Got some bad news today

[HokieZHP]

I'm actually a little bothered by how quiet the stock exhaust is.

Yeah I know what you mean, I was too. Full Magnaflow system fixed that for me haha. Love the sound now!

[bimmeryota]

Dane, I was prompted to do the leak down after I changed my oil and it was especially dirty (7K miles). I had been burning some oil but only really when I drove hard so I didn't think much of it at the time. And there was a little bit of blowback that I noticed.

Eli, The friend is a family friend who goes to VIR frequently and I'm pretty sure is affiliated with one of the driving schools. I believe his friend is also an instructor and was described as 'the guru in our group and general master mechanic in all things automotive'. The guy has also rebuilt my friend's father's E30 engine. Normally I would be wary of the friend of the friend, but this passes my test.

I've never had a leak down test performed before, how bad was it compared to the other cylinders?... How bad the compression is in the affected cylinders? If it still runs good could you just keep driving it? I wouldn't think it would make things worse.

I've never driven my car hard when it's cold and it does use some oil from time to time but got better after my CCV was changed but I still have to put oil in between changes of no more than 7000 miles. You've got me concerned with mine now because for the longest time I've had a slight knock upon light acceleration ONLY when cold but I just drive it easy til it warms up and has never gotten worse.

I'm going to skip a leak down test in fear of what lies beneath... my car runs great, sounds great, and luckily for CA burns clean!

[Asiah119]

I don't remember the specific numbers from the test.

My oil consumption was something like a quart every month - month and a half. Also if I did a hard shift into second from. High revs I get a puff of Blue smoke and can smell burning oil in the car. I thought I had a failing gasket. Apparently not.

The test was only $150. If you're worried about your engine I'd say that it's not a high price for the piece of mind.

That knock sounds like it's worth investigating.

[static667]

I'm actually doing an engine swap myself. The mechanics of it aren't the difficult as its pretty much "plug and play". If you decide to go the engine swap route and have a mechanic do the work, be wary of the source for your engine. I've been going around and around with some issues for two months now. This was all because I'm trying to do my job on the cheap. I really should have spent the extra cash and gone with a company like Bavarian Auto Recycling for the engine. You can see one of theirs for sale here. You could just have your mechanic change out your cams and it would be good beyond that.

[bimmeryota]

I'm actually doing an engine swap myself. The mechanics of it aren't the difficult as its pretty much "plug and play". If you decide to go the engine swap route and have a mechanic do the work, be wary of the source for your engine. I've been going around and around with some issues for two months now. This was all because I'm trying to do my job on the cheap. I really should have spent the extra cash and gone with a company like Bavarian Auto Recycling for the engine. You can see one of theirs for sale here. You could just have your mechanic change out your cams and it would be good beyond that.

Awesome Static! what prompted your swap or is it just for fun? I look forward to hearing about that...

[danewilson77]

Awesome Static! what prompted your swap or is it just for fun? I look forward to hearing about that...

His engine died.

[bimmeryota]

His engine died.

Well that's no fun then...

[RedTRex]

New guy here but I have many years of experience working on BMWs. I would be very ineterested in knowing the results of a compression test dry and wet (Only difference in wet test is squirting some, 1/4 to 1/3 oz maybe, of oil into each cylinder before attaching the tester. Compression test along with leakdown needed to properly diagnose this engine.
- BMW bottom ends are generally bulletproof. I am more inclined to think you have a headgasket (or head.... read valves) issue. It is the weakpoint of the M54 engine usually precipitated by cooling system issues/overheat.
- A complete engine swap is PnP as mentioned. a plain old M54 would work. Cams are only thing different and need to be swapped but without the Vanos timing tools (rent/borrow) and experience inside a BMW engine I wouldnt even attempt. Cams are easy to snap in half - I did it once.
- Parts are under $1k for a rebuild - Rings, Bearings, gaskets, etc. Machine work maybe another $250 on the block. Head $350 if it just needs valves cut, surfaced, pressure tested and cleaned.
---- FYI BMW pistons a very expensive, Around $1000 a set for a 6 cyl and not many places sell them.

[Asiah119]

Red, the results of the leadown was that two cylinders failed outright and a third was on its way. I probably said it earlier in the thread but if I remember correctly it was something like cyls 1 & 5 were bad and 4 was on its way. My blind guess would be that if it was a head gasket issue it would be contiguous cylinders? The one guy I was looking at getting the work done was leaning towards cracked rings. There's no knocking, no misfiring. My usual shop and the guy I was looking at were both of the opinion that the best way to figure out what's wrong is to do exploratory surgery.

What would the results of the wet\dry compression give me for diagnostics? Essentially I'm looking for a way to discover if it is a head versus a bottom end issue.

[telijah]

Regardless of which end the problem is, the labor and parts are much more than to throw in a used engine. I money shifted and bent nearly every valve in the head. I wish I knew this was the case before having a shop rip off the head, because then I simply would have replaced the engine. Instead, I paid somewhere just north of 4000 to have just about the entire top end rebuilt. I think the cams were the only thing not replaced. Everything valve-related was replaced.

Edit: Sorry if this is a moot point, I jumped into this thread late and only responded based on the last couple of posts. My bad.