status of my E to I swap

[pdx 528e]

Well, I lost the auction where I bid on a 731 casting euro head. I couldnt justify paying more than 300 dollars for a head that needed valve work, and also needed to be flattened. I felt a bit down that I didnt win though, just because I've been researching different articles about the e to i swap, and I have plans for what I think will be a perfect upgrade. An hour after losing the auction, someone offered to sell me a good condition spare 323i head for 200 plus shipping. I waited for pictures and a better description, somewhat doubtful, but this thing looks pretty clean. I wont mind having a cylinder head shop go over it. Let me know what you guys think!






Now does anyone have a super eta wiring harness? other than that, finding parts should be a snap.


[Edit by pdx 528e on [TIME]1107889184[/TIME]]

[pdx 528e]

Fastpat or others, do you have a clean decent resolution 325i engine bay photo? I need it to think about wiring harness possibilities.

Thanks,
Chris

[Velocewest]

Follow the link for some interesting comments from a guru (Marquis Rex) on the e21 board.

Short story -- 731 head good.

http://e21.tricord.cjb.net/forum/view.php?view=11585

[pdx 528e]

[QUOTE="Velocewest"]Follow the link for some interesting comments from a guru (Marquis Rex) on the e21 board.

Short story -- 731 head good.

http://e21.tricord.cjb.net/forum/view.php?view=11585 [/QUOTE]

Thanks for checking on that Tony, sparked my interest enough to do some reading on E21 info. Looks like the early 3 series guys have been stroking M20s for longer than eta E28s. I paid 260 bucks, shipped, which I felt was a very good price considering the 731 is not very common here. It ships tomorrow.

Thanks again, maybe we can work on it this summer as a PDX group.

[Madhungarian]

That looks like a good candidate for a rebuilt. Will need new studs, a good idea anyway. Not sure about the 731 casting, mine is an 885. However, I am using a cam and valvetrain from a 323.
One important decision you will have to make, should you decide to rebuilt that particular head will be to replace the single row spring with dual spring or not.
I think that head has the larger intake ports, but I still highly recommend some port matching while the beast is diassambled.
Than of course if the valves need replacing, (common on the exhaust side) replace them all. If the intakes need replacing too, might as well go for larger ones.
This is my $.02 regarding the head rebuilt only. Than of course you need to plan what to do on the intake side as a whole. Good luck, keep us posted...

[Dinan e28]

I almost bought a euro 323i but the owner replaced the head with a US one.