Hey E21ers, sadly, this may be my last thread. My 323i has not run like a true B.M.W. should ever since the fateful day I wrongfully ran Sea Foam into a vacuum port on the intake manifold. It has been a never ending never success wielding journey to correct the problems this suicide liquid has caused. It has taken may hours of my time, many Spaten Optimators, a lot of money for a half-broke emergency medical student. It gives me nothing but sadness to see my beatiful 323i sit undriven day after day under its cover every day, day after day.

Up to this point, I have been force fed an overview of the Bosch K-Jetronic C.I.S. and IMHO it seems obsolete, failure prone, inefficient, and performance hindering. They let the "special" kid design this one folks. Maybe I am bitter because of my self inflicted bad luck and simply not cut out to be a K-Jet fan but anyway.
I have had my FD cleaned out by a trusted friend who owns a highly reputed mercedes shop, I have drilled and tapped my WUR and set cold system pressure in hopes that the engine would snort to life. (cold)19psi@61*F. System is an even 70psi and rest pressure will sit at 28psi all day and takes an hour to reach that. The engine fires on four cylinders with conditions like this and when I pull the plugs, they are wet with gasoline. I cannot obtain the warm control pressure because when I plug the WUR in, the temp just stays @ 19, and this might be a potential perpetrator to my problem? I'll leave this one for the experts. Could the Cold Start Injector be on crack and delivering $4.25 premium all the damn time. Could my mixture be more in the clouds than I am, could my injectors be as loose as a $5.00 hooker.

These are the issues I may be facing, I have no idea how to go about correcting them. They do not seem hard, yet they are the the most complicated thing I have ever encountered. And yet this is what a B.M.W. is; The capture of an explosion turned into perfect harmony by elements of genius not widely known to the common man. A mystery of propulsion smoothed out by the tendency of the Engineer to be the highest level of a perfectionest "Das System hat keinen Fehler" The system has no mistakes, everything is done for a reason and the reason is for the achievement of perfection. Why K-Jet then? The Bavarians said about their creation of the E21 " We have created yet another feat of engineering that shows all the world the middle finger, it has literally no flaws as a machine , so lets give it just one" and this is how K-jetronic came about once again IMHO.

So, I have flagged you for help, you have read my thread. Many of you now believe me to be nuts and I could care less. Thanks in advance for any helpful advice.:)

Your 6-cylinder k-jet operates the same as the 4-cylinder k-jet, right? I have some ideas.

Understandible. mechanical fuel injection is why i am switching to an M42.

Have you ever looked into adjusting just the idle air mixture allen-head screw in the FD (assuming the 323 has the same setup)? Granted its only for the idle mixture, but it might help. Also, with the seafoam, what line did you suck it in through? Did you put any in the oil or fuel too? Just wondering if maybe the seafoam broke some of the carbon up or corrupted a few seals in the process of cleaning. I ran it through my car a while ago and didnt have any issues.

Tell me how anything getting sucked in the intake can affect the fuel system? Got slurped in through an open injector? Sorry but it may clog your engine, your exhaust or whatever, but it CANNOT affect the fuel system. You are probably barking up the wrong tree, though it wouldn't be the first time something coincidentally broke in unison with some other event.
I happen to agree with you on the k-jet, I guess it was ok at the time, but now it only belongs in museums. Have you considered switching to EFI?

I've never run sea-foam through any of my engines, but I have ran the automatic transmission version through two different auto trannys, both with the same result, a dead automatic transmission. I hear of some folks using it with no problems at all, and others with death tales like mine. Perhaps it's all coincidence, but I'll never run it in anything I own ever again.

On that note, every 323i I've ever seen runs on the old K-jet, not the later style K-Lambda, so yes, in theory this should function very similar to the older 4-cyl K-Jet systems, without the smog controls.

My understanding of K-Jet is basic at best. I get the theory, but I've yet to piece all of the specifics in reality together. However, there are other K-Jet experts here that can very likely help you trouble shoot this. Don't give up just yet.

its a great system when its running well, its surprisingly fuel efficient, my 323i in good condition would see 500km to a tank pretty easily. They have the ability to pour a ton of fuel into the motor at wot too, so performance wise its not really a problem. The issue is, instead of servicing and replacing components like they should have, most cars are still running original oem spec, out of the factory components, most are never even tuned across their life span. Carbs are just as much, if not more trouble if they havent been touched in 20+ years, an efi system would refuse to work with everything being gummed up, so its not really a poor design at all.

