Is this a good deal? '87 325is w/ issues

[mbonder]

You sure? All the fog lights work fine right now.

Anyways, here's a vid of the startup
https://youtu.be/fbrghvGWM84

Unless I missed something in those pictures, you don't appear to have any fog lights. The wires hanging on the left with the sensor are the ambient temp sensor, the wires on the right are for the fog light on the driver's side, although the plug has been ripped off.

That exhaust looks to be much smaller pipe than it should be and what a hack job on the welding.

You probably have a vacuum leak causing the off idle issue.

Anyway, you've got a basket case, good luck! First thing you should do is get yourself a Bentley Manual so you can get right to correcting some of your problems, first thing I'd do is rip out that exhaust and find a stock replacement as well as get a new oil cap and trace all of the vacuum lines for leaks.

[Ghetto_325is]

Unless I missed something in those pictures, you don't appear to have any fog lights. The wires hanging on the left with the sensor are the ambient temp sensor, the wires on the right are for the fog light on the driver's side, although the plug has been ripped off.

That exhaust looks to be much smaller pipe than it should be and what a hack job on the welding.

You probably have a vacuum leak causing the off idle issue.

Anyway, you've got a basket case, good luck! First thing you should do is get yourself a Bentley Manual so you can get right to correcting some of your problems, first thing I'd do is rip out that exhaust and find a stock replacement as well as get a new oil cap and trace all of the vacuum lines for leaks.

Crap my bad, I mistook the yellow lights for being fog lights lol. Yeah that makes sense.

Would it be a good idea to maybe just go to a junkyard and pull off an entire stock exhaust?

[doorman]

Crap my bad, I mistook the yellow lights for being fog lights lol. Yeah that makes sense.

Would it be a good idea to maybe just go to a junkyard and pull off an entire stock exhaust?

Finding a decent exhaust that you wouldn't destroy removing sounds like a miracle to me!!

I'd start with vaccum/running related issues first.

Can't be more then $150ish for an exhaust shop to throw some pipe and a muffler on her.

[RoyalW/BlauCheese]

Crap my bad, I mistook the yellow lights for being fog lights lol. Yeah that makes sense.

Would it be a good idea to maybe just go to a junkyard and pull off an entire stock exhaust?

That's what I'd do. Only thing is that it probably won't have a good cat. Which wouldn't let it pass smog. And possible leaks.

[Ghetto_325is]

Finding a decent exhaust that you wouldn't destroy removing sounds like a miracle to me!!

I'd start with vaccum/running related issues first.

Can't be more then $150ish for an exhaust shop to throw some pipe and a muffler on her.

Well it has the stock muffler on it, but it's missing the cat and resonator.

I can live with it being loud for now, but yeah I'm gonna get a smoke test on it sometime soon.

[Ghetto_325is]

Ok so a couple things:
1. When the car is idling, the car smells pretty strongly of gas. Could this be a result of the car running rich?
2. I'm starting to think that the TPS is bad, since when giving gas the car only struggles from idle.

Also how much should a smoke test cost from a reputable shop?

[UlrichFennec]

Ok so a couple things:
1. When the car is idling, the car smells pretty strongly of gas. Could this be a result of the car running rich?
2. I'm starting to think that the TPS is bad, since when giving gas the car only struggles from idle.

Also how much should a smoke test cost from a reputable shop?

Check for fuel leaks around your injectors, fuel rail and fuel pressure regulator. And definitely check your fuel lines and filter. DO NOT DRIVE IT IF THERE ARE LEAKS. Micheal Bay is not someone you want visiting your engine.

Have you driven it around a bit? How shitty is your gas mileage? Also, it'd be a good idea to do a Stomp Test to check for any codes you might be throwing. It'll help narrow some things down.

[mbonder]

If it smells of gas the only culprit is a leak somewhere before the fuel is injected into the engine. This could be a rotting tank, poor seal on the fuel pump assembly, rotting fuel lines, rotting fuel filter, poor injector seals, poor injectors. Start at the back with the tank and move forward checking everything the fuel travels through.

If you've got a fuel leak that's big enough you could have engine starvation, which would lead your car to stumble off idle. I don't really think this is what's happening, I think you have a vacuum leak, but there are a number of possibilities.

Did you not test drive this car before trading your miata for it?

[Ghetto_325is]

If it smells of gas the only culprit is a leak somewhere before the fuel is injected into the engine. This could be a rotting tank, poor seal on the fuel pump assembly, rotting fuel lines, rotting fuel filter, poor injector seals, poor injectors. Start at the back with the tank and move forward checking everything the fuel travels through.

If you've got a fuel leak that's big enough you could have engine starvation, which would lead your car to stumble off idle. I don't really think this is what's happening, I think you have a vacuum leak, but there are a number of possibilities.

Did you not test drive this car before trading your miata for it?

The seller has receipts for replacing the fuel pump and filter, so unless he screwed it up himself I don't think that would cause it. I looked around for leakage a bit, but I'll have to look over a bit later.

Funny thing is, when I drove the car, I noticed the hesitation a little bit, but I thought it was my fault since I'm still new to driving stick. The rest of the issues I didn't notice until after I drove it home. The seller claims that the vibration is due to the wheels being unbalanced. He said he swapped them over from his other car and didn't balance them.

[Ghetto_325is]

Have you driven it around a bit? How shitty is your gas mileage? Also, it'd be a good idea to do a Stomp Test to check for any codes you might be throwing. It'll help narrow some things down.

Gas mileage seems to actually be quite good, according to the little computer thing I'm getting 27.3 MPG. Also iirc, the stomp test is for '88 or newer cars

[ELVA164]

Yeah, stomp test won't work unless you decide to swap in a later ECU at some point. I wouldn't recommend an ECU swap for only that reason, but that's up to you. I agree that if there's a noticeable fuel smell you should really track that down and solve it. That would make me very nervous.

[Ghetto_325is]

Alright so I had a friend come check out the car, and he thinks that the smell is completely because of the fact that the car is running too rich.

It's running 19LB injectors from a Ford 5.0, but the seller did actually include 2 sets of original injectors. He said that they work well, but 1 of the sets might need a refresh. Would it hurt the car to try to swap the injectors? The car is chipped, but the seller doesn't think the chip works correctly.

[ELVA164]

It won't run correctly if the chip was meant for the larger injectors, but honestly I'd just buy a used 153 ECU and put that in with the stock injectors (or rebuilt M50 injectors, which can be found on here). Seems like the PO cut every single corner he could find...

[mbonder]

Go with a stock ecu and stock injectors, you don't need larger injectors unless you are running FI. You won't reach anywhere near max duty cycle with a stock engine.

The 19lb injectors go back to the days of people swapping in m30 AFMs and thinking that they could run more air and more fuel for more power, the results varied and generally have been dismissed as a waste of time. You only need larger injectors if you are pushing more air which means changing the intake (ITBs or FI).

[Ghetto_325is]

When the car is on, is the ICV supposed to make kind of a buzzing noise?