Do you regret running a hotter cam, stroker, or headers?

[Sagaris]

Why would you want to weld the water jackets?

[Brandon12V]

Adds strength to the head. Decreases chance of gasket failure. Look at a picture of the waterjackets on a stock m20. Then look at a picture of an OEM gasket. Notice the difference? When aligned there is a lot of unneeded gasket material being used over the jacket/s. This is an area that the m20 head is prone to warp or crack under higher stress.
It's common on a metric mechanic or VAC performance head.

[Sagaris]

Very interesting! I will be following your build thread, assuming you will be making one :-)

[Brandon12V]

lol I have one already made but it's been on the backburner for a while. My mom is getting divorced... again. My rent went from 350 a month to 750 since I have to help pay the mortgage.

I'm doing the axles & rear wheel bearings tomorrow. FML

Edit: I would also suggest reading up on E30 F34R's build for his brother. IIRC he has about 3k in the build thus far and it's a great example of what to expect. He's doing most of the wok himself as well, aside from the machine work on the crankshaft and head.

[Sagaris]

Ah, I have to do my rear wheel bearings sometime in the next couple weeks.

[der affe]

i have a 2.7i that came with the following (in the car) when i bought it:
292* Dbilas cam
Dbilas ITB's
split second piggy back and MAF conversion
MSDS shorty headers
B&B cat back
seta pistons
hot air intake cone

the first thing i did was pick up a heat shield for it...slight improvement

next i started messing with the tuning.....slight improvement

i then figured out it was running a stock chip and switched it out for a clone chip and 19 lb injectors......noticeable improvment!

next i replaced the intake shield that had started crumbling (abs plastic) with one i made myself out of aluminum and insulated....nice but small improvement

next i removed the MSDS headers and replaced them with a set of ebay "long tube headers" and removed the cat and replaced it with a magna flow as a resonator.............. i lost a little mpg and low end, but gained top end power

the most recent thing i did was go to mega squirt 2 extra code with wasted spark and 23lb 8 pintle injectors.............holy crap!!!!!! big improvement!!!!!! i think a lot of it was due to making my combo all work together better along with the ability to tune it for the motor. i am not completely done tuning it yet either.

i also welded a -12 fitting into the valve cover and ran it into a baffled catch can then down to a 1 way exhaust PCV and into the exhaust. this will pull a vacuume for the crank case vent and if and vapors or oil get past the baffles it will get pulled into the exhaust.
i can't really tell if that made a difference or not, but when i pulled the ITB's off, there was oil lining the back 3 cylinders of the ITB's and their runners. burning oil vapor can't be a good thing either.

my next 2 things are:

try a set of true long tube headers, they are slightly smaller diameter (1- 1/2" VS the 1- 5/8" of the ebay headers) i should see a big improvement, but we will see if the smaller primaries hurt me.

the other is to finish building and install an 885 head with + 1 valves and a port and polish. i found out the head on the car now is a 731 head with i intake and exhaust valves and a plunge cut behind the seat and the extra oil hold drilled for the cam. still small ports though.

i should see a nice gain there too.








i am also slowly building a 3.1 M20 motor that will be supercharged with an M90 charger (roots style) running 17 psi on 10:1 static, liquid to air intercooler, lightning water pump for the cooler, a custom ron davis heat exchanger i made, 3 gallon coolant reserve tank for the cooler, MM pistons, eagle rods, pressure activated crank case electric vacuume pump, second gen RX-7 oil cooler, remote system1 oil filter, all running on E85. i will be blowing throught the ITB's i have now and building a custom air log. i will also be using the head i am building too.

i have everything, but the pistons and rods and will probably add the oil filter in the next month or so.
hoping to put down a reliable 420-450 hp and around 400 tq

all together, i should have about 4k into the motor set up

[Brandon12V]

3.1? itb's? m90 charger? you are officially my #1 hero.

[Sagaris]

whole bunch of win

WOW I hope to see some videos when it is finished! Thanks for the informative post!

[NKRoberts]

Nobody said he did not do that They just agreed with my comment on Suspension and brakes first along with safety items.

Sorry didn't mean to sound like a dick, I am just a good friend of his and was stating that he had done those things. I agree that they should be first. I recently replaced my suspension and my brakes are next.

Continue with thread

[TimR]

Stock E30 325I, Diff to 4.10 if not there allready, ya don't like it put the old one back in, lose the stock muffler, be wary of magnaflow, seen lots of comments there too loud, there's lots to do bolt-on that doesn't get into the motor, a grand on HP parts and suspension is way more fun than wheels. Arn't those ITB,s $5000+ new????

[ak-]

Drove a 2.7i, 272 cam, IE headers to straight pipe, 19lbs, and 3.73lsd

I wasn't really impressed at all considering the work/$$ that must of been put in to it. It felt like a refreshed b25 would be right on par with it.
A MAF conversion seems to be the only "bolt on" mod to be worth it.

[digger]

Drove a 2.7i, 272 cam, IE headers to straight pipe, 19lbs, and 3.73lsd

I wasn't really impressed at all considering the work/$$ that must of been put in to it. It felt like a refreshed b25 would be right on par with it.
A MAF conversion seems to be the only "bolt on" mod to be worth it.

probably because it would be on par with it........most 2.7i are garbage in terms of power. Swapping in a bigger crank doesn't lift topend that much

[nando]

Drove a 2.7i, 272 cam, IE headers to straight pipe, 19lbs, and 3.73lsd

I wasn't really impressed at all considering the work/$$ that must of been put in to it. It felt like a refreshed b25 would be right on par with it.
A MAF conversion seems to be the only "bolt on" mod to be worth it.

yeah, considering what it is - slapped together bottom end, no tuning, etc. it's not surprising that it wouldn't be impressive.

[ak-]

yeah, considering what it is - slapped together bottom end, no tuning, etc. it's not surprising that it wouldn't be impressive.

I didn't know the guy so he was just being nice letting me drive his car and forgot to ask if any sort of tune was put together for it. I know that a proper tune with any car would make a smooth difference, but are you saying that if the modded 2.7i was correctly tuned there would be a substantial difference in terms of power in comparison to a fresh b25(making it worth the $)?

(I know the word "worth" is subjective because it might be to some people and might not be to others, but I'm talking about $/hp)

[nando]

yes, tuning makes a huge difference, especially timing.

but, it's also a low CR engine with a cam, so it still might not be that great.

from my own perspective - I have absolutely no regrets with my engine money wise, except I should have built a 3.1 in the first place, instead of a 2.8. it would have cost about $500 more but there'd be way more potential. In my view something like a 2.7i is really only good if you're going to turbo it, or if you have an eta and are on a budget, you pretty much can't get an easier upgrade than the 885 head and electronics.