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 :-)

hello! i bought a mint E30 once with identical symptoms and some poor woman had been ripped off by half a dozen mechanics looking at it, who still hadn't fixed the problem. in my case it turned out the ECU was poorly manufactured. a piece of foam installed during assembly had warped the PCB (similar to the XBox 360 RROD fault) and was causing solder joins to degrade, especially the higher current ones. simply reflowing the bad joins fixed the problem for me. I've opened up the facelift ECU's and they seem to have identified and fixed this problem by then so i'm not sure if it'll apply to you. check simple things first always tho, i discovered this by enforcing a separation conflict between fist and ECU :-)

hey just after some advice here, the slush box failed so converting my sister's E36 M50B20 with a getrag 260 i had lying around. Megasquirt 2 with 6x Bosch BIP373 IGBT's, flywheel and clutch are taken care of, shouts to rds for the epic clutch hookups! Q: is there any thrifty solution for the rear transmission mount difference? this getrag 260 is from an E30 M20B25 Q: do any prop shafts 'fit up' to a g260 in an E36? just wondering if I have to get the auto one elongated and balanced.

fuel is pump gas, 95RON. coolant temp is modest - 68deg when cruising on a hot day. cruising lambda = 1.00 and WOT lambda = 0.85 using pennzoil 20w-40 and external oil cooler with thermostat plugs are standard $5 NGK's BP5ES - but need to replace with resistor type to reduce electrical noise. engine runs quiet and smoothly, even as slow as 350-400rpm - using 700rpm idle. smooth spark retard rev limit at 6800-7200.

the original M20B20 engine lost compression at 290,000km. apparently, cylinder 2 ate something other than a mixture of gasoline and air. so replaced it with a south african-spec 130,000km M20B20, and a nice new clutch (courtesy of rds) replaced a leaky sump gasket, add some silicone blanked off the distributor hole, added wasted spark, a pod filter and a Megasquirt 2. and this is the result after a street tune and about an hour on the dyno. the afr is a bit rich (lambda<0.85) over 5400 so there is room for improvement still. using NGK plugs.

hey brad, the DIYPNP megasquirt with Bosch 55-pin is here www.diyautotune.com/catalog/diypnp-bosch-55pin-unassembled-kit-p-385.html make sure you have the Motronic 55-pin and not some earlier connector otherwise, you'll need to wire the basic Megasquirt kit to your existing loom but, there is plenty of good documentation on the E30/M20 wiring. the ECU is a logical place to start. Megasquirt is a great engine control system, and just as capable as the newest Link G4s (which are great too). the only difference is price. good luck with your project. given the ideal gas law, the net power is difficult to increase, versus a standard manifold. what improves is the engine's response under-foot. btw, are these the slide-type ITBs from a GT-R?

the old Motronic ECU won't like the ITB's much! tuning ITBs is complicated, the older speed-density algorithm used by the original ECU may not permit you to go far, and you'd still be stuck with an AFM anyway. blended table, called Hybrid-N (Alpha-N multiplied by Speed-density table) as found in Megasquirt 2 (MS2/Extra) is designed for ITBs and MS2 kicks ass in general. www.diyautotune.com theres a list of injectors and flow rates here: http://users.erols.com/srweiss/tableifc.htm formulae for injector selection here: http://www.rceng.com/technical.aspx#WORKSHEET for tuning, you'll want a wideband Oxygen sensor (they actually measure Nitrogen but, I digress). I've had good luck with Innovate LC1, they're about USD$200

some E30 ECUs are shoddy (up until the 3-row-of-pins ones), they can't supply enough current because a capacitor supplying current to the injector drivers often has dry solder joins. a piece of foam bends the PCB (part number 0 280 001 301, but not all have the large piece of foam at fault.)

i had the same problem on e30 with m20b23. turned out the ECU had dry solder joints to an electrolytic capacitor near the center of the board, it's a design flaw, piece of foam bends the PCB. (it's fixed on Motronic systems, but if your dizzy is on the passennger side it's worth checking)

and 1% product. but where do they get the snakes for the snake oil? "FuelstarTM is a fuel-borne tin-based combustion catalyst." so it's Gasoline additive, think valvemaster but with different packaging. might not be a bad idea for some engines (but probably not yours) as RON could increase, but tipping shellite into your high octane will do the same (ssshh dont tell anyone the secrets...) PS: don't play with your fuel, motorsport nz schedule A only allows 4%/vol benzene, flames from exhaust are a fire hazard and it's probably illegal on the road

this whole concept of tuning for 'most-advance-with-least-knock' irks me. surely ideal combustion is the goal not minimum-acceptable-risk of detonation? what balance do you strike? welp, fuel has to be my next question, how many degrees of ignition timing difference is there between using different RONs? are there any rules of thumb? eg; does 95/98 RON offer 2 or 3 more degrees safely over 91?