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

[bigskyis]

Picked up an e30 is approx. 3 years ago. Bought it with the knowledge that there was something wrong with it. PO stated that there was a lot of steam/coolant leaking. She finally tired of the car so $600 and it was mine. Towed it home and there it sat. Did not even look at car. Until a month ago.

In the past 4 weeks I have spent a lot of time reading the posts on this forum. I would like to thank those that made/make it happen and those that contribute. I won't say I read every post but at times it seems like I did. Thanks to all.

So...here is where I am at with the car...put battery in and it fires right up. No theatrics. WTF? I let it warm up and take it for a drive. Definitely down on power but it runs. So I am pleasantly surprised. My intent with the car was to get the chassis, yank the drivetrain for a swap and call it a day. But now that it runs...I want to get the 4 banger going if possible.

First order of the day is to do the MUTI. Thank you M42 Club. All the hoses had the usual cracks at either end and were clearly leaking air. Removed those that needed to go and replaced the rest. New gasket between the TB and intake. CEL 1222 goes away but still not running right.

Pull plugs for compression test. Plugs look uniformly old. DVOM says 25kohms on each plug. New plugs purchased. Perform compression test. 190-195# across the board. Shocked me, too. So pretty sure HG is good and head is not cracked (yet). Should be noted at this time I notice coolant leaking. Turned out when doing the MUTI I cracked one of the nipples off of the plastic coolant pipe. Order one from BA....URO....Send back to BA with nastygram (thanks m42) I only want OEM. Thank you Turner Motorsports. Topic for another day is might have thoughts on why the URO stool pipe leaks. Anyways...new pipe/o-ring and leak solved. I wonder if this was problem for PO. Also original pipe was cracked at flange in the block.

Drop lower oil pan (thanks M42)...no bolts in pan. All bolts where they should be and they are snug. Button up the pan. Fill with oil, coolant bleed system and off we go. Also, no remnants of timing chain or guides. Happy happy, joy joy....

Car fires up...idle is fine. Give it some gas and it falls on its face. As if running on 2 and 3/4 cylinders.

Ignition??? Well...I DVOM the wires...6kohm pretty consistently. At least they are uniform from resistance standpoint. Check coils and they all come in at 0.8ohms per Bentley. Seemingly OK. Hook it all back up. Fire up the engine. Idle is OK. Give it some gas and it is the same thing. When idling...
the exhaust is clearly running rich. While idling...I start to pull plug wires...first at the plugs. Pull cyl 1 and 3 and the idle drops almost stalling the engine. Pull 2 and 4 and there is no drop in idle. (). When I pulled each wire individually, I could get the boot close to any metal surface and I have an arc. Same for all four wires. Hook them back to the plugs and I do same thing at the coils. When I put the boot close to the respective coil tower I get and arc. Same for all 4 coil/wires.

Let engine cool off. Pull the plugs again...cylinder one is velvety black. Cylinders 2-3 actually look sort of normal. Cylinder 4 is wet with gas. Does not even look like it has fired. Scratch head and reinstall.

Fire up the engine...let it idle for 10-15 minutes. Temp gauge stays around 1/4. Put the IR temp sensor on the outlet and it is around 150F.
Put temp sensor on each headpipe....Cylinders 1 and 3 are at 600F. Cylinders 2 and 4 are at 300F.

Still scratching head. Shut it down. Pull fuel pump and the sock is clean (more or less). Reinstall fuel pump and it cycles like it should. I did install a new fuel filter (under car) which made no difference. Car fires up readily but still runs like a dog.

I should add that I did install a new blue top coolant temp sensor. No change. I checked CPS with DVOM and it is within specs. I have spark out the yingyang so the the CPS must be doing its thing.

I pull the valve cover to replace the gasket as it did have a slight oil leak. Everything under the valve cover looks reasonable. Yes...I know that the timing set can be suspect...but there are no noises right now to suggest chain slap from failed guides/tensioner. If I can solve my current dilemma the timing set will get replaced. First things first.

I sprayed a little starting fluid on anything that might have an air leak...no change. Pretty sure the MUTI thing took care of those issues.

At this point...this is where I am at. I don't believe it to be a spark/ignition issue. I have too much crisp,blue sparks when I checked the ignition. I also took a look at night time with engine running. No itinerant sparks anywhere.

