BMW engine probs. NEED HELP, PLEASE.

[herman maire]

Thank you for looking. Its a pretty long read but would really apreciate some opinions. Heres a few details to this VERY STRANGE PROBLEM.

Model- bmw 528
year-2000
KM- 100,000
owned car for 3 years, never a problem.

Just finished driving cross country saturday last week (3,900KM) not a single problem. Car does not burn a drop of oil .

Heres where the problems start. Start the car up monday after being parked a few days to run into town and grab a couple of things.... after driving 5 miles I come to a stop light. Smoke from oil hiting the manifolds ( later found that oil burst out of the valve cover only on passenger side) poors into the cabin.

I keep the car running just to get the car out of the traffic. Car still running fine, I shut it off. I look around in the engine bay, other than oil on the exhaust everything looks fine. I let it cool, later start it up... runs perfect at idle then the motor hydro locks ( later after taken spark plugs out, the cylinders are full of oil )

Things I have checked-

1- coolant level is still perfect and there was no coolant in cylinders so its not the head gasket.every cylinder had a bunch of oil in it #6 had the most.

2- all camshafts ect.. under valve cover look perfect.

3- compression ( after I clean oil out of cylinders ) was a even 180psi.

4- No oil in the intake

WHAT THE HECKS UP

HOW DID THE OIL GET IN THE CYLINDERS

[Rick V]

oil seperator failure. It is located under the intake and can be a bear to change.

[oldE]

Wild @ss guess here: Valve guide failure? I realize the guides would have had to fall to pieces, but that might have a/ allowed some compression gasses to pressurize the valve covers and cause an external leak, and b/ allowed enough oil to run into the cylinder to hydrolock it.

Good luck.
Keep us posted.

Les

[herman maire]

Rick,

Thank you for the reply. I really hope your right and that its that easy of a fix, I pulled the oil seperator not to long ago but I just dont see how it could move that much oil in that short of a time to hydro lock a motor!! I ordered a new one from BMW $49 and a new valve cover. Do you think its possible.

Other than the oil getting in the cylinders by the intake I dont see any other ways.

Thanks again

[herman maire]

Originally Posted by oldE

Wild @ss guess here: Valve guide failure? I realize the guides would have had to fall to pieces, but that might have a/ allowed some compression gasses to pressurize the valve covers and cause an external leak, and b/ allowed enough oil to run into the cylinder to hydrolock it.

Good luck.
Keep us posted.

Les

Thanks les,

I just dont see how 24 valve guides could fail all at the same time... I did think of this though, I just did not want to pull the off yet.

[herman maire]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

I have the same car, and I wrote a book on the E36 which has the same engine. All of the cylinders are full of oil? That's really very odd. There are only a few ways I can think of oil getting into the cylinders:

- Past the rings (extremely unlikely)
- Through the spark plug hole (also unlikely)
- Through the valve guides (likely, but not for all cylinders at a time)
- Head Gasket (most likely). There are oil and water passages in the head gasket (oil to feed the head), so I would still bet on head gasket. Besides these last about 100K and then blow up. Still, oil in 100% of the cylinders - doesn't seem to add up. Although the oil dripping on the manifold, that's definitely head gasket symptoms...

-Wayne

Wow... Thank you Wayne for your feedback, I should mention that my car is also a Touring like yours.

I checked from underneath the car and the surface between the head and the block is bone dry . I thought forsure it was the head gasket that burped oil on the exhaust but it came from the valve cover gasket. So there was enough pressure in the valve area to push oil past the gasket.... VERY WEIRD.

edit-
I thought the oil passages were near the corners of the cylinder head and closer to the cylinder walls was all coolant? I could be wrong but thats why I thought the head gasket was OK because there is no signs of mixing.

I also checked in the oil filter housing to see any signs of a major problem and everything looks perfect... nothing metalic.

the coolat level is still 100% perfect

Thanks again.. I really apreciate it.

[Rick V]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

so I would still bet on head gasket. Besides these last about 100K and then blow up.

Comming from someone who has spent several years working on BMW's exclusivly, I find this to be news. These engines are rock solid and barring the event of an overheat it is rare. I have alot of customers with this engine in thier cars with well over 200k, on the origional headgaskets. Not saying it isn't possible, but ALL cylinders full of oil, I doubt it. JMO

[herman maire]

Originally Posted by Rick V

Comming from someone who has spent several years working on BMW's exclusivly, I find this to be news. These engines are rock solid and barring the event of an overheat it is rare. I have alot of customers with this engine in thier cars with well over 200k, on the origional headgaskets. Not saying it isn't possible, but ALL cylinders full of oil, I doubt it. JMO

I know its REALLY WEIRD but all the cylinders were full of oil.

[herman maire]

Its been a while but I thought I would update this.

Changed the oil seperator and cleaned out the cylinders with the plugs removed ( NEVER PULLED THE HEAD OFF) I would put some clean gas in the cylinders and crank the motor over until the oil was gone. Heres a few pics-


here you can see the oil that came out of the cylinders with the plugs out.



Here is the I think problem oil seperator-


And here is the car runing PERFECT again.



Just wondering what you guys think... it is a problem I have NEVER seen before

[Rick V]

I have seen it before which is why I recomended if first and over the head gasket. They are known to fail, and they will fill the cylinders with oil.
Glad to hear you got her running again.
Happy motoring