M30 Head rebuild - at home?

[beetos]

Hi guys,

So I pulled my head to repair a couple of broken rockers and did a bit of reasearch on steps required to pull the rockers out. I was wondering what people are doing to compress the valves in leiu of the proper BMW tool that fits into the spark plugs? I have seen a few interesting contraptions on the net that guys have come up with consisting of modified G clamps and special small levers that go into the rocker.

I was also concerned about the issue of drifting out the rocker shafts and the issue of mushrooming the ends causing much greif. Looking for some feedback from those that have done this themselves before I dive in.

Cheers.

[Robin-535im]

I've read, but not performed, the following... search for "101 projects for your 3-series" or something like that. Guy has a web site IIRC with a how-to on pulling the cam shaft with no tools.

basic idea is to rotate the cam until all the rockers at that end of the head are not loaded, or just barely loaded, pull the circlips, and work them off the lobe. Then the rocker shaft can be pulled. Theory is you can do this one section at a time and have the cam shaft unloaded in a graceful way, and can then slide it out.