Machine Shop Mistake

[Elecblondie]

I have transplanted the engine in my 318i for another m40 as I was unable to stop a water leak from where I mistakenly drilled into a water way while removing a snapped exhaust manifold stud. The new engine had three exhaust manifold studs broken and I managed to remove one but wary of the mistake I made last time I took the whole engine to a machine shop who said they could easily remove the other two. I got the engine back with helicoils in place, installed it and went to fill it up with fluids. To my horror water came pouring out of the stud hole where the studs had been removed. I've talked to them and they accept that they've drilled into the water way but their attitude seems to be that 'that's life'. Can I expect any more from them?

[march109]

Threaten a small claim court action, alternativly just do it.

Moneyclaim.co.uk

[gooner1]

Elecblondie, as March suggests, and stick Garage name up here as well.

[Jon_Bmw]

Umm, all sounds a bit sad to me trying to chase a small amount of money(because thats all an m40 head is worth).

If they 100% wont do anything, i'd bad mouth them for the rest of my life, source another head off here for say £40? without any snapped studs and get on with life. Then use the best parts of both heads to build a nice one.

Annoying, but ultimately less hassle for a fairly pointless end.

[Elecblondie]

I'm not fussed by the amount of money per se, though I will no longer be able to afford to tax it until after Christmas it's the effort spent doing the transfer to find it messed up.

[Bob_S]

I throw out m40 heads for fun! chris-w's probably got an m40 head at his give him a ring

[march109]

Not really moneyclaim costs £30, claim for the head, cost to refit and a refund on the work they did, either you'll get a cheque or you won't, might shit them up enough to pay up. You never know they might also think that an M40 is waaay more expensive than it is and when they see the claim amount will pay up to keep the bailiffs off their backs.

Fact of the matter is they fooked up, I bet they also knew they did before they handed the head back to you with a smile on their faces.

And I'd bad mouth them for the rest of my life too.

[jbh]

i agree with march on this one id get the price of a recon head and bill them for that also gasket set extra and also the cost of fitting the new head but as others have said ask on here im sure some one will have a m40 head iirc there's a bloke offering a full engine for £10 if you remove it in the for sale section

[Jon_Bmw]

I'm not fussed by the amount of money per se, though I will no longer be able to afford to tax it until after Christmas it's the effort spent doing the transfer to find it messed up.

I did miss the part where you said you'd built it back up Damn thats annoying as you'll need another head gasket and bolts as well. I still stand by what I said, if they won't compensate you for the value of the bits now, I really don't see the point. These things can drag on years.

Go on, put the name up.

[Elecblondie]

No point in putting the name up, it's only potentially troublesome for the forum owners (My housemate is an admin on the volvo owners club forums which got shut down for a while after someone bad mouthed a tuning company) and they may yet make amends.

[martauto]

How many studs were helicoiled and how many leaked mate ?


Mart.

[march109]

How many studs were helicoiled and how many leaked mate ?


Mart.

I'm sure he allready mentioned 2 and 2.

[martauto]

Im a toolmaker and mistakes happen ,but to do both the same without checking the first ??

Check ,check, check and check then machine the first and make sure its right before going on to the next.

These guys either didnt know what they had in front of them OR they didnt care.

Pop up a name so no-one else comes a cropper mate.


Mart.

[Elecblondie]

As far as I can tell just the one leaks, I've now blocked the hole with some hard setting putty sealant and applied some leak fix chemical metal stuff to the thread. Having done this before in the same place I'm not optimistic it will work but we'll see.

[martauto]

Good luck ,but please treat this as a temp fix yeh?

Mart.

[magpie]

you must have snapped the studs,,this was my engine,,if it's the one your talking about,,
it ran fine with no blowing exhaust,,,why did you remove the exhaust manifold anyway..
you can fit an engine with it on no probs,,,?? ok
let me get this straight,you got the car all up and running when you bought it ,,i saw it soon after you bought it...
why did you want to change the head on it from here,?i think you then bought another head and hashed that with a drill i think,,,then you bought my complete engine,all running and dandy,,,and now it's foooooked????
what goes on?
i'm i right with the story so far???????

