Probably nothing to rebuild. Just have the valves ground/lapped in, check the head for flat mating surface, and replace it.

It will take about an hour to disassemble the rocker shafts and remove the cam before you take the head to the machine shop for the valves. Keep everything in order and examine the wear surfaces of the rockers for wear. Mike the cam lobes to check for wear there as well. If you don't have a decent valve spring compressor, let the machine shop reinstall the valves w/ the new seals.

IF (and only if) your machine shop has done a lot of BMW heads, you can let them do the disassembly/reassembly of the head (rocker shafts/cam), but expect an extra $100 or so labor if you do.

Bob

As a follow up to yesterdays message:

On an '86 535i with 130k miles compression ratios range from 152 to 165 psi. So I believe this confirms that the heavy blue smoke during deceleration is caused by one or more bad valve seals. My plan is to remove the head tonight.

The question I'm pondering now is should I have the head rebuilt or buy a rebuilt one? I'm not too excited to shell out $800 based on the prices I've seen for rebuilt ones. I'm in the Seattle area.

Any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated.