Ratch's 318iS Resto is back!!!

[Andyboy]

It's all very well talking about various rebuilds, but a proper engine rebuild takes a lot of hours and thus costs a lot of money. I've never driven a 1.9 E36 iS that goes any better than either of my two old 1.8's.
I have three good M42 blocks with no waterway corrosion, and the block is the same as any other M40 or M42 so good ones are not rare. The weak points are the head cracking (if it's been overheated) and crank wear on the thrust washers. For some reason, BMW only fitted two thrust washers rather than four (two in block and two in cap) so it's not unknown for cranks to have 2mm of endfloat.

1.9 cranks are known unknown to have issues - plenty of E46 1.9's have big end issues.

If I were to be building an engine from scratch it would lave six cylinders, 3.0 capacity and around 230 bhp.

[Royalratch]

Yeh but you're not enlightened dude.

I'm gonna build it for a few reasons. 1 to be different, 2 to keep it 4-pot and 3 cos I've always wanted to build an engine. I've had a some practice on bike engines which surely must be fiddlier than cars. Besides, as long as you've got someone hot on the machine shop side it's all just lego.

180bhp MIN will be the target - stroke and bore to 2L or thereabouts, a remap and maybe a nice exhaust manifold.

All depends on what horrors lurk on this current head...

[pacerpete]

Ratch, don't buy any bits/scrap until yours is apart. Most used M42 heads are 150000 mile worn our rubbish with 16 shagged valve guides and about 1" lower deck height than factory because they have been skimmed so
many times !
Worst case scenario that yours is cracked, I can get it properly repaired for less than the price of a "good" used head and the work that will be needed to get the "good" head up to scratch.

[Jhonno]

200bhp would be plenty - and I'm all about town posing with the odd blast so usability is key.

What I don't get is how a 2.5 M52 only gets about 195 with some mods - surely it should be making more.

Food for thought.

An M52B25 will make that with just an inlet swap, if not a bit more..

[Royalratch]

But as I said, it's common as muck and not 'of the period' lol.

Pete - I hear you dude.

It's all starting to dawn on me how boring this all is - plus an E30less Summer may be approaching...

[Jon_Bmw]

A proper engine build with a bare engine involves around 4-5 days work. You'll spend a day cleaning all the components if you are remotely worried about the external finish, let alone the inside! Sadly many people arn't worried. Then a days worth of measuring...then you are down to 3 days. A day and a half to build it properly. A day to dyno it. This is with an engine that you see week in week out with no major dramas. This is all before you consider the inevitable parts delays that you just can't avoid these days.

We charge around £2000 labour for an engine build(no parts), alas it is very proper and no short cuts. I actually think that is cheap. My engine builder is about 65 and very pinickity. Imagine the stick I get for being an ex-uni!

Fancy it Ratch?

[Andyboy]

This is what they can look like.

[tim_s]

It's all very well talking about various rebuilds, but a proper engine rebuild takes a lot of hours and thus costs a lot of money. I've never driven a 1.9 E36 iS that goes any better than either of my two old 1.8's.
I have three good M42 blocks with no waterway corrosion, and the block is the same as any other M40 or M42 so good ones are not rare. The weak points are the head cracking (if it's been overheated) and crank wear on the thrust washers. For some reason, BMW only fitted two thrust washers rather than four (two in block and two in cap) so it's not unknown for cranks to have 2mm of endfloat.

1.9 cranks are known unknown to have issues - plenty of E46 1.9's have big end issues.

If I were to be building an engine from scratch it would lave six cylinders, 3.0 capacity and around 230 bhp.

Totally agree on the thrust bearings on m42s, seen that before, but most m42 blocks I've seen have looked much nastier than m44 counterparts, there are other probs like that paper gasket (much improved design on m44 with metal gasket) between front timing case inevitably damaging the face around the water pump assembly. Also get a younger timing case/oil pump assemly with the improved guide rails and no idler gear (that's 2 failures - idler pulley cracking off the timing case and guide rail breaking up, got rid of right there for starters!).
Never seen or heard of any m44 crank issues, in fact the one I've got in my garage was ridiculously mint - the shells looked unused! Admittedly it was from a 50k car. Though the one I built into an e30 was equally mint and had over 100k on it. What do they do?

The 1,9 m42/m44 I built made 161bhp on paul's rollers, a good 20bhp up on what a good standard 1.8 IS makes on there - not to mention that the 1.9 was pretty strong throughout the rev range - it wasn't just the peak power that was good. Way I see it there's just no compelling reason not to go m44.

