Head Rebuild Time

[Scott Ruffner <jpr9c@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well,

It's time to rebuild the head on the car - it's an '86 325e and has never
had a valve job from what I can tell.  The valve train is a bit noisey,
the studs need to be replaced and the heat shields on the exhaust gasket
have more or less decayed/burned through.  So, I think I'm going to pull
the head next week and get this rebuilt.  I've got to order valves and
springs, and this raises a question:

1. Advantages to switching to "i" valves?  Are they larger, and is it
worth doing. The "i" valves appear to be a bit more.

2. "i" springs - which size are recommended for this?

3. Is the valve conversion as simple as having the machine shop grind the
openings out?  Any gotchas (like water passages, etc)?

4. Which valve guides should be used?

What do most folks do?  Just swap springs?

Thanks,

Scott

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Scott Ruffner
Computer Systems Senior Engineer       Computer Science Department
ruffner@domain.elided                University of Virginia
(434)982-2219                    http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~jpr9c

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