Hey all,
Picked up this '82 E21 320i 5 speed over the weekend with some help from my buddy Jack (JaxS50.) The PO claimed it had a cracked head and so I figured I'd pick it up for the interior if nothing else and swap it into the brown car I got from Kellie.
Anyway, the night before I was going to pick it up I had a conversation with the PO. I asked him "how do you know it's a cracked head? Did they pull the head? Do a compression test? Anything?" He said no, that he'd not driven the car for 8 months and when he did there was some "smoke" out of the exhaust. It was also overheating. So he took it to a mechanic at Black Forest BMW in Newport and the guy who looked at it (and I quote) popped the hood, said 'I know what that is, it's a cracked head. $1400 is what it will take to fix it.' The PO drove the car home and put it up for sale.
So Saturday we got the car home via a trailer after we went to Cars & Coffee and I started cleaning it up. I started by cleaning the filthy engine bay so I could find the leaking coolant or whatever the mechanic must have seen to make such a quick diagnosis. I also checked the radiator, and it turned out to be more than halfway empty. Hmm...
Long story short, as far as I can tell there was no cracked head, or even a blown head gasket. There's no milkshake, no smoke, no coolant smell in the exhaust and the coolant level has stayed the same since I topped it off. I drove it to work today and it has plenty of power. At 90+ degrees outside it still stays at about 3/8 on the temp gauge, and if it sits for a long period it will go just past the halfway point and then the aux fan kicks on.
It was resprayed at some point and the paint is starting to fail on the roof and hood. It was a decent job, since the jambs and most of the engine bay are painted too, so I'll probably just get it reshot the same color again. Other than paint, a full tuneup and some rubber exhaust hangers are all it needs. I'm going to run some weaves on it as soon as my spacers arrive since I just sold my Hartge classics to someone last week. :up:
Anyway, sorry for the book but I'm pretty stoked by the car and the price I got for it. Not bad for a $900 car. It's going to be a terrific DD, I think. Only downside is no A/C (it's plumbed but the compressor is gone.) Oh well, I'll drive the cabrio or E39 if it gets ridiculously hot out.
Thanks for looking,
Tim
Picked up this '82 E21 320i 5 speed over the weekend with some help from my buddy Jack (JaxS50.) The PO claimed it had a cracked head and so I figured I'd pick it up for the interior if nothing else and swap it into the brown car I got from Kellie.
Anyway, the night before I was going to pick it up I had a conversation with the PO. I asked him "how do you know it's a cracked head? Did they pull the head? Do a compression test? Anything?" He said no, that he'd not driven the car for 8 months and when he did there was some "smoke" out of the exhaust. It was also overheating. So he took it to a mechanic at Black Forest BMW in Newport and the guy who looked at it (and I quote) popped the hood, said 'I know what that is, it's a cracked head. $1400 is what it will take to fix it.' The PO drove the car home and put it up for sale.
So Saturday we got the car home via a trailer after we went to Cars & Coffee and I started cleaning it up. I started by cleaning the filthy engine bay so I could find the leaking coolant or whatever the mechanic must have seen to make such a quick diagnosis. I also checked the radiator, and it turned out to be more than halfway empty. Hmm...
Long story short, as far as I can tell there was no cracked head, or even a blown head gasket. There's no milkshake, no smoke, no coolant smell in the exhaust and the coolant level has stayed the same since I topped it off. I drove it to work today and it has plenty of power. At 90+ degrees outside it still stays at about 3/8 on the temp gauge, and if it sits for a long period it will go just past the halfway point and then the aux fan kicks on.
It was resprayed at some point and the paint is starting to fail on the roof and hood. It was a decent job, since the jambs and most of the engine bay are painted too, so I'll probably just get it reshot the same color again. Other than paint, a full tuneup and some rubber exhaust hangers are all it needs. I'm going to run some weaves on it as soon as my spacers arrive since I just sold my Hartge classics to someone last week. :up:
Anyway, sorry for the book but I'm pretty stoked by the car and the price I got for it. Not bad for a $900 car. It's going to be a terrific DD, I think. Only downside is no A/C (it's plumbed but the compressor is gone.) Oh well, I'll drive the cabrio or E39 if it gets ridiculously hot out.
Thanks for looking,
Tim
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