ETA Head Gasket troubles?

[jeffnhiscars]

If it turns out you need an eta head, I've got Alices old head on a shelf (build thread is in my sig). 134k w a true little old lady original owner...not sure if she drove to church on Sunday :)

[LateFan]

TobyB - good one! My little city is 80k-ish, the head replacement was in a place of about 4500 an hour away.

Jeff - thanks! Little old lady who only drove Sundays....in the autocross!

So...it's been several weeks. He's watching it like a hawk now. He drained a bit of oil out of the pan and it was normal - no coolant. He changed it anyway with fresh. Coolant color is normal and not dropping. Never gets hot driving. The dipstick schmoo has never reappeared. I don't think the problem has gone away, but he feels like maybe he missed an oil change so there were some miles on it, he moved to a humid place, then it sat a while, and it's all been very short trips to work since then.

So..... a little bit of leakage at the HG? Some condensation in the system from not getting it warm and driving it? I can't tell from here. He's having a difficult time getting into a good shop to do a leak-down and a coolant pressure test. Emailed a local autocross car club to see if he could learn what the good shops are.

Now he's decided to drive 700 miles and back tomorrow on a 3-day surprise work break. Central Illinois to Baltimore and back. He changed the oil again, checked all fluids, and is taking spare. He'll keep it slow, 65-70 (is that normal over there on Interstates?) Make sure it doesn't get warm, take breaks and check it. AAA card. He feels confident in it.

[TobyB]

he moved to a humid place, then it sat a while, and it's all been very short trips to work since then.

It will be fine. That little bit of goo was probably condensing inside the dipstick, and dripped onto it when he pulled it.

The E30 in particular (and BMWs in general) dump a lot of moisture in their warmup cycle. Some of that water
(as vapor) gets into the oil via the rings. If the oil never gets up to temperature, it'll condense in all the cool,
high places (top of the dipstick, oil cap, etc).

We get that around here in the E39 that drives the 2 miles to town. But not in the E46s that commute
the 30 miles to "da ciddy".

t
wouldn't worry about that.
And I worry about waaaay too much chit.

[LateFan]

Very helpful advice, thank you.

This car just drove 700 miles straight shot to Baltimore - not a sign of any issue with any fluid, no goo, and it got 30 mpg...... (!)

I worry too much too - he's my kid! So, fingers crossed still but very pleased.

[LateFan]

Welp, that car is back in IL after 1500 trouble free miles. Oil still looks new he says.

[jeffnhiscars]

One of my favorite questions when car shopping is to ask the seller is what would they do to it before their kid drove it 1000miles back to college. It's the acid test and you passed it seems with flying colors

[LateFan]

We dodged another one! The last time he did this he drove across the country a couple of weeks after we finished swapping in a manual. Man my fingers were crossed then!

He still has an external oil leak from the exhaust side of the head gasket about cylinders 2 3. I'm assuming that head will have to come off again sometime.

Thanks for the advice everyone.