Do I need a new motor?

[Jreezy]

How many miles on the tune?

-RJM

Probably around 20k

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[lucky phil]

I also wonder what caused this. I'm not hard on the car. I stay up on maintenance. I don't get it.

Before you make any decisions you need to pull the head and check the damage to the valve seats and piston. You may quite feasibly get away with a new valve and valve cut and grind by a cylinder head shop.
Why does it happen? Not sure esp with mods listed. A friend of mine had the exact same thing happen about 6 years or so ago with his older 5 series. Left for a trip up the mountain to the next town( he lived in a rural area) and it started running like a total dog after about 3 klms. He turned around and made it back home and got it into his workshop and scoped the cylinders and it had pieces missing in a few exhaust valves on the perimeter about the size of match stick heads on different cylinders. He was a very smart guy and a tuning expert with Motec stuff in racing and road application and he was totally shocked and had no definitive answer. Anyway a few new valves and it was back on the road again and ran fine. It would be interesting to see a log just prior to the event.
Chances are the bore will be fine and a bit of minor damage to the piston crown and chamber is usually ok to put back together.
Without the head off it it's all guesswork and most shops would rather just install another engine which is totally ridiculous sometimes. Modern mechanics don't much like getting into engines these days.

 

[Jreezy]

Before you make any decisions you need to pull the head and check the damage to the valve seats and piston. You may quite feasibly get away with a new valve and valve cut and grind by a cylinder head shop.
Why does it happen? Not sure esp with mods listed. A friend of mine had the exact same thing happen about 6 years or so ago with his older 5 series. Left for a trip up the mountain to the next town( he lived in a rural area) and it started running like a total dog after about 3 klms. He turned around and made it back home and got it into his workshop and scoped the cylinders and it had pieces missing in a few exhaust valves on the perimeter about the size of match stick heads on different cylinders. He's was a very smart guy and a tuning expert with Motec stuff in racing and road application and he was totally shocked and had no definitive answer. Anyway a few new valves and it was back on the road again and ran fine. It would be interesting to see a log just prior to the event.
Chances are the bore will be fine and a bit of minor damage to the piston crown and chamber is usually ok to put back together.
Without the head off it it's all guesswork and most shops would rather just install another engine which is totally ridiculous sometimes. Modern mechanics don't much like getting into engines these days.

Thanks for this, I'm going to ask BMW for the borescope pictures, then try to find a shop or post pictures here to see what my next move should be.

 

[lucky phil]

Thanks for this, I'm going to ask BMW for the borescope pictures, then try to find a shop or post pictures here to see what my next move should be.

I've got a ton of experience with borescoping and to the untrained or inexperienced operator minor damage can often look very bad. Thats why when we boroed jet engines we had the actual turbine blades in the engine on hand for reference and we had boro gear with scaling so we could do comparative measurements. Often at first look damage seemed really bad but after comparative measurements it was fine. All down to the real-estate and magnification distorting things.

 

[Funkjaw]

Curious how often you were running E50? Ethanol can have a good number of issues associated with it. Not saying that was your issue but definitely something to think about.

 

[Jreezy]

I've got a ton of experience with borescoping and to the untrained or inexperienced operator minor damage can often look very bad. Thats why when we boroed jet engines we had on hand the actual turbine blades in the engine on hand for reference and we had boro gear with scaling so we could do comparative measurements. Often at first look damage seemed really bad but after comparative measurements it was fine. All down to the real-estate and magnification distorting things.

Thanks, I'm still have alot to learn. But I'll definitely get a second look at it. I don't have alot money to spend so definitely want to make the right decision on how to find a solution.

 

[Jreezy]

I've got a ton of experience with borescoping and to the untrained or inexperienced operator minor damage can often look very bad. Thats why when we boroed jet engines we had on hand the actual turbine blades in the engine on hand for reference and we had boro gear with scaling so we could do comparative measurements. Often at first look damage seemed really bad but after comparative measurements it was fine. All down to the real-estate and magnification distorting things.

