FB73tii

Welcome. Where are you located, what are your performance needs/expectations, and are you willing/able to do some of the work yourself? Plenty of info here, through member responses and search. For a price point, I built a full race engine myself for just over $5K, not including the carbs. As I recall, a stock rebuilt M10 engine from BMW used to cost about the same, but that was some time ago. Here's a couple posts to get you started: Engine Rebuild Recommendations http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/140646-engine-rebuild-recommendations/ M10 Engine Rebuild http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/125686-m10-engine-rebuild/ --Fred

Can you follow up on this and let us know where you found the post? I just did a search on these rims and "broken" or "failure" and did not find the pic. It would be good to track this down and talk to the owner about how it came to break. If I see a student show up at an HPDE with these rims (which is highly unlikely, but you never know) I'll show them the pic and ask them to put a different set of rims on. Heck, I'd loan them a set of my spare wheels for the day if I'm going to be in the car! --Fred

Rob--if it ain't broke don't fix it! As Toby mentioned, perhaps a light 400 grit wet-sand on the piston. If it makes good oil pressure it is fine--new pumps are expensive and they are not always perfect out of the box. I bought one new pump a few years ago and it had huge casting voids in the oil pressure relief valve chamber. --Fred

Byron--are yours the vaunted Lester Owen rockers? I see VAC has a set for the M10 for $1200/set, but they are billet aluminum, not forged steel. While I should get the $1800 ones, I am now using the KM Cams steel rockers for just over $300/set delivered. So far they are working well with my high-lift cam, but they are heavier (and have a greater moment of rotational inertia) than stock, so I would recommend stiffer valve springs to go along with them. John Forte uses them and lightened a set (he posted here some time ago), but that was a lot of work. As with anything, you get what you pay for. --Fred

The only way to eliminate rust is to cut it out and weld in new metal. You must do this for anything structural. I stripped my 2002 body with a combination of an orbital DA sander, sand-blasting (playground sand--I was cheap), wire wheels and heat gun and managed to do it without warping any panels. I did it in my tiny one-car garage and years later I still find remnants of the sand. I should have just had it dipped. Since you have space outside building a tent is the way to go. Also realize that while abrasion (sand, wire wheel, grinder) removes the appearance of rust, it is still down there inside the metal. It needs to be neutralized with phosphoric acid or similar, then encapsulated. To do body and paint work you need a good compressor for the high-flow tools such as the DA sander. I bought a single-stage 80-gallon Ingersol Rand (a bit over $500 delivered), but everyone who knows recommends a dual-stage compressor, at around $1200. In hindsight would have been good, but was not in my budget at a time. As a result I had to pause often when using the DA. As far as neutralizing and encapsulating any rusted areas you have sandblasted/wire wheeled, POR-15 metal cleaner, metal prep and paint is one of the systems of choice. I did the whole car (including underbody) in POR-15. Then I primed the visible surfaces with POR-15 primer (it was blue) and had a body shop shoot the car in Colorado Orange (see my avatar). It came out well, and no rust has come back. Make no mistake--this is a huge project and will take you several times longer than expected. But if you love the car, and do most of the work yourself, you will find it very rewarding. Here's some recent posts to get you started: Where To Start On Restoration? http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/148146-where-to-start-on-restoration/ Por 15 Rust Prevention - Thoughts? http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/145877-por-15-rust-prevention-thoughts/ Do post a few pics so we can see what you have to work with. --Fred

Very nice! What color are you going to paint the block? Classic Black? Hugger Orange? I painted my last block and all the covers "Kermit Green" to symbolize the amount of "green" I put into it--building the first time, then rebuilding after VP contact required a full rebuild. --FB

Swap the #1 (tighter) and #4 (looser) bearings and see if you come out OK. --FB

Perhaps it's just the light, but the #2 and #3 pistons look steam cleaned compared to the #1 and #4 piston tops. This would be consistent with loosing water and a failed head gasket between the #2 and #3 cylinders. Perhaps a piece of the fire ring got into the #3 and caused the damge you see to the head. Can you post close-ups of the piston tops? --Fred

Happy to help. The key when takng readings is to only turn the degree wheel/crank in the direction of engine operation (clockwise when viewed from the front). If you need to reverse the wheel to take a reading, move it several degrees further back, then creep back onto your reading. This method takes the slack out of the chain on the drive side. You likely already knew this, but worth mentioning. --Fred

