CODE BLUE...CODE BLUE...I Think I Have An Issue With The E34..... EWWWWW

[BMW4LIFE]

So I went to change the plugs out today and noticed that some were soaked in oil while others have residues and one was perfect....pictures coming soon!

I was OMG...I took the plugs out and cleaned all the plug bay with bounty making sure non of it went into the chamber...

I looked into the chamber with my flash light and saw what I think are the pistons...they did not look clean at all...They had what looked like A LOT of carbon build up on them....

I then went ahead and changed the plugs with the OE Bosch (sorry bubba but i chickened out on the E3s) and plugged everything back in...tightened all the screws and put it all together....when I went to start the car I got the biggest white cloud out of my exhaust!...and the roughest Idle I have ever experienced....

the rough ideal remained for the next 30 secs while my heart began to stop...then it smoothed out...then there was a jolt of rough ideal for a sec then smoothed out...

I then took the car for a small ride around my house not breaking third gear and everything seemed perfect....I turned the car off and on again and noticed nothing out of the ordinary!

Do I have a blown head gasket? cracked block? why is there oil? what is the white smoke? why the rough ideal?

Im freaking out! =(

HELP!

thanks!

[whiskychaser]

Unless you were expecting to find oil in the plug wells, you wouldnt really be looking for it. So you remove the plugs and any oil in there runs down into the cylinders without you knowing it.
When you come to fire up you are burning off the oil that has run down. Until thats done the mixture is well out and it runs like a pig. Its pretty much what you get if you have introduced a little oil into cylinders when doing a compression test. The tell tale for you is if your socket has oil on it and if the old plugs' shoulders and threads have oil on them.

[Ferret]

It's nothing, it's just the oil that was sat around the plugs running into the cylenders as you take the old plugs out...

very common thing!

[glen-sj]

So I went to change the plugs out today and noticed that some were soaked in oil while others have residues and one was perfect....pictures coming soon!

I was OMG...I took the plugs out and cleaned all the plug bay with bounty making sure non of it went into the chamber...

I looked into the chamber with my flash light and saw what I think are the pistons...they did not look clean at all...They had what looked like A LOT of carbon build up on them....

I then went ahead and changed the plugs with the OE Bosch (sorry bubba but i chickened out on the E3s) and plugged everything back in...tightened all the screws and put it all together....when I went to start the car I got the biggest white cloud out of my exhaust!...and the roughest Idle I have ever experienced....

the rough ideal remained for the next 30 secs while my heart began to stop...then it smoothed out...then there was a jolt of rough ideal for a sec then smoothed out...

I then took the car for a small ride around my house not breaking third gear and everything seemed perfect....I turned the car off and on again and noticed nothing out of the ordinary!

Do I have a blown head gasket? cracked block? why is there oil? what is the white smoke? why the rough ideal?

Im freaking out! =(

HELP!

thanks!

Consider replacing your valve cover gaskets to prevent the oil leak.

[Russell]

what are e3 plugs?

BTW, replace your valve cover gasket. I do mine every other plug change/30,000 miles

[Tiger]

E3 plugs are new plugs... just look it up. It has a wierd looking single electrode that has a better spark. I have it in my chainsaw or trimmer and it was a world of difference to start up a 2 stroke.

[BMW4LIFE]

okay that makes me feel a lot better...

I noticed the oil on the second plug from the front of the car so I started shoving paper towels to soak up as much as I could before I could pull the plug.

But I do have to say that I am happy it is not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I will look into the value gasket...do I need to remove the plugs again to change that?

What should I do regarding the pistons? Should I run seafoam?

[Russell]

okay that makes me feel a lot better...

I noticed the oil on the second plug from the front of the car so I started shoving paper towels to soak up as much as I could before I could pull the plug.

But I do have to say that I am happy it is not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I will look into the value gasket...do I need to remove the plugs again to change that?

What should I do regarding the pistons? Should I run seafoam?

If you change the vc gasket you will need to remove the plugs. Do you have a Bentley repair manual. it should tell you how, Also search this and other forums for diy.

I would not seafoam the engine at this time. Not sure you have a problem. Even so, i would run a fuel system cleaner such as Chevron Techron or Gumout Regane to generally clean injectors, valves and possibly carbon on pistons.

