Willem

Hello, I know this isn't about Ford, but as you guys know pretty much everything about cars I will ask

I'm about to buy an BMW 320i from 89 with a blown head gasket.
Now I heard several times the cylinder heads of these cars tend to crack under the camshaft.

My question, does anyone have a picture of such a cracked head, I did a search by google, lot of talk, no pictures...
Just want to kow if it can be easy spotted by someone who hasn't seen a BMW engine before...

as355f1

you may see it but you will prob need a pressure test to confirm, they also have a tendency to strip the head bolts so the whole block will need to be helicoiled

AlexF

pressure test - the cracks are hard to see!

Rax

iTrader: (1)

the last one i had dropped two valve seats and had a hairline crack in it from end to end but i didnt see it.it was only after stripping it an taking it for a skim it was noticed,they did a few hundred modifications on the old six pot head but that wasnt the problem imo,i think you would be wise to replace the water pump,the original used a plastic impella.when i took mine off it was the size of the middle of a cd instead of nearly the full size.they simply just wear away,hense overheating and then ruining the head.have a good look at the cam journals,thats where mine was cracked.

Willem

Ok guys, thanks for your answers, we'll see how it goes.

Willem

Hello, got the BMW at home, heres a pic of how I picked it up last Thursday:


Now, about the engine, got the head off yesterday, small summary: Pistons look spot on, no slap, no wear in the cylinders. Nothing wrong to be seen there.
About the cylinder head, the head itself looks ok, but the camshaft is pretty much worn out and one of the rocker arms is broken in 2.

As for the blown head gasket, this didn't look blown at all, the oil circuit was full of oil and water, the water circuit didn't have a lot of oil in it.

What can be wrong with the engine if the gasket wasn't really blown? Is it the head or can I consider the possibillity of getting another engine??

Any info welcome

dojj

iTrader: (3)

it's probably muct more cost effective to get a known wokring engines out of another car than to rebuild the one you have

i used to be a bmw apprentice years and years ago for all of about 9 months so i picked up a few good bits of info form the era of 90/91, especially the one about needing a thicker head gasket depending on the level of skim and them bending heads if they were torqued down in the wrong way and also the viscous fan being more likely to have failed than the head gasket on the 6 pot engines

but that's about it as it's been at least 17 years since i took one apart, but never heard about a cracked head in those few months

did you drain the water and oil before you cracked the head (cold)?
it might be that that's caused the mixed up fluids

as355f1

Did you check the water pump ?

AlexF

If the head gasket was intact then its likly to be a cracked head.

Pressure test it

Alex

fuzzy

the m20 head is well known for cracking. sign up to www.e30zone.net for bang on tech help.