Options for ETA situation

[ThomasE30]

I took off my etas head to do a head gasket and realized the head gasket had to blows or tears in it. I brought the head with my cam, rockers and rocker shafts to have them inspected at a machine shop. The guy I talked to seem to know a bit about BMWs but just about what comes in and he told me BMW cams usually don’t wear out. He looked at my cam and rockers and saw almost all the rockers had the crescent moon shape in them and that lobes for cylinder 1,5, and one in 4 was worn. I can’t find an eta cam for under 600 new (I posted a WTB so hopefully that can help.) at that price point I’d almost rather just go ahead and setup a 327i stroker.

I don’t really have the ability to take my engine out at the moment so a swap is unlikely so would it just be better to try and find someone that has an eta camshaft/ maybe a full eta head in case mine is bad? Or would it just be better to do a NA low compression 327i stroker. I have someone that can get me the parts, I’m just worried about how the engine will run with that 8.5:1 ish CR (loss of power I do know about). My car is an 85 so I will also have to do the harness wiring. Would I be able to just use a 325i camshaft, even though it has more cam bearings, as long as I’m not over revving? I’ll upload pics of the cam for some reference as to what it looks like.

[ADEN]

Head = 731 can use b25 cam easily.
Head = 200 not easy to use b25.

[Northern]

Engine will run fine with an 885 "i" head on the eta block, but you really want a full "i" ECU/harness/intake/throttle to go with it.

Should be easy to find a decent condition used Eta cam for cheap, along with rockers and maybe the oil spray bar in case yours is plugged too solid to be cleared.

[ThomasE30]

Engine will run fine with an 885 "i" head on the eta block, but you really want a full "i" ECU/harness/intake/throttle to go with it.

Should be easy to find a decent condition used Eta cam for cheap, along with rockers and maybe the oil spray bar in case yours is plugged too solid to be cleared.

Thanks for the info. I was able to find a couple people with ETA cams that offered them to me. One said he can ship it tomorrow no problem for some beer money +shipping. I think what i will end up doing is picking up the 885 head and rest of the swap parts. That way i can easily swap out all of them next time I am ready to do that swap, maybe even with a turbo if im feeling like adding a little bit of boost. Thanks a ton.

[ThomasE30]

Head = 731 can use b25 cam easily.
Head = 200 not easy to use b25.

Thanks for the response. I figured putting a b25 cam would not work, thanks. I was luckily able to find an eta cam i can use for now until i can swap out for the 327i stroker setup in the future.

[reelizmpro]

Here's the thing, ETA's are 84-87 so they are early models and these days many have been swapped. I rarely see stock engine ETA's these days. There's way more 325i parts floating around and yes you could have used that 325i K cam in your ETA head if you drilled oil passages for the additional cam journals. The single valve springs are good for 6k so that's a non issue especially if you are limited to 4500 RPM or so. This isn't really done anymore though, people just swap the entire head over.

[jbontke]

Get a used 325e cam or whole head? Keep rolling until you figure out what you really want to do? 325e heads are usually cheap because no one wants them.

[ADEN]

Doing 885 head + pistons will brings life to your whole car. Whats wrong with ppl so afraid of building lower compression engines. Lower compresion keeps your engine durable and last much longer, you will lose a little power but with tuning and mods that helps you getting more ignition advance you won't lose too much power.

If someone can tell me if i lose 1 CR (like if i went from 9:1 to 8:1) in m20 how much hp and torque i may lose approximately?

[ThomasE30]

Doing 885 head + pistons will brings life to your whole car. Whats wrong with ppl so afraid of building lower compression engines. Lower compresion keeps your engine durable and last much longer, you will lose a little power but with tuning and mods that helps you getting more ignition advance you won't lose too much power.

If someone can tell me if i lose 1 CR (like if i went from 9:1 to 8:1) in m20 how much hp and torque i may lose approximately?

I'm just not an experienced engine builder and i dont know much about CRs so I had no idea what lower compression would do. I figured there would be power loss but very minimal, but i thought it may also want to run super rich/lean or idle high/low.

[ThomasE30]

Get a used 325e cam or whole head? Keep rolling until you figure out what you really want to do? 325e heads are usually cheap because no one wants them.

i figured what im gonna do is just go ahead and get a good condition camshaft and put my engine back together. I was able to get a perfect condition cam from someone not too far for $50 and it should be here monday. I should be able to get the head swap parts soon, so i will get everything i need for that and build that head and swap everything on when I feel like doing the rewiring and swap. Thanks for the reply.

[ThomasE30]

Here's the thing, ETA's are 84-87 so they are early models and these days many have been swapped. I rarely see stock engine ETA's these days. There's way more 325i parts floating around and yes you could have used that 325i K cam in your ETA head if you drilled oil passages for the additional cam journals. The single valve springs are good for 6k so that's a non issue especially if you are limited to 4500 RPM or so. This isn't really done anymore though, people just swap the entire head over.

I was able to find a pretty much perfect eta cam for $50 which should be here monday. I have someone that should be able to bring me the swap parts sometime within the next month so I can get all that ready to be swapped and get that done when i feel like rewiring and swapping the parts. Thanks for the information about the i cam. appreciate the help/