Losing faith in my E30! Head Gasket?

[bazeebond]

Last year I bought a 325i SE E30 that needed it's arches spraying. It was a replacement for my Rover 620 Ti that was getting decidedly tatty and needed work for it's MOT... The 325i seemed ideal. Rear drive, sweet sounding engine, pretty quick, practical with four doors and I just love the shape of 'em. I thought I'll just get those arches done and it'll be great...

... I should have known better cause after I got it home reality kicked in. She had a severe fuel tank leak when over half full, handling was a bit sloppy, there was a noise coming from the rear shock mounts, the waterpump had started leaking, the air bellows was ripped and of course the arches needed sorting.

Lesson 1: Always do your homework properly before you buy a car. I was blinded by that straight six sound!

Having learnt this lesson, I set about rectifying the numerous problems and going way overboard!



-Fitted a new fuel tank and in the process fitted a new centre prop mount which we discovered was kaput. Also fixed the multiple fuel leaks in the fuel line and fitted a new fuel filter.

-Fitted new waterpump and in the process fitted new thermostat, coolant temp sensor, radiator, hoses, all belts and tensioners, air bellows, vacuum hose, new plugs, oil change, oil filter, induction kit, rotor arm and dizzy cap.

-Now for the handling, Fitted top shock mounts from E46, new rear sub frame bushes, replaced lower control arm bushes with M3 ones, and then things got expensive... I fitted H&R Cup Spring and damper kit and H&R Anti-Roll bar kit.... Handling transformed!

-I bought 4 x freshly reconditioned 15" BBS alloys sprayed in a sort of anthracite with matching centre caps... I'm yet to fit them and refuse to until the arches are done!

-Fitted Evolve performance chip.



So I've spent all this time and money and was driving to work the other day while planning which ratio LSD to fit and which brake discs and pads to buy, when the low coolant light came on... I thought this strange as I only checked the levels the week before and the cooling system is pretty much new....

After work I topped up the coolant level and dipped the oil... Oh dear... Creamy browny colour over the max line. Not good. I suspect head gasket failure. Compression test pending...

Is this a common fault on these engines? After all the time and money I spent on this car it behaves like a bloody Rover K Series! And it still needs the arches spraying!

E30 ownership is becoming challenging, especially since I use her to commute 35 miles to work and back every day... 25 MPG coupled with Gordon Brown's anti-car tax on fuel is hitting the bank balance.

How can I get the E30 faith back?!

[jaistanley]

Well for gods sake dont do what I did and start poking at either those arches or the bit at the bottom of the front wings......

[SHAKEELE30]

It really does depend how the cars been looked after,i had a similar issue. Bought the silver in my sig below. but could never get to drive right. After spending loads of money on it. Started getting overheating issues, took it to garage, the told me need to change radiator, pipes, few other things cant remember at the moment, anyway after getting all this doen after a good few £Â£Ã‚£ spent, the overheating issue was still there. Took it to the guy said oh its something to do with the head i think it was. And again that would have costs another few hundred pounds, at that moment i thought forget it, i sold it and bought another, which is also in my sig.

You can either get that one fixed up or buy another engine to replace it with, but then again you cant be sure how good that engine is going to be either, or just replace it with a bigger and better engine...

Good luck either way.........

[Simon13]

sorry to p!ss on the fire but 2.5 like this always have a cracked head. Gasket failure is very rare.

It's probably never had the coolant changed very often. This leads to corrosion in the head and they fail around the water jackets. Sometimes if your lucky they don't mix oil and water as they leak into the chamber

[bazeebond]

Thanks for the comments...

Cracked head eh? Oh God! See I read about the engines being reliable as long as the cooling system was spot on, hence the reason I fitted the new rad etc. What a b*stard!

Hmmmm, new head or maybe an engine conversion? What about the newer 325i lump, is it the M30? Anyone know if they're an easy fit?

Can't believe how much cash this car owes me.... Never to be recouped!

[M3Macao]

Sorry to hear about all your problems mate.

Im going through a similar experience with my 325i touring. I bought mine as a cheap runabout..i knew there was a problem with the head but after finding out that it was probably terminal ie cracked head, i stuck in a replacement engine which in the long run is the cheaper alternative. Like you i was planning alsorts of things for my car after the engine had been done but it all had to be put on hold as the fuel pump packed up and now the auto box has gone kaput!! Im having that sorted this week so ill be back on the road again.
Ive no regrets about buying my touring and its still a joy to own/drive and im not giving up on it!! I was under no illusion when i bought it that it was going to be 100% reliable after all it is a 20 year old car..but i will say that it is still more reliable than some modern cars.

