Euro M20B23 Timing Adjustment

[bloodsnot]

Hello,

I've been sorting various things on my '85 euro 323i and have been wondering about setting the timing. This car has L-Jetronic fuel injection with an old-school distributor. The PO mentioned he had retarded the timing somewhat in order to run 87 octane fuel and this brings up a couple of questions in my mind:

1. What are the possible side-effects of this other than a loss of power?
2. What are the OEM timing specs? I can't seem to find the right ones for my distributor (12111706459) anywhere on the 'net.

I would greatly appreciate any advice, answers, or input of any sort. I have searched through prior posts but can't seem to come up with anything useful. Thanks in advance.

[bloodsnot]

bump

[Steven320i]

What i read in my manual is:

Bmw e30 323i After 1984 19 degree BTDC add 3000rpm.

i hope that i help you with this.

Greetz

Steven

[bloodsnot]

Thanks for responding!

Bmw e30 323i After 1984 19 degree BTDC add 3000rpm.

Well darn, that conflicts with the answer I got on E30Zone (a UK forum that I'm on for certain Euro-model specific woes). Their advice says that 19/3000 was before 1984. Here's what they had to say:

According to my data, the distributor number should be 023730****, with **** being 2038 for 82-83, 2040 for 83-84 and 4025 for 85-86.
Timing for the first one (leaded petrol, and vacuum disconnected) is 19 degrees at 3000 RPM, and the last two are 16 degrees at 5000 RPM.

Sooo I don't know. Those numbers aren't the actual part numbers for a distributor, a cap, or a rotor but RealOEM gives me a the 4025 number in the description text for my distributor cap (see #1 on this chart). I was all set to use the 16/5000 number and had forgotten about this thread! I suppose this means the issue isn't quite laid to rest, though, and I'll need to look into it some more. Perhaps I'll go try to see which cap is actually on the car and go off of that?

Thanks again for your input, Steven.

[Steven320i]

its idd a better idea to start with looking wich one you have.

but i also read that the model before 1984 and after 1984 have the same ignition timing thats what i read offcourse. but good luck with finding the right data. and if you got questions about something else ask me, i got the dutch manual maby little diff.

greetz

Steven