My motor build as a whole

[Jon K]

I am going to make a unified thread that will contain all progress on my engine build so others can follow. It has been expressed to me that people wish some of my other write-ups were around, so I figure I can start by encapsulating this one.

First I'd like to thank Jay (multiplex) for hooking me up with all the tools, time, and facilities to do all this **** and PT (turbojettamk4) for helping me store and sort everything out. Secondly an employee at Jay's business, Jim, who has given advice and input based on his experience.

The Plan
The goal is to have a 8.3 - 8.4:1 CR M50 non vanos motor factory fresh or better. I already have the turbo setup alive and well, so now to extract as much power as possible I need a low compression setup that is strong and fresh.

The Parts

Con Rod Bearing Set Std
Con Rod Bolts 53mm
Flywheel Bolt 12x50mm
Main Bearing Set Std
Oil Filter Kit Mahle
Oil Pressure Switch
Piston Ring Set Std 83.98mm
Timing Chain Guide Cam to Cam
Timing Chain Guide Crank to Ex. Cam
Timing Chain Guide Lower Crank Ex. Cam
Timing Chain Lower Crankshaft to Cam
Timing Chain Upper Cam to Cam
Valve Cover Grommet
Valve Stem Seal Set 7mm
Water Pump Plastic Impeller OE
ARP M50 Head Stud Kit
ARP M50 Main Stud Kit
VAC MLS Head Gasket 0.140"
Block/Lower Engine Gasket Set
Expansion Plug 45mm Freeze Plugs
Valve Cover Gasket
Spark Plug Hole Gasket

A detailed list can be viewed at This link.

-- Stock balanced pistons
-- Stock balanced rods
-- Stock polished crankshaft

All parts will be bead blasted or soda blasted. Majority of external parts will be powder coated, block powder coated or painted, head left alone.

Pics

Here is the motor, a '92 Non Vanos M50 from an E34 that had been wrecked. Purchased from a friend for $250 in Connecticut. Drove up and brought her home in the back of PT's truck:



We took it apart the night we got it home, and noticed how clean this engine was for being 200,000 miles deep in life and how there was no damage to any components. This engine had a DIY turbo setup with a RRFPR and a T3/T04E in the former E34:



My parts were taken apart and stored in boxes/bags for about a 9 months - 1 year, until I could afford to start purchasing items to start rebuilding. Initially I only planned to do rings and bearings and clean up the motor somewhat. Having met up with Jay and his convincing me/demonstration of how easy powdercoating is, I went nuts and decided to powder coat anything/everything I could. Once I met Jim, a machinist at Jay's business, we went from doing a stock factory fresh rebuild to ARP head and main studs to fully balancing the bottom end to polishing the crankshaft to god knows what else will come!

The first valve cover was done in a translucent gold finish:



It came out pretty well as you can see it looks great on the car:

[Jon K]

But I had already powder coated a bunch of parts for this new motor and decided to do the other valve cover in silver, to match my parts. I got carried away with powder coating and cleaning stuff but this is the end result:





Now that school is done (never more!) I took the time to focus on this engine as I really want to make power and push the thing to the limit once I have a fall back car. I ordered all of the above parts in a couple phases, but the majority of the parts were collected about a month ago:



It was time to get serious with cleaning up the head and block so I could send them out to be machined.

We started with the cylinder head which looked like utter hell in as you can see in the very first pic in this thread, but after a couple hours of sodium blasting (again thanks to Jays having every tool under the sun), I was able to get it super clean. The only downside, I will say, to using a soda blaster is that the soda gets EVERYWHERE inside the piece. So, I have probably washed this head about... 4 - 5 times now. I am satisfied that it is clean, but yeah it's definitely annoying. Sand/bead blasting like we did with the other parts is not an option because you cannot afford to alter the finish/dimension of the combustion chamber and as I have experienced and no matter what anyone tells you, bead blasting DOES remove/alter material.

[Jon K]

The cleaned up cylinder head looks like:







Quite awesome if you ask me.

The head just came back from the machine shop and was confirmed flat so all they did was barely touch the surface of the head - has some nice machining in it that is sure to give a good seal. I am not sure whether or not I'll be using the copper head gasket spray but I have purchased it just in case so last minute I am not scouring trying to find something ridiculous like that.