[Elecblondie]

History is:

I bought the car and went to fix a blow on the exhaust. Found the snapped stud, attempted to drill a hole for an easy-out but nicked the side and caused a leak. Tried for a couple of months to stem the leak and gave up after a knowledgeable friend of mine had a go and failed. I bought your/magpie's engine, the exhaust manifold gasket had lost its heat shield so I decided I might as well remove the manifold and put in the combined gasket and heatshield (I had it in the car anyway). When I removed the manifold two studs were already snapped: bottom of ports on cylinders 2 and 4. I'm more than happy to accept that it didn't have a blow since the rest of the studs were present and torqued up, if everything's nice and flat it might not have a blow even with only 6 studs I'd have thought. I snapped the third stud while removing the manifold; flush with the head on the top of the port, on cylinder 4. I got the stud out on cylinder 2 no problems as it had sheared proud of the head (I think the stud was only have sheared when I went to take the manifold off, just waggly). I had a brief go with a 3mm drill and easy out on the top stud of cylinder 4, I could get it to engage but just couldn't apply enough torque to get it to shift. That's when I took it to the machine shop.

At the moment the engine is in and running happily, just waiting to see whether it leaks.

[Elecblondie]

Good luck ,but please treat this as a temp fix yeh?

Mart.

Permanent fix is an m42 when I can insure it.

[magpie]

oh i see now,,if only you'd left it without the heat shield as i did,,it would've been fine,,i never knew about any snapped studs,,as it never blew from there to make me look at it...i put the engine in with the manny attached,with no heat shield and ran it for about 14 mth...sorry to hear you may be back to square 1...
i hope it doesn't leak on you again and you will be able to drive it soon...no probs fella

[Elecblondie]

Cheers, engine runs sweetly anyway. In the end I was a little suspicious of your loom having two extra connectors on it and when I found a diy crimp on it I decided to switch it over. I'd still love to know what the metal that came out of your clutch was, I found your spigot bearing to be intact if in need of replacement when I took it out.

[StuBeeDoo]

I had a similar problem with the 'head on my M20B20. Top front (plus 2 others) stud was broken below the face. They got it out and helicoiled it, but they went into the oilway. It had a slight leak from day1 and I couldn't be ar53d to take the 'head off again.

[magpie]

no idea m8,,maybe the box was fine after all...so you have it in and running now.good.
did you find the plug with the rubber cap on that goes to a hole/mount under the battery tray?
some thing plugged in there but not on my car?????????some sort of option i thought...
and the only other plug that went no where was another afm plug for a different afm
as it is on the same line of harness that goes there,,,next to the round screw type plug that fits the 1.8 afm.
cant remember any add on bits???..

[Elecblondie]

Your loom had two ~4 pin plugs that went through the bulkhead with the ecu plug. The plug next the to the AFM connector on mine goes to a valve which goes between the inlet manifold (yours was capped with a plastic plug) and the fuel vapour 'swirl pot lookalike' thing.

I did find the plug under the battery tray, same on mine.

[magpie]

those two next to the ecu are for diagnostics,,i was told this on my first meet,,i think it was my first question as i'd hoped it was where you plug in the elec window harness,,,but no not that easy ,,
so that's them all sorted now

[336tdse]

i know its to late now but when i have to remove snapped exhaust studs from an engine i drill through the centre of the stud so it releaves a bit of pressure from the threads and then weld a nut to the stud and they normally come out eventually.

[Elecblondie]

I couldn't weld to the stud easily as it was flush with the head but I did try drilling the hole and using an easy out. The problem was no matter what I did I couldn't get the same torque on the easy out that I would be able to with a nut. Also I don't have direct access to a welder as some thieves liberated the contents of my garage a month ago and took it along with a whole pile of other stuff including a TKM 2-stroke kart . The insurance company won't pay up as the garage is "not part of the property". Fortunately most of my tools where in the e30 at the time but my housemate lost all his tools .

[336tdse]

i weld a washer tyo the broken stud first to get a good weld and you can see better so as not to weld stud to hole. thenb weld big nut to washer. easy outs are good as long as the bolt isnt seized in.