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So after a very eventful year and learning a lot about following whims, I had the chance to buy a 1978 BMW 320i. I was overseas and figured a car would be nice when I got back. A buddy found this thing on a facebook group. He's a huge BMW fan and I've always wanted something without an ECU. This thing ticked all the boxes: snow tires, 5-speed swap, aftermarket exhaust, LSD...ran when parked...  The PO did some questionable things. The k-jet system is missing, as is the intake manifold. He was telling me it would come with a custom fabbed intake manifold for these 4 linked Mikuni motorbike carbs he left in the back seat. Unsurprisingly the manifold never materialized (thank god?). Apparently there is a low pressure fuel pump installed, but I haven't been able to verify that. I tracked down a stock 2002 manifold, though, and now I'm saving my pennies for a Weber 32/36.  I'll have pics of the motor later, I forgot my phone when I was fixing the hood latch. I finally got it to close, turns out the culprit was most likely a cracked pull handle...thing. It's on the floor now  Thankfully the hood latch mechanism works like a bicycle brake so I'll rig up a new way to "catch" the little cylinder or just replace the handle outright. Really tempted to go to a farm supply store and find a big red pull handle and write the "HOOD" on it.  In this pic you can kind of see where the cable end fit into the pull handle. Oh yeah, the interior is totally stripped but that suits me just fine. The stock seats were absolutely beyond saving, but I scored some e36 seats real cheap so I'll be putting those in. First I'm going to have to cut out the weirdo seat rail supports that came stock, then probably just drill some bolt holes right into the tub.  The totally sweet analog clock.  Mocked up with e36 seats.  the interior  With the seat stand things in place the steering wheel is way too close to the seats and seats are way too high.  Here's the weirdo seat stand thing, the previous seats were bolted into those C clips. I'm missing 2 of 4 and the stand things are cracked in multiple places. Probably best to get rid of them anyway. I'm also going to have to cover up the fiberglass floor if I want any chance of passing safety. I'll either have to glue on some carpet or rhino-line it.  Fixed the rip!  Missing the passenger's side mirror. No idea what I'm going to do about that. Not sure how often I'll be able to update, as I've got so many things on the go right now but I'm planning on chipping away at 'er all summer. The list of Things To Do is as follows: -Mount gaskets and intake manifold (probably happening today) - Get a grinder and grind out the old seat supports, install new seats (Everything past this point is going to have to wait until I build a gate. I'm moving soon, the new place needs a gate for the parking spot before I can park there because of hooligans) - replace k-jet fuel lines with regular ones, drain fuel tank, check fuel pressure and install regulator - Acquire/install carb - Get rid of the points and install a CDI She seems to hold fluids well, but I haven't had a chance to get a really good look at the underside yet. If it turns out to be a huge can of worms I can probably make my money back parting/selling it especially if I can get her to run. If you guys have any ideas/advice about any of this I'd love to hear it, it's my first foray into 4-stroke carbureted motors as I've only dicked around with 2 stroke before this.
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Mar 16, 2016 16:05
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 01:16 |
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It needs a taxi sign and checkered racing stripes down the side.
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Mar 16, 2016 17:21
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You should put a couple 2-stroke motors in it. Like 2 CR500/KX500's, or 2 ATK700's.
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Mar 16, 2016 23:10
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I don't think that car ever had a passenger side mirror, tons of old cars didn't. Especially base trim models.
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Mar 17, 2016 00:14
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Yerok posted:You should put a couple 2-stroke motors in it. Like 2 CR500/KX500's, or 2 ATK700's. Why not 4, one for each wheel? Sudo Echo posted:I don't think that car ever had a passenger side mirror, tons of old cars didn't. Especially base trim models. I sort of figured that but I've only ever seen that setup on a k-car before. I would like a mirror on that side, though, I think. I might actually need one for safety too, if the guy doing it has a stick up his bum. autism ZX spectrum fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Mar 17, 2016 |
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Mar 17, 2016 01:14
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Nubile Hillock posted:Why not 4, one for each wheel? Check your state laws just to be safe. In Illinois, you can run just one outside mirror, but if your rear window is tinted, you have to run two.
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Mar 17, 2016 03:42
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I'm in Canada, Manitoba to be specific. The law here varies depending on what shop you go to and what sort of day the guy's having. Technically a car has to conform to the safety standards of the time it was produced, but I've had a truck rejected for not having license plate lights and no shoulder belt for the center seat on the front bench, even though the truck came stock like that.
