New girl with the e24

[vintageorbust]

Hello everyone this is my maiden post here on Bimmerforums. My name is Meredith Phillips from Ridgecrest, CA. I've recently come into the possession of an '81 635 csi euro spec. I know next to nothing about this particular beast other than that it was running when it was parked a little over 2 years ago due to some form of injector issue. I'm slowly learning what I can about this beautiful yet scary looking land shark.
What I'm looking for is any online source where I can download a manual for this car so that I may begin the trouble shooting process. As for now, I'm just trying to get the thing running.
I need service specs such as oil quantity, spark plug gap, valve adjustment steps, etc.
I'm a mechanic in profession so there's no need to dumb things down for me just because I'm a girl =)
Any help you all can provide me is greatly welcomed and appreciated.
Take care all.

M.

[Bert Poliakoff]

I am finishing a ground up resto on my 81 euro. Only manuals available, unless you get very luck, are reprints. If I can help you with anything else, email me

[Trevor M]

Welcome Meredith to the board. Lots of people here know their sharks pretty well so you are in the right crowd.
1981 was a pivotal year for BMW. They discontinued the E12 series cars and introduced the E28 which had a all newly upgraded brakes, suspension, driveline and engine management system. Why am I telling you this? Because the E24 shares so much under the skin with the 5 series. So most of the service info for the sixer actually comes form either the E12 or E28 depending on when your car was built.

For a start you can go to www.realOEM.com and enter the last 7 digits of your VIN. This will open the door to hundereds of exploded line drawings and parts lists for your particular car. Dealer parts support for these old cars is fantastic even though the prices can get high. There is also fairly good parts support through Worldpac, not sure if you are aware of them or not.

For service information you first need to determine if your sixer is E12 or E28 based.


Oh...one more thing, we want to see pictures! you can post them after you have 10 posts on this board.

Cheers

[jeffcfp1]

Welcome. My wife drives a sixer as well. Any woman who drives an older bimmer and prefers them over the new crap is very special...as with the car.

[Bert Poliakoff]

Trevor, WATCH IT!!!!! My car is a May of 81 build and is e12. 81 was a "light " transition year with, from what I read, the transition to e28 relly happening in 82. My car is also an M90 engine, which many people have told me did not exist in 81. I have verified with the factory my car was originally M90 with Motronic from the factory!!

[Taylor Marshall]

First of all, welcome to the gang !
Here's a faq page that you'll find useful I think.

http://www.firstfives.org/faq.html

Other than body stuff the E12 based 6ers (even though they were technically designated as E24's) are more or less identical to the E12 5ers as are the E28 based 6ers to the E28 5ers.

One of the first things you'll want to figure out is if you have the Motronic E12 (quite rare but a few out there...Bert has one and Linwood in Richmond is parting one out) or if you have the L-Jet '91. You should pull out the ECU and see what Bosch P/N it is as that wil help you establish what you got. If you need to feel free to e mail me pics of your engine bay or whatever with your salient questions and I'll post them up for you until you reach the minimum number of posts to do it yourself.
baddog@videotron.ca

Bert P. should be a great resource for you as he's already done a lot of the home work / research on your '81's mechanicals, is very smart and helpful and can be trusted.
Taylor

[Bert Poliakoff]

Taylor, thanks for the character reference

[SprCpe]

Hello everyone this is my maiden post here on Bimmerforums. My name is Meredith Phillips from Ridgecrest, CA. I've recently come into the possession of an '81 635 csi euro spec. I know next to nothing about this particular beast other than that it was running when it was parked a little over 2 years ago due to some form of injector issue. I'm slowly learning what I can about this beautiful yet scary looking land shark.
What I'm looking for is any online source where I can download a manual for this car so that I may begin the trouble shooting process. As for now, I'm just trying to get the thing running.
I need service specs such as oil quantity, spark plug gap, valve adjustment steps, etc.
I'm a mechanic in profession so there's no need to dumb things down for me just because I'm a girl =)
Any help you all can provide me is greatly welcomed and appreciated.
Take care all.

M.


Welcome to Shark world it's a wonderful place and don't worry these sharks don't bite to hard.

:redspot:redspot:redspot:redspot:redspot

[Trevor M]

Trevor, WATCH IT!!!!! My car is a May of 81 build and is e12. 81 was a "light " transition year with, from what I read, the transition to e28 relly happening in 82. My car is also an M90 engine, which many people have told me did not exist in 81. I have verified with the factory my car was originally M90 with Motronic from the factory!!

Yeah, I know the Euros are not cut & dried like the US spec cars. Lots of changes came late or early. Look at the South African E12/28 for 1982 and 1983 for example.

My Euro was built during the month of June 1987, another transition period. VIN 1280460 is very confusing for the guy at the parts counter. Technically it's a 1988 model year because it has the world bumpers and M30B35 engine, among other changes.

[MSHii]

Welcome. I can offer no assistance, but I welcome you to the fold all the same.

