Engine Numbers Fine - Now What

[wake74]

Background: '96 E36 328, M52, 245k miles. M50 Intake, Shark Tune, M3 Muffler, CAI. Stock Internals. Only used as my track rat for HPDEs. It is going through a decent amount of oil. 1/2-3/4 qt per 4 session day. I'm not outdriving the car, just promoted to B group in BMWCCA, and only running 2:26-2:28 on VIR Full. Still lot of driver improvement opportunities.

I ran leak down and compression checks on her today, to just verify the engine needed to be replaced with an S52. Wanted to show the wife that it "was bad" :-)

Wasn't expecting this. All tests with car warm. Throttle 100% open.

Cylinder	Leak Down	Compression
1	5%	210
2	6%	210
3	6%	215
4	10%	215
5	5%	220
6	4%	220

I'm guessing my CCV valve is bad contributing to the oil usage. I didn't mount it back in the vertical when I did the M50 intake swap. It's more like on a 45 degree angle. That may not be helping.

That seems like a lot of oil even if the CCV is bad, unless I've got a bad leak I'm not noticing. I don't drive it enough on the street to know if it is going through that much oil at street RPMs.

Does CCV seem like the most likely issue?


I need to figure out my winter projects so I can start to gather parts. I figure my options are:

1. Just go ahead with the S52 swap. Figure $2k by the time you did the clutch, replaced some gaskets, etc.

2. Install S52 cams in current engine. $400

3. Install an LSD. $500 with bushings

Thoughts?

[DocWyte]

Depends how much you wanna spend money. That's lot a ton of oil consumption, so no need to replace the motor unless you want more power.....

[wake74]

I'm not looking to compete on the Hp front with the other cars in my group in a BMW CCA. Hard to compete on that front with a $4k car against ones that are $80k+ :-)

What I don't like is catching up with cars through 3-4-5, or coming out of Oak Tree (at VIR), getting a point by, and it taking forever to get past them, or usually the other car having to let up so I can get by. This will be less of an issue next year in B group, as I suspect I won't be passing many cars.

Right now, I'm coming out of Oak Tree in third, pretty low down on the torque curve. Something like the 3.38 LSD would increase my RPMs by about 15% which I think will help on acceleration I think.

Depends how much you wanna spend money. That's lot a ton of oil consumption, so no need to replace the motor unless you want more power.....

[TXBDan]

Compression + leak down doesn't lie. (as far as i know). That's gotta be a CCV problem where its dumping oil into the intake. Any signs of of oil in the intake elbow/throttlebody/intake manifold?

[DocWyte]

3.38 diff makes a decent difference, that's what I run in my M3

[wake74]

Compression + leak down doesn't lie. (as far as i know). That's gotta be a CCV problem where its dumping oil into the intake. Any signs of of oil in the intake elbow/throttlebody/intake manifold?

I am going to take this puddling to be a yes to oil in the intake. Shots from today.







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[jayjaya29]

Valve seals are shot, especially with that high of mileage.