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I have a K&N panel filter to fit yours if you are interested... No traction problems in the wet with mine but have replaced standard wheels with 17's. I also don't notice much scuttle shake, just is stiff and hardish ride, but that is due to the wheels and lowering on low King springs. Have redone the rear end crossmember to remove the negative camber from the lowering so that probably makes a difference too. Mine looked like this not long after I got it, still standard but with MTech kit fixed back on and a big tidy up... was previously owned by a lady who obviously parked by ear so kit was hanging off all over....

Have also heard good reports about the crowd Gus is talking about for headers... You buy that Zinnoberrot red conv with the MTech kit recently for sale on trademe? Put some pics up of both...

If you reset the tensioner regularly on the M20 motor, say at 20K intervals, you should get 100k on a belt. I have never risked it and done it at 60k intervals on my motors but have had clients short on cash who have stretched it to 100k by keeping the tension good and checking the teeth when tensioning. (BMW recommended 60k service intervals with the first versions of the M20). The belts do stretch quite a bit on the M20 motor, think it is due to the long run it has on the one side? (my theory... ) I think also that the latest belts are of a better quality than the older belts used when the M20 first came out, so should do 100k if you keep an eye on them.

In for about $11K... $8K cost of car $2.1K for donor E30 with 17" wheels, King springs, short shocks, unknown brand Racepro type bucket seats, aircon. About $300 for full service changing all oils and filters, purchase K&N pancake filter, new cambelt, all other belts, brake fluid change... $82.95USD-pair new soft top hood gas shocks from USA. $220-New rear brake pads and skim. $70-secondhand OBC complete with wiring and sensors. $50-secondhand cruise control complete... and countless hours of slaving to do all the above... priceless !!

Not that plug, it is a small round one under the inlet manifold and mounts through a steel bracket that acts as a loom support. The bracket is attached to the bottom of the inlet manifold. None of my current cars have it and I don't see any sign of it in my wiring diagrams so this is the best i can describe it, sorry. From memory it is difficult to see as it is somewhere in the region of the starter but above it and under the manifold. Probably close to the oil return tube from the head to the sump.. Can't remember how many pins it had (10??) but was probably only 30-40mm diameter and stood vertically. Being vertical was the reason it filled with water as water ran down the outer black sheath and under the rubber boot on it. Sorry I can't be more help, maybe someone else has a car with one in and can shed some more light...?? All I know is this little bast*ard caused me several weeks of heartache !!! Maybe yours doesn't have it, just that this particular 320 did and was a very late model with the latest motronic ignition etc so thought it might apply to yours......

I had this problem with all the above symptoms with a 1990 F/L 320 I had about a year ago. Drove me to drink for about 3 weeks....not that I minded that! I had changed plugs, dist cap, rotor, sensors etc and still the misfire, wobbly gauges etc kept coming and going. It finally turned out to be water in a slightly corroded plug on the engine wiring loom. I lucked onto it one afternoon when i had just about lost it with the car. This plug was a round screw together plug on the passenger side of the motor just in the area above the starter motor. I unscrewed it and water came out and it was also a bit corroded from water. I cleaned it with an electrical contact cleaner, put some sealing stuff on and car was like brand new. Ran without wanting to cut out, temp gauge stopped flickering all over, rev counter worked again and econ gauge worked perfectly. The only thing I dont remember is if it affected the service lights. My wife drove the car for 3 weeks afer that and it behaved perfectly. The person who bought it from me seems to have had no problems since. Hope this might solve yours.....

This connection is not a ground connection but supplies 12v to the relay while the starter swings over. If you don't use the F/L starter you can connect it using a separate relay that connects to the Black/yellow wire to the solenoid to duplicate this circuit. Connections would be as follows to a standard relay: pin 85- lead from black/yellow starter wire pin 86- to ground pin 30- +12v from battery(pref with min 30A in-line fuse). pin 87- black/green wire to load reduction relay. As this connection only should supply 12v while the starter is swinging, it shouldn't be essential to connect it. I don't have a full wiring diagram for the F/L, nor do I have a wiring loom to absolutely check the complete circuit so am working from experience and memory... so if someone has a F/L wiring diagram(or link) to send me it would be good....

Relays K5 and K7 supply power to windows, mirrors and fan. They get their main supply from a heavyish red cable that comes directly from the battery, but not the main one to the starter. Will be one of the smaller red wires that connects to the +12 terminal and goes across the firewall and directly into the fusebox. Terminal 30 on both of these relays is fed directly from the wire so should show 12v all the time. If you are not getting 12v on K7 pin 30 then this supply cable must be faulty. Check that the cable is not broken or badly corroded inside the heatshrink at the battery terminal. Stick a pin deep into it near the fusebox if necessary and connect your voltmeter to the pin to check for voltage in the cable. If you have voltage in the cable open the fusebox and check that the cable is still bolted up inside the fusebox. Once you get 12v to the 30 pins on the relays, you should have action !!!

