E36 M42 limp home modes.

[the_bluester]

Hey all, I thought this was better in a seperate thread to my trigger issues thread.

I am still fighting with the car to try to get it to run with my E11 Haltech, I just can not get it to trigger properly. It is so close to running that it is not funny but just won't run.

The problem I am having is trigger related. I can get stable triggering and timing at cranking speeds but as soon as I enable the injectors and try to start it it fires, bangs and crackles and pops and dies. I got my wife to help me tonight by cranking it while i put the timing light on for thew second or two it would run and the timing is jumping all over the place.

I know that the M42 would go into limp home mode with a failed cam position sensor and go to wasted spark and batch fire on the injectors and still run, but where they clever enough to get them to run at all with the cam sensor alone and a failed crank sensor? Before we removed the stock DME it was running very poorly, it would start and then flood and stall when you cranked it. If you then pulled out the fuel pump fuse it would crank and start and if you were quick enough getting the fuse back in it would idle normally but had no power at all. If they managed to make them run off the cam sensor only then it might explain things.

If anyone knows if they managed that then I would be prepared to chance my arm on a new sensor, otherwise it is just more money blown. Even changing to a custom sensor is difficult due to the configuration of the crank pulley. If it was a simpler arrangement there I would have converted it to a 12 tooth wheel and hall effect sensor weeks ago.