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Mar 17, 2016 04:27
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Hell yea no mirror crew. I drove a '82 toyota single cab without one, they are surprisingly common. In those days with unlimited visibility you could do a shoulder check and be fine!
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Mar 17, 2016 05:59
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 Learned a bit more about the car, got a hold of the PO again. The in-tank fuel pump has been bypassed already, and the external pump has been removed. This is probably for the best cos now I can get a pump that will play nice with the carb I want to get. The great news is that all the electrics work and the motor turns over. Speaking of which, the PO installed a push button start.  Anyway, got the manifold installed. I love whoever came up with the idea of the water pump sharing a bolt with the manifold. When you go to mount the manifold coolant leaks everywhere! I suppose it's better than the 2002 where the coolant passed through some part of the manifold for god knows what reason.  Another shot of the engine bay, the PO installed a weirdo assymetrical radiator fan for ~higher efficiency~, not sure how much of a difference it makes with the tiny as heck radiator. 
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Mar 21, 2016 02:58
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Minor update! ordered this carb  Turns out with the manifold I'm going to run I'm not going to be able to run the k202 Weber which is the preferred carb for these builds usually. I ended up with the manifold from the single-barrel solex years which limits me to the single barrel Weber. I think it's kind of rad, personally, because of the mechanical simplicity. Not to mention it really lowers the overall cost. No idea what I'll be doing for an air filter, though!
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Mar 28, 2016 00:04
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Nubile Hillock posted:Speaking of which, the PO installed a push button start. Isn't that the button from a Nintendo or something?
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Mar 28, 2016 23:37
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I really don't think so, it looks like a legit push-start button. The switch has a really good spring in it and the rubber around the whole apparatus is of pretty good quality. It's a fun button to push. It would be rad if it came off a nintendo, though
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Mar 29, 2016 14:03
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I meant the purple one :P Maybe just because of the color.
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Mar 29, 2016 18:23
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I think it might be factory, the Front Fog button isn't actually installed, looks like it was a placeholder for cars that actually had it? The rear window doesn't look molested either. Found out an...interesting...thing today. I'm really going to have to double check the dif and the rear bushings now. First off, I'm 99% sure this has to be the same car as the one they're talking about. What are the chances of another repainted 320i lving in Manitoba? Second of all, as of what? three years ago? the car had a factory interior, no rust and ran like a top. WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU?   Granted, the rockers and floor pans could have been rusting out under the super thick paint but the rest of this poo poo just boggles the mind.
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Mar 30, 2016 01:24
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Haha your car was destroyed by drift retards too. 
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Mar 30, 2016 01:44
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CharlesM posted:Isn't that the button from a Nintendo or something? Looks like an arcade fighting game button to me. They are really nice buttons.
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Mar 30, 2016 01:49
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Oh god what'd they do to your car?
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Mar 30, 2016 01:50
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Nubile Hillock posted:I really don't think so, it looks like a legit push-start button. The switch has a really good spring in it and the rubber around the whole apparatus is of pretty good quality. It's a fun button to push. It would be rad if it came off a nintendo, though It kinda looks like the flush button from the head (toilet) on a ship, honestly.
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Mar 30, 2016 20:42
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Going to start working on the thing soon, getting it dragged out to my new place next week AND my carb came in!. Fuel pressure regulator is on its way in and I finally decided on what I want to do with my fuel pump situation. Also, might be buying a rusty as heck old truck  It runs, won't need much to safety and the price is right. But it's got a real bad rear main seal leak. It's an 84 s10 and I'm reading that it might have a rope seal? The guy selling it says he put a two piece seal on it when he had it apart 8 years ago but not a whole lot changed since.
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Apr 28, 2016 00:35
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Nubile Hillock posted:
Coolant passes that way to warm the manifold to mitigate carburetor icing. Pretty common in older cars.
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Apr 28, 2016 07:25
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Sudo Echo posted:Looks like an arcade fighting game button to me. They are really nice buttons. I now want to mod my entire dash to use Sanwa illuminated arcade buttons. Or maybe just all these...  
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Apr 28, 2016 11:24
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Those would go well with the hello kitty rear lights you can get for the cappuccino.
