engine question e46 320d m sport.......

[e30-EVN]

A friend has the above car on a 54 ish plate and his engine went bang on him, he's been told its a common problem something to do with the valves failing and the piston dropping out the engine?? Sorry for the explanation lol, I wasn't there and that's his description of it....

Now for the question, how much would a 2nd hand or recon engine set him back for one of these? Never mind the fitting, that could be arranged

Thanks

[capri_rob]

Swirl flap failure is probably more like it

[bss325i]

Possible that a swirl flap has been sucked in and caused the engine to go pop.

Remove the inlet manifold, about half hour if you haven't done one before and look inside the ports for any missing swirl flaps.

[e30-EVN]

Ok thanks, dum question now...... What is a swirl flap, where's it located and what is its function ect?

I take it swirl flap failure is a common prob?? How is this fixed?

Thanks

[Low_E30]

Is there not a mod that people carry out, that includes blanking plates that delete the swirl flaps?..... In your friend case it may be too late as the debris may already be in the engine....

[pacerpete]

Swirl flaps are a clever device that makes part throttle emissions look good for the purpose of impressing people who are impressed by stuff like this. In reality it is pointless over complicated 8ollox made of poor quality materials that fall apart and get sucked into the engine

I have 'deflapped' a few and they run perfectly with no issues or engine lights.

Google will tell you everything you need to know and more about swirl flaps.

Because of the frequency of this problem, engines are very good news secondhand, for the seller .I reckon a complete donk with turbo and a warranty will run to £1500 !

Bearing this in mind, it might be worth putting it on the bay as a non runner needing engine work and let some dreamer buy it who thinks £300 will fix it .

[e30-EVN]

Thanks for clearing that up, I am sort of familier with the swirl flap phenominum and that has just helped me loads.....

So basically the engine needs a strip down and rebuild the victim valves ect... Basically its my partners, uncles bro in laws car and the first info I had was 3rd hand. Some mechanic had told him who told dave who told me.
This mechanic has told him valves are like 300 quid, I can only assume this is for parts??

Now he paid 4 g's for the car when the book price was like 7 so even if it cost him 800 quid its still worth it isn't it?, and then I will fit the blanking plates for him and hey presto it won't happen again

What do you think?

[pacerpete]

The problem is as the bits get ingested, they get 'swirled' around inside the engine , often taking valve heads with them AND damaging the PISTONS and BORES and on the way out fooking the TURBO and CAT !!!!!!!

You have to take the injectors out (fun fun fun!) to get the rocker cover etc off so it might be worth taking the injector out of the cylinder that is known to have a mia swirlflap and sticking one of them funky camera probe things down and having a look. The carnage will often be in other cylinders as well but the actual cylinder that has swallowed the bits will have suffered the most damage. Obviously if it has swallowed more than one...........

[e30-EVN]

Oh...!

Dif engine needed then more likely then and then I de flap that one
Thanks for your help pal

Ant