[MotorMouth93]

I made the switch over to 10w60 full synthetic at about the 200 mile mark and the conventional I drained out looked pretty much perfect.

CEL is back on though with some slightly concerning codes. Secondary air and ebox fan codes as expected, but in addition to that I'm getting some scarier ones. Including a crank position sensor code in shadow memory for some reason, might be time to replace that for good measure.

22 - VANOS Advance Valve - Exhaust Bank 1
185 - Exhaust VANOS Bank 1 Function
205 - Misfire Cyl 1 without Cyl Cutout
210 - Misfire Cyl 6 without Cyl Cutout
211 - Misfire Cyl 7 without Cyl Cutout
212 - Misfire Cyl 8 without Cyl Cutout
213 - Misfire Multiple Cylinders without Cyl Cutout

The roughness test in INPA looks dang near perfect though with all values being 60-100, so the misfires are a little odd. Adaptations are also dang near zero. The VANOS codes seem likely to be an electronic issue rather than an actual timing issue, but after clearing the codes and driving around for a bit nothing came back so it seems like an intermittent wiring issue. Misfire codes haven't come back either and I'd expect them to stick around if it was some issue like fouled plugs from oil burning. Will just have to drive it some more and see what shakes back out.

 

[technician117]

I made the switch over to 10w60 full synthetic at about the 200 mile mark and the conventional I drained out looked pretty much perfect.

CEL is back on though with some slightly concerning codes. Secondary air and ebox fan codes as expected, but in addition to that I'm getting some scarier ones. Including a crank position sensor code in shadow memory for some reason, might be time to replace that for good measure.

22 - VANOS Advance Valve - Exhaust Bank 1
185 - Exhaust VANOS Bank 1 Function
205 - Misfire Cyl 1 without Cyl Cutout
210 - Misfire Cyl 6 without Cyl Cutout
211 - Misfire Cyl 7 without Cyl Cutout
212 - Misfire Cyl 8 without Cyl Cutout
213 - Misfire Multiple Cylinders without Cyl Cutout

The roughness test in INPA looks dang near perfect though with all values being 60-100, so the misfires are a little odd. Adaptations are also dang near zero. The VANOS codes seem likely to be an electronic issue rather than an actual timing issue, but after clearing the codes and driving around for a bit nothing came back so it seems like an intermittent wiring issue. Misfire codes haven't come back either and I'd expect them to stick around if it was some issue like fouled plugs from oil burning. Will just have to drive it some more and see what shakes back out.

If you had timing issues you would know it. At least if you had the usual f'up. Beat on it. It's the best way to find out if there's an issue.

 

[Singhg83]

This thread is amazing. Makes me feel more confident with my purchase. Subscribing!

 

[MotorMouth93]

Here's the cold start sound. IRL it's a little bit loud but not too much. I'm pretty happy with the amount of noise, and there's no drone. I have noticed a slight amount of load dependent rear end whine with the solid front diff bushing at highway speeds.

@technician117 I flashed my SAP delete t00n along with some other tweaks I'd been meaning to make (warmup lights stay on longer, WOT fuel and timing changes from the tune that was originally on the car, euro throttle mapping, sport mode memory, small stuff like that) and then hammered on the car for a while, pretty much spinning the wheels on every start in the first 3 gears. With the conventional oil I'd been keeping it under 70% load/rpm but no more.

And it ran perfectly, zero issues or codes except for that CPS code in shadow memory, adaptations are very close to zero. Idle sounds good too, no VANOS noise at all it, it might be placebo but it seems like the 10w60 is a little quieter than the 15w40. So we'll see I guess, and I'll order a new CPS for good measure.

I am also a little bit worried about excessive oil consumption, it seemed to drink the conventional 15w40 pretty quickly despite the good leakdown numbers.