[GWL]

Welcome. You will find that BMW has an annoying propensity to make running undocumented changes during production runs. When I first brought my 80 Euro 635 CSi back from Germany in 1982 I discovered that there were several things on my M90 engined Euro that were not in the books. The one that almost got me was the oil cannister was the older type and used a filter from the 3.0 CSi not the longer one on the US spec E12s. The filter I need is a tad shorter and a little larger in diameter, the wrong newer filter would crush down and distort enough to not filter the oil if it was forced into the 3.0 cannister. While in Germany in 1992 I had a discussion with a BMW Master Mechanic who told me that in late 1979-early 80, the production line for the new 635CSi would routinely used HP units left over from the 3.0 CSi. If he remembered correctly it had something to do with the new 635CSi using the better oil cooler/ oil filter assembly from the 3.0 CSi.

[DaHose]

Welcome, I drive an 87 M6 so I won't always be on the same page. However, I did post up a manual and torque book. Here's a quick link to the manual. The torque specs are listed here in the forum somewhere.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C09JK5AU (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C09JK5AU)

That should be a good start for the common suspension and electronics.

Jose

[M633CSi]

Welcome. Im alek the local 14 y/o i have a 78 633csi. cant be much of a help tho I find this helpful http://www.nmia.com/~dgnrg/page_5.htm and www.usautoparts.net/bmw/repairs/e24.htm

[6erWEBB]

Hey meredith how bout some pics once your posts allow

[88m53453]

you guys think the BMW line is inconsistent ? Try Volvo or even MB......YIKES

WELCOME ABOARD Meredith !

[joecautela]

M, welcome! I've bought some books from a place out in Ohio that specializes in Foriegn car service/repair manuals. If you get stuck I can hunt up the #'s to contact them. In the meantime the 5 series green book serves me well as a referance along with the realoem download, JC ps, seen a million pics of 635's, send some of you! woohoo!:evil2

[Shipper]

Welcome!

I'm a new 633CSi owner and looking forward to restoring a tired old girl neglectd by previous owners. Good to see new members turing up!

[vintageorbust]

Thanks you so much for the warm reception everyone. I would love to post some pictures once I get some more posts up. I wouldn't want to offend anyone by posting random things just to get some pics up hehehe but the thought did cross my mind. :devillook
Anyway, I'll get the vin written down and do a little research on him before I get back to you all with some more questions. I can't wait to get him running so I can see how he moves about in the tight and twisties :D
Thanks again all, and don't worry.. there'll be pics of me too, rest assured.


M.

[chrbmw]

Hi I am charlie I am also restoring a shark.Mine was really probably ready for the junk yard but who can let such a beautiful car go to its grave.I have had good luck going to Bigcoupe.com .Its all 6ers and will help lots.My last resort is shine her all up and sit in my lawn chair and look at her and know its all worth the effort[a 6 pack helps]. Good luck and welcome

[vintageorbust]

Ok folks, got some new information out of my car that hopefully will give us all some insight. Here's what I found :
1. engine vin is 903610054822
'81 3.5I
2. vehicle vin is WBAEC106B5590706
Also, it says it was imported by Jeffry Isbell.
Does anyone know how I can find where the car was imported to? as in what part of the country?
:round

[vintageorbust]

So I went to the realoem site that you mentioned earler and did some research. I entered my vin in it says I have a e-24 made in 09-1980.

[oldymcoldington]

Try this: http://www.bmw-z1.com/VIN/VINdecode-e.cgi

Also, go in to the Vin thread and post up your info + email, and someone will give you a little vehicle history

C

[GWL]

So I went to the realoem site that you mentioned earler and did some research. I entered my vin in it says I have a e-24 made in 09-1980.Yep, that is what it is. Your car was imported as a gray market car back when it was a lot easier. I brought my 80 back to the US in 1982. I suppose you could check with Customs to see if they still have a record of which port your car came through. But If it were me (knowing how sticky red tape can be) I would let sleeping dogs lay undisturbed. Too many things could be stirred up by a simple query to an Agency that may or may not have the import papers on file. As long as you can get a Title, leave well enough alone.
Here is a picture of my 80 Euro.

[Bert Poliakoff]

See if you can determine which injection system you have. Odds are it is LJet, but you may be late enough in the production year where you have an early nmotronic system

[Taylor Marshall]

See if you can determine which injection system you have. Odds are it is LJet, but you may be late enough in the production year where you have an early nmotronic system


Bert,
Wouldn't the P/N on the ECU indicate L-Jet vs Motronic ?
T.

[vintageorbust]

Well, the car was produced in September of 80 so... what does that tell me?

[GWL]

Well, the car was produced in September of 80 so... what does that tell me?
Not much, except it gives you a place to start when looking for parts. Many parts are interchangeable between the E12 based cars and the E28 based cars. But, many are not. An example is the front fenders. The later E28 based cars have a larger wheel arch and will fit an older E12 based car. I have seen cars where the body shop did not know this, so the car had two different wheel arches on the front. Another is that some E12 based E24s produced at the end of the E12 run had L-Jetronic injectors and ECUs, but had the newer Motronic intake manifold. A mechanic might assume that the later intake manifold indicated Motronic and might install Motronic injectors (high impedance) instead of the low impedance injectors required with L-Jetronic systems. Results= fried L-Jet ECU.:(
Here is a picture of an L-Jetronic intake manifold on my 80 Euro 635CSi. If yours looks kike this, no problem as it is definatly an L-Jetronic. If not, just verify Motronic or L-Jetronic before changing out the injectors.