BMW Curious

Just took a quick look at an early 320. I think 79-80ish. Expired tags, one flat tire, very solid rust free body, but horrid paint. No, it will not buff out. Interior worn, cracked dash, seats torn. I'm thinking a 200.00 offer if I can find the owner. These are fun, tossable cars, right? Not powerful or fast, but enjoyable. Do these have the dreaded guibo? What else might be a deal breaker? I can do most repair, service but would balk at a head gasket. Please advise.

Rust is the deal-breaker. Everything else ranges from easy to time-consuming but not difficult. Even a head gasket isn't terrible on M10s.

It has a guibo. Bosch k-jet injection can be tricky to diagnose and some of the bits can get expensive. Very fun and enjoyable when right though. M-10's sound wonderful as well.

Here's some encouragement or discouragement depending on how you look at it.

Bought it for $1200, car was rusted through from the rockers down. Put about $5000 in it replacing rusted steel and doing bodywork and paint. Couldn't get the k-jet figured out ran great once it was running but was a bitch to start cold. Got that sort of figured out then it wouldn't start hot. Drove it for three years. The car had almost 300k on it. I ended up selling it for $900.

m42/m44 swap in a clean e21 or just a nice simple turbo/MS'd m10 would be lots of fun.

i met a guy with a nicely prepared e21 that was largely a track rat. i noticed it at a bmw car show because it wasnt all cleaned up, had lots of front camber and big black wheel studs when most everything else there had more of a street aesthetic to them. turns out it had a high compression, schrick cammed, 2.5L S14 churning out around 275hp he said he went from one of the fastest through the corners to one of the fastest everywhere when he built and swapped it in

This one appears to be a true Florida car. No rust at all. Looks like crap, but I have time and people. It helps that my daughter has a boyfriend that really wants my approval and has a high end body shop. Boyfriend, hah. He's 50, she's 42.

I suppose the k-jet could be replaced by a Megasquirt?

Why is the Guibo "dreaded"?

The BMW only has 1, the Alfa has 3!

I also have Rennie at Red Line available. Hehehe.

not sure.. my fiat and my bmw use the guibo.. I have never had an issue with them

OK, one less thing to worry about.

Guibos are easier to replace than u-joints. I don't fear 'em.

Great fun to drive, I've had no problems with Kjet. Hotter coil/plugs/good wires, remove engine driven fan and replace with electric, 80mm air sensor plate and it'll be sporting to drive.

Suspension is fun when tightened up (come to think of it, fun even marshmellowy - sp? even a word?).

I kept thinking I'd sell mine because it was too slow, but it was really fun to drive. pre-80 is 2.0, 80 on is 1.8. M42/44 are supposed to be a really good upgrade, apparently not hard to do either (I went w/a 2.0 and mild cam).

I would do the M44 swap.. a set of cams, exhaust work, and some remapping on the standard injection would get you into 325 power.. Megasquirt it and you could probably get close to 200 with some intake work and porting/polishing

OK, I'm stupid. What is an M44? 325 in that little thing would be a beast.

m42 or m44 is the 1.8L or 1.9L DOHC in the e30 or e36 318i's. somewhere just shy of 150hp, revvy, same rough size and weight as the stock m10, etc.

The M44 is the 16v twin-cam used in the later E36's. 325 power would refer not to 325 horses, but rather, to the same output as the BMW 325i, (200ish HP.)

Sounds like you ought to buy it!

I'm lusting over an E21 myself at the moment. This one.... ""

the M42/M44 engines are the looked over successors to the M10/S15. From what I have read from a couple of engineers, the M42 head actually flows BETTER than the S15s.

BMW choked these engines down big time as not to compete with the 2.0 six cylinder cars which had 150hp stock.

OK, the owner called me from the note on the windshield. First, he has clear title in hand. Secondly, it does not run because of a bad fuel distributor. Huh? Is that the Bosch FI or does he not have a clue? I will get to take a better look at it over the weekend, but am quite curious about the fuel distributor he talks about. He is not a mechanic at all. Poor boy.

Fuel distributor is the heart of the mechanical injection system. I'd ask how he knows it's a bad FD - as far as I know they're pretty robust, but you could probably find one on one of the forums (bimmerforums has a really good e21 section).

The warm up regulator I know can cause issues with fuel pressure, and I think will keep it from running. If the fuel pump is working, the other thing to check is the accumulator (holds pressure in the line for starting), if it goes out, very hard to start. JRCook over at bimmerforums is a KJet master (I know he's on here from time to time), can give you specifics on how to t/s if you wind up with it.