while I was at a drift event this last weekend, I noticed my car would start heating up under high load in 3rd gear while drifting or shredding the rest of my tires in the donut box. It only got the the 3/4 mark on the stock water temp gauge and would cool down within minutes with slow cruising or if I turned the heat on full blast. My oil looked ok from the dipstick and from the bottom of the fill cap. I’m going to drain it tonight to see if it’s milky. thermostat is opening but I did notice I believe I’m loosing coolant somewhere. No obvious coolant leaks but my upper and lower radiator pipes have coolant residue on them near the thermostat housing. I can’t find that leak when just running the car. No white smoke out of the exhaust. I drove it around my neighborhood for a bit at operating temp to see if it would start to heat up again but it was fine. I can only recreate the heating up to the 3/4 mark if drifting or burning off the rest of my tires (burnout).
I have not not done a leak down test but I will probably do that before I drain the oil. Anyone else have similar symptoms? Just trying to get some ideas before I go full on head removal, new head gasket and refresh the cooling.
I should mention 95 M3 S50. Aluminum radiator and aluminum thermostat housing and thermostat replaced not long ago with radiator piping.
So how old is the water pump? Do you still have the clutch fan installed on the water pump?
Darin
Current:
16 220i Active Tourer Platinsilver MET (C08)/Dakota Black (PDSW), P7ACA, P7LDA, P7LHA, P9BDA, 6sp Manual - Wife's new toy!
05 325it Electric Red(438)/Gray(N6TT) ZCW, ZSP 5sp Manual Back set cover, trunk mat, Euro Infra-Rot front windshield, and mud flaps! Mr. Wagon My new Winter car.
05 M3 Imolarot II(405)/Gray(N5TT) ZCW, ZPP 6sp Manual C.F. Lip, CSL diffuser, SSK, Euro Infra-Rot front windshield and a trunk liner! Mr. Go_Fast Stored for the Winter
Past:
95 318is Montreal Blue Met (297)/Beige(K1SN) RIP, killed by an Idiot.
84 M535i gray market Burgandy Rot Met/Black Leather Lowered by Intrax on bilies, poly everywhere, B&B cat back system, K&N, and a hitch! Da Beast - Still running w/400k+!
91 316i euro Tizianrot/Gray cloth - E-36 w/M-40 RIP, but great on gas! Best was 38 MPG
82 528i euro Saphire Blue Met/Blue Leather RIP
79 525 euro Green/Green RIP
79 318 Silver/Black - The first one that got it all started
M-Flight Member
do your homework before removing the clutched fan - when working properly it's very efficient at helping cool the engine.
if you are going to remove it, definitely make sure you have compensating systems in place, and those systems (namely the cooling system) are in tip-top shape and kept there.
'95 325iS - auto to manual swap done!
Ive looked into both sides, keeping it vs e fan. I’ll most likely be refreshing everything in the cooling system when removing the clutch fan. What I don’t want to do is replace all the cooling system thinking it will solve my overheating problem, to only find out at the track that it didn’t. Then have to rip part everything to get the head off while wasting a race weekend.
I think I’ll be replacing the water pump, water pump pulley, t-stat (80c) and t stat housing, radiator piping, coolant expansion tank and the belts and see if that helped it. If not, it looks like I’ll be pulling the head. I found a head locally that has already been to the machine shop with new valves and so on. I hope it’s just something in the cooling system. Next event is in the beginning of August, so not much time to spare.
well, pressure test the cooling system, and you can do a leak down test to confirm head, etc.
'95 325iS - auto to manual swap done!
+1
I would look at the waterpump and thermostat first. Next would be to get the cooling system pressure tested if you still have problems.
Darin
Current:
16 220i Active Tourer Platinsilver MET (C08)/Dakota Black (PDSW), P7ACA, P7LDA, P7LHA, P9BDA, 6sp Manual - Wife's new toy!
05 325it Electric Red(438)/Gray(N6TT) ZCW, ZSP 5sp Manual Back set cover, trunk mat, Euro Infra-Rot front windshield, and mud flaps! Mr. Wagon My new Winter car.
05 M3 Imolarot II(405)/Gray(N5TT) ZCW, ZPP 6sp Manual C.F. Lip, CSL diffuser, SSK, Euro Infra-Rot front windshield and a trunk liner! Mr. Go_Fast Stored for the Winter
Past:
95 318is Montreal Blue Met (297)/Beige(K1SN) RIP, killed by an Idiot.
84 M535i gray market Burgandy Rot Met/Black Leather Lowered by Intrax on bilies, poly everywhere, B&B cat back system, K&N, and a hitch! Da Beast - Still running w/400k+!
91 316i euro Tizianrot/Gray cloth - E-36 w/M-40 RIP, but great on gas! Best was 38 MPG
82 528i euro Saphire Blue Met/Blue Leather RIP
79 525 euro Green/Green RIP
79 318 Silver/Black - The first one that got it all started
M-Flight Member
I would look at the fan clutch and aux fan system, because other wide the system cools fine
Thank you everyone for the responses. After some testing the head is fine. I’ll be upgrading the water pump to the Stewart one. Replacing the t stat and t stat housing and hoses. Adding a water gauge temp and removing the clutch fan. Going with a spal puller fan, just got to decide if I want to do the Zion fan shroud or make my own. I don’t want to mount the fan directly to the radiator and I’m not sure about the mishimoto one.
Ill also probably wire an override switch in the cabin to both the aux and electric fan to be able to control them when I want just for safety.
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