Intake Manifold & Fuel System Refresh (E30 318iS)

[rlich8]

Hi All,

Hope you all have been enjoying summer and had a nice Fourth of July for the American members here.

I recently experienced a fuel leak on my car and immediately laid it up in the garage to start investigating... Actually, there ended up being two fuel leaks. One was the O-Ring that seals the fuel pump to the fuel tank. The other was one of the small rubber lines connecting the hard fuel line to the fuel rail.

As I pulled everything apart, I started to see see that things were needing to be cleaned up, particularly the lower intake manifold and fuel injectors... but also a couple little things like one of the studs, a breather hose, etc. I found a lot of corrosion, as you can see, on the lower intake manifold.

I'm going to clean both the upper and lower intake manifold with aluminum cleaner (Napa sells a nice product). I've had the fuel injectors rebuilt and tested and they should be arriving next week. I intend to put everything back together with new gaskets and O-Rings (fuel injectors and fuel pressure reg) and I've bought some extra hardware for the process... "just in case."

I know this area is not visible when everything is put together but I couldn't help putting it back together without cleaning it up. I even bought proper, original 12-15mm hose clamps and BMW fuel line for the job. It's nice to be original, right? :)

Is there anything I am missing? Any other "might as well's" while I'm in there?

Really excited to getting my car back on the road and gaining two or three horsepower back from those rebuilt fuel injectors. My first little project has been fun so far... and I'd like to thank the community for the plethora of great posts that I've been able to reference!

Side note that United Remanufacturing Co here in the Chicago area (Schiller Park) rebuilt my fuel injectors for $30/piece. They look great, and I'm sure perform great too!

Couple pics for reference. I'll be sure to post photos of the finished project, too, and as she goes back together...!!!









Thanks for checking my post out...

Cheers,
Royal Lichter
Chicago, IL

[maxmonster]

I'm about to tackle this plus chip and mess under the intake starting tomorrow!

[oldmann]

While its apart do the mess under the intake, search it, good read.

Replace the plastic coolant manifold with a genuine BMW piece, these are usually rotted by now.

All the coolant hoses to heater & T.B. heater and radiator while your at it.

Good luck, Nice lookin car, wish mine was that clean.

[maxmonster]

Did the mess under intake, upgraded to 21lb injectors and installed a SSSquid chip tuned for the injectors. Can't really tell much of a difference down low but definitely feel a difference in mid to high end. Also seems like the idle is just more reliable now. Took about 2.5 hrs with a lunch.

[rlich8]

I ended up refreshing a couple of extra hoses under the intake manifold, as well as some hose clamps. I refreshed a bunch of o-rings. Intake manifold gaskets, both. Replaced the temp sender.

Actually removed several unnecessary hose clamps on the crankcase breather hoses as well.

All in all, a very easy job. Only part that made it difficult is waiting on parts occasionally.

I run an SSSquid chip as well and now that I've cleaned the fuel injectors I really feel the benefit. The car definitely needed the injectors cleaned. The performance is unbelievable and rather great for a car with only 145-150 horsepower!

Thanks everyone!