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So the pedal works OK now but I'm still burning a TON of oil. I'm starting to think the head gasket is blown, there's a lot of oil down the side of the motor and the gasket is definitely wet.
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May 24, 2016 00:46
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 12:09 |
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So I'm not sure if I'm even going to bother compression testing. The gasket kits come with all the other possible culprits anyway, and I'm 90% sure I've got a dickered head gasket. First off, here's my accelerator motion reducer that I fabricobbled. Gonna have a buddy make me a real one not out of sheet metal at some point.  The valve cover gasket seems pretty dry,  So do the exhaust lugs  When i look a little further down, right where most of the smoke comes from I can see the block just covered in oil and gasket having some major seepage  It gets smokier the more I rev it, and there is definitely fresh oil appearing in that area after I rev it a bit. I think I might just save myself the $30 and just replace the head gasket and all the top-end gaskets while I'm at it. edit: Before I bite the bullet on a rebuild kit I'm going to see if replacing the distributor gasket will help. autism ZX spectrum fucked around with this message at 04:00 on May 24, 2016 |
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May 24, 2016 01:18
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So I didn't want to wait for a gasket to come in and took off the distributor housing. The gasket was blown out. Used a bit of permatex and now the car is 100% less smoky. hosed up by erasing my mark when I pulled the distributor out though so I got to spend some time re-timing it. Probably for best, anyway. Runs well now. Spent a little bit of time chasing electrical gremlins. I managed to get all the lights to work after replacing some fuses (turns out that they don't work so well after 30+ years)...well all the lights except for the reverse lights. Apparently the 320i originally came with a pushbutton style switch that was physically triggered by the shifter going into reverse. However, since I've got a transmission from a later car that doesn't seem to be the case. The wire colours seemed to have stayed the same, luckily, and I found a very convincing suspect for my missing switch. The setup should go Green/white from fuse to one side of tranny switch, green/white out the other mated to blue/white which then goes to the lights. I found what looks to be a switch on top of the transmission with green/white at two terminals, with one of the green/white branching off and turning into blue/white. It looks as though the PO could not reconcile the different eras of connectors. So next up I'll have to grab a multimeter and check to see if the switch operates, make the connections and then pick up the wires going to the reverse lights. If all goes well I should have a set of temp plates next week so I can actually take it on the road. I'm really curious to see how/if the Weber operates under load. I still haven't been able to trigger the diaphragm and open the throttle fully, but the car spins up to 80km/h in fourth which is exactly what you'd expect from a tiny carb.
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May 27, 2016 04:30
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Got the reverse lights working. Had to pull the switch out and remove a washer from between it and the transmission. Might order a new switch some day, but it's the recommended quick fix either way. Wiring the switch in the old way would have involved running wire into the car from underneath the shifter boot, and since the interior is gutted there wouldn't be a good way to hide it. Fortunately managed to snake in some wire in with the main loom and did all my connections under the dash where the original reverse light connection was. Got the driver's side door lock to work too. Somehow the little push-down thing for the lock had gotten flipped to closed when the mechanism was open, jamming it. Don't know what I did to unfuck it, but it locks and unlocks with the key now.
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May 30, 2016 02:41
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It's been a hectic week, didn't have much time to wrench. Got the floor re-painted inside, though, and a lil' bit of undercoat on the bottom. I'm pulling the distributor again tonight because my gasket should be in soon. While I had it timed I decided I was gonna have to see if it even dropped into gear. It only seemed to work so-so when I had it up on jacks, acceleration wise. It was hard to tell. Since I couldn't find any info on expected performance with this motor/carb setup I was anxious as to whether it would work at all. I was really worried that the carb was undersized and all I'd get is some revs and a BWUMP as the engine stalled when dropped into gear. I only moved it like three feet, backing out of the garage because it's not tagged/registered at all right now. It seems to work great. Lots of power to spare and the acceleration doesn't feel as sloppy under load. I can't wait to actually drive it.
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Jun 7, 2016 03:15
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Take pictures! Take videos!
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Jun 7, 2016 05:11
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Sorry! I'll have pics of what I did real soon, my phone's battery is poo poo and I've been forgetting to charge it before wrenching lately.
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Jun 7, 2016 15:40
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Alright I've got a pic dump! SO, reverse lights! The switch itself looks like this  It's normally open, and from what I've read it's mechanically operated by the gear selector when you drop it into reverse. The switch lives at the top of the transmission. The saving grace is that you can get to it from the engine bay.  Here's a better pic of the switch with the connectors.  The strange part was that the blue/white reverse light wire starts from underneath the dash and not from the fuse box. It's tapped off of the rear running lights through a harness found just behind the glove box.  Originally the wires came from the switch and went up beneath the shifter boot, but as I said before gently caress that. I ran a wire through where the loom comes in.  In the engine bay it snakes along the firewall and then drops down to catch the switch.  Once I had it inside the cabin I ran it underneath the steering wheel with the rest of the loom then just soldered the connections under the dash. It's pretty much invisible and once the center console is in no one will be able to tell.  Here's a pic of my accelerator cable bracket in action.  It starts a lot further back than the stock one and draws a much smaller arc.  Here's a pic of the interior  Found the shifter boot! 
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Jun 8, 2016 03:05
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 12:09 |
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I'm going to close this thread, for now. Everything is all fucky. Pretty sure the carb is undersized, but I'm not 100% sure and it could very well be a blown head. The car can't make it past 2300 RPM, it's something to do with the vacuum actuated butterfly valve on the Weber. New distributor gasket made a slight improvement with regards to the amount of oil burnt but there's always oil pooling a the passenger's side rear corner of the head. The brakes are terrible, one of the front wheel lugs is broken. I don't have the time/money to invest in it right now. The car is too hosed to really sell, too, and I needed it out of my garage ASAP. I pulled most of the glass out, taped up the windows and tarped it over. I'll get back to it in a year. I'm planning on selling the Weber and probably doing a Megasquirt injection system. Right now I know the car needs a new head gasket, new brake + fuel lines and a fuel delivery system. Bye for now, friend 
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Jun 20, 2016 04:24
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