Car not running correctly after cylinder head rebuild

[AdamG]

After a coolant fitting failure on my 1997 318i (M44) I had the warped head machined and my friends and I reassembled the engine from head gasket up. The car runs, but not well. The engine runs roughly and tends to stall when at idle speed. Today I put a fresh battery in the car (from my 328is) and it started. I drove it for 5 minutes, not letting the RPMs drop below 1,000. There was lots of white smoke at lower RPMs but not really any above about 2,500. The temperature stayed where it belonged with the needle pointing to 12 o'clock. After driving it for 5 minutes, I came to a stop sign and let the car idle, when it stalled. It wouldn't start after that. We checked the alternator by removing the negative battery cable when the car was running, and the car still ran, so the alternator seems fine. Does anyone have any experience with this? Thanks!

Adam

[nickmpower]

if there is white smoke you might have a coolant leak into a combustion chamber. Did you have the head pressure tested? it also sounds like your cam timing might be off

[AdamG]

When I had the head machined (it was warped) the machinist also pressure tested it. He said it had no cracks and it was trued after the machining. I really hope it's not that....

[RED IS 91]

Do you have any oil in your coolant or coolant in your oil ? Is your oil level high or your coolant level low?
Do a Compression test and post your results.
good luck

[ghoulama]

check your fuel pressure. i had stalling problems after i put a used head on and the fuel pump was only putting out 15 psi