blown head gasket e36 328i

[byza213 1]

hi guys

a good friend of mine has had his e36 checked out and faulted a blown head gasket

what is the next step of getting this fixed? or would it be cheaper to sell as is?

could someone point me in the right direction for helping him

i myself have never been in this situation so i cant help him at all

if you want to be a smart arse please dont bother

[hotwire 352]

Really has to be dismantled (remove head) to confirm extent of damage - maybe warped/cracked head? Before assertaining requirements/costs to repair

Current condition & milage of car may contribute as to justifying repair or not

[polley 916]

Sometimes they will also pull the threads out of the alloy block for the head bolts when over heated and need to be helicoiled / timesert.

Edited May 7, 2012 by polley

[slowe30 0]

these engines are known to crack heads easily and chances are it wont be the gasket, it would have cracked. ive just picked up a mint condition e36 328i with a head gasket issue and were putting a new engine in straight away, not evan bothering about pulling the head off to check

[byza213 1]

thanks guys he just wants a second opinion

good ol mechanic trick was pulled , how much do you want for the car as is after the check mmmm

cars has done about 170 000 kms ,

basically engine needs to be dismantled to check what the real issue is?

might be cheaper looking for a new engine then? thoughts?

its a nice coupe in silver with acs wheels

[polley 916]

Like hotwire said, the head needs to be pulled and condition of the head and block will be need to be checked.

Personally I would pull it off and check, only a few hours work to do that, and could save the cost of buying a new engine if the head turns out to be fine (iv'e seen a few overheated ones and they never cracked)

[hotwire 352]

^^^^ Yup totally agree. Won't necessarily have a cracked head at all.

If the engine has been looked after up to that milage - then assuming confirming all good once head removed - definitely worth fixing.

Is it known how hot it got? To help determine whether rings may have lost tension

Replacement engine - can be an unknown quantity.

[slowe30 0]

i might add to my comment, i wanted a spare bottom end for my e30 m52 anyways so its all worked out perfectly for me. ill be pulling the head off eventually and checking to see if it did crack. and what cylinder is the an issue with. ive seen 2 in the last month with coolant leaking into number 4 cylinder