Stick with it..

[Simon13]

get the head off if. You will soon see if the water ways are bad. You can compare it to the gasket for shape if they are bad. They crack along the cam journal too sometimes. tbh it's an over hyped issue on here. 90% of cars that fail are abused snotters imo. A few are bad luck though.

I'd find another head and get it crack tested and cleaned up

[capri_rob]

Buy a cheap diesel sh1tter for your commute to work and back every day and take a step back from the E30 - sounds like you have made some real good work on the bits you had so far and it would be madness to chuck it all in now.

E30 bits from here/ebay/gsf etc are miles cheaper than for most newer cars so keep the faith mate - if you drop it now for something else you will only end up wanting another one in a few months time !

Seriously mate sounds like you have tackled some nasty stuff already - a head swap/gasket doest sound like its beyond your capabilities !

[SHAKEELE30]

Yeah, i was about to say something similar to capri-rob, you've spent so much money on it already, no point in wasting it all now, you might as just fix up the engine, at least you know you will have a solid one....

[Simon13]

i wouldn't buy a secondhand engine unless you can hear it running and it sounds sweet, most 2.5's are very tired now with worn out top ends and big mileges on them. A top end rebuild with a pukka head won't cost the earth.

You have dropped £Â£Ã‚£ so far so get the engine sweet and enjoy the fruits of the labour

[bazeebond]

Ahhhh, you guys! Ha ha, OK, you've given me some new E30 faith... You're right, it would be stupid to sack it now after all the work... I have seen the light! Halleluliah!

So anyone know of somewhere that can do a good job reconditioning the head? If it is that... However, now I'm commited to this car, I could do an engine swap and get some more power.... Decisions, decisions...

Right, I'm off to check the autotrader for a cheap commute sh1tter!

Cheers fellas!

[clipper]

Just to cheer you up a bit, I got my stolen - recovered 325 back with no coolant and brown mayo all over the place. I expected the worst but the head was only warped, not cracked. Have it pressure checked, you may be lucky too

[Brianmoooore]

How carefully did you bleed the cooling system after changing the pump? Did you monitor the heater output and temperature gauge as it warmed up after the first start?
It's possible that you cracked the head then.

[bazeebond]

Need to get it checked soon... It's weird, I started her up today to see how she ran... Absolutely fine! Still got the creamy ming on the dipstick though (nice) so definitely contamination in the oil.

I could change the oil and flush the coolant and see what happens, but I suppose I'm just putting off the inevitable.

The worst part is that I had to go out and buy an emergency run about until i get my E30 sorted...

... A 1986 Austin Metro Vanden Plas! Awesome.... £410 got me quite a tidy version with 11 months MOT, 33,000 miles on the 1275 MG Metro engine. It already had new brakes, clutch, exhaust system and head skimmed + gasket. All I need now is a pipe, a flat cap and a strange lingering p*ss smell!

It's actually quite fun to drive though, and it's a classic - Velour seats, walnut dash inserts and leather VP steering wheel, not that I see much with the paper bag over my head!

Right, I need to sort this poxy cylinder head out and get the E30's arches done, fit the new BBS alloys, not to mention the LSD and brakes and hopefully I'll be cruising around this summer in a BMW, and not a Metro!

[Brianmoooore]

... A 1986 Austin Metro Vanden Plas!

Exactly what I had, many years ago, before I discovered BMWs!
I'd always driven Minis (real ones), and the Metro seemed a logical replacement when the then recently aquired Mrs embarked on a breeding program.
If your Metro has a hydraulic clutch, swap the lid of the resevoir with the one on your BM. It's a perfect fit, and the only thing you'll find on a Metro that is superior to the rather poor quality item found on RH drive E30s.

[bazeebond]

Exactly what I had, many years ago, before I discovered BMWs!
I'd always driven Minis (real ones), and the Metro seemed a logical replacement when the then recently aquired Mrs embarked on a breeding program.
If your Metro has a hydraulic clutch, swap the lid of the resevoir with the one on your BM. It's a perfect fit, and the only thing you'll find on a Metro that is superior to the rather poor quality item found on RH drive E30s.

Ha ha, top tips! Thanks. Well I've owned an MG Maestro and an Austin Montego before, so I thought why not try a Metro!

By the way, here's a link to the pistonheads page where I bought her! God bless British Leyland!

