Author Topic: New Engine Suddenly Running on 3 Cylinders (Read 10676 times)

bmwman91 · « **Reply #15 on:** August 13, 2012, 11:21:04 PM »

Alright, I am going to give this a couple of days of thought. I can't pull the motor to ship it back any sooner than Saturday, so I have no choice but to wait anyway!

The issue is a partially seized exhaust valve, at least as far as I can tell. A mirror and flashlight seem to show that the rear exhaust valve for cylinder 2 isn't closing fully. It is so oily & dirty in there that it is hard to tell. Once I pull the motor it will be easier to tell what is actually going on. At this point both MM and I are in disbelief that this could happen and they are committed to doing right by me. If this somehow were to end up being my fault, then god help me lol. I certainly do not recall dropping any screwdrivers in there!

I have a really great group of friends, family and a very understanding fiancee. So, I think that I can keep the E30 without completely pissing off everyone that I care about. I will be talking with MM about a repair, and I hope to hell that I get many years of irresponsible driving fun out of this car thereafter. I assume it will take a month with cross-country shipping 2 ways and all, but I don't really need a car on a daily basis, and I have been 4 months without so what's one more?

So, wish me luck! I may have overreacted a bit initially...the disappointment was crushing given that I have dreamed about this motor for 6 years. I am sure that it will be fine, MM is THE name in performance BMW engines and I am willing to trust them with this.

Thanks for the support guys!

wazzu70 · « **Reply #16 on:** August 14, 2012, 01:39:31 AM »

Thats the spirit! You will sort it out I am sure. The guys at MM are standup dudes too so I feel things will go well from that end too.

Wish you lived closer, I would be itching to get my hands dirty solving this problem for you.

When its all over, you will be glad you stuck with it.

doitover · « **Reply #17 on:** August 14, 2012, 06:47:23 AM »

I absolutely believe you are making the right choice for the situation you are in. Thanks for taking us along for the ride.

///m42 sport · « **Reply #18 on:** August 19, 2012, 10:43:49 PM »

curious to see what was your outcome? hopefully it worked out cuz i want to hear your experience with the mm engine

bmwman91 · « **Reply #19 on:** August 20, 2012, 07:56:23 AM »

I got the engine pulled, stripped and onto the pallet yesterday. It is definitely a stuck exhaust valve. Jim over at MM has a few theories about why, and assures me that it will be fixed and never happen again. There seem to be a lot of small aluminum shavings in the oil so I ask them to pull the bottom end and timing case apart to back flush all of the oil passages.

///m42 sport · « **Reply #20 on:** August 20, 2012, 03:07:46 PM »

damn, whats the turnaround?

Nick_318is · « **Reply #21 on:** August 20, 2012, 04:35:28 PM »

Sorry to hear about the issues you're having. I was really looking forward to seeing some photos/video of your new m42 running. Hopefully everything gets straightened out and you can continue to enjoy the e30, sorry that it will be another couple of months before everything is worked out.

bmwman91 · « **Reply #22 on:** August 20, 2012, 07:49:25 PM »

Quote from: ///m42 sport;114944

damn, whats the turnaround?

About a week to get from CA to MO, 7-10 working days to basically build me a new head (maybe a day or two more because of my request to disassemble the bottom end and timing case to flush the oil passages), and a week to get it back. So, around a month. I have been without a car for 4 months as it is, so 1 more won't really make a difference.

Quote from: Nick_318is;114946

Sorry to hear about the issues you're having. I was really looking forward to seeing some photos/video of your new m42 running. Hopefully everything gets straightened out and you can continue to enjoy the e30, sorry that it will be another couple of months before everything is worked out.

I'll get photos up when the new new engine is back. I am sure that MM will correct whatever it is that went south and I will have an engine that I cna beat the crap out of for 200k+ miles.

streetwaves · « **Reply #23 on:** August 20, 2012, 09:04:58 PM »

Wow, I'm really sorry to hear about all of this. This is the kind of ordeal that can bring about that kind of reaction to where you want to just give up on the car. I've been there before. But I think you'd regret selling the thing, and it sounds like they're going to make good on the deal and you'll still have the chance to own something special.

DesktopDave · « **Reply #24 on:** August 20, 2012, 09:40:11 PM »

Good to hear that this is closing in on resolution. I feel for you - I think you've made a great choice, and we're all pulling for you...

Great to hear that MM stands by their work. I've always thought very highly of them since they keep no secrets. It's amazing that a car this old and this cheap can have so many great specialist vendors!

Geoff · « **Reply #25 on:** August 21, 2012, 08:47:43 AM »

holy moly, what a saga..I hope it works out for you, nothing more irritating than a brand new expensive motor that wont run. I once had a similiar thing happen with the rebuild of the cylinder head on my 64 sprite..I specced these expensive silicone bronze valve guides, which made the exhaust valve on one cylinder stick, turns out they need an extra couple thousanths of clearance compared to stock guides. these things happen...
good luck,
Geoff

bmwman91 · « **Reply #26 on:** August 21, 2012, 12:09:01 PM »

Thanks for the support guys. I'm sure that they will have interesting stuff to find when they receive the engine. It sounds like everyone there is extremely curious about what went wrong since this sort of thing seemingly never happens.

bmwman91 · « **Reply #27 on:** August 28, 2012, 05:46:39 PM »

OK, so MM got the engine and pulled it apart. The problem was a broken valve spring! They are doing some aggressive failure analysis and working with the spring manufacturer to understand why and how it happened. It's a shock to them and they want to have a 110% understanding of this since they use thousands of these springs across almost all of their 4 and 6 cylinder engines.

So as of now, it looks like neither they nor I are to blame. Neither of us made any mistakes as far as we are aware, and it may well be one of those statistical realities of life that I got the one-in-a-million bad valve spring.

danlolasdad · « **Reply #28 on:** August 28, 2012, 06:02:14 PM »

im glad this seems to be working out in the end

wazzu70 · « **Reply #29 on:** August 29, 2012, 12:05:26 PM »

Glad to hear they are fixing the problem. Also glad to hear they are researching the cause of failure, thats important.

Its not common for valve springs to break, but not uncommon either. Just a bummer it happened to you.