cam gears

[kowalski]

so the M42 has adjustable cam gears, and iv got 2 extra sets sitting in my room along with 2 sets of cams and all the other stuff, but i was wondering, are the cam gears interchangable with the M20? meaning that i could put these cam gears on a M20, or somone else would be able too?

[AdamF 88iS]

Re: cam gears

so the M42 has adjustable cam gears, and iv got 2 extra sets sitting in my room along with 2 sets of cams and all the other stuff, but i was wondering, are the cam gears interchangable with the M20? meaning that i could put these cam gears on a M20, or somone else would be able too?

Not even close. You'd have to figure out a way to do it without messing up the distributor timing which runs off the cam too.

[nando]

not to mention the M20 uses a belt and the M42 uses a chain..

[kowalski]

no some of the M20's use chains... or atleast in the bently is says some do, anyways thats all i wanted to know cause iv got a bunch of xtra parts that im not going to use and i doubt anyone is gona buy, if somone wants them lemme know..

[Sean]

no some of the M20's use chains... or atleast in the bently is says some do, anyways thats all i wanted to know cause iv got a bunch of xtra parts that im not going to use and i doubt anyone is gona buy, if somone wants them lemme know..

I'm not sure what Bentley you're reading - but mine says nothing about chains.

Maybe you're confusing the M10 with the M20? The m10 uses a chain, and it's in the E30 Bentley.

But yea...M20's never have and never will use chains. Every single M20 uses a belt.

[BS87]

Every single M20 uses a belt.

*cough* RD 24v head *cough*

[kowalski]

yeah thats the one im thinking of, the only problem is that finding that head would be a verry long, and costly process.

[RobertK]

Every single M20 uses a belt.

*cough* RD 24v head *cough*

Excuse my ignorance but could someone enlighten me about the RD 24 Valve head?

[kowalski]

somone posted a picture of it here, or on bimmerwerkz, its a 24 valve head for the M20. the Alpina engines had them i believe, somone correct me if im wrong.

[Sean]

guess I was wrong.... However, considering how rare this 24v head is... I think we can still say all M20's use belts.

[PiercedE30]

didn't RD only make TWO of those 24v heads?

[nando]

didn't RD only make TWO of those 24v heads?

I was going to say the same thing. nobody here has one, so the fact that the M20 uses a belt seems pretty straight forward.

[e30Matt]

Every single M20 you will ever see in real life uses a belt.

Fixed for clarity.

[Slick92GS-R]

back on topic .. anyone have success with adjstble cam gear on a M20?

[AdamF 88iS]

back on topic .. anyone have success with adjstble cam gear on a M20?

It doesnt work because the distributor runs off the end of the cam. If you move the cam relative to the crank you loose spark timing.