633csi with Bent Connecting Rod?

[ConcernedBMWgf]

Hello all!! My boyfriend has a 1983-84 633csi bimmer. Now I am not very knowlegable and when I get home I will get him on here as well with more information...but at this point our questions is...

what could bend a connector rod?? arn't these supposed to be ready to take on the full force of the engine. without knowing the whole situation (i will fill yall in once i get home tonight) ...could some fresh minds tell us what we may be looking for here??

ryan rebuilt this car...he got it machined...and once it got to the tail end (the tough stuff) we took it to a machenic who checked it out and finished putting some stuff together. $2000 later we got it out of the shop, towed it home (didnt have exahust or battery)...ryan had it running the next day after the final touches...he put it into gear...there was a loud bang and it wont run. towed it back to the shop. the guy says a connector rod is bent and the bottom end is f***ed.
the guy says he doesnt know how...ryan is baffled as well.
this is a phycadelic piece of artwork that we dont have much more $$ to put into troublshooting...
we dont want to put in another bottom end and have the problem be an outside cause and ruin another engine...

as you can tell...i am desperate...and my poor bf, all i can say is he really loves this car.

[Blackice]

Ouch !

How is the head ?
Any Bent Valves ?

[Rhys]

no oil pressure is a sure way to do it, this is what happened to my M20. Basically my oil pump drive shaft broke and therefore there was no lubrication. One of the connecting rods snapped into two pieces and created an extremely loud knocking noise. Did you BF prime the oil pump before starting, did he check to make sure their was oil pressure??

[psyca633csi]

I AM ConcernedBMWgf'S boyfriend...the car belongs to me...

on the originall head there were broken valves...but i took a new head (well...an old one that i cleaned up and rebuilt). the mechanic said it was fine. this was all before the bent rod. he fixed it, we got it home...loud metal noise...took it back.. now there is a bent rod...no the head and valves are fine as far as i know right now. the mechanic has it, but he said that the top end looks fine.

the oil pump is chain driven and should have been fine...but i dont know if that mechanic primed it before he started. supposedly he is the best in Dallas. im starting to doubt..
when it got home i turned it by hand and it was feeling fine and i heard the oil spitting.

[ConcernedBMWgf]

hey guys...psyca633csi is my boyfriend...in case you didnt catch that.
i really appriciate the replys...we are just trying to figure out what may be going on cause this mechanic is trying to fight us warranty wise, so that makes me think he is not on my side and i cant trust too much of what he says...
my bf knows what he is talking about...i mean...i have faith in that, i just feel like he has been working on this thing soooooo long he may need outside input (im sure you other mechanics can understand that).

this just looks like a f***ed up battle im about to get into... we are still interested in alternate viewpoints....cause we sure dont want to trash this car...
maybe just turn it electric....ha

[nuts4bmw]

This whole episode sounds really weird to me.
A connecting rod breaking in two due to oil starvation sounds plausable.
A connecting rod bending within the cylinder and no valve damage just sounds impossible to me. You'd better pull the head if you haven't already, something, a valve most likely, must have caused the damage.
Sorry I can't be of more help.

Art

[320Colin]

im not a mechanic but if the bearings on the con rod bearings get no oil i have seen them weld to the crankshaft so if that happened it could explain it... but thats an air compressor im talking about but the theory is the same

[scooter]

psyca633csi,

Sounds like quite the mess you stepped in.

I am no mechanic either but from the little I do know, I agree with Rhys, nuts4bmw and 320Colin. Oil starvation on the bearing, possibly due to a sudden drop in oil pressure on one of the bearings might be the cause but I would want to see the engine first before taking your mechanics word for it.

when it got home i turned it by hand and it was feeling fine and i heard the oil spitting.

Assuming this was after the big bang, I doubt if you could have turned it by hand if the connecting rod was welded to crankshaft and it also sounds like your oil pump might not be the cause of your problem. Possible something clogged one of the journals preventing oil to get to one or more of the bearings but thats a stretch and that resulting in a bent rod even more of a stretch. As nuts4bmw said, all this does sound kinda weird and as your girlfriend indicated, I would be very leary about trusting anything your mechanic says.

I take it you have not seen the engine yet and what you know so far is that your mechanic is claiming a rod is bent and the top end is all fine. What is he basing this on? Has he torn the engine down to take a look? and what is he claiming caused the problem in the first place?

