M52 Blown Head Gasket, Most Cost Effective Way To Proceed?

M52 Blown Head Gasket, Most Cost Effective Way To Proceed?

Author
Discussion

eztiger328

Original Poster:

198 posts

109 months

Thursday 8th October 2015
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Hello,

About a month ago my radiator suffered an air lock that took out my head gasket (ironically just before I was going to have the cooling system overhauled). This was confirmed through a leakdown test which showed exhaust gasses in the coolant. Before the leakdown test was performed the car had been left with the garage over the weekend and a slight misfire was noted when they started it from stone cold on the Monday which they suggested may point to a cracked head aswell.

The engine doesn't exhibit any rough idling and no mayo has made it up to the oil filler cap however I cant run it for long due to over pressure in the cooling system when the car approaches normal running temperature.

To complicate matters around 5 months ago I had a new VANOS & Thermostat fitted and around 3 months ago had a idler pulley , power steering pump and new belts fitted.

What would be the most cost effective way to proceed? Is it worth paying the labour trying to repair the engine or would it be cheaper to get a low mileage replacement dropped in with the new parts that i had recently fitted to the knackered engine swapped over?

Smuler

2,286 posts

138 months

Thursday 8th October 2015
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I would go replacement engine, based on quotes/advice I had for my M54 (E46) when I had a big problem.
I contacted Quarry Motors in Sheffield, a well respected brokers for the engine and that plus labour from my local garage came out a little cheaper than all the faffing around to repair.

However, in the end, I didn't see it cost effective to keep the car and traded it.


eztiger328

Original Poster:

198 posts

109 months

Thursday 8th October 2015
quotequote all
Thanks for the input.

I'm leaning towards dropping in a new engine, from the experience of having the VANOS replaced I know the labour required just to find out if the engine is repairable is not going to be cheap.

I think i'll keep it in the garage for a while and start saving up the pennies, it was going to be retired from daily usage for bodywork restoration anyway.


TheEnd

15,370 posts

187 months

Thursday 8th October 2015
quotequote all
Yep, probably best to swap it.

I've seen quite a few reports of the threads stripping out of the alloy block when trying to torque up the head on a used M52.

A 328 engine would be something like £250, and easier to swap the engine than to be taking it to bits and putting it back together.

kev b

2,708 posts

165 months

Thursday 8th October 2015
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Before committing to anything I would try adding a bottle of K-seal, worst case scenario is wasting £10, I have seen this stuff work miracles.