E30 Zone

Im looking for suitable m20 rocker arms for a track car. Having snapped standard ones im a bit worried about buying a full set of 12 again and breaking one.
Are there good ones for a reasonable price, ive seen billet ones for £££'s
Anyone used the ireland engineering heavy duty ones?

thanks

have you considered removing all of the casting marks with a sanding roll and bead blasting them?

You can get stell ones for about £250 a set

Jason

I have some standard ones?

e21Jason wrote:You can get stell ones for about £250 a set

Jason

Any more info on these please?

I brought a standard one from a dealer a few weeks ago, it was £36 or there abouts!

thanks

Try Newman cams for steel ones - I had a set from there and they look pretty well made. Google search will help you!

Bead blasting the standard ones will help for sure, but the extra material on the Ireland items makes good sense if you are blasting beyond 7k often, but... by the time you have imported the Ireland ones (paid customs and duty and shipping) you are up to £250 for a set so you pays your money and takes your choice!

Cheers,
Mike

I was thinking newman, about 3 years I bought all there stock at the time but I think they have had another batch made. There steel with tuffend pads brazed and sometimes need a bit more adjustment than stock so you have to swap the rockers around on the cam to minimise the adjustment.

Jason

They have had another batch made as I only bought mine about 6 months ago so worth ringing them to see if they have any left...!

(as you know Jason, I have now changed direction with what engine I'd like in my 325...!)

Cheers,
Mike

The Australian E30 racing guys must use the factory rockers arms, and apart from the odd 20 year old arm breaking, they do not have any problems with new arms.

I run the Ireland Engineering HD arms however.

any idea what they are revving to millrat?
as it would seem that taking stock ones over 7000rpm too often produces rapid fatigue failure.

if your breaking rocker arms then your abusing your engine or it's not very well serviced !

a rocker will break before a valve bends ! isn't that a good thing ?

e30topless wrote:if your breaking rocker arms then your abusing your engine or it's not very well serviced !

a rocker will break before a valve bends ! isn't that a good thing ?

Wasnt me! Not long got the car, so ive set about putting everything right again, albeit slowly. Its mainly a track car though so its going to get used hard

Just phoned newman they dont have any steel rocker arms left, but they are finding out a price to make some more, Wil phone again tomorrow and find out.

Good luck with that! I hope they come good for you...

A little off topic, but does anyone have any experience of Newman's Cams for M20s? Any good?

They were (are) rightly regarded for other applications, but I don't have a feel for how good they are for BMWs as most comments on here are for Schrick or Cat cams..

Any experiences out there?
Cheers,
Mike

Rocker arms come in at £450!
Think ill give it a miss for now

i know newman cams dont make the rockers anymore as there guy that makes theem doesnt have the castings for them anymore as ive just tryed to order some but they dont make them any more

HairyScreech wrote:any idea what they are revving to millrat?
as it would seem that taking stock ones over 7000rpm too often produces rapid fatigue failure.

Sorry for the delayed reply Hairy.

The Australian E30 racing guys must run factory ECU's, so therefore around 7,000 rpm. The engines get flogged pretty hard too.

We have our rev limiter set at 7,000, and the shift light at around 6,500, so therefore most shifts in our car are at 6,500. So far, no problems with the HD arms, however we are currently running in a 304 cam (12mm lift), so we will truely give them a test this year.

IE sell heavy duty ones which would be the cheapest option.

The guys at Skidmark racing make some fancy HD rockers for the M10 and M20

should find it on there website

ross2009 wrote:i know newman cams dont make the rockers anymore as there guy that makes theem doesnt have the castings for them anymore as ive just tryed to order some but they dont make them any more

Strange, I phoned them on 18th feb, he had a rummage around and found a full set, I only needed two as I broke some of these steel ones with a conrod failure. So he should have 10 in stock still.



I'm probably not going to rebuild an M20 now (thinking S50) so may look at selling my now full set. Have got a 300deg newman cam as well (with some marks from the failure). Dyno'd with peak at 6700rpm.

Duracel79

i got a set of 12 for like £120 from a local-ish BMW breaker/parts supplier. not genuine BMW but new pattern parts. have been revving the engine to damn near 7k for a while now with no issues.

one thing i want to know is can backfiring break a rocker? like if i were to deliberately richen the fuel maps in areas that the ECU reads at high revs when lifting off the throttle to change gear so as to spit some flames. cant seem to find a definate answer anywhere..