E30 Zone

hi guys need help... my 325i tourer is playing up, its running rough like its only running on 5 cylinder, revs dont pick up much and theres blue smoke coming from the exhaust.... it happened when i was abt to do a u turn, but decided to do it sideways (a bit of fun), i've also noticed 1 of the engine mounts are on its way out... maybe this cause something??? i dont know.. can any1 pls help?????

puting it simply it sounds like its fooked .

Sounds to me like piston rings on 1 cylinder have gone and its burning oil but im no specialist but as fuzzy said, fooked

it happened to my 6 pot. exactly the same. gave it some welly and it ran of 5,smoke etc .sounded a bit like a subaru
i binned my 6 pot and fitted a cossie engine

if its running on 5 for some reason.... then you need to start by pulling the plugs out and looking at the colour of the ends of the spark plug. if it was running well before then it should be obvious that ones a different colour/wet with oil (darker than the rest). this one will be the misfiring cylinder. then put that plug in the lead and rest it on something metal (to earth it) crank the engine over to see if it sparks. if it does, then you need to get a compression test done on the engine.
if its down on compression on that cylinder then its get your wallet out time!
im betting youve got a broken oil/piston ring.

thanks for the reply guys... didnt think it would be a big thing!!!! oh well looks like a enough transplant...

If it's blue, as the guys say, it's burning oil! Pulling the plugs will tell you which cylinders are doing it. It can be fixed if you want to go to the trouble of doing the bottom end or as you say, it's ripe for an upgrade

yeh i want to replace the whole thing got a engine lying abt but b4 i get my mate to install it what i can do to make a better and faster engine... any suggestions????

it sounds like m50 time to me.

There are lots of ways to get more power out of an m20, all described into intimate detailhere on the zone but big power gains cost big money. ive been toying with the idea of engine transplant for some time now and even bought myself an m30 3.5 but after many hours of reading the various threads on here ive decided to go m50 2.5 and the help to be found on here from all the people who have done it is worth its weight in gold