E30 318i Head gasket

[lazyE30]

hey all this is my first bimmer and i figured it was a steal at 1000 with just some fucked up paint and a blown headgasket... well.. blowing headgasket it still runs it s just really slow the oil is milky and unless i fill the radiator with water and run the fan the whole time it overheats.. so im assuming the head gasket is going my question is if its hard to do.. i thought the motor was an m20 at first but then i saw that those came in 325's so i don t really know what engine it is.. i just know its a 4..sorry, but anyways i bought a manual and the only scary thought i m having about doing it is redoing the timing.. it was a bitch on my honda but the manual says these have timing chains im just curious if it s a pain to get the timing stuff back into place or not i looked for a diy on it but none where any specific.. any info would be nice thanks

[lazyE30]

cmon....anybody? i just need to know if redoing the timing after the gaskets on is as much of a hassle as i think...

[ZinRot325i]

It's an M10.

You can do it, but you've got to be somewhat careful.

I always thought it was an easy job but I'm a glutton for punishment.

[lazyE30]

cool thanks thats what i needed to know are they normally all that slow

[ZinRot325i]

Define "slow"?

You can MAKE them decent/fast, but I've owned bikes with more HP than a 318 so....

They're good on gas, and rev happy. They're fun like that.
Not so much for dragracing.

[lazyE30]

oh ok mines isnt very rev happy anymore.... probably alot to due with the headgasket and the fact it was sitting in a lot for months, but yeah ny drivings usually all about rev happy motors... im just eager to get this thing running.. is there big aftermarket for the motors? i just ask cause whenever i ask anybody about work on a bimmer or help they make a big deal like its a rotary or something....

[SoopaGhetto]

To answer your timing question: no its not hard at all! there are some markings on ur crank pully to tell TDC. Also if you remove your valve cover there is also a markin on the cam pulley. Just line the cam pulley with the little marker on the head. Let me know if you need more help...i have pics

[e30trooper]

I need a headgasket on my m10, any idea what someone might charge me? i dont have the work space to do somthing liek this since i live in apts. but i am burning coolant cuz theres white smoke and when i changed the spark plugs they was burnt so i have a hot cyl.

[Jean]

$50 for a head gasket kit from autohausaz.com, or just the head gasket by itself is about half of that. I would say you are looking at 3-4 hours of labor unless there are more problems etc.

I took me about 6 hours to do the head / all gaskets / manifold / tb / injectors swapped the first time. It's no fun, but it's not that hard.

[e30trooper]

only if i had a place to do that kind of work , i might have to pay someone to do it for me, sucks...., ill drive up to sac town and pay you haha jk

[Jean]

I would yank the POS m10 out and put something else in to tell you the truth. Not worth the labor imho to do a head gasket swap.

[xwill112x]

what year is your car?

[e30trooper]

84 318i, i dont have loads of money tho, i have around 500-600 every two week but yea i go check to check. id love for a swap even an m20 swap but i have nor the place or time to do this thats y its sucks. i do liek the fact the m10 isnt so bad when turbod :D but when i was lookin into a e30 i got this cuz the car was basicly a steal, i paid 300 bux for it, clean title, new tires, runs decent, has small rear 1/4 scraps (m3 fenders will hide that ) and its only 170k , 300 bux couldt pass that up haha

[e30trooper]

im pretty sure i could turn around and sell it for 1000-1200 easly the fact its clean title, rwd and 5speed and soon it will be smoggd legaly