Head gasket works

[Klonsk8]

I have to replace it due too Overheating. The car drinks coolant like a baby who drinks milk from his mother nipples!

What should i look for while im there ?

-I will ajust the valve
-Get the head surfaced
-Do complet Gasket job
- I have only 20 000 Km ago on the new timing belt so il will not replace it

[Danny]

The car drinks coolant like a baby who drinks milk from his mother nipples!

Great analogy.

[jlevie]

A timing belt is pretty inexpensive and re-installing a used belt is not recommended.

[Elephant]

Definitely replace the timing belt, do not reuse it. You can keep the tensioner (if it was replaced with the belt previously) but the belt is like what, $10....don't reuse it.

As for what else to do....assuming all other maintenance is current (belts, hoses, ignition parts, etc) then yeah, have the head disassembled and cleaned (replacing any parts required), mill the surface as little as possible. The head gasket kit will come with all the gaskets you need. Oh, make sure you have the head pressure tested before spending any money on it, some M20 heads had casting porosity and ended up with leaking issues....happened to a friend of mine locally.

Cheers.

[yoda634]

+1 for replacing the timing belt.

I think it was a TSB that BMW released, saying not to retension a timing belt. I wouldn't mess around with that, regardless. $10 belt and absolutely zero extra effort, vs. the slight chance of it breaking? Plus, that's 20K more you can put on it without the trouble of replacing it. I put on a new belt both times I did mine -- even though I put zero miles on the car in between. It's just not worth the risk.

When I did mine, here's what I did:

Timing belt
Water pump
Complete gasket kit
Head cleaned, pressure checked, milled, valve grind, new valve stem seals
Checked distributor cap/rotor
Spark plugs
Valve clearance adjustment
Cleaned throttle body
Thermostat
Hoses (not just radiator hoses) and belts
Oil/filter
Coolant
New exhaust/intake studs/nuts
Camshaft oil seal
Auxiliary fan thermoswitch
Fan clutch and blade (chipped one of my blades by dropping it)

I think that's about it. Admittedly, though, I'm fairly anal about things -- as a general rule, I don't put old parts back on the car unless they're too expensive to replace and I'm confident they're in great shape, so YMMV with this list.