bmwe21.net forums

Hello everybody, let my introduce myself. My name is Gerwin Berghorst, I am 18 years young and just bought my first car. I live in Wezp, located just under Zwolle in The Netherlands. I still do some studying, in my free time I really like to work on cars. My father works in a garage for 30 years, so cars are basicly my life.
When I passed for my drivers license, I used my parents cars a lot, but I thought of buying my one. After a long search I found the one and only, a E21 BMW. Yesterday I brought it back home, it is a 320i, but yes, it is a 6 cilinder:


This typical car was build in 1978, it is a carburator version with a 4-speed manual gearbox. It has done 144k (kilometres) and runs like a beauty. Well, it has been in a shead for 15 years, so the sparkplugs are old and the oil is wasted. But after a thorough check-up, a new muffler (it makes a hell of a sound at the moment ) and some new brakes, it should be a wonderfull car.
Today I started cleaning it up and look at the overall state. I isn't to bad, but I should consider to do some work on the boot. I received some parts with the car, including the black trim between the rear lights. I mounted that today, because I think it looks 200% better instead of the red reflector.
Up to the meaning of this forum, I have a question for you all. Can I refuel this baby with normal unleaded fuel?
If anyone has any answers, question or comments, please feel free to post!

Gerwin

Thegs wrote:Up to the meaning of this forum, I have a question for you all. Can I refuel this baby with normal unleaded fuel?

Yes you can. Btw, nice car!

Bloody hell! That is beautiful! What a cracking looking car...

Very cool car Gerwin, I like it a lot. Same color as mine looks brand new.

Hows the interrior, still in good nick? Hoe youll have lots of fun with it

Dennis

Very nice car!!!!

Hi,
i just follow the others. what a beautiful car. it's good to have some more 320/6 in this forum...

Hi there Gerwin.
Nice looking car you have.

But what is under the bonnet?
Is it an injection or a carburetor engine?

Well thanks for the welkom all.

@ac/dennis, the interior looks reasonable, but it could be better. But fortanately my mother rebuilds car interiors, so mayby some new leather on the seats and the rear? And off course it is a bit humid? (vochtig) in the car, but that is a common BMW problem isn't it.

@Peter, as you can read in my first post it is a carburator engine. Today removed the airfilter and that filter case to look at the carburator. It looks ok and I remounted the case and the filter again and started her up. After a while it gave some nasty blows, sounding like backfires? Is there something wrong, or had is to do with the empty fuel tank? The light is on for a while and I can't refuel because I didn't get any small key to remove the tanklid .

I wanted to replace the sparkplugs today, so I removed one, drove to my fathers work and showed him what I needed. Guess what, that sparkplugs wearn't in stock, so I have wait again. I ordered a new muffler also and some new brakes. I hope to make some more pictures this afternoon and please let me know if I should worry considering the text above.

Gerwin

Hi Gerwin,

Welcome here and congrats on a beautiful car, love the color

If I were you I'd start with some maintenance work like those spark plugs before worrying about backfires or misfires.

Keep in mind the main weakpoints of this type of engine:
-warm her up nice 'n easy and always be sensitive to possible temperature problems
-make sure the timing belt (distributieriem) is renewed in due time. I always try to stick to 60.000 km or 5 years, whatever comes first. If it's past that or unknown, replace immediately or you might end up with a broken engine in the very near future. Replace the tensioner roll as well as the water pump at the same time.

Enjoy, hope to see the car in real life real soon!

Welcome here! Sweet car indeed!!

hmmm, I can also use my door/ignition-key if I want to fill her (the car Jimi) up

My 1979 car has a different key for the filler, the 1983 uses the ignition key. If you have to break the mechanism to get the cap off I can post you the cap and keys off the 1979 car, which is being scrapped VERY soon.

Jim

Nice car!

In due time fit her with the chrome mirrors and if your carb plays up just give it a rebuild.... Silly Me prefers the pre-facelift cars above the facelift...

Thumbs up!

Well, back to the forums again, but no new pictures yet (sorry ). I did do some work on my little e21. I replaced the sparkplugs and the airfilter. I take a look to the carburator, but it all lookes very good. That was Friday afternoon and she really ran like a beauty.
Today I received my new muffler and offcourse I fitted it this evening after school. Well, it is al lot quieter at the moment, the silincer had a big hole in it, so it was actually running without a rear silincer. It all seams te run wel at te moment. I hope to receive my key for the filler cap so I can fill it up and let it run for a while.
Wensday I will take a look at the brakes. But this evening replacing the silincer, I noticed you need a really big socket? (dop voor op de ratel) to remove the brakehousing? Is this a special BMW tool, because my Facom toolbox isn't fitted with this big socket?

@Jeroen, is it really dangerous to not replace the timing belt? I don't now the history of it, so I have to replace it asap?

I will take some more pictures from the car as well. I assume you like some pictures....

Gerwin

Thegs wrote: @Jeroen, is it really dangerous to not replace the timing belt? I don't now the history of it, so I have to replace it asap?

I'm not exactly Jeroen, but.... replace your timing belt a.s.a.p. because if you don't know when it was replaced.... you could be driving around with a potential time-bomb in your car. Believe Me that You will feel a lot saver when it is replaced.

Remember that there are 2 different types of timing belts. Be shure you will get the correct one.