Name this head

[meengreene30]

got this motor that i'm planning on swapping in that got us stumped. there's no casting #'s on it. no 885,731 or AMC. only casting reads made in west germany on the intake side. another odd thing is the allen bolt at the middle intake gasket. always wondered why there was that cutout on the double intake gasket(see 1st pic). some history on motor is has a mild cat cam, hd rockers and valves and came in a car from elysburg,pa.(don'tknow if spelled right) red, believe an ix. Lay it on me masses, what do i got here. sorry for attachment photos.

[Chriskbmx]

Does it have 7 cam journals?

[E30_fiend]

take a pic with the valve cover off. The cam bearings will tell a tale

[E30_fiend]

My guess is its a 731 head.

Looking at pic #3, above cylinder #1 it looks a bit smoother than any other area. Some of the "modified" 731 heads had this metal placard that was placed right there that had like a gazelle on it or something. I cant quite remember. But anyway, these heads were made to accept the 4 bearing eta cam and also made to accept the larger i intake valves.

This is all pending the pic under the valve cover though.

[E30_fiend]

found a few pics to help explain

[meengreene30]

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i'll snap some pics of valvetrain and such when i get out to the shop tomorrow. Fiend that looks like the same, only i don't have that stamped plate. what head is that you have there?

[E30_fiend]

thats the "modified" 731 head.

[20gmr]

to help clarify it IS a 7 cam journal head and it came from a late model I coupe with a few other goodies like sway bars

[Chriskbmx]

thanks for the imput dave, does really look like a 731 head though i dnt think they had the provision to bolt the m20 cap to the head so unless it was modified idk how that would work?

[20gmr]

the cap is mounted to the timing cover, you would just use one from an m20b25

[Chriskbmx]

this is true, that was my bad and i relized it after i put it. hmm im interested to see this.

[meengreene30]

as Dave mentioned it does have 7 cam journals. we pulled the pan out of curiousity to see if this was already a 2.7i and for casting #'s on crank. from what we can tell its a 2.5 crank. either way this motor ripped ass and i'm excited to get it in. it should go well with my dinan chip and m50 injectors. it's gonna be titties Dave.

[Chriskbmx]

titties are very good!

[Myster-E]

What you have there is a German replacement 885 cast head. The intake ports are slightly different than OEM BMW.

[SmokeE30]

Did that head come out of the euro spec vert I guess?