E30 Zone

saw a cheap e30 325i off ebay. knew it was quiet tappety but thought little project?? bought it Ԛ£270.00 bk alpina 17" alloys on her with good tyres.drove it 120 miles home and at some points nearly touching 130mph in it, good old e30's. no pulling in steering, or juddering in brakes.

But to the point thought: i read a few topics and printed off the e30 valve adjustment article and followed that well. but problems still there, loads of noise. i've come to the conclusion the tappets need replacing? how much to buy tappets and do i have to strip the whole cylinder head? can anyone give me any tips or got a brief guide? thanks very much

did you reset tappets when cold and sometimes they need doing again also on some of the engines ive had all it really needs is a nice oil change and an oil change is a defo if the cars been standing

by reseting tappets do you mean valve adjustments because i reset these cold. i havent changed the oil yet and will get round to doing this soon, it does seem really thin

a good mecanic who races motorbike for fun told me you can remove the rockers. and if they are worn on the surface that runs against the valve stem you can file a new surface.

hope its of some use to you

think ill put a new spray bar in, change oil and see if this makes a difference.

yes i mean valve adj. ive brought a few m20s a straight away thought the tappets need setting but after a oil change its run fine (the cylinder heads way of saying i need a oil change) but if is is the tappets has far as i know i think the head will have to come off as ive tried removing the rods with the head on the car and i couldent do it that way has far has i know i think the rods are handed as well so dont mix em up (by rods i mean the two rods that the rockers are on

just thought could also be a warn cam but more chance being the rockers

Rockers wear out quicker than the cam on the m20, also Clean out the oil spray bar!!!, or replace it!!!.

Rockers can be changed without removing the head.

Found a invoice with the history describing a new head was put in 30,000 miles ago Ԛ£1,600 in total.but it depends on how good the mechanic is i suppose. going to order spray bar today and change oil at weekend

also there is a 2.5 / 2.7 round stamp above the manifold below the plugs towards the right of the engine. this dosent mean anything special does it? that clocks wrong up there next to the date!! going to get some zzzzz's

Changed oil and filter cleaned out spray bar still very tappetty. So I'm thinking of replacling the rocker arm bushes if there worn like it say's in haynes. I hear some say replace the rocker arm's do you mean what haynes is saying? not an expert but if you take the rockers off would it be the best time to change the tappets? cheers

Are you sure its not noisy injectors your hearing mate, i fell for this with my first 6-pot. i know its not your first but just a thought, or juat tell me to be quiet

The noise i'm hearing is really tappetty, she's idling at about 1200 rpm and proper tappetty when i force it down to where she should be idling you still hear it but not so bad. Did you get this when your injectors went? cheers

All i can remember was that the noise sounded identical to the sound of noisy tappets, to the point it had me a tappet adjusting/renewing feckin madman. Gawd knows how many times i tried to set them, ended up buying all new. Still there. I know the 2.5's have a slight tappet noise anyway but this was major. It was an older BM enthusiast from along the road from me at the time that told me to try different injectors and yup he was right 70% of the noise was gone and it was just the usual slight ticking from the injectors and the usual noises from under the rocker cover.

Injector noise will stop immediately the ignition is cut. Tappet noise will continue untill the engine stops turning.

How much are a set of injectors and is it an easy job?

Brianmoooore wrote:Injector noise will stop immediately the ignition is cut. Tappet noise will continue untill the engine stops turning.

Yup correct, i just never clicked to this back then. The amount of times i started and stoped the damn thing youd think i'd have realised

seanboy wrote:How much are a set of injectors and is it an easy job?

I just obtainedsecond hand and they still cost me a tenner each if i remember. Not inexpensive items im afraid. Easy to fit however, swap could be done in an hour.

Ill check this tomorrow. would this be effecting my rpm idle its about 400/500 higher than normal?

seanboy wrote:Ill check this tomorrow. would this be effecting my rpm idle its about 400/500 higher than normal?

Dont think so, my white tourer sits a tad high also but if i put another ecu in it sits bang on where it should but does'nt run as good I wouldnt go lashing out on other injectors untill you've exhausted all other avenues mate.

your tourer an alpina

I wish one day

I had a black 325 tourer slightly lowered don't know exactly how much (previous owner) but they look good with its 17" alpina rep's.

Touring's the only way to fly IMO

Hope you sort that problem out dude

[quote="Brianmoooore"]Injector noise will stop immediately the ignition is cut. Tappet noise will continue untill the engine stops turning.[/quote]

Tappet noise continues until after the engine stops turning. So it should not be injectors but tappets or rocker arms? so I suppose i'll have to strip the head to get to the tappets?

Can be changed without removing the head.

seanboy wrote:also there is a 2.5 / 2.7 round stamp - this dosent mean anything special does it?

AFAIK its just a normal 2.5 head here in the UK (same as mine). Its just the head was also used on the 2.7s.

Wondering if someone would be able to give me an idea without removing the head? cheers

seanboy wrote:Wondering if someone would be able to give me an idea without removing the head? cheers

About what?

[quote="Brianmoooore"][quote="seanboy"]Wondering if someone would be able to give me an idea without removing the head? cheers[/quote]About what?[/quote]
tappets or rocker arms, looks like the rocker arm shaft wont come out while in the engine bay.cheers

Although I've never tried it with an engine still in the car, I think it can be done with a jack under the sump and by loosening the engine mounts.

So doing this do you mean its raised at an angle and you can take out the rocker arm shafts and so on? spent a little time on her today and took the ehaust off, removed dizzy cap, large hex bolts holding down cylinder head but there seems to be a lot more work for the begginer? T hought it would come straight off how wrong.doing this with the engine in

seanboy wrote: large hex bolts holding down cylinder head

Oh dear, You shouldn't have undone these!
Head has to come off anyway now, and will need checking and skimming, especially if you didn't undo them in the right order.
Hex headed bolts should have been removed and replaced (one at a time!) by torx headed ones many years ago.
The heads have a nasty habit of breaking off the hex ones and getting punched through the head by the camshaft.

seanboy wrote:So doing this do you mean its raised at an angle and you can take out the rocker arm shafts and so on?

That's what I meant, yes, but I think it's academic now.