E36 328 headgasket replacement costs?

[d6dph]

Evening all,

I have the opportunity to go halves on a cheap 328 sport, It has possible headgasket failure but we are not 100% sure that is the fault yet.

What rough cost are we looking at to do a headgasket on one of these? I it is too much I have suggested to my mate that we frag it, putting the nice bits on his Mrs' 320 coupé and the rest on ebay.

[stonesie]

It will be the M52 alloy block so you will be needing genuine head bolts and even then there's no promises that the threads in the block won't pull on the final torque angle

Sorry i have no idea on cost's.

[E30BeemerLad]

headbolts are probably no more than £20 from BMW, that's what my M50 ones cost and I can't see them being massively different.

For a headgasket get one from GSF but just insist on a good OEM quality make like Victor Reinz or Payen or Goetz. A headgasket set for my M50 was about £60 and you get the full shizzle inc all gaskets for inlets, valve stem seals etc. I think the equivalent from BMW was knocking on £180 A skim will probably be about £50 but a pressue test would be wise too as they are known to crack, another £30-£50 for a pressure test.

I ended up about £275 down when I did the headgasket on the M50 anchor.

But as mentioned, the M52 can be a real liability if it has been cooked, the liners can sink or you have the thread slip of death when the threads in the head strip, rendering the block scrap.

Chuck a bottle of K-seal in it

[DanThe]

Why do you think its HG problems Dave? Has it had any head work done before? If it has been done before it could well be f*cked

[Jon_Bmw]

As above, could be a sad end of an expensive head gasket kit.

Buy it and break it.

[d6dph]

Cheers Lee, Even at that money it would be a really cheap car.

Why do you think its HG problems Dave? Has it had any head work done before? If it has been done before it could well be f*cked

It's currently owned by a local rally nutter (owns a superb example of a 6r4) who is mates with the guy I'm buying it with. The owner has said it cooked up when driving at motorway speeds and he just killed the engine and got a lift back to get his van/trailer.

I personally think we will see more money by breaking it, and the crank may come in handy for my m20 anchor

[DanThe]

If its overheated and he carried on driving on the motorway!! you can more or less guarantee the head will be cracked, not to mention bent!

[town325i]

I personally think we will see more money by breaking it, and the crank may come in handy for my m20 anchor

might aswell buy it and break it then

[d6dph]

He pulled over as soon as he could, but we all know it takes such a short time to f*ck these sort of things especially on an alloy block/head.

What are the guts of an m52 worth? You are the man to know

[beardymat]

if its been cooked then expect the worst, nothing worse than blowing a wad of cash only to find it a complete waste when you give those head bolts the last turn

you could use an m50 block to rebuild it as dan has done or just frag it and keep the crank for an m20 rebuild like i have done and collect the cash rom the rest.

its a little sad as these 328`s are good cars, i had one for a few months and enjoyed the thing thoroughly but there`s no sense in it becoming your very own money pit when you allready have one

[d6dph]

Cheers Matt, It certainly won't become a money pit. Paul has a Pulsar GTI-R and I have the E30. Both suck up enough cash

Depending on the condition of the rest of the car, I think it's a good investment as a breaker. Paul has the space at his place to store it and we both have the time to carefully strip it & list on ebay.

[E30BeemerLad]

pull the crank out of it and anything else needed to do a 2.8 and then buy that M50block & head from BBB and build a proper engine

[Jhonno]

swap the lump and pull the crank..

[cecotto479]

This is how I answered a similar question a couple of years ago:-

The problem is that if the engine has been roasted, I believe that the chemical composition of the alloy that the block is made from alters to the extent that the new head bolts will not tighten to the required torque settings. Effectively the alloy softens and the threads strip. It's a 'feature' of the block, not the head, but folklore certainly has it that an overheated alloy block BMW (6 or 8 cylinder) is scrap. However, fortunately, like most urban myths, there's only a degree of truth in it.

The repair involves a machine shop inserting double helicoil thread inserts in the block. This work cost me around £125 if I remember correctly. Thereafter a head skim, pressure test and reassembly and your engine should be OK. Mine went at 210000 miles and it's now at 275000 with no problems.

If your engine has been overheated badly then don't even try to reassemble it without having done the helicoil inserts. You'll think everything's OK right up until you try to give the head bolts a final tightening and some of them'll just spin. Then it's start again time and you're paying your mechanic twice AND having to do the helicoils.

I reckon you should be able to get this done for under £1000. You'll need to work out why it was overheating though - I'd suggest thermostat housing, water pump, viscous and radiator in that order - because the likelihood is that the head gasket went because it was overheating, not that it was overheating because the head gasket was gone.
Hope this helps.

[RM2186]

My 3281 Sport had a f***ed Nikasil engine in it when I bought it for £200. Blooming bargian as it was a pukka M-Tech Sport at that!

I sourced an engine from another car for £250 and did a swap. Touch wood, she runs like a dream.

What I did do was give BMW UK a call and gave them the chassis and engine number to confirm that it was not a Nikasil block that I was buying from the fragged car. Obviously the good news came back that it was an Alusil block.

Good luck in whatever decision you take, but my Mrs. loves her 328i Sport and won't even think of selling it.