Mystery Brackets -- Can anyone ID?

[RedEye669]

Alternate thread title: I'm Pretty Sure I'm a Complete Dumbass

About a year ago I bought a 1989 325i auto for a winter beater. The PO had no idea when the timing belt was last changed so I decided to take care of that right away. It also had the classic erratic idle problem. The more I worked on it the more problems I found . . . long story short it got back-burnered and now, almost a year later, I'm finally getting it back together.

No problem, except for these 2 steel brackets I can't identify. Just to make things more interesting, I've got half a dozen other project vehicles on the go plus a couple antique air compressor restorations, and it's possible they're from another project entirely and just got thrown in the parts washer with the BMW parts and forgotten. Anyway, it would be great if anyone can tell me what they are -- or that they're definitely not E30 parts.

[Kershaw]

not from an e30 afaik.

[Myster-E]

The piece on the right bolts to the driver side of the block holding down a plug where a distributor can bolt into.

[RedEye669]

The piece on the right bolts to the driver side of the block holding down a plug where a distributor can bolt into.

Thank you sir :bow: I swear that's the only place I didn't try it, because I "knew" there was nothing mounted there in this car. One down, one to go :p

[MR 325]

The other one is nothing factory from an m20.

[RedEye669]

Thanks for the help guys. The car's been back together for a few days now and she purrs like a kitten. Cold idles at 800 rpm then down to about 650 when warmed up, and not a warning light to be seen anywhere :up: From the condition the poor thing was in I'd say the check engine light hasn't been off for a long long time. It's running so well it'll almost be a shame to swap the engine out next summer . . . but I couldn't resist when I found a written off E34 535i for $475. Only 107,000 km on it and looks like it was a garage queen right up until its untimely end. It's going to be a gold mine of swaps and spares: sound system, basketweaves, OBC, power sunroof, seats, god knows what else.

I've already used the coolant temp sensor to get the M20 back on the road. The car had so many air leaks when I got it that it would run with a dead CTS, but rich beyond belief. When I fixed all the air leaks it stopped running :D Just flooded out. A few minutes with the parts car and I was back in business. Fuel economy is up about 25%.