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Thread: 1984 745i Restomod (with many pictures)

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2017
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    18 GTI, 84 745i, 79 733i

    1984 745i Restomod (with many pictures)

    Hey All. A couple years back, there was a thread where someone found a cheap 84 745i on Craigslist with only vague information provided. I went and checked it out for myself, and created an account here after I got back to report on what I found. I initially passed on the car, but me being a glutton for punishment and bored at the time, changed my mind and picked it up a few months later. Don't want to admit what I paid for it, it was too much.

    I'm Cooper. I've been obsessed by E23s ever since I saw two at my local Pick N Pull. I remember clearly: one was an 82, and the other an 84. Both 5 speeds. If I could go back in time, I would pull the manual swaps out of both. I wanted an E23, and got very lucky to live about an hour away from the ultimate E23: the 745i.

    Anyway, I have wanted to post what I have been doing to the car and the progress that I have been making, but wanted to get a substantial amount of work done before I started posting about it online. Between moving twice and remodeling a house, I have been working on the beast on and off for the past couple of years, but have still managed to get quite a bit done. This isn't going to be a traditional "build thread" as I simply don't have the discipline to keep up with it at a predictable pace, but I certainly am willing to dump all of my progress here.

    Here is the thread: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...ton-OH-only-2K

    Pros:

    74,000 original miles
    Buffalo interior
    Original and complete
    Nearly rust free
    Good M106
    4HP22EH appears to be fine
    Generally speaking, a clean car with nothing crazy going on


    Cons:
    Crank, no start on purchase. Eventually found to be a bad Motronic DME.
    Seized injectors
    Paint is shot. Car was resprayed. The respray was of decent quality but the prep work was crap and it is flaking off in chunks.
    Missing head unit. General butchery on the speaker covers
    Hacked up wiring harness from the main relay back to the DME when trying to "fix" the car
    dash has gone to hell
    Seals were shot
    Bad brake bomb
    TRX tires and wheels
    General neglect from sitting
    Hydraulic rear suspension collapsed
    Fuel tank needed to be cleaned out

    My general motivation for this project is to get the car into a presentable, usable state, while also embracing modern technologies. I am working on converting the car from Motronic 1.0 to MegaSquirt 2 for (1) complete control over the fuel injection system and (2) so I don't get nickled and dimed to death tracking down rare M106 injection components. After I tracked down a replacement for the bad Motronic DME that came with the car, the new one died after about a month. I decided to call it right there and then and take the plunge. Once I get all the MS stuff working well, I will do a full write up for everything required to get it working properly on a stock M106 745i. It's been a lot of learning and making changes throughout the process, but I am loving figuring it out.

    IMG_20180210_152121667.jpg

    IMG_20180210_152228419_HDR.jpg
    aKnCP8X.jpg

    Hydro rear suspension delete and Bilsteins + OEM spring conversion



    Fuel tank clean and restore. I did several multi-night passes using Apple Cider vinegar, evapo-rust, and muriatic acid. I then sealed the tank with POR15 fuel tank sealer and POR15-coated the tank.




    Walbro 255lph fuel pump and a new fuel filter. Zip tie was temporary


    Exhaust recondition. It didn't have holes (except for one section in front of the muffler) but the surface rust needed to be addressed before it became a problem. Pulled it, patched the rotted section, sanded and wire-wheeled the entire thing down, and hit with high heat paint to hopefully get a few more years out of it.



    Brake bomb and line replacement. I had the brake rotors resurfaced by a local mechanic.


    New injectors and o-rings. The injectors that came on the car were locked up solid and I couldn't get them to clear. I replaced them with re-manufactured eBay 28lb injectors fitting some GM 350 car. Cheap and not too far off from the originals.


    Buffalo leather recondition. I'm saving the fronts for last after I get the car working right. For this, I used multiple bottles of Lexol cleaner, conditioner, plus a big jug of neatsfoot oil and some magic erasers.

