E30 Zone

...... I'm sitting at home one night a few weeks ago, when the phone rang. I knew it was my diminutive Yorkshire chum straight away, because the voice said, "Hello caller, I have a reverse charge call from .... Will you accept the charge?"

Then it starts,

"Eeh bah gum lad, ist tha on t'internet?"
"What?"
"Get thasen on t' eBay. Thers a car ther w' your nem writ reet ova it. Item number....."
"What?"

I phoned Steve and repeated what my man had said,
"What did he say, Steve?"
"Ay, they talk reet funny uvva ther."
"Don't you start, FFS, just tell me what he said. "

"There's a car on eBay you ought to buy. It might be cheap"
Now that word will alwsys attract the interest of a
Yorkshireman or a Scot and despite his vertically challenged frame and funny voice, my man does know his old BMWs, so I flung on a bid of £750 and forgot about it.

A few days later the very efficient staff at eBay advised me that I was the lucky winner.

Of an E23.
Restoration Project.
In Newbury.
For £750!

You can imagine how lucky I felt, but a deal is a deal so I made arrangements to collect it.

As time passed, I became more depressed about it. Why? What would I do with it? I can't even break it because there's only a handful and therefore no demand for parts.

The advert didn't really inspire confidence. Poor photos and the standard eBay blurb where what is left unsaid is probably more important than what is said.

"BMW 735i Auto for Restoration completion,All body work done needs fitting up and trim fitted all parts present few new trim parts been dry stored in workshop past few years have to have space.engine good but needs new fuel pump also there are 2 new ABS hubs for rear as these were rusted.wheel and tyres are new all in all goty the makings of a great classic.

All documents and history.   No MOT

Cash on collection by trailer or recovry

Happy Bidding". Hmmmmmm.


I was sceptical and sure I'd be disappointed once I saw it On arrival yesterday, it pretty quickly became apparent to me that the unsaid bits were indeed significant.

So what was left unsaid?

Two owners from new.
82000 miles
Current owner since 1982
100% complete
Full history

Amazingly original down to the mental Blaupunkt radio/cassette with stalk mounted remote control/graphic equaliser - with manuals.
Resprayed by painter used to spraying nothing but Rolls Royce/Bentley
New wings, doors, arches, exhaust and much more.
The sellers occupation - restorer of Rolls Royces. He had everything from a gorgeous 20/25 doctors coupe, through a £120000 restoration of a SilverCcloud - a car doing well to break £40000 - right up to to a few current Bentleys.

The chap was a true gentleman and his car has been restored to RR/Bentley standards. The paint is absolutely flawless.

Here's a few photos:-










It's amazing. It's a real time warp car and the standard of the bodywork restoration is astonishing.

I've only had a quick look, but it looks complete and fairly easy to put back together - just like a bigger six series.

And Christ is it big?!

The best part? It was late when I got home last night and I left it on the trailer parked in the drive. Lady Cecotto saw it for the first time this morning and declared that she hoped we were "keeping that one for a wee while".

You Jammy sod!

Oh and more pictures please!

That looks very nice. And has wood which actually looks like wood. Bargain!

Looks like you've dropped on one there!!

Nice

How many hours do you think it'll take to get it on the road?

Nice find- right place, right time

The E23's are rather unloved, a mate has a 16,000 miler tucked away under blankets waiting for them to appreciate

Again Boyd, you got Lucky!
Looks nice, but use a proper camera for the pics so we can apppreciate the condition of the paintwork

Very nice. What year is she? Is it a Motronic? It'll be a 3 speed auto if it's got the pre '82 sharknose front end. The E23's day will come, and whilst they'll never be worth 20 grand, you should be able to treble your dollars on that. A really nice, well detailed 735i should be worth £4000......?

The last time I saw one was in a Banbury scrapyard, a W plate white one with olive green leather - now minus it's 5 speed overdrive 265 'box.

'82 X. It is Motronic. I was expecting LJet. It is a three speed auto. With a battery connected, it appears as if everything works. Aircon won't, but everything else, including all seat functions work.

