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      02-26-2019, 09:55 PM   #1
reggienaz
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M4 project car gone BAD!?

I recently purchased a used M4 and after a bunch of diagnosing and sleepless nights I have decided to share my story/progress and entertain you fine people. *This vehicle was purchased from Copart*. And while I can certainly afford a new or used M4 from better sources than Copart who doesn't love a good project car? My thought process was if I buy a reasonably cheap M4 by the time I’m in used car territory I'll have a built or at least have a FBO car.

The previous owner of this fine piece of German engineering seems to have been a 20 year old kid from Iowa with a questionable driving history. I say that with confidence because upon delivery of the vehicle in the trunk I found a repair estimate of a 2017 Mercedes Benz C300 which judging by the estimated repair cost I assume was totaled out by insurance. There was also a letter from his insurance which in summary was them informing him that they were nearly tripling his monthly premium. Then an estimate for fixing passenger side quarter panel damage to the M4 which was now in my possession.The newest damage to the car came in the form of a nearly destroyed front bumper in desperate need of replacement, a bent control arm and a destroyed oil cooler. I figured suspension work would be straight forward. I ordered the control arm from my local BMW dealership and was able to install it no problem. I ordered a new oem bumper online and arranged to get it painted at a local shop and removed the old one.

This is where my trouble began. Somewhere between the copart lot and my home in New Jersey they keys to the vehicle were lost by either someone at copart in davenport Iowa or the driver of the truck who delivered the car and so after not being able to get the car into neutral I used wheel dollies to push the car into my driveway. I'm leaning towards copart error in loosing the keys at this point but I ordered a new key from BMW, charged the battery with the fancy c-tek lithium charger needed for these cars and after letting it sit overnight I threw in new plugs gaped to .020 and new coils in the car. After receiving the new key I got all excited to start her up and was quickly disappointed when she didn't start up. No problem a little diagnosis never hurt. (Side note the oil cooler is still not here at this point however it is bypassed using a hose and hose clamps to the inlet and outlet hose for the oil cooler.) I get in the car, scan for codes and find nothing, but I do see that the oil change is due in 2000 miles. No problem I'll change it now. I pull the drain plug and instantly realize there is coolant in the oil. I let it drain for a good hour, change the filter and figure lets see if this is as bad as it seems. I’ll put oil in, crank it a few times to get oil circulating, and then drain the oil again, and see if there is less coolant(milkshake looking oil) that comes out.

Fast forward to the next day and a few cranks later the oil looks slightly better? Still coolant in there but probably less. At this point I take a step back to research if there is an oil to coolant heat exchanger in the M4. That's an obvious no so I figure there was coolant left in that hose and other areas of the engine that could cause the oil to still look like a milkshake after cranking the engine a few times but i start to accept the fact that I'm probably looking at a serious engine rebuild and maybe even a new motor at this point. But what could it be? The oil filter housing has coolant passages that could mix oil and coolant but why would that randomly fail at 40k miles? A head gasket on an s55 failing?? Never heard of that one.., A completely wrecked motor that cant be rebuilt or saved maybe?? A trip to the auto parts store later and I'm ready to do a compression test.

This is where things get really bad. I disconnect the injector wire, pull the new spark plugs, and hook up the compression tester. I crank the engine over 6 times, look at the psi and its reading 0. After checking to make sure it was connected properly I try again and get 0 psi. Then on a 3rd try I manage to get 90psi. That’s really low obviously and I start thinking i have valves stuck open, maybe valvetronic doing things only BMW engineers understand. But why would it read 0 a few times and suddenly read 90 psi? Who knows but lets continue testing this thing. Long story short basically every cylinder had random 0-10psi readings and then a few 90-130 psi readings but at this point I know there’s something weird going on. I’m still unsure if there is a special compression test procedure for the S55 motor but at this point I understand that unless my timing is way out causing no compression my piston rings are fried and cylinder walls likely destroyed,(this explains the low compression but not the coolant in oil) the head gasket is very very blown (which does explain coolant in oil and could explain the low compression but in my experience compression never gets that low from a head gasket) or my motor is blown and destroyed in ways I can’t fathom (that explains everything from no start to little to no compression and coolant in oil). Here’s the really weird part of the whole coolant in oil situation, there coolant tank is FULL. We will see for sure when I’m home next week and drain the oil for the 3rd time. I guess a leak down test never hurts but this thing is a lot more confusing than the m52 I remember and loved so much. I welcome all input and ideas as to what’s going on with what is currently a very overpriced paperweight. Here are some pictures of the car I'll add more photos as work on it continues. https://photos.app.goo.gl/jHHYU3om9igtX4RTA

Last edited by reggienaz; 03-26-2019 at 04:58 PM..
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      02-26-2019, 10:04 PM   #2
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How did you purchase the car from copart if you do not do this for a living?

They are very strict on approving bidders as too many people end up in the same situation you are now if they do not have experience buying totaled cars.
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      02-26-2019, 10:09 PM   #3
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@IK6SPEED In New Jersey a general business license lets you bid on most of their cars. Otherwise you have to use a broker to purchase through their website. Once again let me say I have the budget to get into a huge project like this. I'm not scared of what this will cost. Just figured I always wanted to get into an M4 and this is a pretty entertaining way to do it.
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      02-26-2019, 10:16 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by reggienaz View Post
@IK6SPEED In New Jersey a general business license lets you bid on most of their cars. Otherwise you have to use a broker to purchase through their website. Once again let me say I have the budget to get into a huge project like this. I'm not scared of what this will cost. Just figured I always wanted to get into an M4 and this is a pretty entertaining way to do it.
Do you mind PMing me the Vin of the car you purchased? Have you checked if it had been previously resold in a different condition? Perhaps it has been tampered with previously and later resold. Did you get it from any of the Los Angeles area auctions?
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      02-26-2019, 11:19 PM   #5
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The charge cooler has a known weakness and can leak coolant internally into the engine intake valves (there's a big thread on this). Not catastrophic but could explain why engine oil looked milky. Are BOTH coolant reservoirs full? Both the radiator loop and the charge cooler loop? (Reservoir next to the windscreen).

