The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebaggery

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The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebaggery - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebaggery (/showthread.php?tid=8853)

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Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - SlimKlim - 03-17-2014

I managed to sweet talk DJ out of the rear diffuser from the race car to put on, and he's gonna grab one from Mike Ruppert. :thumbup: I bolted that fucker down with fresh hardware instead of plastic rivets, so this time if something hits it, maybe it won't go flying off into oblivion. Or it'll just take the whole rear bumper with it. :roll:

In other news, I've been dealing with this seeping headgasket issue for, shit, I dunno, a year or two now. Last week I ran into an older retired gentleman driving a gorgeous alpine/cardinal '88 M3 at C&C who used to run a BMW shop. We were parked next to one another and comparing notes, like you do at a C&C, and after explaining my issue he suggested I simply throw in some new head bolts.

The idea had crossed my mind before, but was usually shot down before it left the concept stage, the general belief is that once a headgasket has failed or the head has warped, there's nothing you can do except the full replacement.

HOWEVER, in my particular situation where the car is just seeping a small amount of water, as a result of being overheated, it is possible the aluminum head expanded and stretched the head bolts (which are designed to stretch when torqued), causing it to lose its seal when it cools back down.

I vetted the idea against my shop and some internet folks with mixed results, but ultimately decided it was an inexpensive and relatively low risk quick-fix worth trying. Best case, I squeeze a few more leak-free miles out of this tired old motor, worst case, I still have a leaky car. I've always been more willing than most to play guinea pig when it comes to these kinds of fixes, so I ordered a head bolt set for $15 and new VCG set for $40ish.

I was originally planning on replacing all 14 bolts, but after sorting the bullshit from the legitimate points made in a bimmerforums thread, I decided to only replace the 3 bolts closest to the leak. I first checked the torque of the problem children, and they started to turn at 35ft-lbs. The ones on the opposite side of the motor were considerably tighter.

The original torque spec is 22ft-lbs+90*+90*, but that assumes you're installing a fresh HG that will compress as you torque it. I ended up doing 22ft-lbs+90*, which seemed to most closely match the torque of the bolts on the opposite side. Only took me about an hour of actual work, and 2-3 hours of fruitlessly driving around town for a deep, thin-walled E12 torx socket before giving up and modifying mine with an angle grinder. I bolted it back together and lo-and-fuckin-behold, it stopped leaking.

So far I've only heat cycled it 3 times and driven it about 20 miles, but the coolant level is holding steady on the cold mark. Before, I would already need to add an inch or two to the reservoir. I'm not going to call it a clear win yet, we'll see how it holds up after putting some real miles on it.

Bimmerforums is struggling to accept the news: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2087375-Gut-Check-Attempting-to-Fix-a-Seeping-Head-Gasket-Tomorrow-by-Replacing-Head-Bolts :lol:

That forum really seems to struggle with critical thinking and reading comprehension sometimes. The audience is smaller on bimmerfest but the people taking the time to comment usually have the experience to back up their opinions.

I also threw a new fan blade on the fan clutch, and ordered a new set of clutch and brake pedal bushings I haven't installed yet.

My better half is starting a new job and will be out of town for most of the next month, so I think I'll keep myself occupied by knocking out some minor projects and cosmetic things to really polish this turd before the MM show and Bfest later in the summer. :thumbup:

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - Senor_Taylor - 03-17-2014

Nice!

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - *insertusernamehere* - 03-17-2014

sjpgoalie - :vomit: :vomit:

what a paaaiinn

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - SlimKlim - 03-17-2014

Lol he's really going down with this ship. I understand his logic but he's looking at a blue sky and trying to tell me it's red.

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - xvxax - 03-18-2014

Did you do a leakdown/compression test before? It might be interesting to see what the results are after.

Might help determine if there is still a real issue outside of the coolant leaking, if you care.

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - SlimKlim - 03-18-2014

Nope, never bothered to borrow/rent the tool to check compression. It still purrs buttery smooth at idle and the general butt dyno consensus is that it feels "about like it should."

Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to do one just as a general checkup, but I'm kind of thinking I'll just run this motor into the ground and drop a much younger 3.2L into it if/when it really breaks.

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - navin - 03-18-2014

You'll want a leakdown tester over a compression tester if you want to see if the headgasket has sealed up... Do BMW people not use ARP headstuds, being re-useable and it seems like it would be better to get those and replace all of them. But then again I dig the whole drive it to the ground idea as well.

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - D_Eclipse9916 - 03-18-2014

navin Wrote:You'll want a leakdown tester over a compression tester if you want to see if the headgasket has sealed up... Do BMW people not use ARP headstuds, being re-useable and it seems like it would be better to get those and replace all of them. But then again I dig the whole drive it to the ground idea as well.

I would not suggest ARP Headstuds. Not worth the money and headache of having to re-torque/get it right bs.

