1992 BMW 318i

[berge]

A friend has a 1992 318 with 125K. Other than regular oil changes, this car would pretty much fall into the 'neglected' category. I was trying to help him out with a bit of a tune-up, and we ran into a problem which is quite odd.

he had been driving around for about a year with a ripped cam cover breather hose and I assumed, rightly upon opening the intake hose, that all kinds of crap had gotten into his intake. there was black crud/dirt caked on in there and two bottles of intake cleaner and a toothbrush barely made a dent. I told him I would get him some redline si-1 and some more intake cleaner and he should go to BMW and get some oil filters, spark plugs, cap/rotor, and wires, and a pcv valve. he got the oil filters and the plugs but no pcv, cap/rotor or wires.--does this car not have a pcv and is it a coil on plug ignition?
he also got the cam cover breather hose and when we put that on the engine started acting like it's got a vacuum leak, the idle goes up and down until it stalls. take off the breather hose, and it runs fine.
what's going on? anybody experience anything like this?

thanks. sorry for the long post.

 

[Gary Allan]

I'm unsure how this will relate, but my 1978 320i would NOT run if you had the oil cap off. That is, the crankcase was under full manifold vacuum ...not a "regulated manifold leak" that a PCV valve gives you.

I kinda think that some other air supply to the engine is clogged ..and the ripped hose is providing it ..at least for idle purposes.

 

[seotaji]

quote:

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he also got the cam cover breather hose and when we put that on the engine started acting like it's got a vacuum leak, the idle goes up and down until it stalls. take off the breather hose, and it runs fine.

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something is amiss?

how is the air filter?

disconnnect the battery for a while to reset the ecu?

 

[ryan_of_the_e34]

i'd doubt it if it has a pcv valve, my 2.5 I6 doesn't, the 3.5 does not, the v8 has a air pump type plate thingy.......and i wouldn't be suprised if its coil on plug, mine is. i'd clean the idle control valve and start from there.

 

[berge]

we disconnected the battery overnight and the car runs fine now.