Also installed the Bavsound speakers, and I am actually fairly impressed for the stock radio/DSP, the woofers aren't all that different but the tweeters have noticeably better clarity. Also, the stock system in this MY2000 M5 had substantially better sound than the stock system in my MY2003 540i, despite both being DSP equipped. As far as I can tell the only real difference is that the M5 has a digital connection from the radio to the DSP, and the 540 had an analog connection. Not sure what that was about, but even my girlfriend noticed it. (Might be worth noting that the M5 has a Grom adapter which I would consider to be kind of crappy, and the 540 had a Bluebus. The Bluebus made horrible screeching noises when plugged in using the digital connection so I sold it with the 540.)

I'm starting to realize just how much crap gets shoved into the dash with one of these Avin units as I read through installation procedures. There's a dongle for carplay, a dongle for ibus, a dongle for can, a dongle for USB, a dongle for backup cam, a dongle for wifi, a dongle for GPS, a dongle to scratch my butt, etc. I think I can leave some of them off but I'll be amazed if it ever works reliably.

 

[technician117]

Sounds like the engine should be GTG. What software are you scanning codes with? IIRC, PA Soft is known to always show that as a shadow code for some reason for most people. Can't hurt to replace the sensor though.

Time will tell on the oil consumption. Did you install new rings? I can't remember.

I also have the Bavsound speaker kit. I installed it years ago and am glad I did. I'm not an audiophile at all, but I could notice and appreciate the difference over the original speakers.

 

[roarf]

The roughness test in INPA

Where do you find that test and what sort of information does it provide when you run it?

 

[MotorMouth93]

Sounds like the engine should be GTG. What software are you scanning codes with? IIRC, PA Soft is known to always show that as a shadow code for some reason for most people. Can't hurt to replace the sensor though.

Time will tell on the oil consumption. Did you install new rings? I can't remember.

I use INPA and Pasoft mostly, and Pasoft is where I see the code so I won't worry too much about it for now. With those VANOS codes though I suspect there might be an intermittent connection to one of the solenoids though but time will tell.

I did not replace the rings, but I did make some slight adjustments to some of the ring gaps. On most of the cylinders I found the 2nd ring gaps to be smaller than the top ring gaps, which is both incorrect according to the TIS and according to what most engine builders and ring manufacturers recommend, so I opened them up to 0.003"ish wider than the top rings and put the rods/pistons/pins/rings back in the bores they came out of. On the more experimental side, I lightly treated the cylinders with Sunnen AN30 silicon compound on a felt hone as a sort of cleaning/deglazing step but it didn't seem to make much difference. If I'd known how involved this was going to be from the get go I'd have just done the block up properly with new pistons and rings though.

Where do you find that test and what sort of information does it provide when you run it?

In INPA it's under the status page called "RU-meas". Depending on the translation/version/engine in question I've seen "unrest" and "roughness" as well. My understanding is that it is a measurement of how smooth the angular acceleration of the crankshaft is in response to each combustion event. I think the idea is that it's a very sensitive misfire test, it only works at idle when engine speed is relatively slow so the affect of each combustion event can be measured. If the numbers are relatively low and relatively consistent that's good, and if anything is extremely high or different than the other cylinders thats bad.

I've been doing a lot of reading and research on radio installs and I think I've mostly figured it out. Long story short, I'm going to be hacking up the "quadlock extension harness" that Avin sent me since it is kind of crappy for a variety of reasons, and turning it into something much more manageable and modular. I'll do a writeup of the installation process when some parts I'm waiting for show up.

My idea is that if I end up not liking the Avin for whatever reason (or it craps out on me) that I'll be able to easily swap in an OEM business CD setup + Bluebus without having to make any substantial wiring changes. The QL extension harness showed up wrapped in some adhesive fabric wiring tape in such a way that it was stressing the wires pretty badly just to straighten it out so I peeled that completely and will be rewrapping it as well as removing a lot of highly questionable crimp connections that feel like they are about to break.

 

[MotorMouth93]

So turns out the engine is burning a massive amount of oil. Like a quart every 200 miles.

