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

[ChapterM3]

11.20.23 - Update - Car was picked up tonight!!

After some timing setbacks for pickup, Anri came to pick up the car tonight - It was great to meet him and he felt like an old friend of mine haha - So excited to see it loaded up and on its way.

Plan is the following -
Step 1 is to see what's going on in the motor, double-check the compression and do another leak down
Step 2 will of course be the conclusion of that test, and more than likely the start of the tear down of the engine.

Edit: I wanted to add some things that I noticed about the car that might help others trying to diagnose their head gasket -
- The car started right up after sitting for 3 months, no smoke, nothing, just as it would usually
- Regular driving felt totally fine
- While getting onto the highway on an on-ramp, I heard a single ping noise in second gear and third gear, come from the engine while Anri was in the car. One could say this could sound like a single marble hitting the inside of a tin can. He flagged that as a sign of the HG and the sharing compression in each cylinder potentially causing a single detention. I had never heard this before prior to this drive and thought to add it. As Anri has mentioned to me it's really good that I caught it this early without it getting any worse, and this is a clear other symptom of what most likely is a blown head gasket,

More to come as I have updates!

[AWE46M3]

Subscribed! 🙌🏽

[ChapterM3]

Sharocks hahah Sha you got me man, good to hear from you! Exactly, 91 has done me wrong apparently or the canyon roads, can't tell haha but we'll get it dialed in back the way it's supposed to be

Hope you and the cars are well!!

[Sharocks]

Damn bro you left MA and that garbage 91 swill they use in SoCal got ya?

Looking forward to seeing the updates!

[ChapterM3]

George Hill From my understanding he's going to diagnose it as if I never reported the leak down/compression test to double-check everything first, then from there get into it

[George Hill]

Is Anri going to diagnose it from scratch or just dive in and rebuild the engine?

[ChapterM3]

October 19, 2023 - UPDATE 3 - THE M3 IS GETTING THE Anri BUILD TREATMENT

Just marking this section in the thread as the beginning of the build. The car will be pick

The car is going to be picked up to start the build this upcoming week of 10.23 - I'll be adding photos and updates all along the way

Stay tuned!

[ChapterM3]

You should have a 5-10% leakdown percentage. I now don't trust a place that calls 35% good. With how well the engine runs, I wouldn't expect even 35% on the bad cylinders. It may be more expensive but my shop has had decent luck with Cornwell tools. It'll run you $200 to $250 total for a leakdown and compression tester but it's worth having quality tools for this. You can buy straight from their website. This is not something I'd cheap out on because it needs to be accurate.

My head got removed because I wanted to install cams. I found the intake valve seats were all about 1.5mm and intake valves on 4 were very collapsed at almost 2mm with some abnormal wear. The Spec is 1.25mm however I doubt there was an actual issue with sealing just yet. I did a whole head refresh which ran about $4k in labor and parts. I just wanted to put my cams in... but I have to be thorough. I do try to follow my slogan. All sensors(cam, crank, knock, throttle position, temp and preasure) are getting replaced along with vacuum hoses, ICV rubber bits, and any soft item I can manage to get my hands on to replace.

For what it's worth, just about anything can be fixed or replaced. It's just $$$ sometimes

Totally hear you with this - I want to be thorough as well and do it right once. Lot's to consider. This weekend I'll be able to do the compression test again on my own, and will report back after that. I agree with you that 35% leakdown is crazy to call good, and again have verified that really it should only be 5% at maximum. I'm curious what compression numbers I'll get back when I do it.

I had a HG replacement at 90k miles on my 2003. It cracked between 2 and 3, no misfires, no codes and drove well. It's not until AFTER I did my own HG that I felt the difference. Car was definitely under power.

I drove on my blown HG initially because I couldn't figure out the issue, but I heard sounds in 2nd/3rd/4th @ 2-4k RPM, noticeable only under load, sounded like a bag of marbles. Worse when going up and down the hills of SF. The arching ate a bit of my aluminum head but not substantial enough, the skim cleaned everything right up. I then used a piece of glass with some grit on the bottom block to ensure things are clean and smooth. Vacuum'd up all the debris on the piston's after cleaning them as well.

Long story short, like heinzboehmer said, if you're ever in NorCal there's a group of us that can help get it done in one weekend, this is assuming the machine shop needed to skim your head completes it quickly. My shop took one day to skim and hot tank everything. It's doable and this community can/will help. If there's no space, you can use my 1-car garage to work on it.

Once you're done, you'll realize the actual amount of power you're down even though things "feel" normal. My car was chirping in 1st to 2nd gear after that job, before the job, no dice.

