Budget stroker time....

[rs4pro3]

Well the engine in my eta has been burning a lot of oil, and has just revently started to oil foul the plugs. Not having much money to work with, I decided to start building a low cost, average powered stroker.
I'm starting off with a 160k mile eta engine out of my 86 325es parts car



I started tearing it down today



The engine is getting all new gaskets, t-belt, water pump, headbolts etc...
Then I'm modifing the head with an I cam, dual valve springs, Head ported out to I spec, full 325i motronic 1.3 fuel injection, MAF, etc...
I'm hoping for 180ish at the crank. So far I've spent 900 towards the engine, everything is either ordered or purchased so some time this week the engine will start to come back together.

[Sean]

Doing the headwork yourself?

[rs4pro3]

Ya I'm doing the port work, but having a machine shop drill the oil journals, and resurface if needed. I'm hoping to do the port work in the morning then drop it off latter in the day.

[Sean]

Ya I'm doing the port work, but having a machine shop drill the oil journals, and resurface if needed. I'm hoping to do the port work in the morning then drop it off latter in the day.

Nice, get pictures man! :D

[nando]

good luck!

I suggest reading this guide on head porting if you have never done so before, it has the most important parts of porting in there, just don't get too crazy and you will be fine:

http://www.sa-motorsports.com/diyport.shtm

I ported my own head and was very satisified by the results.

[JRowe]

If you're starting with a stock eta, go with euro eta pistons for 10.5-11:1 compression. I've seen them go for cheap on ebay.de.

[rs4pro3]

ok I got the head off this morning, and just started the port work, I'm ussing an air diegrinder with a metal rasp to remove the major material then finishing it off with some 60 and 80 grit sanding drums.



Intake port #1 after the ruff finishing

For some reason this engine had 325i intake manifold gaskets on it, so they left that nice black ring which makes it easy to port. I'm staying clear of the top of the port as there is not much metal up there, so I've just been rounding the corners off.

[RobertK]

Lookin' good..

[rs4pro3]

Ok I've got ports 1-3 ported and smoothed. Man it dosn't take long at all to port them out, Once I finish the intake side I'm going to just smooth out the exhuast ports.




Don't worry that's just a spair block I had laying around I set the head on so I could work on it easier.

[nando]

are you going to deshroud the valves at all? what about the ridges around the valve stems? I would have removed the valves before porting, the sears tool is cheap (~$20) and works well.

[rs4pro3]

I haven't decided yet If I'm going to smooth out the valve stems or not, I've got the sears tool, but left them in there as I want them to get cleaned when I take it to the machine shop. I'll probally go ahead and yank them so I can smooth out the ports better, And get the shop to clean them seperately.

[rs4pro3]

Well all 6 intake ports are ruffly done, I went ahead and yanked the valves, and I've seriosely thinking this head was rebuilt not long ago, the intake valves don't have a lick of carbon on them ANYWHERE, they look brand spanking new, so do all the valve guides. And actualy the guides that are in there sit basically flush with the ports as is.

[rs4pro3]

Head is all ported and ready to be machined:D
Polished exhuast side

Ported and Polished intake side

[silversleeper]

man, i need to buy a spare head to play around with. it would be interesting/fun!

[EtaSport]

Just got my new head in to do the same job. I'll have to get back to one of the hardware stores to find some good grinding products. I spent a lot of time doing the head on my car right now. Somthing I thought should have taken so long. This time im hoping to take it a little further and get down inside the valve throat. 284 cam going in this one too.

You'll have pretty much the same set-up as mine which I have been very pleased with. Still have torque with horsepower to boot.