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Head Part 2 | Front Sub-frame |
Big Brakes |
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Stella's head was in good shape considering it's 30 years
old. However I decided to have it gone through for hopefully another 30
years. On occasion, I refer you to people who are in my opinion the best at
what they do and this month is no exception. Locally, we have a really great
cylinder head service at Noland's Cylinder Head Service. They have been in
business for many years and are considered the experts in this area. Tom
Noland shared stories with me about his father repairing flat-head Fords
with cracked blocks and heads right in the car when he was learning. They
are now in the third generation of family in the business. They are
definitely doing things right. If you like what you see here, please give
Tom a call at 816-471-5167. He's never received any business from the web,
so let him know you found out about them from here! They are very reasonable
and have done these heads since new. Throughout the entire process,
they were kind enough to allow me to photograph the process to show how they
do it. |
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First I brought them a greasy ugly head. They disassembled
everything and put it on the bead blaster to clean it up. This is how it
looked after that process step was done. |
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They stated that the head was not like most they see which
are really shot.
This head has approximately 140,000 miles on it and the tolerances are very
good - very minimal wear. The car sat for 10 years without much driving but
had coolant in the block that wasn't changed. There was some corrosion that
shows as a result of that. I'll point that out here down the page. |
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All of the valves were removed, blasted and resurfaced. The
bag of gold shiny things are the new valve guides which are not expensive,
but labor intensive to replace. |
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Here is the stock cam. They stated the tops of the lobes had
very little wear. This is a testimony to BMW's metallurgy process that you
hear about over and over when you see these engines are so tough. |
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Hear are the rocker arms and retainer springs. These turned
out to all be very good condition and none needed replacing. |
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Here is another look at the exhaust side of the block. |
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On closer inspection you see these circles around the
cylinder head. Why? The special TII/Motorsport type cutting ring gasket cuts
these grooves into the head as it is torqued on to provide a high level of
seal for the compression needed in these engines. |
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Here is an intake side view of the E12 head. This end is the
end facing the firewall and the large part exiting the rear is the portion
that heads towards the heater valve. |
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The valve seats and guides are shown here. This is the E12
style "tri-hemi" type chamber. The long oval shaped areas are the water
passages that flow water through the head to the block. |
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In this photo, the arrow points to corrosion which has eroded
the aluminum head. Since it's close to the chamber, we'll address this with
a TIG welder and build that area up in order to prevent further erosion from
destroying a good head. |
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Here are the valves awaiting their return to the head after
being reground. They were all in good shape. |
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This is the journal where your cam bearings wear against.
These were really good condition and needed no further cleanup to be
re-used. The gold items are the tops of the valve guides, where the
notorious rubber seals sit which eventually fail due to age and cause that
"puff" in deceleration you see in the rear view! |
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Top view showing the head. This is before guide replacements
have occured. |
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A view from the back to the front showing the location where
your cam journals are and the rocker arm shafts are located. |
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This is the example of the worst of the arms. The bearing
surfaces are very clean and almost as new, so the engine hasn't had a low
oil problem which would make them wear to the point of replacement. |
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Here is the before and after view of a valve that was blasted
and reground. |
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When completed they are a perfect match to the 3 angle valve
seat that Noland will machine into the seat. |
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| Next, in
HEAD PART 2 we'll start the machining process. |