A good day will get all the external and internal trim back on properly. I hate fitting those door handles. They're a nightmare, but that's the only bad part of the trim work.

Thereafter I'll get a look at it mechanically, it needs a fuel pump and done vacuum hose that I know about and the brakes will need attention.

It also needs a pair of blue leather electric sports seats out if an E24 and a set of staggered style 5s and it's done.

I'll get the old Leica out later today and photograph it properly.

I have a complete extended buffalo leather electric trim for one of these turds, complete with ,door cards,glovebox consoles etc. £200 and you can be a proper executive !

That's sweet, and a bargain for what you paid good stuff!

Absolutely top notch mate very nice find!!!! LOTS of chromie bits to boot!!! Enjoy her

cecotto479 wrote:'82 X. It is Motronic. I was expecting LJet. It is a three speed auto. With a battery connected, it appears as if everything works. Aircon won't, but everything else, including all seat functions work.

A good day will get all the external and internal trim back on properly. I hate fitting those door handles. They're a nightmare, but that's the only bad part of the trim work.

Thereafter I'll get a look at it mechanically, it needs a fuel pump and done vacuum hose that I know about and the brakes will need attention.

It also needs a pair of blue leather electric sports seats out if an E24 and a set of staggered style 5s and it's done.

I'll get the old Leica out later today and photograph it properly.

X reg will be Moronic alright - they went to this in late 1980/W. Fitting E23 door handles is an utter bastard. The best way is to remove the electric window motor and regulator iirc.
The brakes are the sticky point - that ghastly hydraulic booster system with the bomb. Uuuurgh! Proper four piston front calipers though, but I'd put money on the flexys all being buggered. Still , a set of new ones is still cheap enough.

I can recall the last time I drove an E23. It was some sorry turd that Pete rescued from Sad Jan his Polish mate. She was Bronzit with extended champagne buffalo leathers and sticking brakes. On it's last journey to The Heath, it struggled along the A40 with the brakes on fire until we reached McDonalds where I cried enough. Cold water was poured onto the brakes in the adjacent filling station resulting in epic amounts of steam. A burger or two were consumed whilst the thing cooled off. Interesting, but compared to a trip to Stanmore VLO in a V reg 635CSi.....Pete can fill you in about that. Ever seen the A40 at 50-60 whilst looking into an E24 footwell?

Nice buy! My first BMW was a B reg E23 728i in polaris when i was 19!

I actually realy like these. A real classic with style. More pics though ASAP!!!!!

Whats she like under the bonnet? And if the guy knew what he was doing, why was it never finished. Sound like theres a story behind it?

that's a nice 23 Boyd, I have an 84 zinnobar one.. these things are massive !

this turd stinks of our little shrivelled up Howden freind, did he have anything to do with it ?

I did see this on the bay but dismissed it...that Audio is sexy !

pacerpete wrote:I have a complete extended buffalo leather electric trim for one of these turds, complete with ,door cards,glovebox consoles etc. £200 and you can be a proper executive !

no doubt the rear passenger seat Becker is tucked away under your bed !!
is the 740 turbo on a slippery slope ?

e30topless wrote:that's a nice 23 Boyd, I have an 84 zinnobar one.. these things are massive !

this turd stinks of our little shrivelled up Howden freind, did he have anything to do with it ?

I did see this on the bay but dismissed it...that Audio is sexy !

pacerpete wrote:I have a complete extended buffalo leather electric trim for one of these turds, complete with ,door cards,glovebox consoles etc. £200 and you can be a proper executive !

no doubt the rear passenger seat Becker is tucked away under your bed !!
is the 740 turbo on a slippery slope ?

No Steve, this is another one from a RHD car. The 745 is safe , for now !

e30topless wrote: this turd stinks of our little shrivelled up Howden freind, did he have anything to do with it ?

Now then!

Andyboy wrote:

e30topless wrote: this turd stinks of our little shrivelled up Howden freind, did he have anything to do with it ?

Now then!

Beat me to it

He spotted it and made the original (reverse charge) call.

