The E28/E34 3.6 M5 Sachs clutch kit is en route, and I have found a guy in Hungary who makes flywheels from billet steel. Turns out he's a well-known guy here and he has made tons of flywheels for tuners and companies.
This flywheel is based off the E28 M5 flywheel, just a bit lighter and I've asked him to remove some more material from around the outer edge. It should weight in right around 6.5kgs in the end, which I think will be nice for street driving. Better than the 14kg (RIDICULOUSLY HEAVY) dual mass I have. And I'll also loose around 2kgs from the crank pulley but that's a later episode.
Anyway, I finally had some time to get some wrenching done. I sold some old components/parts I no longer needed, so those had to come out:
Luckily, I had some help:
Then the next day, I removed the cylinder head.
Now, I'm not sure if I mentioned it on here but the car had some issues. It didn't run as smooth as it should have, I felt like power was not QUITE there, and it sounded bad.
However it was weird. It wasn't smooth, but not rough like if it had a misfire. The power was a bit lacking, but not like no-compression. The sound was not great, but not like a normal mechanical problem.
Many of my friends did not notice and thought that this is how an old engine runs. My dad, who's had multiple BMWs when he was younger, knew instantly something was off when he heard it.
I've also removed all plugs and noticed how #6 had some oil on it while all others were dry. There was also quite some amount of oil residue in my intake manifold..
AND one more clue: this was not always like this, AND did not go bad slowly. This happened after a burnout I did (blame me all you want, I know this is my fault however this car is not a garage queen, and not like the engine shouldn't take a light burnout...
), and after the burnout, the car suddenly run worse. I later realised my car was not properly bled.
I talked to Mike (@Mike W) earlier and after that I had the idea that this could be two things. Either I overheated the pistons, which caused the rings or ringlands to be damaged, or, I overheated the head, banana'd it/lifted it and now the head gasket is leaking. (Not blown, that, I would notice).
Interestingly enough the fuel economy after this was OK, no overheating (Fixed the cooling system), oil consumption is there, but nothing crazy. No residues in the exhaust system, doesn't smoke in any colour. Oil and water didn't mix.
So yes, I had to remove the head, to check what's going on, and here
I'd like your input.
I've only drived roughly 500-600-700kms since this happened. So it may be harder to spot the issue...
The cylinder walls all appear OK to me. I can see some wear marks, however the honing marks go OVER that which to me means this is not new, the engine was rebuilt before me. I think this is perfectly fine.. It's an M30.
Surely if the rings, or ringland were damaged, broken, then I would see at least SOME minor scoring? (?? Or would I? Never had it happen.)
Unfortunately I couldn't take good pictures because there was too much flare, as I had to use my phones flash.
The cylinder head gasket didn't really show any signs of being blown, however I have to add this was not a composit gasket but an.. interesting one. Kind of like a combination of composit on the inside, alloy on the outside? It was custom made by a random guy and has NO rubber on it, whatsoever.
I'll make pictures next time I'm in the workshop, I forgot to take pictures..... sorry.
The only signs, that are interesting to me, are the colours in the combustion chambers. Let me show you:
The silver-black edges were very sharp everywhere, apart from one side in cyl #6. Looks oily, but no carbon? Remember, this is the one that had oil on the spark plug, and this comes (looks like, at least that's the direction) from between #5 and #6, which is the place I bet would let go first when overheating.
Between the cylinder, the colours were also a bit different, a bit darker. But I don't think this means much... Does it?
What do you guys think?
Could this be a leaky head gasket? And maybe I can only not see the marks because of the fact that the hole gasket is covered in aluminium, so this 500-700kms of driving just could not damage it?
Next week I will see if the block or head are warped, I just didn't have time last time.
I REALLY don't want to open up the block now; it would be so good to have some progress, it would set me back weeks.
