bought a 328 convertible today head gasket gone, preseume it is a s pressurising a tad and gets hot every now and then but does drive ok, sometimes stalls on idle

i know of the nikasil issue, its not down on compression or smoking etc so hoping its the gasket.

funnily enough tho ive never done one, its a 1996 car 328i, chain driven, they fun to do?


a mate mentiond ally blocks they can be fun for stripping threads and cracking heads.

 

i know the heads warp quite easy, might need a skim.

 

it's fairly easy, but when i was doing it regulalry all them 18 years ago, i was working on the belt driven 12 valvers and they had a tendancy to bend the hends if you undone them wrong or if they were warm even, total cooldown was required, overnight type of thing

plus they had 4 different thickness head gaskets depending on how much you skimmed them

alex f is the guy you need to speak to though as he teaches bmw fixers how to fix bmws

 

and yes, drive the bolts down all the way with your hands when the head is off to make sure you don't have oil/water in the bolt holes

 

ive done loads, fairly easy tbh

 

I had a 328sport once that blew the rad out, and was over heating. Only a water pump and thermostat.

 

I've only done one, a 323 coupe, water pump had gone and the exhaust cam had snapped. Bits wern't cheap though, headset and bolts cost me about £120 trade
Not massivley complex to do

 

yea i allways clean out the bolt holes and did plan to skim the head anyway.


oh well ill prob crack on with it this weekend, gotta get it done to atleast get some roof down use with it b4 constant rain sets in

is there a way to diagnose water pump? seems to keep proping up i know they wer eplastic on some other models and they were shite

 

As it's a 328 ( has single Vanos ) I think you need a specific tool to set the VANOS system when re-assembling Like this

 

belive it or not i have just done one at work, i advise strongly on obtaining the cam/crank/tensioner tool....sealey vs 126 as per pic
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/k...4/102_2725.jpg

during a sequence to remove vanos you have to rotate camshaft independantly using one of the tools..also you will need another tool to pre tension the chain, let alone the crank pin and camshaft locking bars..
personally if you want this job to go well and more inportantly be timed up correctly!!
i advise not doing it or at least by the the tool....
also upon the torque sequence once ready to tighten up theres 3 stages, 1st stage 32nm then followed by 2 90 degrees. however it is not uncommon to find on the 3rd sequence that the thread strips out of the block...depends how hot it got!!
anyway heres a pic, note the pre tensioner tool n/s lower on the side of the head..
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/k...lockingset.jpg