Should I repair, sell as-is, or part out?

[MarkZ28]

Have you checked your coolant level? If its not low its probably not your headgasket. Put a pressure tester on it and see if it holds pressure. If it does thats good news. If it doesnt you have a leak. Remive spark plugs and see if coolant is running in it. The plug that is the cleanest looking would be the first cylinder to watch for coolant. If you can get a boroscope, that woud be the brst way to see it.

[BMWCACincinnati]

Agreed with the previous posts. Carefully inspect the plugs. Ideally you'd take photos of them all lined up next to eachother and post them here. Acquire a compression tester while you've got plugs out, a boroscope would be great so you could see if there's any coolant puddling, or if it's just water in there. Assuming you have green, or, hopefully BMW Blue coolant, I'd think that even in small amounts it would be obvious what you were dealing with, having a scope in hand.

If compression checks out and no coolant is found in the cylinders, drain the booster of water, get it as dry as you can, reinstall, and see what you've got.

[JPR10]

Smoke and diminished oil level. I'd be looking at the crankcase ventilation system.

If I can get this car running again by clearing out the booster, the PCV will be the first thing I repair. I think it's still the original.

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Have you checked your coolant level? If its not low its probably not your headgasket. Put a pressure tester on it and see if it holds pressure. If it does thats good news. If it doesnt you have a leak. Remive spark plugs and see if coolant is running in it. The plug that is the cleanest looking would be the first cylinder to watch for coolant. If you can get a boroscope, that woud be the brst way to see it.

Coolant level is full -- plunger is coming out of the expansion tank. I'll remove plugs and post here to get your opinions as well. Will grab a bunch of diagnostic tools from the local AutoZone. Thanks!

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Agreed with the previous posts. Carefully inspect the plugs. Ideally you'd take photos of them all lined up next to eachother and post them here. Acquire a compression tester while you've got plugs out, a boroscope would be great so you could see if there's any coolant puddling, or if it's just water in there. Assuming you have green, or, hopefully BMW Blue coolant, I'd think that even in small amounts it would be obvious what you were dealing with, having a scope in hand.

If compression checks out and no coolant is found in the cylinders, drain the booster of water, get it as dry as you can, reinstall, and see what you've got.

Yeah, coolant is blue BMW. Hopefully I can diagnose without getting a borescope too.

Will follow those tips in that order. Should I also use a combustion leak tester (block tester)? Or would compression checks and visual inspection be good enough?

[BMWCACincinnati]

If you're hard up for a boroscope, an easy way to tell what's in there would be to place *CLEAN* white microfibers over the open combustion chambers(careful not to let any debris fall in), with the fuel pump fuse removed, crank it over a time or two, or however long it takes to blow all of the liquid out. You should do this anyway, because something that's not gasoline is making it's way in there regardless. Any liquid in there will be pushed out by the pistons and will likely splatter on the microfibers. It'll almost definitely blow the microfibers off the top of the engine, but not before liquid(if any) is ejected on the cloths. If blue or green, it will be obvious on a white cloth.

If no coolant(and just water), do a compression test and see what you're dealing with. If it's just water, and a compression test comes back OK, reassemble with new plugs, drained/dried booster, replace fuel pump fuse, start it, and see how it runs. Report results back here.

[JPR10]

If you're hard up for a boroscope, an easy way to tell what's in there would be to place *CLEAN* white microfibers over the open combustion chambers(careful not to let any debris fall in), with the fuel pump fuse removed, crank it over a time or two, or however long it takes to blow all of the liquid out. You should do this anyway, because something that's not gasoline is making it's way in there regardless. Any liquid in there will be pushed out by the pistons and will likely splatter on the microfibers. It'll almost definitely blow the microfibers off the top of the engine, but not before liquid(if any) is ejected on the cloths. If blue or green, it will be obvious on a white cloth.

If no coolant(and just water), do a compression test and see what you're dealing with. If it's just water, and a compression test comes back OK, reassemble with new plugs, drained/dried booster, replace fuel pump fuse, start it, and see how it runs. Report results back here.

Not hard up for a boroscope per se but would find that I wouldn't use it often. Maybe I can borrow or rent from someone. There is this iPhone/wifi compatible one on Amazon that I'm checking out: https://www.amazon.com/Endoscope-Dep...WK4/ref=sr_1_3 -- might order this guy.

[ross1]

Post pictures of the business end of the spark plugs. Coolant burning will clean the plugs.

[BMWCACincinnati]

Any updates OP?

[JPR10]

Hi thanks for asking -- not yet.

I was preoccupied doing a brake job on my 528 over the weekend (discs, pads, parking brake rebuild, new fluid, etc). Spent extra time cleaning the crap out of everything while it was off too lol.

Won't be able to get to it for a couple of weekends since I'm out of town next. I'll update the thread once I tackle it.

[JPR10]

Finally had a chance to remove the brake booster... relieved (and also disappointed) to find water in the brake booster...

Look at how disgusting this is! warning -- rusty ass water ahead. Check those drains people!



Not going to put this shit back into the car... Any problem buying a used booster from eBay? Or should this part be new?

[JPR10]

Also -- which models share this same brake booster? Any E39/E38 work?

[TheAngryBear]

I’m not saying that eBay can’t be trusted but anything stopping someone from taking “yours” and listing it on eBay? Or finding one like that in a junkyard and listing it?
Don’t get me wrong, there are great sources on eBay and reputable sources but that would always be a question in my mind...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[billh]

Booster is the same for all E38 's (from 09/1998) and E39's (from 09/1997)

get one from Adam, Linky Guaranteed good.

[balidawg]

I’m not saying that eBay can’t be trusted but anything stopping someone from taking “yours” and listing it on eBay? Or finding one like that in a junkyard and listing it?
Don’t get me wrong, there are great sources on eBay and reputable sources but that would always be a question in my mind...

Use realoem.com for getting part numbers:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=34_1128

and checking part compatibility across car models:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/part...&q=34331165541

A new one is around $200.
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...er-34331165541

[toybreaker]

for piece of mind I would spend the coin on a new booster.

But then again I turn rotors until the min thickness, having a machine shop at your disposal has its perks.

[capebmw]

This is another case of someone asking for help, receiving NUMEROUS comments on what to do and the OP just ignoring it! I was reading this and shaking my head!! How many f'n times do you need to be told to just do a compression check, leak down test???? How many times are you going to ask whether to use a "block tester"? I don't even know what that is!! Jesus, unbelievable is all I can say.

[JPR10]

This is another case of someone asking for help, receiving NUMEROUS comments on what to do and the OP just ignoring it! I was reading this and shaking my head!! How many f'n times do you need to be told to just do a compression check, leak down test???? How many times are you going to ask whether to use a "block tester"? I don't even know what that is!! Jesus, unbelievable is all I can say.

Have you been reading the thread?