E36: buying one with suspected head gasket failure?

[phatmanace]

I'm doing a charity car run next year. The max price of the cars is £500, thus I've been combing fleabay.

I could clearly buy something french and not very interesting, but I've been looking at E36 beemers - quite a lot in the price bracket I'm looking at have 'suspected head gasket failure' - is this a total disaster, or an easy fix? - or does it depend on how long the person has been driving around since the failure?

[TheEnd]

Often it is people struggling to bleed them properly, and doing stuff like removing the thermostat.
Leaking rad caps, dodgy water pumps, and airlocks give a lot of similar symptoms to knackered head gaskets.

[tgr]

Yes, but is the OP going to be able to tell the difference before it's too late? From the question, I doubt it

[HustleRussell]

Have you ever built up an engine top end OP? used a helicoil or timesert? Timed an engine up? If not, a head gasket is a job which will cost anywhere between £500 and £1000+ to fix at a garage. Second hand engine is an option but it's a bit of a lottery as these cars like to blow their head gaskets and crack heads, the only think they like more than that is stripping the head bolts out of the block.

[phatmanace]

HustleRussell said:

Have you ever built up an engine top end OP? used a helicoil or timesert? Timed an engine up? If not, a head gasket is a job which will cost anywhere between £500 and £1000+ to fix at a garage. Second hand engine is an option but it's a bit of a lottery as these cars like to blow their head gaskets and crack heads, the only think they like more than that is stripping the head bolts out of the block.

Nope - I haven't... I'm guessing that in that case, it's not an easy fix

Thanks for the help, ...my search for a shed continues ..

[helix402]

Unless the op is considering an M43, that's a quick and easy head gasket change.