If he has the engine torn down you need to get over there and take a look at the damage for yourself. If you have a buddy with more experience, drag him along. Nothing like a second opinion, especially if you can get one from another mechanic. Get your mechanic friend to show you the parts, both the damaged rod and the undamaged top end. If I were you, I would not be in any rush to cough up the cash to have him rebuild the bottom end until you are sure what happened. Quite possible, he is trying to pull the wool over your eyes on what really happened.

Post back what else you know. I am curious:

1. How long was it running before the big bang and did it shut down immediately after that?
2. Did you notice anything unusual with the engine before it shut down?
3. Could you crank the engine over and if so, did anyone do a compression test?

Best of luck with all this and please post back and keep us posted on how you are making out!

Stan

[ConcernedBMWgf]

hey...ryan is at work. the engine turning fine was BEFORE the big bang. this is going to be long...but if you are really curios..i am going to cut and past the exact thing i am planning on turning into the BBB if i dont get this figured out...

Feb08- Dropped vehicle off at Bimmer Autocare in Dallas. The head was messed up. A new one was too expensive. A month or two later, we provided a used one that had been checked out and cleaned up (ryan also spent time double checking this) and asked Eduardo to take a look at it and make sure that it was okay. He told us that this one was fine, he checked it out, and we could use it with no problems.

Aug08- The car was finally ready! We hadn’t heard anything for a while and had just bought a house. We asked Eduardo if it would be a problem for him to hold the car until we could get the funds together since he would not accept financing. He said that this would be fine with no charge.

Oct08- We went to get the vehicle for $2000. He tried to start it with two different size of battery chargers but it wouldn’t start because the battery was so dead. Didn’t really matter because he hadn’t realized the radiator was in the trunk and so it wasn’t installed. None of the belts had been put on either. Not a big deal, we were just glad to have the motor all ready. We were towing it anyways due to no muffler, insurance, inspection, ect.
Got a new battery, installed radiator and belts, and it started and ran. We did realize we were missing the dipstick and a couple of gaskets we had taken it in with. We also noticed that he used and charged us for brand new parts (gaskets, bolts, ect.) that we had JUST bought and were already brand new when we took it to him. All of this was no big deal (happy to have our car!!).
We still hadn’t driven more than 10ft (not registered, ect), but were letting it run for a few minutes on a daily basis and it started leaking all kinds of fluid EVERYWHERE! A closer look showed that many bolts weren’t even ‘hand tight’ much less to the actual specifications. Got those tightened (good enough to stop the immediate leaking…but may need another look because we did not want to overtighten). We do not understand why he tried to start it for us and told us it was good to go when it was missing radiator, belts, bolts were not tight!??!
Had it running for a few minutes after we stopped the leaking and put it in gear to put it into garage and it made a loud metal on metal sound and stopped running. Called Eduardo and explained the situation…not upset. He asked us to try to manually turn over the engine and call him back. It sticks in one spot…he said sounds like the same problem we brought it in with. He said we could take off the cover and look in there and see if it looked the same. Ryan took off cover, looked, it looked fine, did not see anything that looked like the previous problem, but did not touch anything else except put the cover back on.
At this point we asked Eduardo what we could do and he said to bring it in. We asked if this is covered under the warranty clause on the paper I signed that said the work has “12,000 mile or 1 year warranty unless otherwise noted.” I could not find it otherwise noted anywhere, and could not find any kind of warranty policy online. He tried to kind of brush off that the warranty may not be active because he doesn’t know what kind of condition the part we brought to him was in. However, this does not make since because we had him check it himself for that reason and he gave us the okay. Also, if this was the case then he should have otherwise noted the situation.
Nov03.08- I called and left a message for Eduardo asking him to call me back.
Nov04.08- I called again, and Eduardo answered. He told me that I just have to bring it in. He was not sure if it was warranty. He claimed that if the problem had anything to do with the head we had supplied that it would not be warranty because he cannot guarantee the condition of the head, but if it was elsewhere…then it would be warranty. I told him that that didn’t make since because we specifically had him check out the head before installing it for this reason. We made an agreement that he would look at it and not do any work or charge me without me giving the okay first. I really thought this should be under warranty.
Nov14.08- Paid ANOTHER $100 to have the car towed to Eduardo.
Nov17.08- Eduardo called to let us know that the car had a bent connector rod. A connector rod is in the bottom end of the engine, not the top end like the head. Eduardo claims that the head looks fine. He still mentioned to Ryan that to fix this would cost a lot of money and time and he thinks that we should abandon it or drop an entire new motor in. Ryan told him thank you and that we would contact him with our decision. He incinuated to Ryan that this would cost a lot of money from us, meaning it was non-warranty. This goes back on my (Tamara) and Eduardo’s Nov04 conversation when he told me that it would be warranty if it didn’t have to do with the head that we brought him.
Nov18.08- I spoke with Eduardo who said that the connector rod is bent and the bottom end is totaled but the top end looks completely fine. He does not have it completely taken apart though because I told him I am not paying him another dime yet unless it is warranty and he says this is deff not warranty and that I am going to have to pay a ton of money and if it were him he would just abandon the car.

