Personally, I feel the best way to do this would be to remove the head. Then you'd be able to soak the whole thing in anything you want as well as clean the valves.
This is the least risky way to do it IMO. You really don't want anything in your engine.
Keep in mind that a new head gasket is like $100 though
There's no real clean solution to this (pardon the pun). The best way to fix this would be to pull the head and block and feed the parts to Barneyhyphen's oil-eating bacteria, but you're taking some big mechanical work and/or dinero. But if you wish to do something non-intensive, Seafoam, ATF etc. could work, but you'll always have something left. The 30% could become 25, 20 but you'll never get it all out. Let us know how that Shell Helix Ultra works out. It's a common oil in Europe, so that's a good thing.
There shouldn't really be sludge anywhere in the block. Probably some in the oil pan. But he should really drop that and clean it no matter what after finding this
Can try sea foam, however that is more of a quicker harsher solution. Look into auto rx as well. Removes sludge over the course of oil changes and would be something I would definitely try with all that sludge.
Someone on here had much worse. They manually removed it all, I think a shop vac with a pre-filter bucket was used. Search around, I remember the thread because the results were impressive.
Yesterday made multiple runs and logged some loose temps over the last two days.
Interstate driving after 20 minutes (sat for 4 hours)
131-149F outside temp 55F
Hit Traffic and stop and go for 10 minutes
185F consistent outside 55F
Sat overnight ~35F
On the way to work this morning -no traffic, few lights
104-122F outside temp 38F average 113F while car should be warm @74MPH
On the way to Lunch today (Sat 6 hours)
158-185F outside temp 65F
Radiator Fluid is at minimum level and had it flushed by Stealership on 8/3/12 ~ 4k miles since then.
Theory
I think the flush on the system may have induced a crack in the cooling system. And now there is air in the system not allowing the water to properly flow through the heater core causing these low temps. This does not explain the rough idle unless the crack has been there before and oil has already started to sludge. The two problems could be non related at all, and rough idle be numerous different things.
Plan of attack
Stop by BMW today and pick up thermostat and bmw antifreeze (and distilled water)
Bimmersoftware has been ordered and wire should be in mail soon for true data logging.
CCV needs to be replaced regardless
Cooling System needs to be replaced.
Fuel Pump needs to be replaced.
I am going to do one by one and see if I can normalize my operating temp and idle. They all need to be done regardless, so time to start some winter wrenching. I often work 60-70 hour weeks so Sunday is really the only day I can tackle larger projects. Anyone have any advice or change of plan ideas?
I hope that is the case, but this is the perfect time to take a few free weekends and replace some potential threats to the e46 and learn about how they are put together. This is my first BMW of 13 vehicles and the first one that intimidates me about it's engineering. Only way to tackle that is head first. Stopped by BMW to pick up some antifreeze and out of curiosity asked how much to replace just the thermostat....538.20
Holy crap. When mine went bad, I went to a local indy, and they quoted me three hundred and I thought that was rediculous! I did it myself for the cost of a t-stat(55) and coolant(15)!!
That's because most dealerships are full of crooks. The thermostat should really be no more than an hour's labor.
Heck, I had an Indy replace my entire cooling system for less
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