The OFFICIAL let's make Erick's M30 stop overheating thread

[M-technik-3]

Was wondering the same thing.

[Erick]

No updates fellas. I have just hit a point where it seems that we can't fully diagnose this. That I've heard, there are no more suggestions that are easy or inexpensive to check.


At this point, I'm too short on cash and any step from here would be drastic. Either I switch back to an M20 on boost, or I spend some $$$ on putting a nice radiator in the trunk and perform all the ducting/piping/fan work to make sure that I have a cooling system that'll outperform my car's temptation to run hot.

[Dominic49]

My radiator is going to the trunk next season. The s50 + boost + drift gets stupid hot.

[Farbin Kaiber]

Find a cheap, running example of the same engine, and swap it into your car/cooling system, if that overheats, it's the cooling system, if it don't, it's the longblock you are using.

I'm sure you can find a parts car, running, that does not overheat for >$500.

I think that would be within budget constraints to fully know WTF is up.

[Erick]

Find a cheap, running example of the same engine, and swap it into your car/cooling system, if that overheats, it's the cooling system, if it don't, it's the longblock you are using.

I'm sure you can find a parts car, running, that does not overheat for >$500.

I think that would be within budget constraints to fully know WTF is up.

I've searched locally for parts cars (found nothing actually <$1000) and as for motors the best I found was $500 for a short block through Redline BMW, that although has been "guaranteed" to be good, it's been sitting at the back of a shop (outside) for god knows how long.

Besides, as I mentioned, I'm low on funds and quite tired of spending money on diagnosing this crap. I spent over $200 in parts from radiator hoses to AFMs that I have no use for just to do trial and errors. Most of them were modified to my specific application, which would obviously not be able to be sold back at all. Quite honestly I am not ready to drop $500 to solve a BIG if, and then have to store a spare motor in storage until I can get rid of it.

[LowR3V'in]

:(

[Good & Tight]

I've searched locally for parts cars (found nothing actually <$1000) and as for motors the best I found was $500 for a short block through Redline BMW, that although has been "guaranteed" to be good, it's been sitting at the back of a shop (outside) for god knows how long.

Besides, as I mentioned, I'm low on funds and quite tired of spending money on diagnosing this crap. I spent over $200 in parts from radiator hoses to AFMs that I have no use for just to do trial and errors. Most of them were modified to my specific application, which would obviously not be able to be sold back at all. Quite honestly I am not ready to drop $500 to solve a BIG if, and then have to store a spare motor in storage until I can get rid of it.

Erick, Rennie sells good engines, infact my B34 was from him and was outside uncovered for over a year.

[Erick]

You know Otis, I don't doubt it. But $500 is still a lot of money to have a spare motor laying around.

[Farbin Kaiber]

Flip it afterward. Or, use it while you rebuild the one that is in there now.

[chadthestampede]

I may be looking for an afm soon if you have an extra one lying around. I'll let you know. I'd like to help in any way possible.

I would try to do some more digging on mye28 too, but we've been through most of everything :(

[ForcedFirebird]

Hey Erick, you know I got the stuff to tune Motronic now and would like to take a look at your chip. Have an awesome OBD1 tuner visiting from Indiana, we tweaked my car and it's running awesome! I mentioned your car to him and he said if you aren't using the right chip in your ECU, then the timing could be too retarded and cause overheating.

Have you always used the same ECU? Are you sure it's the right chip in it, since we know the m20 ECU will rung the 3.5? Would you be willing to come by and let me read your the chip, and maybe change the .bin a little? Not like there's much to lose at this point in trying.

[kylekrueger]

I didn't have time to read through all 11 pages so please excuse me if I repeat anything.

I saw that you mentioned that you popped your head gasket when your car overheated and I'm wondering if any oil got into the cooling passages. Because if that is so then there could be some oil/coolant gunk at the bottom of your radiator. However now that I think about it you would probably notice pieces of it floating through the cooling system. But it is something worth checking on. Another thing to check is your thermostat. I would take it out and test it in some hot water to make sure both heat sensitive springs are functioning properly. If it is functioning properly then I would try using a 71 degree thermostat and see if that changes anything. The water in the car should not be boiling seeing as that the boiling pt. of water is 212 degrees Fahrenheit. I would check for hairline fractures in the radiator end tanks seeing as they are plastic and plastic sucks in my opinion. Also when you installed the new engine did you check the water pump. That could be leaking or broken. If it is broken which sometimes happens but is rare because it is a metal water pump then there could simply be stagnant water in your engine which would obviously cause cooling issues.

Now I know you probably have done all you can to bleed the system so I don't want to beat a dead horse here but I had some bleeding issues on my b35 where I actually had to fill up the block water passages by taking out the thermostat housing plug behind the thermostat. I think the plug is a blue or yellow topped coolant temp sender, but in either case try to actually fill the block with water through that hole. I had to do this after my upper radiator hose popped and proceeded to dump all the coolant out of the block. When I tried to fill it up and bleed normally for what ever reason no water would go into the block (thats another issue, for another day) and then when I filled the block directly through that plug (behind the thermostat) it solved the problem. Also try bleeding the system from one of these plugs instead because sometimes little pockets of air will get trapped under them, especially the plugs with no senders in them (only bolts).

One last point, ForcedFirebird had a great point to check the timing I would do that first and foremost because as he said if the chip is really retarding timing it will overheat the engine.

sorry for the long post, I feel you pains though, I had cooling issues for so long.

[ForcedFirebird]

Theory has been proven. I put a low/part throttle ignition map that had the timing reduced, and well, it was mimicking your car. Ran 3/4 on the coolant temp, raising as I got on it, but I am sure you aren't seeing it in avg driving. Week is almost over, when you comin by? hehe

So far we have tuned Rev's car, Roy's car, Livingston's car and my car, everyone is happy with results. You won't believe the difference in performance as well as overall driving experience.

I vote that somewhere along the line, the ECU you are using is from an M20 since they are the same call #'s (DME #).