Things to change with head gasket?

[onspeed]

Junkyard motor coming today, picked up Getrag 5spd, 2.93 diff, driveshaft, master/slave, pedal and shifter assembly, and clutch lines yesterday.

Got bunch of parts ordered including the e30 expansion tank, "short shift kit" from FCPEuro (z3 handle and new bushings I think), Valeo single mass flywheel + clutch kit, and autometer oil pressure and water temp gauges. Bunch of other odds/ends, gaskets, lines, etc.

Vacation for a week, I think I will take the head off the junkyard engine when I get back and probably take it to a shop to get it milled and have them do valve stem seals, because I don't feel like playing with 24 valve springs lol. Junkyard said they did a compression test and leakdown before they pulled the engine but... who knows.

[Eric93se]

Awesome! you will be done in no time at all

Remember, pictures or it didn't happen, lol.

[onspeed]

Got the junkyard motor onto the engine stand and pulled the head off. Looks like someone had at least serviced the vanos previously as one of the 3 nuts that hold the intake gear in was missing. Hopefully not banging around things in the oil pan. Vanos unit slid right off the cam as well, didn't need to crank the gear at all with the special tool.

Some wear on the intake cam as well. Exhaust doesn't look terrible. But both look worse than mine so I'll be swapping the lifter trays, cams, and caps from my cracked head. Cylinder cross hatching looked good though. Probably try to remove oil pan this weekend and pull one of the caps off to see how the crank looks. Dropped head off at machine shop today to have them resurface, check for cracks, and replace valve seals.

IMG_20171214_150830089.jpg
IMG_20171214_150827950.jpgCaps from intake cam. In order from front to rear, right to left. So far left is intake cam journal cap. Has like weird pits in it. Then lobe #1 has what looks like a high spot.
IMG_20171214_150820381.jpg Intake on top, exhaust on bottom.
IMG_20171214_150818598.jpg

Edit -

machine shop called today. head warped 5 thou, but no cracks. Found 4 intake valves were leaking 15-20%. Not sure what means but the tl;dr he gave me was he recommended a valve job but it would probably run without issue with just a resurfacing of the head surface, albeit down a bit on ponies, maybe up to 10%. Car is a beater. I think I'll skip the valve job.

[onspeed]

Pulled cam from my broken head - bearings look burnt, with some type of hard oil deposit on some of them that I can scratch off with my finger nail. Probably the result of 10+ years of infrequent oil changes. So junkyard cam/bearings going back in to the head once I get it back from the machine shop.

Also found out driver seat won't move forward/backward. Motor just sounds like it's hitting a stop. Can't really see anything that would be binding it, although it's hard to really see well under the seat. Made installing the new pedal assembly much less comfortable. Not sure how I'm going to tackle this, luckily it seems to be in about the position I'd want to drive it in, but not sure how I can remove the seat without being able to move it forward/back.

Waiting on order from fceuro to come in to really start getting things together. First time ordering from them - prices cheaper than my usual source but I have to say the ship time is quite long. Ordered on a Friday, didn't ship out till Wednesday :/ , and that was with the paid shipping, not the free option.

Advice on engine reinstall - my plan was to reassemble everything but the intake, reinstall engine + trans, then reattach wiring harness and reinstall intake. Seen some pictures of people pulling the engine with intake installed and wiring harness completely removed from car, this an easier method?

[Eric93se]

You can lap the vales yourself if you want, you should do something like that. If it wasn't already mentioned, it's easy to take the lifters apart and clean them out, there are plenty of youtube vids on that topic for our style lifters (its totally worth doing because they will get dirty/clogged and fail to pump up and get noisy). Probably best to do the intake and wiring harness after install, like you were thinking, don't want to mess that stuff up.

Nice work!

[onspeed]

Good idea, will check the lifter plungers and make sure they're smooth.

Changed input shaft seal on the transmission while it's out (twice. fucked up the first one, didn't seat evenly).

Changed output shaft seal as well. Found a 30mm socket off the shelf at advanced auto, 12 point, which fit just right to get the nut. Flange removed easily with a 3 jaw puller, then pretty straight forward swap compared to the input, plenty of space to shove a seal puller in and yank the sucker out. Couldn't get the flange to reseat flush with the transmission despite torquing down the nut a good amount. Didn't use an actual torque wrench, but my Dewalt electric impact wrench supposedly should do 300 ft/lbs on the speed setting I was using. Didn't have time to mess with it too much, so I'll find out tomorrow what's the deal.

Also think I'm missing one of the M12-1.75x90mm E14 bellhousing bolts. As 1 was all mangled on the parts car we took the transmission from, and at the time I didn't know they were different sizes from the automatic. Might just get a socket cap screw if the dealer doesn't have any of the external torx ones in stock. The write ups online for the auto to manual swaps say all the bolts are different but I believe based on comparing RealOEM diagrams that only 2 are, the long 90mm ones.

[gdavid]

One way or another, the leaking valves should be addressed. A small leak could grow to a severely burnt valve as combustion gasses escape through the small gap. Like Eric said, at least hand lap the valves so they seal up. The shop may be hesitant to do a valve job on only a few valves but the valves are going to be out for the resurface and valve seal job anyway so I can't see it being an issue.

[onspeed]

Worked on it past few days. Couple hold ups here and there, like one of the exhaust studs snapped off in the block as I was trying to remove it, so I had to sit and drill that out with shitty bits and a shitty drill. Then reinstalling the motor with valve cover on was a bitch as well. I pulled it with the heads off so I had much more clearance for everything. With the motor support spots, the engine tilts towards the passenger side, which made getting that motor mount lined up a huge PITA, especially as I was working solo. Got it done eventually. Just need wiring harness reconnected, the hoses replaced, and drive train reassembled. Then a bit of luck that I put everything back together correctly.

Noticed after I installed the shifter in the car that the 5th gear centering spring/detent pin thing is broken or seized. Not a big deal I guess, doesn't seem like a common problem with the Getrag transmissions, although I did find on the e46 boards someone with a DIY. Not going to worry about it as I'd rather just deal with it at this point than drop the transmission.

Also noticed my steering coupler rubber/guibo thing is cracked. Again, something I'll tackle another day I think.