[BMW4LIFE]

If you change the vc gasket you will need to remove the plugs. Do you have a Bentley repair manual. it should tell you how, Also search this and other forums for diy.

I would not seafoam the engine at this time. Not sure you have a problem. Even so, i would run a fuel system cleaner such as Chevron Techron or Gumout Regane to generally clean injectors, valves and possibly carbon on pistons.

yea I was planning on doing that once my tank got to Empty...

I hear a lot of people running the chevron with tech...but have you heard anything about the red line injector cleaner? is there a difference between any of these?

[BMW4LIFE]

non working pics removed

[Russell]

My normal fuel is chevron 93 octane with Techrone. i was refering to a cleaner you pour in the tank. Forgot Redline. Good stuff, at least equal to the two cleaners I mentioned.

[bubba966]

I then went ahead and changed the plugs with the OE Bosch (sorry bubba but i chickened out on the E3s)

I should post up emissions tests of my M-Sport with OE Bosch F7LDCR's & the proper fitment E3 plugs. That'd show you how well the E3's run in my car. I knew the E3's were running nicely, but to say I was rather shocked is an understatement.

At least you got those +4's out of there and got the F7LDCR's in instead even though I've no doubt you'd have liked the E3's.

Oh, and the discoloration at the base of the ceramic on the +4's is frequently caused by bad coil boots. So if your coil boots are original/old you might want to throw in a new set. Easy and not so bad $-wise since you only need 6 of them.

[bubba966]

Forgot to say that running a can of Seafoam through the gas tank sounds like a decent idea to me. Might want to do it with the minimum amount of gas it suggests for a higher concentrated & shorter duration treatment.

A can of Techron would be ok. But I've not bought any Techron since I tried Seafoam.

[BMW4LIFE]

I should post up emissions tests of my M-Sport with OE Bosch F7LDCR's & the proper fitment E3 plugs. That'd show you how well the E3's run in my car. I knew the E3's were running nicely, but to say I was rather shocked is an understatement.

At least you got those +4's out of there and got the F7LDCR's in instead even though I've no doubt you'd have liked the E3's.

Oh, and the discoloration at the base of the ceramic on the +4's is frequently caused by bad coil boots. So if your coil boots are original/old you might want to throw in a new set. Easy and not so bad $-wise since you only need 6 of them.

yea I noticed that one of the cylinders boot was falling apart...

three of them were drenched in oil too so I would not mind changing them...

do you know the price of them?

[SnakeyesTx]

Is that condensation stuck to the oil?

+4's are crap... every single time I've tried them, the compression of the engine has either crushed the grounding electrodes or they'd live a very short life.

I've run NGK's for years with no ill effects, and recently went with the Iridiums in my 540. Nothing but good things since they've been installed.

[bubba966]

yea I noticed that one of the cylinders boot was falling apart...

three of them were drenched in oil too so I would not mind changing them...

do you know the price of them?

$6 or $7 each for Bremi from Autohaus or Pelican. $8 or $9 for BMW branded Bremi from Tischer if I recall correctly. Though I'm rather tired at the moment (been up almost 24 hours straight right now) and I bought mine from Pelican along with a few other things last year. Should run you around $40 for a set if you just go straight for the Bremi's (or Bosch's if your coils are Bosch).

[BMW4LIFE]

$6 or $7 each for Bremi from Autohaus or Pelican. $8 or $9 for BMW branded Bremi from Tischer if I recall correctly. Though I'm rather tired at the moment (been up almost 24 hours straight right now) and I bought mine from Pelican along with a few other things last year. Should run you around $40 for a set if you just go straight for the Bremi's (or Bosch's if your coils are Bosch).

I'm pretty sure that my coils are Bosch but I am not 100% sure...i will check tomorrow....

would it matter if I get the Bremis? Thats seems like all that both Pelican and Autohausaz sell

[bubba966]

I'm pretty sure that my coils are Bosch but I am not 100% sure...i will check tomorrow....

would it matter if I get the Bremis? Thats seems like all that both Pelican and Autohausaz sell

Someone on here insists that you should run identical brand coils & coil boots (forget who) with the reason being that they should be impedance matched that way. I've tried different coil boots on different coils before and I couldn't detect any negative effects of running different brand coils & boots.