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Apr 28, 2016 11:39
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What's up early model E21 buddy  Should be picking mine up today or tomorrow after having an exhaust put on and some other poo poo I didn't want to deal with. Will be daily driving it at least half the time to work out all the bugs that accumulate when a car sits for years. Shot from last spring after I finished upgrading suspension, getting rid of smog poo poo and putting in a 5-speed (was 4). 
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Apr 28, 2016 12:37
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wallaka posted:Coolant passes that way to warm the manifold to mitigate carburetor icing. Pretty common in older cars. Today I Learned~ NitroSpazzz posted:That car looks cleeean! What size wheels your running? Are those seats stock? The ones that I got with the car don't look like they ever had a head rest. They look more like boat seats than anything (I bet you still have an interior, too, you lucky bastard)
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Apr 28, 2016 13:45
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Cakefool posted:Those would go well with the hello kitty rear lights you can get for the cappuccino. I might have to look into getting a spare set of lights for the Supra so I can do something dumb like this.
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Apr 28, 2016 14:31
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Nubile Hillock posted:That car looks cleeean! What size wheels your running? Are those seats stock? The ones that I got with the car don't look like they ever had a head rest. They look more like boat seats than anything (I bet you still have an interior, too, you lucky bastard) Another fun thing for you to learn today. Anywhere from none to all of the exhaust manifold stud holes are drilled all the way through. This means if you ever take off the exhaust and one of the studs comes out make sure you use a high temp thread sealant when you put it back in. Otherwise you seep oil onto the hot exhaust...ask me how I found that one out 
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Apr 28, 2016 16:53
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Got the car towed to the new place today, dug right into trying to fix the poo poo heap. I'm almost 100% convinced that there is no inline fuel pump on this car. I dropped both tanks part way and all I saw was hardline. (Note: this model has some sort of bizarro double tank setup with rubber hose connecting the "primary" tank with pumps in it and the "secondary" tank.) Apparently in later models the tanks were just integrated into a single kidney shaped thing. Also, the fuel filler tube just passes nonchalantly through the passenger compartment. The P.O. was saying something about the inline pump being bypassed so after taking out the back seat and getting to the in-tank pump I started fishing around. Figured the pump would be nestled in between the tanks and the body, probably right where the hardlines ended. Dropped the secondary tank first, saw hardlines just shoot right past it. Dropped the primary and could see where the hardlines connected to the pump. Unless the fuel pump is hidden in the middle unibody support that runs between the tanks I'm 99% sure there isn't an inline pump. More on that later, anyway.  Here's the feed and return hardlines with the tank dropped slightly.  Dunno if you can see it in this pic, but one of the rubber fuel lines is held on with zip ties. This will be a recurring theme. It looks as though the wiring harness was run through the cabin, possibly from factory. There looks like there's power that shoots off somewhere rear of the in-tank pump. At first I thought this was for sure for the inline, but it doesn't seem like it goes anywhere near the fuel lines.  It's a lovely pic, but you can sort of see what I'm talking about. There's the frame/unibody brace thing with both hardlines running through it, along with the rubber filler hose. The lines pass directly through the support and past the secondary tank, can't see a pump anywhere.  This might be the reason that there aren't any pump sounds when the key is turned. At least the P.O. wasn't lying when he said it was bypassed.  I...uh...hmmm... Do you guys know what kind of fitting this is, at the end there? It'll go back on, right?  Corrosion is a hell of a thing. I tried to undo the fuel line and the fuckin' thing just popped right off. At this point I have four options: 1. Run braided steel line back to the tank and cut out the old rusted line out, use the intact old line as a return. 2. Run braided steel line to tank, go with a single-line setup. I've already ordered a regulator with feed/return, but the k909 carb should be happy with with just pump -> regulator -> carb 3. Use the old line as a feed for a single line setup 4. Visit my local Princess Auto and find a pipe-flaring tool, cut the line back to where it's still good and flare it. 3 is by far the easiest/cheapest option and the line doesn't look too bad in other spots. Since I'm only going to be running like, 2 psi, it should hold, just doesn't seem like a great idea though. I think a single-line setup takes a bit more fine-tuning and I've heard the carbs and pumps are happier when they've got a return line, plus it prevents some issues at idle apparently. I'll try and find a supplier locally for steel braided fuel line. From the looks of things I probably won't have to drop the tank to run it, or at least I won't have to drop it very far. Anyway, check out my kickin' rad exhaust  Not sure if you can make it out in the picture but the flange that holds the last few feet of pipe is held on with one bolt, one ziptie and nothing else.  Someone spent a ton of money getting headers and a custom exhaust then just put it up with some loving wire. Gonna have to figure out a real exhaust hanger situation.