If not that then all I can think is the owner was clueless and somehow the oil cooler damaged could oil have leaked, iDrive warned the owner, they open the bonnet, mistake the oil cap for coolant and have topped up the engine with coolant and not oil?
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      02-27-2019, 01:27 PM   #6
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do a leak down test. at least you would know if it's rings, HG or bent valve(s).
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      02-27-2019, 01:59 PM   #7
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mfurse I hanvent checked the charge air cooler but that reservoir is bone dry because the passenger side auxiliary radiator for the cooling circuit was damaged with the bumper. Im installing the new one this Monday when im back in New Jersey and will fill it with coolant and see whats going on. Fast4d I will be doing the leak down test on Monday. I appreciate the input everyone. Pictures are coming soon!
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      03-02-2019, 01:53 AM   #8
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I could imagine the coolant reservoir being full and coolant in the oil if the head gasket had blown. The reservoir can fill up because exhaust gases pressurize the coolant jacket and force coolant into the overflow. That said, the prior owner sounds like a fool and it might be worth tracking him down and just asking if he did anything to the engine. I sold my E92 to a dealer in Ohio, and the guy that bought it found me through the maintenance records and asked about any clutch issues, of which my car had many. He appreciated getting the back story on everything I had already done.

The BMW method for checking cylinder compression (unsurprisingly) involves special tools that unfortunately don’t shed light on the proper procedure.

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/f...ine/1VnXKmZHm9
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      03-02-2019, 05:31 PM   #9
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      03-17-2019, 11:56 AM   #10
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Time is money and this seems like huge waste of time which of course means you must have wasted a ton of money.
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      03-25-2019, 04:19 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MFNATIK View Post
Time is money and this seems like huge waste of time which of course means you must have wasted a ton of money.
Its only a waste if it doesn't work out in the end

I know its been a while since the last update. Long story short I never managed to contact the previous owner but found that the car was run with little to no oil after the oil cooler accident happened. That resulted in a seized intake camshaft. The motor is currently apart and getting a new cylinder head since the camshaft wore into the aluminum head.
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      03-25-2019, 05:34 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by reggienaz View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by MFNATIK View Post
Time is money and this seems like huge waste of time which of course means you must have wasted a ton of money.
Its only a waste if it doesn't work out in the end

I know its been a while since the last update. Long story short I never managed to contact the previous owner but found that the car was run with little to no oil after the oil cooler accident happened. That resulted in a seized intake camshaft. The motor is currently apart and getting a new cylinder head since the camshaft wore into the aluminum head.
Sounds like a small nightmare. Hopefully no scoring or other damage to rod bearings or turbo bearings happened during that starvation. Good luck - sounds like a labour of love 😊

PS are you considering doing a crank hub fix whilst it's being rebuilt?
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      03-25-2019, 07:40 PM   #13
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Wow, if the cam seized, I imagine all of the oiled surfaces probably have significant wear. How do the bores and main bearings look?
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      03-26-2019, 04:52 PM   #14
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I am definitely getting a VTT crank hub kit put in during this rebuild! I feel it would be a waste to do this much engine work and leave the Achilles heel of the S55 vulnerable. All bearings are getting replaced even though the bottom end of the motor didn't show signs of excessive wear. The cylinder bores are in surprisingly good condition as well. No visible scoring.
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      03-26-2019, 08:44 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by reggienaz View Post
Its only a waste if it doesn't work out in the end

I know its been a while since the last update. Long story short I never managed to contact the previous owner but found that the car was run with little to no oil after the oil cooler accident happened. That resulted in a seized intake camshaft. The motor is currently apart and getting a new cylinder head since the camshaft wore into the aluminum head.
I get it, everyone likes a good gamble. I just don't think this one is a good bet. Sorry! May the odds be in your favor tho!
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      03-26-2019, 10:18 PM   #16
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Thank you for all the input everyone. Its keeping me motivated to get this M on the road. The cylinders were leak down tested and inspected with a borescope before the cylinder head was removed. Everything came back within spec and although the valves weren't seating perfectly due to carbon buildup there was no evidence of valve clash due to the seized intake camshaft. I know the s55 is an interference motor but maybe its only the exhaust valves that strike the piston in the event of a failure? All the crank hub failures I've seen seem to have exhaust valve strike.
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      03-27-2019, 08:44 AM   #17
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I did not read about this. The only difference is that the exhaust valves have a smaller diameter (28 mm vs 32 mm) and are maybe more prone to damage which I doubt.
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      03-27-2019, 07:43 PM   #18
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      05-24-2019, 04:05 PM   #19
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Just to keep everyone posted. Engine is being re-assembled now. Should be good to go in a few days.
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      05-24-2019, 04:32 PM   #20
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Once again:
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      05-25-2019, 06:25 PM   #21
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I applaud your perseverance. It will pay off. You have the right attitude!
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      05-28-2019, 11:44 AM   #22
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interesting thread. subscribed
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