Hey R3V,
I've had my 91' 318is for nearly a year now, and a few days ago it had a major mechanical problem. I was driving over an overpass when all of a sudden the motor began making a very loud noise very similar to a diesel engine.
I shut the motor off immediately and coasted into a parking lot to have the car towed back home. First I ran a cold compression check and all the cylinders checked out at around 200 PSI. I pulled the valve cover and there was no carnage to be seen. I removed the spark plugs and didn't see any damage in the cylinders either. Later on I pulled the lower oil pan to see shards of plastic in the bottom, hence my suspicion of the timing chain guides. Ironically one of the first things I did to the car was replace the tensioner with the updated m44 part. The oil pickup was relatively clean, so I'm hoping nothing was sucked up into the motor.
Do you guys think the motor is salvageable, or is it best to get a better condition m42 and swap it in? This motor/chassis has ~141,000 on it. I have no problem doing the timing chain kit install, but I'm also not sure if this is a common failure. Worse comes to worse the car will be 24 valve swapped, but I'd like to keep it an m42 if possible.
What do you guys think?
Thanks,
Joey
I've had my 91' 318is for nearly a year now, and a few days ago it had a major mechanical problem. I was driving over an overpass when all of a sudden the motor began making a very loud noise very similar to a diesel engine.
I shut the motor off immediately and coasted into a parking lot to have the car towed back home. First I ran a cold compression check and all the cylinders checked out at around 200 PSI. I pulled the valve cover and there was no carnage to be seen. I removed the spark plugs and didn't see any damage in the cylinders either. Later on I pulled the lower oil pan to see shards of plastic in the bottom, hence my suspicion of the timing chain guides. Ironically one of the first things I did to the car was replace the tensioner with the updated m44 part. The oil pickup was relatively clean, so I'm hoping nothing was sucked up into the motor.
Do you guys think the motor is salvageable, or is it best to get a better condition m42 and swap it in? This motor/chassis has ~141,000 on it. I have no problem doing the timing chain kit install, but I'm also not sure if this is a common failure. Worse comes to worse the car will be 24 valve swapped, but I'd like to keep it an m42 if possible.
What do you guys think?
Thanks,
Joey
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