    First pass on the back bench.


    Driver's door panel completed. I did the other three as well.


    Back seat after a few passes


    Before and after


    Picked up some E34 Style 5s off of eBay. Ordered some matching touring tires from Tire Rack.


    Cometic head gasket and ARP studs. Not because it needed one, just future-proofing.



    Time for Megasquirt. This has by far been the biggest project and is still ongoing.

    Wire harness version 1. Modifications to the stock harness include deleting a whole bunch of stuff, altering wiring for the E32/E34 B35 automatic TPS, O2 sensor, GM IAT, etc. I originally left wiring for the factory knock box to see if I could get the trans to play nice, but later decided to go standalone.



    Base Megasquirt 2 v3.00 manually assembled. In retrospect, I should have spent the extra money and bought a pre-assembled. Too much extra work and time. It was a learning experience though.



    M30B35 Crank Position Sensor and 60-2 trigger wheel


    In action


    It lives! Runs like crap but it runs.


    Motronic 1.0 35-pin to Megasquirt DB37 adapter harness, thanks to the E28 megasquirt page.


    As it sits. Test fit and functionality test. V2 of the harness, will take pictures once it is out of the car again. Added LS truck coils for wasted spark, electronic boost controller, Bosch 2-wire IAC valve. Relocated the main relay to the fuse box. Simplified wiring near the MS and deleted the adapter. New Megasquirt wiring that is not several decades old. Fabricated the LS coil plate from home depot metal and hardware. Will eventually make a nicer-looking one, but functional for now.


    This is a dump of 2 years worth of stuff. There is so much more that I need to post regarding the Megasquirt, transmission controller, and the HVAC rehab. Hopefully, I can get pictures of all that soon.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by BMWE23Fan; 01-14-2020 at 08:03 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
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    1983/84/85 745i
    PM me, I can email you the piggyback setup how to retain the EH trans and use MS2.
    I make E23 parts.
    09/1983 745i (stolen spring '13 around Houston, TX Achatgruen on nutria buffalo. 8481080)
    10/1984 745i
    11/1984 745i
    11/1984 735i (10:1-265/6)
    Ford, MB, and GM round out the pack.



  3. #3
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    18 GTI, 84 745i, 79 733i
    Quote Originally Posted by Hit Man X View Post
    PM me, I can email you the piggyback setup how to retain the EH trans and use MS2.
    Thanks Hit Man. I ended up going with the HGM CompuShift Pro controller that the Land Rover guys use. Works perfectly, but I had to swap the valve body with one from a eBay 4HP22 Land Rover since ours have an 8 pin (I think) plug and the newer ones have a 7. Bolts right up. At one point I did briefly have the car to a point where I could drive it around the neighborhood to test the MS2, and it appears to be going through the gears without issue. Not cheap but still way cheaper than a 265. I will let you know if things change though.

  4. #4
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    18 GTI, 84 745i, 79 733i
    Picked up a 733i/A parts car over the weekend. It's a 79 l-jet car. 90k original miles, but hasn't been running in at least a couple years and even though it was stored inside, was left outside for the past half year with the driver side window down because someone lost the keys. Sigh. Anyway, I got it for really cheap. Clean title. Decent tires and wheels. I wanted it for the dash, seals, and trim pieces. The amount that I paid for it is what a replacement dashboard is currently going for on eBay, and this one is virtually perfect. The door seals are also mostly rotted on my 745, so I can use those too.

    The car is nearly rust free. Someone decided it would be a good idea to pick it up with a forklift on the passenger side and crush the rocker panel, but other than that, that's the only damage inflicted by man. I dunno, I sort of dig the car. It has a sunroof too which my 745 does not. For a minute, I toyed around with the idea of using this instead, but I rather use a 745 base than a 733.

