SnakeyesTx
02-14-2007, 07:18 PM
I'm asking this for a friend since his engrish (yes, engrish) isn't so good.
93 325i (4-door if it matters). M50 Vanos like my 525i 16x,xxx miles, auto.
Motor was bad so he had a "friend" install another one. It hasn't run right from day 1. It always idles like its puking something then stalls unless you hold the idle to 1000 rpm where you feel serious vibration and miss. It'll drive if you really work it hard on the throttle but its not "drivable" by any means with the way it runs.
For some reason his exhaust is incredibly louder than mine but it's all hooked up. It resonates like it has no catalytics (a little envy for the tone) and if he guns the throttle you get some dark smoke out the tail pipes as if its running rich.
After 3 months I finally got around to stomp-testing his ecu and I get a 1223 error (coolant temp sensor). This is the blue headed sensor with 2 prongs in the front of the cylinder head under the intake. One trip to the shop later, and I got a new one in. The battery was disconnected to clear the ecu, and prior to starting the engine, I stomp tested to confirm that there were no stored codes. Running with my foot on the pedal at 1000 rpm for about 30 seconds, I let my foot off, the motor dies. It still runs god aweful and the ecu is still throwing a 1223 code.
Here's the kicker. Sometimes if you rev it, only sometimes you'll hear a higher pitched ticking noise that follows the engine speed almost like a valve tapping. This doesn't happen all the time though, and only starts doing so every once in a while when you hit past 3500 rpm. Then the noise follows back down to 1k and won't go away.
He thinks he engine is trashed from the get-go or that the valve was stuck but since he has all his vacuum pressure in the brakes and such, I didn't want to assume the valve dropped since the piston hasn't blown apart (I had this happen on a jag and it smashed a silver-dollar sized hole in the piston and I lost all vaccuum. (Even if a valve was stuck open for instance, I doubt one could build adequate vaccuum pressure with an "outlet" of compression since its stuck open. Additionally I can't confirm if the M50 has a non-interference head and a dropped valve would contact the piston or not, though the pistons do have valve reliefs in them when I replaced my 525's engine)
The only code is still 1223 with the new sensor in and we're both stumped. The plugs were replaced a few days ago before I got to looking at the car so we ruled out fouled plugs and the old ones didn't look fouled from bad coils. Any ideas where to start looking?
93 325i (4-door if it matters). M50 Vanos like my 525i 16x,xxx miles, auto.
Motor was bad so he had a "friend" install another one. It hasn't run right from day 1. It always idles like its puking something then stalls unless you hold the idle to 1000 rpm where you feel serious vibration and miss. It'll drive if you really work it hard on the throttle but its not "drivable" by any means with the way it runs.
For some reason his exhaust is incredibly louder than mine but it's all hooked up. It resonates like it has no catalytics (a little envy for the tone) and if he guns the throttle you get some dark smoke out the tail pipes as if its running rich.
After 3 months I finally got around to stomp-testing his ecu and I get a 1223 error (coolant temp sensor). This is the blue headed sensor with 2 prongs in the front of the cylinder head under the intake. One trip to the shop later, and I got a new one in. The battery was disconnected to clear the ecu, and prior to starting the engine, I stomp tested to confirm that there were no stored codes. Running with my foot on the pedal at 1000 rpm for about 30 seconds, I let my foot off, the motor dies. It still runs god aweful and the ecu is still throwing a 1223 code.
Here's the kicker. Sometimes if you rev it, only sometimes you'll hear a higher pitched ticking noise that follows the engine speed almost like a valve tapping. This doesn't happen all the time though, and only starts doing so every once in a while when you hit past 3500 rpm. Then the noise follows back down to 1k and won't go away.
He thinks he engine is trashed from the get-go or that the valve was stuck but since he has all his vacuum pressure in the brakes and such, I didn't want to assume the valve dropped since the piston hasn't blown apart (I had this happen on a jag and it smashed a silver-dollar sized hole in the piston and I lost all vaccuum. (Even if a valve was stuck open for instance, I doubt one could build adequate vaccuum pressure with an "outlet" of compression since its stuck open. Additionally I can't confirm if the M50 has a non-interference head and a dropped valve would contact the piston or not, though the pistons do have valve reliefs in them when I replaced my 525's engine)
The only code is still 1223 with the new sensor in and we're both stumped. The plugs were replaced a few days ago before I got to looking at the car so we ruled out fouled plugs and the old ones didn't look fouled from bad coils. Any ideas where to start looking?