Blown HG, cracked head, or....?

[KnighTT]

Ok, so... new to the group, new to the car, but need help immediately.

Yesterday I purchased a 2008 135i w/ step. 128k miles. Great condition. $6,800. Love the car. Took forever to find one.

So, the owner was up front that he got up one day and it was running rough. So he went down to a shop and they said is was throwing misfire codes and the coil packs needed replaced via the codes the car showed. Everything he mentioned about the conversation, and the behavior of the car, pointed in that direction. Easy fix - $150 worth of parts in my mind. Car started up fine. Idled fine. So I looked up the cost of parts before I purchased and moved ahead.

Drove 75% of the way home fine. Only was about 9 miles to get home. My plan was to park it, order the parts, install, then see what is what afterwards.

It threw a SES light about 75% the way back, after a hesitation I could feel, and went into limp mode. Running like one cylinder wasn't firing.

When I got it home I popped the hood and my heart exploded.

There was muddish mayo spitting and oozing out of the coolant reservoir. First thought....I just blew the head gasket on the way home or blew the head/engine. Thinking I just sold a perfectly rebuilt 100% functional Mini Cooper S and now have a useless car for who knows how long.

So....

This is what I experienced on the way home.
1. Started fine. Idle not great but no problems. No SES.
2. Drove fine. Accelerated fine. Kept it under 3k RPM.
3. Gave it a little throttle on the way home as I just bought it and wanted to feel at least 30% of the power. Fun.
4. Parked at a school to pick up a paper for my kid and it did start back up with misfires I could feel. It did drive OK but I knew I needed to get home ASAP.
5. Noticed the temp gauge was at 100 and was not showing a temp. The car was more than at temp by that time and should be showing something.
6. about 60% the way home I noticed the temp gauge was at 250. I don't recall it getting any higher by the time I got home.
7. Parked in the garage and found the issue.

SO...freaked out. Freaked out some more. Couple hours past and I got the car up on stands and checked things out.

Long story short.

1 - Light and old oil leak down the front of the engine and all down the bottom side of the engine down to tranny. Found out later it looks to be from around the oil filter housing. Probably been leaking for 2 years looking at the effected area.

2 - drained the oil
Now I was looking for two things.
1. Chocolate milk oil
2. Pieces of metal in the oil if I blew the block.

WHAT I FOUND
- Not one drop of coolant in the oil. No water. Nothing. Just oil.
- Not one glitter of metal. Old oil but nothing to show a blown block.
- Oil Filter housing is leaking from both gaskets. (I have the oil cooler)
- Oil filter had no metal in it or any pieces of anything.

SO.... good news I did not blow the block. I just rebuilt an entire Mini Cooper S last fall with a huge whole in the block. $5,000 in parts and 400 hours of labor. It was nice when I was done though. I don't want another project right now though needles to say.

So here is my questions?

- Blown Head gasket?
- Cracked head?
or
- Oil Filter housing leaking oil into coolant?
- Some fool selling a car with no mechanical knowledge dumped oil in the coolant reservoir?

TON of mayo oil in the coolant res but not one drop in the oil pan? To me that sounds a lot less like a cracked head/blown head gasket. IDK.

Whenever I rebuild a car I start with a forum full of people who actually have experience with what I am working with. I thank you all for any help you can provide.

Names Chris. I do all of my own work so my priority is finding out what went wrong and how much work is needed to fix it and the parts I will need to buy.

[titium]

sounds like your on the right track with the oil filter housing leaks.

my money is on oil filter housing gaskets. head gasket failures are extremely rare on these cars.

[bNks334]

+1 to "Oil Filter housing leaking oil into coolant?"

Change the gaskets, disconnect to coolant overflow tube, run the "electronic water pump bleed" procedure, and flush out all the goop with some hose water for a good flush!

Change oil and bleed coolant one last time with proper fluid before starting it again.

[KnighTT]

This is my best case scenario hope.

I'm going to order the coil packs and new spark plugs to install before I fire it back up.

[juld0zer]

See if you can also get a radiator flush chemical. Buy 3 bottles at least and use each as per the instructions. Flush using tap water a few times after each one. Trust me it will take a while to get it to a satisfactory level of cleanliness.

Like other suggested, start with the oil filter housing gaskets. If it's a super bad leak that has been festering for that long, chances are the fluids have mixed internally.

[KnighTT]

I yanked the upper radiator hose. It needs replaced anyway as the seal in the top coupler broke. $20 on Rock Auto.

It's odd how easy this stuff washes out. Even with cold water. I took a glob of it in my hand and it oddly doesn't stick to the skin or leave any residue behind. Such an odd consistency if it's oil based.

I'm going to put the car back together and figure out the best way to put a hose on one end and blast out the goop on the other. I want to get most of it out before I run the engine and start the flush.

In the mean time, while I wait for parts to get here, I am cleaning out the intake valves with some sea foam and some rotary brushes. Works like a charm. Seriously.

[Dackelone]

Oil is under up to 5 Bar(75 psi) of pressure, while the coolant cap is designed to blow off at 1.2Bar(18 psi, look on your cap for the exact pressure)... so... that means oil will always mix into the coolant and not the other way around.


So... that could mean a head gasket or OFH seal or trans cooler. I think you started in the right direction at the OFH.

They do make kits that you can ad some indicator fluid to your coolant and see IF there are HC's or CO2 in the coolant. One of those kits sell for around $50. It might be worth while as your next step. Also... I hope you are changing the oil.

You might want to open the DME area under the passenger side hood and look for evidence of a JB3/JB4. The N54/N55 engines are quite strong up until 16 psi... then things start to break when you run 18 or 22 psi thru them.

