Extremely Rough Running

[Misfire]

Alright so I got an 84 318i and it used to occasionally stall after giving it more than normal throttle. My dad thought it was the fuel filter so I went ahead and bought one and put it on one day after it stalled on me and failed to start up after a few minutes of letting set. Well the filter didn't solve anything.
As the car sits it is running very bad and wont stay running. It seems like its misfiring and smoke it coming out of the exhaust.
It has a new cap, rotor, and plugs, but not wires yet.
So my question would be could the wires be bad enough to cause this type of behavior or is it something else I need to look at?

[Numark318i]

not sure what sort of ECU they had on 1984 318's, but are you getting a check engine light?

once again, my knowledge on the M10 motor is...not very good. but O2 sensor? Check throttle body for blockage? the car might not be getting enough air? or spark.

how old are the wires? did you check to see if you are getting a good spark to the plugs?

black smoke means you have burning oil, so check if the plugs have oil on them. if so a gasket may need to be changed.

also check vacuum lines. they might look fine, but squeeze them a little to see if they are deteriorating. this can cause bad idle/not running if the leak is bad enough.

[Misfire]

Pretty much everything you listed I haven't checked. Pretty sure it's getting enough air, the filter is new and we removed a rats nest from it lol. The car had been abandoned for two years prior to my fathers purchase of the car for $250 from the guy who towed it away.
Anyway my guess is that it's not getting the spark it needs. The old plugs that I pulled out today where black. If I did my reading right that can be caused by not burning all of the fuel and carbon getting built up on them? Correct me if I'm wrong.
Anyway it's anyones guess how old the wires are, my dad didn't change them when he bought the car.
I don't know if it's getting good spark to the plugs or not. What would you use to check that? I don't have a multimeter or whatever it's called.
The smoke looked more white than anything but it's hard to see from out the back window.

[Numark318i]

white smoke might mean a head gasket leak. Coolant in the oil. Or it could just be that its old...i think.

to check the spark you would pull the plug from the engine and leave it plugged into the wire. then ground it to the valve cover. (not sure if this will work with your valve cover, depends on what its made of). there should be something on the internet about how to check plugs. But basically you want to ground them and see if theres a spark or not.
Also gettting new wires might not be a bad idea, seeing how they could be old and are not insulated the way they should be.

try that and see what happens. But..read up on it first, to make sure im not giving you the wrong information. Spark plug...electricity, always keep that in mind. Dont want to hurt yourself.

Also buy a chilton manual on the car, it could can come to use later down the road. I know mine has a checklist for bad idle/not running and an ok walk through as to how to check things out.

you have a picture of the beast? how many miles on the engine?

[Misfire]

thanks for the replies
the car is still my dads but they are moving and not taking it so i am going to buy it.. thats if i can get it running good again since i need a car to get me to work and back

i have 2 other cars, my 87 honda overheated and blew a head gasket and i haven't been able to figure out whats wrong with my 84 jetta even with other peoples help they are pretty much clueless

hopefully i do get the problem situated so i can stick around this place, seems like a friendly forum

anyway back on track here
so when i take the wire off the plug then use something to ground it and turn the engine over there should be a spark?

i hate trying to find info on this car its a pain in the a**
im always pretty careful when it comes to electricity but im definentally not scared of it
chilton huh? bently makes manuals for these cars too don't they? i have a bently for my jetta and its wonderful

i dont have any pics but it is a beast and right now it is very very dirty, it has about 150k, the spedo says your going faster than you really are so there are less than that
the outside isnt in to bad shape but the inside is shot, cracks in dash, the bottom of the front seats are torn to hell, glovebox is gone, stuff like that

[Dudesky]

I think the Chilton was mentioned here because there may not be a Bentley available for that year/model, not sure. If the car had been sitting for a couple of years, I would definitely change the wires and plugs. Also have someone check fuel pressure at the rail; the fuel pressure regulator could be shot.

[Misfire]

how much would it cost to have the fuel pressure checked?
and i went to bentleys site and it happens that they do make a manual

[Misfire]

new wires didnt help anything runs the same

[Misfire]

coil didnt help anything either
someone i know thats in school at the moment to be a mechanic suggested maybe the fuel injectors, but i dont know b/c it seems like it is getting enough fuel its just not getting ignited properly
i dont know what else to check now
new plugs, wire, cap, rotor, coil, and fuel filter
the odd thing was that when the car started doing this i left it and the next day my dad came back started it and it ran fine until it got back home and then it started doing it again

[Numark318i]

maybe its a faulty relay? swap those around and see what happens?


as for why i mentioned the Chilton, because bently books are expensive and usually take a few days to get if its quick. (atleast for me) and it seems like u needed a fix quickly.

[Misfire]

ill look around online and see if i can find what relays are what
and what relays would i be swapping around?

[Misfire]

one of my friends said it could be a bad head gasket, he said a bad head gasket would cause white smoke and really rough running, if he is right i am pretty much screwed because i dont have the money to have someone fix it and i dont have the tools or knowledge to fix it myself

[Numark318i]

yea that could be a possibility. figured that would be a las resort.

as far as relays go, i just swapped the ones that were the same to make sure my fuel pump relay was working correctly.

so, relays that are the same can be swapped for others that are the same.

but yea, head gasket might be it. that engines pretty primitive, so couldnt be too hard to swap the head gasket? unless u got a cracked head. bah idk

[Misfire]

well i have only a limited experience with mechanics and taking off the head is something i have never done, i was going to change the head gasket in my civic but after many hours of making no progress and only the worst of it to come i gave up
so when you say the same relay just make sure the prongs on the bottom are the same and i should be fine?

[Numark318i]

as far as my car goes i have 6 exactly the same relays and then two otehr ones.

the top of them should look the same. and yea the prong will be the same.