Head rebuild advice

[Stunnagabe]

Hey everyone I have a 98 m3 sedan trying to get some advice on rebuild mostly on good head gaskets and piston rings! I'm doing the work myself and I'm looking into CES cutring gaskets as well as the ARP studs the car has 200k on it and there is oil in the coolant also shoots blue smoke at high revs, will die at first start if I don't keep giving it gas for about a min then it idles fine but when I'm driving it the car stutters/shakes pretty bad and puts out no power (MAF? I assume) which is why I'm rebuilding. I also plan to SuperCharge after the rebuild if the car runs fine haha Also for the machining should I just resurface and pressure treat or is there something else I need to do to the head I don't really plan to bore it since I will be running about 6-7 psi on the SC so I heard I don't need to drop compression. For the Valves I don't plan on replacing unless they are obviously bad but obviously will replace the seals since I'm getting the whole seal rebuilt and I'm assuming they are shot since my car Is shooting the blue smoke. Should I replace springs guides and seats? For Vanos I think it's fine no weird noises coming out of it should I just replace the seals or send the whole unit to get rebuilt? Anything else I should look into? I don't plan on ever selling the car so I want to just have the car running reliably and leak free I know it gets to the point of the "while it's out" kinda thing that makes me want to replace things like the knock sensors, camshaft and crank shaft sensors but if it's not broken don't fix it right? Thanks in advance guys!

[JitteryJoe]

I'd pull the engine take it to a reputable engine builder if you really plan on doing everything on your list. If you are going to do rings then you should do pistons. If you are going to do pistons then the block should be done. If the block is done then you should do the crank, main & rod bearings. If just the head, plan on replacing at least the exhaust guides. I'd replace the valves but you may be able to have then cleaned up, at least the intake valves. I'd do the springs but, again, you may be able to keep the original depending on your budget. A good machine shop will measure the tolerances and let you know what needs to be done. The head will need to be decked, tested for leaks, and the valves done. What you do really depends on how much you are willing to spend. It is pretty easy to spend many $1000s on engine work. At 200K and blowing blue smoke with oil in the water, you may have a lot of work to do. I would not supercharge a weak engine.

[Stunnagabe]

Yea definitely agree with everything you said my budget is about $1500-$2000 it's not my only car so It's no rush just can't afford to take it to a dealer and throw over 5k on it (gotta save up money to finish up my schooling) when I'm pretty confident I can do it myself and I would like to do it anyways. I think I will just leave springs and valves there like you said to get them tested by the machine shop and see what they think on keeping and replacing. I have looked into the whole blue smoke deal and many threads say it's due to the valve guides being bad so I'll see once I have the head out, so far only have the cooling system off there was no oil in it like I thought also no coolant in the oil. Don't worry won't supercharge until I know the engine can handle it haha! Thanks a lot I appreciate your comment suggestions!

[MauiM3Mania]

You probably should address the running issues before you tear it down and have the engine work done. It's be no fun to do the engine work and upon starting it, you find that you still have the massive vacuum leak, bad CCV or whatever problems that still exist.

[Mklock]

If your going cutring mine as well go spacer so you can prepare for turbo when funds are ready. On my head rebuild I did new valve seals new springs retainers and resurface. Guides you can check with a runout gauge but 9/10 they are fine just clean the valves and lap them.

[Stunnagabe]

You probably should address the running issues before you tear it down and have the engine work done. It's be no fun to do the engine work and upon starting it, you find that you still have the massive vacuum leak, bad CCV or whatever problems that still exist.

True but I already did the CCV a while back as well as my intake boot which had a massive tear at the bottom of it, did O2 sensors and the throttle body control actuator which fixed the stuttering for a while and I just realized that the plastic clip that holds the throttle cable had came loose so i clipped it back which i think was the issue that the car started stuttering again but haven't ran it since I already have the whole cooling and started to disassemble the manifold. But shame on me I should of fixed those problems before I started engine rebuild but I'll just have to end up doing it later whoops! 😬

[Stunnagabe]

If your going cutring mine as well go spacer so you can prepare for turbo when funds are ready. On my head rebuild I did new valve seals new springs retainers and resurface. Guides you can check with a runout gauge but 9/10 they are fine just clean the valves and lap them.

Definitely crossed my mind to drop compression for future turbo but that's almost twice as much as SC and not sure if it's safe to run under low compression as NA while I raise the money?
I'll have to check up on that whole run gauge thing! Not sure how to even do that, and any special cleaner for valves?

[JitteryJoe]

I'd be really surprised if you did not need guides on a 200K motor that is burning oil.
Honestly it does not sound like you have adequate budget to be thinking about any FI.
I'd get the engine back as close to stock full power as possible given your budget.
A well-tuned stock engine is very enjoyable.

[rajicase]

You can absolutely drop CR and run around NA on a stock tune. Nothing will be hurt. You may lose ~5% , but I would honestly be surprised if you even noticed the power difference.
Centrifugal SCers are really lame IMO. Slow and boring. Turbo is the only way to go IMO.

[Stunnagabe]

I'd be really surprised if you did not need guides on a 200K motor that is burning oil.
Honestly it does not sound like you have adequate budget to be thinking about any FI.
I'd get the engine back as close to stock full power as possible given your budget.
A well-tuned stock engine is very enjoyable.

Defiantly won't get the money for SC until This summer. But yea I mean that's after engine is running 100%

- - - Updated - - -

You can absolutely drop CR and run around NA on a stock tune. Nothing will be hurt. You may lose ~5% , but I would honestly be surprised if you even noticed the power difference.
Centrifugal SCers are really lame IMO. Slow and boring. Turbo is the only way to go IMO.

Hell yea man I might just end up doing that then!😂 But then again not sure if I'll be able to afford a good turbo plus the extra maintenance