When you get a reputation for a certain marque and then dead cars find you...

I've earned a reputation as a BMW Guy.  People at work ask me, "Tyler, you always drive BMWs.  Should I get one for my kid?"  "Hell no, you shouldn't!" is the correct answer.  A BMW for me but not for thee.  They will punish non-enthusiast owners.  They are, objectively, cars that will punish you.

Flash forward a decade and a half and now I have a fully-permitted 15yo daughter, raised around darry having a BMW.  Taught to drive a 5spd M3 since she was 11.  I have a reputation  at large for being an enthusiast for the hateful things.

...And that's how a dead E39 530i wound up in my garage this week.  It just up and died and the PO is a friend of a friend and so $800 later and my eldest daughter's first car is now in my garage. Speaking of punishment -- this car was enthusiast owned and came with a trunk full of spare parts and a binder full of service records in the trunk.  And down on compression on 3 cylinders and supposedly a bent valve on another.  

It got towed to a shop by the PO and they made the diagnosis.  I will validate those claims, but I have no reason to doubt them. 

So my question for the GRM masses:

Should I just order a full engine from my local (reputable) junkyard service for $1300 with a 90 day warranty?  Have you guys had good or bad experiences ordering engines from the locator service?  Is there a specialist engine supplier I should be looking at for an M54B30?

I figure an old 530i will keep her from wandering too far from home.  :)

Thanks!

I probably don't have any specific knowledge that will help you in this case, but I do find it interesting that my kids' first car was/is an E39 530i.  My elder son drove it for two years, decided he wanted a 4x4 truck, and handed it down to my younger son who is driving it now.  Both boys have enjoyed the experience.

Other than a few little things, the car has been beautifully reliable and easy.  Brakes and struts were pretty straightforward.  Valve cover gasket.  It did give my little guy a scare when the crank position sensor went bad, but it restarted and we got it home and pulled the code and that pointed us right to it.

My goal was to put them in something safe, comfortable, good looking and fun to drive while being reasonably dependable and possible to DIY.  The car has shone brightly on all counts.  I'm a fan!

For 1300, I'd probably roll the j/y engine dice.  I've driven a few of these with over 230k miles on the engine, and they will run that long with reasonable care.

You don't say how many miles on this engine.  I might be tempted to take the head to a shop, but if you also have issues with the bottom end, well, 1300 and a warranty sounds hard to beat.

No need preaching to the choir, but I'll just leave this here: https://www.whatcar.com/news/bmw-5-series-e39-best-cars-in-the-history-of-what-car/n21358

1988RedT2 said:

You don't say how many miles on this engine.  I might be tempted to take the head to a shop, but if you also have issues with the bottom end, well, 1300 and a warranty sounds hard to beat.

Glad to hear the E39 worked out for first car duty for you!

The car has 165k on it and wasn't having any issues - it just died shortly after a cold start and never ran again.  PO suspected it jumped time and bent valves, however that would be very uncommon for these engines.  The timing chain tensioner is still pressurized and the guides look good.  

These do have a bad reputation for warping the head if they're overheated, even pulling the head studs out of the block.  The cooling system on this car looks good and was replaced within the last couple years.  

I'll run a compression test just to verify and then yank it. 

Anyone have advise on buying a used engine from a JY locator service?

Looking fwd to the thread!

Regarding the engine, your plan sounds good. Comp test first and then decide. As you know these engines have a reputation and rightly so, I would not buy a used one unless it comes with some sort of warranty/return policy.

If you do find that it has low compression and end up not using it, take the head off to inspect anyways?

Tyler H said:

1988RedT2 said:

You don't say how many miles on this engine.  I might be tempted to take the head to a shop, but if you also have issues with the bottom end, well, 1300 and a warranty sounds hard to beat.

The car has 165k on it and wasn't having any issues - it just died shortly after a cold start and never ran again.  PO suspected it jumped time and bent valves, however that would be very uncommon for these engines.  The timing chain tensioner is still pressurized and the guides look good.  

Is this a manual? Do you know if it was ever over revved?

Weird that the problems manifested upon start up, maybe the hg was bad and coolant got in there without him knowing it. 

Slippery said:

Tyler H said:

1988RedT2 said:

You don't say how many miles on this engine.  I might be tempted to take the head to a shop, but if you also have issues with the bottom end, well, 1300 and a warranty sounds hard to beat.

The car has 165k on it and wasn't having any issues - it just died shortly after a cold start and never ran again.  PO suspected it jumped time and bent valves, however that would be very uncommon for these engines.  The timing chain tensioner is still pressurized and the guides look good.  

Is this a manual? Do you know if it was ever over revved?

Weird that the problems manifested upon start up, maybe the hg was bad and coolant got in there without him knowing it. 

No, it's a ZF Auto.  These engines are great as long as they're maintained!  (Says the guy who now has a dead one in the garage that was well-maintained.)  Coolant and oil look and smell normal.  

Warranty is great and all, but it doesn't save me from having to install, uninstall, and reinstall a turd if I get one.  That's why I was curious if JY do any vetting or if they just sell them in completely unknown condition?

In reply to Tyler H :

I would go in with the assumption that they just sell it and expect you to figure out whether its good or bad. And yes, if its bad it will suck, that's why I much rather investigate the one you have and make sure its not worth fixing. Even if you determine its a bad head gasket, I much rather pull the head and inspect the block threads to see if it can be reused.

