1991 BMW 325i Coupe - Build Thread - The end is in sight!

[matias88e30]

Shit! nice work man! keep up the good work

[MaksV]

Shit! nice work man! keep up the good work

thanks more to come later today.

[akinswonder]

This was a lot of help and a great write up thanx!

[F34R]

Looks like a solid car & you're already off to a good start.

One thing I'd suggest is dying the interior carpet black or dark gray to flow with the seats better.

1+ The blue carpet is too much IMO. All in all it is a wonderful base to build from!

[MaksV]

This was a lot of help and a great write up thanx!

just wait till you see whats next :pimp:

1+ The blue carpet is too much IMO. All in all it is a wonderful base to build from!

lol at you guys worrying about carpet when I have an engine and suspension to build. Dont worry it will be black by the end of january hopefully.

[MaksV]

Ok so another day of work completed. A few notes
-the engine build starts tomorrow morning at 8- all locals are welcome just pm me your phone number for the address - gonna be working all day
-suspension is gonna have ot wait until after my ski trip (leaving on 26) so that should happen after the new year.
-Plan on taking 2 days to do all the engine stuff


Alright as to what happened today. I reassembled the head and adjusted the valve. I was unable to find a solid DIY for the head breakdown/rebuild so I decided to make one inside this thread. Hope this helps people down the road.

Alright here goes.

1. Clean and shiny head - as clean as its going to get


2. Put in the spring pad holder things


3.Put on the new valve seals ( I am not sure how to use the guide)
3a. Gently seat them on top of the whole
3b. use a 12 mm socket to push them into place - they just slide into place - the socket is so you push on the metal body part and not on the soft rubber




4. Reassemble the intake valves

NOTE: this part sucks and takes a lot of time - I ended up modifying the tool to be even more narrow for this. but all in all my least favorite part
I recommend this - put thetool on the springs and compress as much as possible. now take a thick piece of wood, put it on your stomach and lean over the head and use your body weight
to push the spring even further down, this should give you enough space to slip the colletes in but all in all its pretty tight. BE VERY CAREFUL!!! contents under pressure.

4a. Put the valve in place - just slide it all the way in.

4b. Helper spring goes on

4c. Main valve spring goes on top

4d. cap it

4e. use my instructions from above to compress the spring and put the collets in the grooves if you got this apart its pretty self explanatory but difficult to do
4f. final product


NOTE: Do the intake first - they are harder due to spacing. then do the exhaust.

half done



all done


5. Now its time to put the camshaft back in
5a. first we need to put the seals back into the camshaft seal thing
little seal

main seal


5b. Set that aside for a minute and slide the camshaft in


5c.Put the seal on. two 10mm bolts secure it. According to bently they go in at 10lbs. - I just did hand wrench tight


5d. line the gear up - stud to hole - and use a rubber hammer to mount it


5e. Put the gear cover thing back on - It is held by an E14 star bolt - I used a 10mm head to remove the old one and destroyed it. Buy the right head


5f. Maks' professional cam holder tool - this star bolt goes in at 50lbs.


6. time to put in the rockers
6a. break the eccentrics loose - If you havnt done this already 10mm


6b. There are two rods - one for each bank of rockers.
NOTE: They are side specific - meaning you need to make surethe lube holes are inside the rockers - you should not be able to see them at all. Other wise you put it in wrong.
Also there are notches at one end - they go at the end with the gear - there is a little metal gate that goes into them later. THIS ORIENTATION IS IMPORTANT!
Also dont forget to put a rocker on every time you get a cylinder
ALSO make sure to lube it with oil when you put it in - makes it much easier.



6c. Put the little rubber boots in at each end - that slit in the pic is also where the metal gate goes


6d. Put the clips on that hold the rockers in place - note the slit on the rocker rod and the flat part on the clip - they only go one way.

7. Valve adjustment (covered breifly)
7a. Line up the rocker - turn cam to fully unload rocker (this happens a cylinder at a time)
7b. put shim (.010" for cold M20) between eccentric and valve
7c. rotate eccentric until you can barely pull the shim out
7d. tighten nut on side of rocker - repeat steps for all rockers.




almost done (I am missing one clip - No clue what happened to it - gonna pull it off old head tomorrow)



8. Put in the little top oil rail thing



Thats it for today. Tomorrow is gonna be a long day time to read some instructions before going to bed.

[MaksV]

Ok. Damn I am tired and sore.

enough b1tching - started at 9 am today and just got home.

