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

[ChapterM3]

Anri,
The piston looks absolutely like new with no sign of wear. How many miles on these pistons?
What contribute to the low wear -- tight clearance to minimize piston slapping or piston outer surface texture design to retain oil?

I was pretty shocked to see how well they've held up since 2004 and with 155,505 miles on them - as far as I'm aware the motor has never been opened up and the pistons have never been out. Only thing done in that area was rod bearings about 25k ago and that was it.

[Anri]

Anri,
The piston looks absolutely like new with no sign of wear. How many miles on these pistons?
What contribute to the low wear -- tight clearance to minimize piston slapping or piston outer surface texture design to retain oil?

Sapote,

I think we went thru this in the previous S54.

But again few things are involved in this, its crazy
how much at "suppose" shitty rod ratio and F1 level
of piston speed etc all negative but facts speaks for it
self when its calculated right its not a problem.
Of course for example 1.74 rod ratio is better but
nothing wrong with existing 1.52 rod ratio. On top of
that the side skirt design is low profile in order to reduce
the piston weight and friction this is all negative...when
the rod ratio is in low number.

- BMW calculated the expansion rates very well.
- Slipper skirt from the factory to retain oil and reduce friction
(same dry film as the one I have done in the pic)
- Larger more aggressive groves (we spoke on this subject previously) to retain oil
- At last is the tune, the Factory tune is absolutely the best
in order to save the engine from detonation and other problems.

This engine has some minor pistons slap on a cold start
~30F which is normal but more important is it goes away after
around 2mins max.

My measurements shows that the piston to wall clearance
is on the lose side or max in spec. Tight is never good because
the target piston to wall is when the engine is at track at say 110C
on abuse or even let say in hot summer time. On S54s
with bad fan clutch during summer time with AC on in
traffic I have seen 108-110C were the needle will pass the
center this is were the piston will get scuffed mostly on the
exhaust side skirt due to growing excessively and will push the
oil away and will get tight to the wall.
This engine has I think 155k miles and I am sure it has seen
this hi temp conditions more than 1 time due to the bad head
gasket failure, indeed.


Regards,
Anri

[sapote]

Note the factory lines on the skirt are like New...

Anri,
The piston looks absolutely like new with no sign of wear. How many miles on these pistons?
What contribute to the low wear -- tight clearance to minimize piston slapping or piston outer surface texture design to retain oil?

[Anri]

Hi ANRI, in your experience, is there an actual benefit to coat the bearings?

I was thinking something like yours, or micro blue. Would you offer this service? I have a RB set for my car.

I get the same question over and over from customers and I always ask
to understand the difference between Surface Treatment WPC vs
coating ! these are 2 different things.

Many benefits from every angle (too long to explain) If there was not
an actual benefts JE, CP, Weisco list goes on and on, none would offer this
dry film as an option everyone would offer surface treatment...

Yes I offer the RB service for $300 much better option than wpc.

Regards,
Anri

[maupineda]

Pistons are all coated with Moly dry film
so do the ACL bearings.

Moving forward.

Regards,
Anri

Hi ANRI, in your experience, is there an actual benefit to coat the bearings? I was thinking something like yours, or micro blue. Would you offer this service? I have a RB set for my car.

[0-60motorsports]

Pistons are all coated with Moly dry film
so do the ACL bearings.

Moving forward.

Regards,
Anri

Wow they look new.

[Anri]

Pistons are all coated with Moly dry film
so do the ACL bearings.

Moving forward.

Regards,
Anri

[Anri]

Hey Arni, great work and thanks for sharing. How did you clean the pistons? Vapor Blasting?

-Rob

Correct, its Vapor blasted. I do offer this service.

[Anri]

Billet CNC machined aluminum block

Cobra,

Don't get too excited about Billet Alu blocks..
Billet blocks are great but they carry their own issues
I can't see it with S54 given the fact we are after every
single CC on the S54.

Read the BMW PDF Bulletin carefully when they say the
block remained cast iron..

Regards,
Anri

[Anri]

I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what would that solution be? An aftermarket gasket? Please enlighten us all

I am thinking to open a different post on this subject.

Regards
Anri

[robgill]

Prepped the pistons for Moly coating. Pistons
are checked and all in factory spec.

Note the factory lines on the skirt are like New...

Regards
Anri

Hey Arni, great work and thanks for sharing. How did you clean the pistons? Vapor Blasting?

-Rob

[cobra]

I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what would that solution be? An aftermarket gasket? Please enlighten us all

Billet CNC machined aluminum block

[bmwfnatic]

S54 multi layer gasket design relays heavily on that coating.

Cast iron block with the combination of aluminum head it
never works right in thermal expansion when the engine
warms up from stone cold! never ever. Aluminum on Aluminum
works much better (don't get depressed for the beloved S54
there is a solution!)

I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what would that solution be? An aftermarket gasket? Please enlighten us all

[Anri]

Prepped the pistons for Moly coating. Pistons
are checked and all in factory spec.

Note the factory lines on the skirt are like New...

Regards
Anri

[Anri]

Based on what you're saying - a big contributor to the headgasket wearing out would be the number of heat cycles and the temperature range

Running the engine hot with late fan clutch engagement is the biggest contributor
for the head gasket failure.