If you know me, my approach to car maintenance is more on the preventative side.
I always change out the head gasket(s), belts, cooling system, associated bolts, hoses and anything else when my cars are around 150K. Sometimes I go for this when I buy a car that doesn’t have any maint. history with it.
I did this with my M30 couple. In late 2017, I did this to my M30.
You’d be amaze at how many shops (I was jumping on Yelp) that won’t go into the motor that deep or they are charging $5k… which is BS to me. I did find a guy that was doing any mechanic work for a good price and I went with him.
A little of a year later, my exhaust starts getting loud. I thought it was maybe the manifold or one of the pipes. Then some knocking! I went into get my oil changed and they said the oil pan was seeping oil… I thought that my head’s lifter was messed up. Maybe oil got low.
So I took it to my guy and he changed out the oil pan gasket and also the oil sensor as it needed to be replaced. The knocking was still there and we deducted it wasn’t a lifter, but an exhaust leak.
I took it to a muffler shop and he said it was 2 exhaust manifold bolts near the driver’s side firewall.
In July, I had my guy take a look and he was able to get one broke stud out with removing the head. The other one he couldn’t get out but he was able to put a stud in.
And now we are here, it’s annoying and came back. What I found out was that the original exhaust manifold studs were not changed out and reused. I was hugely upset. But my guy made it right.
So this time, as I said last time, anything that needs to be replaced, I’ll do it. Just tell me.
The heads have to come off again and have to drill out the broken studs and put in NEW ONES. I decided to get all the items.
So I got Past Power (pastpowerparts.com) stainless steel exhaust manifold studs.
Also want to do the cap/rotor, spark plugs and spark plug wires.
Since I need to start replacing hoses, I’ll start with one that is hard to reach, the coolant bypass hose. Since the heads are off, mind as well do it.
For the head, I ordered new OEM head bolts (11056-21V02) with washers (11058-V5001)
It also happens my brakes started to squeal, so it’s time to change those out!
I have always gotten my brakes from R1 Concepts (since the mid 2000s) and happy to support their company as they give good prices and I have never had issues with them.
I figure while I am there, we are looking into replace the brake lines with stainless steel ones.
After this, The m30 couple can resume in other avenues of rebuilding. I think an one point, I want to redo the transmission, suspension, interior, exhaust and of course paint the car.
In do time.