I was smelling a bit of oil smoke in the engine bay so crawled around under the car expecting a valve cover seeping or something and found this instead:

I ordered 4 of the same exhaust gaskets, and for the one that was backwards I just cut it and flipped it around. That seems to have been a mistake so I guess each side of the gasket was intended to seal against either the aluminum head or the steel header but not both.

But anyways, the engine is pumping enough oil that it’s leaking out an exhaust manifold gasket.

So I stuck a bore scope in the cylinders and found this:

There is just zero oil control at all, seems like it’s just sucking it past the rings like they aren’t even there. I don’t see any scoring or any damage on the cylinder walls either besides the few small score marks that were there before, but my borescope isn’t that great.

The only thing I can think of here is that lightly cleaning the cylinders with AN30 just completely ruined them. Which seems pretty odd given that others have done the same thing with good results and it didn’t seem to do much. Oh well, it was sort of an experiment and I did it so you don’t have to. Or maybe the the WPC treatment on the pistons is causing issues. All cylinders seem to be about the same so it doesn’t seem like some localized assembly error.

Anyways the motor is most likely f**ked and I need to figure out what to do about it. Unfortunately the easy options like the intake and PCV are all good.

 

[95naSTA]

That blows.. Any chance beating on it would help seat the rings?

 

[MotorMouth93]

That’s sort of my last ditch plan. I filled it with some conventional 10w40 earlier and am just going to hammer on it for the next few hundred miles.

 

[Arktiksilber]

That’s sort of my last ditch plan. I filled it with some conventional 10w40 earlier and am just going to hammer on it for the next few hundred miles.

You don't have to "hammer" on it to seat the rings. Over revving a newly rebuilt engine can cause irreparable damage until parts have lapped to their mating parts. Bearings to journals; Cam lobes to shims, etc. I know, with your obvious accomplishment with machines, you know this.

Seat rings by "lugging". That is, use too high a gear and slowly increase pressure on the accelerator to over pressure the cylinders. Don't allow RPM to climb. Then, drive normally to let the engine cool.

Take a deep breath, think about it and trust yourself. This problem may turn out to be something more simple than your first guess at the problem.

I have always heard guys, who know little about engines, recommend red-lining to "blow out the carbon" and get an engine running smoothly. I have never thought this to be a valid way to fix anything. Normal RPM ranges, accomplish the goal over time, without risking overcoming the oil film and forcing mating parts into metal to metal contact. Have you checked compression/ leakdown, to determine how the rings are performing?

 

[technician117]

Dang. That doesn't look good. Do all cylinders look about the same on the scope? I'm shocked you're not fouling the plugs yet.

Let's see what insight @herrubermensch might have.

I know you said you checked the "pcv" system but how exactly? Have you looked inside the plenum yet?

 

[MotorMouth93]

High cylinder pressure followed by coasting is pretty much what I mean by hammer on it, not talking about bouncing off the limiter. I doubt that will do anything, but if the alternative is tearing down the motor again might as well try.

Leakdown test shows 3-5% across the board which is "pretty good" but not amazing and all cylinders look pretty much the same with the scope as far as oil residue go. The spark plugs are black around the rim but not showing a whole lot of buildup yet.

I pulled the plenum cover and it is still perfectly clean in there so not much oil is making it through the separators. Scoping the intake ports looks fine too. So unless somehow the idle air circuit is filling up with oil, it's looking like the rings/walls. Maybe I switched around the piston rings or something and they all ended up in the wrong bores? But I was quite careful to keep everything separately bagged and labeled and only take out one set of rings at a time for cleaning.

So far though this is looking almost exactly like the motor I built 5-10 years ago where the machinist forgot to finish hone the block and just left it rough. The top 2 rings would seal okay enough to show decent leakdown and compression numbers but it burned oil like a rotary and the skirts wiped the walls smooth further down in the bores.