Cracked head

[brilliant_rotten]

Greetings and salutations

My sedan has had a cracked head for longer than I care to admit, and I finally have it on the lift and torn apart. Yup, it's cracked.

I have access to two E36 318is M44 donor motors. After googling to my wits end, I am fairly certain that nobody swaps M44 heads onto M42 blocks. Is this because there's some issue with interchangeability or because of performance reasons? I'm interested in reliability over performance here, and if my block is worn in perfectly I'd like to keep that going.

Should I just swap in the entire M44 block/head for now? I can always find an M42 head and use it with my old block and rebuild them for future use.

Good news: the car is on a lift and I have access to all manner of tools to finish this job. At this point my plan is to pull an M44 head and make it work on my block, but I'd like to know if this is a dumb idea.

Thanks in advance!

[brilliant_rotten]

OH and by the way...

I haven't checked the VIN's on these E36's, they might actually have M42's in them if they're early enough, right? So, I don't know.

Still, my previous query stands.

[brilliant_rotten]

THIS JUST IN

I found a pressure tested, resurfaced M42 head for $250 just south of me

I think I just solved my problem