My wife's daily driver is a 2002 BMW 325xi, which she greatly enjoys. It's got almost 200,000 miles and started running poorly when cold, with a rough idle. Occasionally it will cough and stall at speed as well. Found out that it has low compression in one cylinder, appears to be a burned valve.
Looks like head replacement is not a DIY item on these, requiring engine-specific tools. I found only one local shop that would even consider working on it, and they won't give an estimate without pulling it apart. Now, I'm just trying to figure out what to do with it. Try to fix somehow, or get whatever value I can out of the car and replace it with something more maintainable? How bad is an engine swap on these?
Which engine specific tools are required to pull the head that can't be found on a Snap-on/Cornwell/MAC tool dealer's truck? Also, every time I have been faced with a head pull, my gearhead mind says "this is the perfect opportunity to gain some 'free' engine power, by way of having a machine shop freshen the valve seats with a 30/45/60/70 cut on the seats with the 70* cut transitioning into the throat area, and if you have a Dremel, doing an Improved Touring style gasket match (1 inch in on either side of the gaskets) on the throttlebody, manifold, and head. YMMV, but many engines will gain anywhere from 5% to 10% power AND efficiency increase by doing the above whle the head is off anyway. But, that's just what I do 
My opinion is that with over 200K on the clock, the car has done it's service. If you can afford it, buy the wife something newer and tear into the 325 on your own as time allows and your skills either expand to handle the job or you get tired of it a dump it onto someone else.
Not entirely 100% sure on this, but I'm pretty sure my uncle bought his wife's 325i with a bad head and/or head gasket on the cheap and then DIYed the repair. That's all I got.
How is the rest of the cars maintenance? How is the interior? BMWs at that mileage can range in quality and appearance greatly. Some I see should have gone to the scrap yard long ago while others are still nice clean cars and worth keeping on the road. With out knowing more I don't see as we can really answer your question.
From what I can find, it takes a $400 kit like this (http://www.amazon.com/Master-Camshaft-Alignment-Timing-Double/dp/B00AL3LL4K) to do the timing for the dual cam/VANOS stuff. I just found a BMW forum thread where a guy made his own jig out of MDF with a drill press, but that may be beyond my scope of time and MacGyver-ness.
dean1484 wrote:
How is the rest of the cars maintenance? How is the interior? BMWs at that mileage can range in quality and appearance greatly. Some I see should have gone to the scrap yard long ago while others are still nice clean cars and worth keeping on the road. With out knowing more I don't see as we can really answer your question.
It's a pretty clean car. Paint is good with a couple door dings and some peeling clear on the front bumper. Interior is fine with minor wear. The rest of the drivetrain seems okay; it's an auto. Everything works. Hence my hesitation.
eBayfreak wrote:
From what I can find, it takes a $400 kit like this (http://www.amazon.com/Master-Camshaft-Alignment-Timing-Double/dp/B00AL3LL4K) to do the timing for the dual cam/VANOS stuff. I just found a BMW forum thread where a guy made his own jig out of MDF with a drill press, but that may be beyond my scope of time and MacGyver-ness.
That kit is only $239 when I look at it. I would not hesitate to drop that on some tools to keep a nice car on the road. I bet you could get $150+ for it if you went to sell it on again later.
Have you done a cylinder head before?
oldtin
UberDork
2/8/16 2:28 p.m.
There's a drawing or two floating around on bmw message boards with the dimensions to make your own cam tool.
Take the drawing to your local junior college with a vocational machine shop? Free work is great. Or, and this is my gear head mind thinkin, what if you grabbed a junkyard 3.0 and threw the whole thing in? Not that your motor is worn at 200k but if you need a special tool for the head job, and then still have to pay a machine shop to rebuild the head $$$$ it might be cheaper or maybe more simple to just replace the whole motor with one from a wrecked bmw in the junkyard. Dunno if the awd versions have special cutouts on the motor or anything for axles or whatever but hey it's just another thought for you.
At 200k you're well beyond the service life of that auto tranny. It would stink to fix the motor and have the tranny blow up shortly afterwards...
Just finished a head gasket replacement on my 2004 325 wagon. I had a misfire on cold start on cyl #3. Was hoping for a bad head gasket and expecting worse case scenario on stripped head bolt threads in the block.
The machine shop found a crack in the head between exh valve and water jacket. Luckily it "only" cost $600 for a used (tested) head from my local BMW yard. That's a friend discount price BTW.
At 20+ hours labor just to R&R the head I can't imagine it makes sense to pay someone else to do it.
If you do feel like taking it on, Dr Vanos rents the special tools needed to do the job- http://www.drvanos.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=2&Itemid=3
