I really don't want to, but I am debating.

[Flametail]

As you may have read, my Ti's engine took a sh!t. Well the new one my dad picked up apparently came out of a car that had been hit in the front end and broke parts of the valve cover. Long story short, it moved one of the bolt holes so the valve cover won't bolt down completely. Well after I removed the airbox to get the old engine ready to move out I found that there was about a 2"x 6" rust hole from the shotty repair job done when the car hit a guardrail. I hadn't seen this before now because of the airbox being there.

I have been thinking about maybe scrapping the whole thing, tucking my tail, and admitting defeat. Obviously that means parting out the car and selling it to a junkyard or scrap shop, or whatever else.

Honestly, what do you think?

[hotmilk400]

i wouldnt waste money on it... look for a good deal on a new one. teh econemy is taking a noise dive, which means the prices of sports cars liek BMW's dropped alot. wait till u know someone, or hear a friends friends who needs to sell a car right away for cash. i bought my car from a friend friends, who couldnt pay the $1500 to get his car, so i bought a 1998 318ti sport with a smashed door and 100k miles for only $1500. besides some minor problems, and a smashed car, it was worth it. the door isnt to bad, just messed up the window.. and it had a $1500 sound system installed, which was a HUGE plus.. haha..

basicly.. wait till someone is sick of spending money on there high maintance bmw's that cost alot to fix up, and jsut get a new one with a working motor.. or a semi smashed one like mine, part out your old one, and sell the rest of your old one.. =] atleast, that is what i would do =/ ...

[Flametail]

I'm going to take this week to debate. The biggest problem is that I have 2 engines sitting at my mom-in-law's and a partially taken apart car. lol. And TONS of kitty litter, lol.

The most expensive part of the car would be repairing the rust and repainting it because a good chunk of the clear is gone and what's left is slowly disappearing.

[tiFreak]

how much money do you have to spend and how attached are you to the car? it might be worth waiting for another engine to come along if you really like the car, or even an M50/S50 swap, although the rust problem on your car isn't very good, maybe buy another ti?

http://memphis.craigslist.org/cto/814732890.html

here's one with an automatic, if you part yours, you'd have all the parts needed for an auto/manual swap and you could transfer all your mods over to this one

EDIT: dibs on the wing if you part and decide you don't want it

[Flametail]

I am partially attached to it due to it being my first BMW. All I would have to do is take the head from my old engine and put it on the new one and it would work fine, but yet again the rust problems aren't gonna get fixed anytime soon so the car is going to rust out from under me.

[hotmilk400]

... ehh.. i would just get a used 454 cobra jet engine in it. get a few people to help u re-weld all the brackets to hold everything in place. find a new spot for all the other things under the hood that now do not have a home (maybe passanger side seat?) .. o.. and put a roll cage in it =] .. and.. dude... u are set.. u got a bmw that can pull a wheelie for 2 blocks.. haha..


something along the lines of this,(even tho its still a 4cly there) its just twice as big, both tall and wide.. haha =]



^
||
.. thats what my BMW look like under the hood btw... (cough.. ... cough.. ehh. )

[Flametail]

i actually looked at an SR20 swap at one time, but money is too tight since me and my fiance are trying to get a place and i'm in school so that's not happenin.

[aceyx]

If the rust is superficial, try using a product called POR-15. Stabby used it on his a while ago, may want to ask him how it's holding up.

Spray on-prep then paint it on. Shouldn't take too much time and it's fairly inexpensive ($20).

[Flametail]

Originally Posted by aceyx

If the rust is superficial

If by superficial you mean not 2 gaping holes, then no...they are not. One is under the airbox and after I poked it with a screwdriver I could see all the way to the ground. The other, many already know about, was a gaping hole in the driver's side rear quarter panel right before the wheel well. I patched it but it looks like sh!t. I only did that to keep it from rusting even more.

It looks like ya'll may be able to become new owners of parts of my car but I'm gonna take a little while and some figuring and decide whether I want to finish swapping the engine or just start taking stuff apart.

Any thoughts?

[Flametail]

well the new engine is acting like it may take a crap now so it looks like i may just take this one as a loss and part the car out and try to claim the warranty on the engine we bought. realistically, how much could i be looking at for price of selling it versus parting it out? if i was to sell it i would probably try to get 1000 out of it. could i get that much by parting it out?

[hotmilk400]

well.. if u part it out.. i would love some parts.. haha

umm.. it really depends how well u wanna part it out, and how long u are willing to hold on to the complete car. if u are willing to part out the entire car till you have made enough money, you might be holding on to the part for awhile.. if u can get someone to buy it for $1000 , u are pobally better off unless there are a few parts that u know cost alot and are in good shape. if u post all your parts with plenty of pictures, im sure people will buy used form u intead of new for most things.. like engine parts or what not..

btw, i only paid $1500 for my 1998 bmw sport, and it was in running condition when i bought it. minor problems, and now some more minor problems.. haha

how old is it.. i see u have "cat delete" if it is newer, how can u pass emissions.. haha.. i need to pass emissions and my cat is holding me back for now..

[Flametail]

So I think I finally got it back into a driveable condition. The problem last saturday ended up being me needing to replace my plugs so I bought a cheap set just to get me through til I can get some OEM's.

I had to replace the oil pan cause the one off the new engine was dripping oil like a baby drinkin a bottle. I was putting almost 2 quarts in it each day til yesterday...then went in the Royal Purple cause Advanced Auto was having an synthetic sale. probably the only time it will ever see RP anyways.

Next step is fuel filter and SeaFoam to hopefully get my mileage up. I actually saw a 3 MPG increase after changing the pan/oil. Not sure if the oil actually helped that but I'll keep thinkin it.

FYI, did you know if you start your car with the dip stick out it acts like it wants to die? Anyone know why?

[b.u.ti-ful]

Yeah, these engines are very fussy about crankcase pressure.

It does the same thing if you take off the oil fill cap.

Good luck getting your new engine in fine tune.

[Flametail]

I think it's actually pretty tuned now. I haven't had a problem besides the minor stuff.