One skim too many!

Rambling from the Sage of Oxford
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Charles
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One skim too many!

Post by Charles » Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:12 am

Looks like I've found the limit for how many head gasket changes the 3.4 engine can take :shock:

In recent weeks I've noticed some curious behaviour with the coolant system which culminated in the car starting to overheat. After initial false hope that this was due to a faulty thermostat, it appears that I have got exhaust gases in the coolant, suggesting either a problem with the gasket or the head.

Inspection by camera reveals that coolant is seeping into cylinder 6 past the gasket which in turn suggests that the head has warped - which is a bit of a shame :roll:

Further investigations are planned to identify exactly what the problem is but I fear that I need a replacement head. Now this isn't quite as bad as it sounds as this can be achieved by taking a standard 328i head and porting the inlets to match the ALPINA spec - unless we can find an OEM replacement from a breaker.

More news to follow ...
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Post by Hodge » Tue Jun 23, 2015 7:19 am

That's unfortunate news Charles, but glad you can see the light that should be at the end of the tunnel, that rolling test bed you are running is certainly showing results :oops: good luck and look forward to the results.

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Post by Charles » Tue Jun 23, 2015 9:21 am

Thanks Mark :D

I'm thinking about applying for some crowdfunding, mind you :shock:
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Post by John_C » Tue Jun 23, 2015 9:47 am

Sorry to hear that Charles, hope it's not too expensive a fix.
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Post by dodgyken » Tue Jun 23, 2015 10:01 am

Ran a check here and there aren't any Alpina heads or 328 heads at the "main" dismantlers.

Have you tried the likes of Quarry etc?

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Post by Charles » Tue Jun 23, 2015 6:29 pm

dodgyken wrote:Ran a check here and there aren't any Alpina heads or 328 heads at the "main" dismantlers.

Have you tried the likes of Quarry etc?
Thanks for looking for me, Ken - much appreciated :D

Haven't spoken to Quarry yet - I'm leaving all of that to Phil who is likely to have a much wider range of possible sources - but thanks for the suggestion.

I am followingh another possible avenue but we'll have to wait and see what that brings.
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Post by simon13 » Tue Jun 23, 2015 9:17 pm

A very common head as we know. I had to do the exact same thing on my e36. I used a head of my dads old 323 which he'd had since the was about 18 months old. The engine was a nikasil failure

Anyhow i had the port work done and its all been fine for about the 45k i've put on it since

I know a very good guy for head work Charles who works out of Janspeeds workshops down in salisbury if you get stuck there.

He did my E30 head for me a few months back
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Post by Charles » Tue Jun 23, 2015 9:59 pm

simon13 wrote:I know a very good guy for head work Charles who works out of Janspeeds workshops down in salisbury if you get stuck there.

He did my E30 head for me a few months back
Useful to know, Simon, and thank you.

I believe that Phil "knows a man" and has been down this route before for other customers.

We are still investigating options and costs so I may come back to you on this.

Cheers

C
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Post by dodgyken » Wed Jun 24, 2015 7:38 am

Does the S50B30 head fit?

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Post by Charles » Wed Jun 24, 2015 3:51 pm

dodgyken wrote:Does the S50B30 head fit?
I have no idea ...
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Post by Charles » Sat Jul 11, 2015 1:24 pm

Fingers crossed but there should be a replacement head arriving for #049 early next week :D
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Post by rc944 » Sat Jul 11, 2015 1:35 pm

Charles glad there is light at the end of the tunnel!

was the last hg the cometic one or something else? did you end up using some different bolts in the end as well?
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Post by Charles » Sat Jul 11, 2015 1:50 pm

The last one @242k miles was the oversized Cometic gasket with a stud fixing system.

Assuming all the studs are still done up to the correct torque - which I assume they are as the leakage was from the coolant channel into cylinder 6 and nothing around the outside - then we will probably stick with the studs and check what the state of the HG is. However, it is slightly thicker than standard to take into account the loss of thickness from all the previous skims, so I'll be going back to an OEM HG with the new head and keep the Cometic one for the future.
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Post by Charles » Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:18 pm

Freshly minted head and OEM gasket going on this week :D

And whilst we have the inlet manifold removed, I am replacing the vacuum pump which needs doing and also changing the auxiliary air pump which was beginning to sound like a 747 on take-off :shock:

The final act will be to repalce the headlamp covers which, although polished recently to remove a lot of the external pitting, were rather fogged on the insde too.

Bit of a bill, I know, but worth every penny in my book :D
Charles
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Post by Charles » Fri Jul 31, 2015 2:28 pm

She's running again :yahoo:
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