From digest.v4.n827 Thu Jul 11 01:14:49 1996
From: Jeff.Dinkins_at_Eng.Sun.COM (Jeff Dinkins)
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 10:50:30 -0700
Subject: Re: 318 Series Engine Problem?

>From: Wayne Sos <wsos_at_worldnet.att.net>
>Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 08:31:55 -0400
>Subject: 318 Series Engine Problem?
>
>I just purchased a 91 318is for my daughter. I have a BMW mechanic who
>works for JMK in NJ that services my 94 325i (Saturday extra cash
>guy!). Prior to purchasing the 318 I asked him if there were any
>problems that I should look out for -- he said to check to see if the
>head gasket had been replaced ( and it should have).

I just bought one too (91 318is). Had it for less than month when the coolant suddenly decided to drain out of the car. I took it into Dinan Engineering (I live 4 miles away from them) and they fixed it. Cost: $1,300. Ouch!

While it was in the shop, I poked around on the net, and found at least 4 other owners who had the same problem. I also found this in the FAQ under the E30 section:

According to both an independent BMW repair place and a dealer here in Monterey (CA), early twin cam 1.8 liter fours, as in 1991-1992 US 318i and 318is models, have a propensity for losing their coolant catastrophically from between the head and the block.

As described to me, there is an O-ring that seals a coolant port from the block into the head, forward end. Normally would be within the head gasket, but for some reason they used an O-ring. Corrosion in the head's aluminum, under the O-ring seat, can eventually allow coolant to get by the O-ring, resulting, naturally, in loss of coolant. The BMW dealer says to expect it every 50k miles! It may be visible as a trickle off the right front side of the engine before things get too far along, but it sounds like most people find out about it the hard way.

BMW changed the design in 1993 to fix this, according to the local dealer. And apparently BMW NA will pay part of the cost of the repair.

The cure is to remove the head, fill in the corroded part with epoxy goop, clean it up and put it back together. $700 at both the dealer and the independent shop where I learned most of this. This should make recurrence less likely (less metal exposed to rot away), but it's not a guaranteed permanent fix.

The best prevention is to make sure coolant is changed regularly, which keeps down the acidity of the coolant, and thus the rate of corrosion. I've heard of well maintained examples of this engine going 100k miles with no trouble.

Jim Newman

> The 91 and 92 318
>had a seal with a design flaw that allowed coolant to leak into the
>engine (alot like a blown head gasket). He tells me that a replacement
>seal was developed and most cars under warranty had to have it replaced
>(the head gasket and seal) within the first year -- one hot day and the
>seal failed.

Now this is interesting. This solution says that there is a more permanent fix - a specially designed seal. I just called Dinan - they say that they don't know of any special replacement seal - they just went in and replaced all the seals and gaskets, and the o-ring that is mentioned in the FAQ.

They also say that they've seen this problem often - when their forman saw my car they knew immediatly what was wrong.

BTW, Dinan also says that the way to avoid the problem is to change the coolant often.

I also called BMW NA - they say that they know nothing about this problem! Yeah... right. Worse - since my car has 72k miles, its way out of warrenty, BMW won't touch it with a stick.

> All of the new cars with the 4 cyl engine have the new
>seal. I checked with the prior owner of my daughter's 318 and they had
>the seal and head gasket replaced within the first 6 months of owning
>the car.

Hmm... weird. How did they know to replace the seal if BMW claims that there isn't any known problem! Something is fishy. I'm going to try calling my local BMW dealer to see what they say. I'll let you all know.

jeff

From digest.v4.n827 Thu Jul 11 01:14:49 1996
From: jeff_at_spaquatic.Eng.Sun.COM (Jeff Dinkins)
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 11:03:52 -0700
Subject: <E36/E30/M42> Head Gasket

>From: rbrowne_at_erols.com
>Jimmy wrote:
>>There is a well known problem w/ the head gaskets blowing on M42 engines.
>>When it goes, you loose all the coolant. If you keep going w/ no
>>coolant...the damage can of course be much worse.
>>
>>It actually happened to me while still in warranty, BUT it has been fixed
>>on all engines made since '94 according to all reports I have heard.
>>
>
>I have wondered... is it a gasket problem or is it an engine design problem
>on 1992 and 1993's?

Don't forget the 1991's 318's have this problem also.

The FAQ says this:

As described to me, there is an O-ring that seals a coolant port from the block into the head, forward end. Normally would be within the head gasket, but for some reason they used an O-ring. Corrosion in the head's aluminum, under the O-ring seat, can eventually allow coolant to get by the O-ring, resulting, naturally, in loss of coolant. The BMW dealer says to expect it every 50k miles! It may be visible as a trickle off the right front side of the engine before things get too far along, but it sounds like most people find out about it the hard way.

BMW changed the design in 1993 to fix this, according to the local dealer. And apparently BMW NA will pay part of the cost of the repair.

>Once it blows and has been repaired on 92/93's, is it as
>good as 1994's and up, or is it the same thing, and will blow
>all over again?

If I understood Dinan Engineering correctly (they are the ones that fixed this problem on my 318is) they believe that it is just as likely to blow again if you don't change the coolant often to keep the acidity down.

jeff