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Car Forum / BMW Cars / December 2006

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E30 325 M20 CYLINDER HEAD CRACKING PROBLEMS

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ryan_lenihan@hotmail.com - 03 Dec 2006 14:20 GMT
I'M A MOTORSPORT STUDENT AND AM BASING MY MAJOR PROJECT ON E30 325 M20
CYLINDER HEAD CRACKING PROBLEMS.
THE PLAN IS TO POLISH AND PORT A HEAD, BUT I NEED TO DISCOVER THE MAJOR
REASONS OF WHY THEY GO WRONG IN THE FIRST PLACE.
ANYTHING YOU FEEL MIGHT HELP WILL BE EXTREMELY APPRECIATE.
THANKS ALOT
frischmoutt - 03 Dec 2006 17:36 GMT
OK OK, dear student, Like most of others, you'll arrive in a new company
whith your degree and try to rebuild the world, shouting everywhere, pumping
the air in front of you, putting it behind. You're a ventilator dear student
!

Don't forget that you're invited in the newsgroups, you're not at home. So,
please behave accordingly.
It would be better you use low-case characters unless your caps lock key is
stuck On.

Please write again your mesage in a friendly manner.

Hope you'll understand.
TIA.

> I'M A MOTORSPORT STUDENT AND AM BASING MY MAJOR PROJECT ON E30 325 M20
> CYLINDER HEAD CRACKING PROBLEMS.
> THE PLAN IS TO POLISH AND PORT A HEAD, BUT I NEED TO DISCOVER THE MAJOR
> REASONS OF WHY THEY GO WRONG IN THE FIRST PLACE.
> ANYTHING YOU FEEL MIGHT HELP WILL BE EXTREMELY APPRECIATE.
> THANKS ALOT
Jack - 03 Dec 2006 20:12 GMT
A totally inappropriate response to a valid question.
Perhaps you should try kicking your dog a few time before you post again.

On the original question.
I am aware of two problems that led to cracked heads on the e30 neither of
which actually had anything to do with the head other than the fact that
they are aluminum alloy which is especially vulnerable to overheating.
1)  The heads are very tall and so put extra stress on the headbolts due to
thermal expansion differences between the head and the bolts.
This led to some head bolt failures early in the production run of the M20
engine.  The head bolt failures sometimes resulted in overheating and
cracking the head.  The fix was to incorporate 'softer' head bolts with a
reduced diameter shank.  This reduced the stress in the threads to achieve
longer fatigue life.
2)  At some point in production water pumps utilizing plastic impellors
molded onto metal shafts were incorporated as a cost saving measure.  The
impellors contained high residual shrinkage stresses from cooling around the
shaft.  Some of the impellors cracked with subsequent loss of function and
overheating of the engine.  I am not sure if this item was relevant to the
e30 or only to later models.  Perhaps someone else has better information.

You can also google e30 and/or M20 engine as there is a lot of information
available on the internet.

> OK OK, dear student, Like most of others, you'll arrive in a new company
> whith your degree and try to rebuild the world, shouting everywhere,
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>> ANYTHING YOU FEEL MIGHT HELP WILL BE EXTREMELY APPRECIATE.
>> THANKS ALOT
 
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