ok, you are pretty completely filled in at this point. im starting to think we are pretty ******. ryan is at work and has the paperwork so i cant see what EXACTLY the mechanic had left to do when we took it to him. i think that will determine whether or not this is warranty and i should fight it our not...
for this thread though, that is besides the point...we just want to know what happened

[nuts4bmw]

For what it's worth:


From what I've read I wouldn't take the mechanics word on anything. Get yourself over to his shop with someone who's "in the know" and inspect the engine yourself and draw your own conclusions.

The head HAS got to come off again as well as the oil pan, to make a conclusive determination of what might have occured.

Everything you are saying about the way the motor was delivered to you makes me highly suspicious of the quality of the build in general...loose bolts ect. and what have you, and furthermore the mechanic's lack of cooperation re. the warranty really makes it all sound really suspect of poor workmanship. I mean really loose bolts??? What else did he forget to tighten one has to ask??? The bolts on the connecting rods themselves thus sending a piston and connecting rod assembly into the head or back into the pan......the latter being most likely if the head isn't damaged as the mechanic claims.

I doubt the BBB will be able to resolve this for you which is why you have to get an INDEPENDANT mechanic to inspect the work that was done on the motor. Pending a report from him, I'd sue the mechanic in small claims court for a full refund. I wouldn't want him anywhere near my stuff again if he is found to be at fault.

[scooter]

I completely agree with nuts4bmw. ConcernedBMWgf and psyca633csi there is no way you should take the word of this mechanic. Take nuts4bmw's advise and get yourself a qualified independent mechanic to take a look at it and get his opinion. That would be my #1 priority. To get a decent assessment should not cost you too much and at least then, you can make an informed decision on what to do next.

Please keep us posted on what you decide and how you make out.

[Babbitmike]

Originally Posted by scooter I completely agree with nuts4bmw. ConcernedBMWgf and psyca633csi there is no way you should take the word of this mechanic. Take nuts4bmw's advise and get yourself a qualified independent mechanic to take a look at it and get his opinion. That would be my #1 priority. To get a decent assessment should not cost you too much and at least then, you can make an informed decision on what to do next. Please keep us posted on what you decide and how you make out.

I also would have to agree here... it all sounds to me like the mechanic is just a tinkerer and doesn't really know what he is doing. It was mentioned that multiple bolts were left loose and the mechanic even tried to start the rig forgetting the radiator?!? I would almost guess that a rod bolt was left loose. None the less, the motor has to come apart again to correct the problem. A good trained eye can usually determine what caused an engine failure of this magnatude.
Mike

[Babbitmike]

If you can post up some pics once the engine is apart maybe they can be deciphered as to what happened.
Mike

[adrian_325]

Any update on what you guys decided to do? Some pictures would be good.

[psyca633csi]

heres the deal i was refered to this dude from every other shop in the dallas area soposed to be the best but it was the man bob priore who started the shop who could do it. every time i bring my car to a mechanic this happens
Feb08- Dropped vehicle off at Bimmer Autocare in Dallas. First I told Edward to check the bottom end the main bearings or the crankshaft bearings were too tight and needed to be checked replaced or whatever he thought needed to be done. I got a call later saying that they had put the car up on the lift removed the oil pan and adjusted them or whatever. That that freed up the crank okay.

Then later I got another call about how the head was messed up and a couple valves were broken. A new one was too expensive he wanted 400 for one that was not machined yet. i finally found a suitable machine head, we provided a used one that had been checked out and cleaned up (I also spent time double checking this) and asked Eduardo to take a look at it and make sure that it was okay. He told us that this one was fine, he checked it out, and we could use it with no problems.
i don't think he ever really ajusted the bottom end properly whitch was the deal in the first place. i am kickin the shit out of my self i could have fixed the valves and head and that whole freak mystery