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May 5, 2016 03:18
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Nubile Hillock posted:Corrosion is a hell of a thing. I tried to undo the fuel line and the fuckin' thing just popped right off. At this point I have four options: Not 100% sure on that year but mine had the single in-tank pump then an inline (possibly aftermarket) pump and fuel filter under the cars right rear corner above the trailing arm. Here's a lovely photo from snapchat:  I haven't messed with carbs in a while but I would use the intact line for return and run a new line (or salvage what you can) and an inline pump.
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May 5, 2016 12:39
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Yeah, I'm kind of thinking that using the old line as a return (since it's already the return) would be the best option. Thanks for the pics! I actually saw other people with that same setup when I google searched for pump locations but I've traced my fuel lines all the way back from the engine bay and at no point do they end up near the trailing arms.
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May 5, 2016 12:45
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Got a bit of stuff done over the weekend. Confirmed that there was either no inline pump or that it was removed very neatly. A buddy came over on Friday and we sawed the broken fuel line free of the rusty clip. I'm beginning to think that maybe the PO didn't use two wrenches when trying to undo the fuel lines because the line doesn't look rotted at all. Anyway, we re-flared that fucker and it's aces now.  Used the 2.5 PSI pump I got from Princess Auto and drained the tank.  Put the carb on this way first, but realized I'd have to flip it in order for the throttle cable to work. Ordered a mushroom filter online as it seems like the only thing that will work with how little room I have. Crank case filter is on the way, too!  Very loosely ran the fuel line just to get an idea of where all the parts will be. Right at the wheel well where it does an S-curve now is where I'm going to mount the pump and regulator. I had a look at the electrical and decided I'm most likely going to solder on a wire to the load-side of the existing fuel pump fuse. It really beats taking apart the loom. I'll most likely run the e choke off this wire.  Today's best news was the existing throttle cable works no problem. I was worried about the travel distance being too short, but it works really well.  While I was at it I ran the firewall-side of the distributor vacuum system to the manifold vacuum port. Apparently this vacuum hose is for some sort of antiquated emissions control system and won't affect performance much even if capped off, but if I have vacuum ports I might as well use them.  The Weber has the vacuum port at the base of the carb so I'm planning to run the vacuum advance from it. If it turns out to be not so great I'll swap the vacuum lines and see what happens.
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May 9, 2016 02:30
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Oh man I had some adventures with my "fuel regulator" the other day. I mean, I knew going in that it probably wasn't going to work as advertised being an $8.88 (shipping included) model off ali express, but this thing was weird. I have a pump that does pretty much what the carb needs, but I needed the regulator to act as a sort of return valve for when there's more fuel than the carb needs. I figured I'd crank the regulator wide open and let it be. So when I first go to turn the adjustment screw the allen thread just strips right out. Good sign. You know a product is quality when it comes with all the tools needed to disassemble it right in the kit. So I hook it up anyway, and I get a tiny trickle of fuel like what'd you'd get out of a 50cc carb. After much dicking around I took the thing apart and realized that the gasket wasn't drilled out at every fuel passage. I fixed that and still no improvement save for the return working slightly. I finally removed this thing from the intake side, it was supposed to act as the regulator body with a flat gasket getting squished down by a spring loaded plate.  So with this out the regulator does what I want it to do: piss gas out the feed line or piss it out the return if it can't. Here's the regulator mounted to where the old air box used to go  Got the pump mounted and wired in, soldered it into the load side of the actual pump fuse. Decided to split the feed and run the e choke off it too   Tried to not be a hick when I ran it  And here's everything all mounted, just waiting on my air filter before I try and fire 'er up 
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May 13, 2016 03:00
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Nubile Hillock posted:And here's everything all mounted, just waiting on my air filter before I try and fire 'er up Pussy. (I'm dumb and totally wouldn't have the self control to wait)
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May 13, 2016 13:07
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Nubile Hillock posted:And here's everything all mounted, just waiting on my air filter before I try and fire 'er up Put a sock on it.
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May 13, 2016 14:58
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ShittyPostmakerPro posted:Put a sock on it. !!!!!! looks like I got my sunday night plans all figured out
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May 14, 2016 03:09
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 Noooooooo, I meant over the air inlet!
