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M50 cooling nightmare HELP

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    M50 cooling nightmare HELP

    To preface, I am going to go way into depth so someone can hopefully give me some insight as to what may be going on.

    Bought my 1991 m50 NV swapped 318is back in January and drove it 7 hours back to Boise. I couldn't have been any happier as this is my first e30. Until about 45 minutes away from home after stopping for gas, as I was accelerating back onto the freeway and the car completely shut off. Then about 45 seconds to a minute later, turns back on and drives away just fine. It would continue to do this once and a while and I noticed it would only do it after it would sit at idle and temps would go up. Fast forward 3 weeks later it turned off on me 7 times while on my way to work. Obviously then I couldn't deny there was an issue that needed to be addressed.
    I decided to replace the majority of the cooling system due to the issue happening at higher temps (radiator, thermostat, and water pump) along with the main relay. This seemed to have helped, as the complete shut off issue had subsided, but still would happen once in a blue moon, but the car would continue to heat up while at idle, then cool back down as I would drive. At first I thought I may have not bled the system correctly, so I rebled it multiple times with the help from a friend. For some reason, the fan would not turn on until 3/4 of the way on the gauge, almost in the red. I had an 85 degree Celsius temp switch (I just recently replaced with a 40 degree Celsius switch, which now makes the fan turn on at the proper half way point). This went on for some time, then for the first time in a while the car shut off twice within 5 minutes of the first time temps were climbing as I was sitting in a drive through, but not in the red.

    Now as for the cooling issue, I did some research and found that it will help if I move my electric fan over to the drivers side of the radiator from the passenger side. I have yet to do that but plan on doing it here soon. But the random loss of power, I am at a complete loss for. I cant help but feel like the two issues could be related, but I could be wrong. Any and every piece of advice is appreciated!

    #2
    Are you losing coolant? Is it overheating because of burning coolant or is it boiling ? Since you have a 318iS you are probably running the stock radiator. Many have reported problems bleeding that setup. You could also block test for exhaust gases in the coolant if it's disappearing. My overheating/coolant loss was caused by a bad headgasket.
    "I'd probably take the E30 M3 in this case just because I love that little car, and how tanky that inline 6 is." - thecj

    85 323i M TECH 1 S52 - ALPINEWEISS/SCHWARZE
    88 M3 - LACHSSILBER/SCHWARZE
    89 M3 - ALPINEWEISS II/M TECH CLOTH-ALCANTARA
    91 M TECHNIC CABRIO TURBO - MACAOBLAU/M TECH CLOTH-LEATHER

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      #3
      what size fan are you using?... you need a fan that can move a lot of air..... SPAL 16 is the preferred one... make sure the blade is facing he right way.. pusher/puller

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        #4
        Originally posted by reelizmpro View Post
        Are you losing coolant? Is it overheating because of burning coolant or is it boiling ? Since you have a 318iS you are probably running the stock radiator. Many have reported problems bleeding that setup. You could also block test for exhaust gases in the coolant if it's disappearing. My overheating/coolant loss was caused by a bad headgasket.
        Pretty sure its boiling. I have not noticed the coolant level sit below the cold line in the expansion tank. But I will keep a closer eye on that.

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