A hot tip off and a deal was done..... E34 M5 3.6

[Speedtouch]

Have you not heard of a Dremel or pad/air saw?

[maxfield]

Don't worry i will pal. It will be a walk in the park compared to say a pair of turbo's on an E9x 335i and that's doable in a day, just.

I doubt Crouch meant literally a whole day to remove it an S38 exhaust manifold.

What are turbos like to do on a 335D? I've got a customer that wants to change his for some bigger ones. It doesn't look pleasant down there.

[Simon13]

it won't be thats a fact

[bss325i]

Turbos on the M57 TOP engine from the 35D engine are not actually that bad on a E6x 535D, but I've not done them on an E9x 335d but its the same engine with a little bit less room.

335i turbos are fun on the E9x 335i with the earlier twin turbo N54 engine.

Most people remove the front subframe complete with rack and arms and take up to two days but I hang it and take a day and a morning.

Why does your mate want to put bigger turbos on a 335d? It will just go bang.

[maxfield]

He's a bit of a wally TBH but he loves spending money on his cars so someone needs to take it off him

He's had a few big power skylines and now wants to see what he can do with his E92. I've tried telling him there's no point but he never listens. Customer is always right and all that.

I work with someone who worked for BMW and he reckons it's an engine out job on the 335d/335i but then he's been wrong on most other BMW stuff we've had in at work.

[DanThe]

Because boostinggzzzz and driftingzzz innitzzz

[Andyboy]

Have you not heard of a Dremel or pad/air saw?

Have you ever removed an E36 318iS exhaust manifold?

[Speedtouch]

Can't say that I have had that pleasure. I've done plenty of Morris Minor ones though, and a Fiat twin-cam's.

[bss325i]

So i actually got a spare day to myself so i went into work today to make some progress in getting it apart and actually finding out the extent of the damage.

While dragging it up to the workshop i thought I'd give it a quick wash off to get a better look at the bodywork as it was pretty filthy.



I must say its a pretty hansom chariot and the Macau will respond well to some paint correction. There are a few dents one of which can be seen above on the drivers door but all of these will come out with the PDR person we use.





So engine out in the usual way i pull nearly all BMW engines out which is gearbox off from below then engine straight out the top. Whenever i remove an E30 engine which also has a forward opening bonnet, i always remove it and position the crane in front of the car but as the E34 has a wider engine bay its easier to remove from the side as it allows for the arc of the crane lift to clear the inner wings and the components bolted to it.
I doubt this would be possible with a V8 powered E34 though.



As you can see it's quite oily round the front of the engine like many S38's and it was also apparent that the sump gasket had started to leak as well so at least that will be easy enough with the engine out.



All of the 9mm exhaust manifold nuts were in great shape so if i did decide to pull the head in situ it would have been straight forward.





So i just managed to get the head off and have a quick glance for anything obvious before it was time to leave and there does not appear to be anything glaringly obvious, no cracks or obvious head gasket failure and even a very quick check with a straight edge on the head it looked not to be warped but a more thorough inspection once both head and block are cleaned up will be done on Monday.

There was coolant in the sump though when i drained the engine oil!





A quick clean off of the engine bay revealed a very original looking bay with barely any corrosion to anything and most of the original passivate plated finish intact and some of the original cosmoline wax but not ridiculous amounts that can look unsightly.

[jimbom30cab]

Great pics and fingers crossed that head is ok, I wonder where that coolant in the sump came from ??

Would you get the head pressure tested next?

[bss325i]

The head will 100% be going to the machine shop of pressure testing and measuring for straightness after ive inspected it Jim.

[jimbom30cab]

Was there any signs of coolant or excessive steam coming out the exhaust when running cold?

[bss325i]

The car was a non runner when i bought it.

My mate at Hexagon did a compression test and there was virtually no compression on the middle four cylinders.

[BenHar]

2, 3 and 4 seem to have some strange wear next to the plug holes.

Ben

[jimbom30cab]

arh, maybe when those valves are out you might find some tell tale signs, although for 4 out of 6 to be low compression a cracked head sounds unlucky. If it were me i'd pop one of those low compression pistons out next and have a look at the rings. For virtually no compression i would be thinking rings. I had an M30 with similar signs, wouldn't even start and compression was down at 50psi or there abouts, maybe lower iirc and it was the rings seized in tight. It would have to be a mega large crack to give such low compression across 4 cylinders i would think. Of course it could be both ??

