BMW Series E46 330i Cylinder Head Porting

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DamirGTI
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Joined: January 24th, 2007, 8:14 pm
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BMW Series E46 330i Cylinder Head Porting

Post by DamirGTI »

Hello !

At last , i have an project to make :)

It's a straight 6 cylinder head , 4 valves per cylinder , 2,979 cc 230 hp @ 5,900 rpm from BMW E46 330i car .

Engine code : M54B30

From a rough eye/finger inspections of the ports and valve pockets , i have to say i'm pretty disappointed by the port casting/indexing as being a BMW head i supposed it would be much better . So , i see here's a lot of job and also , good end result when finished with the porting .

Inlet ports are a bit narrow , lots of sharp edges inside the valve pockets and i think i'd lift up the inlet port roof around the valve guide as it seems to me somewhat bad , which i think will improve swirl effect .

Exhaust ports , even more narrower than the inlet all around on the port entry - lots of material till the gasket sealing area .. and again sharp edges inside the valve pockets (but not as much as on inlets) , and similar "hump" around valve guide .

SSR (Short side radius) , not bad on both the inlet and exhaust , think i'll do just some smoothing here ..

Combustion chambers , nice and smooth finish from factory .. just some sharp edges around valve seats which needs removing and smoothing , so not so much job here :) (not sure if it's worth doing valve unshrouding ?)

The head i'm preparing is for one very good friend of mine , so i want do it as best as i can !
Modifications further will be higher compression ratio , he said to me that he wants to retain standard valve sizes (will measure) , standard camshafts , inlet and exhaust manifold . So just porting and cutting multiple angle seats .

Im currently in processes of dismantling the valves , cleaning etc. .. when i finish that i'll post pics of the head .

Till then , i have some cut offs of this the same head :

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Any advices much appreciated :)

Thanks

Damir
Last edited by DamirGTI on April 12th, 2013, 5:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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DamirGTI
Posts: 133
Joined: January 24th, 2007, 8:14 pm
Location: Rijeka , Croatia
Contact:

Re: BMW series E46 330i cylinder head porting .

Post by DamirGTI »

.. removed the valves and pre-cleaned (will clean it up with my trusty method soaking with Acetone and Xylene mixture over night)

Som pics of todays work :

Head with valves removed
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Inlet port side
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Exhaust port side
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Combustion chamber
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Valves
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Inlet valve
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Exhaust valve
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.. and some evidence of oil residue on the inlet valve (leaky valve steam seals)
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Damir
Last edited by DamirGTI on April 11th, 2013, 12:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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DamirGTI
Posts: 133
Joined: January 24th, 2007, 8:14 pm
Location: Rijeka , Croatia
Contact:

Re: BMW series E46 330i cylinder head porting .

Post by DamirGTI »

Started a bit yesterday on valve pockets :

Inlet
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Exhaust
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Damir :)
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DamirGTI
Posts: 133
Joined: January 24th, 2007, 8:14 pm
Location: Rijeka , Croatia
Contact:

Re: BMW series E46 330i cylinder head porting .

Post by DamirGTI »

Some more pics of the head :

Exhaust valve pockets
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Inlet valve pockets
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Inlet and exhaust pockets
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Inlet port with clearly visible casting/port indexing imperfections
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Top view , head base :
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.. and i have one question , can i grind off this marked hump on the top of the inlet port entry's or is it needed for something like diverting air to the valve pockets ?
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Thanks :)

Damir
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DamirGTI
Posts: 133
Joined: January 24th, 2007, 8:14 pm
Location: Rijeka , Croatia
Contact:

Re: BMW Series E46 330i Cylinder Head Porting

Post by DamirGTI »

Some more pictures :

Exhaust port exists and valve pockets
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.. and some of today's work on the combustion chambers (but not finished yet , still in the process ..)

Standard/factory shape of the combustion chamber
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Reshaped combustion chambers (but as said , not fully completed yet ..)
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So , i was concentrating just on smoothing the ridges around valve seats and around the center where's the spark plug .

Damir
Last edited by DamirGTI on April 17th, 2013, 7:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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DamirGTI
Posts: 133
Joined: January 24th, 2007, 8:14 pm
Location: Rijeka , Croatia
Contact:

Re: BMW Series E46 330i Cylinder Head Porting

Post by DamirGTI »

And my thoughts about valves unshrouding vanished as soon as i saw this :

Top inlet valve seat region
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Top exhaust valve seat region
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.. both surfaces cleared off the ridges but - there's virtually no "room" for valve unshrouding !

The gasket sealing area is really close to the valve seat region , especially around exhaust valve seats .. as it can be seen on the pictures .

Inlet
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Exhaust
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That will be for the safer route i wont do grinding any further than this , cos head gasket fire ring markings are so close and grinding more than this will for sure end up bad for head gasket sealing the combustion chambers .

Damir
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DamirGTI
Posts: 133
Joined: January 24th, 2007, 8:14 pm
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Re: BMW Series E46 330i Cylinder Head Porting

Post by DamirGTI »

Some of today's work on the first cylinder ports/valve pockets :

Inlet
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... casting imperfections removed/smoothed , and already it looks much better - not completed yet .

