325is Project. My first E30

[Ga325is]

Alright guys just picked up my first E30. As the title says, its a 1987 325is. Here a couple pictures that I took when I picked her up.









Since I picked her up I have fixed the tac and the obc (replaced a couple fuses). Just need to figure out how to reset it. Need to adjust the valves, and run a compression and leak down tests. Think that I have a head gasket going out. If so then the head comes off and it will get rebuilt completely. Thanks for checking out my build.

Stay tuned it might get interesting.

[Ga325is]

Heres a new issue...

I picked her up in Jacksonville, Fl on Wednesday of last week and drove home the 130+ miles to my house. The whole way was on I95 where the speed limit fluctuates from 65-70mph. She drove fine at highway speeds. Well it started raining, about 45 min into the trip, so hard that everyone slowed down to 40-45mph and she still drove fine.

Today I finally got some free time after work to tinker with the 325 again and after replacing the fuses for the tac and the obc I decided to start her up and let her idle. Well she fired up after a few seconds of cranking and then proceeded to idle at about 600-700rpms.



Is this low?? My Bently Manual hasnt arrived yet and I havent explored the pdf version enough to find out what the proper idle is.

So heres the issue. She wont rev past 3000rpms in neutral or in gear? The last time I had this issue was with my 89 240sx that I had a few years ago. Does the MAF on these engines cause the same issue when it is bad?

Also she seems to be running real rich and from what I have read so far there is a coolant temp sensor to possibly blame???

Trying to sort these little issues out before I check the head cause I dont want to pull the head off if there is some other reason for my issues.

Also my engine oil light is on in the overhead check panel. I checked the oil level and it is right in between the two holes in the dipstick. This is where its supposed to be right?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

[ak-]

Looks like a nice platform to start with! I like the wheels.
The over head oil light comes on when you are a quart low if I remember correctly, so it makes sense that it turned on being the level is between the two marks. Fill it to the top mark.

Not revving past 3000 could be a few things. I had this problem in 2010 and it ended up being a bad distributor cap and rotor. Take the cap off and see if the contacts are filthy or corroded and maybe sand it down for a temporary fix. Your idle is also standard. I think 650 is the proper idle rpm.

The coolant temp sensor can give you a bad cold start idle in my experience. You should just replace all the sensors on the thermostat housing anyways, they are inexpensive.
Do a proper tune-up including the timing belt and water pump and you should be good to go. Welcome to r3v, prepare your anus.

[FunfGan]

Looking good! I'm friends with the lad you picked this up from.



Also this.

Welcome to r3v, prepare your anus.

[Dj Buttchug]

nice come up. as previously stated op, pepper your angus. Also nice wheels.

[NeedaBimmer]

When my '87 325is didn't want to rev past 3-4k it ended up having a tank full of rust and a bad fuel pump.

[Ga325is]

Update...

Ran a compression test this evening and heres what I got.

Cyl. #1 160psi
Cyl. #2 156psi
Cyl. #3 162psi
Cyl. #4 160psi
Cyl. #5 120psi
Cyl. #6 158psi

Now, I know that the valves need to be adjusted. There is a pretty loud noise coming from either #5 or #6. Now after the compression test I am leaning toward #5. These are dry numbers, I didnt have time to do a wet test (ran out of daylight). There is also a little bit of blue tinted smoke (oil) in the exhaust. Also the spark plug out of #5 looked brand new when all the others had a nice brown/black tint.

So heres my question, you think a badly out of adjustment valve could cause the compression to drop that much? When I do the timing belt I am trying everything I can to not pull the head off but I am slowly coming to the realization that its going to happen I just dont want to admit it to myself.