy a complete system. they're next-to-useless narrowband types anyway. not sure about AFMs, get an MS2 and go MAP sensor for better throttle response :-)