Tyler, how did the shop diagnose the broken rod? You said the oil looks good so I would guess the pan hasn't been off. I've had a bunch of these engines and mostly experienced head gasket issues and otherwise find them to be bulletproof. I'd suggest that something else is the problem.

chandler said:

Tyler, how did the shop diagnose the broken rod? You said the oil looks good so I would guess the pan hasn't been off. I've had a bunch of these engines and mostly experienced head gasket issues and otherwise find them to be bulletproof. I'd suggest that something else is the problem.

According to PO, the diagnosis was "40%  on 4, 5, 6, bent valve on 3."  PO thinks it may have run backward or something when he was cranking it and jumped time. 

It came to me with zero compression because the plugs were out, lol.  I'm going to dig out my compression tester and just quickly verify.  Agree that timing jumps are pretty much unheard of.  HG is common, but usually after other cooling system failure and they get hot.  Maybe invest in a cooling system pressure tester and see if it holds overnight?

I haven't code scanned it yet, but the battery had run low - not all the way dead, but low.  Hopefully any codes were retained.

Slippery said:

In reply to Tyler H :

I much rather investigate the one you have and make sure its not worth fixing. 

Despite not wanting to sink extra time into it, I think this is solid advice, thanks.

In reply to Tyler H :

The pressure tester while plugs are out is a good way to see whether you have a problem there.

Yah, based on info presented, I'd pull codes, compression test, pressure test, etc.  I wouldn't have a ton of confidence in the PO's diagnosis.  165k isn't a ton of miles for these, as long as it hasn't been overheated.

I've bought a fair amount of junkyard engines and trans 

Most decent yards won't sell as anything other than a core if they can't hear it run and make sure its good. 

I'd sooner pull the head and have a local machine shop rebuild it if the bottom end survived. 

My friend has a 528iT(factory 5speed!) that he blew up the engine in. Swapped in a Junkyard (untested) M54B30 and he was away to the races. Been a great car outside the usual E39 goofiness that I'm sure you know about. I'd send it!

Personally I am going to shop for an s54 if it's not a simple HG swap :-)

Obd 2 should hold engine codes with a battery disconnection.  If the shop cleared codes that is another story.  The only m54's I've ever seen out of time had broken chains from lack of maintenance.  Compression check should give you a good idea of what is going on.  Any hard rain in your area? Hydro locking tends to take out the rear cylinders first on these engines.  Or maybe a disa pin worked its way into a valve.

Olemiss540 said:

Personally I am going to shop for an s54 if it's not a simple HG swap :-)

We think alike, I just need the car now ;)

Good find, I have been looking for an s54 for my e36.  The prices have gotten crazy.

FWIW, this also happens if you're into old cameras. 

I'll start a project car thread and link it to this discussion.  

I did a compression test - 195, 95, 190, 190, 190, 195.  I put some oil in #2 and it immediately jumped up to 110.  There's something going on, but with 5 good compression cylinders it should start and run.  Unfortunately, it came missing the valve cover nuts as the shop just threw it back together.  I'm not spening $200 on new ones, so I'll head to Pull-a-part and grab some and fire it up.

Also, my cheapo ELM327 OBD reader won't connect to the DME.  Another breadcrumb.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

I've bought a fair amount of junkyard engines and trans 

Most decent yards won't sell as anything other than a core if they can't hear it run and make sure its good. 

Excellent feedback.  I would be willing to roll the dice if I can confirm they went at least this far.

FWIW, I drove a Volvo 960-2.9 inline 6 w/ 4 valves per cylinder-with a burned exhaust valve for a year. Can't remember if i unplugged the injector or not, but all I did was turn the idle up a bit. It was down on power of course, but was completely drivable. I just didn't have time to fix it for a while and didn't have another car to drive. I would think with those compression numbers it would be drivable.

Tyler H said:

Also, my cheapo ELM327 OBD reader won't connect to the DME.  Another breadcrumb.

Strange.  I had no trouble connecting my Actron Pocket Scan to my son's 2003.  You're talking about the port under the dash, right?  Pretty sure anything sold in the states would have a standard OBD-II port. 

1988RedT2 said:

Tyler H said:

Also, my cheapo ELM327 OBD reader won't connect to the DME.  Another breadcrumb.

Strange.  I had no trouble connecting my Actron Pocket Scan to my son's 2003.  You're talking about the port under the dash, right?  Pretty sure anything sold in the states would have a standard OBD-II port. 

Correct - It could point to an underlying electrical issue that was misdiagnosed.  Googling around, apparently a major junction point for the K-line data bus is under the driver floorboard carpeting on E39s, where it can just biodegrade freely.  Another thing to investigate.

I know where to find a motor. It even comes attached to a parts car! https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/parts-sale/2003-e39-bmw-530i-whole-parts-car/198827/page1/

I went thru an M54 (the one in the silver car mentioned in that post) to fix suboptimal oil burn after 180k and found it to be a quite remarkable piece of engineering, with a few exceptions to things the finance department decided and things that were done to utilize biodegradable cooling system components. The timing system is extremely unlikely to have failed unless it was mistreated in previous maintenance attempts, but they can tag valves if rotated backward AND the VANOS is set wrong. Not likely to only be one cylinder. The head bolt threads pulling out of the block are a real thing though. I actually got to re-do the top half of my 10-month-old build when it spat out a head gasket despite verified flat deck surfaces and no overheat. 11 of the 14 bolts pulled threads. Time-serts and a set of ARP studs later, it's a solid daily once again. Baum tools makes a jig plate for the time-sert operation.

Root cause: the aluminum-magnesium alloy used to cast the spectacularly light engine block has borderline strength for thread pullout when new. Add stress from the one original installation of TTY head bolts, then anneal by overheating, and the thread pullout margin goes negative. It will not take another head bolt tightening cycle. It turns out it's not the bolts yielding if you try...