OBD II 328i timing problem

[Starlinerdude]

This is going to be a long post because there is a lot of histoty to this problem.I bought this 96 328i with the engine partially disassembled for head gasket replacement.Rounded up the necessary parts(got a good deal on another low mileage 2.8 that had most of the necessary parts)and reassembled the original engine.Got the car running pretty good this past fall and drove it back and forth to work,but it was always a little stubborn starting,seemed like it was cranking against advanced ignition timing and the starter would sometimes act like the drive was backing away from the flywheel.As the weather got colder the stubborn starting got worse as did the starter engaement.Finally it woudn't start the check engine light came on and the starter would hardly stay engaged.So i broke down and pulled the intake manifold back off to get the starter off to check it out and found the starter drive had a bad one way clutch,I got a new starter drive for it and put the starter back together and took it and had it checked on a machine and it passed with flying colors,also took my OBD II scan tool and retrieved the code for check engine light it came up crankshaft position sensor circuit malfunction.So before I put the starter back I replaced the sensor with the one from the other 2.8 I had.Got every thing put back together and now it won'start.The starter engagement is fine but it still seems to cranking against advanced ignition timing,I was worried maybe I had put something together wrong during the original head reassembly that was causing mechanical drag, so I disconnected the ignition coils wire harness and tried cranking the engine over and it turned over smoothly with the normal compression drag of the cylinders,I hooked the coil harness back up and tried again and immediatly the bucking again like the timing was too far advanced,so I'm fairly certian this is some sort of ignition timing problem and not mechanical.Also before the car had quit running I had noticed that it didn't seem to have the power it had earlier so i hooked my scan tool to it and watched it on live data mode while it was running and noticed that it didn't seem to have much timing advance at lower rpms.Does anyone have any idea what may be causing this problem I noticed when I checked for a new crank pos. sensor that they had a re placement from a newer model with a conversion pigtail.does this mean that the sensor itself is not at fault and the issue is in the wiring or the port of the ecm.Also while doing a google search I saw a recall on that very subject that also mentioned some other stuff about reprogramming the ecm.I don't know what updates or recalls have been done to this car.Any and all advice would be appreciated.

[Manolito]

Problems with the computer program are way above my tech level.

I have seen, however, on other vehicles, problems with the reluctor wheel that has the teeth that the crank position sensor 'reads'.

Teeth that are bent or have unusually sharp edges can cause phantom out-of-time sparks that can drive you crazy.

[Starlinerdude]

Thanks for the tip manolito,this car is the obdII that uses the rear mounted crank pos sensor with the reluctor wheel at the rear of the crank inside the crankcase,is crankshaft replacement the fix for this or is this why they went to the newer model sensor,from what I have read about the newer sensor it uses 12 volts instead of the 5 volts of the old style sensor.

[Manolito]

You now know a lot more about it than I do. Neither of my e36s has given any problems with timing. Good luck. Do you have a Bentley's?