Hello,
I am working on an old 318is thats been sitting for the last 10years and have run in to a problem. The first thing i did after getting the car home was remove the plugs and soak the cyls with marvel oil before moving back to purge the fuel system.
After a week of soaking I removed the plugs and tried to turn the engine by hand. She was very stiff to turn by i managed to gently get the pistons moving in both directions and then clunk, the motor is solid as if a valve is hitting the piston. revere direction and after ~90deg rotation the same result. My initial fear was bent valves so i removed the valve cover and cleaned off the lifters/followers with penetrating oil. I went back to the engine tonight after work and used an airlines and lots of PB plaster and WD40 to get all the followers clean and so free that i can spin them in the bores with my little finger.
I put a feeler gauge down there and all the lifters are so close to the cam profiles i can barely get an 8" shim under them. the point being that all the followers are tracking the camshaft lobes.
If there were bent valves in the engine i'd expect some 1-2mm or more of gap as the lifter stays down close to a bent valve.
This is puzzling me so my next step prior to pulling the head is to remove the sump and see if anything is locking up the crankshaft.
Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance
e