Pretty sure it is a fuel/ fuel delivery problem. I am assuming the fuel pump is ok (for now). I do have a fuel pressure gauge for EFI...but it is in my garage somewhere. I am ashamed to admit I have no idea where it is at. Will try to find it. but...I am still comfortable with the pump at this time.
This leaves me with FPR and injectors.  Based on what I can figure out...I am leaning towards the injectors being the culprit. The good news is that I have a good friend who owns a wrecking yard and should have any number of Fords with 0-280-150-556's sitting in them. Soo....this weekends experiment is to get some injectors off of a Ford V-8 and give them a try. And try to find my fuel pressure gauge.

I am not sure if I left any pertinent info out...or forgot...I would really like to get the M42 running. If not...out it comes and I will proceed with original plan to install 2.4l TD/5 speed out my old 524td. Easy swap. Slap in the 2.93LSD I have and it is off to the races or at least back to 40mpg land but I would rather preserve the M42. Hell...even the AC works. Car has 152,xxx showing on the odometer.

Any help/thoughts/tips/insight you guys can provide would be greatly appreciated. 

[Bald Eagle]

I had a similar issue with my car post M.U.T.I. , Turned out i had the sensors hooked up wrong which really messes with how the car runs. It would idle but ran terrible until i fixed it proper and then everything worked again.

[bigskyis]

Bald Eagle:

Thank you for that information. The only problem is that of the 3 connectors you posted, the only one that had been removed was off the blue top temp sensor to the ECU. Never moved/removed either of the other two. As my in dash coolant temp gauge is functioning and the oil pressure light goes off when the engines fires up...I suspect they are where they need to be. However, when I get home this weekend I will surely check each and every one of them.

Thanks again!

[bmwman91]

Could be clogged or stuck injectors.

COntrary to what is posted in here, the 19# Ford injectors aren't going to work super well. The stock M42 ones are 21# units. I'd see about finding some used M42 ones from someone on here or r3vlimited.

[Bald Eagle]

I had unhooked mine to clean. I also thought I had it hooked up right but it was so backwards. It took me a while to find that illustration identifying I had things improper. Best of luck!

[bigskyis]

bmwman91:

I hear you about the Ford injectors. For me it is the quick and easy thing to do. I have been scratching my head over this one and am thinking the injectors are at fault. I can access the Ford injectors for nothing. If I slap them in and the car runs, then I have found my problem. If that is the case, I will probably send mine out to be cleaned, etc. I would agree that the Ford injectors are not the absolute answer, but they are the only thing I can get my hands on at the moment. Montana is not the absolute hot bed of BMW parts and pieces. I might have a set off of my 86 535i...but they are probably living with my fuel pressure gauge. Someplace.

Bald Eagle: where do you get those pics/info that you posted earlier?

[bmwman91]

Got ya. Yeah, the car will at least run with them. As far as I recall (and according to real OEM), the M42 and M30 engines use the same injectors, so you may have a decent option there.

You did mention that plug #4 was wet with gas at one point. That seems like an ignition thing. Try opening up the ECU. Some people have had the ignition coil driver IC's die on them, in an often visible way. Other times the coils just poop out as the potting epoxy breaks down and you get internal shorts on the secondary coil, which you can't really test with a DVOM. Ignition may be fine since you could get sparks from all 4 coils, but it's also a lot harder on the system in a running engine than in free-air.

[bigskyis]

I forgot to mention that I did pull the ECU and open it up to have a look at the coil drivers (per a post by Desktop Dave)( I think). Nothing in the ECU looked burned. If I was looking at the coil drivers correctly, all four of them looked as I would have expected them to. Like I said, I have spark from all 4 coils up to the plugs. Plug 4, when I pulled it, looked like it had been sitting in a puddle of gas. Plain, dripping wet. I would venture to say that the injector on #4 cylinder is firing like a fire hose. In all my years of schlepping cars I have never seen an plug that looked like this. I don't think it could have fired if it had wanted to. Frozen open? No idea. I had the car for almost 3 years prior to my even trying to turn the engine over. Maybe it is gummed up. But...Ford injectors as a test or if I can find my M30's. Will know this weekend.

