Another orphan saved from the storm

[KeysCoupe]

Most overheats were a failure of the radiator, with plastic parts failing due to age. Once the coolant is lost, then the engine cooks. The iron block engines survive better, and the alloy block engines can sometimes be salvaged with TimeCerts.
-Donny

[Jason5driver]

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Is that oil and crud in the coolant passages near the cylinders ?
The cams and stuffs look clean imo .

[ross1]

Is that oil and crud in the coolant passages near the cylinders ?
The cams and stuffs look clean imo .

No oil other than what spills when dismantling, just the usual crap that accumulates when coolant is neglected. One of the photos shows a passage completely stopped up at the back of the block.

[ross1]

Most overheats were a failure of the radiator, with plastic parts failing due to age. Once the coolant is lost, then the engine cooks. The iron block engines survive better, and the alloy block engines can sometimes be salvaged with TimeCerts.
-Donny

I get all that. No obvious cause and the owner was clueless. The previous owner only managed to get 50 miles in this car after purchase from some POS that unloaded it on her. No idea of the history before that. Radiator is ~ recent, shows no signs of leaking and will likely be returned to service. Reservoir didn't fare as well.

[Jason5driver]

No oil other than what spills when dismantling, just the usual crap that accumulates when coolant is neglected. One of the photos shows a passage completely stopped up at the back of the block.

Could you see where the leak is by examining the head gasket ?

How did the head and block look compared to other engines you have torn apart ?

[ross1]

Could you see where the leak is by examining the head gasket ?

How did the head and block look compared to other engines you have torn apart ?

There are signs of cooling system neglect as I mentioned and took a few photos. Its an easy thing to neglect until something like this happens.
People in general all understand the importance of changing oil but the concept of renewing the other vital fluids seems lost to many.
This engine clearly had frequent oil changes, I suspect that was all.

As far as comparisons to the others I've dismantled, well they are almost always broken in one way or another so nothing extraordinary here. If a gun was put to my head I'd call it simple neglect that caused the ultimate failure but really no way to say with authority what other factors may have been at play. The previous, clueless owner drove it a grand total of 50 miles after purchase and couldn't offer any substantial clues.
Block and head surfaces both indicate poor sealing. I think the likely scenario was the one who pawned it off on the unsuspecting woman overheated it, for whatever reasons, then re-filled the cooling system and passed it off(at a dear price) to the woman with the oblique warning to "watch the gauges". Very little coolant in the oil which was otherwise clean, perhaps just changed by schmuck that sold it.

[Jason5driver]

Cool , thanks !
Yeah , just wondering if you could see specifically where the leak occurred on the head gasket .
Between cylinders so and so ….
So , the plan is to refurbish the existing head and clean the block , and reinstall ?
Are you going to timesert the head bolts ?

[ross1]

Cool , thanks !
Yeah , just wondering if you could see specifically where the leak occurred on the head gasket .
Between cylinders so and so ….
So , the plan is to refurbish the existing head and clean the block , and reinstall ?
Are you going to timesert the head bolts ?

At least 3 cylinders were seeing coolant 3,4 and 5, note surfaces and disturbed carbon on valves
Head is at machine shop for inspection/pressure test. I am cautiously optimistic, no cracks evident before cleaning and well within machining limits to make it flat again.
Iron block so no worries about threaded holes.

[ross1]

So after having the cylinder head at one machine shop that did nothing for over a week I found another that tested it right away.
Cracked between ex valve seat (#3 cyl) and coolant passage into the port. Kind of what I expected. Prior experience says it is now a door stop so time to tear into the donor engine.
I'll have cams/trays, valves, VANOS and all the other bits surplus if anyone here is in need.

[Jason5driver]

Interesting ...
So , there's no saving the head with the crack ?
Machine shop can't repair that ?
Are you sending the head from the donor engine to the machine shop ?

[ross1]

Been down that road before;
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...ead-and-futile
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...your-instincts
Donor engine is a good runner from a VERY rusty E36. Were it not for the fact that I am dismantling either anyway for re-sealing I'd consider dropping the entire donor engine in. The broken car has lower miles so I'll stick with that short block.
Head will get washed up and screwed on.

