E30 M52
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Im coming to terms with the thought that my head gasket is bad and that I will have to buy a new head.
I cant sell a car that doesnt run reliably without temperature spikes or possibly a bad head gasket so I have to pull the ad until its all resolved.
you can tell me I worry too much (which is completely true) but symptoms of a bad head gasket persist. Im pretty sure the coolant level dropped since I last added some and the coolant should really be a lot cleaner than it is unless my radiator was full of oil from my M20 pooping the bed or the M52 was really rusty inside from sitting. It may have started to run slightly rougher at the end of my last drive monday, unless that was just the manifold touching the booster and sending more NVH through the car.
And as burned out as I am I cant spend $2000 paying a shop to change the head gasket and possibly another $700 for a rebuilt head in case its cracked.
IM REALLY TRYING TO NOT SUCK AT LIFE!!!
Take a breath a two. You are hypersensitive given past experience with the m20. Rely on your tech side here rather than the emotional one and follow the advice of others and your own. Compression test so you can sleep. Coolant level dropping as P_Roloff said could simply be a bleeding result. I know I have to top off after doing mine. If the compression test passes and the coolant is looking nasty, a long sitting engine is a good cause. Run it a bit more and then flush the cooling system: drain the radiator and pull the block drain plug and run a bunch of water through it. You're paranoid so run gallons through it, go to the grocery store and fill a shopping cart with distilled water...explain that you're cutting moonshine in a radiator or something more creative. As for the car slightly rougher running, get another set of eyes/ears/rear ends in the car from our expert swap hive and get other opinions.
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I'm offering this as a contingency plan, in case you do verify that something is wonky with your head gasket.
I'll show up with a case of water (that's what your drinking these days, right?) and we'll get the head off in an hour or two. -
I'm offering this as a contingency plan, in case you do verify that something is wonky with your head gasket.
I'll show up with a case of water (that's what your drinking these days, right?) and we'll get the head off in an hour or two.I started drinking Robitussin when glitches started to surface. Bring Robitussin.
and Listerine.
Cool Mint.
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It just needs a burnout. That'll fix it.
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You did a compression test before installing the engine and it came out perfect. Stop being paranoid and just drive it!!!!
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Snap I have a diagnosis. You sir, are an Autochondriac. You have a constant fear and paranoia that something is wrong with your car when in reality you are not dying.
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I remember driving M5x engines and living in constant fear of the cooling system failing and constantly watching the temp gauge. Then I bought an N54 and couldn't believe the audacity of BMW to REMOVE a coolant temp gauge from a car and replace it with oil temp! How dare they! I was constantly paranoid about the cooling system in the N54 until one day I just realized there was nothing to worry about anymore. Overheating was no longer a thing and it's the same in the S65. I say this because I understand your fears and your anxiety. I also understand the freedom of not worrying. 220 doesn't seem that high to me. 230 and up and I start turning the heat on in the car but 220 and below, meh. It's a swapped car. It'll never be perfect. Just drive it.
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Never worry about overheating in an N54, yet the electric waterpumps are a common issue
Had it fail once. It went into limp mode, got it towed and all was good. M5x on the other hand... exploding fans, leaking radiator necks, consumable water pump fins and so on. I swear that cooling system is made of glass and that was at stock power levels. The N5x is dead nuts reliable when it comes to the cooling system other than the possibility of a water pump failing one time.
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m/s5x engines seem to swing pretty significantly while driving, especially if you don't have a fan running all the time. It's probably what led them to developing a buffered temp gauge on the e36. There was a thread/video of a guy who eliminated the buffering on the gauge and it was all over the place even with normal driving. This was likely in a car with the stock 92C thermostat:
Have you tried driving it with the fan just always on to see how it does?
For reference: on my e36 with an 80c thermostat, cruising down the freeway the temps are typically around 188F but randomly move around between 186 and 194 (these numbers are read from the ECU/obd2 port via an UltraGauge). Sitting at a stoplight with the fan off it will likely overheat eventually if I were to just let it go with no fan, even with a perfectly operational cooling system. Stop and go traffic it will slowly rise to over 200F before I switch the fan on.
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I got the new starter in, before I put the manifold back on, I tried it out and it still wont start. Battery was new 2 months ago, cables and connections test good. Im thinking the alternator may not be working properly. I have more testing to do before i pull it off the car and take it to get tested. I was planning to replace the old cheap mystery starter I had anyways so I dont care much about that.
I pulled the plugs just to check them out and make sure there wasnt any hydrolocking. Plugs look good/the same and the engine rotates freely by hand
E30 picnic is not looking very promising at all.
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I took my alternator to Vato Zone and it failed twice on the bench tester. The smarter of the two guys trying to test it said it was the voltage regulator. Im going to take a look at the brushes and see what a new regulator would run.
A wonky alternator could in theory cause random temperature spikes. The VDO temperature senders are high resistance at low temperatures and low resistance at high temperatures. Lower voltage = lower resistance
This could explain why the indicated temperature would seem to drop when I turn the cooling fan off. It was strange behavior but if it turned the fan on/off/on/off I could usually get it to drop 5-10 degrees after the fan turned off. If the alternator function cut in/out it would explain a sudden spike to 220 then drop back to 200.
Who knows, maybe my o2 sensor issue is also related to a voltage issue, something to re-visit once a working alternator goes in.
I'm going to take it to another store at lunchtime to get it tested just to be sure. I don't have complete faith in the guys that tested it last night. They kept trying to plug a 3 pin connector into it (spent 2 minutes looking for some sort of connector on the alternator housing) and kept calling the exciter wire post a ground.
dorks.
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Yes low voltage will cause a high temp reading on short sweep gauges. I discovered that the reason the gauge on mine went sky high while my wife was driving it was because I hooked the gauge ground pin to the dimmer circuit instead of steady ground. It was fine when she left because she didn't have the lights on. When she came home it was dark and she turned the lights on so the dimmer raises the voltage on the ground side and the voltage powering the gauge was reduced. You could swing the gauge up and down by moving the illumination dimmer roller.
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