I think it may have extended champagne buffalo leather very soon. Or maybe not *very* soon. Apparently it's "buried deep" somewhere. I shudder to think.

Under the bonnet is clean, but dusty. In terms of why he didn't finish it, his painter did this car and then killed himself - nothing to do with the car I'm assured. He just doesn't have time. He runs this:- http://stewartwalkerltd.co.uk/ by himself. No staff. No employees. He does all the non contracted out work himself. I'm certain, having spent a couple of hours with him that there is no story attached to it, other than what he says.

I'll take more detailed pictures in daylight tomorrow.

if he runs that the work should be top notch, more pics eagerly awaited!! love this car.

cecotto479 wrote:The best part? It was late when I got home last night and I left it on the trailer parked in the drive. Lady Cecotto saw it for the first time this morning and declared that she hoped we were "keeping that one for a wee while".

Maximum respect for the good Lady Cecotto, and congratulations to you and your contacts

Andyboy wrote:

e30topless wrote: this turd stinks of our little shrivelled up Howden freind, did he have anything to do with it ?

Now then!

that's the chap ! he was down this weekend having a route through my stash...


I look forward to the progress on this boyd, will make a very interesting car

I saw the white scrapyard E23 again today. The engine and olive green leather are missing - I hope they realised it was actually a 732i and not a 735i when they pulled the engine out! Oddly DVLA list it as silver, and it certainly isn't.

JYP322W R.I.P.

Well it runs. Very smoothly too actually.

But first, some more, decent photos as requested:-












There was no fuel at the fuel rail, in fact the fuel feed had been disconnected at a strange late 80s catalyst type of "bomb" thing used as a snake oil "cure" for unleaded fuel. Bin that and go foraging for a length of fuel pipe to get it connected at the fuel rail. A dead 320i convertible sacrificed the necessary length of rigid fuel pipe and the fuel lines at least look pressure capable.

No fuel when cranking. Bugger. No fuel when shorting out the relay. Hmmm. Nice healthy bright bulb on the test lamp at the fuel pump connections. Gotcha.

Fuel pump replaced with an known good E24 one and fuel at the rail with the relay bridged and with the relay in place and engine cranking.

When I say fuel, I mean varnish. About three gallons of the stuff pumped up and into a jerry can until it ran dry. It was a real murky, dull brown colour. Tank empty. Fuel filter changed. A gallon flung in and pumped straight back out to flush it through and then a full jerry can emptied in. I remember filling that can, not *that* long ago and thinking, "Bloody Hell! £14!! That's damn near £3 a gallon." Today? £26.

Success. Nice clean clear fuel into a glass Irn Bru bottle to check first and then at the fuel rail.

Check oil. Plenty and clean. Put some coolant in. Connect up the power pack and let's see what happens.

Nothing. Well lots of spinning. No firing. Stick a plug on a lead on the rocker cover. Nice big fat spark. So we have fuel and spark, but no startee.

It's spinnning over very slowly and the plugs are rank. Stick a set of plugs in it and that's me for the morning as an M20 needed a belt and pump.

While waiting for Euro to deliver said belt and pump, I decide that I might as well buy a new battery for it. It needs one anyway. Phone Euro and the boy on the phone says that there are none listed either by chassis or registration number and the car must be too old for them to stock a battery.

"OK, I'll get one locally.". Within 3 minutes on Euro's website, I've got the part number and phoned him back with it. 17 in stock apparently! It arrives just before 1.00.

By 2:30 the M20 is off and it's time to get this thing running. Battery in. Spinning over at a good old rate, but not starting. Not even firing. Spark and fuel, but no combustion.

Compression test is next on the cards, but I decided to ply it with a quick score of "Easy Start" to see if it fired. It did. Compression test not required fortunately, so injectors are now the prime suspect. Hide the "Easy Start".

Plugs out. They appear dry. Looks like the injectors aren't firing even though they have power.

ECU not sending the injectors a pulse? Swap out a known good one. No difference.

