Non running 96 318 ti
 

I am looking at picking up a 1996 318 ti about 100 miles away. It is a manual transmission and the body and interior is in good shape. The owner has no idea what happened and don't know anything about cars. Sha had it towed to a shop.
The shop told me they did a compression test and only had 30-40 psi across 4 cylinders. What am I looking at in terms of getting this car back on the road?
I am a Porsche 944 diy guy and have no idea about this car. Should I walk away from this car?
Thanks for the help.

I see you made it over from bf.c!

Here's info on the cooling system if it needs to be done:
http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=18066

I see a number of heads in the for sale sections.

Also there are tons of threads on here about swapping in a six cylinder engine

Welcome!

I replied to this on Bf's.

Get it, dump a 6cyl in it, and enjoy it!

Can you give me an estimate on the 6-cylinder swap and what is involved.
Thanks.

If it's cheap enough go for it. I got my ti for 100 bucks basically the same way.

As for the 6 cyl swap, TONS of great articles and threads here.

$50 on tow dolly and $40 gas plus my 3 hours of labor to load in dolly and driving combined.
Thanks. I have to do a lot of reading then. This will sit for another month or two since I am still working on the Porsche 944 S2 engine refresh.
I will post pics when I get it home.
Thanks to all who replied.

Good deal!

If you shop around, you could do a M50 or M52 swap for around $1-2k. Not including beefing up your clutch.
Add a little more if you want to go with an S-motor.

I will pick up the car today and a little excited.

Here is the reason why this ti will sit outside for a while while looking for a 6-cyl swap. Another 4 weeks to finish her up.
http://www.petrifiera.net/bel/P1120081.JPG

ps. the pic is not showing up!
[fixed]

I got the car. Body and interior still in ok condition. I will post pic later as I am out of town.

The dealer took out all the spark plugs and did a compression test. The receipt stated compression test yielded 30-40 psi across all 4 cylinders. This is interesting as I have not had any experience losing compression on all four cylinders at the same time with a cylinder head gasket failure. But at least the engine is not seized. I'll find out tomorrow when I get back. I took the battery out and it's getting recharged right now. Battery should be fully charged by tomorrow and tests will begin.

A few pics.
The driver side window just dropped all the way down when I shut the door closed. LOL.
I removed the door panel and found the plastic piece socket was loose where the ball snaps into. It was very dry too, needs greasing. I got the window up temporarily while it's going to sit in the yard for a while. I may need those plastic slides for the ball and socket.

I just had the battery recharged and did a quick compression test. Result was very disappointing as 1 cylinder had 25 psi and the rest are zero compression.
I definitely have to pull the head and do some exploration on the loss of compression.
Any guesses as to why there was no compression?
Warped head?
hole in pistons?
bent valves?

The head off mine was warped horribly. Not usable at all.

Car looks really nice. Looks better than mine!

The head can really warp bad to loose compression on all cylinders?

Yeah, everything on the car looks really good. It;s really worth saving.

Mine was...The gasket was blown out on all the cylinders.