If only a couple of plugs are wet, its evident by your missfiring, so is it a constant thing? ie it doesnt recover to run on all cylinders? or does it recover and run on 5 or 6 when you give it some revs? If its constant, you could have a range of issues from a cracked distributor cap to bent/burnt valves, will need more investigation. I would definately start by making sure you have good spark to all cylinders.

If you have issues with operating control pressure, there is a voltage test you can do to make sure the bimetal strip in the wur is operating correctly. I cant remember what the voltage (or maybe it was resistance) values were off the top of my head, but there is definately a test in the manual to check for correct electrical operation. What does it test to once its up to temp?

Yeah, Perfect sparks on all plugs on all cylinders. To check continuity through the Bimetallic strip, I noted the 31 ohms of resistance as labled on the resistor in the center of the bimetallic strip and used the lowest ohm setting on a multimeter and got just that 31 ohms. Doesnt that just dictate the rate at which the Bimetallic strip is heated to running temp? The car does not run on all cylinders. Worst case scenario is that I have warped valves. I doubt this as I was very careful as to how I fed the engine its poison and only touched the tip of the vaccuum line to the surface of the sea foam. I also ran it in the oil and in the fuel, but at very slight amounts. 1/2 can intake and 1/4 fuel, 1/4 oil. The can volume was 12oz I believe. The car ran after, but very poorly, almost like it was getting starved of gas. I was told by a buddy of mine who was "smoking rocks" at the time that the WUR was the culprit and needed cleaning, which I later found out was fine. So what would tell me that valves are warped?

so i see the pressure tester worked well? glad to hear it.

compression test on all cylinders

unless you let the motor suck too much death sauce in at once and partially hydrolocked the motor, I seriously doubt sea foam damaged anything.

I suggest you check for vacuum leaks. Then check again. Spray starting fluid around intake gaskets, TB gasket, injectors, cold start injector, aux air valve, between the FD and AFM, oil cap, dipstick tube, and every vacuum line in the engine bay while the motor is running or someone tries to crank the motor.

Testing the cold start injector is easy, just pull it, place it in a jar and jumper the fuel pump.

If your WUR is not warming up from cold pressure, check for voltage at the plug with the ignition on and fuel pump relay jumpered. Under those conditions both the WUR and aux air valve get voltage. If you have voltage and the WUR isn't raising pressure after a couple minutes the spring is likely bad.

Check to make sure your sensor plate is centered, adjusted properly, and that it does not bind.

Since you have removed the FD, it may be a good idea to double check your base mixture setting (It is NOT an idle mixture screw, it affects mixture thoughout the entire operating range of teh engine). Jumper teh pump and slowly turn the mixture screw clockwise (rich) until you hear the injectors start to spray, back the screw off till they stop spraying, then back off an additional 1/8 turn. That should at least make sure the mixture setting is close enough for the motor to run.

I know this might sound too simple, but if there is a bunch o' crap in the tank and you pour seafoam in, it could've clogged the filter, right?

As soon as I'm through with the front end of my 4x4, the e21 gets fixed. JRcook deserves a few pints of Spaten, no a boot of Spaten! Yes , I do believe there to be vacuum leaks, the "mixture" is on drugs, I think the system is pretty much just about as out of whack as Brittany Spears. 'Ol Popeye needs to eat some spinach and whip the shit outata sumbitch thats tryin to F*ck with his woman. K-Jet= big ugly F*cker, e21= Woman. K-Jet+E21=:drink3

I forgot to add what the voltage at the plug to the WUR should be. Also how do you adjust the sensor plate?

Bump.

I forgot to add what the voltage at the plug to the WUR should be. Also how do you adjust the sensor plate?

11.5V, per the blue repair binder.

To adjust the sensor plate - there should be a small screw in the center of it. Loosen that, (gently) reposition the plate, tighten again. To test the fit use some tool (the binder suggests a magnet) to lift and lower the plate to be sure you're not getting any resistance when it moves.

