E30 Zone

How do,

just attempted the cambelt for the first time with my mate today and had a nice steady day no problems, then did discs and pads.

we then took her out for a run and it seemed a little more sluggish than before, bearing in mind we've only driven it once before so probably imagined it quicker than it actually is with the anticipation to get back in it!!

just want to check that this isnt a common problem or we havent done something wrong like a tooth out. i cant imagine we have because nothng moved and our marks were bang on.

we did find that we have some poor vacuum pipes above inlet, one is split and when my mate lifted it off it nearly stalled before replacing it? poss related?

if anyone knows what these pipes are or have some they would like to sell let me know. all those pipes inc one to the brake servo are in poor nick tbh.

thanks for any help

The vacuum pipe from the manifold to the fuel regulator will affect the mixture.
TBH the engine should run just as well - mine did, perhaps there is a simple test to check timing accuracy someone knows?

Im not an expert with BM lumps, but it sounds like timing....that youv'e missed tdc on the top end.

Wheels turning freely?

After releasing the belt tnsioner you did turn the engine over for a couple of turns by hand and re-check the timing marks,did'nt you?

Daimlerman's right check it again its easy to be one tooth out!

daimlerman wrote:After releasing the belt tnsioner you did turn the engine over for a couple of turns by hand and re-check the timing marks,did'nt you?

yea we turned it over on the 22mm nut, 4 complete turns to the 2 of the cam shaft, lines were bang on - we had two tip ex marks on cam as well as the one on the tooth to block and then the one thats on lower cam cover for crank.

thats why im a bit stumped.

it seems to run out of puff at the top end, the first time i drove it, it loved revving high up and took off but just seems flat now.

is it possible that if there was some slack from camshaft to crank via intermediate pully that this would cause a problem as the tensioner wouldnt have taken this up till crank has turned.

by this im saying slack enough so that crank might turn 2mm off it marker before the other pulleys begin to move?

thanks

patch wrote:Wheels turning freely?

you mean after the disc and pad change? they run fine

right heres some pics of these pipes




the pipe with the split is just above the throttle damper screw thing, the pipe also going to the brake servo is a bit squashed.

this setup seems different to all the pics ive seen of 320i engines any reason?

not sure if related, but that throttle body needs coming off and cleaned with carb cleaner. when i did mine it was a different car.

Yeah I thought about your brakes might be binding but also check the big hose from the airflow meter might have got split, and while your cleaning out the throtle body do the air meter flap and lube it with wd40

dan_cup wrote:this setup seems different to all the pics ive seen of 320i engines any reason?

You've got the pre-facelift L-Jet fuel injection system there - no idea why they put so many extra pipes on but they eventually connect to the air slide valve that controls the idling at low temps - replaced by the ICV on the later M-tronic and 325's, which looks a lot neater!

this setup seems different to all the pics ive seen of 320i engines any reason?

here is your answer me thinks.... 320's are sluggish and thats that i am afraid (i know i have one, auto convertable the slowest combination!)

best bet is check for air leaks, allow car to warm up and idle then spray carb cleaner around the Throttle body inlet pipe, inlet manifold gasket area etc, any air leaks will result in a definate change of engine speed. Clean the stuff off once you are finished.

if that does not turn up a problem then look to the spark plugs/HT leads and distributor.

otherwise as you said you have not driven the car much so thats what they could be like, its a heavy car and the 2.0 engine is known to be sluggish.

mrlee

thanks for the info guys,

yea like you say mrlee its not the fastest car in the world but it just seems slower than the first time i drove it,

it wont get upto the red line as it did, im just a bit suspect as none of the pipes were played with, only area touched was rad,fan cam area. ill give the throttle body a clean up

if its not revving then there could be a problem, the 2.0 is sluggish in the lower RPM (due to slow gas flow as inlet ports are really too big/wrong shape) but above 3000-3500 then the engine should start to work and should easliy hit the red line before the limited kicks in in 1st and 2nd (and possibly 3rd).

do the above checks, also worth if this does not improve it to remove timing belt cover and check it has not slipped somehow.

mrlee

My first '84 E30 320i L-Jet suffered a similar problem when I took it to a branch of Halfords in Essex for a new cambelt, it gradually recovered some of its performance (which prior to the change had been excellent) but was never quite the same and would frequently go flat like you describe at higher revs

this is getting interesting lol.

can the ignition timing be adjusted, like via the distributor as some other cars ive known?

Yes, it can be advanced by slackening the base plate clamp screw and turning the dizzy body slightly clockwise. Remove the centrifugal rev limiter spring & contact on the rotor arm while you're there (the ECU has a smoother 6250rpm rev limiter built in anyway.)

Did you mark and time the dizzy drive pully properly?

If thats a tooth out then it will make it flat as a pancake, on the later engines this pully only drives the oil pump so its timeing is irrelevent.

stonesie wrote:Did you mark and time the dizzy drive pully properly?

If thats a tooth out then it will make it flat as a pancake, on the later engines this pully only drives the oil pump so its timeing is irrelevent.

I'll go with Stonesie on this one! OP doesn't say whether he used a manual or no, but, IIRC, Haynes (1948) makes no mention of timing the distributor drive pulley.

Brianmoooore wrote:

stonesie wrote:Did you mark and time the dizzy drive pully properly?

If thats a tooth out then it will make it flat as a pancake, on the later engines this pully only drives the oil pump so its timeing is irrelevent.

I'll go with Stonesie on this one! OP doesn't say whether he used a manual or no, but, IIRC, Haynes (1948) makes no mention of timing the distributor drive pulley.

yea your both correct, the guide i followed from a link on here made no mention of this pulley,

no how much i moved it or whether i moved it im not certain.

how can i make sure it is correct??
or in my case possibly not correct??

I'm only guessing here, since I'm not familiar with these early lumps, but it should be possible to correct any misalignment with the belt on the pulley by turning the distributor in its clamp.
Ideally, you should use a timing lamp to set it, I suppose.

ok just need to what to allign it against

does it need to be TDC etc?

There will be mark's on the front pully and timeing cover for lineing up the ignition timeing, the timeing lamp will take a trigger from the plug lead to either cylinder 1 or 6.

Good luck getting the dizzy to turn in the block, on my old VW scirocco it was buggered by the time it was free and that was the same idea. I hope you have more luck.

Try soaking it in WD40 the night before, where it meets the block.

yea ive had a quick try to turn it n its tight!!!!!

might try taking belt off and turning the intermediate pulley a turn clockwise, if that advances it.

I'd be wary of doing that; once a cambelt is fitted and tensioned up, you shouldn't slacken it off and re-use it else it may dramatically shorten its life.

FIXED

dizzy was going no where unfortunately so we slackend the belt off and moved inter pulley a tooth clockwise.

no it picks up like before if not better - maybe im just excited

belt had only done like two miles and wasnt stretched, still tight to get back on, all done in under 2 hours so happy with that.

thanks for all the help

As long as you re-tensioned it then it should be ok but i would make a note to change it a bit sooner than you were thinking.

yea re-tensioned it,

will do but i doubt ill be doing more than 5k in it.

its an old tale...... cant reuse cambelts.
as long as you refit them so theyre running the same way round, theyre fine.