Dack

[juld0zer]

Yeah the trans cooler is the other possibility but you'd get shift issues and trans slip with it

[KnighTT]

Does anyone know what size socket fits the crank bolt?

I need to rotate the crank so I can clean the remaining two intake valves.

Kicking myself stalling my household goods shipment down here from Alaska. My entire master tool set is in storage in AK and all I have on me is a bag of tools I took with me for the rad trip to Atlanta.

[Havocsteve]

Is that the only way to move the crank without having a manual to push it a bit so you can close the seals to clean the valves? I've been wanting to clean the intake valves and such because they haven't been done and I'm reaching the 90k kms mark soon. So it should help with idle and response. I've seen manual cars being able to do this without hassle.

[KnighTT]

The easiest way would be to turn the crank with a socket and long breaker bar or actuate the starter motor with a jumper wire.

As I do not want to plug the battery back in while my engine is so disassembled, I'd like to manually turn the crank.

[juld0zer]

Off the top of my head, i cannot recall is there is an access flap in the lower bell housing. You could possibly use a pry bar against the flywheel ring gear to turn the engine. But that's a lot of jacking, crawling etc.. Id personally just go and get a cheap breaker bar and socket from your nearest auto parts shop

[captain slowly]

I think before you spend any money on anything, you need to do a compression test, so you can see if the HG is blown. If it isn't, start chasing the various leaks you have.

[KnighTT]

That is a great idea. I'll grab one while I'm picking up some parts from AutoZone tomorrow.

All of the parts will be in tomorrow. My weekend is dedicated to getting the oil filter housing back together, new coil packs and spark plugs, then it's get the car in the driveway and blast out an entire cooling system stuffed with mayo.

That ought to be fun....

I think if I get the cooling system cleaned, and the engine back up without issue, before I put coolant in it I'm going to take the front end off and power wash the engine and underside. It's an oily mess.

[KnighTT]

Just a drill and a 1/4" engine brush kit gets the intake valves cleaned up pretty good. I'd say about 95% as clean as walnut blasting with some time. JUst the brass bushes and some seafoam. Glad that is done because they were just nasty.

My LAST part did not come in today and that is the main OFHG. I can't put anything back together until it comes but it should be here tomorrow.

I am fast shipping a compression tester that actually has a 12mm adapter. I figure for $17 it is worth adding to the toolbox. Local auto parts stores had a kit for rnt but only had 14mm and 18mm adapters.

Tomorrow I will get the engine back together and then flush out off the goo in the cooling. I have a feeling just getting the goo out will take several hours.

[captain slowly]

hope all goes well. I'd do the compression test first, in case you have a blown HG, the entire thing has to come off, and replacing the oil filter gasket and whatever else will become that much easier to do... although I hope the HG is good, for your sake.

[Havocsteve]

Originally Posted by KnighTT

Just a drill and a 1/4" engine brush kit gets the intake valves cleaned up pretty good. I'd say about 95% as clean as walnut blasting with some time. JUst the brass bushes and some seafoam. Glad that is done because they were just nasty.

My LAST part did not come in today and that is the main OFHG. I can't put anything back together until it comes but it should be here tomorrow.

I am fast shipping a compression tester that actually has a 12mm adapter. I figure for $17 it is worth adding to the toolbox. Local auto parts stores had a kit for rnt but only had 14mm and 18mm adapters.

Tomorrow I will get the engine back together and then flush out off the goo in the cooling. I have a feeling just getting the goo out will take several hours.

Sounds good. I know I'll need to do this valve cleaning at some point in the near future. But that's on hold since the gf got into an accident

[KnighTT]

2 days to blast out all the sludge from the cooling channels. You would not believe the mess.

There had to be almost 2 quarts worth of sludge I puked out into buckets. Now the trick was that everything was 100% clogged. The radiator would not pass water. Same with the heater core. Same with every line. I'm going to have to acid wash my garage to look normal again.

Good news was that it was definitely engine oil and nothing from the transmission from what I can tell. They mayo turns black when it gets warm. I have a feeling that old oil had been leeching into the system for a long time.

Through research I can at least say that I did not do what happened to this car just from the drive home. This had to be preexisting. As long as that has nothing to do with head or HG failure, I will still call the purchase of this car a big win.

I put the car back together and filled the coolant system with distilled water and detergent to decrease it. I had the water pump cycle for 12 minutes and everything was moving around like it should. I've got some gunk already building in the expansion chamber I'll suck out in the morning.

I have a feeling this will take a few flushes to get it all out.

I'm going to hit Home Depot in the morning to get a battery charger so I can bring the car battery back up before I start to crank on it for the compression test.

I'll post up my compression findings tomorrow.

[Ginger_Extract]

I think you lucked out, big time. Sure, looks like a giant mess, but these engines are actually super robust and will handle a beating before popping a head gasket. It's everything bolted to the engine that fails lol.

[KnighTT]

I think I got 95% of the gunk out of the cooling today. I figure the rest will draw out when I get the engine up to temp and flush a few more times.

I went to pull compression today but the battery wasn't charged enough to get me a strong result on the first cyl. It came up 120psi but I could tell it was cranking very weak.

I've got a charger on the battery and will try again tomorrow after a full charge.

[KnighTT]

Compression tests look good.

1 - 165
2 - 155
3 - 160
4 - 165
5 - 165
6 - 155

I'm going to get the new plugs in, the new coil pack, and fire it up.

I'm going to leave the intercooler out for the moment so it is easier to drain the radiator. I am sure once the engine heats up more gunk will get dislodged in the cooling channels.

Praying for the best.

[studio54]

6800$ sounds a really good price !!