Sina's BMW 318i: Project Re-Shell & Beyond! (Starting Page 46)

[trackjunkie21]

mad tyte yo.

[freeride53]

E30 Down guys. :(
see M42 forum for details..

[freeride53]

Today's Work: Dropped the oil-pan off the car.
Found a little piece inside the pan, any idea of what it could be?

[freeride53]

[Eecen]

Its either part of a chain guide (plastic), or part of your timing chain (metal).
Whichever it is, your going to have to take both timing covers off, and a hole bunch of other fun shit to get that fixed.

I suggest you do some reading:
http://www.m42club.com/forums/showth...ght=thermostat

http://www.esatclear.ie/~bpurcell/318istimingchain.html

[freeride53]

Its either part of a chain guide (plastic), or part of your timing chain (metal).
Whichever it is, your going to have to take both timing covers off, and a hole bunch of other fun shit to get that fixed.

I suggest you do some reading:

http://www.m42club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32&highlight=thermostat

http://www.esatclear.ie/~bpurcell/318istimingchain.html

Thanks Eecen. I've heard about these gremlins before.
Is it true that they are notorious for causing severe damage over time?

[Roysneon]

M50 swap.

[trackjunkie21]

It's all caused by the shitty timing chain design, Now you definitely need a new tensioner, chain, guides and sprockets. Those look to be like pieces of your timing rails.

[freeride53]

It's all caused by the shitty timing chain design, Now you definitely need a new tensioner, chain, guides and sprockets. Those look to be like pieces of your timing rails.

Oui. Kamil, do you know that if these are known to cause severe engine damage over time? I'm worried that I've driven on this for a little bit, w/o knowing of the problem...

[trackjunkie21]

Oui. Kamil, do you know that if these are known to cause severe engine damage over time? I'm worried that I've driven on this for a little bit, w/o knowing of the problem...

well it'll just cause accelerated wear on the guides. replace the tensioner 100%, I rather be on the lookout for an m50 or something, If you were closer I would have gave you my m42 for a good price.

[Eecen]

Is it true that they are notorious for causing severe damage over time?

Eventually it can lead to a pretty dramatic failure. How long will it take? ..who knows.

sheepdog, over on m42club had a bad experience.

http://www.m42club.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8127#post8127

I think you really have two options atm. Either leave the engine as-is and start working on a swap; or fix the m42 you have.
You also could buy another m42 and swap it in, just make sure it doesn't have broken guides too.


If you only found one piece in your pan chances are only one guide is deteriorating, and you should be able to get away with just replacing the bad guide, chain, and tension-er (if its old). Also a good time to do water pump/t-stat/oil filter housing gasket/front main seal/etc. Doing this will cost far less than a properly done swap, unless you get lucky with buying an engine.

I've never taken the timing chain off an m42, but it doesn't seem like a hard job to do if you have the tools and patience.


I was worried I'd be in the same boat as you, so this whole situation is really fresh in my mind..but I got lucky an didn't find a broken guide.

M42s are just noisy....

[freeride53]

Thanks for all the great advice Eecen.
I did only find one small piece in the pan, so that may hopefully be to my luck.
I've already dug into the bank with parts for the engine this week, so I'm gonna go ahead and keep at this particular M42.
So far I've added to the shopping cart:
-Timing Chain
-Time Chain Guide Rail
-Time Chain Tensioner
-Time Chain Tensioner Guard

However, I'm looking into my aunt's service records (from whom I bought the car).
She was really up on servicing the car regularly, and it was all done @ BMW.
Do you think that if the chain/other components were replaced within several years, that they would still need replacing? Again guys, thanks for all the great information. I'm still learning about this car. This is my first time tearing into a BMW engine.

[freeride53]

Thoughts? Now its probably time to take apart the whole front end so i can get to ze front, after practice tonight. :(

[dude8383]

How bout some pics of the sprockets?

[trackjunkie21]

From that angle they look to be sharp and in dire need of replacement.