[Royalratch]

A proper engine build with a bare engine involves around 4-5 days work. You'll spend a day cleaning all the components if you are remotely worried about the external finish, let alone the inside! Sadly many people arn't worried. Then a days worth of measuring...then you are down to 3 days. A day and a half to build it properly. A day to dyno it. This is with an engine that you see week in week out with no major dramas. This is all before you consider the inevitable parts delays that you just can't avoid these days.

We charge around £2000 labour for an engine build(no parts), alas it is very proper and no short cuts. I actually think that is cheap. My engine builder is about 65 and very pinickity. Imagine the stick I get for being an ex-uni!

Fancy it Ratch?

Course I do.

If I'm having a go myself, the only things I'll be paying for is parts and machine shop work - that could be a low as £1G with USA sourced pistons / bits.

The idea I'd imagine is they check and re-cut valve seats, bore and hone block, gap the rings, valve clearances etc then hand it all back to me for assembly.

This is the plan, to run concurrent with slapping a new head on the car to keep it going or put away.

@ Andyboy - Want a head with all it's bits ideally.

[Royalratch]

160bhp with no machine shop work is pretty good lads.

[Andyboy]

assemly with the improved guide rails and no idler gear (that's 2 failures - idler pulley cracking off the timing case and guide rail breaking up, got rid of right there for starters!).
Never seen or heard of any m44 crank issues, in fact the one I've got in my garage was ridiculously mint - the shells looked unused! Admittedly it was from a 50k car. Though the one I built into an e30 was equally mint and had over 100k on it. What do they do?

The chain idler gear was used on the E36 until 9/93 so the Compact avoided it. I've recently done a chain/sprocket job on a 93L iS Coupe which had the idler gear. It was in good nick so I just replaced the centre bolt, bit of Wurth green threadlock and torqued it up to the correct setting. On this one the front cover had been off before, and the chain/sprockets were very good so it may have been done before in it's 180'000 mile life.

The M44 crank problems seen to affect the M43TU. A mate just bought a '99 318Ci with knocking ends - but the crank was perfect. A set of shells and rod bolts sorted it.

The early M42's used the M40 oil pump which wasn't that great. I changed the engine in my 'Pact because the oil light took 3-4 seconds to go out with an appalling growl until the light went out. On taking it apart, the thrust washers were about to fall out, but the big end journals and shells were absolutely perfect. But it had been well cooked in the past and despite glazebusting the bores whilst changing the head, used a lot of oil. I bought a complete engine with loom etc for 60 quid, so........

I'm having a new workbench built next week, and will build a good M42 from all the bits I have - including the genuine BMW head gasket I bought off Ebay for a pound!

Ratch - no worries about the head. I'm not bothered about selling it as I have two M42 turds. I have two cylinder heads - one minter and a well skimmed head from the legendary Kos 'iS. One is a spare, the other I'll use to put this engine together.

[tim_s]

The million bhp kos IS - did you get the Jayson innit chip too?! Lucky man!
Agreed on the above, that's basically why I think it makes sense to get an m44, you get all that as well as metal gaskets, cracked rods etc.
M43TU crank is a different crank to m44 int it? Like the pic of the m42 head, that's proper fecked!
And I'm proud of you building an m42, that's even more deviant than me.

[Andyboy]

The E46 crank is basically the same, but has a TDC trigger ring on the rearmost crank web.

No, I didn't get the chip.

I gave 100 quid for it in 2008 - it had been off and skimmed before and the next one saw the milling maching j - u - s - t kiss the edges of the valves.

[alpina123]

looks good

[B7]

Whats happening Pete? Any updates?

[Royalratch]

No.2 Exhaust Side.



Going with refurbed head which has been sourced, gaskets and engine paedo parts ordered (from BMW!) and all should be well soon. Also have interior finished which will be much more interesting I'm sure.

2.0-2.1 build is still happening as a longer term 'my-first-engine-build' project lol.

[B7]

Well at least you've found something positively wrong. Expensive but a positive issue.

[Royalratch]

The good news is the cylinder walls are in good nick. The head didn't show any corrosion either - if not for this issue it all looked very healthy and would have kept going for a while.

But with a refurbed head, confirmed healthy block and all new timing gear it should be worry free for a while - or at least until the other engine gets built.

[Dezzy]

As Trev said at least you know what's wrong. It's not lime a few quid on a top end rebuild will break the back now is it.

