engine and drivetrain William is back, but I'm not used to a stock cam....

[scestes]

So last year just a week before I moved I spun a rod bearing in William. The poor guy was moving along and as I gave him a little gas, this little knock knock knock knock started. (And no, this is not a bad Knock Knock joke). When I bought William he had a blown head gasket, but a lot of potential. Dual DCOE 45s, a 292 Cam, Stahl header. I'll have to say that when I got him up and running, it was a real treat to see what he could do. I couldn't believe the pep he had.

Fast forward to this past weekend. I've each weekend over the past month doing a little work here and a little work there putting this motor from a 320i into William. A friend of a friend had this thing for sale. He had rebuilt it some 12k miles before he pulled it from his 320i in favor of some 6cyl conversion he was doing. Anyway, there were only a few small problems here and there, but I didn't want to rush anything. Yesterday I pulled the plugs, turned off the electric fuel pump, wired the throttle open, and began turning this new (to me) engine over waiting for oil pressure to appear. When it did, on went a new cap, and rotor, in went some new plugs, out came the timing light and 10mm wrenches, and it was time to start that engine.

To my surprise, I was quite close on the timing. It only took two turns of the key to get it to start up. Set the timing (need to do it again once it's warm actually) and went out for a quick little drive around the block. I must have made around 20 laps around my block watching temps, oil pressure, listening for noises, etc. Except for the fact that my alternator needs to be refreshed, the car had no issues. It was nice to be back on the road driving William instead of pushing him around my garage/driveway.

My only disappointment is that even though this engine is quite a bit fresher than my old one, this stock cam just isn't anything close to my 292. Don't get me wrong, for the age of this car, it is incredibly peppy still, and it's still a lot of fun to drive. I just realized though that this engine is down on power compared to my old one, and it's pretty noticeable. Anyone else made this transition. I'm looking forward to getting a snappy engine back into William, but at this point, if I'm going to do it, I may do the S14 conversion. Save the snappy M10 for Rummy (Rummy is another story).

[jrhone]

Isnt that a pretty big jump? Rebuild a built up M10, or do the M2 swap? Sounds like you just need to do a rebuild on that peppy M10 motor...

[cj]

You can use my cam swap tool anytime.

Cris

[Bill_Riblett]

If this is a stock 2 liter 320 engine, it also only has 8.1:1 compression ratio which will contribute to the sluggishness.

[scestes]

Isnt that a pretty big jump? Rebuild a built up M10, or do the M2 swap? Sounds like you just need to do a rebuild on that peppy M10 motor...

I think I'd like the s14 swap actually. This is going to be a couple of years down the road anyway, so I've got time to think about it, but I'm really leaning towards the s14.

If this is a stock 2 liter 320 engine, it also only has 8.1:1 compression ratio which will contribute to the sluggishness.

Ahhhhh... This is true. Hadn't taken that into account.

You can use my cam swap tool anytime.

Chris, what exactly does this tool look like?

[TobyB]

... like I've come to believe, let the M10 breathe and it's a good fit for a sporty '02.

Cam, carbs and exhaust, and it's fun.

t