    I bypassed the ignition switch and got power to the car, but the starter isn't cranking the engine. Starter spins freely without the solenoid engaged, and the solenoid seems fine. Either the starter is very weak or the engine is locked up. The B32 apparently uses a ridiculously-sized bolt for the crank (at least 33mm), so I have to pick up a socket to see if I can hand-crank the engine. I have a hard time believing that someone locked up a B32. Oil looks fine, but I didn't drain the pan.











    Got it in the garage tonight. Somehow, this car feels heaver than my 745.



  5. #5
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    '80 733i , '76 2002
    That is a solid looking car, Cooper.
    Nice work, and what a learning curve. I'm having a hard time with the stock stuff.
    Keep up the good work!
    If your 733 ends up as parts, I could use some of the pre-facelift fitment bits.

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    1983/84/85 745i

    Thumbs up

    Weird Compushift does not offer an eight pin EH connector, it is just without the reverse lockout solenoid. That change over for BMW was around 1989.

    So your 745i is a hard top??? Awesome.
    I make E23 parts.
    09/1983 745i (stolen spring '13 around Houston, TX Achatgruen on nutria buffalo. 8481080)
    10/1984 745i
    11/1984 745i
    11/1984 735i (10:1-265/6)
    Ford, MB, and GM round out the pack.



  7. #7
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    18 GTI, 84 745i, 79 733i
    Productive weekend. Got the dash and center console pulled from the 733i along with all of the trim in the front of the car. Pulled the wiring harness that I had in for a test fit to do a final wrap and heat shielding. Naturally, I forgot to take pictures of the finished wiring harness before putting it back in the car, but I'll snap a picture of the final installed product here soon.


    For this version of the wiring harness, I bought the MS2 preassembled generic harness and soldered all the BMW/Bosch plugs onto it. I split the factory wiring harness at the firewall and used a round twist-lock connector from a Mk3 VW Cabrio to connect the two halves. This will make it substantially easier to pull the harness from the car if I ever need to do so again. Since I was going to the effort anyway, I relocated the main relay to the fuse box area on the driver's side of the car. This cleaned up the electrical on the passenger side of the car. Version 1 of the harness was set up to piggyback off of the factory knock box in an effort to control the trans, but I ultimately abandoned this idea because I didn't like the extra complexity and clutter of the wiring in the passenger compartment. Without the factory knock box wiring, the size of the harness from the fuel rail back to the Megasquirt was cut in half. I also built the circuit for the electronic boost controller that DIYAutoTune sells on their site, as it should help deliver power and boost way better than the bleed off valve that I picked up as a temporary measure. The new harness is very lean and no longer contains the butchery of the V1 harness near the DME plug. I feel a lot more confident now knowing that the brittle factory wiring is gone and won't potentially leave me stranded. If anyone wants a writeup of the standalone electrical for the 745i after all of this is 100% working, I'm sure I can put something together.


    I mounted the MS2 into a gutted Motronic 1.0 box that I had left over from the first broken DME, just so I could mount the assembly in the factory location. I mounted the CompuShift controller where the factory knock box was. For that, I took the backing/mounting plate off of the knock box and cut out a rectangular hole so the connector could pass through and plug into the unit upside down for space reasons. The unit is controlled via Bluetooth, so I am less concerned about physical accessibility compared to the MS2.


    Whoever had this car before me absolutely butchered the wiring for the stereo to the point where I can't even tell where the factory wiring was. They ran like 14 gauge yellow wiring everywhere and hard wired whatever aftermarket unit they had into the battery unfused. They also put in 6" speakers in place of the factory oblong units and destroyed the factory speaker covers and metal under the rear seat. Sigh. I yanked all of that garbage out and started from scratch. Got new wiring run to the areas where the 4 speakers are going and tapped into factory BMW wiring for 12v constant, switched, and ground. Just need to figure out the dimmer feed. From the E23 electrical diagrams, it looks like it's supposed to be the red/gray wire running out of the fog light switch that isn't used by the stock radio. I'm going to give that a try and see what happens.