[tim_s]

The good news is the cylinder walls are in good nick. The head didn't show any corrosion either - if not for this issue it all looked very healthy and would have kept going for a while.

But with a refurbed head, confirmed healthy block and all new timing gear it should be worry free for a while - or at least until the other engine gets built.

Should be back together in no time then
what were the guides etc like? It's not that surprising that's there's no significant bore wear or corrosion on the head, other than profile gasket damaged ones I've never seen any issues in these areas. While the cyl head's off it might be worth inspecting/replacing some water hoses and the main plastic one on the block, these get very brittle and the hoses get knackered over age and are dead easy and cheap to do while the head's off. Same on the exh manifold, worth checking for flange cracks while it's in bits, quite cheap to get fixed and makes them sound much less ticky and much quieter.

The valve guides get a fair bit of play in them on old heads, not a bad indicator of wear. Again on the block, you really want to check for any piston rotation/rocking/general play in the bore as well as checking the shells - at 20 years and many miles old most are probably ripe for new shells. Same for crank endfloat. What was the oil pressure like prior to this? Then again if building a new engine soon I suppose you needn't get too worried.

[Royalratch]

Just want to get this back on the road for now.

The new head will come complete with new guides fitted, a minimal skim to take the grime off after years on the shelf, 3 angle valve heads (motorsport stylee as is expected with the M42!) and seats recut. Don't know about oil pressure but it never used any oil before.

The water pipes is a good call - I'm sure Pete will have found anything too worrisome.

[Jon_Bmw]

Just want to get this back on the road for now.

The new head will come complete with new guides fitted, a minimal skim to take the grime off after years on the shelf, 3 angle valve heads (motorsport stylee as is expected with the M42!) and seats recut. Don't know about oil pressure but it never used any oil before.

The water pipes is a good call - I'm sure Pete will have found anything too worrisome.

3 angle valve heads, those must be a new motorsport thing.

You mean 3 angle valve seat cutting. Get them to backcut the valves as well if you are going for the 3 angle seats. £4 a valve.

If you are re-fitting it, make sure they tell you how much they skimmed.

You are in safe hands with Pacer, tell him when you see him next the s38b68 engine guy came to see us today. I'm praying for his wallet.

[Royalratch]

I meant the valve head - I'd have thought both the head and seat get the angle treatment for a proper seal and increased flow...?

[tim_s]

Dude, if you're going to those lengths on the head, if you can get it done cheaply get the dia of the throats taken out, reshape the ports to match and chamfer the inlet guides.

[Royalratch]

New guides and valve/seats recut are standard service on providing a new head.

The extra stuff you mention is probably best saved for the 'other' engine.

[Andyboy]

With regards to the next engine, you're better off buying one in bits. A good unskimmed/uncracked head , any M40/42/43 block with good bores, a good crank that doesn't need work and a post 94 front cover set up with the curved chain rail as opposed to the idler gear.
The trouble with complete engines is that you don't know what they're like until they're in bits.

[Andyboy]

With regards to the next engine, you're better off buying one in bits. A good unskimmed/uncracked head , any M40/42/43 block with good bores, a good crank that doesn't need work and a post 94 front cover set up with the curved chain rail as opposed to the idler gear.
The trouble with complete engines is that you don't know what they're like until they're in bits.

[Royalratch]

You really meant that lol.

Totally agree - saves effort on disassembly too. A known good block can go straight to the shop for bores with the new pistons whilst I disassemble the head and section out the valve gear. Then that can go for some 'work.' I want a drivable engine not a screamer so will have to research which cams if any are worth it. Then build up with all new timing gear, ARP gear etc. Wouldn't rule out something like Dbilas ITBs even - this will be my next project and will look into all the options for the golden MIN of 180bhp.

I'm excited.

[bridgemond]

Just skimmed over this thread. Great work man.

[Kos]

slowly but surely you've joined the world of modded bmw's

[B7]

Hows this progressing Pete?

[e30topless]

it's looking fairly well wedged into the back passage surrounded by 5 series and tourings, could it turn into a fragfest ?

[magpie]

a decent lump of bhp is all this build needs now,keeping with the 4-pot will be interesting to watch .
have you seen Appletree's car

[bss325i]

Its finished.

[Royalratch]

I wouldn't say that Barry.

Pick it up on Sat hopefully, then final interior bits and I'm DONE - thrash through the summer and build a posh super-tech 2.1 over Autumn.

Parts gathering for it was we speak.