Engine progress *pics*

[86325e]

I pulled the head off of one my ETA engines. The valves look exactly like that. I was wondering myself why the valves were white. I can take pictures and post them if anyone is interested. On this particular engine the previous owner cracked the oil pan on a parking block and proceded to drive home on the interstate.

[Spaz]

I pulled the head off of one my ETA engines. The valves look exactly like that. I was wondering myself why the intake valves were white. I can take pictures and post them if anyone is interested. On this particular engine the previous owner cracked the oil pan on a parking block and proceded to drive home on the interstate.

get me main bearing caps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

contact me at

bmwmpowerd@hotmail.com

[M3 Ryan]

That looks totally normal. I wouldn't worry about it at all, looks like it ran a little rich.
I have taken down 3 S14's that looked just like that, black intake valves and white exhuast valves.
I have an exhaust valve in tront of me right now with the white carbon build-up all over the head and stem before the guide travel area...
nothing to worry about. I would just replace the headgasket and go from there, as long as it was just a blown gasket, not from overheating or anything. Check that the head is flat and not more than 1 thousand of warpage per cyl, so 6 thou is accecptable accross the whole head, corner to corner, but only 1 thou across each cyl alone.

[EtaSport]

I got a 100k miles eta head to replace on my car. Both exhaust valves and intake valves on this newer head were black. The car was more than likely used for short trips with not enough time to fully warm up, and keep the oil gunk from burning off, also comes from using really cheapo oil. When i took my 350k mile head off it looked just like the one in the pictures. Black and tan. I had recently run some vento-sauber, to clean out the valvetrain, and I believe that makes some difference as well. Also, just about everytime i start my car, it gets driven about 30 miles so it has plenty of time to warm up and burn off any oil gunk. Im not sure if this makes a big difference, so I am curious on this topic as well. Generally engines that dont have ample time to warm up will not last as long as engines that do, they also dont burn off as much carbon buildup. This is why you should have your car fully warmed up and running for awhile before you take it to the emissions plant. But I am still curious on the subject.

If you do any kind of rebuild on that motor start by running havoline oil for the first 2-3 oil changes then switch to synthetic, if you are going to put it back together just run the havoline. Motor oil will make a difference on engine longevity. Trust me I have nearly 400,000 miles on my eta and can still see the factor cross hatches, and have virturally no wear on my cylinder walls (no ridge at the top of the piston range). BMWs are great cars!