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Today was a bad day......blew up engine 330CI m54b30

14K views 93 replies 29 participants last post by  ChuckyVee 
#1 · (Edited)
Rolling down the highway, car running decent but having felt 10% loss in power over last week. Car starts making a sound which felt and seemed like a heat shield rattling. The noise had more rhythm than that would though, which makes me think it's the pulleys. Pull over and do an inspection.

Almost seems like it could be the infamous disa (the origin of the noise). While in the car the noise appears for a burble on startup, and then disappears. It reappears at 2K rpm through the band. I'm nervous, I figure I'll drive straight to my service and drop her off. En route, suddenly the noise gets louder, I felt the engine lose oil pressure and A F&**^^* SMALLL PART FELL OUT OF THE CAR. Immediately, and I mean within 50ft, pulled off onto ramp and parked on the shoulder. I see for the last 20 ft, she was losing a ton of oil. THEN, parked I see she is just pouring her lifeblood (oil) onto the pavement.

I was heartbroken. She may have taken an impact which somehow marred the oil plug or cracked oil pan? If not, I fear the engine is blown to ****.

I felt like I should add this info just in case people have a catastrophic failure. Feel free to add failure stories (hoping repair stories too). They're not fun, but they're important learning experiences.
 
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#5 ·
The oil light would have come on if it lost enough oil and clearly you haven't "felt the engine lose oil pressure" and it really annoys me when people say that. There is no "feeling" of when that happens because it depends on what part seizes first when it's oil-starved. On an overhead cam engine like this, it's usually a camshaft that seizes and the timing chain may break causing the engine to immediately stall. On a pushrod engine, usually a main bearing seizes first and the car just feels like it's really down on power and slows down then seizes.

Sounds like you threw a rod.
 
#6 ·
Cavi Mike - Thank you for the info. A thrown rod does sound completely plausible. The rhythmic noise that finally 'jangled' apart. Oh man. That is so sad.

The car is a one owner 2001 with only 70,000 on it. So many aspects of the car are in pristine condition.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Sounds like the car was overheated by the previous owner and was immediately put up for sale. That burble you say you felt at start up was likely coolant in the combustion chamber leaking through a cracked head or headgasket. Over some time, that water got into the oil and likely destroyed connecting rod bearings. That led to loss of oil pressure and an overall chain reaction metal to metal contact. Heat build up, something seized (likely a connecting rod/piston) and metal got flung around inside and poked a hole through the engine. That's my best guess on what happened based on the events and symptoms you describe. Sorry about your loss.
 
#42 · (Edited)
Previous owner did indeed overheat the engine for a short time. This was proven by the fact that the heads were warped. Head gasket was not able to torque to spec.*

Professional post! Thanks for the heads up!

Let this be a lesson everyone can learn from! Always maintain the cooling system in these cars on a proactive basis! Looks like I was accurate in my assessment based on the description you gave. YIKES!

Professional Investigative Mango Prediction (P.I.M.P.) :pimpin:
 
#10 ·
Mango - Also some good info.

Corrections - The burble is a bad descriptor......retrospect, it was a slowly loosening rod pinging and clanking momentarily. Why the F*** didn't my MIL or CEL come on in the last week?

The previous owner was an older family member who bought the car new from BMW in 2001. It was delivered from Germany to Chicago in October of 2001 with a build date in September. The previous driver didn't do perfect maintenance, but was a relatively mellow driver.

I just found this interesting ass backpage from the internet about a slough of catastrophic engine failures on S54 engines with build dates of October 2001. http://www.yoy.com/yoy/auto/m3_failwhat.shtml

That describes exactly what happened. I wonder if it was rod 3. The engine ran far too clean for it to have been a cracked head gasket. Who knows, maybe the bolt from the Disa valve was sucked into the intake LOL.
 
#16 ·
Mango - Also some good info.

Corrections - The burble is a bad descriptor......retrospect, it was a slowly loosening rod pinging and clanking momentarily. Why the F*** didn't my MIL or CEL come on in the last week?
When learning how to fly an aircraft you are taught never to trust your gauges entirely. You need to "feel" certain things out. Never ever trust an idiot gauge man. It is called an idiot gauge for a reason. I remember doing an autorotation in an R22 because the transmission was shaking itself to pieces and the magnetic sensor never detected any metal which is why it didnt go off.
 
#11 ·
Temp gauge was 100% normal until catastrophic engine failure. Felt/heard rod throw, or something mechanical. Also, most likely a part pierced block or oil pan. Wahhhhhhhhh! I guess I'm supposed to say something retarded like, "guess it's time for an S54 swap" and then someone will say "why don't you just buy an m3?".
 
#12 ·
If anything was failing internally there's not really a way for the computer to know unless it was strong enough to make the engine run rough. and then all you would get is a misfire code. this problem was inevitable any way you slice it.

Again, my opinion is that this car was overheated or severely starved of oil for some reason. The car ran for 70k miles so it would be unlikely for a bearing or something of the sort to fail catastrophically for no reason

either way it doesn't matter. you are in need of a new engine. make sure its maintained cooling wise and with the correct oil. GL!
 
#14 ·
Thanks Mango...I will get on top of researching the best place to purchase a new engine. I will also make damn sure to figure out as much info as possible to update you fellas. The previous owner may have starved her on oil....filled her with medium grade gas......not varied rpm enough. She was just in BMW for an oil change & a "multipoint inspection" 2 weeks ago. You're damn right it was inevitable, previous owner did have it stall.
 
#17 ·
I pulled the dipstick about a week ago and everything was kosher oil level wise. BMW just filled her, and I've been checking out because I noted a slow slow leak in oil pan gasket.

Apollo- you're damn right. I was/ am the idiot. My intuition told me something mechanical was happening, and you can't plug the internals of an engine into a sensor. I should've towed her, but I can't think of an easy repair for a deteriorating rod.


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#39 · (Edited)
Huh..?

The pilot chooses to enter an autorotation, whether forced to because of a mechanical failure or during training. It absolutely is a maneuver. If the pilot decides to "do" nothing and wait for the aircraft to behave as you describe, he'd be dead. In the case of an engine failure the blades will continue to spin freely only if the pilot acts immediately!

Been flying helicopters commercially for 24 years. If, during the tail rotor failure I had many years ago, I waited for the aircraft to do its own thing, I'd be dead.

Sorry to go off topic...
 
#24 · (Edited)
Nah. #1 that's largely a myth. it's physically impossible for that disa pin to get sucked into the combustion chamber unless the disa was previously removed and the pin was dropped in the intake before reinstallation.

#2 even if it did, it would simply dent up the piston and exhaust valves and eventually shoot into the cats. wouldn't cause your rod to shoot out of the block
 
#28 ·
internals don't get loose or deteriorate for no reason. this engine experienced a loss of oil or had water in its oil. if you had reason to believe the bearings were failing, sure you could have done a bottom end rebuild. but you couldn't have known as you just bought the car.

i'd question the previous owner if you want to get to the bottom of it. they may not know much about cars but you can ask them if it ever overheated
 
#30 ·
Thanks Mango, even though the situation sucks, I am learning a lot.

This was my first foray into performance engines, and I was too heavily invested.

Thanks for being forthright with the information, it isn't falling on deaf ears.


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#33 ·
yeah don't let this case scare you. these engines are extremely durable and this is really the first time i've ever heard of this kind of destruction. you can beat on and track these engines for 300k+ miles easily without a sweat providing you maintain the cooling system!
 
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