M20 help needed in Marysville WA

[PatMahjunk]

New to the forum. I am mechanically retarded when it comes to engines, I do great with the rest of the car though. Im having a few issues with my M20 and would really appreciate if someone in the area that is mechanically inclined was willing to come through and, at the least, look it over, listen to it, drive it and point me in the right direction. I can't afford to pay a shop ridiculous prices to look it over and fix it, I have a little money set aside for parts but thats about it. I have searched my issues but keep coming up with multiple answers and I'm more of a hands on learner anyways. My goal is to avoid further screwing anything up by diving into it with limited knowledge of engines. If you are willing to help, please PM me and I will get you my phone number so we can work out details.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. I can provide beer or ?

[camip]

What's it doing?

[PatMahjunk]

Intermittent sputtering, needs a valve adjustment (not quite comfortable doing this without oversight), temp gauge is whacky (this one I'm pretty sure I can fix). The sputtering and ticking under the valve cover are my two main concerns.

[camip]

M20s always tick look it up. And the sputter is the engine actually spitting or is the idle jumping.

[PatMahjunk]

The tick is not the healthy e30 tick. Much louder than that.

The sputtering is more of a struggle to get going; even on the freeway it kind of cuts out and feels like it lost its balls; when I go to accelerate at freeway speeds it struggles. This is why I would love to have someone check it out, trying to explain it correctly doesn't always work out.

[camip]

If it was my car I'd just do the simple car tune up stuff plugs, wires, cap and rotor, fuel filter. Simple fixes are usually the problem. And if the tick is that bad take it to a shop or a forum member who really knows what their doing.

[Quadrajet]

Is it an M20b25(325i) or M20b27(325e) ?

[PatMahjunk]

M20b25(325i)