Exhaust
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(can i grind off all this area around the exhaust port exists till the gasket markings , and if so - radiused or flat ?!)

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.. did the same/similar job as on the inlet , and also - not completed yet .

Top view
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And , please i need some info/help/guidance - good ? bad ? ugly ? .. anything , cos i feel like a ghost here posting tons of pictures and explanation what i did and where :o| ... and i don't want to screw up something .

Thanks !

Damir
Last edited by DamirGTI on April 17th, 2013, 7:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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DamirGTI
Posts: 133
Joined: January 24th, 2007, 8:14 pm
Location: Rijeka , Croatia
Contact:

Re: BMW Series E46 330i Cylinder Head Porting

Post by DamirGTI »

From the first top , center cut of the head , i opted to do modifying this head as it can be seen on the red markings :

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Am I missing something ?

Damir
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DamirGTI
Posts: 133
Joined: January 24th, 2007, 8:14 pm
Location: Rijeka , Croatia
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Re: BMW Series E46 330i Cylinder Head Porting

Post by DamirGTI »

Started with opening up the exhaust port exists today .

I opted for a radius shape , rather than flat grinding from the exists to the inside of the ports , and also i haven't been doing reshaping much on the floor of the port exists but concentrating on widening and lifting up the exists up and sideways radiused at 20/25 deg. then blending inside the ports :
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Here , you can clearly see the difference and how the stock port exist is quadrant shape and narrow :

Stock port exist shape and modified/radiused
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Also , did the similar on the inlet port entry's , but there isn't so much material till the gasket sealing surface so i just made it a bit ovaled shape - sideways and roof of the port entry , haven't touched the floor of the port entry's :
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Damir
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DamirGTI
Posts: 133
Joined: January 24th, 2007, 8:14 pm
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Re: BMW Series E46 330i Cylinder Head Porting

Post by DamirGTI »

Right , some more interesting thoughts - material adding .

SSR (Short Side Radius)

On the both sides , inlet and exhaust - looks like this head might benefit by adding the material on the SSR surface in order to create an "venturi effect" .

Why ? , well me thinks that its too flat when looking from the ports then following the floor lines to the SSR which then blends into the valve seat .
By adding the material on this areas , on the inlet the air/fuel mixture i assume will turn up more progressively along the SSR and into the combustion chamber .. particularly on low revs when the air/fuel mixture mostly travels along the floor lines of the port .
Looking at the stock factory shape of the SSR , it seems that the air/fuel mixture will (on low revs) , while traveling trough the floor lines create turbulences by bouncing on/around the valve .

Exhaust area as well , adding material for more radiused floor shape along the SSR which could assist exhaust gases flowing faster out .

Right or wrong ? if so - how can material be added ?

I have 2 pack epoxy aluminum resin , but not so sure if it will hold on well on the surface .

Damir
Last edited by DamirGTI on April 19th, 2013, 10:02 am, edited 2 times in total.
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DamirGTI
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Joined: January 24th, 2007, 8:14 pm
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Re: BMW Series E46 330i Cylinder Head Porting

Post by DamirGTI »

So like this :

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Red lines - modifying
Yellow lines - material adding

Damir
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DamirGTI
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Re: BMW Series E46 330i Cylinder Head Porting

Post by DamirGTI »

Testing ... :

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DamirGTI
Posts: 133
Joined: January 24th, 2007, 8:14 pm
Location: Rijeka , Croatia
Contact:

Re: BMW Series E46 330i Cylinder Head Porting

Post by DamirGTI »

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.. started with finishing :

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And time for a brake , cos this hurts :o/ :

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Damir
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DamirGTI
Posts: 133
Joined: January 24th, 2007, 8:14 pm
Location: Rijeka , Croatia
Contact:

Re: BMW Series E46 330i Cylinder Head Porting

Post by DamirGTI »

.. almost there , but there's so much job on this cylinder head - tons of hard labor hours , for finishing this one :o|

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Damir
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DamirGTI
Posts: 133
Joined: January 24th, 2007, 8:14 pm
Location: Rijeka , Croatia
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Re: BMW Series E46 330i Cylinder Head Porting

Post by DamirGTI »

Next step - decided to take this job all the way till the maxi .

Will add material in inlet ports/throats , using aluminum epoxy filler/putty (Loctite Hysol) .

I made an test , in order to be double sure that the epoxy which i'll be using is good enough for the job :

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It needs up to 72h for the epoxy to fully cure/harden , and i tried all kinds of stuff during the inspection of the epoxy adhesion on the surface - trying to dig the epoxy from the surface by hammering it off with an big sharp chisel and hammer , tried heating and then digging up again etc. etc.

The test provided that , when the surface is well cleaned (myself i'm using 99% Acetone) and prepared with 60 abrasive grt. paper , the adhesion on the surface is almost "rock solid" .

However modeling added material will be a little tricky job , so not so easy defiantly .

Damir
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