My mechanic and I are struggling with 1996 318ti complicate radiator air pressure

[Donfico]

Hello guys, I would like to listen to your pro opinions on this topic. At the first I bought new waterpump and the car ran fine until it had bad cooling fan and radiator leak. The car was often overheating I had to pull over and let it cool down. We installed new radiator, cooling fan, temp sensor & thermosat. Of course the radiator bleeded perfectly. Now the only problem is air pressure, we checked the air pressure test and it show fine. Next morning the car had hard time to start and I noticed the water level is madly full. The engine shows no sign of milky oil eventually the engine shows no sign of oil spill on the block and head.

Could waterpump is the problem? Bad waterpump will keep the air pressure up?

[xxxJohnBoyxxx]

Hate to say it but most likely a blown head gasket. Mine blew and and I had the exact same issue. Air in cooling system. Never had any water in oil and pressure tests were good. I bet if you did a leak down test it would blow air out of your radiator from the blown head gasket.

Best of luck, John S

[jca]

Pretty much the same thing happened to me...turned out to be the head gasket, sorry to say. John

[Donfico]

Im going ahead looking for another engine, hopefully I can find the low mileage one and will work on the old bad headgasket later.

[pdxmotorhead]

decent engine 800 to 1000 dollars. Cost ot swap it out,,, north of 1000.

Replace head gasket at good privateer mechanic,, 1200...

Replace head gasket your self,,, 400 or so with a gasket set, and taking head to the machine shop for surfacing and a valve job.

Dave

[xxxJohnBoyxxx]

Originally Posted by Donfico

Im going ahead looking for another engine, hopefully I can find the low mileage one and will work on the old bad headgasket later.

There are a lot of swaps on this board and I bet there are a lot of I-4's sitting waiting to be sold. I would bet you could find a cherry one for $400. I just did my head gasket and it cost me labor only so $0. Don't expect the same for your deal...On mine all surfaces were perfect and Metric Mechanic sent me all the gaskets for free since they are great people and take care of past customers.

John Smith

[pdxmotorhead]

Dont forget shipping.... Cheap used engine...

But M44 are pretty common, even in some u-pullits...

Dave