[Jon K]

Here is the head back from the machine shop - doesn't look much different. You can see there are new valve seals installed:

excuse cell phone pics


Today [7/7/2007] was spent up at Jay's lapping the valves into the head. I am retaining all of the original valves because they are perfectly fine and straight and just needed to be cleaned up of carbon. The intake valves were a BREEZE to clean. Brushed them right up and they came out as shiny as new. The exhaust valves, however, were very stubborn (as one can expect). We had originally tried soda blasting them and I was only marginally successful with that. I have read that you can bead blast the valve face but I don't want to risk destroying the valve surface. Wire brushed them again, and it proved to be quite adequate in cleaning. There is still some carbon on the lower stem/flute of the valve (backside) on the exhaust but it's sure to be more than fine. I couldn't justify $270 in new exhaust valves (not even including intake valves) and I have talked to many people who said using them over again is safe - if they were bent there'd be no question as to what would have to happen. I don't have the money to rock aftermarket Ferrea valves or anything like, and so the stockies will have to do - I am sure I won't be disappointed. The guides are very long and provide good wear characteristics (if any wear!) and so I am content with the valvetrain setup.

Here we are after having cleaned up the valves:



You can see the exhaust valves have some discoloration of carbon that was once there - its just discoloration now. The actual carbon (chalky definite surface substance) is all gone. They are smooth to the touch and you can see the original machining grooves that are a characteristic of the surface.

After the valves were cleaned up, I lapped them into the seats using Permatex valve lapping compound - it was coarser than the Clover compound that Jay had which aided in the swiftness of completion - but was definitely not overly coarse. I read that a nice mid grade like the compound I hard purchased was the best to use and had the original valve seats been re-cut, then I should use a series of lapping compounds. Valves seat very nicely and cleanly and are sure to pose no leaks - the seats were in immaculate condition as it was based on the pics earlier in the thread.

Here are the valve seat surfaces after being lapped:



Shitty cell pic, but you can see the discolored flute of the valve, then a grey surface, and then a discolored section again. The grey section is where the valve seat meats the valve and the compound is sandwiched between two said surfaces. Jay was pointing out, and I agree, it looks as though the factory did a really good job designing the head - the valve seat area is quite wide and I have seen some VW and Honda heads which do not have nearly as much valve seat area.

After lapping everything we cleaned the head in a parts washer and washed all the valves off to insure no compound was left over. Cleanliness is godliness they say. We were going to install the valvetrain but realized that a member on the forum has Jay's cam/valve install tool so we have to wait. No big deal.

Current progress on the block is that it is still at the machine shop being wrapped up sometime early this next work week we think. The rods will be balanced to one another and the crank polished/oil orifice polished so as to insure clean running through new bearings.

I will update this very thread with more information once I have stuff to post

[Macv]

You're my idol.

I hope to have this much knowledge for engines by the time I get through this college deal.

[Sidney Rough-Diamond]

Nice attention to detial in that build - love the silver coated engine parts. I did the exhaust valves of another BMW head in a pillar drill. Some strips of emery cloth in various grades and you can polish them as new. I taped where the valve stem enters the valve guide so as not to go above this ( although you can see this because of the carbon build-up ) and also protected the valve seat area,even though they would be re-cut later.
I've no idea if this is a pretty hack way of doing this ,but it worked for me. I would say though if you are not recutting the valves,maybe steer clear or be VERY carefull as its easy to slip and mark the seat area.
Another helpful hint is using Gunk brand brake cleaner (non chlorinated)for the exhaust ports. On my alloy head it stripped the carbon off with no effort at all - great stuff.

[BigKriss]

awesome writeup Jon!

[mikell]

Eagerly awaiting the next exciting episode. Great going, Jon.

[Jon K]

Nice attention to detial in that build - love the silver coated engine parts. I did the exhaust valves of another BMW head in a pillar drill. Some strips of emery cloth in various grades and you can polish them as new. I taped where the valve stem enters the valve guide so as not to go above this ( although you can see this because of the carbon build-up ) and also protected the valve seat area,even though they would be re-cut later.
I've no idea if this is a pretty hack way of doing this ,but it worked for me. I would say though if you are not recutting the valves,maybe steer clear or be VERY carefull as its easy to slip and mark the seat area.
Another helpful hint is using Gunk brand brake cleaner (non chlorinated)for the exhaust ports. On my alloy head it stripped the carbon off with no effort at all - great stuff.

Thanks for the suggestion - I lapped the valves in and the carbon on the backside of the exhaust valves doesn't really concern me much. I sodium blasted the head, so my exhaust ports are well... check them out:



I was going to soak the valves in brake cleaner or something, would that remove the carbon from the backsides of the exhaust valves? The intakes are perfect!

[winfred]

i have the head on mine, probably would of finished it yesterday had i not take off to go play with diesels, last weekend i built a cam sensor for future potential upgrades before i installed the head