A Bad Night and Overtemp Problem

[JetMech]

Ok guys bear with me, I'll try explaining this as best I can without having the car to look at and knowing the jargon.

I was driving back from Thanksmas with the fam in Indiana and I noticed I had a huge cloud of exhaust behind me so I pulled over as it started to overheat and parked right as smoke started coming out from the hood. Opened her up and it turns out a coolant hose and come loose, from what I can tell. It was the hose connecting the coolant resevoir tank to the front of the engine. Fortunately, the smoke was just some coolant spray on the engine. Unfortunately, after I reconnected the hose, put more coolant in, let it sit for awhile, ran it for a bit, it still ran hot. I know I hold about 11 quarts, but I'm not sure how much I had lost. But anyway, I couldn't see any dripping, except maybe the excess spray from earlier dripping off so I wasn't losing everything I put in there. The radiator fan was still turning, the hose was secure. Does anyone have any idea what is going on? The only things I can come up with, with my non existant car mechanical knowledge is something hidden with the radiator, water pump, or maybe a weird thermostat. It's being taken care of in Indiana, I had to leave her there, so I can't really look at it to give more information but if I missed something, I'll try to remember. Is anyone in the Columbus, OH area to help me look at it when I get it back? Thanks for any help, sorry it's so long.
~Greg

[BMWCCA1]

The M50 engine doesn't like being overheated. The head gasket is a weak point and can cause the car to run hot after an overheating episode. In your case, it sounds like you may not have gotten the system bled properly and may still have a pocket of air from filling it with air in the system or filling it when the block was still very hot. Either way, get it bled properly (get all the air out of the cooling system) and see how it goes from there. If you shut it down early enough, you may not have done head-gasket or head damage though it often takes a little while for the symptoms to rear their heads, if they're going to. I'd bleed it, change the thermostat (they don't like overheating either), and drive it carefully and see how it does. Good luck.

[SnakeyesTx]

You're fine, just fine. Many people don't know this, but there's a bleeder screw on the top of the radiator near where the filler cap is. It looks like a BIG plastic phillips head screw. You have to take that off before you fill the radiator so the entire coolant system can bleed the air out of the block. Just take that off and watch the level drop dramatically, then fill it again. When it just starts to dribble out of the bleeder hole, put the screw back in.

Hope you didn't run it in the red, M50 heads HATE overheating by cracking X_X

[JetMech]

You're fine, just fine. Many people don't know this, but there's a bleeder screw on the top of the radiator near where the filler cap is. It looks like a BIG plastic phillips head screw. You have to take that off before you fill the radiator so the entire coolant system can bleed the air out of the block. Just take that off and watch the level drop dramatically, then fill it again. When it just starts to dribble out of the bleeder hole, put the screw back in.

Hope you didn't run it in the red, M50 heads HATE overheating by cracking X_X
It might have danced on the redline as I was turning the car off. I'm not really sure where it was exactly as I was trying to safely park and turning it off. I know what bleeder screw you're talking about. The only problem is that with the car still in Indiana, and I live in Columbus, OH, I can't get my hands on it. So hopefully that's all that needs to be done and whoever works on it knows that? And that will take care of the potential air bubble(s) I have in there and in turn... fix my problem? I'll almost be kind of pissed if it's that easy to fix and I didn't know it, but mostly relieved, thanks for the help.

[SnakeyesTx]

Yeah, it worked great for me. I was able to put in almost a full gallon after I took that screw out. Don't start the car with the screw off, or you'll have a nice 6 foot high fountain spewing from the hole where the screw goes ;) Wanna guess how I figured that one out? :D

[JetMech]

Yeah, it worked great for me. I was able to put in almost a full gallon after I took that screw out. Don't start the car with the screw off, or you'll have a nice 6 foot high fountain spewing from the hole where the screw goes ;) Wanna guess how I figured that one out? :D
Lol, I'll take your word for it, but I would've loved to be there to see it, it sounds fantastic... I mean... sorry.

[pingu]

My previous E34 (M50 525i) also once went briefly to the red on the temp gauge and was fine - I exepct yours will be fine too - fingers crosssed.