What I have completed:
-dissassemble everything
-clean engine, bay, and all parts
-dismantle intake
-put in 19lbs injectors
-put intake on new head
- clean eveything again
- drain oil/coolant
-replace oil filter
-clean everything again

Things that are gonna happen tomorrow : (hopefully)
-clean everything
-install head
--connect TB and all peripherals
--connect exhaust
-install valve cover
-install new WP
-install new timing belt
-put the rest of it back together
-install electric fan
-start her up and hope for the best

Lessons Learned:
- the upper engine gasket set doesn NOT include the gasket for the TB and does not include the gasket for the little thing (VCG?) on the other side of intake manifold
-Put a giant bucket underneath the engine block wen draining coolant
-use a giant plastic sheet under the car when working on a project like this
-spray PB blaster on exhaust studs a couple hours before trying to undo them
-double and triple check the orientation of gaskets and make sure to reassemble stuff in the right order.
-It pays to prepare

and most of all do your research ahead of time. This is my first time doing this and I feel like it went pretty smoothly with only a few setbacks - because I spent all of yesterday reading the bently and the forums.

Anyway here are the few pics I snapped for today.

BTW: at 200K my engine looks clean and shiny - so does the old head :thumbsup:

There she is right after I got started


for those who drain coolant from block - the big bucket method seems to work best to collect as much coolant as possible


Old valvetrain coming of engine


block and pistons look good. rings are excellent and there 0 scarring on walls or anything of that nature - But after looking at the head there are signs of a wee oil leak in cylinder - not sure as to why



Old head/maifold combo and extended work area- fvcking leaves blowing everywhere


much cleaner - i took a good CM thick amount of oil of everything


That oil pan and alternator used to be black


and there she sits for the night


and Steve came through again
forgot about the sway bar bushings in my original purchase


and guess who gonna be doing a MAF conversion soon and tuning - - THIS KID!
Moates Ostrich 2.0

[MaksV]

This is about to become a help my car wont start thread.

I have:
-fuel a fuel rail
-spark at plugs
-fresh oil, gaskets, coolant
-set at TDC before putting head on so timing is correct
-19lbs injectors in there that are rebuilt but never flow tested
-air in the manifold

I dont have:
- a running car
-smell of gas in exhaust
- a clue.


the good news is I got the car reassembled, the bad news is it wont start.

the prior list leads me at least to believe my injectors are not injecting.

three possible causes:
No fuel pressure - WRONG - I have fuel pressure
-electric issue - should be 12V at injectors - how do i check this?
-broken injectors?

Plan for tomorrow - swap in stock injectors again and see if it starts - if it does I am rolling it out of the garage and taking a break for a week till i do the suspenion.

I need some ideas - I need it to start.

Thanks guys.

Pics from today:

head is on




and valve cover too


timing being reassembled

[MaksV]

well it turns out as I was poking around and discovered that I had not actually plugged my injectors in. However as soon as I plugged it in, she coughed for a bit and then went off. Still running a bit rough but that can probably be expected for a rebuild. I will sort out the details tomorrow.

[MaksV]

well guys this is it. I can say I have officially completed the internal rebuild part. The injectors are great and once I got it running it sounds pretty.

Figured out how to get the coolant bled and now we are good on the temperature part as well. So now I am going to take a few days of to recoup and then in about a week I am going to start the suspension rebuild. should be fun.

So it took about 2.5 days but considering I did it almost all myself and for the first time, I have to say I am pretty happy with the result.

so a few completed pics

Badass on the playground - yes the hood needs to be realigned

[kingston]

Dude, a big CONGRATS to you! Well done!

[MaksV]

Dude, a big CONGRATS to you! Well done!

Thanks

one more piece of puzzle came in:

AEM UEGO wideband


Lets talk about squeaks - rubber sounding, happens at cold start, sharp rev between 750 and 1500 rpm - none higher, do it smoothly and nothing happens.

what do you think it might be?

[MaksV]

need some info
whats the best place to tap into

1. 12V direct from battery under the hood?
2. Ignition switched 12V under the hood?
3. on the temp sensor (stock) the green wire is the low temp trigger correct?

[trackjunkie21]

need some info
whats the best place to tap into

1. 12V direct from battery under the hood?
2. Ignition switched 12V under the hood?
3. on the temp sensor (stock) the green wire is the low temp trigger correct?

You're replacing the uego with your original o2 sensor? If so here is a link to how to hook it up, different unit, but you get the idea. The resistor isn't needed for the Uego ( just my guess )

http://www.plxdevices.com/AppNotes/PLXApp004.pdf

[MaksV]

You're replacing the uego with your original o2 sensor? If so here is a link to how to hook it up, different unit, but you get the idea. The resistor isn't needed for the Uego ( just my guess )
http://www.plxdevices.com/AppNotes/PLXApp004.pdf

actually I needed the info for my electric fan converion. I plan on running the UEGO simply for data collection and tuning so the stock sensor should stay. great link though thanks.