1979 320i Daily Build

[Somjuan]

Long time no update! Got busy with summer school and moving, now I've moved back to taking care of the car to make it more reliable. I finally dug up a set of stainless fuel lines to replace my old brittle plastic ones and installed them. At the same time on the way out, I installed new fuel injector bushings and o rings, replacement gaskets for the intake manifold, replaced the air slide valve, replaced all the rubber bits I couldn't reach before under the intake manifold, and gave the lot of it a wonderful cleaning. Cold starts should be much easier now.

Aesthetically, I replaced the valve cover with one from Tlapham which has been polished.

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The plugs were white, so I moved the fuel mixture in the rich direction and I'm waiting until it cools down outside to give it a good test run.

Thanks to everyone who's been helping on the way, including Robert, Milton, Tlapham, and Blacky77.

Speaking of, I picked up the steering wheel I've wanted for this car since day one, in need of refinishing but complete with all the necessary components.

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[epmedia]

Looking real nice!
The timing valve on the intake 'log', to the rear of the cold start injector:
Make sure the throttle body hose is connected to the center port of the timing valve, otherwise you may have a *low *'cold' idle speed.

Edit: not *high *'warm' idle speed.
I had that backwards :facepalm

[Somjuan]

Which throttle body hose? if you were facing the engine from the driver's side, the left or right hose?

[epmedia]

Which throttle body hose? if you were facing the engine from the driver's side, the left or right hose?

Sorry for the confusion. Here's a 2.0 vacuum diagram (diagram is missing the 4th gear vacuum advance components)...

#5 is the timing valve/thermovalve (for vacuum ignition retard). The "center" vac port on the timing valve connects to the throttle body as shown in the diagram.

*When #5 is cold, you should not be able to suck through the center vac port. When it warms up, you can hear it snap open and the engine idle speed decrease.

click to enlarge
vac-hoses4.jpg

[Somjuan]

Got it, so it's backward. What are the changes from reversing it?

[epmedia]

Got it, so it's backward. What are the changes from reversing it?

I brain farted and had post #52 backwards, I just corrected it.

Assuming the vacuum canister on the ignition dist is not leaking vacuum, and assuming the throttle-stop is adjusted correctly; here's how the timing valve (#5) is suppose to work:

The 2.0 throttle body applies vacuum to the center port of #5 when the throttle is shut. As the throttle begins to open, the vacuum to #5 diminishes. When #5 is cold, no vacuum can get through it's center port. It takes ~10-30 seconds for the #5 to warm-up and 'snap' open vacuum to the outer port on #5. Vacuum through the outer port of #5 is then applied to the vac retard side of the vac canister on the ignition dist, thus lowering idle speed and making the engine exhaust temps hotter while the engine is idling.

If the throttle body vacuum hose is connected to the outer port on #5 (backwards), vacuum will reach the vac canister on the ign dist at engine idle speed when #5 is cold; typically resulting in low idle speed when the engine is cold for the first ~10-30 seconds. *Having the hoses backwards on #5 will not affect warmed-up operations.

Something like that

[Somjuan]

Huh! Cool, nailed it. My low idling vanished, perfectly diagnosed Ep! Thanks, buttoning that up from memory was slightly nerve-wracking.

In other news, scored these from an '85 633CSI at the junkyard that I got an email about at six in the morning! Being a passenger will no longer suck in the rear seat when I reupholster these! Also pulled was an m-tech 1 steering wheel in decent condition.

[Thecatmilton]

Huh! Cool, nailed it. My low idling vanished, perfectly diagnosed Ep! Thanks, buttoning that up from memory was slightly nerve-wracking.

In other news, scored these from an '85 633CSI at the junkyard that I got an email about at six in the morning! Being a passenger will no longer suck in the rear seat when I reupholster these! Also pulled was an m-tech 1 steering wheel in decent condition.

You could dye them blue or black and then they would match a pair of recaros nicely.

[Somjuan]

Pretty much what I was thinking. Looking into the new blue vinyl fabric as a replacement, Pacific blue looks right, and it's $10 a yard, which is awesome, then on the lookout for a AC center, which I might have found on the E24 board. Just looking into getting the blower motor back there to help airflow a bit

[cgifool]

[QUOTE=epmedia;29367093]Sorry for the confusion. Here's a 2.0 vacuum diagram (diagram is missing the 4th gear vacuum advance components)...

hey, you wouldn't happen to have these same diagrams for a '78 323i would you?

[epmedia]

hey, you wouldn't happen to have these same diagrams for a '78 323i would you?

Negative, that was a scan from my 320/320i repair manual.
I bet however, that if you start a new thread with the same request, one of the Euro folks would chime in for what you seek.

[dups]

So those e24 seats DO fit huh? I so l d a minty pair of blacks without checking. Oops.

