[lchiles05]

Hello friends! Fortunately and unfortunately I am new to the e90 community. I traded a 2017 ninja 650 for a 2010 BMW 335i xdrive. I looked over the car the best I could before I made the trade and gave it the beans on the test drive to find nothing mechanically wrong with the car. the next week i was on the way to work early in the morning and i was having fun getting on the car and just before i got to work the engine blew up. white cloud of smoke behind me and a long streak of oil about a football field and a half. towed home and under further inspection i need a new engine. blew a hole in the side of the block and am not willing to try to rebuild the current engine. curious as to what the best option/ place to get a new engine from. i have good mechanical skills and have been working on cars and trucks since before i had my license so I'm no dummy but new to the BMW scene and love the car. look forward to the responses and if there is anything to look for on the next one!

[Podunk]

yeaaah, you had signs if you sent a piston out the side of the block, and there is no way you can rebuild the current engine block with that kind of damage. you would need a junkyard replacement. best option to search car-part.com, call the junkyard and get one shipped to you. before you buy have them give you a copy of the compression numbers sheet and make sure minimum is 160's across all cylinders. ( thgey sometimes have bad batteries, so it's hard to know if they cranked it for numbers with a jump box or not)

[derekderek]

best option is finding a hit car near you with an N54 in it. i don't think it has to be a 335i. you can hear it run and learn what breaks as you unhook it incorrectly so you can get it right on the second removal. you can also find stuff better than what is on your car like interior trim, etc. and stuff you can sell from the un-hit end. lok for a rear hit. nobody but a body shop can do that repair correctly so less buyers for it. and nose is easier to sell for that same reason.

[derekderek]

the other way to go is decide what upgrades you wanted anyway and do a higher dollar bigger turbo, etc setup as long as it is down for the count anyway. but these cars are pretty good at 300 hp. 600 just breaks everything!

[drymite]

Fb marketplace for A N54 and i recommend you swap the turbos while the engine is out... usually when ever i check a n54-55 for my self or anyone and its supposedly a running strong engine. I take my oil filter wrench and check the oil filter.

[AWD Addict]

Originally Posted by lchiles05

white cloud of smoke behind me and a long streak of oil about a football field and a half. towed home and under further inspection i need a new engine. blew a hole in the side of the block

Don't see that a lot! Wow. Sorry about the engine man. Good luck.

[Jaronbwall]

That's crazy. I agree with the other responses. There were signs but you don't have experience (yet) to hear or see it. Hopefully you can swap the motor and make better than it was before she blew up.
Replacement motor would be about $4500, replacement/upgraded twin turbo kit $3k, maintenance and minor upgrades before install $1k, all total about $8-9k.
You could run the used turbos and save $$$ but most people will tell you to replace them. So much easier to fix it all with the engine out.

[whyzee125]

I agree, get a used one from marketplace out of a crashed car. N54's are usually pretty solid and generally if a car was crashed it was running. Find one with less than or the same miles you've got and you should be able to get a decent donor for $2k. OEM turbos from FCP with lifetime warranty are only about $1,500-2k.

Do all the gaskets (oil pan, valve cover, OFHG and cooler) while it's out and make sure you're only putting known good or new injectors in and you should have a nice running car again.

Sorry to hear about the blown engine--that can definitely sour the experience especially if you just got the car but these are definitely fun and worth putting some time into if you have the resources

[derekderek]

and make sure injectors are index 11 or 12. preferably 12.

[NoGuru]

Originally Posted by derekderek

the other way to go is decide what upgrades you wanted anyway and do a higher dollar bigger turbo, etc setup as long as it is down for the count anyway. but these cars are pretty good at 300 hp. 600 just breaks everything!

I've been around 600 for years and never broke a single thing.

[lchiles05]

so after reading the posts from above i went ahead and got a used engine on facebook marketplace from a rwd manual 06' and my car is a xdrive automatic 10'. I ordered a used oil pan off ebay due to mine having a hole in it and a used flex plate for bolting up the engine to the trans. some guys at work were telling me to just completely rebuild the engine but that's more than the budget will allow rn with the economy being the way that it is. I also ordered all the common gaskets for the engine so it has all the maintenance done. is there anything else that i will need and anything else i should replace while the engine is out? the turbos have no play in them and the wastegate is pretty solid. i know its not gonna be the most powerful car but i think just having it up and running again will make me happy. thank you so much for the helpful advice. glad this community is here to help!

[drymite]

If you can fit two CHRAs for your turbos into your budget, you can swap them out yourself and reuse the housings. It’s much cheaper if you DIY . Just make sure to replace all the O-rings and gaskets, so you don't have to worry about the oil seals