HELP! Smoking loom!

[visionz]

I've just recently bought a 2.5 engine to go in my 2.0 and just as i finished and turned the ignition.. smoke started pooring out of the loom.. it looks to be caused by the ignition relay (orange one by the AFM).. looking at the old engine it didnt have one there.. (possibly by-passed for TOAD ai606 alarm?) I know that my old 325 would not run if that relay was not present.. also i can see burn marks on the relay fins it's self.. so what am i looking at? whole new loom? how do i stop this from happening again? and finaly.. how hard is it to change a dash loom? BOLLOX!!!!

[e30-320i]

check the main earth lead at the bottom of the block to chassis the exact same thing happened to a mate of mine when we changed his lump

[visionz]

what about that relay?.. is that the earth that joins on the passenger side underneath the air box? n' do u reckon this is gonna cost me allot of time and money?

[e30-320i]

yes mate the thick lead below the air box not sure about the relay me mates loom smoked from below the tb everything else was fine.i don't know alot about it myself mate but me and my mate tried getting his new lump started for about 3 hours and it just kept smoking from the loom in the end he called some guy he knew who bolted a new earth strap on.luckily only one wire had melted in the loom so we just cut out the burnt bit and replaced.after this it fired up first turn of the key i

[visionz]

ah ic.. mine was smoking from the fusebox and the little screw cap next to it with all the pins in it.. it's got to be the relay!

[e30-320i]

yeah maybe something totally different hope you get it sorted though mate