Thrown a rod 3.0 e36!!!

Hi guys,

Just experienced a catastrophic failuire... 6500 rpm 2nd gear and whoooof, clatter clatter and lots of smoke everywhere

Pulled over into a convenient lay-by, and noticed a large puddle of oil, and a trail about level with the centre of the passenger seat. Further investiation whilst waiting fro AA's finest, I could just make out some fragments of block on the lower RHS of the engine, oh and lots of oil.....so presumably either I've got a snapped con rod or lost a bearing cap.

Not looked any further tonight because its too cold outside!

Anyone heard of this happening on S50's? The car has 94k on it (with full BM history)....? I was under the impression the 3.0 S50's were pretty robust.

I'll assess the extent of things tomorrow. Meanwhile, I think I could do with a beer or 3...

HI there, thanks for the sympathy, no its totally standard. I was going flat out just about to change up to 3rd, no wheel spin, and the engine oil was nice and warm.

I've had the car for a year and its only had one previous owner (A Professor in fact), so am very surprised of this failure, the car is really straight and has been immaculately kept, which is normally a sign its not been abused (too much for an M).

I'll certainly talk to BM, but with the car being 10 years old......however, they changed my big brothers '96 528 block under warranty just last month so you never know!

I do have an RAC warranty with it, but I think that's linited to £500 max...so it maybe cheaper to change the engine myself, but I will investigate all avenues!!!

Ouch... that's going to make me even more worried about driving mine now !  I guess it shouldn't be too difficult to source a replacement engine, and it'll be a straight swap.

Post up some pics if you can, as others have said AFAIK this is a very very rare failure.

Steve.

mogart 1,

Firstly sorry to hear of your bad news........it's the first one I've heard of, I have to say, did you notice any oil leaks before or any tell tail signs before hand, oil light slow going off?? Did you ground the sump or put a stone through the oil cooler?? Wouldn't waste your time with a Bentley manual, the US M3 is nothing like yours with regrads to the engine. Go to ebay and buy a TIS CD rom, it's all on there.

Dave.

http://www.quarrybmwspares.co.uk/index.html

The above breakers have a 3.2 engine,ecu & gearbox for about £3000.

Hi  Mogart

Sorry to hear about your problem

My heart goes out to you as i had a bottom end blow about 18 months ago on a 99 volvo S70 T5 took me 3 months to rebuild the engine and get it back running like a watch.

Anyhow back to your problem

I have seen a few 3.0 engines on ebay going for not bad money and i have even seen blocks, heads for sale on there too if you have time and patience you can probably pick sommet up cheaply.

Goodluck.

Leigh

96 3.2 Evo coupe

Mogart 1,

Don't be tempted to fit anything other than a 3.0 litre, it is the engine with the least issues, it's also the engine the next buyer will expect to see under the bonnet....besides the loom is different to any of the twin vanos engines.

As far as the TIS goes, they can seem a bit lightweight on first look, but dig around a bit, make sure you only highlight one item at a time as it has a few querks, but believe me I've rebuilt these things using every source of information there is and the TIS is the one. One thing I would recommend is to take the time to talk to the likes of molsey motorsport, if you get him (Nigel) when he has a moment he really is the font of all knowledge, but his time is limited so I'd ring only when you have something specific to talk about.

Best of luck though. A word to the wise though don't treat all BMW 'experts' advice with the same level of confidence, there really are a few out there who don't know their onions quite as well as they think.

Dave.

Mogart 1,

A couple of things, before you buy, I would advise taking a compression tester with you and check for compression readings across all cylinders, don't worry about figures too much, just make sure all six measure around the same. If you can't do that I'd at least take the intake trumpets off, it's a small job and check the condition of the throttle butterflies. Expect to see a little black build up around them but not too much, again look for consistency across all six, open them up and take a torch to the inlet tracks and look for cleanish combustion. Next remove the plugs and check for colour and consistency then finally check the dipstick for colour of the oil, even if the sump has been drained you'll get some info from the colour of the oil still on it. Remember fully synthetics (which all M3's should run don't break down and produce the black hydrocarbons a normal oil will), so if the dip stick is very black, chances are there is something else going on. If the oil is still in it, drain it and take a long look at it.

These are few small things to do that will give you the opportunity to check out the story behind the engine without too much effort, as I said though take a chance to look at a couple of engines to get an idea of what is normal. If the donor car is still available, ask them to put the battery back in the car to check the mileage, being careful to check it's the right pod and engine for the car. Or ask to borrow the instrument pod, leave a small deposit if necessary, take the pod home and plug it into your loom and once you've checked out the mileage, go through the tests which show the chassis number to check the you've got the right pod for the right engine, (All you have to do is hold the mileage trip button and turn your ignition key to the first position and the instruments will go through a check cycle, in which you'll see the last 5 or 7 digits of the chassis number).

Best of luck, remember most breakers dont' really know these M cars from a diesel transit, so take the time to find out yourself. Don't rely on their say so.

Dave.

Thanks Dave, think I've found  one at a sensible price, i'll heed your advice. I'm just on 2 minds whether to put in new shells and pistons rings, as components they are not too dear, its just the risk of splitting the head..might be best left alone if its sound at the moment.....i'll have a spare head!

Just one question on synthetics though I had heard that these were not encouaged for M3's due to being 'too thin'

BTW I've located the hole, appears to be around no 4 pot, part of the con rod is visible in the gap, clearly too far out of line to be attached to the crank!! Tried to take some snaps but no real succes, I'm afraid you'll have to wait until it comes out to see the real gory bits!