THE M3 IS GETTING THE ANRI BUILD TREATMENT - Blown headgasket to build thread

[ac427]

We all learn our lessons. It's been a few years since I had a car that I was actively modifying, and I'm in progress now, and drawing upon my mistakes I've certainly done this differently. The order that I approached was the following.

1. Bought wider tires (obviously that will work with the platform)
2. Bought Appropriate wheels to house the tire size I selected (again, that will work with the platform with out getting crazy).
3. Chassis rigidity and drivetrain tightening. I've installed seven different braces (three for rear subframe, two up front on top, k brace up front at the bottom, and one for the transmission).
4. The first three above changed my opinion of the stock suspension in a very positive way.
5. Now I'm mulling over suspension "upgrades".
6. Then I'll think about exhaust/headers/tune.

It's nice to be wiser, lol, and not blow money.

Sounds like a plan. Exhaust is almost a waste of time unless you are thinking of weight saving.

[ChapterM3]

mcfreid - Absolutely agree, but it's not like I'm modifying the car extensively, I've always approached the car thinking that if I'm in there, I might as well replace xyz, and if I can get a better part for it I'll do it. Say for example the Dr.Vanos kit. That was the GO-TO kit, until it wasn't and everyone said the modified and welded exhaust hub was not good anymore. But considering how much noise is out there and opinions on what to go with - I failed to come to the conclusion, as I've learned through this thread, that the Besain hub is really the only way to go. For sure I've learned the hard way that OEM is good enough for me driving the car on the street and having fun with it in the canyons.

oceansize - This is an interesting approach, thank you for sharing! I'm sure that can be applied to almost any platform but with the M3 I'm sure that made all the difference and I'm sure why the stock suspension felt that much better

[oceansize]

We all learn our lessons. It's been a few years since I had a car that I was actively modifying, and I'm in progress now, and drawing upon my mistakes I've certainly done this differently. The order that I approached was the following.

1. Bought wider tires (obviously that will work with the platform)
2. Bought Appropriate wheels to house the tire size I selected (again, that will work with the platform with out getting crazy).
3. Chassis rigidity and drivetrain tightening. I've installed seven different braces (three for rear subframe, two up front on top, k brace up front at the bottom, and one for the transmission).
4. The first three above changed my opinion of the stock suspension in a very positive way.
5. Now I'm mulling over suspension "upgrades".
6. Then I'll think about exhaust/headers/tune.

It's nice to be wiser, lol, and not blow money.

[mcfreid]

ChapterM3 post-purchase bias is a cause for a lot of this. I've found best practice is just to buy OEM unless there's a VERY well documented failure point such as the vanos hub tabs.

[ChapterM3]

Very well said. " Better than stock" but one can only improve
if make the part/s better than the factory. First things first one need
to understand the factory Engineering behind and then improve over
in most cases by very little down to none.

Regards,
Anri

I get that. I wondering to myself how could I have better done that so this wouldn't have happened? I think that for me to fully understand factory engineering I would need to understand engineering itself, which I've never studied, just wrenched on things, broke stuff, and learned from there. How could an M3 owner learn about the factory engineering? Or what else could they do to trust what was being done to their car was actually the right thing to be done besides just blindly trusting a shop that got say 50 5 star reviews on google from people who also didn't understand the engineering behind it? I hope that makes sense. I'm just trying to understand how can I not make these mistakes in the future, as I'm not the only one to put ARP bolts in stock sized rods or used a Geba water pump thinking I was doing "the right thing" for my car.

[Anri]

Anri - This is getting out of hand - another thing that's wrong with my engine!? I mean I replaced that pump thinking I was doing the right thing with a metal impeller 15k ago, and this is, in addition to the fan clutch is what caused the HG to go?! F&@#. I'm beyond upset to read this, I have spent thousands trying to stay ahead of maintenance and not have the car break on me and all that it seems that I've paid for are parts that need to be replaced very soon after being installed. I mean I've researched these things, asked opinions of people, shops, and the shop that installed these as making the decision that I was doing OEM+ replacements: ARP bolts for the rod bearings, "better" aftermarket water pump with a metal impeller, etc. but this was clearly wrong. Damn it man I've been trying to do the right thing but clearly there needs to be some updates to the opinions out there. I'll document this on the first page to help people hopefully catch these things to not make the same mistakes I did. 😓🤬

Very well said. " Better than stock" but one can only improve
if make the part/s better than the factory. First things first one need
to understand the factory Engineering behind and then improve over
in most cases by very little down to none.