[bmwman91]

Yeah, sitting for 3 years could have gummed it up and stuck it open. Good luck, let us know how some fresh injectors work out!

[Bald Eagle]

A friend downloaded a whole bunch of manuals, most of which were in German. I found 1 that was useful and happen to have this info. Let me see if I can get it to you somehow. Its 106 MB, looks to be the CD portion of a repair manual. I will edit this post with a link if i can get it to you.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0i7pdGuuoDTSGRQX25lMXZMem8/edit?usp=sharing

[bigskyis]

JFC...went to the boneyard thinking I was going to score some Mustang injectors. No such luck. However, I did find some 943 injectors out of a 4.6l Ford. I figured they might work enough to confirm that my original 714's were the problem. Did not exactly go down that way...Slapped the 943's in and buttoned everything up. Hit the starter repeatedly to prime the fuel system. Go to start and...nada...zip...nix...Engine will spin till the cows come home but no start. I squirt some ether in to the intake and the engine will cough and turn over as long as there is a little ether. But will not start. Inject a little gas in the intake. Same story. Engine will cough/sputter/run as long as there are fumes. So...I double check my work. All connectors are where they ought to be. Gas in the tank. Etc. etc......So on to plan two. Time to root around the garage and see if I can find my 535i injectors. Also, I should have a set of injectors off of my e36 328is. All I want to do is confirm that my original problem is/was due to my factory 714's. I had hoped that 4 hole 943's might do the trick. But...there is no indication that they are firing at all. I would have figured that the 943's would have let the car run. But...What are the chances that all 943's are crapped out? Probably minimal. So I will assume that they 943's cannot work in the M42. Oh well...I will give it another try tomorrow. 

[bmwman91]

Weird. The 943's are almost exact replacements for the 714's in terms of flow rate and impedance. Seems unlikely that they all quit.

Have you checked the condition of the fusible link on the 12V supply to the injection electronics? There's the giant 12V wire that comes off of the battery in the trunk, and then there's the smaller (but still pretty sizable) black wire that runs parallel to it. That smaller one is dedicated to the injection stuff and it has a big inline fuse on it about 18" from the  battery. VERY often the connection corrodes and causes all sorts of funky intermittent injection & ignition issues. Go take a look at it and give it the old 5lb tug test!

[bigskyis]

bmw91man: I thought the exact same thing about the 943's as you did. They are "oh so close"...I wonder if any other forum member has actually used them. Anyways...it is a puzzler. I will check those items that you pointed out and see "wassup". As for my 535i injectors...I might be SOL. I found a set of injectors but they turned out to be a set of 200's from a mid 80's M106 745i. Low impedance. I have some injectors from old turbo t-bird (when I used to screw with those) and they also are low impedance. Can I find my old 535i's? Not in your lifetime. Note to self...mark these things and put in one location. Dammittall...As for the e36 stuff...they may have gone the way of the 535i. The only good news is I can get more injectors tomorrow from boneyard in the a.m. However, I am going to check the stuff you pointed out. Frustrating to say the least. But I am getting proficient at pulling the upper intake.

[Slowered318]

I installed 943's and my car runs great, gained a few mpg and she fires right up like brand new. However it did take about 20 minutes to initially get the car running, I had to hook up a battery charger and kept checking the starter motor doesn't burn up. Between cranks I played around with the sensor wires and mysteriously blew a fuse, eventually I unplugged the ICV and finally the car started up! Well that's what worked for me but I wish there was another "trick", cranking for that long was painful.

[bigskyis]

Slowered318: Thank you for posting. I feel a little more comfortable with the 943's after reading your post. However...I pulled the whole thing apart. With the fuel line dc'd from the fuel rail, I can hit the starter and I have got gas shooting out like a damn fire hose. Cleaned up my mess and figured that wasn't the problem. I have fuel and I have spark. I have a car that will not start. Unless I squirt some ether or gasoline in the intake.  After reading your post it makes me think the thing is behaving like it is vapor locked. Before I put it back together I think I am going to hook up a longer line to the fuel return side of the fuel rail and keep priming until I have fuel at the outlet. I also now wonder if the fuel return line to the tank has a kink in it someplace....hmmmm.....you got me thinking. Guess I better put the battery on the charger tonite. Thanks again. I will keep at it. But maybe not until next weekend.