The Blunderwagon - 89 325iX touring 3.1L stroker

[kronus]

Thing's hot. Wish they were more common

me too! it would be easier to find gutter trim and other parts I'm missing :(

yep the euro cars had wired in. You can roll down the windows or open the sunroof without inserting the key. manual window cars obvously didn't have this

interesting to know about the sunroof. I briefly wondered if that works on mine, before remembering that it doesn't have one.


This year will be the year of fixing rust on this poor thing. Known areas that need to be addressed:
- both fenders
- both front jack points
- spots under rear windows
- side of inner trunk panel, next to the muffler

[kronus]

As is tradition, it is time for the semi-annual update.

Current status:




A lot of small annoying stuff has been getting sorted. In no particular order, I've
- swapped to a much better lower center section for the violet design edition driver's sport seat
- installed a new TRM 044 fuel pump
- swapped out rear door gaskets
- chased a front end rattle around for 3 months

The bigger project last year was getting the 3.1 stroker to run right, which it never did with the "markD startup tune" motronic setup I got with the motor. To resolve this, I could either try for a new one-off dyno tune, or go aftermarket. Given the general difficulty of finding both an AWD dyno (or pulling the front shaft) and a remote tuner who remembers what an M20 is, I opted for the latter and installed JakeB's (ClassicDaily) Turkey n' Cheese PNP unit. This was an absolute breeze to install, and Jake was a huge help with getting the tune dialed in. It's running much more smoothly, idling fine, and tracking AFRs more tightly than the previous Motronic ever could. Highly recommended.

To dial down the engine bay bling factor a bit, I opted for a stealth install. This consisted of two cute tricks:
- use a dual-vacuum-port intake manifold blockoff plate. This is a factory part, but I have no idea which specific M20 it comes on. A friend luckily had one on a car that was using only one of the ports.
- make a stealth intake by gutting an AFM, locking the swash plate in an open position, and adding a fitting for the IAT sensor in a plausibly "stock" location.





The only thing left to do is harvest a dummy pigtail to de-bluetooth my now useless AFM.


Sadly, I have been knocking out jobs very specifically to get this car ready for sale. I'm up to three e30s and an e24 now, which is just not smart at this point.

Until next year.

[bradnic]

Oh man LOVE the stealth IAT install!!
great to see updates here

[litu]

Mmmmm, 3.1L stroker ix