Smoking Motor

Hello,
I am getting pretty sure that my poor 530i which I have only had for a few months probably wont last for too many years. I have a nice list of problems that I was hoping to getting some input on.
1. The car smokes or possibly burns coolant. You can see it spurt out little wisps of white smoke (at least i think its white it could actually be smoke) when your stopped no matter how hot it is. It also does it when you really gun the motor. It also smells pretty bad of coolant when you pop the hood, and it will go through about 12 ounces to 16 ounces of coolant in about 800 miles. So who wants to tell me all of the bad things this could be.

2. Unless the fuel injectors are really loud, im pretty sure the valves knock, somewhat loudly when the engine is cold and alot quiter when warm. Im going to pull the pan this weekend and see if any of those oil pump bolts have fallen off. I was just wondering if that could be the source of that, or if I was really lucky It was the cause of the motor smoking from oil burning from lack of oil pressure or something.

3. IF the motor is burning oil and there is nothing I can really do about it aside from a rebuild, does that oil no smoke crap from napa ever work, or at least help? Or is it likely to hurt?

Thanks
Dan Lafley
95 530i

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Golgade

Hello,
I am getting pretty sure that my poor 530i which I have only had for a few months probably wont last for too many years. I have a nice list of problems that I was hoping to getting some input on.
1. The car smokes or possibly burns coolant. You can see it spurt out little wisps of white smoke (at least i think its white it could actually be smoke) when your stopped no matter how hot it is. It also does it when you really gun the motor. It also smells pretty bad of coolant when you pop the hood, and it will go through about 12 ounces to 16 ounces of coolant in about 800 miles. So who wants to tell me all of the bad things this could be.

2. Unless the fuel injectors are really loud, im pretty sure the valves knock, somewhat loudly when the engine is cold and alot quiter when warm. Im going to pull the pan this weekend and see if any of those oil pump bolts have fallen off. I was just wondering if that could be the source of that, or if I was really lucky It was the cause of the motor smoking from oil burning from lack of oil pressure or something.

3. IF the motor is burning oil and there is nothing I can really do about it aside from a rebuild, does that oil no smoke crap from napa ever work, or at least help? Or is it likely to hurt?

Thanks
Dan Lafley
95 530i

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Hi Dan,

1. If it smells like coolant when you pop the hood it could mean you have a sneaky leak somewhere... Check all pipes, cap, rad etc. I don't know what the set up is like on the V8's but on my m30 the hoses go right under the manifold so you wouldn't necessarily 'see' a leak, you'd have to feel for it (when its cool obviously!)

2. Your injectors may be loud this isn't a problem... Get a long screwdriver on top of the fuel rail and put it to your ear and see if that is the noise your hearing. Otherwise when my valve clearances were set too loose the car was ticking like crazy, you may just need to adjust yours so nothing major if it's that... however, I hear that noisy valves are happy valves and looser is better than tighter in terms of engine health. I still made mine a bit tighter and got rid of the noise because it would have driven me crazy. Again, not so sure on the V8 so someone else may be able to give you more on that.

Pulling the oil pan/sump on the m30 is supposed to be a real PITA job so checdk out what the score is on yours before you jump into it... I had a long time leak (only very minor) at the pan gasjet but a few of the bolts had come loose so I tightened them up and I'm going to see how it goes.

3. I think it would be blue smoke if burning oil, black if it's rich and white if it's coolant, but please correct me if i'm wrong. Can't comment on the napa stuff, never used it.

HTH

If you were a little bit closer to Seattle I'd be happy to take a look at it and compare how it runs to my car.

Pretty sure you don't adjust the valves on the M60 like you would on the older engines (S38, M30, etc.) What type and weight of oil are you running in the car? Changing to a different oil can get rid of a lot of valvetrain noise.

And dropping the oil pan on the M60 is easy. Much easier to do than on the M30 & S38.

If it's the M60 engine (which I think it must be) then it's got self adjusting hydraulic tappets.

I am running some sort of 15w they put in at crappy old jiffy lube because I just didnt have time to change it myself. Its not synthetic and im not sure what the PO ran synthetic or regular. Will changing to something else help at least ONE of these problems? Oil Recommendation?
Thanks,
Dan Lafley

I'd bet if you changed to an Amsoil 10w30 or their Euro formula that it'd quiet the engine down. It certainly has in all of the other cars I've put it into (Euro in a '95 525iT, '93 M5, '95 Miata. 10w30 into an '02 Accord & '94 Tacoma. And 0w30 into a '79 C20 & my '95 540iA M-Sport).

Only place around here I find Amsoil at is GI Joe's. not sure where the nearest one is to you though.