[Fundguy1]

Short version of the story, I'm doing my upgrades and the shop tells me I have a leaky head gasket. Dealer wants to do job for $5,000. I look at the "leak" and it's a thin clear yellow band along the top of the head at the seam 3/4" wide that has zero accumulation and is even front to back on the drivers side. I freak.

Now I did also have an oil filter gasket that was leaking the shop was fixing at the time. I call several shops to price out the gasket replacement. After talking to several shops that I trust they unanimously said it's probably not the gasket but just some that got there from the leaky oil filter and the gasket is fine.

Talked to my friend who runs the service at my dealer and he said he's never seen an N54 with a blown head gasket, and only 2 blown head gaskets of any BMW in 20 years as a service manager.

So now I think the gasket is fine and I'm worried about my installer.

So now here's my questions:
Has anyone had a blown gasket and if so how did it look? Same for oil filter gasket. Did this stain the block like mine?
Would you do the $5,000 gasket replacement?
If not, would you clean it off and see if it reappears? If it doesn't have these guys do the turbos? They don't want to do it ATM but he'll im saying I understan do it anyway. It's my car.
Or bring it somewhere else and have them do the work for you? I got a price from a guy recommended to me by a shop I trust,cheaper than my guys were quoting to do the work.

Thanks. Been a long day figuring out this one.

[paprmkr]

Only had left side blown due to plugged cat

[Lux3m35i]

What about your coolant water and oil? If the gasket is blown seriously you would see oil in your coolant or vice versa.

[135Pats]

Pull the oil and send it to Blackstone. See how much (if any) coolant is getting into it.

$25 bucks.

[Aerotest]

Tell your shitty installer to run leak down compression test, leak down coolant system test, or show you oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil. These are well documented diagnosis techniques and a good shop would present empirical evidence with lack of a code or rough running engine. A simple internet search revealed this:

http://blog.bavauto.com/14997/bmw-or...g-head-gasket/

Read and arm yourself with knowledge. Good luck.

[Aerotest]

Originally Posted by 135Pats

Pull the oil and send it to Blackstone. See how much (if any) coolant is getting into it.

$25 bucks.

Some times the leak is cylinder to cylinder or cylinder to coolant passege.

[Dave W.]

The gasket on the oil filter housing also seals coolant. If the gasket was replaced recently there's a good chance some coolant dripped out at the same time. Clean it up and keep an eye on it.

[Fundguy1]

There's no coolant. Everyone is is saying coolant. None. Zero. Never was. Never said there was. He thought OIL was seeping out onto the block. Coolant is fine. Oil's fine. Internals are fine. It's a prevention measure he was recommending because we dont want to blow it when we increase boost by another 20 PSI. Thx. I told them it's probably residue from the leaky oil filter gasket, clean it, and let's see if it reappears in 2 weeks. Oil filter gasket was fixed also when heads were inspected.

[MDORPHN]

Originally Posted by Fundguy1

There's no coolant. Everyone is is saying coolant. None. Zero. Never was. Never said there was. He thought OIL was seeping out onto the block. Coolant is fine. Oil's fine. Internals are fine. It's a prevention measure he was recommending because we dont want to blow it when we increase boost by another 20 PSI. Thx. I told them it's probably residue from the leaky oil filter gasket, clean it, and let's see if it reappears in 2 weeks. Oil filter gasket was fixed also when heads were inspected.

Yes, but if you have a leaky head gasket as the dealer contends, coolant would likely to be mixing with the oil.

Frankly, I'm skeptical. Although head gasket problems are very common on S52 motors (about which your dealer is apparently ignorant), they are extremely rare on the N54.

Neil

[Fundguy1]

Cool. Ok thx. No coolant. 99% convinced it was misdiagnosed.

[Fundguy1]

Got a pic. Let me know what you think.

[Fundguy1]

[Fundguy1]

What do you guys think? Remember the oil filter gasket, which is right there in the front, top left of the pic location, was leaking for 50, 000 miles .

[Fundguy1]

No comments?

[NiVeDh]

You'd be surprised at where the oil ends up from a leaky oil filter housing gasket. Clean everything off and keep an eye on it. As others have said, the chances of it being a bad head gasket are slim.

[Fundguy1]

That's what I thought