Worn Cam Sprockets

[Solarian]

I picked this car up back in October, and I began a slow winter rebuild of it. The plan was to do all of the suspension this winter and clean up whatever I can, and swap out the motor next year or the year after depending on how much money I have available.

Part of the cleanup involved dealing with the mess under the intake, and I figured I'd check on the cam gears and paint the intake manny and valve cover while I'm at it. And then I saw those cam gears. Good god. This thing looks like it'll slip at any second and grenade my motor. Is there anything I could do to prolong the life of it without doing the full timing chain, guides and sprockets? It'll run me a good $500 just to get all the damn parts, plus the time it'll add to the rebuild, and I never planned on keeping the M42 to begin with. The other problem is, I sunk all of my money into suspension (control arms, m3 bushings, shocks, springs, steering rack, tie rods, etc) and I can't afford to do the 24V swap right now.

I seriously feel like crap right now. When I got this thing, the only thing it needed was to have the e-brake fixed. After I got it home, I just started noticing stuff. PS is leaking. No biggie, I wanted to do the steering rack swap anyway. Suspension is blown. Well, I did want to upgrade that anyway. And now the motor. It's like nothing on the car is in good working shape.

I need a band aid solution for now. Would a new tensioner prolong the life of the motor? I know it's not going to fix the problem with the cam gears looking like that, but will I be able to squeeze a year out of it while I save for a 24V swap?

[Simon S]

meh. in light of where your're coming from on planning to swap later on, you'll be fine with a fresh tensioner to keep you going. I wouldn't sweat it.

I've seen worse sprockets. While not ideal, that m42 should be good for another season or two.

[roguetoaster]

What Simon said. To add, if you just want to put your mind at ease get someone to sell you a used but better than your set of cam sprockets and install. I also noticed that your sprockets are adjusted full over when they really ought to be centered on a stock engine. So, new tensioner, used sprockets, check/adjust timing and drive.

Don't worry about the M42 being fragile, I can assure you it isn't. As long as there is no dieseling sound and you hit up the basics you can enjoy your rev happy 4 before going to some boring old 6 like it seems everyone is doing these days.

[Solarian]

Thanks a lot! That's all I really want, to get a chance to experience this car before I decide what direction I want to go with it.
The engine ran fine the two times I drove it, and I picked up a new lower oilpan gasket so that I could check and tighten the oil pan bolts.

[MF DOOM]

i have some cam sprockets ill sell you. pm me

[Simon S]

For discussion’s sake, I’ll advocate keeping the m42 and just getting it healthy. Seems like over the last 2-3 years, everyone and their f’ing dog is doing swaps on 318is cars – and it’s a shame to me. m42s are great, fuel-efficient, peppy engines. I can assure you it’s possible to get a speeding ticket with one. Yes, they aren’t Honda engines – but with appropriate attention, they can last 250K+ miles.

I feel bad for guys who sort of do some work/spend maintenance money on an engine – then turn around and swap it. That initial maintenance money essentially gets wasted + whatever costs start racking up with beefing up the drivetrain, dealing with the wiring, dealing with unforeseens, extended downtime, etc.

Sounds like you’ve already dove in with the coolant hose mess and such - prompting me to want to encourage you to think about keeping the m42. If you really need a rocket/speed fix, one can buy a pretty sweet motorcycle for the cost of an engine swap.

Don’t feel bad. Countless people including myself have gone through your experience of everything leaking, worn suspension, etc. Bringing an m42/e30 back to health is an extremely rewarding experience. Read through my “Zen/maintenance” thread to get a feel for what the journey is like.

Advise to start running cost/benefit analysis of getting/keeping the m42 healthy versus a swap.. clutch, flywheel, diff, maintenance items, shipping expenses, shop space/supplies, needed tools/stands/lifts, etc.

For as glorious as a nice m42 car can be, I feel early model m20 cars make for much better swap candidates.

[roguetoaster]

Keep the m42, early model m20 cars make for much better swap candidates.