    The HVAC pod diaphragm for the heater core is blown out on the 745i. I took the pod off of the 733i but can't find my off brand Mityvac to test. Not incredibly confident in it judging by looks, may need to pick up another diaphragm.


    So far, everything is behaving as it should. The car does run again with all the electrical redone, although it runs poorly, partially because it is untuned, and partially because the gas in the tank is over 6 months old now. LS truck coils are strong and fire in the correct order via wasted spark. I was hoping that I wasn't going to have issues with that circuit, but everything has exceeded my expectations in that regard. The only engine component that I need to verify is the IAC valve. I picked up a Bosch 2-wire PWM valve off of a 90s VW from eBay. It is wired correctly but I need to test and pick up some heater hose to run back to the factory air bypass port.


    More pictures coming soon.



    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Hit Man X View Post
    Weird Compushift does not offer an eight pin EH connector, it is just without the reverse lockout solenoid. That change over for BMW was around 1989.

    So your 745i is a hard top??? Awesome.
    Good to know. I figured it was around the time of the E34 and E32 based on what I was reading.

    Yup, it's a hard top. One less thing to break. Sunroofs are nice, but I also have a convertible, so I can take them or leave them.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by TowJamma View Post
    That is a solid looking car, Cooper.
    Nice work, and what a learning curve. I'm having a hard time with the stock stuff.
    Keep up the good work!
    If your 733 ends up as parts, I could use some of the pre-facelift fitment bits.

    Yeah, I have spent countless hours learning how all this antiquated stuff is supposed to work. I've learned so much within the last couple of years.

    Thanks! I most likely will be parting the rest of it out once I determine that I have everything I need. I'll make a post and link it here.

  8. #8
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    Great work!

  9. #9
    Join Date
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    TX
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    1983/84/85 745i

    Thumbs up

    Curious how this will dyno at stock boost with a real timing curve and no AFM in the way!

    How is the car running and driving for you with modern EFI? Are you using batchfire or SEFI?
    I make E23 parts.
    09/1983 745i (stolen spring '13 around Houston, TX Achatgruen on nutria buffalo. 8481080)
    10/1984 745i
    11/1984 745i
    11/1984 735i (10:1-265/6)
    Ford, MB, and GM round out the pack.



  10. #10
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    18 GTI, 84 745i, 79 733i
    Spent the last week tracking down parts and getting bits moved over from the 79. I've been doing a lot of little stuff that eats up a ton of time. Big one is that I got the 79 dash cleaned up and installed. Having the dashboard in the car makes be feel like I'm finally making real visible progress.


    I bid on and one a new climate control panel from eBay because mine was all busted up into bits. That came the other day and after swapping out a few dead bulbs on the harness, got everything fitted and mounted the panel into the dash. A nice bonus is that the blower speed slider that the car came with has a busted stop tab, so the dial would turn too far and get stuck, and the new panel came with the entire HVAC control assembly + the harness. The glass on my cluster was scratched and cracked, and the SI board needed to be replaced. I bought a nice euro cluster from a board member here which should be here in the next day or so.

    For some reason, every piece of interior trim on this car appears to be cracked from shrinking, possibly from the car spending lots of time stationary in the sun. The 79 has nice trim pretty much all the way around, but I didn't realize that it is smaller in width than the facelift cars, so I can't use it. After running through options in my head, I decided to try my hand at flocking the the trim that goes around the perimeter of the headliner. Should give the trim a nice velvet effect without having to vinyl or fabric wrap it. I repaired the cracks with plastic bonder, spot putty, and sanding. I'm thinking should be sufficient enough to hide the cracks after the flocking is done. The flocking material that I bought is brown, like the car's existing interior trim scheme. Just waiting on the glue to come in the mail and then I can get started. I'm contemplating on getting the glove box, kick panel, and two center console halves leather wrapped by a local upholstery shop.

