E36 328i sport track car possible problem

[Mortey]

Hi,

I am looking to buy a weekend/track day car. I have been looking at mx5's and e36's.

I have found a nice early 328i sport with a LSD. It's a standard car, no rust, had 4 owners and done 80k. I quite like the car but when I opened the oil cap there was a build up of white mayo stuff. The engine ran nicely and seller said he has not had to top coolant up. He did say he has used it to drive 3 miles to work and back and not really driven anywhere else recently.

So is this just a symptom of short trips in cold weather or should I worry about the headgasket?

Also how good will the 328 be on track. Anybody have experience of one? What will it like compared to an e36 m3 or mk1 mx5?

Thanks

[swtmerce]

With the right mods and set up the 328 is an unbeatable track car. I shared one with my friend for 2 years before selling up to him and it lives on with an M3 engine plus other stuff.

A very long and detailed journal exists on the bmwowner forum http://www.bmwowner.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&a...

[NiceCupOfTea]

It could well be short journeys or the owner could be trying to hide potential HG failure.

Any other signs? Excessive water vapour from exhaust, coolant header tank discoloured?

If the owner will let you you can do a sniff test - kits on ebay for 30 quid or so which let you pull air out of the header tank through a liquid which changes colour if exhaust gases are present. Diagnosed a failing HG on my Saab before any damage was done or it expired in a cloud of steam!

[4rephill]

If it's genuinely been doing 3 mile journeys each day then it's almost definitely just condensation build up.

As for Excessive water vapour from exhaust, you'd need to take it on a good long run to fully warm the engine to find this one out. If it's still steaming after 20 miles or so then there's a problem but I've owned 4 BMW's so far and all four of them have steamed like a locomotive on a cold day for the first 5 miles or so and none of them had a head gasket failure.