Impedance matching is important in high end audio & video (been there, done that). But for an ignition system you'll want the lowest impedance possible. Less impedance = more juice to your plugs.

Interestingly the BAVauto performance coil boots I've tested had higher impedance than the Bremi boots. Forgot to measure the Bosch boots when I had one in hand. Didn't bother testing the coils impedance.

Honestly see no reason to tell you not to use Bremi boots on Bosch coils.

And if you want to actually get super picky about things you can get a dozen or so boots. Measure them all and put together a matched set then return the rest. A matched set of coil boots should make more difference than matching the coil brand to the boot brand. But honestly they're close enough in spec from the factory that going to the hassle & expense of building a matched set isn't worth it on a DD M50. That's something you'd do on a very highly tuned race engine.

[BMW4LIFE]

yea bubba I don't see what the big deal is anyways but I am afraid that if I buy them and they suck I wont be able to return them...
Do I dare say that if it isnt broke dont fix it? =/

[bubba966]

yea bubba I don't see what the big deal is anyways but I am afraid that if I buy them and they suck I wont be able to return them...

Do I dare say that if it isnt broke dont fix it? =/

It IS broke. The ceramic on your plugs tells me you've got bad coil boots.

Let me say this. I was an electrician for a few years. And I've designed my own very high end audio & video cabling that I had an Electrical Engineer that builds custom A/V gear build for me after he finally tried out the design (took me a couple of years to get him to build a specific cable as he said the design wouldn't work. He finally tried it one day and found that not only did it work, but it worked very well.)

I'm not an expert with all things electrical. But I know a thing or two for sure. And everything I know tells me that low impedance is very important in an ignition system. Impedance matching isn't. Bremi boots are plenty low impedance. And in my experience are quite well built with good enough factory QC to keep a very consistent impedance across batches.

Honestly, these coils & boots are built to BMW specs. A Bosch coil or boot should be built to the same spec that a Bremi coil or boot is built to because BMW sets the spec, not Bosch or Bremi.

Since both Bosch & Bremi make good parts there's no reason why they're not fully interchangeable.

Put it this way, do you ever hear of anyone saying you can only run Moroso plug wires with & Moroso cap & a Moroso rotor? Can't use Accel plug wires because my cap & rotor is Delco. (sorry for the GM references, came from high power Chevys) Nope, never hear that because impedance matching doesn't matter.

It's just like saying you've absolutely got to use Bosch plugs if you've got Bosch coils & boots. How many people with M50's/M60's have had excellent results using the proper NGK plugs? Denso Iridiums? E3's? What coils were they all using? I've got Bremi coils/boots in my M60. Ran good with Bosch F7's, didn't run so well with Bosch +2's, runs great with E3's.

Anyways, if you could find Bosch boots somewhere for the same price as Bremi's then go for it. But I can't find Bosch boots anywhere. Just pick up a set of Bremi boots and slap 'em in. It'll not only be fine, but will run better. You'll notice it most in 2,500+ RPM use.

[BMW4LIFE]

I see where you are coming from...I will look for the bosch for a little while but if I do not find them by this weekend I will place my order for the Bremi's...

Bubba...You are awesome!

Thank you for your time to explain things out and show me the path...

By the way....have you heard of SWEPCO? I hear they are better than a lot of oils (especially gear oils) out there...I would be very interested in what you would have to say...

thanks!

[BMW4LIFE]

So I changed the valve cover gasket yesterday and everything went super smooth...did it all under an hour (impressed myself)

[BigKriss]

enigne looks very clean

[BMW4LIFE]

That is good to hear BigKriss


I owe my clean engine to Mobile 1!

:D:p

[bubba966]

Looks nice to me from what I can see in the pics.

And Mobil 1 will only keep your internals clean if you change it once in a while. When you don't change it often enough it looks like this.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1281659

[BMW4LIFE]

Yea I saw that awhile back and was blown away!!! I was changing my oil every 3k but the guy at BMW said that i was wasting my money and I could safely stretch it out to 5K without a worry!