Regards,
Anri

[ChapterM3]

Anri - This is getting out of hand - another thing that's wrong with my engine!? I mean I replaced that pump thinking I was doing the right thing with a metal impeller 15k ago, and this is, in addition to the fan clutch is what caused the HG to go?! F&@#. I'm beyond upset to read this, I have spent thousands trying to stay ahead of maintenance and not have the car break on me and all that it seems that I've paid for are parts that need to be replaced very soon after being installed. I mean I've researched these things, asked opinions of people, shops, and the shop that installed these as making the decision that I was doing OEM+ replacements: ARP bolts for the rod bearings, "better" aftermarket water pump with a metal impeller, etc. but this was clearly wrong. Damn it man I've been trying to do the right thing but clearly there needs to be some updates to the opinions out there. I'll document this on the first page to help people hopefully catch these things to not make the same mistakes I did. 😓🤬

[Anri]

I don't disagree with the above, my point was that the issues of the plastic impellers, that was resolved 20yrs ago, still pushes people to be scared of plastic impellers to this day.

Yes agree nothing wrong with plastic impeller
for 100k miles for sure beyond that the metal
impeller will out last it.

Remember even the S54 Composite impeller
fails and when they do it causes massive damages and
its engine out. https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...ting-out/page2

I have replaces several pumps with broken
impeller on enignes with 150+miles driven
hard at the track.

Regards,
Anri

[Anri]

Slavik,

Thanks for your reply.

Of course they will not reply...

Regards,
Anri

[slavik1988]

Rods are already taken care of moving forward.

Something else it cough my eye. The previous service source did
install Geba water pump which is aftermarket.

Not sure what the Geba engineer was thinking when he designed
the pump impeller but for sure they went all wrong.

I understate the shape of the OEM composite is very hard to achieve
from casting but the fins suppose to be longer. Instead they made them
short and not full size at the top. No wander every car I have seen with this pump
operates hot. Without a doubt this Geba pump increases the temp of the S54.

New Factory pump is arriving on Wednesday.

Moons ago I took a good OEM pump apart as sample when I work on customers
cars and see they have aftermarket pump I show them how one spent
money to have the engine destroyed....and Jonathan is number 1455..

Interesting how those who think "Its metal impeller Bro" will last you long time than
the factory plastic garbage...little do they know.


Enjoy the detail pics how fat, curved and deep the OEM design is !

Regards,
Anri

I wasted my money once to buy a Geba water pump just to buy a brand new Genuine BMW water pump a few months later. As soon as it was installed, the car started to overheat on spirited runs. I even went to great lengths to contact Geba regarding their S54 water pump flow rates compared to OE BMW. Needless to say, they didn't want to write back to me after the initial response.

[George Hill]

My point is the Impeller design on aftermarket S54 is bad design and it contributes to head gasket failure!

I don't disagree with the above, my point was that the issues of the plastic impellers, that was resolved 20yrs ago, still pushes people to be scared of plastic impellers to this day.

[Anri]

I just had this conversation a couple days ago... the M/S5x plastic impeller issue just won't die. Yes it WAS an issue, if its been replaced it no longer is... I'm with you on the factory pump.

Hill,

See on M50 is different because the Impeller design is
very very easy to mimic from metal. Life expectancies
on BMW water pumps from my experiment is around ~100k
till the Seal starts to leak and coolant gets into the bearing
and slowly destroys it. Even there is small channel that separates
the coolant and to be thrown away from the bearing and still.
If replace the seal on time the pump bearing can keep going
but that bloody amount of work is not worth the effort..buy new
pump install forget for another 100k


My point is the Impeller design on aftermarket S54 is bad and it
contributes to head gasket failure!

Small impeller design are not good for hi revs because they cause
aeration/cavitation.

See the pics bellow is from S38 there 2 version of the impeller.
The one with the larger blades with more distance in-between is
the good one. The other version with dual design is bad and BMW
did play with the pulley speed to slow the pump down to prevent
cavitation and that is why I favor the initial S38 larger blade design.

Regards,
Anri

[George Hill]

Interesting how those who think "Its metal impeller Bro" will last you long time than the factory plastic garbage...little do they know.

I just had this conversation a couple days ago... the M/S5x plastic impeller issue just won't die. Yes it WAS an issue, if its been replaced it no longer is... I'm with you on the factory pump.

[ac427]

Are those drillings in the outer rim of the factory impellor for balancing?

[Anri]

Rods are already taken care of moving forward.

Something else it cough my eye. The previous service source did
install Geba water pump which is aftermarket.

Not sure what the Geba engineer was thinking when he designed
the pump impeller but for sure they went all wrong.

I understate the shape of the OEM composite is very hard to achieve
from casting but the fins suppose to be longer. Instead they made them
short and not full size at the top. No wander every car I have seen with this pump
operates hot. Without a doubt this Geba pump increases the temp of the S54.

New Factory pump is arriving on Wednesday.

Moons ago I took a good OEM pump apart as sample when I work on customers
cars and see they have aftermarket pump I show them how one spent
money to have the engine destroyed....and Jonathan is number 1455..

Interesting how those who think "Its metal impeller Bro" will last you longer than
the factory plastic garbage...little do they know.


Enjoy the detail pics how fat, curved and deep the OEM design is !

Regards,
Anri