Thanks, I'm still have alot to learn. But I'll definitely get a second look at it. I

Curious how often you were running E50? Ethanol can have a good number of issues associated with it. Not saying that was your issue but definitely something to think about.

That has always been a thought/worry since I got the tune 2 years ago. I did run E alot. But from what my tuner said "keep it from 10-50 and you'll be fine" but I'm learning

 

[Loco38SUP]

Probably around 20k

I’m at 10K and 3 years on an e50 Flex Fuel tune. I don’t baby my car at all. Its sees plenty of wide open driving every chance I get.

No problems with mine so hard to say what happened with yours. Maybe detonation or a piston ring broke from a faulty oil pump. The 2-ports have the plastic oil pump that has been problematic.

-RJM

 

[Jreezy]

I’m at 10K and 3 years on an e50 Flex Fuel tune. I don’t baby my car at all. Its sees plenty of wide open driving every chance I get.

No problems with mine so hard to say what happened with yours. Maybe detonation or a piston ring broke from a faulty oil pump. The 2-ports have the plastic oil pump that has been problematic.

-RJM

Yea I have a friend that also has a mk5 that said it definitely isn't a common problem. Do you always run close to E50 daily?

 

[Loco38SUP]

Yea I have a friend that also has a mk5 that said it definitely isn't a common problem. Do you always run close to E50 daily?

The target based on my tune is e55 always. I run it all summer long then switch to pump gas with fuel stabilizer for winter storage.

-RJM

 

[rottmore]

Thanks for this, I'm going to ask BMW for the borescope pictures, then try to find a shop or post pictures here to see what my next move should be.

Phil's right. If youre really lucky and the valves are bent instead of broken off. The bores should be fine and you can repair the head. Although i see this as a good opportunity to switch over to a 6port head.

There's alot going on with the Intake side of the valvetrain. Il take a guess and assume something failed on cylinder 6's intake to cause the crash. Could be the Lifter, lifter clip, rocker arm for the lifter, rocker arm for the eccentric shaft, or the rocker spring.

 

[razorlab]

I've got a ton of experience with borescoping and to the untrained or inexperienced operator minor damage can often look very bad. Thats why when we boroed jet engines we had the actual turbine blades in the engine on hand for reference and we had boro gear with scaling so we could do comparative measurements. Often at first look damage seemed really bad but after comparative measurements it was fine. All down to the real-estate and magnification distorting things.

Agree with this. Also, the $5000 Snap-on boroscope's actually have horrible quality and you can barely see crap and end up taking wild guesses. I have a $100 Amazon 4k boroscope that is 100x better quality.

 

[66joeyn]

Sometimes things just break. I’m older than most of you I assume and have a 23 mt and I really feel for you. The b58 is a very common engine these days so I would recommend finding a shop that works on bmw’s and see what it would take to get a new(er) engine installed and move forward. Start by calling the shops that tge others are recommending as well as some of the tuner shops. Also make sure they put everything in writing up front. Good luck my friend.

 

[Funkjaw]

I’m at 10K and 3 years on an e50 Flex Fuel tune. I don’t baby my car at all. Its sees plenty of wide open driving every chance I get.

No problems with mine so hard to say what happened with yours. Maybe detonation or a piston ring broke from a faulty oil pump. The 2-ports have the plastic oil pump that has been problematic.

-RJM

This is the optimal way to drive on E50 - as the heat generated by the constant load will often burn off any moisture in the oil caused by the phase separation properties of the E50.

The guys who run ethanol but only take their car out on the weekends to a car meet or a grocery store are the ones that end up with blown engines :/

 

[Jreezy]

Phil's right. If youre really lucky and the valves are bent instead of broken off. The bores should be fine and you can repair the head. Although i see this as a good opportunity to switch over to a 6port head.

There's alot going on with the Intake side of the valvetrain. Il take a guess and assume something failed on cylinder 6's intake to cause the crash. Could be the Lifter, lifter clip, rocker arm for the lifter, rocker arm for the eccentric shaft, or the rocker spring.

Let's say I have to get a new motor and I find a 2022 3.0 6 port. Will that link right up? Do I have to do anything with DME? Or will need anything else?

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