Alright guys, I went ahead and did it. A guy in calif is swapping a CSi engine into his 91 850i, and I'm picking up the remains. The deal comes with accessories, MAFs, cats, flywheel, ECUs, wiring loom, and a host of brand-new replacement parts like the $400 spark plug wires I've read so much about. Even an Autothority chip. This will be going into my Lamborghini replica that some of you have already offered some tremendously helpful advice on my other thread - http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=206738&page=1&pp=25

Now it looks like Robert Bentley never produced a service book for the E31? The closest thing I can get is a reproduction of the BMW service manual, which costs $179 from books4cars.com and refers to the 7-series book for much of the engine info. The guy from books4cars suggested I get the 7-series bentley for what I'm doing but I wanted to hit all you guys up first. Is the 7-series Bentley what I need to answer my engine wiring questions?

Thanks a ton for the help!

The Bently E32 book should cover the V12 adequately.

The drive train is the same between E31 and E32.

The engine electronics should be the same but the instrumentation is not.

Good luck

Where in Portland are you?

I have the Bentley for the E32. You could look at it before buying.

Where in Portland are you?

I have the Bentley for the E32. You could look at it before buying.

I live in the Mt Tabor/Laurelhurst area but work almost on Aloha's doorstep (near 170th/TV Hwy). I appreciate the offer to preview the E32 Bentley, but so long as I know it really is the one I need for engine data I'll pick one up. I own four already and there's no way I would ever expect to get this package running without it. Those manuals are incredible.

One favor I might ask though, do you know of any 850 owners in hte area who wouldn't mind me spending a few minutes with my digital camera under their hood? I could really use some pictoral documentation for component location, layout, etc.

There are 3 of us within a mile here and we all drive 840s

Try the gallery here. There are engine pictures scattered thru the whole site.

http://forum.clube31.com/

The major engine component locations are very similar to an E32.

I have the original service manual and I wouldn't bother if I were you. 90% of it is general maintenance for all parts of the car and it has very little in depth engine info. I'll browse through it though and maybe I can send you any relevant sections.
Lemme know what pics you need.... here's one to get started...


http://home.comcast.net/~wong.andrew/850/engine2.JPG

Awesome! Hi-res is what it's all about. I think that will help considerably as I try and finger out what I have and what I don't. As I start getting everything installed into the chassis I will probably need to hit you up for more specific pics. If anybody has the opportunity to shoot a pic from the underside, ie with teh car on a lift, I think that will really help me hit the ground running.

I have bid on an E32 Bentley on ebay. AJW, if you find anything in your manual that you think might be helpful I'll cover photocopying, shipping, and beer $$$ if you can send it to me. :D Everyone seems to say that the E32 manual is the one you want for engine stuff but let me know what ya turn up!