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E34 M50 car head gasket question

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    E34 M50 car head gasket question

    I bought an E34 with a bad head gasket and before I started tearing it apart to change the gasket I did a compression test. To my surprise the numbers were 200-215 across the board. Not bad for an engine with almost 200k. The oil looked clean and free of water and the coolant looked a nice blue color.

    I pulled the intake to change a few gaskets and check things out and when I finished it up and started bleeding the cooling system it seems to have an unlimited amount of air/steam and brown(exhaust?) steam.

    Could it be a cracked head and since i did the comp test when the engine was cold the crack had not separated the crack enough to loose pressure through it?

    A little confused here.
    Thanks guys!
    Your signature picture has been removed since it contained the Photobucket "upgrade your account" image.

    #2
    not sure, but I think you are right to assume cracked head because of the pressurized coolant system. My m42 had a similar ordeal where I could leave the bleed screw on the radiator open for 10 minutes or more and steam would quickly escape the entire time (like a whistle) - turned out to be a nasty crack between cylinders 2 +3, confirmed by a compression test and pulling the head.

    the compression test numbers are peculiar, and I think your theory about the crack is correct. Wouldn't hurt to take another test and see what is going on when up to temp!

    I haven't pulled a head off a e34 m50 but it looks super duper straight forward, almost identical to the m42 except 50% more haha.

    good luck man

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      #3
      A leak down test will probably tell you more but its safe to assume a potential hg problems exists but you should always send your cylinder head off to be cleaned, resurfaced and tested before you reinstall it on the engine.

      If its bad enough you can sometimes see the cracks as they tend to run from an exhaust valve seat to an exhaust side cooling port 99% of the time.

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        #4
        What did you find the problem to be?
        1991 318is, AWII, Eibach/GC, Koni
        Riverside CA

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