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Bmw E30 320is (s14) engine stalls at full throttle

2K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  Zalmoxis 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello everyone ,
First of all i would like to mention that i am a new member and 2nd of all , i'd like to apologize in advance for my bad English . It's not my native language .

I own a E30 ,320is ( S14 Engine ) . The car originally was a 316i with a m40 engine . The swap was done years ago . I own the car for like 5 years . So far it was running smooth and nice with no problems at all . The last two week though things started going bad .

One day out of the blue the engine just stalled . It wouldn't restart if i wasn't letting it to cool down for a few minutes . The problem disappeared for a few days but sadly came back in a worse state . When was getting warm it was randomly stalling and was "refusing" to start again . I have changed Fuel pump , all pipes for possible leaks..I check fuel pressure regulator . Works good . I also replaced coil , ( not with an original one ) . I changed spark plus..I changed also the distributor cap and rotor and checked also the ignition wire set . They were also fine.

As i was going deeper and deeper analyzing the problem trying to see what is wrong i noticed another weird issue . The problem starts at full throttle . Thats when the engine stalls . Sometimes when you try to start it again the engine starts and runs for a few seconds but revs backwards ( i hope it makes sense.) . That goes on for a few seconds..4 or 5 till it stalls again . Also at full throttle it randomly misfires too . As i mentioned above..this problem starts when engine is warm .

Getting desperate here..Thanks in advance for your answers !
 
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#4 ·
Test your throttle position sensor. It may not be working at WOT, where it's supposed to tell the ECU to run full rich. Leaning out at WOT is really hard on the engine
Lean events

In addition to the TPS, I would check the DME. Are you running an aftermarket chip?

"It wouldn't restart if i wasn't letting it to cool down for a few minutes" makes me think it could be a vapor lock-related?

Perhaps there is debris in the fuel tank that is intermittently blocking the FP pick-up?

Mark, maybe you should switch this over to the E30 M3 forum? They will probably have a better idea. I'd be scared to touch a S14 for fear of instant explosion. :)
Good to see you back in these parts!

Sadly posts on the E30 M3 board are few and far between, and given the nature of the OP's issue I don't think it's an S14-specific.

FWIW, the S14's Achilles heal(s) are oil starvation and knocking / pinging which quickly become catastrophic. Otherwise they are very strong engines :eeps:
 
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