M30 rebuild

[JPL]

If I had a m30 that needed rebuilding what would you do to get more n/a power out of it, keeping in mind that years down the road it would be turboed.

it would be a street car but i would want more than 211hp out of the engine after the rebuild.

[PiercedE30]

lots of head work.
new bearings and gaskets on the bottom end.

[JoeMadoo]

Definatly new bearings at the bottom :), a chip should liven it up afterwards too.

[euroshark]

Cam, headers, bigger injectors. IE has a 284 or 292 regrind for like $190... For that price I am going to give one a try when I do my 6 series head (B34 Euro :pimp: )

[JPL]

some people have said that a reground cam is a little sketchy.

what do you guys think?

[euroshark]

Regrinds are sketchy when they weld new material onto the lobes and then shape it, but from what Jim Ireland told me over the phone, they simply reshape the stock cam by removing material, not adding to it first, so they will last as long as a stock cam. Only catch is you need over-sized eccentrics. Jim said they use BMW "billets" for their cams, so that's reason enough to spend the $190 in my opinion, seeing as a Shrick is $600.

[E30/M30]

Just bare in mind a N/A cam is not going to be the best cam for a turbo set up, lots of over lap equals wasted boost down the exhaust.

Depends how long it's staying N/A for i guess ?

[mode]

Just bare in mind a N/A cam is not going to be the best cam for a turbo set up, lots of over lap equals wasted boost down the exhaust.

Depends how long it's staying N/A for i guess ?

But then that "wasted boost" goes through the turbo....again.

[euroshark]

True, but the point is that you lose midrange torque.

But then that "wasted boost" goes through the turbo....again.

[Mastrcruse]

So if I have a cam that is good and is in a shitty head, could I send it to Ireland and have it reground? What would someone recommend? I want the car to be fun but nothing to reasonable

[oldskool3]

If you send your core cam to IE it ends up being $155 cheaper than if you don't and I am pretty sure that a 284 cam is recommended for the m30.

[Erik j]

Old VW bug pistons fit the m30, makes for a high comp engine.

[Funkmasta]

The bottom ends are bulletproof, bearings and rings should leave you sitting pretty.

Do lots of headwork, or just bolt on a 3.5 head. which M30 are you starting with?

[talltorontoguy]

The B35 head already has a pretty hot cam in it.

There is a post in myE28.com that discusses this particular topic and provides comparative data and graphs showing results from different cams in the M30B35 head. Only one aftermarket cam in the group outperformed the stock cam in the B35 head, and that was by a marginal amount. The B34 head may be a different story.

As Joe pointed out, bottom end is pretty much bulletproof. I just finished tearing mine down and put in new rod bearings and rings, honed cylinders. There was "some" wear after 200,000kms but negligible, freshened it up for peace of mind.

Rod