BMW E32 E38 M70 M73 V12 ENGINE
DISTRIBUTOR LEAD ORDER

Originally appeared at http://www.meeknet.co.uk/e32/V12_Distributor_Leads.htm

The V12 has two distributors with the engine effectively run as two straight-6 engines. Although the distributors are mounted 180 degrees rotated in respect to each other (they both have the leads pointing towards the outside of the car) the rotor arm is also rotated 180 degrees with respect to each other. Both rotor arms rotate clockwise when viewed from the front (as does both cams and the crankshaft).

Firing order RHS bank = 1 5 3 6 2 4
Firing order LHS bank = 7 11 9 12 8 10

The RHS bank = 1-6
The LHS bank = 7-12


It now gets a bit more complicated. The distributor caps do not fire from top to bottom, they go like this instead:



From Johan and Sean's website I know that the pulse generator goes on plug 6, so this is the lead order for the RHS bank:



As the rotor arms are fitted 180 degrees differently LH bank to RH bank, this is the lead order for the LHS bank: