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Thread: The infamous money shift at 37k, rebuild or used engine. Opinions??

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Cape Coral, FL
    Posts
    2
    My Cars
    2013 Bmw 128i Coupe

    The infamous money shift at 37k, rebuild or used engine. Opinions??

    Normally a lurker on the forum but finally will have something I thought to be worthy of posting. I was driving at highway speeds and was in 6th when I wanted to make a relatively aggressive downshift into 4th gear unfortunately I missed and made into 2nd and dumped the clutch. It hit red line, went way beyond that and sounded like a crotch rocket motorcycle for only 1/4 second when the car's dash lit up like a Christmas tree and the engine died. Crank, no start, belts turned.

    Failed cylinder leak down test thru the exhaust valves confirmed, intake couldn't tell along with rings. Put a boroscope into the cylinder and unfortunately with the valve reliefs on the piston and carbon deposits i cant confirm extensive damage to the pistons just yet. I have everything torn down except for the exhaust manifold and will be pulling the head 2mrw afternoon. This thread is useless without pics and I will be uploading a few 2mrw afternoon when it is daytime to show better idea of carnage/salvage.

    Car has only 37k 2013 128i N51 SULEV. This thread may be too early to say until the head is off but either way what is your opinion on either a low mileage used engine (long block or rebuilding the existing engine? For the sake of argument, let's just assume cost is nearly the same give just to give it a level playing field. No LS swaps. Keeping it stock

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Arlington, VA
    Posts
    9,933
    My Cars
    2018 BMW M240i
    Sorry for your problem. I’ve got a 2018 M20i and I hate the shifter as I find it vague.

    Buying a used engine is always a gamble as you have no idea how it was broken in or maintained. You know how the car was broken in and how well it was maintained. Now, the damage to the engine could be “just” some bent valves or it could include badly damaged (holes from the valves) pistons. I’d borscope all cylinders to see hope badly damaged the pistons are. If they aren’t badly damaged (dinged, no holes) ask a tech if reusing then is ok. In fact, pm bmwdirtracer (master tech) using the message feature on this forum. He’s very experienced in rebuilding blown engines.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Cape Coral, FL
    Posts
    2
    My Cars
    2013 Bmw 128i Coupe
    Thanks for the response Marco. Here is the extent of the damage, I am extremely lucky with how minor the damage is, the pictures actually look worse than in person. The exhaust side of the valves just kissed the pistons and it only struck on the sides of the valves and a hint of damage at the exhaust side of the piston (lower portion in pics) in the valve reliefs. it appears no other part of the valve actually hit severely, it just took off the carbon deposits on the piston. The exhaust valves will need to be replaced as they are ever so slightly bent. before tearing it down I did a cylinder leak down test which failed on the exhaust as air was escaping thru them. However I also did a compression test before the leak down test and the cylinders were making some compression although extremely low so this might have shut down the engine due to loss of compression while driving and saved the engine from complete destruction. no scoring in any of the cylinder walls whatsoever. Going to get the carbon build up off of the pistons and inspect them for any damage not seen.

    Thank you for the information on the forum and congrats on taking delivery of a new M240i, Not going to lie every time I'm in the dealership I get tempted to pull the trigger however my better half always seems to bring me back to reality. She was starting to warm up to the idea of getting one although this decision seemed to put that on ice for quite a while

    Will have more pictures to come and if anybody wants anything specific I will try to document it so it can become a future resource here.


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