So here's the scam.....solved...maybe.

[Slowered318]

It seems really odd your injectors are not functioning at all (by the sounds of it), are you sure you have the supply/return hoses connected properly?

[bmwman91]

Good call. Yeah, make sure that the fuel line that exits the filter is the same one that connects to the middle nipple on the fuel rail. The rail nipple down by cylinder #4 is the return. Just recently a guy on r3vlimited accidentally connected his fuel return line to the evap / vapor return line and had basically pumped his whole evap system full of gas! So many black hoses, so little room to see!

[bigskyis]

Please confirm that the nipple that is towards the firewall is the fuel return line and the one in the middle is the feed line. If that is the case...there might be a problem there. I am certain that when I dc'd the fuel lines from the rail and primed the pump...the fuel shot out of the hard metal line that would connect to the rear most fuel rail nipple. It looked like somebody had been in at the pump as the fuel line clamps are American clamps not BMW. When I get home this weekend I will trace the lines from pump to filter; from filter forward and from fuel return back. Thanks.

Now let me add this...after Slowered318's post I hooked all back up and decided to crank it. This was with the 943's. Took upwards of 10 minutes of trying and a can of ether but it finally started. Rough at first. Crack throttle and it would die. Let it idle and it seemed to even out. Now...will fuel get through the FPR from the backside? It has an off idle stumble up to around 1700 but after that it smooths out and will rev to redline. So I am going to trace the lines when I get home.

I did take my original 714's to NAPA and they put them on the AZNU tester...nothing wrong there. Hmmmm......WTF?

943's are in the car and are going to remain there for now. I am tired of pulling the intake.

But now for something completely different...while on the ramps (where it has been for 2+ weeks) I note a fluid spill on concrete under bellhousing/block interface....I also noticed that my clutch pedal is now very "light" ( for lack of better term). Would appear that salve cylinder took a dump. New one on the way. At least it happened in my driveway and not in the middle of nowhere.

Please let me know on the fuel rail nipples/barbs/thing-a-ma-bobs. I will trace the lines when I get home.

Thank you for your patience and input.

[bmwman91]

Fudge, sorry, I had it backwards for the nipples on the rail. A pic is worth a thousand words. Parts 12 & 13 have little arrows on them, as well as their names.
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=AF93&mospid=47305&btnr=13_0308&hg=13&fg=15

Then it is just a matter of making sure that the hoses from the fuel rail connect to the proper hard-lines on the chassis. That's easy enough to verify by seeing which one connects to the filter outlet! Did you mess with the hoses by the pump at all? As long as the pump output is going to the filter & not the return, you should be fine. The nipple toward the bottom of the pic is the outlet and the upper one is the return.


This guy has a lot of good pics of his project which might be helpful.
http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=156902

[Slowered318]

My vote is to keep using the 943 injectors. Although 20 year old 318's are not all the same from my observations. Always a slight variations from one car to another so it's hard to advise what injectors will work with a particular engine.

I will verify that the nipple on the far right (closest to the firewall) connects to the "supply" line from the fuel pump. I also used the same (unsafe) method of checking what line has fuel pressure, should have marked them previously.

If possible, you might need to take it out for a long drive to get everything "dialed-in".

[bigskyis]

Fuel lines hooked up properly. Car fires up nicely but...same-o, same-o...still has the off idle stumble when you give it gas. Took it for a ride, clearly doing better than when I started. But it still is not running great. Clearly there is a "miss" through the RPM band up to 5k+. I don't expect this to set land speed records but...years ago I had a late 80's Saab 9000 with the 2 liter DOHC 4 cylinder. Ran great, very smooth and ran well. I expect this M42 to run as well. Anyways...I am fairly certain it is not fuel delivery. Which leaves ignition. Plug wires ohm out at 5.8k to 6kohms. I will double check the crank position sensor. I did check the coils and they all come in at 0.8 ohms as measured per the Bentley manual. I did swap in some individual e36 coils but made not much difference. On occasions I get what sounds like a back fire in the headpipe. The exhaust does smell "rich" at the tailpipe. What else.....Not sure. Anyways...I am getting close to parking it for the winter. It is not a life or death thing if I don't get it running at the moment. If that were the case, the diesel and the 2.93 gearing would be in/running over the course of a weekend. I still debating about doing that and setting the M42 aside for now. Be that as it may, I would rather have the M42 hooking and cooking but crap happens. We shall see about BavAuto coils are COP. I don't really want to throw $$$ at the parts game crapshoot. Thanks for help!

[bigskyis]

Forgot to add...no CEL...stomp test 1444...road test...step on the gas, stumbles,gains RPM slowly and is like stepping on a wet sponge.

[bmwman91]

Maybe you have a plugged catalytic converter? When you drive, does it get red hot or anything?

When the ignition craps out, you usually get misfires and jerky acceleration. If a coil or wire was somehow totally dead, it would run on 3 cylinders, which is sounds like it is not.

