A hot tip off and a deal was done..... E34 M5 3.6

[Simon13]

as everett would say thats borked. Punching the previous owner for being so stupid might help somewhat in your mind

[Royalratch]

3.8 heads the same?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-M5-E34-S3 ... 20ece2b710

and

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-M5-E34-S3 ... 20ccc1350f

I have people that can bring it back from Germ if you need. They're in and out on a weekly basis.

[Simon13]

they have bigger valves

Barry build a frank fahey 4.0 S38! you want the "scat crank" to give 92mm stroke and bore it out to 96mm with custom 11:1 JE pistons and 280 schrick cams she'll make 450 horse power at the crank on 105 octane fuel!

[Royalratch]

The eBay seller is also selling those cranks.

[Andyboy]

Because of the design, I suspect the S38 head can be straightened and skimmed both sides, assuming the cam carrier is straight. The straight six SD1 Rover engines had a similar set up and they heads used to bend like a banana, and could be rescued.

A nice original head would be nicer, but £1100 buys a lot of machining!

[Royalratch]

What's a new head cost - or are they NLA

[gooner1]

What's a new head cost - or are they NLA

£1100, at a guess.

[bss325i]

I'm not paying £1100 for a head from Germany that would need a rebuild. I have seen the ones on ebay.de and they are overpriced imo when you can buy a complete engine here for £1500.

A new head from BMW is £3000! So that's a no as well.

I have been offered a couple of heads both of which need work and i will update once i have decided which route to take.

My original head may still be salvageable yet and i will know this week about that.

Yesterday i pulled the sump off, pistons and rods out to have a better look at them as well as the bores as we recently had an M88 engine which had got so hot at one point it had melted a piston and took a chunk out of the bore!







Plenty of oil contamination with coolant from when the head warped but thankfully no signs of piston or block damage

There is no two ways about it now, it is going to be a complete engine rebuild but then i pretty much knew that before the car even turned up!

[Royalratch]

Ouch.

[Simon13]

get that bottom end to roly allsop for a balance while its apart

[Andyboy]

I'm sure that head will go again. An M30 or M30 head that bent would be scrap as the cam bearings would never line up properly again but because the cam carrier is seperate (how does that look straightness wise?) I would be very surprised if it can't be sorted out.


Good news on the bottom end tho.

[pony]

This car is worth rescuing given its history although it might be financially painful

[bss325i]

Well, to straighten the head would have needed a jig to pull it evenly and i was not overly keen on having a weakened head.

So this was bought from SSkoda.



It's not pretty having dropped a valve on cylinder 2 and damaged the combustion chamber part of the head but it is straight and has always been!
The machine shop are going to ally weld and repair the combustion chamber, fit all new valve guides, recut the valve seats and reface the head gasket surface with the minimal of material removed and repair a could of thread as well as a chemical clean.

My original valves will be used.

Not cheap but then the head was only £75 delivered which was a complete bargain compared to some of the heads on ebay.de which would have needed all the same work bar the chamber repair.

[jimbom30cab]

Result ! All systems go now then Barry

[Andyboy]

Stick the bent head on Ebay and get your £75 back!

[bss325i]

Christmas has come early!



So the the damaged head bought from sskoda as pictured in my last post has been repaired. Combustion chamber repaired, new inlet and exhaust valve guides, valve seats re cut, refaced mating surface and chemically cleaned including the valves.

The block is still away but will be back after the Christmas/New year break as i'm going all out with this now!

[Speedtouch]

Looks like a work of art - hang it on your wall!

[jimbom30cab]

RESULT !! That head looks like new. Looking forward to seeing this built

[pony]

Looks beautiful

How much would new cylinder head from BMW be ?

[Speedtouch]

A new head from BMW is £3000!

[Andy325i]

Awesome work Barry

[appletree]

Pleased to see your making head way with this again!

[B7]

That is lovely. This is gonna be epic!

[Cypriotgeeza]

Christmas has come early!

Theres just something about a fresh cylinder head . .

Watch this topic. . You know it makes sense lol

[bss325i]

Thanks guys!

A little more progress!

The block is back now and has had all the core and oil plugs removed, block deep cleaned, all plugs replaced with new, all cylinders honed, too face skimmed as it was also a little distorted so this will mean a slightly thicker head gasket from Turner Motorsport in the US and then finally a coat of heat resistant satin black.







All of the nuts bolts and brackets that were not needed to be replaced with new were re-passivate electroplated as per original.



The crank, rods and Pistons are also getting some of the same deep clean treatment and then it's on to ordering some of the ///M tax parts!

[jimbom30cab]

Pure pure porn

Hats off !

[Simon13]

you not going to get the bottom end balanced?

[bss325i]

Nope. Being an M power engine I'm sure is balanced well enough when first built and ive not replaced any of the rotational parts.

It's being built to OE spec and as tempting as improving it with things such as better pistons, schrick cams etc it's an unnecessary cost on an already very expensive build.

[ross_jsy]

How much did you pay for the work on the cylinder head Barry? I have a head that needs similar work doing

[bss325i]

£800 Ross but that included the pressure test on the original head as well as this one.

[Jon_Bmw]

£100-130 to get it balanced....seems a no brainer.

It is where all the costs add up though, the 'little' bits at a £100 here and a £100 there.

[ross_jsy]

That seems pretty reasonable, will compare it to quotes I get over here. Cheers

[Simon13]

balancing it is a no brainer as jon says, it WILL make a difference to how it runs. M power or not it won't be balanced to the tolerance a good machine shop will do it to.

that lot i use balance pistons to within in 0.3 grams difference per set, OE pistons for most cars are 3-4 grams accross the set

[Kos]

I agree, for the sake of another £200, get it all ballanced up

While it won't add more power it will make the care feel more urgent and that will certainly give it an edge which you will no doubt enjoy and it will make it a cut universe the rest when it comes to re sale time.

[bss325i]

Guys, this ain't no donkey M20 M30.

I'll weigh the Pistons and rods on paint scales and report back.