[Konrad5288]

So everybody I’m a new member here. Not sure if posting in correct spot. Following for a while and I have been enjoying reading your posts and figured I’d show my appreciation by thanking you all.


I picked up the 335i I’ve been wanting for a while now. It’s a 2011 n55. Found one in white gray leather interior six speed with a bad engine. Low miles

Well, I could kind of careless about the bad engine. Was pretty sure it was blown site unseen when I purchased it.
Anyway, I just wanted to say this BMW has been a freaking blast to work on. I don’t know why some people give these things a bad rap. I’m two hours in and another hour I’ll have this cylinder head off. No repair manual and a grand total of like four tools plus the head bolt sockets to get the head off. The intake cam bolt broke off. I need to get the head off to see how bad the damage is.

So far
No metal in oil-✅
Spins freely-✅
Checked all codes. Only reads misfires and intake camshaft.
Was missing about 5 fuses-all replaced✅✅


But like I said, this is more to show appreciation for you guys, and say these things are easier to work on than some make it seem.

My last cylinder head. 2010 VW Tiguan 2.0T. Talk about a headache. Tensioner broke at 65K. We only drove it 2000 miles before it broke. Guess was on recall but even with our lawyer calling VW wouldn’t replace anything but the chain for free. So I had to replace the head. Just had chains all over the place. A bunch of random pieces to come off, a bunch of special tools and a crap load of hidden bolts. Then the timing chain didn’t want to set correctly.

Not the BMW. I already love this thing. I know I need a couple specialty tools to get the headback on. Don’t worry I got it covered. There is so much information on here I know exactly what to buy and how to do the job correctly.

Anything goes wrong I just take the little computer and it tells me what’s wrong. I think I’m gonna have a lot of fun here and with the car. Here’s a pic of the disaster I’m dealing with. Will let you all know how it goes in the next week if anybody is interested any further. Thanks everybody.

[Konrad5288]

So as I’m getting the cylinder head off further, I think I know what caused the failure and why the Vanos gear might have broken off. A little bit off wobble might do it.

[Konrad5288]

And the injectors look a bit dirty. Could be due to the no start condition that was present when I got the car but these injectors need a good cleaning. This one’s nowhere near as bad as the first one I took out which definitely had a few clogged holes it’s just the one that’s in my hand while I write this.

[Konrad5288]

So for all your cheap MFrs out there like me. I haven’t taken off my head yet, but I need to get to the bolts under the Vanos sprockets. One’s gone. But I have to get under the exhaust Vanos bracket. Who needs a camshaft tool when you can make your own? I think the actual size of the camshaft is 20 mm. I didn’t have a 20 mm wrench but the 19 is the correct thickness so I think maybe even the 20 mm would be just slightly too thick. But a 13/16 fits pretty snug and in order to make it fit on the camshaft all I did was grind down the outside of the wrench to make it a little bit thinner.

Don’t get me wrong I’m going to use the camshaft tool on the install but for now, this works great. So if you’re not worried about the timing here’s a hack for you.

[Konrad5288]

And it’s off

[Konrad5288]

All in all that was a fun project, but cylinder five is toast!

[Konrad5288]

The rod and piston are totally gone with some damage to the cylinder wall. Doesn’t look repairable. I only see the crankshaft looking down the hole. Which is surprising. There is some damage to the head but the valves look fine. I didn’t fluid test them but look to be seated properly. Don’t know how they aren’t bent to hell. Looks like maybe the rod came off the crankshaft and the piston maybe hit once blew up and then rebounded into the engine. There’s a big gouge on one side of the cylinder wall with some scratches on opposite side. I don’t know though. It’s just a thought. Plus that vanos gear was sheared off.

Although it wouldn’t be recommended I would reuse the head if I had to.lol😂😂. Well maybe not with the exhaust camshaft looking like it does. I would have to check how bad the wear is first. But if within spec, I’d reuse it.

Now remember. The oil was dirty but had no metal in it. I didn’t check the filter because my filter wrench is buried in the garage somewhere and I thought I’d see metal in the oil when draining if there was an internal problem. Can’t wait to pull the rest of engine out to see how the piston and rod look.

And there are no signs that anybody’s been in there and pulled the rod or the piston out manually. Except that the rod is off the crankshaft. So it is a possibility. But The head bolts were all torqued to shit. Plus the oil was dirty. Someone might’ve pulled the oil pan and pulled the broken parts. Then put it back together and put dirty oil back in there. But that seems like more work than someone would go through with a blown engine. Especially since I bought this one cheap on auction-non running. Right there is a sign that it might need a new engine. Plus, I didn’t see anything indicating that anyone had taken the oil pan off as of late. It was pretty clean under there but nothing stood out as recently replaced or tampered with.

I also have service records on the car. Was in for service 50miles ago. So idk. Your guess is as good as mine to what happened or happened after what happened.

[2010_328i]

I'm subscribing to this thread. Eagerly waiting to read your updates and watch you progress. Great thread and thank you for sharing the details. You made it fun to read and learn from.

[M-technik-3]

Seems to be a few sites out there that sell fresh rebuilt N55's. Is that your plan? N55'S injectors can be cleaned the ultrasonic way they are not like the N54 piezo style.

[Konrad5288]

Originally Posted by M-technik-3

Seems to be a few sites out there that sell fresh rebuilt N55's. Is that your plan? N55'S injectors can be cleaned the ultrasonic way they are not like the N54 piezo style.

I plan on keeping the car for a while. So I might just rebuild one myself. In the process of sourcing a good core. With a good head. But at the same time I’ve been pretty busy and haven’t pulled the bottom half out of the car yet. Once it’s out I’ll check the crankshaft journals.

Weirdly enough there is no damage to the crankshaft journal from the top. The only damage I see is minor wear on the crankshaft weight from either rubbing the piston or rod. Guessing the piston was lodged in the cylinder for a bit. Nothing major. Pretty sure not enough damage to throw the shaft off balance. Underside might be a whole different story.

If my crank is salvageable I should be good with almost any core with a reasonable amount of miles and only lower end damage. Can mix and match and should last long enough to get a fresh one built over the summer when business is good.

[Konrad5288]

Originally Posted by 2010_328i

I'm subscribing to this thread. Eagerly waiting to read your updates and watch you progress. Great thread and thank you for sharing the details. You made it fun to read and learn from.

A couple things I didn’t mention. Watch out when you pull the fan to not break the nipple off the upper radiator hose. That was the first thing I broke on it. If you break it off and the car is turned on (for whatever reason) the coolant pump can start pumping and shoot coolant out of it! I haven’t seen that one addressed before.

then that pcv line on the left had zero chance of surviving. That one has been addressed by a few other threads. Is that the Mickey Mouse pipe? Idk. But it pretty much disintegrated before coming off. lol.

Pretty sure have a block coming. Just waiting for the guy to pull it.

And one other note. According to the service records the trans was replaced 60000 miles ago. Hoping it was replaced with a new one. Car has 110 on it. Probably could check the code. Maybe someone can chime in. That is a bonus if it was new. But I don’t see many posters with 335i transmission problems on here. So I found it a bit of an oddity. It’s a 6MT.

[sowbmw]

How do those cam bolts shear off like that?