E30 Zone

alright people i have purchased from my bro in law a 1989 320i coupe which has blown a core plug so i ordered 1 online (and yes i made sure they were for a 20.l) and when i went to fit it the plug was to small so now i suspect the engine has been swapped for a 2.5 as the core plug needed is 45mm.....basicly my question is how can i tell what engine is fitted just so i can be sure what the f**k is going off

Yes you need a 45mm one, the thing is all m20 ones are the same 45mm.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/partxref.do?part=11111714712

At the base of the dipstick there is a flat piece at the side of the engine block. The engine code will be on there.

if it's blown a core plug you may have bigger issues !

maggspower wrote:At the base of the dipstick there is a flat piece at the side of the engine block. The engine code will be on there.

ive spoken to sytner in nottingham and they say the engine code is useless for finding out what engine it is

e30topless wrote:if it's blown a core plug you may have bigger issues !

hhahaha yes i no this is why i need plug just to find out how bad things are

willnz wrote:synter obviously dont know much then...

obviously..the guy on the parts desk was a c0ck so he put me through to the "technical department"(the garage) and i was on the phone for 20mins plus trying to sort it out

In future use one of the part number sites;

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/

This is the one I use, there are others. You can then tell them what you need by part number. Its one less thing for the parts moron to c0ck up.

Did the plug pop, or was it corroded and leaking?

im pretty sure it popped the story is this...i agreed to take the car on as a project before Christmas my brother in law had sent it to his mates garage to be winterized ready for me to collect but on the 15 ish mile journey home it started to overheat after various cooling off stops i made it home in all honesty i dont think the grease monkeys did their job....i have ran the car since just for a few minutes it seems to run ok but cant make a proper diagnosis without a plug

Was there coolant in it, is there any oil and water cross contamination?

maggspower wrote:Was there coolant in it, is there any oil and water cross contamination?

coolant should have been there but not sure, thats what the grease monkeys were supposed to do and ive not noticed any contamination in the oil/water i have ordered the core plug from bmw and will be here on Tuesday so thats when the project starts
if its f00ked its f00ked thats how i see it no point getting knarked about it (ive got a 2.5 knocking about in the garage looking for a home)