    The headliner, while in good shape, is beginning to show slight signs of sagging where the adhesive is letting go. There is also one small tear. I'll probably address this in some way before putting the flocked ceiling trim back on.

    Also pictured is the custom three-pod mount that will go in place of the console ashtray: Boost pressure, AFR, and water temp. Boost and water gauges are mechanical. It is made out of wood enforced my metal strips and vinyl wrapped in burl wood effect. I may rewrap it; not crazy on how the corners turned out. Nothing fancy, but it looks alright and will get the job done.






  11. #11
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    18 GTI, 84 745i, 79 733i
    Yeah, I'm interested in finding that out. Mostly, I'm just happy to get all that old tech out of there since it's getting harder and harder to find replacement vintage Motronic-related parts.

    Batchfire. I thought about doing sequential but got lazy and didn't feel like building the circuit. I was honestly surprised that the car fired on the first try with the LS coils.

    I have not driven it since I switched from the single coil to the LS coils. I really need to dial in the fuel map because it's pretty bad right now, but a lot of that I contribute to the old gas in the tank. Just driving it around the block, it acted like it was running out of steam on boost, but I may of had the bleed-off valve set too high. With the EBC, I can get a better idea of what's going on. I do also want to put a RRFPR in the car at some point.

    Quote Originally Posted by Hit Man X View Post
    Curious how this will dyno at stock boost with a real timing curve and no AFM in the way!

    How is the car running and driving for you with modern EFI? Are you using batchfire or SEFI?
    - - - Updated - - -

    Thanks!

    Quote Originally Posted by DevInAz View Post
    Great work!

  12. #12
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    The results of flocking, round 1 have been satisfactory. I'm about out of fabric fibers and adhesive so I just placed an order for more from Amazon. There are some minor low spots, but other than that, it is a huge improvement over the cracked and ruined trim that I started with. I still need to do most of the right side trim. I think I'm also going attempt to do the center console, glove box, and kick panel. Worst case scenario, I take them to an upholstery shop to get them done.

    Someone drilled a couple of screw holes directly behind the power seat switches on the center console. I ordered a couple of hard-wire USB port plugs to fit there since I need to do something with that anyway.

    I think I'm going to leave the factory carpet in. It's gross and needs to be deep cleaned. I'm going to get a carpet spot cleaner and give it a good scrub.

    I'm sort of annoyed that I have to do the headliner since I wasn't planning on doing it. Anything I touch inside this car starts to crumble, but that comes with sitting and age I guess. I'll probably pick up some nice looking headliner material from Amazon and do that before I put the trim back in. Might as well do the tray behind the rear seats as well.








  13. #13
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    '80 733i , '76 2002
    You're making quick progress. A few set backs (headliner) are to be expected.
    Thanks for keeping us posted on this. Makes me want to get out and do it!

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
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    TX
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    1983/84/85 745i

    Thumbs up

    I dig that fuzz stuff you are installing. Very 80s. You do work fast...is this your only auto project?
    I make E23 parts.
    09/1983 745i (stolen spring '13 around Houston, TX Achatgruen on nutria buffalo. 8481080)
    10/1984 745i
    11/1984 745i
    11/1984 735i (10:1-265/6)
    Ford, MB, and GM round out the pack.



  15. #15
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    Dec 2005
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    Omaha NE
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    84' 533i Turbo
    First off, props to ya! Looking good. I was tempted to jump on that car when posted for sale but was knee deep in other projects. Coincidentally I was also temped when I stumbled on the 733 you laid your hands on.
    I'm late to the party or I would've advised how to retain the knockbox with a few jumpered wires.

    How is the compushift? Did you pay full price or get some helluva deal on it? Have you played with the shift points or firmness? How firm can you the shifts? I considered going this route but started the journey of building a MegaShift unit which I have yet to finish.

    As HitManX mentioned, you can retain the electronic trans with some modded wiring.

