Help Me Build the Ultimate HEAD!!!

[sweetride01]

Gosh darn, everyone here seems so round-about sometimes. Few people have the money to do any serious modding. But when I ask about it, everyone says just get a used head.
I already mentioned that it will cost $400 to get the head off, and I'm not doing it myself. What would be the point of spending $800+ on installing a USED head, which could go bye-bye in a week?

Now, serious suggestions, please. What's the maximum that I can "pimp" an M20 head???

[madjurgen]

You my friend are a moron. You dont deserve to own an e30.

[der affe]

talk to some speed shops around your town/area see what they will charge you to P&P the head, cc the chambers, unshroud the valves, taper/trim the valve guides AND port match the intake to the head work it should cost you around $300-$400 for the custom work on top of having the head rebuilt. you should go ahead and up-grade to headers long or short you will notice a difference with the headwork. without the head work you wont really notice a big diff in power with the headers. schrick 288 deg or dual pattern cam, hi rev springs, TI retainers if you want (this will lighten up your valve train, but is not a must have item), &new rockers. this will give you SOME gains in power, BUT it should give you alot more drivability (which feels like big HP gains). you can them add the bolt on intake stuff like ITB's, MAF conv., stand alone, etc. each if these will improve your HP that you gained from the headwork by improving it's ability to breathe and make power.
the cheepest stroker to do would be a 2.7 stroker using an ETA or 525TD crank, but the $ output is dependent on your ability to do work yourself, and your ability to source up a crank then you are still going to have to pay for custom pistons or order them from MM. you also need to decide if you are going to bore the block +1 or +2 mm over at this time (more $)
hope this helps,
greg

[sweetride01]

You my friend are a moron. You dont deserve to own an e30.

Oh, and why's this? What do you suggest? Why do you think that you are so special???
I consider myself a true BMW enthusiast; I have a personal relationship with my E30, and wouldn't trade it in for an E36 any day of the week. Most would agree that my upgrades are tasteful and well-rounded. All the other BMW owners I meet are most complimentary about my lachsilber, black interior, 5-speed 1990 325iS. It took me 8 months to find my e30. Don't talk if you can't justify your statements.


der affe, thanks for your response, it's exactly what I'm looking for. I would rather do an engine swap, but again, it is not a possibility right now, and it may never be. The best I can do is a meanish M20.

[FredK]

I'd skip the titanium retainers. Yes it sounds cool, but they need to be checked every 20K for cracks. Pain in the sack. That would be maximum you can "pimp" the head, but seriously, that would be like a fat ugly chick wearing a 3 carat diamond earrings. She's still fat and ugly. I wouldn't even put titanium retainers in a more expensive engine if I wanted it to last long.

Yeah, I admit a used head can be a crapshoot, unless you get it from someone who can vouch for its condition. Just get your head reconditioned by a trustworthy machine shop.

thermal clean, check for cracks $70
valve job $200
resurface head $70
R&R valve guides is I believe around $10-15 a guide, so that's between $120-180.
Labor for dismantling a head and reassembling it is probably around $300
You're gonna need at least a new valve for the one that got smashed. But you can recondition the others. I'm not sure how much this will cost, probably a few bucks per valve to clean them, a few bucks to check them.

So, you can get your head reconditioned for around $800.

[Erick]

I would rather do an engine swap, but again, it is not a possibility right now, and it may never be. The best I can do is a meanish M20.

For $800 you can get the whole M50 engine and it already covers whatever else you need to complete the swap. All you have to put in is the extra for labor that you would be paying for.

I still do not understand why cant you just work a little harder, put in a couple extra bucks, and come out with something more reliable and more powerful.

- Erick

[FredK]

Swap parts cost around $1200 if you reuse your transmission and diff, and also if you shop really carefully, and this includes the exhaust fab in the price estimate. So, $2000 for engine and swap parts leaves you $1000 for labor. I'm not too sure if many shops would want to tackle this, and if they did, they would charge you up the ass.

