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The US M10B18 produced 101 hp in stock form, mine was probably making about 50 hp. The top speed of the car was about 65mph in 4th flat out. I decided that the motor was just too tired to be revived and pulled it after owning the car for only 3 months. It took me about 1 year to rebuild the motor, partly due to my total inexperience, lack of tools, going away to college in the middle of the project, and learning the ropes on where to buy parts and what would work. I was by myself on my first engine rebuild with nothing but a haynes manual. I spent an entire summer tearing it down, cleaning parts and reading. The block was in good shape and the bores only needed honed.
A bav auto sales rep told me it was possible to stroke the motor using earlier internals and put me in contact with an old BMW mechanic who had parts lying around. He told me that the only 2.0L pistons that would work with the 1.8 head without machine work were the flat top pistons, though he said I could use the higher compression piano dome pistons and have them machined to fit the head (the crown is thick enough to do so). At the time I didn't have the know how or the budget for additional machine work, so I opted for the flat top pistons. He told me I'd have lower compression but that it would work fine and sold me a balanced 2.0L crank, rods and pistons for $300. This unknowingly set the ball in motion for bigger and better things 7 years later when I started my turbo project. I was able to squeeze enough cash out of my small budget for the Bavarian Engine Exchange performance head. This included a 280 cam, stiffer valve springs, and a port & polish job that they claimed would improve HP by 15%.
Below are pics of the block back from the machine shop before and after paint:
Cleaning the crank and installing the crank after plastigage to check bearing clearance. I had the shop clean the pistons and rebush the rods. In the pic they are ready to install with new Deves rings.
After installing the pistons, torqing the main & rod bearings down, new oil pump, and installing the head:
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