Gus, relay K7 supplies power to the blower fan and the fuse controlling the blower/relay is number 20 and should be 30Amp. Swap the relay with another in the fusebox in case it is faulty. Pins 86 and 30 should also have 12v with the ignition on and the relay removed. Pin 86 is the switching supply and 30 the main supply. F/L has that extra fuse also mentioned... Does the fan work at all on full? Sometimes the blower resistor module dies and then you only get full blast.

Happy to buy the shocks as long as they do the job, length being important here. If the springs have to come with so be it.. just would be easier (and probably cheaper)to mail shocks without the springs. Not sure of gap between bumpstops from memory but it is definitely a bit bigger than 20mm. There is 105mm clearance under the fuel tank. Am busy reprofiling the rear suspension(and front later) to suit the ride height. Car is a project so not too worried at this stage. Once I get it on the road with proper shocks will see how it handles, but seemed ok with the long ones and the radical camber back and front. It is definitely higher than a racecar E30 we built some years ago and that handled pretty well... but shook the sh*t out of you though :drugs:

The '86 E30 I have has only 280mm from wheel centre to arch with the springs I have in it. That is the problem.. shock is too long and the spring can come away from the seat. I want to keep the car this low. If the shocks are about 50mm shorter than stock they will probably work, but I don't really need the springs. My '87 E30 on King springs has 300mm to wheel arch and the shocks are 30mm shorter than stock and just manage to keep the springs captive, so I'm guessing that I would need shocks about 50mm shorter..??

Second the polished lip bit with the centre black or charcoal..

w.bryant at xtra...

Just get them to me... windows will stay up without the motors.

Where from? Any idea on part numbers? Local plonkers just look at me with blank stare.......

Anybody out there know what rear shocks I can use in the rear of a pre-F/L which I have sacked? Is exactly 100mm lower than a standard E30 I have. Living in the backwaters doesn't help sourcing non-standard bits. Check pic....

Right, went and checked the window motors from Ryan's old car and found they were frozen. Have pulled one out and eventually managed to strip it and found the cause of the siezure. It is quite difficult to remove the plastic housing for the brushes..... :banghead: have to be quite inventive here.... once this is out of the way the armature is almost free to remove but is held in by the bush which will have frozen to it. Will describe how to free it further on... Check the photo.... the yellow arrow points to the bronze bush that siezed to the shaft of the motor armature. This is due to the drain hole that is supposed to let the water out being higher than the bush so this area fills up with moisture. The pink arrow points to the retaining washer that holds the bush in the bottom of the motor casing in the position of the red arrow. Getting this retaining washer out intact is a fiddly job as it is a push-in system not designed to release backwards. I drilled 4 very small holes on the base (you can see 2 of them onside the casing) and used a pin punch to slightly deform it bit by bit until it popped out. Until you get this to free you won't get the armature out. Don't break it as I doubt if you would find a replacement one!!! Once you have the armature out you can then gradually ease the frozen bush off the armature, sand the bearing surface with a fine waterpaper and the bush will now spin freely. Have reassembled the motor onto the window mechanism and it is now better than a bought one... :thumb: If you don't want to tackle this yourself, remove the motor from the mechanism (2 torx screws release it) and mail them to me. I think I have a good chance of repairing them +90%? If you remove the plastic cap on the door card you can use an allen key to raise and lower the windows. If you are lucky your BMW toolkit may have one in it but most are missing...

E30's definitely came out with manual windows, havn't seen many here though. Is it your motor or the switch that is faulty?

If you are going to fix it I have most of the bits you list except lights...

Sacked the white 2door e30, busy correcting the rear camber(bad!!!). Gold 4door e30, still minus motor etc but too busy with white one to worry with it.. red conv e30, ok for now as it is drivable but needs some more work....

Yup, Ryan's old one..Fitted the F/L perfectly but is a piece of sh*t for a performance engine because of the single pipe to the rear. Would get you going in the meantime if you were really desperate to make co2.....

Gus, do you have a photo of the exhaust? Don't know what yours looks like so can't figure why it won't fit or what to do with it to possibly make it fit. Have a standard 320 exhaust off a F/L you can have (which should fit straight on depending on what exhaust manifold you have- it is a 3stud flange) to see you through in the meantime but it won't do you any good in the power stakes as it is a single system after the first box.

Does it still have a rego? on hold?

Keen on whole car as is... to do up.

I'm a bit rusty maar sommigen van ons kunnen het Nederlands begrijpen. Looks good tho' :thumb: