1981 E21 BMW 316

[whitbytom]

Having lived on a staple diet of 80's watercooled Volkswagen for just shy of 10 years, I came to the conclusion recently that I needed something a bit different to tinker with. I toyed with the idea of an old Ford, and a few cars my old man had when I was a kid, but couldn't find anything suitable. In the end I happened upon this in the for sale threads on this very forum, a deal was done, and on Monday Rapidk and his mate kindly delivered this:



It's a summer tart up and MOT project, but the pressing issue to be dealt with is the very broken engine :



Fortunately a spare engine came with the car, and is sitting on the garage floor waiting to go in. I had a poke round it yesterday night to see what I could see. It's been looked after in the past, from what I can see it's sporting new discs, pads and calipers all round:



And also newish dampers and what look to be lowering springs?



I had a poke round underneath and can't find anything too horrifying, so hopefully I'll be able to turn it around fairly quickly.
I managed to separate the broken engine from the gearbox last night, so hopefully I'll be able to pull the broken engine at the weekend, and get the other one in.
I've heard these are a bit tricky to find wheels for, the standard wheels are 5.5J ET13, and the track control arm fouls on wheels with offsets much higher than that. I tripped over the stack of wheels I've got in the garage, so thought it'd be rude not to offer one up, these are 7J ET15 I think. They'll need redrilling to 4x100, but they seem to offer up without catching, and look rather good too.



Other non essential tasks I plan to do are sort the interior out, the driver and passenger seat don't match, and the drivers one has pretty much collapsed. The interior is blue, which will probably mean getting hold of seats might be a pain, but I'll see what comes up. Also it doesn't seem to have, or ever have had a radio, or even speakers! For an 80s prestige motor this really baffles me, I thought even bog spec Mk1 Golfs had a wireless?

Any comments/thoughts/suggestions are welcome!

[e21'er]

FIT THOSE RIMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Awesome!! Look like Ronal turbo rims and will be peachy on your e21 mate.

[e21'er]

Might find some speakers in the footwells? Everything was an option for BM's back in the day. You never got anything unless you asked for it and paid the extra! Been trying to find the thread on e21.net where there's another car in the US with those rims. He's polished them right up though and they look awesome. Similar to BMW turbo rims. Certainly make a change to the usual alloys. Cosmics would look cool if you can find some? Like you said, the offset for e21's is a bit of a random one which is why I was so chuffed to find my MSW's. I did have minilites but they were only 13's off of a 2002 and they went to pay for the MSW's. Mind you, I'd have put them on the girlfriends 2002 if I'd known we were going to find one when we did. I'd have to sneak them on though as she likes the standard 02 allys.
I posted a link to an injection set-up for an m10 thats currently on e-bay. M10's work really well with injection or bike carbs are another good option. If you get the head from an auto it has slightly bigger valves. Similar to the 02tii spec if I remember right? A Weber 28/36 works really well too! Just the Weber and auto head gives an extra 20 - 25bhp which is none to shabby for a bolt on mod'. Thats a 25% power increase! Anyway, I have rambled on for long enough....

[whitbytom]

Cheers mate, you're a mine of useful information! I have the original bill of sale, and the only options added on are height adjustable drivers seat (which has now collapsed!) and the 5 speed overdrive gearbox, so I guess that explains why there's no radio. Why someone's never bothered to fit one in the last 27 years though is anybody's guess!

You may have read my mind, I've a set of bike carbs sitting in the garage doing nothing from my old bike carb'd mk2 golf. I'll have to investigate re jetting them and making up a manifold to fit the M10.

[rob0r]

Yes, yes, yes. Bike carbs FTW. I've been thinking about doing this to an M10 for a while now. A guy on E30zone has a bike carbed M10 and it's turned out really well.

It looks like a good one... especially after the E21 323i I've been grinding this evening! You should be fine with ET15, but definitely check carefully. MiM rims come up quite often (et13) and are relatively cheap, there's a set on E30zone for £200 I've been umming and ahhing over for the last few weeks!

(Wiz0r off e21.net)

[whitbytom]

I'm not too worried if the offset's not right for the E21, I can always put em on my Mk1 Golf if they don't fit as they're both 4x100.

The budget won't stretch to more rims just yet, plus the wife's only just recovering from me buying the car!

[jonkheer]

I also have a bikecarbed M10 (sits in a '73 2002) and they work very well together! More reliable than a Piershit vacume curse word carburettor too, if you got one in that 316.

[whitbytom]

Good to see that the bike carbs thing has been done in the past. Soon as I've got it running and roadworthy, they're getting fitted!

The standard carb on it is a Solex with an Auto choke, are these any good or a nightmare? I've had big problems with those garbage Pierburgs on Golfs in the past.

[rob0r]

General consensus are that solex's are rubbish! A lot of 316s got fitted with replacement weber down draughts which are much better, and what my 316 had. If it's working ok though they're not much to worry about.

[e21'er]

If its working it should see you thru till you fit the bike carbs. If not a Weber is a definate improvement.

[e21'er]

How does the fuelling work using bike carbs?

[whitbytom]

I just used the original pump that fed the carbs on the bike. Often people do the conversion and use their existing pump and have problems with over/underfuelling, but I never had a problem with the CBR6 pump.

I did a thread about it a while ago, here's the link

I've booked an engine crane for tomorrow, so I should have an 'engine in' update tomorrow

[e21'er]

I like the look of that. I'm wondering if anyone has done a BMW 6 pot? Might have ti give this some thought once I get a 2.5 dropped in. I'm still pretty keen of a 3.5 though especially now that a new 335i is available. My number-plate would be perfect too!

[whitbytom]

A 6 pot on bike carbs would be something else. Might be a bit of a pain grafting together and balancing 1.5 sets of bike carbs though.

Well I picked the engine crane up at 8.30 yesterday morning and by 11.00 the donor engine was bolted the 'box and resting on its mounts. I had to swap the distributor off the old engine as the wiring was slightly different, so I had to turn the engine to TDC to get the distributor correctly aligned.

That's where I hit a problem, knew it seemed too easy. Turn the engine 3/4 of a turn and it stops. In a piston hitting valve kind of way. Cue me swearing a lot, throwing some stuff, and generally being miffed.

Before I resorted to taking off the head, I looked up on the 'net where the cam timing marks were, took the cam pulley off and set the cam timing to see if that changed things. The odd thing is that it seems the pistons and valves were still interfering? Not sure how this can be, unless there's something adrift in the combustion chamber?

I think the slider that tensions the cam chain is busted, as it looks cracked from above, which may explain the cam timing being out by 180 degrees?


Needless to say I'm very fed up, but I guess I'll have to take the head off in the week and see what horrors lurk within. I'll keep you updated.

[e21'er]

I think its more likely to be the newer engine not liking the older dizzy as they go in opposite directions it seems? When you say wiring on the original dizzy being different? What wiring? The feed for the points?

[jonkheer]

Are you sure you setted the distributor timing correct? An stock engine should not interfere easily.. things only go nasty when there's a racy camshaft inside with added valve lift.

It's easy to check for inteference, just turn the engine until it stops. Then use a flat schrewdriver to pull the things-between-valve-and-camshaft (sorry, my english is not good ) to make the valve further open.

[whitbytom]

Well after a much needed week away on holiday, I chucked on some old clothes, picked up my freshly delivered Haynes manual and decided to have a crack at the BM.

I went back to the start, took the distributor out, turned the engine to TDC and checked the cam timing. All seemed to be OK so I gingerly turned it over by hand and it seemed to have cured itself.
I primed the cam chain tensioner, put it all back together, fitted the distributor (correctly this time) and the cap, plugs and leads. I then turned it over once more by hand to make 100% sure everything's OK, then nicked the battery off the golf, and turned the key.

IT LIVES! It made a hell of a din, what with the exhaust manifold and downpipe being loose, but I'm so chuffed it's a runner, I was close to losing heart with the thing.

Off to the motor factors at lunch for some gaskets, my mojo is fully restored!

[e21'er]

Brilliant! Another e21 soon to be back on the road!

[Neil]

Well done mate, sorry again about the engine, i bought being told it was a good en. Still a bit sad shes gone but she looks in worthy hands! I'll be watching your progress good luck mate.

[whitbytom]

Cheers guys, I had another crack at it last night, fitted the exhaust manifold gasket carefully(19.5 quid for an exhaust manifold gasket!), and re-plumbed in the coolant hoses for the carb heater, as the new engine was plumbed slightly different. It runs really well, misses a bit, but I think that's a timing issue rather than bent valves.

I still need to sort out how it's mounted, as the new engine's sump fouls on the n/s engine mount. The l/h and r/h mounts that are bolted to the block were different between the new and old engines so I swapped them from the old engine onto the newer one before I fitted it, and I think that may be where I went wrong.