[oishangui]

Okay from the beginning , I have a 1997 BMW 318i... The 1997 318i had the M44 engine, which had no airpump or throttle actuator ( the thing that is near the cruise control module and has a cord connected to the maf tube with some other sensor on it. And it ran fine, until the radiator blew and some Jack butt decided to drive it while the needle was completely on red. Anyway, the engine blew and that was that. The car sat for over a year and just recently I purchased an entire wrecked 318i with an m44 obviously. Unfortunately this wrecked car was a 1998 with the airpump / smog pump and the throttle actuator thing. Anyway did the swap. Using the 98's wire harness. I removed the airpump and throttle actuator completely and used the 97's rubber intake boot thingy that hooks up to the airbox and the throttle body ( thingy with the idle control valve and throttle position sensor.) Now the 97's intake boot is completely different from what was on the 98. The 98 had a metal peace in between two rubber boots. The metal piece also had some sort of pulley on it which opened and closed an inner valve. which was controlled by the cord going to the Throttle actuator. - U STILL THERE? - okay fired up the car using the 97's dme. The car runs with all sensors hooked up besides the throttle position sensor and the mass air flow sensor ( on the cylinder looking piece connected to the airbox). okay the car will not start with either of these in place, nor will it start with the 98's dme - VERY WEIRD - when I leave the car running and plug either of these two sensors in it will shut off. NOW.... I said the engine runs....but still has a major issue. The car idles above 1.5 rpms and goes up and down between 1 and 2 rpms, When I tap on the gas suddenly, the idle gets weak and the car almost shuts off. I can rev the car gradually to the redline rpms. but as soon as i try a sudden rev the weakness occurs. I can also hear a noise like if it were gasping for air and couldn't get a generous enough supply. When i shift to drive or reverse the idle gets weaker and it really gasps to the brink of stalling until i quickly shift back to park. i did icv cleaning, i replace the circle thing next to the dipstick, Ive changed the throttle position sensor Ive tried the old intake boot with the pulley on it. I must say though, with the old 97 intake boot I get a noticeable boost of power. I can gradually drive around the block with it, but cant go up hills and if I step in the gas hard it almost stalls. Another very important thing is that the vacuum setup under the two cars seems the differ a bit. the 97 had a black cylinder canister somewhere in the area of where the airpump is on the 98. Now this canister is still in the bay of the 97. Also the vacuum hose that goes from the throttle body ( thingy with the idle control valve and throttle position sensor.) and under the intake manifold and slips off to the side eventually going under the car is hanging with no place for it to go. The 98 had some weird with thing where this vacuum hose would have connected to, unfortunately there is no such white thing under my 97, so it remains hanging and is pulling air rather than pushing. Now If you can make some sense out of this madness I will greatly appreciate any ideas. can it be the air pump needed, can it be the vacuum hose needing a home...what can it be. THANK YOU IF YOU READ ALL OF THIS>>>AND IF YOU DIDN'T....I STILL UNDERSTAND!