Do I understand it right - $3k for head gasket replacement? Even in Germany it would be like max. 500 Euro. The thing is - usually the cylinder wall burns underneath the gsaket, so you'd normally need an another block.

But for 3k you can get a used engine here in Germany and put supercharger on it. Crazy...

Wow...that's very reasonble. What are your typical hourly labor charges over there for an independent BMW mechanic?

Does anyone have access to book-rate labor charges for this job in terms of number of hours?

A tipycal labour charge is between 45 and 70 euro, but you can always arrange a fixed price. So the flywheel and clutch replacement on V8 powered E39 would normally cost 200-250 Euro.

Don't forget, in germany, BMW is kind of domestic. I bet these engines are all over the place.

I bought & used the UVIEW 560000 Combustion Leak Tester.

No more head gasket seepage after applying 'Bar's Leaks 111 Head Gasket Fix' to the cooling system. I know it's temporary... but running great right now ;-)

So what did it tell you?

That there was no combustion gases leaking into the cooling system.

Can we go back a few steps here? So far, the two things you've told us in terms of what you consider to be a bad head gasket are that you think the cylinder pressure is pressurizing the cooling system, and that there is head gasket seepage.

For the first, did you ever hook up a coolant pressure tester? These can do two things; you can leave it connected and warm up the engine. This will show if you have excessive pressure. Second, you can pressurize the system while it is cold, and see if it holds pressure. This is a MUST DO device to properly diagnose any problem with the cooling system. The Uview can also eliminate the cylinder gases getting in the cooling system as a possibility, but it's nice to know if the system pressure is right, and it can also help find leaks, and determine if the system holds pressure.

For the cylinder head seepage...are you actually seeing it leak from the joint of the block and head? Or are you seeing white smoke in the exhaust? Or are you just losing coolant? Are you getting coolant puddles on the floor?

Using stop-leak on a system like this is bound to cause all sorts of other problems. The sooner you flush all that crap out of the system and address the problem the better. These cars can hardly even tolerate the wrong antifreeze; adding stop-leak is really not good.

Well, that's a good thing.

- I pressurized the cooling system while it was cold, 20psi and held for 2-mins like the manual states, without going down.

- Only visible sign of coolant leakage is out the radiator cap (blows off as pressure builds) and there is some white exhaust even after warmed up but hard to tell that when it's cold outside right now.

- Cooling system was flushed out pretty good... and stop leak still holding after a week.