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 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

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?

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  

https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/80616-mattts-e23-land-yacht-discussion/

Forgot to do one of these when I did the build thread. Feel free to discuss  

So i managed to get the springs compressed and back on. Not too sure how I feel. It's definitely a lot lower, but the wheels are no where near the right offset. Shouldn't have put my trust in mag and turbo. Anyway, I've ordered some 25mm spacers all around and will see how it looks when I've been for a bit of a drive and everything settled. I suspect the rears may need to be compressed a bit further. Also need some camber on the front wheels. The rear cambers not outrageous which I was afraid it would be, so that's a bonus.

Yard looks like a bmw dealership at the moment. Good news is things are happening. Hopefully have an update Friday night. 

I'm not sure if I've updated here so apologies to those that have been keeping this going. We sold our lifestyle block and had a kid, this sort of just got forgotten about to be honest. I'm still keen to look at building something, based in Christchurch. Not really going to have time to actually plan anything for people, but if there's an even I should be able to wrangle a machine together. I would look into liability if the events free, I think it kind of shuts alot of the liability down. Just get a waiver signed. At the same time obviously no one wants to die!

On 26/09/2021 at 21:54, BlownCorona said:

twin turbo 2gr is going to be wild. race ya to finish twin turbo 80 series builds!

couple thoughts, a j160 will almost certainly not take the torque of your planned engine, and neither will nearly any mx5 diff option. a friend is putting a vq35de into his mx5 and will be producing subframe adapters to fit an r200 diff. given youre a fabricator i imagine you can simply do the same. check out flying miatas ford 8.8 diff conversion and copy that for an available diff. 

tremec tr6060 would be my pick. otherwise a cd009 or r154 would probably be suitable options. 

I was looking at the j160 simply because they're cheap, 6 speed and everywhere. My little bit of research suggested they should handle it provided I don't treat it like shit, but I am known for eating gearboxes so maybe I should consider something stronger. Was looking at the r154 of course and as said can get bellhousings to bolt straight up. My understanding is a 3vz bellhousing will work as well, just needs a little grinding where the starter bolts up. 

As you've said I'll have to look into a better diff option. Adapting should be fairly simple. 

Really want to rip back into this thing but until I get a shed that I can work in I'm I'm bit screwed so I'm not sure about a race!

New plates

No doubt I'll get screwed for them by the cops, but we'll see. 

Right. I've been slack as shit on updating this. Where to start? Hilux diff has been sold. I have front and rear mx5 subframes siting in the garage, Mx5 d2 adjusties, steering rack etc. The gearbox tunnel has been finished. Engine has had a rattle can rebuild. Am going to start notching the rear chassis and floor to fit the IRS rear end. Car is going to get 50mm flares all around to fit the wider subframes. Have decided to keep the rota in it.