E30 Zone

does the M20 have hydraulic followers and tappets?

or is there another way to reduce the tappeyness?

any help would be greatly appreciated

thanks

If you can hear them when driving, make sure you have the trim fitted under the steering wheel, and bung up the little hole in the steering column - under the horn push, with a dab of blu-tack.

You should no longer be able to hear the tappets while driving.

To adjust, buy new eccentrics if required and re-adjust to book tolerance. Go to narrow and the idle will be very lumpy. To spin the engine when you are adjusting put into 5th gear and rotate 1 (jacked) wheel. Mark off each one as you have done it. Then repeat - rechecking all clearances.

There are a few articles on this - check out Google for them...

Also worth looking at http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... echnva.htm

Globulator I like the little tip on how to spin the engine with the back wheel

Before you get too involved with setting and resetting tappets, make sure that the noise isn't from the injectors.

I get a bad injector/tappet ticking on my M20, you can here it unless you have the radio on.
Steering wheel hole is blocked up and ive checked the tappets but just figured its just the way it is - runs ok anyway just sounds like a bag of shite

TouringMatt wrote:just figured its just the way it is - runs ok anyway just sounds like a bag of shite

A bit like an old transit van, mine's the same

remember, tappey tappets cannot harm your engine, if u adjust them too tight it will do damage!!!!

Is the E36 m3 injectors a common swap, according to a friend he ran then and they don't tick, raised the redline slightly and gave a little extra power. Obviously used in conjunction with a chip thats map for the extra injector capactity or whatnot!

e30,s are noisy unless you replace the rockers and rocker shafts, and i wouldnt do them tight cos you could burn out a valve, do em to 0.25mm thats what there ment to be

e30,s are noisy unless you replace the rockers and rocker shafts

Can that be done without disturbing the head?

I know my local bmw specialist swears the noisier the tappets on an m20, the better its running and the sweeter it power delivery.

He knows his stuff as well.

e30,s are noisy unless you replace the rockers and rocker shafts


Can that be done without disturbing the head?

Nope, all the m20,s are like that i quite like the way it sounds 2 be honest, its not an easy job an if you are gona get it done then u may as well tune the engine in other ways while its apart otherwise its not worth the cash

its not an easy job

Thanks for letting me know mate

Conan wrote:I know my local bmw specialist swears the noisier the tappets on an m20, the better its running and the sweeter it power delivery.

He knows his stuff as well.

I reckon this says it all... and remember at Mallory it was at least as fast as ours with prven 200bhp... so given the other warnings about "too tight" I'd leave well alone

paulg390 wrote:and remember at Mallory it was alot faster than ours with prven 200bhp

i agree with that

TouringMatt wrote:

e30,s are noisy unless you replace the rockers and rocker shafts

Can that be done without disturbing the head?

Actually on an M20 it can be done in car with head on ULTRA TRICKY (but possible) remove grill bring shafts out fowards.


Also if rockers worn, cam will be also.

charlE30 wrote:

TouringMatt wrote:just figured its just the way it is - runs ok anyway just sounds like a bag of shite

A bit like an old transit van, mine's the same

So its not just mine then! was starting to get worried!

e30,s are noisy unless you replace the rockers and rocker shafts


Can that be done without disturbing the head?


Actually on an M20 it can be done in car with head on ULTRA TRICKY (but possible) remove grill bring shafts out fowards.


Also if rockers worn, cam will be also.

you cant get to the back of em to knock em out if your gona spend about £170 on rockers & shafts you,d wana do the head gasket clean the head up and maybe be tune it

DelaneyG wrote:
you cant get to the back of em to knock em out

They don't knock out, they just pull out if you get the rockers right.
Wasn't you that assembled that head I aquired about four years ago, (newly rebuilt), with the ends of the rocker shafts so belled that they wouldn't go through the cut outs in the end of the head?

When I said this can be done in situ the words "ULTRA TRICKY" were used this means it is NOT EASY but it can be done.

In full agreement about removing and reconditioning head being the prefered method.

I think I'm going to leave mine ticking away lmao

Brianmoooore Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 8:53 am Post subject:

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DelaneyG wrote:


you cant get to the back of em to knock em out

They don't knock out, they just pull out if you get the rockers right.
Wasn't you that assembled that head I aquired about four years ago, (newly rebuilt), with the ends of the rocker shafts so belled that they wouldn't go through the cut outs in the end of the head?

If an engine has been in a vehicle for 18 years it tends to become tight, seized, stuburn and awkward tryin to replace rockers and shafts with the head on a vehicle seems pointless an cowboy, If you can do it. but if the shafts don want to cum out your not gona pull them out.
How can you get all inlet or exhaust cylinders on compression or ignition?
An if you know how to use a hammer and a drift properly you will not damage the end caps of the shafts but it wouldnt matter anyway if your replacing them

DelaneyG wrote:[
How can you get all inlet or exhaust cylinders on compression or ignition?

You don't! You remove all the adjuster eccentrics and the clips that locate the rockers, and as rockers become free as the cam is turned, you push them to the side so that they miss the valves.

DelaneyG wrote:but it wouldnt matter anyway if your replacing them

The end you're hammering on still has to go through the pillars in the head (and all the rockers) as it comes out.

Cool, I was thinking mine were getting a bit noisy but as it still puts out 135mph at 6k it seems to be running all right.

Fair enough but if the shafts are tight or siezed how are you going to pull em out mine where solid an what would you use to pull the shafts that wouldnt damage the shafts? but i still cant see the point in going to all that trouble to do half the job

DelaneyG wrote:Fair enough but if the shafts are tight or siezed how are you going to pull em out mine where solid an what would you use to pull the shafts that wouldnt damage the shafts? but i still cant see the point in going to all that trouble to do half the job

Question was: can the shafts be removed without disturbing the head. The answer is, yes, but not straightforward.
There's enough room at the back of the head to get something in to start the shafts. Once they clear the first pillar you can get a bar behind them and tap the bar. They shouldn't be hard to slide anyway, even if the head has warped and been skimmed at some time.

Have you done the job this way?

If the shafts are seized you wont be able to remove them like that and would have to remove the head anyway

But your right the question was can it be done, theirs just no point

I've never had occassion to want to remove the shafts from an engine still in the car, but I know, that as long as you can arrange clearance for the shafts to come forwards, that it can be done.
I've also never had to resort to anything other than the lightest tap with a hammer to remove the shafts on the bench.
How can anything that spends its life having oil pumped over it become siezed?

The shaft does'nt move it sits in place, oils pumped through it, the oil does'nt get to where its held by the head, mine was solid it'd never of come out on the car but still cannot understand why somone would do it

''the oil does'nt get to where its held by the head''

I am sure that the oil would find its way in there by capillary action especially when its hot and that the shafts would come out farely easy once started as long as theres nothing else in the way

oh and when setting tappets i prefer to turn the crank with a ratchet on the pully bolt so you can see which rockers are moveing

Where the rocker shaft sits in the head it goes through a series of holes which are a machine fit to the shafts, theres is no gap if there was there would be a horrible noise and the shaft probably wouldnt last very long from the viabrations

I turn it over by the crank aswel