When I find the culprit vaccuum leak, what is the method of correction that is best? I know this depends on where it is. So I will update through out the day. Ricky, this is not a question for you, so don't bother to answer!:lightning

I just finished failing again, I hate this piece of shit. I set the base pressure and installed the WUR with new copper washers that I drove around two hours in my gas guzzling rock crawler to find because the sizes are conveniently f*cking odd, and still, this tempermental bitch wont even so much as fart. Tempermental bitch

I want to apologize for my hostility getting in the way of things.

At the very least, I need to get my car running so I can find where the vacuum leaks are. After setting the base pressure of the system and trying to get the engine to catch, I took out the plugs and they were wet with Gasoline. If the base pressure is correct, as I am sure it is, then what is causing this excess of fuel to be dumped in the cumbustion chamber?

I want to apologize for my hostility getting in the way of things.

Yeah, it didn't help, but I also know how frustrating and annoying something like this can be. Might I suggest a punching bag next time? I think I know someone who could send you a link... :cool

At the very least, I need to get my car running so I can find where the vacuum leaks are. After setting the base pressure of the system and trying to get the engine to catch, I took out the plugs and they were wet with Gasoline. If the base pressure is correct, as I am sure it is, then what is causing this excess of fuel to be dumped in the cumbustion chamber?

In reading through this again (and again and again) it sounds like you've gone from "it fired on 4 of 6 cylinders" to "it won't fire at all." Is that the case?

And, in reading your last post, it sounds like your problem is that it's not pulling in enough air (you're saying fuel pressure is correct but symptoms on the plugs are that it's running rich). Got a shop rag clogging the air intake or something? :cool

You also asked earlier about adjusting the baffle plate so I'm wondering how that behaved when you checked it. Was it binding or hanging up anywhere in its travel?

So... if it won't fire at all now, can you get it to start if you use starting fluid? I don't know what that means, I'm just curious - it's probably the next thing I'd try just for s&g.

I just photocopied the first 29 pages of the K-Jetronic service manual. It seems that I may have the cold control pressure set too low @19psi. I may be mistaken, but with this system, the lower the "control" pressure, the more fuel is sent through the injectors. I will also check the function of the AAV to see if it functions as it should and has no leaks.

The pressure increments that Bosch specifies are in Bar@X degrees C. The warm contol pressures for the 0 438 140 071 WUR are as follows

Cold: 1.3-1.7 Bar @ 10*C
1.7-2.3 Bar @ 20*C
2.4-2.9 Bar @ 30*C
3.0-3.5 Bar @ 40*C Apx. rise of .5 Bar per 10* C

Warm: 3.3-3.7 Bar

The manual had no specs for the 323i and only has specs for a 320i from 1980-'83 with the lamba contol :(. My 323i is non Lambda and has the X XXX XXX 009 WUR with a vaccuum port cast into the top right next to the plug. If anybody has the specs relevent to this setup, it would be much appreciated.

I set the contol pressures for the system on a Lambda 320i, so no wonder the poor car wont start, it makes sense that the pressures for the early M20 are different than those for the closed loop M10. It seems the 2.0L M10 has four bigger cylinders compared to my 2.3 which has six smaller ones that require less fuel per cylinder, so the pressures in the system need to be higher at "Cold" starting temperature. This is just my theory, so please correct me if I am wrong and yes, I do know that the M10 was made in other sizes besides 2.0L. U.S. spec 320i has the 2.0 correct?

I need to know the control pressure(s) for non lambda K-Jet with the 009 WUR on my 323i so I can drive my car finally. If nobody knows the control pressures, where can I find them? Thanks :help

hopefully these help you.

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/193/pressure1dz0.jpg
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/4131/pressure2as3.jpg
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/7418/pressure3fx9.jpg

I got the 323 running, but just barely. I increased the cold pressure on the cold control side of the WUR. The car only stays running if I hold the butterfly valve open manually. It sputters for a few seconds and then the engine seems to catch and revs sound normal. If the engine is at RPM's it runs fine. I am going to make sure the AFM is opening correctly.