This is exactly how I wish more people felt, after all the M42 ran only one year in sedans/coupes and the M20 (and the M10) ran the whole rest of the production run!!! But since 318s are less expensive initially they get axed and replaced with reasonably powerful but comparatively soulless engines. So sad since you can turn an M42 up to more than 80% of the best M50s quoted output with just a chip.

[Simon S]

Fuckin' amen mate.

[MF DOOM]

its not hard to find a decent shell for a swap. daily the m42.. or boost it ;)

[jntar]

For discussion’s sake, I’ll advocate keeping the m42 and just getting it healthy. Seems like over the last 2-3 years, everyone and their f’ing dog is doing swaps on 318is cars – and it’s a shame to me. m42s are great, fuel-efficient, peppy engines. I can assure you it’s possible to get a speeding ticket with one. Yes, they aren’t Honda engines – but with appropriate attention, they can last 250K+ miles.

I feel bad for guys who sort of do some work/spend maintenance money on an engine – then turn around and swap it. That initial maintenance money essentially gets wasted + whatever costs start racking up with beefing up the drivetrain, dealing with the wiring, dealing with unforeseens, extended downtime, etc.

Sounds like you’ve already dove in with the coolant hose mess and such - prompting me to want to encourage you to think about keeping the m42. If you really need a rocket/speed fix, one can buy a pretty sweet motorcycle for the cost of an engine swap.

Don’t feel bad. Countless people including myself have gone through your experience of everything leaking, worn suspension, etc. Bringing an m42/e30 back to health is an extremely rewarding experience. Read through my “Zen/maintenance” thread to get a feel for what the journey is like.

Advise to start running cost/benefit analysis of getting/keeping the m42 healthy versus a swap.. clutch, flywheel, diff, maintenance items, shipping expenses, shop space/supplies, needed tools/stands/lifts, etc.

For as glorious as a nice m42 car can be, I feel early model m20 cars make for much better swap candidates.

I wish there were "like or rep" features on the forum. You'd get both. Everyone of my friends are wanting to do swaps. One is swapping an LSX, another is swapping a built m50 and another a 1jz motor. I opted with keeping the m42 and turboing it.

[Solarian]

To be honest, I'm not much of a speed demon, I bought the car mainly for its nimble handling and classic looks. That's why I decided to focus primarily on getting the suspension sorted and just get the engine to a healthy state.

I've actually looked through your entire thread, including many others. I found it really useful and inspiring, and I wish I could do the same with my car but I lack the funds and patience.

Where I'm at with the car so far. This year will be the entire front suspension and steering, all brand new parts. I'm also dropping the subframe and welding in the reinforcement bits. I'm in the process of getting a rustless sunroof onto the car as well as cleaning the interior. I just changed my blower resistor and I'll be doing the wiper motor soon. I changed the door seals and refinished the front grilles. Engine wise, I dissassembled the intake manifold and pulled the valve cover. Bought new gaskets for everything, and new hoses. Painted intake manifold and valve cover. I just ordered the chain tensioner today and I'm looking into getting the sprockets. Picked up original BMW synthetic oil and filter, BMW coolant (prev owner used green stuff). I'm also doing the oil pan maintenance so I keep it in good running condition.

I'm just holding off on reassembly until I do the suspension and steering rack so that I have more room to work with, but other than tidying up some minor exterior bits (cleaning up headlights, polishing tails, etc) that's pretty much it for this year. Next year I was going to drop the rear subframe, weld in reinforcements and alignment pieces and do all new bushings in the back.

All I want out of the M42 is to not die on me to be honest. Even stock power is fine for me. Seeing the worn cam sprockets just came at a really bad time. One of the little plastic rails that hold the sunroof broke on me, and it's proving to be quite the expensive little bugger. It's just the annoyance of costs always adding up.

[Simon S]

10-4
Sounds like she's in good hands.
One step at at time..

Mileage?

[Solarian]

220k km so 137.5k miles. It's pretty clean for the most part, but I haven't finished my investigation of it just yet. I'm hoping for no more expensive surprises :)

[///M42 sport]

yep, not sure why everyone wants to swap 318is motors