The complete repair, rebuild, repaint, and v8 swap of my early model sedan

[325ix]

This is a thread of epic proportions. The effort you put into saving this car is unbelievable! This would be a prime candidate for COTM if it was still going.

[OoPEZoO]

My 14" pep boys special isn't a good enough fan to cool this monster (big surprise). Time to get a good fan.

Lesser of many potential evils

[White325is]

I got a 16" spal off of ebay for cheap. works really really well.

hmmm..
link..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Spal-16-Diameter-Pull-Type-Curved-Blade-Radiator-Cooling-Fan-2070-CFM-/130709824963?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1e6ee9a5c3

[MR 325]

^ 2070 cfm, yup that baby should do the job!

[tg318is]

Yes please.

[JGood]

After hours of more frustration, she is now running nice and cool. I installed a 16" Hayden fan I picked up at pep boys today, and it still overheated. But with the grills off, I noticed a little excessive airflow coming back off the fan. Guess what? On these fans, yellow = ground and black = positive. Same with the 14" fan I had installed. I reversed the wires, and now it doesn't pass the 1/2 way mark sitting still for 15 minutes in 95+ degree weather.

The shitty thing is, I had nice fan mounts welded on to the core support with studs that the fan sat on, which all got painted body color, and I cut all of that off to fit the 16" fan. The 14" was probably plenty adequate, the CFM rating is only 200 lower. so now I have the 16" installed via those shitty ties that go through the rad. So I'll need to tear the front end off, make new fan supports, and they won't be body color (and I'll likely damage some of the fresh paint on the core support when I weld). Oh well, I'm just glad its running good!

The other issue is, it doesn't like warm restarts. It left me sitting for 15 minutes in a parking lot. I'll need to research m60's a bit and see what kind of common things may cause that.

This thing is violent, it pulls so damn hard. 1st is useless, I may be swapping the 3.25 for a 2.93 or 2.79.

[MattAvino]

i gotta hear this thing.

[e30lov]

We need moar videos. Better then that 9 second one ricky posted on facebook

[JGood]

I'm trying not to beat on it too much, I have a LOT of loose ends to tie up, it's basically band-aid'ed together right now. Im leaking oil, p/s fluid, exhaust needs redone, interior needs put back together, all of the hoses under the hood need rerouted, etc...

Getting to bimmerfest is going to take some work, probably every night between now and then.

[JGood]

I've got a persistent hard-start condition. It seems to not matter whether the engine is cool or warm, as long as it's been turned off for more then 15 minutes or so, it's difficult to restart. Sometimes it will fire right up, sometimes it takes 3-4 cranks at ~10 seconds each. It's almost like the fuel supply is depressurizing and it has to fill the line or something? Guess I'll need to get a fuel pressure tester. Any other thoughts?

One thing I do notice, which has been happening for years now, even with the m50, is that you can hear the fuel pump run for 2-3 seconds when the key is turned to the on position, before starting the car. But, it only does this some times. I'd say 50% of the time maybe. When it does, the car fires right up.


I also have a high idle, about 1200 or so. I cleaned the ICV, no change. I got another ICV, and that one makes it idle at about 400, and the engine will eventually shut off, and has poor throttle response. Cleaned that one too, no change. Guess I'll try another...

[FunfGan]

Sounds like an issue with the fuel pump/ fuel pump relay. If its not priming all the time, thats gotta be it. Everytime you turn the key to "on", it should be on to prime for a few seconds, then shut off once it reaches peak pressure, when it will shut off. Next time you encounter an issue with it needing to be cranked a few times, just go feel the fuel delivery line, and see if it has pressure(should be ~30psi, so should be obvious wether you do or not). If you don't have pressure, its definitely an issue with the pump not sensing the lack of pressure.

[JGood]

So the pump actually senses the pressure and determines if if needs to prime or not? Which pump does that, the one down by the rocker in front of the back wheel, or the in-tank pump? It sounds like the one down by the rocker is the one kicking on. Weird that the m50 never had an issue starting, even though it didn't prime half the time.

[dirty30]

My brother has a 2.79lsd he'll trade straight up for that 3.25. If you are interested shoot me a PM. Maybe we could meet up one weekend.

[JGood]

I may be interested in a few months, but as of now I have many more issues to straighten out. I'll be in touch.

Tonight I went to start the car. The fuel pump primed in the key "on" position. I then tried to start the car, and it cranked for 10 seconds with no luck. Cranked again for 10 seconds, nothing. Waited a minute or two, cranked again, and it fired right up.

I also think the missing/sputtering around 2500-3000 rpm's is getting worse. It's only under partial throttle, the less throttle I give it, the more it misses. If I go full throttle at 1500 rpm's, it just pulls through that range like an angry SOB with no missing at all. I have a full tank of 93 in it, and am still using the factory chip.

[JGood]

Progress! I think.

Both my my idle control valves were 100% stuck. One made the car idle at 1200 RPM's, the other made it idle at about 500 rpm's, barely enough to run. I cleaned them both, it took a long time, and some poking with a screwdriver, to get them freely spinning. Now they both do the exact same thing that just the one did... idle at 500 RPM's. Well, at least I know the ICV is good and operating properly.

So I decide to test the cam and crank sensors. Get 1400 ohms on the cam sensor (1200 is good, I believe? I'm not sure if that's acceptable or not...). The crank sensor is where things start getting fishy. I get 900 ohms on it. I know it's supposed to be either 550 or 1200 (the Bentley is wrong for the 540, and I know that's a common mistake pointed out on forums). However, mine was 900.

So I start doing some research, and determine it's supposed to be 550. I go back to double check it, and I'm getting something like 50 megaohms. Hmmm, is this also my frequent no-start issue? I plug it back in, crank the car over, no dice. I cranked it 3 times, 20+ seconds each, nothing.

I think I found my problem. I'll be overnighting a new CPS.



On top of that, I'm dumping oil out of the passenger side valve cover in the rear. Whenever I go more then 1/2 throttle, it's pumping oil out directly onto the exhaust manifold, and all I see is huge clouds of smoke in the rearview. I pulled the valve cover tonight (thankfully I can pull the passenger side, drivers side would require removing the booster system or the engine itself, both equally as hard), and the gasket looked fine. I had black RTV in the corners of the half-moons and everything. I saw no issues at all. So I reassembled it with more RTV this time, and will hope for the best.