[bigskyis]

So here is how it is hanging...obviously, many possibilities as to the ultimate fail point. Have not found it just yet. Pretty certain it is not fuel delivery.  Trying to locate my fuel pressure testing set. The 943's seem working fine. Therefore...thinking ignition. After plying the pages here and at R3V I figured I would try swapping the coils. Bought the BavAuto upgrades...well...made no difference. Runs just like it did with the stock coils. (I am going to post a rant about the BA coils on a different thread).  So far we have new coils. New plugs. New blue top H2O sensor....Although I have ohmed the CPS and it was within specs based on previous postings at M42, I am going to give Turner Motorsports some business next week and order the CPS. I will recheck everything over the weekend but the car (although it runs) is really not safely drivable.  Could it be wires? Sure but they all ohm out between 5.8k and 6k. I think the uniformity tells me they are more or less "otay". I will put the DVOM on the TPS. Again. And the cam sensor. Again. But...I am getting towards the end point on this piece o'stool. The TD conversion is looking better all the time. I really do want the M42 to run as well as I think it should run...after all, that is why I jumped on it when I found it for sale. But there does come a time to cut ones losses...So...I will get the CPS ordered and on its way. I will cross my fingers and hope that the CPS does the deed. Otherwise...going to be selling a bunch of stuff...but I still tremendously appreciate all the help everybody has thrown my way.

[bmwman91]

Uugh, throwing money at an issue is never fun, but at times it can be necessary. The ignition wires might Ohm out OK even with failed insulation. If the insulation is breaking down, you'll get arcing which can cause issues. It is hard to say what's going on though.

[bigskyis]

I hear what you are saying. When you say arcing of the wires...I have had the thing running at night and taken a look at the wires...there is nothing. Now...I am referencing one of my earliest automotive experiences...my first car was a 62 Chevy Biscayne with a 235 inline 6. It ran. Not great but it ran. One night I had to open the hood with it running and you could see a great light show in various areas along all the wires...
Next day it had some new wires and it ran a whole lot better. I have had the 318 running in the night and specifically looked for anything similar and sure have not seen anything. I might fire it up today and lightly spray the wires with H2O and see if there are any changes.  Is the 6k ohm resistance per wire that I measure, relatively normal?  Regardless, I am going to get a CPS on its way.

[bigskyis]

The GD CPS that was supposed to be here today won't be here till...which means I won't get around to this piece o'stool until next weekend,...

[bigskyis]

Well...it wasn't the CPS. Needless to say, it is a bit of a downer. New coils and new CPS and still runs poorly. Tomorrow I have a few things to try and then I am done. New rear main seal for the diesel arrived and it is getting close to doing the deed. I am not happy about this but like I said in the beginning I am not going to go throwing parts at it until I hit something. I can't afford that. I really had high hopes to have this thing run as I had read such good reviews on the M42 powerplant. In the big scheme of things it is not that big of deal. If I had known I was going to go down this road I would have sought out a 323e/I with a dead engine. Well...that's my story and I am sticking to it. Another downer is that I have a cylinder head at the machine shop. Already pressure tested and is without leaks. It is going to get .007 shaved off of it to true it up and then to the chopping block. Thanks for everyone's input.

[timothymcn]

Sorry to hear that you haven't had any luck sourcing the issue, yet. Where do you live? Maybe there's an M42 guy in the area who could lend you a hand? I'm sure you could lure him there with a six-pack. Might be worth poking around r3vlimited, as well.

[bigskyis]

timothymcn:  I live in Montana. Doubt there are many other running M42's running the state. Let alone anybody that knows how to troubleshoot/maintain them.  It clearly is not a mechanical problem.  I swapped the brain and it still runs the same. I backprobed all the grounds at the DME connector and they are all good. Swapped the TPS from an E36 throttle body I had laying around (same part number). No improvement. To add insult to injury my 89 325ix pinched a loaf last Monday. Which is a story for another day. I thought...maybe fuel pump. So I pulled the pump from the ix. It was a Walbro I swapped into the IX within the past 3 years. No change. Car starts and runs. I can drive it. Virtually all of the time, it feels like it is running on 3 cylinders. Any mild grade and the sucker can barely pull the hill. Have to drop a gear or two and rev the crap out of it, even then it just wants to lay down. The car can barely get out of its own way. My wife made an interesting comment last nite... "that car really stinks when you pull away"....hmmm.....crapped out convertor? I guess the best way I can describe the way that it runs is that it seems like it has a butt plug shoved up its ass. Never overheats. I don't know...I like challenges but it is 11 degrees out and I do all this crap in the driveway. Not today. I am not going to bail on the M42 just yet...It has got to be something simple. If/when I find it I am sure I am going to have one of those WTF moments. Thanks for the r3v tip. But...been there, done that. I scored the DME from a cat on r3v (Thanks Justin!). If anybody here reads this post and has had experience with a plugged cat, post up. I am ready to ream the thing. It would be a "no harm/no foul. The only cat I ever had fail was on an 88 Mustang GT. The cores fell apart and rattled like a sum bitch. Ford had a big recall on that one. But I have never had a "plugged convertor". Again, thank you.