    Looking forward to updates!

  16. #16
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    18 GTI, 84 745i, 79 733i
    Interior/Exterior:

    Haven't posted in a few weeks, but for the most part, I have been plugging away at it. I have flocked all of the trim pieces, the glove box, the kick panel, and the center console halves. Everything looks pretty good, but unfortunately, I was trying to be conservative with the adhesive, so there are a lot of low spots here and there. I ordered two more pints of glue and one more bag of fibers to give several of the panels a second coat. It would probably be acceptable as is, but in certain lights it would bother me that it isn't as good as it could be, so might as well fix it now while everything is out of the car. The door panel trim/plastic on the front doors has the same problem with age as the rest of the car, so whatever flocking material I don't use is going to be used on the doors. Overall, I'm happy with the turnout. It is stupid easy to apply and is very period correct.


    The headliner finally got here yesterday. It comes in a large roll which the UPS driver kindly put inside my screen door while I was at work so it wouldn't get stolen. I haven't opened it up yet, but the material is very similar to what I took out of the car, only darker. I opted for a charcoal gray color to go with the arctic blue metallic paint of the car and the gray carpet. It is also a nice contrast against the brown interior. Once I get the 79 pulled out of the way, I can open the door the rest of the way to get the headliner headboard pulled out and start on it.


    Got the modifications to the front part of the center console done. I drilled two 1 1/8" holes above the heated seat switches and installed two 2-plug USB ports. The left port has a digital battery gauge built in. I tapped into the cigarette lighter 12v constant and ground for power. I didn't realize that the cigarette lighter was 12v constant until I hooked up the gauges. Oh well, I think I'm going to wire in a toggle switch to the power feed so that the battery gauge on the one USB outlet doesn't ironically drain the battery when the car is parked. I have another standard 2-port plug like the one on the right that I installed in place of the cigarette lighter plug for the back seats. I used my stepper bit to take like a 1/16th of an inch off of the hole, but that's all I had to do. Should plug right into the existing wiring without additional modification.


    Picked up a euro cluster from a board member here. The plastic casing on mine was cracked and scratched, and the SI board was dead. This one is pretty nice. It is in miles with a economy gauge in liters, so I'm assuming that the car is either from the UK or this was done during the federalization process. Still trying to see what I have to do to get the tach working with the MegaSquirt. It worked with the coil/distributor, but I need to see what it takes to get it working with wasted spark/LS coils.


    Pulled much of the polished trim from around the doors to get restored. This will happen far down the road, but I wanted to do something easy one night, so I pulled it all off. I may try to sand and polish myself if I feel motivated enough at some point.


    Engine, EFI, and engine bay:

    I finally fixed the heater core vacuum pod this past weekend. It was the only thing keeping me from closing up the cooling system. The diaphragms in both my 84 and my 79 parts car were blown out. I robbed one from inside the 79. The one I took was a single stage that has way more travel than the one being replaced, but I think it should work fine for the time being. Holds vacuum and shuts the little valve without losing pressure. Saves me from having to buy one online. It was also the easiest one to take off. Unlike the 84, the 79 has the pods mounted to the HVAC box using those crappy plastic rivet things with retaining clips which are impossible to take off without snapping, so I went for the least annoying one. Definitely going to save all the pods from the 79 before I get rid of it.


    On to the wideband. The Bosch O2 that I had in the car was throwing an error 8 on my Innovate LC2, which means an overheated or bad sensor. Since it was automatically returning with this error, I figured the sensor was bad, so I ordered another. I also failed to read the instructions on how to set up the wideband system properly. My O2 bung was way too close to my turbo (about 19 inches) and I didn't think to calibrate the first sensor before installing. I ordered a plug and another bung and installed the bung around 13 inches downstream from the first one. Definite improvement, but the new sensor was still overheating after a minute or so of operation. Innovate makes a heat sink extender that offsets the wideband to prevent this issue, so I picked one of those up. Haven't gotten around to installing that yet. Also, there was another cause of the overheating, which is next...