Here's a little more data. First shows how the rocker ratio changes as the rocker pad rides over the lobe (done by comparing lobe lift data to valve retainer data). Minumum ratio (at max lift) is close to 1.3:1, which is what the M10 rockers are speced at. Second is an overlay of both the intake and exhaust lobe profile. This shows the Schrick 316 is a symmetric cam (since all the dots line up) and has the same lift for both intake and exhaust (per specifications). This data was taken directly from the cam lobes, and I later realized they are not quite correct because the end of my dial indicator was round, not pinpoint. This will induce error in the readings, particularly on the steep part of the ramp. A Cam Doctor is likely the best tool for profiling a cam, but at least this helped me understand what I have. --Fred

Here's some data I took on the effect on changing the cam wheel pin on valve to piston clearance. As can be seen, the VP was too tight no matter what, so my choices where to have the piston pockets fly-cut (will do at next rebuild) or use a thicker MLS gasket and suffer the compression ratio loss (which is what I did for now. The data is for a Schrick 316° cam and pistons that were supposed to be 11.5:1.

I degreeed my Schrick 316 with zero lash--can't find the reference now but if you think about why there is lash it is to allow length expansion of the valve stem when engine is at operating temperature. Since degreeing is done when cold, makes sense to take up that lash. [EDIT: but then again, if you are on the lobe it really does not matter--just that max lift is a little less if you left the lash in] The Schrick's do not have a reference mark like stock cams do, just the location of the pin hole. I installed the 316 straight up the first time (zero retard/advance), but when I rebuilt I had to use a much thicker head gasket and then used the adjustable cam gear to bring it back close to center. You're right, no offset bushings for adjusting M10 SOHC cams, at least as far as I know. Either then "change the pin hole" method, or use a gear that is fully slotted for finer adjustment. Finding the top of the lobe is inaccurate so pick some value of lift on either side of the lobe to center your degree wheel. I think I used 50 thou. You likely already know how to do this. Sorry I can't give you a step by step--I've only done this twice so am not an expert. Hopefully others will chime in. --Fred

Yep, that's correct.

Catman--here is a good background article on degreeing cams if you don't already have something like the: http://www.iskycams.com/degreeing.html Yes, the top (out toward the edge) of the valve retainer is good. Make sure to have the dial indicator axis of travel parallel to the valve axis. --Fred

Ah, great minds think alike!

Thanks, mac! I'll take a look. --Fred

If you don't have a hoist you can [a] build an A-frame, get a 12 pak, some buddies and a piece of wood, or [c] rent a backhoe

I'd suggest the standard (E21) 320i one-piece heat shield gasket--using that on my ported head 2.2L build. Remember also that you want the header to be slightly larger diameter than the gasket (or port opening) so that there is a bit of a lip to inhibit exhaust gas reversion. intakes are port-matched, exhaust is not, at least that is what I understand.--Fred

I drilled a hole and use RTV to address the rear studs--I have a pic at home I'll post later. The blowby into the breather can is an issue. I don't know about stock engines, but mine goes to 7500 rpm regularly and this is an issue. What I need is to cap off the factory breather outlet and do an extended oil filler neck, possibly baffled, with the breather coming off of it. I posted a want ad, but have not come across a spare one for sale. --Fred This what is needed, or a dry sump system.

Yes, crank pulley removed. This was during the build with engine on stand. If you do it with crank pulley on you will need to fab up something to hold the wheel to the pulley. I am imaging a two-piece collar that would fit behind the pulley, then three or four bolts (with washers) that would go through the degree wheel to the nutserts in your collar to clamp everything together. Likely easier to remove the pulley, but "where is a will there is a way." BTW, the big 18" wheel is great for a bare engine on a stand, but you'll want a smaller one if doing this in-car. --Fred

Scroll up to my post #3 this thread. My 18" wheel had a hole in the center and came with various adaptor bushings. I modified one to adapt the wheel to the M10 crank snout, used the crank nut and washer to secure it. --FB

Wow, Lars! Thanks for posting, have never seen that one--very serious! I have always been partial to the Rodenstock car as the ultimate race 2002, but I must admit I don't know much about how it was set up, engine, etc. --Fred

I did something similar, but was too lazy to remove all the rubber. I just dug out enough so that I could fit my weld-plates. --Fred

The Moroso wheel I have came with several aluminum adaptor washers. All were too small ID so I just drilled one out to fit on the crank nose. Takes a bit of fiddling to get it set right with the nut tight enough to hold it from changing position. I also did a pointer on the flywheel so I could check that I had not lost alignment when taking measurements. --FB

Allbim--my apologies, no harm intended. When I saw your post an amusing image popped into my head and I thought I would share it. Must have been a '70's flashback. Sometimes humor does not come across well in electronic media. I should have used a smiley face... BTW, I have always enjoyed your posts and appreciate you sharing your technical knowledge on the FAQ. Best regards--Fred