Advice on camshafts

steviem

Wrench Pro
Points
58
Location
Co. Clare, Ireland
Car
Bmw E30 325i Sport
Hi, I have a 1990 E30 325 with basically a stock M20b25 engine, all that was ever put onto it was an induction filter, and rebuilt the bottom end in May 08(mains and big-ends) but now the camshaft needs replacing due to wear.I was thinking of a Fast Road Cam or I've seen these come in kits, would anyone have any advice on these or what route could i go now, will probably get the head ported and polished aswell since the cam has to be changed.

Thanks
 
Thanks boy, it will probably be a while before i can get the bucks together to get the job underway! but thanks for the info, must look into mild cams
 
Can anyone recommend a website/workshop where I might find fast road cams for my E36 2.5 coupe? I must admit, I have just moved from a Pug 106 1.6ltr 8v XS and therefore have no real need to tune my coupe given that it could annihilate my Peugeot but you will probably understand, being tuners yourselves.
Many thanks,
Moz87.
 
Hi, I have a 1990 E30 325 with basically a stock M20b25 engine, all that was ever put onto it was an induction filter, and rebuilt the bottom end in May 08(mains and big-ends) but now the camshaft needs replacing due to wear.I was thinking of a Fast Road Cam or I've seen these come in kits, would anyone have any advice on these or what route could i go now, will probably get the head ported and polished aswell since the cam has to be changed.
Thanks

Hello Stevie,

Good car the old E30 325 Sport.
The 1988-on engines weren't as good as the older M20 B25 E1's fitted in the 325's up to the end of MY1987 though. They had 9.7:1 static CR instead of the then cat-friendly 8.8:1 of the face-lifted cars. introduced as mentioned in '88.

The best bang for buck IMO with these cars is to fit the 81mm crank from the 325e/525e models. In fact the South African E30 325 Sports had 2.7 engines as standard from the factory.
The crank is a straight fit and you get an increase in CR as a bonus.
(Mine went from 9.7 to 10.45:1).

The stock camshafts are 264 total advertised duration and althought there are aftermarket cams (Schrick for one makes/made them) of 272* and a 282* total duration. They both provided both more lift also. But the increased duration is only desirable if you are track/circuit racing the car. makes the car feel more soggy below 4,000 but gives better power above about 5,000 which most would feel isn't much help for a road car (especially in Ireland where the straight roads are short in length and few and far between!)

The 264 cam is the best all-rounder as I found out (I discussed this with BMW Motorsport in Munich)
Though if someone does a 264 with more valve-lift that would be ideal.

The stock heads flow well as they are, but a good 3 or 5-angle valve seat job wouldn't do any harm.

You can get a good ECU chip from Superchips for these and also BBR used to do an even better one if they still have any stock left.
 
Thanks Sid that was some great information, but what do you mean when you say:

"The stock heads flow well as they are, but a good 3 or 5-angle valve seat job wouldn't do any harm."

Whats does 3 or 5 angle mean? is it degrees?
 

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