OEM and done. Been there/donethat.

BTW now my car is diffuser-less because Matt can't make it out this week. Great.............

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - Sully - 03-18-2014

D_Eclipse9916 Wrote:BTW now my car is diffuser-less because Matt can't make it out this week. Great.............

You're not talking about me, are you? I wouldn't think so because I never was asked to transport a diffuser but I was a last minute drop and my name is Matt Wink

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - SlimKlim - 03-18-2014

D_Eclipse9916 Wrote:
navin Wrote:You'll want a leakdown tester over a compression tester if you want to see if the headgasket has sealed up... Do BMW people not use ARP headstuds, being re-useable and it seems like it would be better to get those and replace all of them. But then again I dig the whole drive it to the ground idea as well.

I would not suggest ARP Headstuds. Not worth the money and headache of having to re-torque/get it right bs.

OEM and done. Been there/donethat.

BTW now my car is diffuser-less because Matt can't make it out this week. Great.............

Yeah the OEM ones are $15/set, I don't think ARP is worth it unless you're building a turbo motor or something.

My bad DJ, you can have it back for the weekend if you want. :wink:

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - SlimKlim - 03-21-2014

Headgasket is holding up so far.

Throwout bearing is shot. Guess I have a new summer project to add to the list.

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - Jake - 03-23-2014

SlimKlim Wrote:Headgasket is holding up so far.

Throwout bearing is shot. Guess I have a new summer project to add to the list.

Swap to automatic, problem solved.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - D_Eclipse9916 - 03-24-2014

SlimKlim Wrote:Headgasket is holding up so far.

Throwout bearing is shot. Guess I have a new summer project to add to the list.

WTF. lol. You seriously get all the bad luck ever.

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - SlimKlim - 03-24-2014

I know, it's not bad, but I can hear it starting to act up when I'm in a parking garage or something... and the HG isn't holding up that well after all, I probably succeeded in making it leak 1/4th or 1/3rd as bad as it was, but didn't completely stop it.

I fully accepted the fact that this drivetrain has an expiration date, an approaching one.

I figure I can set aside some money, and (assuming it passes a leak down test) pull the drivetrain out, do all the seals and gaskets, replace the clutch and associated components, do a new HG, new rod bearings, get the head planed and put it all back together for maybe $12-1500 depending on how lost in the small parts I get.

OR, I could save up $2500-3k, buy a healthy, leak free <130k mile full S52+trans and drop the entire thing into the car, then sell my old heap of shit for whatever it's worth. It would obviously cost more, but be a little less involved and give me a transmission/engine/accessories with considerably less mileage on them, and I'd get those all important extra 0.2Ls.

I'm 100% open to suggestions, earliest this will happen is this winter. I have too many other financial priorities to stick a knife in my savings account right now. I've got a bad itch for a slightly more luxurious, warrantied daily driver (The MKV is approaching 70k and I don't love it enough to put new suspension/cooling system parts on it, I'd rather nab a nice Autobahn package 4-door MKVI with <40k miles for <$20k when prices drop this summer), and I'm probably gonna buy an engagement ring or some shit soon. Throw that on top of moving this summer and saving money like a fiscally responsible adult is supposed to and "new engine for the toy car" ends up way at the bottom of your list.

In more upbeat news, I met up with Chris Drinkuth last weekend who took some ridiculously good photos of the car. Dude is truly a master of his art.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/primo-lifestyle/
https://www.facebook.com/PrimoLifestyle

[Image: VLzbfFf.jpg]

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - Goodspeed - 03-24-2014

The car is looking awesome...the next time I have a vehicle worth taking photos of, I have to remember to have a pro do a shoot.

Also, my heart aches for your sanity and wallet every time I read the latest post in this thread, it seems like some stupid little thing is always breaking on you - I probably would've lost my mind at this point. I kind of want to see you do a full rebuild of the current motor partly because I think it'd be so cathartic to dispel all the little gremlins one at a time :lol:

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - V1GiLaNtE - 03-24-2014

Goodspeed Wrote:I kind of want to see you do a full rebuild of the current motor partly because I think it'd be so cathartic to dispel all the little gremlins one at a time :lol:

Kickstarter Program. Code name "Long Live the Douchebaggery"

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - SlimKlim - 03-24-2014

:lol: I like it.

Completely rebuilding what's in there is definitely an option, we'll just have to see how much extra cash I have to light on fire when the time comes. It would be really satisfying to get this motor back to 100%.

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - SlimKlim - 03-26-2014

Uno mas.

[Image: W3XDpts.jpg]

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - V1GiLaNtE - 03-26-2014

[Image: teehee.png]

Re: The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebagger - .RJ - 03-26-2014

[Image: post-29680-its-like-magic-gif-Leo-Fitz-Ag-loKN.gif]