Uh Oh! Blown Head Gasket? Rebuild or Swap?

[Brucet]

Hi

Last night @80mph in btb traffic the temp gauge peggeg, check engine light on, took me a couple of miles to get to the shoulder and shut down my 92 325i. I saw steam coming from the back of the engine near the firewall and the back of the car had a film of coolant on it. Had it flatbedded home and it turned over and started this a.m.:help so not siezed. I hope to do a leakdown test this weekend. What do you recommend? I'm concerned that just replacing the head gasket isn't a good idea as there could be damage to other parts from the no coolant run (warped head, block deck, bearings, rings, etc). I've got a line on a 98 328 engine for $2k but it would require a new DME, harness and other stuff. Has anyone done this transplant? Seriously bummed out and any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Bruce

[Bluebimma]

You could grab another m50 for about 400-800$ depending on location and condition if need be.

[thedude60126]

I would agree if you are gonna swap motors get an m50 because the horsepower difference isn't enough to justify the amount of work you have to do to re wire and everything. You can find one for half the amount too.

[wiseleo]

While you should have hit hazard lights and become a traffic news celebrity, it may not be so bad.Sounds more like cooling system failure. How long did it take to drive 2 miles. 1 minute or 10 minutes?Point of reference - I was once in an accident that punctured my radiator on a toyota. Didn't realize it until I glanced at the temp gauge and pulled over, about 5 minutes later. There was no engine damage.

[91mat325]

K this is unrelated but there is dry oil around the front of my engine and im selling the car and I showed it to somebody today and they said the oil could be from a blown head gasket so they passed on the deal... I was like wtf? and he also said you would'nt be able to tell while you were driving if you had a blown head gasket...

[Ziggy819]

I would agree if you are gonna swap motors get an m50 because the horsepower difference isn't enough to justify the amount of work you have to do to re wire and everything. You can find one for half the amount too.


AGREED. sorry to hear of you're trouble, bummer man. :(

[Tefal]

K this is unrelated but there is dry oil around the front of my engine and im selling the car and I showed it to somebody today and they said the oil could be from a blown head gasket so they passed on the deal... I was like wtf? and he also said you would'nt be able to tell while you were driving if you had a blown head gasket...
not true

[Grunt]

Check your oil and make sure that none of the coolant got mixed in. If the head gasket blew, what caused it? Age, waterpump, thermostat not working??? I'm new to the world of BMW's, but I just recently replaced my head gasket on my inline 6 Jeep Wrangler after I had an overheating issue. Total cost for me was around $400 for gaskets, water pump, thermostat, coolant, new bolts and getting the head plained and dyed to make sure there were no cracks and it wasn't warped. 8 hours of removing, 4 to reinstall. Hth some

[CrazyCoder]

Where did the coolant come from?

There are several coolant lines other than the one's running to/from the radiator, some of which run near the back of the engine. It's possible that you blew one of those. I agree that it's likely you popped a head gasket if it pegged the gauge, it's not 100% assured. Check the oil for coolant, the coolant for oil, and do the leakdown test. But find out where the failure started, first of all. Headgaskets don't cause overheating, they are caused by it, so why did the car overheat?

[318]

My, friend has an M3 swap, 97 with 9000 miles. he rebuilt the motor and was going to put it in his 95 318 but i bought it. I think he has everything to convert it except for a harness.