I hope you guys are nice to newbies...
I came into possession of a 1983 E30 323i coupe with matching M20B23 L-Jet engine a few years ago. It had been sitting untouched and unmolested for over 10 years and needed a whole bunch of stuff doing to it but I have got it to a good running condition and only have a few further bits to sort before it is roadworthy.
While it is having the excessive gearstick play and drive shaft bearing replaced, I noticed that there is a valve attached to my air intake box which is totally disconnected from anything. Just sitting there redundant. A little look on RealOEM suggested that it should be connected to the distributor (one assumes to forward/retard the spark timing). Doing a little more digging it appears quite common to have this valve bypassed or deleted with no ill effects. The valve shows up on RealOEM as 11731286495 as part of the Vacuum control section.
It would be handy to know what the valve is for and what benefit would be likely to replumbing it back in would have? It is proving difficult to get solid information for the early E30 M20s as they transitioned from the E21.
The car is a German made version with hot weather pack (air conditioning, tinted green glass) if that helps.
Any advice would be appreciated.
