Yee-Haw - Back on the road again!

[Robin-535im]

After 5 months of having other priorities, I finally got the 535 back on the road again. I had busted a rocker arm and in the process of replacing it decided to totally redo the head: Schrick 284 cam, new rocker arms/shafts/cam springs/8 of 12 valves / valve guides / eccentrics, the whole shebang.

Passed emissions with flying colors after an hour of driving.

The new cam is mildly different. I had a "+1" 273 or something cam in there before, and the torque now starts about 500 RPM later (~3200 instead of ~2700) but seems to come on more smoothly, and it rocks steady all the way to redline. Old cam used to die off after 5500 or so and have a steeper "on" slope which kicked you in the butt a bit more between 2000-3000 RPM. The new head feels nice and tight (audially at least).

Getting the head build was quite a saga, 3 machine shops until I found a good one, and 3-4 parts orders before I had it all in place. Next time though... I'll know exactly what I'm doing :)

[BigKriss]

whats better though, old or new cam?

[Robin-535im]

whats better though, old or new cam?

For me - the new one, as I prefer the higher RPM pull to the lower. You only spend a little time in the lower RPMs but potentially much more in the higher. Now it pulls strong all the way, and I could bring the start down a bit with an adjustable timing gear if I wanted to open it up again. Jeff N and Martin have done that on Jeff's car with some success.

It's been out of commission for so long though that it's hard to really compare it accurately... it's not so much better that it's like there's a extra litre of displacement now, and I've only had a hour of driving on it thus far.

Was it worth the $400 for the cam? Yes, just about. It's not a huge increase but kind of like installing a chip - fills in the dead spots and makes a bit more responsive all around.

[gale]

Now we're going to have to meet up on a dark 2-lane sometime late at night -- he-he! ;)

Glad it's back on the road. Good job!

Cheers,
Don

[genphreak]

Well done for getting the ol girl back on track Robin.

How the hell u fork $400 for another cam when you already have a good one in there... mmm uh 'tis the bug that's bitten us all me thinks...

When I did mine, I replaced every moving part with one massive order to EAP. The only thing I didn't change was the valve springs, but I'm not pushing the car and it's not gone that far anyhow. I guess time is no friend to a spring, but hell, I was already over budget. I did just splash out on a new oil pump (almost $400 for the B35), so as soon as I can get the time I'm going to add that and a remote thermostatic cooler and filter setup, new pan gasket, and so on. BUt I have to make the oil filter attachment by hand since Bruno has given up on his billet adapter kit... bah.

Were the machine shops just no good... ie no cam tool, etc. no knowledge or did they just have a bad attitude towards the ol' bavarian lump?

:) Nick

[ryan roopnarine]

good job. now all you need to do is add 6 of them stick-on exhaust portholes to the passenger side---you know, the ones that all of the ghetto folks are enamored with right now. those'll get rid of all of the flat spots :D

[Robin-535im]

good job. now all you need to do is add 6 of them stick-on exhaust portholes to the passenger side---you know, the ones that all of the ghetto folks are enamored with right now. those'll get rid of all of the flat spots :D
As long as the exhaust port holes are visibly blocked with black plastic... wouldn't want them to look TOO real :)

GP: re- machine shops... the first one was recommended by a local mechanic of dubious talent but impeccable ego. That shop had their valve guy who was with them for decades up and quit while we were waiting for the valve guides to come in so instead of wait until they hired a newbie, I took it to a place the first shop recommended. 2nd shop wanted to put the head in an oven to heat it up to press the guides in because there was too much interference to press them in cold. That made me a bit uneasy and fortunately their oven was too small, so I called the local BMW guru indy, a guy named "Dieter" from Germany whose blood runs BMW. Should have called him first... he recommended the third shop, and man what a shop. Floor so clean you could eat off it. $100,000 cars parked left and right awaiting engine work. This guy was adamant about not heating the head up but searching for the right valve guides. We ended up with 3 sets of the wrong size before we got the right size (which was the stock diameter) and he knurled the last 1/2 inch to increase the interference just a tad. I'm glad I ended up there because I think he did it the best of all three places. Not that any of the other shops were "bad" in any way, but just not used to working with BMW heads and perhaps more interested on throughput than finesse if you know what I mean.

[BigKriss]

why did you buy a new cam and not get the old one reground?

[Robin-535im]

why did you buy a new cam and not get the old one reground?
Mostly I wanted a more aggressive cam for the future, and since the head was under the knife I figured it would be better to do it now than open it all up again. The other option was just to button it back up with 1 new rocker arm but my wife actually talked me into doing it all this time to save having to do it again.

I went with a Schrick because it wasn't a regrind, and I was never quite happy with the reground cam in there. I figured it was a cost-effective compromise to grind a cam down but I wanted to have the right geometry for the cam & rocker arms... plus I trust the name & reputation of Schrick more than any of the other regrind places. I figure they had some engineering behind the design and they have a long history of BMW engine work. I have a nagging doubt that the regrinds are not much good if not properly designed... and I didn't find anybody that I trusted was worth the $200 difference.

Some of it is just the "sleep at night" factor too, I didn't want to risk so I figured pay a bit more for peace of mind.