My first E30, its taken apart....help pls.

[vr2jetta]

BTW, jmc1590 has been a great help, and whodwho managed to pinpoint the FPR problem. Thanks to all again who chimed in giving advice to help this poor ignorant bastard you now know as vr2jetta! LOL!

[vr2jetta]

Seems to be running well now. I just have some minor issues to work out, brake lining light, CEL, the wife said it was starting to buck and had no power when she drove it earlier, but when I took it out it was fine. I beat the shit out of it, burning tires in 1st and 2nd, then drove it like grandma and it was fine for me. Maybe another spot of bad gas? IDK. Tomorrow is another day, well see how it does in the morning when it is stone cold.

[vr2jetta]

So, its running great now.......but, It is still really hard to start. I crank and crank, pumping the gas, and it starts and immediatly dies. I turn it over again and it starts and runs fine. I drive it with no issues and turn it off. Go to start it again and it starts right up, but if I let it sit for about 15 minutes, it does the same thing, crank and crank till it finally starts. Any ideas?

[vr2jetta]

BTW, I still have fuel pooling in to intake boot and the throttle body is gas soaked too.

I posted another topic on this problem and had a response telling me to pull the vacuum line at the FPR and check for fuel. I did, there was. Will change the FPR in the next couple days and pray for the best! Thanks again for all the responses and help with this, everyone!!

[vr2jetta]

BTW, I still have fuel pooling in to intake boot and the throttle body is gas soaked too.

[vr2jetta]

Just to be sure, the coolant temp sensor is the blue one right, not the brown one?

[vr2jetta]

I got an extra thermostat housing with the coolant temp sensor when I bought it so maybe I'll swap it out to see what happens. I got it down the street and the crank bolt torqued so I came home and it is completely assembled now, other than a few splash guards underneath. I think the gas may be bad too. It will start, not want to idle, but I can drive it around the yard for about a minute then it dies. A bit of cranking and it starts up again. I'll probably make a few trips to the gas station and put some fresh in too.

[wagonizzle]

Coolant temp sensor is about $20. It will flood the motor if the sensor is bad. Grab a new one before you put coolant in and you can avoid making a mess. This problem got me 2 days after I bought by e30; I was so pissed. Then I began to learn how to work on it :)

[vr2jetta]

Yea, I called my brother and he pulled out his code book and gave me the run down, 5 times for 3 and 5 series cars and 7 for 7 series. It threw a 1223, coolant temp sensor, but I figure that is because it has no coolant in it yet. I am going to try to drive it down the street and get the crank pulley impacted on and hopefully haulin' ass down the street will help make it run better, if not I am sure it will be fun!

[jmc1590]

No jumper needed. This here's a German luxury car. Turn the key on and rapidly depress the gas pedal 5 times. Then watch your check engine light tell it's tale.

Also search for CEL. That should give you plenty of info to work from.

[vr2jetta]

So from the time it took me to write the last post and go back outside the car was very difficult to re-start. While running the check engine was on and the "check" light in the cluster was on also. Could these problems be coming from the TPS? Any other sensors that could cause a difficult start? Where is the diagnostic port so I can check the codes? I am assuming I can run a jumper and count the blinks to get trouble codes. Anybody know what terminals to jump to retrieve codes? I am going to search for info on this but figured I would ask ahead of time.

[vr2jetta]

OK, So I got it running........again. I pulled the AFM out and cleaned the air temp sensor and removed the filter due to the fact it smelled fuel soaked. It runs much better than last night but still does not want to idle. Can I adjust the idle manually?

[SpecM]

Yes, there is fuel pooling in the intake boot just before the throttle body, I'm lost on that one too.

waaaa?

The vacuum line going from the intake to the FPR is kinda tight, but with a little effort it went on, I'm just worried the FPR may not get enough vacuum due to the small lines. I just worry because this is my first bmw and all cars are picky about different things and wanted to rule this out.

don't worry about that too much

I figured the timing was adjusted by the computer but I needed to ask to be sure.

it is

I just read .010 inches on one thread and .25mm on another. That was me just getting excited about hopefully finding the problem.

really the same... (1/10in = .254mm)

[vr2jetta]

I checked them the old school way, I inserted a screwdriver into the spark plug wire and held it against the valve cover bolt, it arched. By terminals I mean spark plug wire ends, I checked 2 of them.

Yes, there is fuel pooling in the intake boot just before the throttle body, I'm lost on that one too.

The vacuum line going from the intake to the FPR is kinda tight, but with a little effort it went on, I'm just worried the FPR may not get enough vacuum due to the small lines. I just worry because this is my first bmw and all cars are picky about different things and wanted to rule this out.

The wires running across the timing belt cover are still ok, but I couldnt figure out how it snapped in. I am sure that the cover went there, there were indentations on it that matched the location of the clips in the timing cover, I just couldnt figure out how it snapped. Maybe something is broke that I dont know about? This is a prime example of why I hate finishing someone elses project.

I figured the timing was adjusted by the computer but I needed to ask to be sure.

I smelled the fuel and it did not smell bad, all though I'm sure the car sat for at least 3 months. Double checked all my connections, they look good, and did more research on the valve lash and I adjusted it properly. I just read .010 inches on one thread and .25mm on another. That was me just getting excited about hopefully finding the problem.

[jmc1590]

Just to be sure... With the head cold, the valves (both intake and exhaust) should be adjusted to 0.25mm (or 0.010 in.) - from the Bentley

And if you adjusted them to 0.025 in. they would not be too tight. They would be too loose.