[bss325i]

As far as i can remember Ben that was just some oil residue.

Possibly a ring issue Jim, i wont rule anything out but the engine will be completely stripped and inspected. If it was rings, that would not explain the coolant in the sump though.

[jimbom30cab]

The oil by the plug holes in 2,3 and 4 look like a wet compression test has been done there and the oil has dribbled down.

[BenHar]

The oil by the plug holes in 2,3 and 4 look like a wet compression test has been done there and the oil has dribbled down.

Probably right. Hard to tell from the picture, thought it looked like pitting.

Ben

[e30topless]

Who's is the festering 195 on the ramp next door ?

[bss325i]

Who's is the festering 195 on the ramp next door ?

I'm in the process of stripping it for a bare shell resto for a customer of ML.

It's ripe!

It's a 215 by the way. It has odd head lights.

[e30topless]

most M3 owners care enough to fit period headlights !

Watching progress on the 34' baz it should make a really nice chariot,
PS. I need to speak to you at some point, will drop ya a pm tmoz,

[bss325i]

That poor turds been in a barn for several years.

Speak to you then.

[Simon13]

exhaust valves on cylinder 3-4 look to be getting a steam clean. A crack there maybe?

Your not going to send it to that modus engineering lot that ML use? They did that unsuccesful repair on my E36 B3 head that time.

[jimbom30cab]

I have used these guys, they were very good and not expensive

http://www.corrycylinderheads.co.uk

[Andyboy]

Corry's have always been excellent.

3.8's can crack the block but can be repaired with top hat liners. A company in Slough does this to cracked 320Si blocks.

[Speedtouch]

The head and block both appear in reasonable condition, but how about the state of the head gasket? Perhaps it simply wasn't torqued down enough...

[bss325i]

Jim, the oil by the plug holes may have been from where i put some oil down the bores to prevent corrosion as I wasn't sure how long it would be till I pulled it appart. In fact you can see some in the cylinders in the pic of the block.

Simon, Indeed it does look like its had a steam clean lol! Not 100% sure who I'm going to use yet as I had thought about Corrys but I've also used Bensham engineering in Croydon in the past and they are good. They did the B3S head for me.

Andy, I just built an E90 320Si engine at ML which some monkey at Vines Gatwick had ripped apart then threw all the bits in the boot.

I had to piece it all back together and we used that outfit in slough to do the liners authough they did supply the wrong rings!

And I doubt the head was not torqued down enough from factory on the S38.

[bss325i]

Earlier this week i had a look at the head face the straightest edge i could find (a steel rule) and with a quick check it was not looking good. So yesterday it was dropped off at the machine shop for them to pressure test for cracks and to see how distorted the head was.

I got the call this afternoon and the question i was asked, "how hot did this engine actually get?!".

I explained that the car was driven till the engine cut out and that when checked, there was no compression on the middle four cylinders.

He said it was one of the worst heads he had seen for warping and that it's 27 thou out which is .68mm!

There are a couple of options on what to do next but neither are cheap so when i have decided what route to take i will update. In the mean time i will be pulling the pistons and rods tomorrow for a closer inspection.

[jimbom30cab]

Is that too warped for a skim and a thicker head gasket ? (assuming it's not cracked or further damaged)

[bss325i]

It's not cracked.

The problem is even if you skim it and fit a thicker head gasket, the top of the head is still misshaped and the camshaft housing needs to bolt to it so it also needs to be straight.

[DanThe]

Ive had some massively cooked M52 engines in bits and ive never had one as warped as that!

No doubt there will be valve sealing problems now too

[bss325i]

Indeed Dan.

They said they might be able to straighten the head so it doesn't need a huge skim but all the valve seats will need to be re cut.

[jimbom30cab]

Any option of a replacement head ??

[bss325i]

There is one in the pipe line but that needs work also. The costs for sorting my original one IF it can be done vs repairing the donor one are similar.

[Duke137]

That's grim, dig deep mate