[CPHES]

With the number of these engines out there, I agree, it’s not worth fixing one that has seen enough thermal violence to crack.

[Jason5driver]

Been down that road before;
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...ead-and-futile
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...your-instincts
Donor engine is a good runner from a VERY rusty E36. Were it not for the fact that I am dismantling either anyway for re-sealing I'd consider dropping the entire donor engine in. The broken car has lower miles so I'll stick with that short block.
Head will get washed up and screwed on.

I think you got screwed with a horrible machine shop tech .
Definitely NOT the norm there imo .

[ross1]

With the number of these engines out there, I agree, it’s not worth fixing one that has seen enough thermal violence to crack.

Had the welding repair been successful it would have been cost effective. The welder was recommended so I kept my mouth shut regarding preheating. One of the threads I titled "trust your instincts", should have taken my own advice.
In defense of the shop that did the re-surfacing I brought them the head and said to resurface it, clearly not knowing it had cracked. Should they have looked it over? I'd like to think so but they did what a asked for.
The head in question today has a crack near identical to the previous and had I taken the time to thoroughly clean the surface could have spotted it and saved myself the cost of pressure testing. Lesson learned.
I dismantled the donor engine yesterday and that head is dead nuts flat and also appears to be fresher than the rest of the engine. The cam trays have some varnish, the head itself none. The gasket is not the original so it appears the donor engine at one time may also have suffered a HG failure.

I've not found an abundance of known good used engines. Every time I've needed one I've resorted to buying a complete donor car. Having said that I've previously sold complete, running M52s for peanuts. Another lesson learned.

The only way these repairs make any financial sense is of course doing the labor myself and shopping hard for parts.
When all the smoke clears I'll be into this car for about what a nice one would sell for but with the comfort of having everything under the hood sound for many more miles and, an anomaly around here, a genuinely rust free 25 year old car.
At a tick over 100k miles I expect to find some suspension work will be needed once its on the road again.

[CPHES]

Yeah - # of engines available is relative. I had to find beads for a Mercedes M100 6.9 that had been corroded by stop leak. That took a bit of time and $.

[ross1]

An update for anyone interested
I took a break from the workshop during the holidays. Mrs. Ross managed to put a few pounds around my middle during that time so I needed to start moving again.

Cylinder head was cracked so I bought a running E36 parts car to be sure of a serviceable head.

Dismantled to the short block, used the donor head with the original cams, etc. then replaced every seal and gasket. Did all the external seals on the trans while it was out too.

Its a fool's errand not to replace all the coolant hoses when its apart so I opened up the wallet for that too. All those little bits add up.
The assembled engine and trans have been sitting on a cart since before Christmas reminding me how lazy I've been. I stabbed it all in on Friday leaving few things undone for later. Got back to it on Sunday but discovered I had forgotten to buy trans oil. I put in a gallon that I had on hand, enough to start it without destroying the pump.

It started first crank as if nothing had been done but the lifters were noisy for a bit and it was making an awful clacking sound somewhere up front. Very reminiscent of timing chain noise which got my attention.

I'd turned the engine over a LONNG time on the starter(while out of the car) so as not to have a dry start and never heard anything then so was fairly confident it wasn't internal. The belts had seen some coolant spilled and I remember the horrific noises a chattering belt can make.

My absolute favorite task on these cars is removing the fan shroud so I was able to indulge my passion to remove the belts to find the noise abated, whew. Spinning all the accessories I find the water pump( a know good low mile used I had on hand) now seems like maaaybe its making some noise so I swap it out indulging yet another favorite, spilled coolant. Button it all up again and fire it up to the same horrible clacking noise.

Remember I hadn't enough trans oil before? I used all I had into the transmission neglecting the power steering which was essentially dry. It never occurred to me the pump could make THAT noise, cavitation, oh yeah, heard it a million times before. PS pump was the last thing I'd have thought of hearing this. Lesson learned, feel free to mock all my extra, wasted efforts.

With a full trans and coolant topped off it runs great, shocks are tired as I expected, it needs a boot on the steering rack and a couple of brake hoses. I haven't the heart to put it into service until spring when the road salting is over. Plenty of time to address those items and get it cleaned up to my standards.

[Jason5driver]

Awesome ! Thank you !
Pictures ?