Final Diagnosis - car needs new engine. help before I sell or part

[bastereo]

On the low coolant light, your car might not be wired for one. My truck doesn't have it. Well the sensor is there but no wire to hook to it.
Just FYI

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[bastereo]

Originally Posted by Allstarsrd12

no i didnt drive to miami with a coolant leak.

In the other post you said you got pulled over and smelled coolant, and that was only part way though the story of your drive back...

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[Bulk]

"You need a new engine" is code for "I'm too stupid to know" or "I'm too lazy to care". 99% of the time the only reason you would need a new engine is if it has gone "BANG" and left bits of shrapnel all over the freeway.

[Ghost-Flame]

Allstarsrd,
It sounds like you are concerned abot the goop in the oil. I had a blown head gasket once that didn't spew out externally and only was a little steamy coming out the tail pipe. I had coolant in the oil and the vanilla goop was present in the oil.
I have 2 ideas
1) send a oil sample to Blackstone and get them to confirm what is in the oil goo. Blackstone Labs . An oil analysis will give you more than just coolane present in the oil. If you engine is being chewed up it will analys the meatl content of the oil and be able to say for example excessive bearing wear, cam shaft wear etc etc.

2) Drain the oil, replace the oil filter, put some cheap synthetic in the car Walmart , Pep Boys... run engine for 10 minutes, keep and eye on the wtaer level, if it goes down just fill with water for now. After 10 minutes drainn oil again. Fill with a version of bmw LL01. if the car is driveable, drive it and check the oil every half hour or so. If there is coolant in the oil you have a blown head gasket. You can do this yourself if you are careful and use a DIY from someone here or from your bently manual.

If your car is running good and drives then it sure sounds like a blown head gasket. the engine will still run with a blown HG but, not very well and will consume whatever is in the radiator. I wish you were up my way. I think we could figure this out.

If it a blown head gasket and the head is not warped. you are talking smallish cost if you DIY. If you take the head off before you reinstall it have it checked by a machine shop for true-ness

[JCL]

Agree that there is concern being expressed about the condensate in the oil (the 'goop') but I wouldn't worry about it. It is present on any BMW that isn't driven hard enough to boil off the condensation. It isn't important that it is there, it is important what caused it. Condensation is normal, coolant leaking into the oil is bad, obviously. If coolant is leaking in from a cracked engine/head or a blown valve gasket, it would tend to do it fairly continuously, it wouldn't come and go. You just need to know if the coolant level is dropping. Also, it would likely be adding enough water to the oil to make the oil milky coloured, not just some goop under the valve cover. Do a hot oil change (with API SM 5W-30) or two, and see if any water shows up after it is flushed out and back in use.

Skip the oil analysis, it is a waste of money. It won't tell you anything until you do it enough times to establish a base line and see a trend. If there is metal in the oil that matters, it won't show up in a typical spectrographic oil analysis, you would have to do a large particle count anyway. And if you are changing the oil then you won't be able to establish a trend line.

[Ghost-Flame]

I hadn't thought about a cracked head. wouldn't a cracked block or head show other symptoms, Llike external leaks of oil or coolant?

[diyanich]

Unless it leaks not much and inside,no?
Major coolant leak could even cause the hydro-lock of an engine

Originally Posted by Ghost-Flame

I hadn't thought about a cracked head. wouldn't a cracked block or head show other symptoms, Llike external leaks of oil or coolant?

[JCL]

Engine combustion chamber, oil galleries, coolant galleries, and external. Depends on where a crack is, what it leaks into. That is, if it is cracked. For some reason the shop felt that there was engine damage, however. We don't know what caused them to conclude that, it may have been a pressure test.

[steelheader]

They heat it up and if theres a crack they can tell!!! a headset is 300.00 bucks or so .

[Allstarsrd12]

Mde them do a pressure test on the cooling system to check for leaks. They said o leaks. 5-10 minites later, i see coolant coming out from raiator.....
They also said theresbacked up pressure in the system. As did the second opinion. This led me to think thermostat.
My scan printout also reads that theres a short circuit somewhere. Terminal 30 defective? Oil temp signal, short circuit to negative, same with coolant temp senspr. MAF.
Main thing thats really botherig me, is the first shop telling me the engins shot after they put in the mew radiator and didnt bother to check anything else. Then i come back to them saying oh we test drove it around the block and it overheated again now its smoking. Engines bad.
Hm, well it wast smoking when i drove it onto the tow truck. I just dont know how to even pursue that... Tell someone they fucked up, then leave it with them again to fix? Its like telling a chef his food sucks and asking for no spit on the re-order.