Recently I may have solved the problem alltogether tho, although I am still testing it out, was planning on posting it after I was sure it has gone away. After a week, it seems to be gone. All I did was replace the rubber breather hose between the valve cover and the plenum. I noticed some oil was leaking out where it attached to cover - sure enough, it was cracked underneath. Not a big crack, maybe 1 " long. It seems as if the slight air leak this may have caused was messing with the engine's brain when it was cold. Anyone care to chime in on whether this sounds possible? regardless, you should check for any air leaks, There are so many rubber boots on the intake side that can crack underneath where you will never see it. Squeeze the main intake bellows and all 6 throttle bellows to look for cracks. Often you don't notice the cracks til you squeeze the rubber. An air leak could also cause your second problem. You can do a broad check for air leaks by starting engine, then spraying some starter fluid around the likely leak areas and see if the engine speeds up.

I have purchased an 88 M5 and have a couple of questions now that I have gotten a chance to drive it a bit.

1) It is definately odd behaving before it gets to operating temperature. Seems to lack power and sputter. I do have a Bently for my former 535is and generally think this is caused by a temp sensor. What do you all think?

2) Generally the car lacks power in the band of 1800 rpm to 2200 rpm. Seem to recall that this might be common to the engine...

3) My tachometer is "sticky" in the early AM when I leave for work. It will jump to 1500, stay there, jump to 2500 stay there and so on. Untill the car is warm, then it works all the way to red line...

So far that is it!