Early 320i Granatrot

[LittleJackMess]

Hi guys (Almost) new member here !

I already owned with my little brother a beat up 320/6 from 1982 something like 15 years ago that we used to "train" our skills as we were both learning wrenching... unfortunately we had to sell the car because we soon realised that our project of restoring/racing the car was beyond our financial means.

Time passed but i always felt sad about selling the car so few weeks ago i went for it and bought a 1976 320i. I'm the second "real" owner as i will be the second one to drive the car...

Let me explain the story of the car: bought new in June 1976 at Garage du Bac in Paris (Alpina importer for france) the owner drove the car until 1995 then changed for a newer car and kept the already old one in his (luckily dry) basement where it stayed for a few more years.

in 2021 a gentleman bought the car and stored it again until i bought it from him in the (almost) exact state he bought himself. Almost because he tried to restart the car so he removed the fuel tank to see if he could fix but finally gave up.

So as you can imagine, it needs a bit of care but it's in a really good shape compared to the ones i could find that had not been restored...
interior is clean, not rust free as you can imagine but nothing unfixable, brakes, clutch seems to work, BUT...

When fuel stays 28 years in a fuel tank you can imagine the damages and the previous owner has not been too much gentle when he tryed to remove the fuel level sending unit...

I'm currently in the process of restarting the car and i'm not far of getting it running but i miss a part... i already found a good used fuel tank but the fuel level sending unit was more than destroyed... so destroyed that the previous owner threw away what was left from it...

So i'm looking for help, impossible to find a brand new one, new old stock or used one.

I looked everywhere, even asked to my bmw dealership that i work often with for bmw formula 2 engine parts (i work as an engine builder for a historic racing team) and it's of course... No Longer Available

so here is my question does anyone know about a cross reference that could fit ?

Mine is supposed to have 2 tubes inside for fuel pump out/fuel return in and according to VDO data sheet (ref nr 224-817-012-001R) a resistance of 4.7 Ohm full / 88.2 Ohm empty, a lengh of 192mm and a "foot shaped" screen at the bottom acting as a pre-filter.

BMW OEM ref is 16 12 1114255

i managed to find a used e30 one that seem to have the right lengh and is a "screw on" type like mine but i can't be sure that the resistance will match... it's a bet that could cost me 150 euro and 3 weeks of waiting for nothing...

And i can't wait to drive my own e21 again

So if someone can give an advice about all this it would be really helpful.

Cheers !

[Jeroen]

Welcome here on the forum! Nice to see you come back to your old love, the E21! Of course we will try our best to help you out.

I am reading F2, you don't happen to be working for Eric Wassermann do you?

I wasn't aware this fuel pick up element was out of stock as well, did know last prices were high. Used examples will be rare, usually damaged, sieve broken or other issues. The thing is, for a fuel injected car you need a version that has the return pipe indeed, so that is 318i-320i-323i specific.

I am not sure the E30 version will work, perhaps you can borrow one from a local E30 owner to test? As an alternative, you could also take the E21 version with the single pipe which are much more common (carburetor versions), and weld a return pipe on top of the tank (on the sender base plate won't work as you'll mess up the tank level sender).

Please keep us posted on future developments, and what we'd really love, is for you to make a nice presentation in the Owners Gallery, with pictures of course!

[LittleJackMess]

Hi Jeroen !
Thanks for the reply !

About Eric i know him from the race meeting that we go to, not personally but we already had some exchanges.
but i'm working for another team, more focused on british cars but we have some 2l sport prototype equipped with bmw m12/7 engines that we run in CER championship... engine porn these bmw's

About the sender, i guess i will check for the carburated version, may be my best option and i'm not so bad with a TIG so maybe i can weld without melting everything apart

Thanks for the idea and i will do a proper presentation asap for sure !

[Jeroen]

Ah ok, well if I hear CER than we might meet up at Spa or Le Mans Classic perhaps, trying to attend both events this year.

[nic65]

Hello and welcome,
your story is nice,
for the level sensor I sold a NEW 2-tube one (surplus) just a few days ago after having kept it at home for a few years

[uwbuurman]

Isnt that great!! So cool.to have a e21 from Du Bac! There are only two Alpina importers that were licenced to build there own Alpina's. Those are not marked as Alpina, but as BMW. But they are known as Du Bac Alpina and Oldenhof Alpina, since Piet Oldenhof in the Netherlands was the other importer as mentioned. I own a e30 (non Alpina) that was first delivered by Oldenhof. So, I am excited to "know" a owner of a Du Bac BMW (non Alpina).

Welcome here. Looking foward to see some pictures.

[LittleJackMess]

Ah ok, well if I hear CER than we might meet up at Spa or Le Mans Classic perhaps, trying to attend both events this year.

For sure, we will do both !

Hello and welcome,
your story is nice,
for the level sensor I sold a NEW 2-tube one (surplus) just a few days ago after having kept it at home for a few years

hope you were not the only one to own a spare one on this planet !

Isnt that great!! So cool.to have a e21 from Du Bac! There are only two Alpina importers that were licenced to build there own Alpina's. Those are not marked as Alpina, but as BMW. But they are known as Du Bac Alpina and Oldenhof Alpina, since Piet Oldenhof in the Netherlands was the other importer as mentioned. I own a e30 (non Alpina) that was first delivered by Oldenhof. So, I am excited to "know" a owner of a Du Bac BMW (non Alpina).

Welcome here. Looking foward to see some pictures.

I took some but i'm struggling to get the url from my newly created flickr account

And yes the fact that it comes from garage du bac is a little plus for me... they were really active in racing in the 70's and 80's and as you can guess i have interest for everything that relates to the history of racing so yes it's a pleasure to own a "VERY" little piece of this story...
and i have the little service book with the stamps from garage du bac not for the entire life of the car but for the 75000 first km i guess...

So about my progress on the car, i found out that the sensor plate from the injection system was stuck, impossible to lift by hand so i opened, and the moving part from the fuel distributor was stuck glued inside by old goo from dried fuel but luckily no rust inside so i cleaned everything and reassembled (with the old o rings ) just to give it a try but it just changed nothing.

The car just seem to be about to start for few engine turns and then nothing... next step remove the injectors and check if something is spraying out of them... guess yes because almost 2 liters of my temporary jerrycan/fuel tank are missing... guess injectors are leaky as f***, will check the oil level tomorrow...

[uwbuurman]

Oillevel and thickness. Because oil consisting of petrol will not lubricate the engine...

[Jeroen]

And the joys of modern fuels, completely gumming up entire fuel systems after not being used for a while. Usually the fuel distributor is the 1st to act up, then the rest. You can remove one of the fuel injectors, see if it opens up on air pressure, then reconnect to the fuel line (carefull, don't break it, NLA!), hang it in a cup and do another starting attempt and see if there's fuel coming, just to have a first indication. K-Jet injectors open mechanically needing around 3 bar to open up.