E30 Zone

Just got back from Holiday (was away for 2 weeks) and pulled the HT's off one by one to clean my sparks up as I had a bit of a lumpy idle/misfire on low down revs before I went away.

Number 3 HT had oil on it when I pulled it out, and there was some oil on the thread part of the spark too, quite a bit. There was also a little oil on the thread part of sparks from 5 & 6 cylinder too. I cleaned them all up and went for a drive, lumpiness has smoothed out a bit but still not perfect. When I got back, there was some oil weeping out of the oil filler cap which wasn't there before I left, even though this was on tight and proper.

Car has been running fine until now (2.3 turbocharged with T25 at the moment), so was wondering what could cause the oil to get to where it is? Is it likely a duff roicker cover gasket, too much oil pressure? Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks.

Kam

Not 100% sure what's causing the leak Kam, my M60 was covered in oil when I stripped it but virtually every seal had gone brittle which explained everything! I would think the rocker cover gasket is as good a place as any to look, do you have individual coil packs bcause the socks on those can perish and leak oil down to the spark plug from the camshaft/rocker area if the rocker gasket/cam cover has perished?

As an aside, is that an E21 323i ltd edition? Is it yours? My mate had one and it was such an awesome car until he wrote it off a couple years back! I want one!

Yes it is E21 limited edition Gravy, was in BMW Car Mag this month. She's a lot of fun, just waiting to get the car booked in to turn up the bosot and have her mapped better than she is at the moment. Here you go mate, loads of piccies here: http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i264/ ... 1%20Turbo/

Most of the seals were renewed last year, don't think the rockert cover gasket was though. It's running a wasted spark setup, I think it's a Ford V6 coil pack controlled by the KMS Management system. She's due a trip to the garage anyway as the water temp sensor is not reading temps correctly, just wondered what was going on here as she's been fine until a few weeks ago.

Kam,

Do you have a breather setup? How does the rocker cover breath? to atmos or recirc?

I've not had this problem myself, the HT leads are dry and the only oil that I have found has been blown out through the breather pipe.

I'm sure a catch can setup would sort it but it isn't that bad to warrant spending more money.

Cheers for the info Fozzy. It's recirc as I used to have a catch tank setup which we got rid off. And the strange thing is that I've been spanking the nuts off the engine for months now and it's been fine up until the last few weeks. Maybe a loose connecting hose or something somewhere. Will have a look when I get in tonight. Appreciate the info. Out of curiosity, what turbo and power is your tubo putting down Fozzy? Looks lethal from your sig pic!

kam wrote:Cheers for the info Fozzy. It's recirc as I used to have a catch tank setup which we got rid off. And the strange thing is that I've been spanking the nuts off the engine for months now and it's been fine up until the last few weeks. Maybe a loose connecting hose or something somewhere. Will have a look when I get in tonight. Appreciate the info. Out of curiosity, what turbo and power is your tubo putting down Fozzy? Looks lethal from your sig pic!

No worries

I hope too have the stats soon enough, been working out the last few bits before it gets back out on the road. There is no actual RR figure to share as yet but it's certainly fast enough even on 9psi. ( 0.6 bar) Bear in mind tho the efficient range of the H1C I have is 1-3bar!

Now with all the toys fitted and working, the exhaust fitted and wasted sparks it should allow me to run 21psi again, although this time without shitting the head gasket after half an hour!

She bolted up nice and tight now so my monies on either the rods or the clutch to go next, either way we'll all find out what a stock motor can do before it goes FUBAR.

How have you bolted your head down? Stock bolts & HG won't do over 1 bar for long, speaking from experiance that is

Sounds nice mate, especially on a standard engine. Mine has Standard bolts at the moment, and I think it's a metal headgasket jobby, so that should be fine. Mine's only running 5 psi at the moment and pulled 190bhp and 216lbft torque, which I was quite pleased with as she's only still a 2.3. I need bigger turbo, intercooler and injectors before upping the boost, oh, and a proper dyno or RR re-map! Look forward to seeing how much yours pulls, must be f***ing quick on 9 psi let alone 21psi! Is that why they call you monster!

Thanks for the link Kam, it looks stunning - bought back some fond memories! Unfortunately my mates came to a sticky end when he attempted to oversteer out of a tight space but instead of a 3-point turn! The result was huge understeer straight into the kerb he was trying to avoid which totally mangled the nearside front suspension and chassis rail! Such a shame as it was a rare beasty that I was leaning towards making an offer for! I wish I could find another because it was a fantastic car