Post surgery it wasn’t easy looking out the window at my immobile, pollen collecting heap. Day after day it sat, spring became summer, and summer turned to fall. The most attention it received were a few sporadic leaf blowings to knock off decaying leaves and squirrel poop. I stayed patient despite being months behind schedule in my recovery, until finally I was the green light to resume “light” activity.
By this point I’d stockpiled $3k+ in FCP parts. Cooling hoses, CSF radiator, expansion tank, water pump, thermostat, clutch, valve cover, engine mounts, pulleys, vanos solenoids, spark plugs, coils, supporting gaskets, one time aluminum hardware. I also went ahead and splurged on a JB racing lightweight flywheel, because I’ll be damned if after doing all this work my car isn’t a little bit faster. The only thing missing was the most important piece, and it was time to hit the junkyard.
On the first go we visited Chesterfield Auto in Richmond to pull a 120k mile motor out of a manual 328i. My friend was going to take the transmission, so it made sense for both of us. This was a “U-Pull It” operation, so we were surprised to see the trans sitting next to the car with only the dual mass missing. Unfortunately a quick peek inside the valve cover showed significant corrosion and water logging, making it easy to rule the motor out as a candidate. My friend did take the trans though.
The next attempt took us to Pick A Part VA in Stafford. This place is a little different in that the engines are ready to go and brought out on a forklift. They had a 76k motor ready out of an automatic for $1000, so I was pretty excited to grab it. Alarm bells started going off when it came out to the pickup truck looking rougher than advertised, clearly having been stored outside. It was banged up and covered in mud, but with a 90 day warranty and no other options on site I took it home.
On the way home I looked up the VIN while my buddy drove since they wouldn't give it over the phone. Turns out there was a reason they didn’t give it to me, as the donor car had been in multiple head on collisions, and had 123k miles instead of the 76k shared with me!
Once I got it home I took off the valve cover and saw a number of red flags. The camshafts were opaque instead of shiny where they contact the rollers, and had significant corrosion. The rollers themselves were pitted, and the amount of varnish indicated long oil change intervals. To my surprise, the bearing ledges looked solid but I’d already decided the other top end damage and mileage were enough reasons to send it back. I was pissed.
After getting on the phone, they agreed to make it right by swapping for a 69k mile motor (nice). The carfax showed it was out of an automatic X-drive 528i that was rear-ended which is ideal. It was missing the valve cover and some spark plugs, but I chose to believe it was due to someone testing the motor before pulling it. Giving it a once-over validated just how rough of condition the first candidate was in, and my gut said the second time would be the charm.
This experience left me with the following junkyard engine takeaways.
- Always pull the valve cover. You can learn a lot by checking the valvetrain.
- Make sure it turns over by hand.
- Assume the junkyard is trying to screw you. On top of misleading me on the first motor’s condition, they added a $125 credit card fee without telling me and ran my card.
With a motor in hand, I could finally put my wallet down and start picking up some tools.