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New Years Day Nightmare - The Beast is Fvcked

32K views 93 replies 52 participants last post by  rtomlinson 
#1 ·
The scene: Jan 1, 2011, 3:30pm. Nice, crisp, sunny day. Driving back from upstate NY to Boston, cruising at 85mph.

The events: Car's running great. All of a sudden, everything starts shaking, colors light up the dash, and I look at my rearview to see a huge cloud of smoke envelope the car behind me. Pull the car off the road quickly, and smoke swirls out from under the hood.

I flatbed the car to the closest tow lot, then have them tow it another 65 miles to my driveway. 1:30am rolls around and I finally get the entire plenum off. Here's what I find (when looking behind the left side throttle bodies):







So how much did my day suck? Oh yea, my Xbox360 just RROD'd too :grrrr:
 
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#3 ·
Hole in the block?
 
#5 ·
Looks like it... I can see the cams inside the hole.

Dude that sucks. Were their any warning signs prior? How was the oil level? Threads like this get me worried, i swear im so much more confident driving my car when i dont spend much time on m5board hahah.
No warning signs at all. The car always burned a little bit of oil, but many M5's do... and I always kept up the level with Castrol TWS 0W60. 127k miles on the clock.
 
#4 ·
Dude that sucks. Were their any warning signs prior? How was the oil level? Threads like this get me worried, i swear im so much more confident driving my car when i dont spend much time on m5board hahah.
 
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#9 · (Edited)
Seems like it spit the rod through the block,you can see clearly the bottom of the piston with piston pin and the remains of the con rod attached...


I have always only seen the rods destroy the block on the bottom side(when a rod bearing went),never top..

Only explanation is the piston getting stuck....

Would also explain the suddenly high amount of oil it burned....
 
#14 ·
From the looks of it, the crack is towards the rear on the intake; you can see the ECV in one of the pics. How the heck did that crack?
 
#17 ·
Good luck with the replacement!
 
#18 ·
Firstly, I am so sorry to see that happen. I feel for you. Not a good way to start the new year.

Secondly, it's deja vu, as I have seen this failure before. Looks like your cylinder 4 was punched through; in the case I saw, cylinder 3 was the culprit. Not sure what the root cause was (suspect a possible runaway injector caused hydrolock), but it also came through the top (and bottom). As you can see, since this engine was destroyed, there was no reason to investigate further.

Hope it works out well in the end. I guess that's what insurance is for.
 

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#19 · (Edited)
rockd,
Ok, that is a sad sight indeed. Not a good way to start the New Year. This type of failure should never happen cruising at 85.
Could you shed a little light on the history of your car. Total miles, tracked, regularly redlined, average fuel economy, that type of stuff. None of those things are bad, in my opinion. But it may help shed some light on what others can expect depending on how they drive their M.
The rods, pistons, and clutchs on these cars do not give me confidence.





.
 
#27 ·
rockd,
Ok, that is a sad sight indeed. Not a good way to start the New Year. This type of failure should never happen cruising at 85.
Could you shed a little light on the history of your car. Total miles, tracked, regularly redlined, average fuel economy, that type of stuff. None of those things are bad, in my opinion. But it may help shed some light on what others can expect depending on how they drive their M.
The rods, pistons, and clutchs on these cars do not give me confidence.
I wish I could tell you something definitive, but there isn't anything. 127k miles. I drive the car with purpose, but I don't beat on it. I'm a fanatic about cars, so I take VERY good care of them. Tons of preventive maintenance, etc. Just my luck, I guess :crying2:


Your engine is a Dinan S2 without the Dinan velocity stacks and cams,right?
That's right. Dinan MAF's, Dinan intakes, Dinan mufflers, Dinan stage 2 software, Dinan strut bar, Dinan SSK - it's what they call the Dinan S Package.
 
#20 ·
EXTREMELY sorry for how your year started. I hope you find the strength to make it through.

On a more selfish note, this thread gives none of the "new" owners any confidence. From your posts it looks like you have done your best to take care of the car but there is no knowing how it was driven before your ownership.

Without an oil level, temp warning light it seems odd that the engine went kaboom in such a way, but then again there are so many variables.

Please do your best to keep us posted and share whatever reasons you find.

Thank you
 
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