    For the past while, I have been trying to pinpoint why the car was taking an absurd amount of effort to start and why it was running like absolute garbage when it did fire. I don't know how I managed to miss this, but last night I discovered that I had coil channel B and C wired backwards. Basically what this means is that instead of firing the cylinders in the correct order of 153624, it was firing as 135642. Switched the plug wires for those four cylinders around and now it runs almost like a car should and even idles with the throttle plate cracked. I thought I labeled that correctly when I built the harness, but evidently I did not. Also, the wire for cylinder 1 was arcing really bad at the top of the plug boot end. Wrapped it in electrical tape as a temporary fix. I wouldn't be even remotely surprised if this wire was what was killing the 013 DMEs from the stock setup. It was probably intermittently shorting to the block. It is always the small missteps that cause the biggest problems.


    I also picked up some heater hose to plumb the IAC valve and hooked up the vacuum feeds to the electronic boost controller. I haven't started to verify the operation of these two things just yet, but they at least should be hooked up and wired correctly. For the time being, I'll set the boost to the factory 6PSI just to get the car working right. I plugged the HVAC vacuum line back into the intake manifold and ran through the HVAC controls while the car was running. By all appearances, it seems to be working fine. Harbor freight knockoff MityVac holds vacuum on the line, so no vacuum leaks. I tested this before I put the dash in too, but still, what a relief.


    Misc:

    Got the engine to turn on the 79. It initially wouldn't turn with the starter, but I got it to go with some Marvel Mystery Oil and some rocking back and forth on the crank bolt. Picked up a Harbor Freight compression tester out of curiosity. All cylinders come back between 120-130 PSI except cylinder #3, which is reading a low ~80 PSI if my gauge is reading correctly. Kind of disappointing; I wanted to sell someone a strong engine. The upside is that it does fire on starter fluid and sounds decent. If anyone wants a 90k mile L-Jet M30B32 to rebuild or use for parts, I'll make you a good deal. Part-out thread coming soon for the rest of the car.





    - - - Updated - - -

    Thanks! I'm enjoying getting to share with others who care about these cars.

    Quote Originally Posted by TowJamma View Post
    You're making quick progress. A few set backs (headliner) are to be expected.
    Thanks for keeping us posted on this. Makes me want to get out and do it!
    - - - Updated - - -

    Yeah, It's definitely period correct for the era. Currently, it is. I had a couple of water-cooled VW projects before this, but unless I'm doing upkeep on one of my other vehicles, this is the only thing that requires my attention.

    Quote Originally Posted by Hit Man X View Post
    I dig that fuzz stuff you are installing. Very 80s. You do work fast...is this your only auto project?
    - - - Updated - - -

    Ha, small world!

    No biggie on the trans. It did hurt to spend the money on a standalone setup, but it will be nice to have greater control over the shifts. Unfortunately, I paid retail for it. The compushift is pretty robust in that regard. I'm looking forward to dialing it in when the car is driving. I haven't had an opportunity to mess around with the firmness yet, but I'll report back when I discover how it is.

    Thanks!

    Quote Originally Posted by gixxerboy View Post
    First off, props to ya! Looking good. I was tempted to jump on that car when posted for sale but was knee deep in other projects. Coincidentally I was also temped when I stumbled on the 733 you laid your hands on.
    I'm late to the party or I would've advised how to retain the knockbox with a few jumpered wires.

    How is the compushift? Did you pay full price or get some helluva deal on it? Have you played with the shift points or firmness? How firm can you the shifts? I considered going this route but started the journey of building a MegaShift unit which I have yet to finish.

    As HitManX mentioned, you can retain the electronic trans with some modded wiring.

    Looking forward to updates!
    Last edited by BMWE23Fan; 02-25-2020 at 10:04 PM.

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