Hmmmm. With a hammer and long extension, I give each of the injectors a couple of good sharp taps. It fires. It even runs. Momentarily. On three, maybe four. More injector tapping and half a can of carb cleaner rammed down the throttle body get it running at idle speed. It won't rev and only the front three are firing. The back three are dead.

Cleaned every electrical connection with cleaner - sensors, AFM, injectors, HT leads. Everything. No difference.

Swapped out AFM. No difference. Decided to bin upside down AFM and cone thing and fit proper filter and airbox. In doing this, I see the AFM is fitted backwards. Shouldn't really matter, but I put it all right with brackets, airbox and air filter as it should be.

Wrong:-


Bolt it all on and this is the result:-


Right:-
[youtube]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/ ... c8ea06.mp4[/youtube]

I'm not yet convinced that swapping the AFM round did it, I think the AFM connections were possibly ropey, but it's running anyway.

It's also dropping ATF on the garage floor - from the steering box I think.

Bugger.

Ah. Motronicsaurus Rex. I have a wiring diagram for it, written by some 'Shakespeare' geezer. Did he work for Haynes once?

Anyway. The injectors run as two pairs of three. All have a common 12v from the ECU (red/white from terminal 87 on the five pin DME relay), but three of them have a signal from terminal 14 on the ECU (brown/white), and the other three have a signal from terminal 15 (brown yellow).

Over the years, I've found myself on Rick's No Start Shark Homepage a few times and prehistoric though it undoubtedly is, Motronic is fairly simple to diagnose.

My recollection was that the injectors were fired by two separate feeds, but were grouped 1,3 5 and 2,4, 6 and that's what made me doubt it was the ECU.

I was getting cylinders 4,5 and 6 absolutely dead - removing the HT leads and injector plugs made no difference to the car's "idling". I thought I had it when I pulled off the earths at the fuel rail and they *seem* to be grouped 1,2,3 and 4,5,6. They were a little furry and I cleaned them up and replaced them, but no definite improvement. I think the injectors were all bunged up with crap, old fuel and just sitting for years - see below - that they were sticking. A good rattling, carb cleaner, earths cleaned and it appears good to go.

Swapping the AFM round and binning the cone for a proper airbox is what did it, but in reality, it probably wasn't. It was probably a combination of a number of things and they've all been fixed, but I can count on the fingers of one finger the number of times I've had a motronic car with fuel and spark and compression, refusing even to fire.

Anyway, when did you last buy a car to be handed one of these:-

A long time ago, but I still have it......a V5 issued by DVLC March 30th 1979.




I have the current new style V5C, but only sent the original lower slip in to get the new one.

I still have the original 'log book' in my name for my Mk1 Escort which fell apart from chronic rust issues about 25 years ago!

maf260 wrote:I still have the original 'log book' in my name for my Mk1 Escort which fell apart from chronic rust issues about 25 years ago!

If it's a pre 1973 logbook, it has a value...cough....cough.

cecotto479 wrote:

Sorry to go OT, but that red 'O2 in the 'climate bubble' looks a bit interesting. Any info?

Wow, that is a sharp car. Nice buy!

Thanks, Bob, I think it looks great and I'll hold on to it for a while I think. As Andy says - not quite so bluntly - it's worth bugger all.

George, the red '02 is a customer's car in storage. It's got Jaymic arches and the whole car is spotless, interior, body and mechanics. It's M10 powered with a lot of modern fuel injection trickery, slide throttle, fly off hydraulic handbrake etc. It's very harsh and noisy and even though I've only driven it at very low speed, it's obviously a proper weapon.

However, my own personal view and it's only my opinion, the owner loves it, is that I think it falls between two stools. It's obviously meticulously prepared on a no expense spared basis, and it's superb in every detail, but its build is very track orientated. I'd imagine it being difficult to drive on the road for any distance, but it has a lovely full interior fitted. As it stands, it's neither one thing nor the other, it would be better stripped out and caged as a track day toy or toned down a little and useable as a fast road car (which would be my choice).

Its attention to detail and build quality are a joy to behold. It's a lovely, lovely car.