Yet another, BMW E-36 LSx conversion... by BRAAPZ

3 minute(s) of a 105 minute read

Got my lights finally. I’ll spare you the details, I’m just glad I got my lights.

Side fender and front corner are smoked clear with stealth bulbs, (stealth bulbs installed in the pic). Taillights are smoked with stealth bulbs, (Sorry, orange bulb is in this pic,), headlights are glass lens Euro Ellipsoids, HID low beams with 50w ballasts, 5K bulbs, protective film on the glass. I did NOT get the angel eyes. Angel eyes look fantastic on the 5 series but so many copy cats have over done them on so many other cars, I feel no need to follow the herd on that one...  These Euro lights do have the city light sockets and wiring, which I may install bulbs in.

Any how, the lights should help clean up the car visually in getting rid of the amber lenses and the HID’s should improve nighttime forward vision.

Had big plans today to get the heads finished, assembled and possibly installed on the short block! Between running my wife’s daily driver into town for new tires and changing the oil in it, then goofing off online, ordering a pilot bearing, etc, I didn’t quite meet my goal though did get a little done. All the treaded holes are now chamfered and chased the threads, removed the broken exhaust bolt and heli-coiled that hole. Tomorrow, I hope to get the machine work done, (cut the seats, deck the heads), as well as final cleaning and assembly.

For those interested, here are all the thread sizes for the various threaded holes in the LSx cylinder heads.

Spark plug 14x1.25mm
Coolant temp port 12x1.5mm
Ancillary/accy holes 10x1.5mm
Exhaust manifold 8x1.25
Rocker arm mounting bosses 8x1.25mm
Intake manifold 6x1.0mm
Valve cover hold down 6x1.0mm
Steam tube hold down 6x1.0mm

Till the next update…

8-6-2009

Got around to cutting the valve seats and surfacing the heads today. Machine work is now done. 4 angles on the seats, (technically 5, but the chamber cutter only left its radius, not the flat, so I’m not counting it), performed just a tad more hand blending after using the chamber cutter. Intake seats are .040” wide, exhaust seats are .060” wide. Both intake and exhaust valve also have a 30 degree back cut.

During surfacing, I only took .004” off each head, they both cleaned up 100% in .003”. (A huge thank you to my wife for not overheating the engine over the past 160,xxx miles).

Next step is to CC the chambers, setup the valve train, final clean, assembly, then attach the heads to the short block.


Intake and exhaust seats just after the first cut, 3 angles, (30, 45 and 60 degrees). The final 2 angles are added with separate cutters.

Ready to be removed from the mill after being surfaced;

Machine work done, awaiting final clean;