- - - Updated - - -

Also have to add...the .016 points gap, solved my long start problem; fired on one crank after I fixed that. Thanks guys.

[Somjuan]

They seem to! Not totally sure though, I haven't pulled the rear seats in mine to test yet. The bolting pattern is totally different though, drilling and tapping will be a thing for sure. Looks like it's an easier conversion than for the 2002 folks

[Tom D]

not a fan of E24 seats in an E21. the do fit, kinda of, but not great and the aesthetics of the rear no longer match the front.

[Somjuan]

A little foam and fiberglassing and they should look a lot better in position. Certainly won't be flawless, but it'll be cooler in the car with the extra blower and much more comfortable than the bench seating for passengers. Function over form, I suppose. And maybe a slight incentive to do recaros down the line. As long as the color matches I won't be too bugged.

[Somjuan]

Well, the good news is that the air conditioning system now works, the bad news is that the compressor sounds like it has a knock. I added 27 oz of R-134a to the retrofitted 1984 318i bosch compressor, is it possible that the system is undercharged? Vent temps are great at 30+ miles an hour, so that's nice, but no idea how long it will last

[Somjuan]

To gove an answer to that last one - not long. So I moved on to more pressing suspension/transmission things that need doing among other projects. So far I've dug up a getrag 240 that's waiting on new seals and a shifter rebuild, driveshaft, and a brake booster that'll finish paint curing in about a week to be preceded with a master cylinder rebuild. But today was the most fun so far.

Short story, I fought the imperially programmed machine with metric units.

Slightly longer story, the machine won

[Somjuan]

One of the things I've always disliked about the interior of the car was the rubber 'accordion' shift boot, so I've been on the lookout for a good solid sewing machine. Today I found one for $20! A little fiddling around with the bobbin tension and it went through vinyl easily. Pictured is my second attempt, definitely not pictured is my first attempt. This'll prove it's weight in gold for the new seats that are hopefully a thing on Monday. If not, I still have the e24 rears to redo

[cgifool]

Nice work! The multicolor stitching is a nice touch.

Funny how different people like different things. I just switched mine from a vinyl "sock" similar to your new one, BACK to the rubber accordion, simply because that's what the car came with.

[Somjuan]

Hahaha, yup, gotta love the different tastes that go into these cars. Still not sure about the stitching, but I'll wait until I've done the third and final one with the finished and corrected pattern before I decide for sure. That, and the steering wheel. I'm keeping around all the old bits in case it comes off as garish.

Let's see...in other news, I picked up a rough pair of E30 sport seats and started disassembly. While they're pretty nasty cleanliness wise, they are coming apart with relative ease. I'm going to reweld them at the base to sit a bit shorter and still use the seat perches with a few washers. The components so far for the passenger side seat are all in order, de-gunked, and about to be hit by a thick coating of grease. Anyone have any recommendations on good grease?

Lastly, I finally got the CNC in line and made half of the rear strut bar, the other half is coming Thursday. Machining stainless sucks. That is all.

As soon as winter break hits over here I'm going to drop in the transmission, brake booster, and a refreshed steering rack and make the trek down to my girlfriend's family in San Diego. And to think, she wants to fly!

[Somjuan]

An update on the rear strut bar, with pictures! Machining these took almost thirty minutes apiece, and then they were tumbled overnight. Got a little overzealous with the grinder on one point, but otherwise quite pleased. Installation's going to suck though, I'll have to mount them, measure, and remove the mounts to tig weld them. And they don't fit without dropping the entire suspension on the rear. Oh well.

The right mount took a while to get right because I was misreading my CAD program, ignore the measurements on the bottom hahaha

[bassboy3313]

I made the same thing a couple years ago with a hole saw, drill press, band saw and a bench grinder. then flattened the ends of a piece of steel tubing and welded them on. Worked great!

[Somjuan]

What improvements did you notice? Never put one in before, not sure if I'll really be able to tell the difference in the seat

[bassboy3313]

Honestly, I did a bunch of upgrades at the same time, this being one of them so I honestly couldn't tell ya what improvements I felt from this alone. Sorry I'm not more help.

[Somjuan]

Totally forgot to update. Installation was actually great, I was expecting to have to drop the subframe. Nope! Took a half hour and an impact. As far as a difference, it was really nice on the back end, but frankly that could have just been re-torquing everything to spec for good measure

The five speed is in, but the driveshaft u-joints are toast. Vibration galore! If anyone has a good used '83 driveshaft or an idea of what e30 shaft would fit, feel free to drop me a line.

Yesterday I started taking a stab at reupholstering the e30 sport seats I picked up for a song. Redoing them in interior matching navy blue duck cloth with actual pleats and french seams where I can. It looks like there's a couple spots where I can cut and weld the seat mounts slightly lower. Anyone know the actual offset in-car for the e21? I'm trying to keep the stock mounts for the sake of keeping the carpet nice. Might also be a fools errand.