Mmmmmmmmm this resonated with me a lot. The slow breakdown of the HG and performance makes sense, I've PM'd you and heinzboehmer to discuss further. I really appreciate the follow up to this and insight!

I want to add to this that while as others have pointed out you should get a proper leak down test done, don’t get your hopes up that your head gasket might actually be fine, it wont be.

My friends car had a blown head gasket too, it drove totally fine, felt fine, didn’t really make any weird noises either, it even went on the dyno, which was the only reason we knew it was down on power. After fitting a new HG and doing a head overhaul it went on the dyno again and made 20hp more.

Thanks for the input, definitely going to be moving forward with a further compression test to decide on next steps

[bmwfnatic]

I want to add to this that while as others have pointed out you should get a proper leak down test done, don’t get your hopes up that your head gasket might actually be fine, it wont be.

My friends car had a blown head gasket too, it drove totally fine, felt fine, didn’t really make any weird noises either, it even went on the dyno, which was the only reason we knew it was down on power. After fitting a new HG and doing a head overhaul it went on the dyno again and made 20hp more.

[WestBankM4]

I had a HG replacement at 90k miles on my 2003. It cracked between 2 and 3, no misfires, no codes and drove well. It's not until AFTER I did my own HG that I felt the difference. Car was definitely under power.

I drove on my blown HG initially because I couldn't figure out the issue, but I heard sounds in 2nd/3rd/4th @ 2-4k RPM, noticeable only under load, sounded like a bag of marbles. Worse when going up and down the hills of SF. The arching ate a bit of my aluminum head but not substantial enough, the skim cleaned everything right up. I then used a piece of glass with some grit on the bottom block to ensure things are clean and smooth. Vacuum'd up all the debris on the piston's after cleaning them as well.

Long story short, like heinzboehmer said, if you're ever in NorCal there's a group of us that can help get it done in one weekend, this is assuming the machine shop needed to skim your head completes it quickly. My shop took one day to skim and hot tank everything. It's doable and this community can/will help. If there's no space, you can use my 1-car garage to work on it.

Once you're done, you'll realize the actual amount of power you're down even though things "feel" normal. My car was chirping in 1st to 2nd gear after that job, before the job, no dice.

[Arith2]

You should have a 5-10% leakdown percentage. I now don't trust a place that calls 35% good. With how well the engine runs, I wouldn't expect even 35% on the bad cylinders. It may be more expensive but my shop has had decent luck with Cornwell tools. It'll run you $200 to $250 total for a leakdown and compression tester but it's worth having quality tools for this. You can buy straight from their website. This is not something I'd cheap out on because it needs to be accurate.

My head got removed because I wanted to install cams. I found the intake valve seats were all about 1.5mm and intake valves on 4 were very collapsed at almost 2mm with some abnormal wear. The Spec is 1.25mm however I doubt there was an actual issue with sealing just yet. I did a whole head refresh which ran about $4k in labor and parts. I just wanted to put my cams in... but I have to be thorough. I do try to follow my slogan. All sensors(cam, crank, knock, throttle position, temp and preasure) are getting replaced along with vacuum hoses, ICV rubber bits, and any soft item I can manage to get my hands on to replace.

For what it's worth, just about anything can be fixed or replaced. It's just $$$ sometimes

[ChapterM3]

I believe you need a 12mm adapter, someone correct me if I'm wrong. Also check that the o-rings are in good shape so you get a good seal, should be since your compression tester kit is new, And try to clean the spark plug threads. Good luck 👍

Thank you Mike! I got this kit, I think I'll be good or will I need that adapter?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004K2FSXI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Halftim3]

I believe you need a 12mm adapter, someone correct me if I'm wrong. Also check that the o-rings are in good shape so you get a good seal, should be since your compression tester kit is new, And try to clean the spark plug threads. Good luck 👍

[ChapterM3]

A compression tester is like $30 at harbor freight and it's pretty easy test to do, even for a novice mechanic. You only need basic hand tools and you could verify some of the shops data fairly quickly. If you were local, I'd help you out. It's literally 20mins of work from start to finish.

Make sure you pull all the plugs before doing the test so you get true compress and not a false higher reading on 5&6.

Totally agree - I just bought a compression tester and decided to go this route to 100% make sure before opening the motor - thanks for your comment

[discoelk]

A compression tester is like $30 at harbor freight and it's pretty easy test to do, even for a novice mechanic. You only need basic hand tools and you could verify some of the shops data fairly quickly. If you were local, I'd help you out. It's literally 20mins of work from start to finish.

Make sure you pull all the plugs before doing the test so you get true compress and not a false higher reading on 5&6.