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/detail ... 67&sc=P1O7

[Alburglar]

I used to have a 150bhp metro (not quite as early as a vandem plas tho). It was a hit at the ring, all the locals loved it and wanted to know what engine was in it. Don't forget, that if you put the metor in a ditch or something, someone with a mini will give you £300 for that A+ engine and box and they're getting rarer! 5years or so ago same engine and box would've been £50 odd, low mileage ones go for £500 on ebay now!!!

[bazeebond]

Don't forget, that if you put the motor in a ditch or something, someone with a mini will give you £300 for that A+ engine and box and they're getting rarer! 5years or so ago same engine and box would've been £50 odd, low mileage ones go for £500 on ebay now!!!

Bloody hell, £500 eh? It's only got 33k miles on it! Hmmm, that could pay for some of the bits for the E30! Decisions, decisions...

[tailoutcharlie]

abuse the metro and find an m50 to put in the e30. more power better fuel economy and looks great in the engine bay

[bazeebond]

Hmmmm, I would love to fit an M50... An engine conversion doesn't sound very easy though mate... Is the M50 a fairly straight forward swap?

I mean, if it's a pain in the ass to swap then why go for an M50 when you could fit an S50?

I guess the price would be considerably different... Any rough ideas how much to pay for these engines?

If I'm in this for the long haul then I may as well do it properly.... I think!

[FlappySocks]

I used to hate working on my car until I got a cheap runabout. There was always that pressure to get the job done, and be fully prepared with everything you needed before you got started. There was no nipping off to Halfords if you got half way though and discovered you needed a different sized split pin or something.

Stick a different engine in. I understand M30's are easier to fit, cheap, reliable and are not held together with nicker elastic, although M50's sound appealing.

[bazeebond]

M30 engine eh? Never thought of fitting one of those... Looking at the wikipedia guide, they are the old engines from the 80's but the larger ones chuck out some good horsepower...

I wonder what availability and price are like though? Any ideas?

I got a pressure test done today and she doesn't seem to be losing pressure... Strange... And she still runs sweet as a nut. Infact, if I hadn't checked the oil I wouldn't have known any different. I'm going to run her around tomorrow with fresh oil in to see what happens.

[Brianmoooore]

If by pressure test, you mean compression or leak down test, then the crack most commonly found on this head won't show up on that.

[Colonel Sanders]

can you get the head crack tested without having to strip it down??

[Brianmoooore]

If you run the engine with the rocker cover off, and the water up to temperature and pressure, then you can sometimes see little balls of water coming out from the rear cam bearings.

[Andy325i]

How can I get the E30 faith back?!

Sorry to hear this, been all through this. Fitted a BRAND new head. Then wanted more power so built an M52 B28 car (E36 328i engine) and never looked back, although possibly sideways a few times

M52 B28 with an M50 inlet manifold to remove the restrictive breathing is a nice tool.

Andy

[bazeebond]

Hmmm, M52 B28 Engine conversion.... I hear those voices talking to me again! How complicated is the conversion?

So, back to my E30 adventure! Having changed the oil we ran her in the workshop for about 2 - 3 hours today, checking the levels now and again to see if there was any coolant loss or any build up of emulsified oil.

Only a slight creamy build up (nice) in the oil filler cap but none inside the case or on the dip stick. No coolant loss either. So at that point we thought, cool! Maybe just clean the breather hoses and it'll be reet.

So I drove her home and on the way the low coolant light came on as it did at first. Sh*t! Car still running fine. Got home and checked. Coolant low. Engine oil level high and creamy brown crappy coloured. Surely it must be the head gasket!?

[Brianmoooore]

If you run the engine with the rocker cover off, and the water up to temperature and pressure, then you can sometimes see little balls of water coming out from the rear cam bearings.

[Andy325i]

Not head gasket. Head. M52B28 (or S50! depending on the pocket) is the way forward. Easy really, main things are wiring, modifying exhaust manifolds and prop (E30 M3 prop is a direct fit)

Good M20B25 heads are getting very rare now. I fitted a brand new one which was a little over £400 iirc + all the trimmings on top (new valves etc etc etc while it was all apart)
Andy

[Bavarian_Autotech]

Hmmm, M52 B28 Engine conversion.... I hear those voices talking to me again! How complicated is the conversion?

if your interested in doing this a m8 has an e36 328i taking up space in another m8s lockup awaiting him finding the time to sort out MOT & Tax on it.
Its got a replacement engine fitted (non nikasil type) thats only done just under 40k miles

So I drove her home and on the way the low coolant light came on as it did at first. Sh*t! Car still running fine. Got home and checked. Coolant low. Engine oil level high and creamy brown crappy coloured. Surely it must be the head gasket!?

or the head itself might be cracked.