slowpoke

Hey Phil,

did you ever get the information you needed? 

All, thanks! Right on the money! Bav Auto sport springs. 1 3/4” drop and an unknowable stiffness.

I want to know the stiffness so I’m going to have to figure that out somehow but not right away.

doh!!!  thanks!  looking for brand and spring rate if possible.  look like progressive and definitely feel pretty stiff.  i guess i could pull them and count coils, measure diameters to get a sense...  

Bought a 1600 and it has these springs in front.  PO had a note that said "Stage 1".  Looks like it has a front / rear set.  Any idea?  i've been hunting for the PN but haven't found anything yet.  They are very stiff (which is ok), but the back of the car is currently running ~3.5deg of negative camber and appears much lower than the front (which has approximately stock front camber)  i don't want "stanced" but rather a great track shock/spring/sway configuration.  still investigating...

thanks

thanks iinca.  i'm going to officially do nothing until i get other w/ the some other owners and their cars and we can do some more looking...  BMW's are WAY more confusing than Alfa's...  there so much more interchangeability between engines, cars, trannies. etc...  my goal is fun pretty quick reliable track day car...  

looking at your footer, wow, lots of history there!  Thanks for the advice to date.

BTW, i took Convers' advice and found out the car was manufactured on Dec 11, 1969!!  and it's original color was Riviera Blue.  so same as now.  

Yeah, seemed like he had some good advice. 

attached are pics of manifold.  take a look.  also, hunted down the engine builder / installer and it was Jack Fahuna at JF ProBimmer in Van Nuys.  he said he sorta remembered the car and said that he writes down everything he does to an engine as he does it so the 9.25:1 is likely true.  otherwise didn't remember too much. 

anyway, thanks all for the help, Jack told me there's a BMW fest in Brisbane every year so i'm going to go to that so i can learn more and check out other's cars and learn more about my own.

thanks all!

thanks all for the continued attention and help!  

Also, while i was looking for the block number noticed and took a snapshot of the current exhaust manifold part number and it is below.  hunting around on the forum leads me to think its a tii manifold.  any thoughts?  if it is, that'd be great and i might just have lucked into a pretty sporty car.  

Andy,  that's a great idea.  i'll have to go dig up my compression checker (sp?) and try it this weekend. 

i took some more pictures of the block. If i read it correctly it was cast on DEC 15, 1976. i don't know what the 1255 223 number means.

Conserv,

thanks! great advice.  First, i've updated my profile to say i live in NorCal, San Francisco Bay Area.

secondly, i took a bunch of photos... i didn't see an engine number where you said to look, i saw the flat, and saw two X's (see photo). i did see a "21 US" on the block right next to what looks like the transmission number.  i also took pics of the carb, the distributor and the VIN.

Tomorrow i'll dig around the forums to see if i can decode these things.

again, thanks for the advice, this is a great way to determine what i actually have!

Kyle

First, thanks for all the responses.  

Second; i misread the note supplied w/ the car, it says:  "qty 1 used 9.25:1 E12 bottom end; qty 1 rebuilt E12 head; qty 1 tii flywheel."  i edited the topic header to remove confusion.  sorry.

For verification i used BMW_M10 wiki page to find:

M17 - 2.0L 9.0:1 compression (1972-1977 E12 520)

M15 - 2.0L ?.?:1 compression (1972-1974 E12 520i)

M64 - 2.0L 9.3: 1 compression (1975-1979 E12 520i)

i guessed it was the M64... i haven't looked into how to determine if this one or the other.

as for the rear end ratio; at this point i have no reason to believe its not a 4.10, i'll try and calc it next time i get out for a drive.  

thanks!

Hi,

new 2002, er, 1600 owner.  Turns out the car has an e12 engine w/ as far as I can tell a 32/36 carb on stock intake, cam, exhaust header.  My goal is occasional driver and fun track day car.  Not looking for a race engine but a bit more horsepower.  No real desire to spend lots of time above 7000rpm.  I’ve got a line on a Stahl 1 1/4” header for really cheap and was wondering if that would be worth getting?

i’ve done some reading and it seems like i’m Lucky that i’ve Already got 9.25:1 compression so the next steps might be 292 or 304 cam and then exhaust.  I couldn’t see a consensus on 32/36 vs. 38/38 carb.

any advice out there?  Also, what kind of power should I expect?

thanks in advance and glad to have a forum to learn from on my new BMW adventure!!