E30 325i Rag-Top

Can you pull back the shroud to see the colours of the wires, then cross reference to a wiring diagram? It looks like a fairly generic- two pin sensor plug, so could cover a whole host of things - temp, pressure, etc. Might explain your horrendous fuel consumption if it's not connected to something it should be - like temp, thinks its cold so over-fuelling??

Looking good Foxy... I take it you've got some wider rims to fill those flares? Be good to see it out on the track next season.

Yeah, no problem. Pretty sure I've got one in the garage. Out Howick way if you can't find one closer.

So you're more interested in a Whine & Cheesy event at some restaurant than driving a car on a track??Funny that Contis didn't care enough to invite you to their track day a month back though...

I can't take the credit for the idea, it's something the Committee has had in the ideas bank for a while, and now the Recruitment Sub-Committee have got the sponsors on-board and made it happen.Thought I would throw it up on here as well so the Bimmersporters were aware.

I think there's more to this story than meets the eye...

I used to watch these monsters in the European Rallycross when they were banned from the Rallying. Racing with RS200s, 6R4s, T16s, R5 T2s and Integrales was totally awesome. I can't remember the exact power figures, a lot depended on the size of the turbo and tune for each particular set up, but the figures were certainly in the 600-800hp range, so the quoted 770hp would be comparable. It doesn't sound quite as wild (no huge flames on the over-run, etc.) but from the way that car is launching out of the corners it is certainly performing!

Pretty much impossible to make a "total loss" of a race car especially an E30 on the track, and believe me I have tried. The condition is in there so that the car is treated with respect, as if it was your own, not used recklessly without so much as a "oh, sorry about that... here's your keys" afterwards.

E30 Series Scholarship Car. To attract and develop new talent into NZ motorsport the Castrol BMW Race Driver Series are offering one lucky winner a scholarship drive, for more details see here... http://www.bmwraceseries.co.nz/?page_id=1582 Or checkout the Facebook page, and the car and entry forms will be on the stand at the CRC Speedshow coming up next weekend. Anyone that has ever thought about getting into racing, you won't get a better chance than this.

Leather Msport interior is good if you fit snugly between the bolsters, otherwise yeah can get slippery. The other option is to CLEAN IT now and again Westy! There's probably enough pie crumbs to feed an African village in the gap to your knee bolster by now.

That had a large donation to the scholarship car, thousands of dollars of prizes given out at the Prize Giving, plus parts support discount, spot prizes of lifestyle gear throughout the season, trophies donated, to mention a few... And wait until the 30th August...

Interesting, so how do you know this software is the same as that supplied with Aus and NZ new vehicles?

Have you checked the fuses? Might be one of those - couple of the cluster circuits run off different fuses. Try eBay for the speedo gears. I've not seen them on TradeMe, or local in NZ

From the photo it looks like you got one of the many wet days, shame you didn't get to enjoy them in the dry.

Hmm, that could get interesting! It's not just ANY Japanese emission code, only the ones which are equivalent (or better) then the Euro IV - I wonder if the importer realises this from his reply? Plus it will be the emissions of the Alpina modded car, not the base BMW E60 that you will need to prove, and that could be a mission in itself. It's quite funny how many people bring cars in that can't be complied, and don't realise it. Some of them can get quite shitty about it too...

Not sure if it is still the case but a few years back it used to be that any new (i.e. unregistered) cars that were damaged beyond repair were scrapped and crushed by an approved scrappy. This was to prevent the possibility of the chassis number being re-used on a stolen or written off vehicle.

The "Aplina" is a dealer, so really it's false advertising, and he knows it's not a genuine one. Not good. Joe Public selling their car and not really knowing the difference, ok I can accept that, but a dealer? If they are happy to do that on a car advert, what else are they happy to lie about to sell a car to some un-suspecting punter...?

Yeah, pulling all that lot out would have been one hell of a mission.

Yeah, I know what you mean, certainly not something you would want to risk. Injectors sticking on an engine that's been sat for a while, particularly without any fuel in the rail, is pretty common. The injector is held in the shut position, so it is sitting in place for a long time. The guy that sold me the engine did a full clean and adjustment on the injectors just before he shipped me the motor, and I think that added to the problem, they would have been squeaky clean when they went back in, and never had any fuel run through them. Seem to be all good now and squirting nicely! Fired up first time once I put the rail back on and cranked her over, sh!t its loud with just the headers on, even at idle.

Maybe that's where I'm going wrong.. not drinking enough beers during this project? Before I whipped the fuel rail off I tried to give them a tickle up with the hammer, but with all the extra pipes and stuff on an S14 there's not enough room to swing a mouse in there let alone a hammer! The old M20 was a lot easier and simpler from that point of view. Easy enough to give them a squirt of WD40 and a wiggle when you've got the fuel rail off (which is no major), I did notice one of the vacuum hoses under the rail was well past it's best so I will have to replace that while I'm there as well. Brent, when I took the starter out it was the smaller type I have on the M20, not the big ass M10 type one. Not sure if that is the same as the E34 one you mentioned, but I did find out the ring-gear is different from an M20 to an S14 when I tried to fit that one in there :banghead:

^^ Do It!!

E30 Face-lifted M325i - pretty place to start! Nice car. I recognize the plate from somewhere I'm sure, but not with those wheels - did you buy the plate for the car? Looks like you have most bases covered in your garage as well.

It's probably someone trying to break into your house, they just needed you to disconnect your alarm...

The dizzy runs off the end of the exhaust camshaft- so pretty sure that would be set right. I was thinking more sticking injectors, they were cleaned before going back in, so after sitting for a while and dry possibly stuck. Whipped the injector rail off, put some cloth under the injectors and cranked it. Sure enough only one damp patch, three stuck injectors.

Jerry-rigged up another feed to the relay to triple-check I am in the right area, and everything powered up as expected and I got fuel and a spark. Cranking over with the temporary feed still hooked up got it going "pop-pop-pop" so it is trying to start. Sounds very much like it's only firing on one cylinder though??