Because you are averse to working on cars, this seems like a distant possibility.

[modifiede30]

I have a seriously ported/polished head that needs new guides and I have 3 heads worth of valves sitting around, rocker arms, shafts, new valve springs (inner/outer), and a 274/274 regrind with eccentrics you can buy. Its all disassembled so you'd save some money there. If you buy my components and have someone put new guides in (which will need to be shaped to match the porting), clean up the port/polish work a little, you'd have a decent head.

The port/polish was a total hack job, but it worked. Otherwise, you're going to spend a butt load of cash on the head. The other alternative is to just buy one from MetricMechanics and throw it on. Based on what you want to do, it will probably cost you about the same.

I haven't really seen what you're willing to pay for all this work - this would be helpful to give you a realistic idea what can be done.

[madjurgen]

Few people have the money to do any serious modding.

I already mentioned that it will cost $400 to get the head off, and I'm not doing it myself.

What's the maximum that I can "pimp" an M20 head???

These three statements are plenty justification for you being a tool. Youre short on money yet you refuse to do the work yourself but youll happily fork over 400$ just to take the head off? Am i the only one who has issues with this guy's view of the situation? Plenty of people on this board have serious money but enjoy their car how it is and feel no need to 'do any serious modding'. If you enjoy your 'personal relationship' with your e30, grow some balls, learn how to do things and get dirty. If I was short on money i sure as fuck wouldnt be dropping stuff off at a shop.

[FredK]

$400 to take head off + $400 to put head back on + $1500 for a balls out head and Schrick cams = $1900. That includes no tuning. But, the cred that he'll earn from his E30 comrades = priceless.

[sweetride01]

You're all very funny. That's why we own E30's. Because we're all funny people.
I put my suspension and brakes on with the help of someone locally. However, he screwed something up when we did it, so I had to pay more to get the problem fixed.
I honestly have very little time right now. I have an AP physics exam monday, then a 3 week internship. I need this stuff done quickly, and Tampa has very poor public transport, and so I have to travel 20 miles to/from school everyday, either with me driving, or my mum dropping me off. If I had time, my audio system would have already been ready.
A few people have offered to help me build an engine (like an S52) but none of them have the ability to drop it in and do all of the custom stuff required to put it in an E30.
And no, I'm not at all happy about spending $400 just to take the head off. But whatever way I do this, I need a car to drive.
4 of the guys at the (well respected) shop I take my car to all said that they quite like M20's, and that I should keep the engine for a variety of reasons.
However, if you you guys can show me how I can put in an S50/52 in my car for less than $4500, please let me know. It has to be solidly reliable though - once it's in, I don't want ANY more problems. Perhaps you guys are right, for all I know, the it's a lot easier and more profitable for the shop to fix the M20 head; they said 12 hrs labor for the head, vs 35-50 for the engine swap, some of which I could do myself.

What are your serious suggestions, and why? I just want a smooth running, reliable and fun to drive E30 right now.

[sweetride01]

Quote I got for the machine work on the head plus $800 of parts (not upgrades) on the head + labor =$2200. +Cams/upgrades=$3000.

[nando]

you could only do it for $2k if you reused a bunch of old parts, like valves, springs and rockers, but I wouldn't want to do that if I was spending $500 on a cam and having the head ported, plus paying to have in installed.

and I'd stay far, far away from a "hack job" porting that needs "touched up". you can quite easily make your head flow worse by porting it the wrong way.

as much as I love the headwork in my car, my vote is to buy a good used head and bolt it on.

[modifiede30]

and I'd stay far, far away from a "hack job" porting that needs "touched up". you can quite easily make your head flow worse by porting it the wrong way.

It actually isn't bad, just extremely aggressive - race style with some portions of the guides eliminated.

[Insanity]

It actually isn't bad, just extremely aggressive - race style with some portions of the guides eliminated.

No, you can make your car lose a substantial amount of power and drivability by porting it wrong. If you've ported your head to be good at 14,000rpm, it won't do you much good at 1500.