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Hi Guys,

I'm hoping that someone here can help me out, this problem is driving me crazy...

A few months ago I converted my car from Auto to Manual and for ease (and because I wanted to refresh my original engine) I decided to swap the engine and gearbox all in one go.

so the old engine (which was running OK) came out and the manual bits and pieces swapped and the engine and manual gearbox put in. bit of messing around it was running and before long it was ready for a drive (or so I thought).

From the start I should add I had trouble getting it to run and ended up swapping the fuel pump, cleaning the injectors etc etc.

Anyway, with the car running and sounding OK, a bit of playing around with mixture and idle I decided the best thing to do was to get it out and have a bit of a drive, see what it went like.

Low revs and slowly through the gears it appeared fine, drove quite well and I could see it was going to be a lot more fun than an auto. with confidence growing i decided to give it a bit more and then the problem started. when you open the throttle wide open the cars revs to about 3 - 4k and then hesitates badly, will not accelerate through it and starts to get slower and slower. ease of the throttle and it will begin to drive again.

Just for the record just as you lift off the throttle it like surges very slightly and I'm not sure if this might mean something.. could it be too lean, too rich, something relating more to fuel pump or pressure.

Timing appears to be good, I checked that again at the weekend, but I just can't get it to rev out and its driving me crazy, I really want to drive it...

So its a 1981 323i.
Replaced (as well as the engine)
fuel filters, spark plugs, tried different leads, even swapped the fuel distributor, tried a different coil and even changed the distributor. I've cleaned the injectors. cleaned the plunger out on the fuel distributor.... What Else could it be...
oh yeah... Engine was said to be a good runner from the guy I purchased it from, and have no reason to disbelieve, at a stand still it revs great.. it's just under load..

I hope someone here can help.

looking forward to seeing your replies. maybe even someone could recommend a K Jet wizz....

Thanks
Clive

And how are the cold and warm starts now? Did you check ignition timing and current mixture settings to see what the engine does it idle and when revving her? That would be a starting point for me and see what info you come up with. Since you already tried swaping so many parts, a bit more direction would be handy but it sounds like over- or under fueling.

Sounds like mixture to me.

Also adjust system and control pressure.

Both cold and warm starts are ok, but if you rev the engine before its warmed up then getting it to idle again is difficult.

I have adjusted the mixture up and down quite a bit. went from black sooty plugs to about white ones and the hesitation is still there.

Do you think it's worth having the injectors back out. Am a bit reluctant as I bought new rubber seals for them and didn't really want to start pulling them out again, but if it could be the problem should have them back out...

Thanks for the replies. Think I might need to borrow a fuel pressure tester if I can find someone with one.

Thanks again

Clive

There's only so much cleaning you can do on the injectors so perhaps these are just pissing. Funny that fiddling with the mixture doesn't give any changes. Did you check if the timing belt is fitted correctly?

The difference was only very slight, like makes the problem happen a bit earlier in the rev range. But same effect.

Haven't checked the cam belt, what do you think could be up with that, tooth out or something?

Thanks for the help btw, really want to get it sorted out, looking forward to a drive...

Regards
Clive