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84 eta running rich/stumbling

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    84 eta running rich/stumbling

    The title pretty much says it all. I have an 84 e with about 250k and a slush box with about 90-100k on it. Picked the car up in october for 700 and have been troubleshooting ever since. Since I bought the car, the following things have been replaced with new or better condition parts:

    - air filter
    - oil and fillter
    - oil pan and gasket
    - 02 sensor
    - injectors
    - fuel rail
    - fpr
    - vacuum hose from valve cover to tb
    - 2 icv's, cleaned both thoroughly
    - adjusted afm to run on fresh track
    - wr8lcs plugs from an IX (cleaned up, read they are better than anything)
    - shocks and springs
    - tires and basketweaves
    - belts
    - battery
    - plugs wires
    - cap and rotor
    - vacuum hose from fpr to manifold
    - cold start valve
    - bushings for alternator

    The problems I'm having is that the car runs rich, almost to the point of getting too much gas. When the car is cold, it runs fine, barely stumbles at all, but now that it's getting warmer here in central Texas, the symptom has gotten a lot worse. So much worse that it's died on me at lest 5 times in the last week. Most of my driving is done at 65 to and from work, but on the way back it's in stop and go traffic. The car wants to die as soon as I let off the brake and step on the gas. Sometimes I can get away with easing into the gas very slowly, other times it's no bueno and the car stalls in rush hour traffic. It sputters and sounds like it's dropped a cylinder/missing and pours black smoke out the back. Not quite modded diesel quantity, but enough that I can see it in my mirror. When it's warm, sometimes the car hangs out around 500-600 rpm and has a hard time keeping an idle. I've checked everything I can find and still can't find a reason as to why it's stumbling. I searched for over a month on here and e30tech and still can't figure it out.

    While searching, I've tried several test to narrow down my problem and I've noticed several things:

    - when I remove the oil cap, idle doesn't change
    - I used a mustang o2 sensor, and had to pull it today to rewire and the tip was already black. I put in the new one less than a week ago.
    - while in park, if I rev the enigne and it stumbles, black soot and what I assume is gas come out the exhaust.
    - I checked the intake boot for cracks, found none
    - used carb cleaner to check for vacuum leaks, can find any
    - pulling oil dipstick does nothing
    - air filter is clean
    - seafoamed when I got it, 1/2 can through motor, 1/4 in gas tank, 1/4 in oil
    - cleaned connections on all coolant sensors, afm, tps (clicks just after opening TB)
    - properly gapped cps to .040"

    I'm all out of ideas and any help would be greatly appreciated. It's getting annoying having to deal with a car that stalls out almost every day on the day home, as I love my e30 and really don't want to sell it. I'm sure I'm forgetting something I've checked or done and again, I have done extensive searching. Even started reading the bentley cover to cover.

    #2
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      #3
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        #4
        Mine doesn't run that terrible, and actually runs pretty well when it's cold. The valves may need to be adjusted but it's definitely not a broken arm.

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          #5
          well if its not that then its probably something that is temp related like one of the temperature sensors on the thermo housing. Juct check the resistance of the CTS, its a negative temp coefficient sensor so as temp goes up resistance goes down.


          and if pulling the dipstick does nothing then you may have the problem above coupled with a vacuum leak.

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            #6
            I pulled the cts and cleaned it, as in taking a wire brush and some light sanding until it was all nice and shiny again. I don't have a multimeter at the moment, but I can get one. Also, I have the two prong sensor, is there a wrong way to connect it? The PO had no clue how to work on an e30, even had all the plug wires out of order, just wanted to make sure I didn't have the connectors backwards. As far as the vacuum leak, I have looked everywhere and as I said in my OP, the carb cleaner trick hasn't revealed anything. At one point, removing the oil cap raised the idle when it wanted to die.

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              #7
              Originally posted by navytapaul View Post
              I pulled the cts and cleaned it, as in taking a wire brush and some light sanding until it was all nice and shiny again. I don't have a multimeter at the moment, but I can get one. Also, I have the two prong sensor, is there a wrong way to connect it? The PO had no clue how to work on an e30, even had all the plug wires out of order, just wanted to make sure I didn't have the connectors backwards. As far as the vacuum leak, I have looked everywhere and as I said in my OP, the carb cleaner trick hasn't revealed anything. At one point, removing the oil cap raised the idle when it wanted to die.
              Okey dokey...

              When you test the CTS all you are doing is testing the resistance in ohms of the sensor, polarity doesn't matter.
              There is no wrong way to connect the sensor connector to the sensor because the connector is keyed to fit one way only.

              As far as vacuum leaks, the carb cleaner trick doesn't rule out vacuum leaks. Only a smoke test will because you cannot assume there are no leaks if you haven't checked the whole engine. Smoke is the only way.

              If you cant fins a shop that does smoke tests then you can rent/buy a Halloween fog machine and somehow connect it to your car.

              Or you can learn to smoke: search youtube "cigar vacuum leak" by scottykilmer.

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                #8
                A multi-meter doesn't measure resistance?

                I rechecked my o2 sensor and found the signal wire was loose so I re-did all the connections again with better connectors. It seems to be running better so far, but I'll still check into the smoke test. I'll find out more on tuesday when I get it looked over at the bmw shop.

                Isn't the coolant sensor on the early eta's the two prong sensor on the thermo housing?

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                  #9
                  yes, most DMM's do measure resistance in ohms.

                  Not so sure about the ETA's thermostat housing setup. I think it has four different sensors?
                  Where's Jlevie?

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                    #10
                    I'll have to pick one up this week after I get paid, there are too many parts that can be simply checked and it's the one tool I don't have lol.

                    mine has 4, and there's one that I'm really not looking forward to pulling. way down between the housing and #1 injector.

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                      #11
                      I'm having the same problemo in my 84 Eta.
                      /______\_o_/______\
                      l{(OO)=[//][\\]=(OO)}|
                      \ #___======___# /
                      |__/-------------\__|

                      "Took me an hour to do this..."

                      took me like three seconds to copy/paste it- FOR SCIENCE!!



                      Barney Fucking Rubble

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                        #12
                        Picked up a multi-meter and found a good cts off a 528e at the yard, now she runs like a champ. I appreciate all the help

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