E46 B3S

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jonny320is
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Re: E46 B3S

Post by jonny320is » Tue May 18, 2021 5:20 pm

I've been changing the oil at least every 6k miles in my ownership but considering the mileage I do in it now it's once a year which equates to about every 3k miles. Also it's only run on shell v power.
I have recently replaced the whole crank case breathing system (seriously gunked up),cleaned the throttle body and idle control valve and replaced all the vacum lines which made it run better and cleaner.
E46 B3 S
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Re: E46 B3S

Post by shell1967 » Tue May 18, 2021 6:28 pm

Definitely good words of wisdom, from other members, I wouldn't recommend
what I did and bought mine on impulse , there are always a few good examples that
are for sale at various times, so the question is budget, condition, history, I'm
sure when you have found the right car you will know, and someone on the forum
be only too willing to help you out, incidentally I have had one oil change and a
service in the three years of ownership.

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Re: E46 B3S

Post by bobbly » Wed May 19, 2021 9:24 am

Good luck with the search, OP. Lovely cars and engines.

However, head gasket failure on the 3,4S motor has nothing at all to do with maintenance regime. The gasket is not lubricated or directly cooled and the failure is a result of ALPINA being highly enthusiastic and taking the bores out to a diameter which limits the remaining gasket material between cylinders to an absolute wafer. It is usually the more centrally-located pairs which fail eg between cylinders 2-3, 3-4 or 4-5 at the narrowest point between the cylinders as the cylinder head load compressing at those positions is lower due to the head bolt layout. Its failure is purely luck of the draw and can be down to the original skim tolerances of the block or head or slight variances in cylinder head bolt torque. Or just a less well made head gasket with a slight material weakness. It's only engineering so it's pretty basic failure modes: nothing ethereal.

There is nothing wrong with owners taking more than the necessary levels of maintenance on their engine, but any which have skipped running in or biennial oil and filter changes should be avoided, even if the car has done no mileage between changes as oil becomes corrosive as it ages within the engine.

Signs of 'classic 3.4S' head gasket failure are not oil in water, mayonnaise on engine oil filler cap/dipstick etc as you'd find in the majority of head gasket failures as there is (as already stated) no oil or water in the vicinity of the failure zone. The car running lumpy once hot, a misfire/pinking under load, again more-so when hot, generally feeling down on power. Or if a belt and braces inspection is required a pressure drop or compression test will reveal any head gasket failure.

If you want to see visually where the failure occurs, take a look through some of the old engine rebuild threads on the 3.4S engine: Charles has done a few and there are others by other unfortunate owners. The images will show you a head gasket so thin between cylinders, it's tighter than a g-string on J-Lo. Don't let it put you off as the engine is superb: just budget carefully for possible future head work at a reputable engine builder

Cheers and GLWTS
Bobbly

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Re: E46 B3S

Post by rc944 » Wed May 19, 2021 9:36 am

Excellent post above by bobbly esp the tell-tale symptoms
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Charles
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Re: E46 B3S

Post by Charles » Wed May 19, 2021 10:58 am

What bobbly said so eloquently!

I'm on my fifth HG (I think) with an average life of about 85k miles. Anyone who has been here a while will know that I have loved my engine (and car) to within an inch of its life and still the HGs fail. I have pictures galore on my home PC and will try and remember to share my rogues gallery of various 3.4S wear and tear failures later.
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Re: E46 B3S

Post by hashluck » Wed May 19, 2021 3:25 pm

Presumably, as this is such a common failure, the repair of the head gasket must be second nature to many specialists and should not be regarded as terminal or something which should be too scary cost wise (in the scheme of things). Sounds like almost a service item a bit like a cam belt albeit on an as and when required basis in this case. Nothing I have read below would put me off buying one* (same with suspension) - all these things compared to depreciation on a newer car are not too horrible as long as the parts and expertise exist to fix them properly.

*and i did buy one :)

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Re: E46 B3S

Post by davettf2 » Wed May 19, 2021 8:25 pm

Fully concur with Bobbly's comments on oil changes, I acquired a Cagiva Lucky Explorer i.e which had been dry stored for a number of years. On stripdown every bearing showed signs of corrosion, on some the pitting corrosion was visible to the naked eye. Modern oils degrade over time, as does petrol.

Cheers
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Charles
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Re: E46 B3S

Post by Charles » Thu May 20, 2021 1:36 pm

hashluck wrote:
Wed May 19, 2021 3:25 pm
Presumably, as this is such a common failure, the repair of the head gasket must be second nature to many specialists and should not be regarded as terminal or something which should be too scary cost wise (in the scheme of things). Sounds like almost a service item a bit like a cam belt albeit on an as and when required basis in this case. Nothing I have read below would put me off buying one* (same with suspension) - all these things compared to depreciation on a newer car are not too horrible as long as the parts and expertise exist to fix them properly.

*and i did buy one :)
I would agree - the problem being that there is a reasonable amount of labour involved and BMW UK price the new gasket at a gazillion squillion pounds which makes the job rather more expensive than it should appear.

In my case, we are looking at about £1600 and this happens every 4 years or so (I am doing 20k miles pa), so that is equivalent to £400 pa. Like all things, it depends on how you look at things ...
Charles
Teacher of Chemistry and driver of ALPINAs - not necessarily in that order ;)
B3S Touring (49/116) - been to the moon and now on the way back!
Renault Grand Espace - not mine but the wife's!

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