Mattt

Oh Yes, i checked valve clearances. They were fine, but i found this lovely banjo bolt for the oil tube in the head just chilling next to a valve spring. Sorted some copper washers and re fitted it with some loctite. Some photos:

So it's become apparent that in order to do my Corona Justice, it's going to need a few years. After chatting with the wife we decided that I should get the BMW to a point i'm happy with it so i'm not rushing the Corona build. After talking with her we decided to give the car a roughly 10-15k budget. The plan: I'm talking to BC Gold at the moment about modifying a set of their E28 coil overs to fit the E23. There's a couple of manufacturers that make them but i've been struggling to get any information out of the certifier about how to get them legal in New Zealand so i'm trying to use a company that's already well established here. I'll custom build front and rear strut braces to help tighten the chassis up. When i fit the coilovers i will also modify the rear subframe for camber and toe adjustment using the Garagista weld in kits. I now have a M30B35 out of an E34 sitting in my garage. I'm going to order a turbo manifold, Micro squirt ECU, GT3584R Ball bearing turbo, 720cc Bosch Injectors, AEM water/Meth injection kit, LS Coils, MLS Head gasket, ARP head studs etc. I will compression test the engine first and if all is good i will remove the head and strip it then have it skimmed. Rebuild the head with mild polishing work, replace all the gaskets and seals, water pump etc to get it ready for the turbo. My research has suggested 600-700whp is quite safe on the stock short block. I'm going to aim for 500whp. I'm planning on only running water/meth injection if i can tune it safely and avoid running an intercooler. My understanding is it should work fine at that sort of power figure, but i'll be keeping a very close eye in EGTs and AF ratios. I also picked up a scrap heap old PFL E23 that had a 4 speed manual conversion. I mainly wanted the Pedals, driveshaft, x member and shifter so i can fit it to a 5 speed box. Unfortunately when i got it home i found the front driveshaft had been taken already, but the rest of the bits were there including a flywheel in the boot (Car had no engine) I have a pair of nice old school style bucket seats which i will fit or i'll source some black leather seats out of a E60 or similar. That can be done towards the end of the build. As she's a heavy tank i'm not looking for amazing handling or power, but i think it should make it a very cool car

So a few updates to this since October. Not long after i got it i noticed that most of the intake hoses were absolutely stuffed. I ordered new ones out of Schmiedmann and when they arrived i fitted those. It helped power and economy somewhat. After reading a complicated online tutorial on how to change the brake accumulator i decided to forget what i'd read and spent 10 mins changing the brake accumulator. Amazingly the car now has boosted brakes and the brakes work much better. Fitted 25mm wheel spacers all around to get the wheels sitting much nicer. Long term i plan to find some 17" Autostrada Modenas and rebuild them to 18" but that will come after other things. The car has always had a hunt at idle issue so after diagnosing a faulty idle control valve I ordered a new one from Schmiedmann in Germany before Christmas. This took much longer than normal and arrived late January. I installed it when it arrived and that improved the idle a lot. It's still a little rough at idle but it's consistent with most older bmws i've driven. It just seems to be the way these things are. I bought some new Component speakers, a couple of amps, a Kenwood head unit and a pair of 8" subs. I built a ported box and installed it all. It's a good, clear system which isn't too loud and still keeps most of my boot space. after having it for a little while i decided that it was a bit too boomy so i screwed a bit of ply over the port and it now sounds much better. I will build a new sealed box for it in the next few weeks. Spent some time masking and repainting the black on the lower sills. The car had been having a really odd fault where at 4k rpm it would fall flat on its face, do a couple of surges and then take off again. Did it everytime, in every gear. It had also been very gutless since i bought it and had weird electrical faults. When you first started the car the windows and heater would work fine, but turn it off and back on again and the heater and windows would stop working. I did a reasonable amount of hunting and cleaning of grounds then gave up and took it to the auto sparky at work with the 200 page electrical diagnostics and diagrams manual for the car and in 2 hours he had worked out that whoever had installed the push button start (presumably because the ignition is pretty stuffed) had bypassed a circuit that disengages and engages the auxiliary circuit when the car is being would over to start. I don't fully understand it, but he ran a new circuit to reinstate it and now all those odd issues have been fixed. Also, the fuel gauge has stabilised now, the trans shifts more smoothly and the car got most of the power i would expect back. I then hunted down a new Distributor cap and Rotor which was harder than expected to find and I fitted those. The old one was corroded and the rotor was stuck onto the distributor shaft. I wouldn't be surprised if they were original. This gave the car more power again. It now feels nearly as fast as a 1300 EE90 corolla so i'm somewhat happy with that. It's not a sports car.... yet. I took it for a fresh WOF a couple weeks ago. It failed on windscreen wipers, No front bump stops, Light on dash for Brake pad wear and leak from fuel pump area. I replaced windscreen wipers right away, sourced some generic strut mounted bump stops which were 86mm long, after test fitting and cutting them down they ended up 25mm long. The good thing is that the front suspension doesn't bang around when going over bumps anymore! I fitted a new fuel line between fuel filter and fuel pump. Then went for a drive and put it back up on the hoist where there was a fuel leak still. I ordered a new pump and fitted that. This time no more leak. Fuel is gold plated at the moment, so for 1/3 the price of a tank to get the pump i was glad to stop the leak. Last i ordered 2 new brake pad wear sensors and fitted those. The light was still on the dash. I grabbed the multi meter to start test the wiring but when i pulled back the sheath to check the wire colours behind the plug on the front sensor i found that one wire was quite stretchy. I cut the plug open, soldered the wire back up and heat shrinked it all. No light. Car got it's WOF yesterday, so i put the wheel spacers back on. I have noticed the car has a fun issue where intermittently it will take a bit of turning over before it starts. Thinking it's the main relay, but i will probably throw it at the sparky again. Either way it does start, just takes a bit some times. Other times it starts immediately. That's old BMWs for you. Right, i'll talk about the fun stuff on a new section

Acetylene is the problem child, but even that's ok for short bursts.

Thanks man. That's very helpful. Unfortunately in the 2 weeks it's been sitting in my driveway it's turned into the grand canyon. Must have been a moist environment where it was for the last 20 years. Is a real bummer, but it saves me a job of swapping the dash boards over!

So I've picked up this old euro import 7 series for parts as it ls a manual and I want to manual swap mine. Well, low and behold the dash in it is mint. No cracks at all. Not bad for a 1978 that's sat in a paddock since 2002. Anyway, I'm extreeeeeeemely paranoid that it's going to crack when I'm removing it. Has anyone got any suggestions of what I could soak on the dash for a couple weeks to try and soften it up before pulling it out? Will armour all suffice or is there something better?

My proper Momo Boss kit finally turned up. Cost a fortune and took forever but worth the wait. Going to get the wheel alignment sorted tomorrow.

Just moved the car. Heater works, windows work, mirrors work. This will be fun.

Thanks guys. Gives me something to look for now as a starting point. Very helpful.

No you can literally push on the door sensor and they stop working As soon as you let it go windows work. I have recently pulled the struts out so I'm afraid there's an issue with the boot wiring. It does seem to be an issue with bmws from time to time.

Hi all. My 85 728i BMW has just started to show its true colours. Currently the electric windows and sunroof ONLY operate with a door open. The heater no longer operates at all and the electric mirrors no longer operate at all. Does anyone have any idea on where to start with this? The fuses are fine and previous threads I've found on this issue have shown the realys to function fine, however they have not posted how the issue was solved

Feeling better about it now. Still putting spacers on it next week. Now has a freshly painted black valance

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