98 Z3 2.8 Head Gasket Help

[oldcarman]

Nice one @ t-tony!! Hope you get to the bottom of this and it's not too serious!! JIM

 

[smiffy]

Hi, so if the car isn't over heating why are you concerned. If it had a head gasket or head problems you would have oil in the water, water in the oil & the cooling system being over presurized and lots of steam out of the exhaust.
There are many owners of 6 cylinder Z3's that have changed the thermostat/ water pump. All these cars are over 15 years old now and there is a chance that your car still has the original parts on it.
Preventive maintenance is the joy of owning a Z3
Hope you sort it out.

the symptoms would depend on how/where the gasket had failed. You don't necessarily get a failure between all 3 spaces. oil/water/cylinder. And the severity of the symptoms is a result of how badly the gasket has failed.
IF this gasket has started to fail, the important thing is to replace it before either the face of the block or the head are damaged.

(ps. not old enough to have 40 years experience unless we count cycles, skateboards and go-karts!)

 

[Cheddars]

Cheers for the advice guys

Removed waterpump, looks in good nick. Is the fan meant to have resistance whilst engine is off? - It has free play and can move it in both directions

 

[Antm72]

The fan should have some resistance it will move both ways though. When everything is cold it should be faily stiff if you push it round it should not move freely. If it is then it may be part of the issue.

 

[Cheddars]

The fan should have some resistance it will move both ways though. When everything is cold it should be faily stiff if you push it round it should not move freely. If it is then it may be part of the issue.

Bare with me I'm still learning these cars, lol. Another thing I've noticed is, there is a copper type strip on the fan. Assuming this is to activate the clutch in the fan once the temp is hot enough, so it would contract? - this does nothing when heated

 

[Antm72]

The fan is viscous so the strip will control the valve inside. It moves oil inside the viscous through the valve.
Its the rotation of the fan that will move the oil so you may see nothing visible heating it as its an internal thing.

 

[Dino D]

Re the fans:

If you have no aircon and the viscous fan is not working well it will overheat at idle but not when cruising at decent speed.

If you have an aircon and the aircon fan works at low speed this should kick in at idle if he viscous isn't coping and therefore not overheat when idling (even with the viscous removed the aircon fan will keep it cool if it's fitted/working).

 

[Cheddars]

Cheers guys, thanks for the advice. Going to get a new coupling anyway as they aren't too badly priced.

Took thermostat off, this is what I found-

Inlet bit to the thermostat is wet, outlet is bone dry

Ignore my chubby fingers, lol - top of thermostat is bent

 

[BladeRunner919]

Stick it in a pan of water and see if it opens when the water gets towards boiling.

 

[Cheddars]

It doesn't appear to do anything

 

[t-tony]

You'll be needing a new one then mate.

Tony.

 

[Cheddars]

Yer, just seems a bit, well... easy - didn't think it would be a cheap thermostat

Would still need to take the head off mind

 

[Antm72]

If its not opening sounds like you found your culprit ..
Hopefully it is that simple that would be a result

 

[t-tony]

Got to worth a try with the new fan drive too. Fingers crossed mate

Tony.

 

[Howard]

Hopefully with a new thermostat it will be sorted.

 

[oldcarman]

Good find!! Let's hope that's all you need to do and save having to remove the head. JIM