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May 15, 2016 11:30
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No pics right now but I've been hella busy. Got the seats fitted after a lot of finagling and my air filter came in! The fuel regulator is absolutely unmitigated poo poo and I'll be throwing it away tomorrow (who likes gas leaks?). After doing a little bit of reading I've decided to run the carb with a supply line only as I've got a low pressure pump and it should be OK. The good news: Car starts!! Won't idle, though, but I haven't even tried to tune the carby. Going to sort out the fuel supply issue tomorrow and tune the carb! Tachometer works, accelerator works, car seems happy at about 2000RPM. Not sure what's out of whack with the carb yet, but I know that if I apply the accelerator gently it'll stay at around 1000 but it won't be happy about it. Shuddering and inconsistent revs. At 2000 it evens out nicely.
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May 20, 2016 04:02
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Did a bit of timing, the carb is happy as a clam at idle. PO did that fuckin' thing where the bolts are backed in too far into the block on the exhaust side so she's burning oil when the pressure builds up. Have to get some blue threadlocker and fix that this weekend. Having a strange issue with the carb, though. It's a weber 34 ICT marketed as a "k909" as it comes with the jets for the m10. I can't get it to rev past 3000rpm using the linkage. The first linkage opens the top butterfly, that all works great. This first linkage is connected to a second linkage for the bottom butterfly, and it only opens up a tiny bit topping out at about 3000RPM. If I open the linkage by hand it'll go WOT, but I can't get it to go WOT with the gas pedal. **fake edit** After more reading and dicking around I'm pretty sure I've got the timing right and I'm not having an ignition problem. Similar carbs top out at about 4500RPM and I can get this one to get to 4500 at WOT. The only issue remaining now is to get it to WOT using the gas pedal. fake edit 2: They might be vacuum actuated!? autism ZX spectrum fucked around with this message at 04:49 on May 21, 2016 |
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May 21, 2016 03:15
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Had some time today and took out those exhaust studs. Really nicely engineered, too, there's a little collar that only allows the last 1/3rd of the bolt to go in and then stops it. The only catch is that if you use any kind of tool you won't feel it catch and you'll back the bolt into an oil passage. Removed every one of the studs without incident (oil leaks make for easy removal, at least) and then cleaned the stud and the block hole of oil before making a little permatex collar for each one just around their bulge then coating the bottom third in blue threadlocker. Now I'm waiting for the stuff to dry a bit before I tighten up the exhaust nuts and let everything set overnight. Here's a pic of the oil covering the bolt:  and here's the manifold with oil all over it:  Now, all the m10 threads I've read said that the top studs are the issue, but I went ahead and removed 7 of the 8 because they were oily. I decided to play it safe instead of having to pull stuff apart again. So far so good, everything is oil free!  I won't know for sure if it took until tomorrow when I idle and let oil get to the head. Anyway, here's my carb with the filter mounted:  Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to run it for more than 30 seconds at a time and get the timing all sorted. After a bunch more reading I'm pretty confident that as it stands the redline will be at about 5k. It's hard to find info on this motor + carb pairing as it's not common at all. Most carbureted 2002s (the closest equivalent) are running the twin-barrel webers and they report a redline of about 5500 (owner's manual) or 6500 (in practice). Most of the info about ICT 34 Webers comes from VW buses which run two of them on a 1.8L motor so those resources are of little use. But I figure if the twin-barreled 2002s get about 5500RPM max then it's not unreasonable to think 4500 would be more or less the redline with no load and the original points ignition. Really the only way to find out is to get this thing running enough to slap some temp tags on it and take it on the road.
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May 22, 2016 22:39
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It's usually only the top studs but I did all of them when I was messing with it on mine too. Much easier to do them all at once.
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May 23, 2016 13:45
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 01:16 |
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Yeah exactly. It's an extra few minutes and you have all the poo poo handy already. No pics at the moment but I spent yesterday evening and this morning fabricobbling a bracket...armature "thing". It turns out the gas pedal was only going like 1/3rd to 1/2 of the way through it's range of motion because the carb only needs like 1.5" of motion to go WOT. So after a lot of thinking and dicking around I've decided to attach a bracket to where the gas pedal catches the accelerator cable to reduce the effective action but keep the pedal's range of motion.
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May 23, 2016 20:39
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