Engine/Piston Failure - what to do

[M5280RCR]

Long story short, I have a bad piston in my E92 M3, and am trying to decide what to do.

Background, at 57k miles I installed an ESS 625 supercharger and mid-pipe (what a blast). Within a week I blew an ignition coil, and replaced all eight. 7k miles later I take my car to the track and after a glorious morning, I do two warm up laps after lunch and something seems wrong, sure enough on the third lap the check engine light comes on. I drive home 150 miles (with limp mode going in and out, but never exceeding 3.5k RPM's)

At the mechanic the car threw a code for one of the new coils, but after replacing that the car was still missing. Bummer. Now, the engine is out and my mechanic has found a chunk of the piston missing, I am wondering what others would do at this point.

I loved the power of the supercharger but obviously have a concern with the engines ability to handle the power. Anyway, my choices as I see it at this point are noted below. My question is, what are your opinions and have I overlooked any options?

Additionally I believe most of the options below entail $2-3k in labor as well.

•Replace the piston for $2-3k
•Rebuild my engine for $10-12k
•Dinan 4.2 Engine – Stoker, needs mine as a core, 20+ HP $15k + fresh rebuilt with warranty
•Dinan 4.6 Engine – Stroker, $25k (I assume this is warranted as well?)
•RD stroker 4.6 $16k (2+ months to build, uses my core) - May have warranty, need to check
•Used Engine $8-11k? No warranty, may have its own issues
•What about an exhaust and tune, with a used, or rebuilt engine? – any thoughts
on this?

Or, do I just scrap the car, know anyone who wants to buy a beautiful SSII M3 minus one piston?

Also, I am curious, would anyone be tempted to reinstall the supercharger and tune with a rebuilt engine or a used one?

Interesting Stroker thread

Dyno Shootout: Battle between Dinan and RD Sport for 4.6 Liter Stroker Motor Braggin

Seems like not a lot of gain for a fair amount of money.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/advice.

[Tracyis300]

If you have 25k to spend? Then fix the piston, sell the car & accessories, and buy a Porsche

[Rat3d ///M]

I cant believe some people can just talk about dumping $25k into an already expensive car like its nothing. I get pissed having to buy a new TPMS sensor. Maybe I dont deserve this car after all?

[xpunisherx]

Originally Posted by ||||||||||

I cant believe some people can just talk about dumping $25k into an already expensive car like its nothing. I get pissed having to buy a new TPMS sensor. Maybe I dont deserve this car after all?

+100

Oh you know...that extra $25k I have laying around for when I spin a rod bearing.

If a spare $25k is a prerequisite for owning the ///M3, then I need to step down...

...to a Focus.

[GRUESOM3]

What's the condition of the cylinder wall in that cylinder ?Also you need to check the engine see how far that chunk your talking about made it and take it from there, no need to spend 25k unless you absolutely have to.

[Disturbed]

Rebuild what you have at 9:1cr with forged internals. Then turn up the boost to 16 psi. Will best overall route then you can push atleast another 200whp on 93 pump. 9:1cr) You will need a custom pulley and tune.

If you have the money and time...build it. If not goto plan B: remove SC and mods, sell them rebuild stock motor and sell car. Start over with a better platform for Moding.

[RoshDawg]

Since you like boost and have the money, sell the car for an M4 and start from there.

[nthretourNAFTW]

First eliminate bad options :
buying a used engine (too much risk),
buying an m4 that's a downgrade to a 3.0 liter engine block (If you want a proper bespoke turbo car go for a GT-R or Pturbo) and it's an ugly boring looking sedan car (even in coupe).

You safest path is a Dinan stroker. It might look expensive but think that if you replace the piston and sell car and SC it will be at a loss.

If you have deep pocket to upgrade to a porsche i would do.
I would also eliminate option of just replacing piston and keeping the car. It might be completely fine, so that just me.

[M5280RCR]

Originally Posted by ||||||||||

I cant believe some people can just talk about dumping $25k into an already expensive car like its nothing. I get pissed having to buy a new TPMS sensor. Maybe I dont deserve this car after all?

I wish I knew how to mulitquote, but here goes one at a time.

I should have clarified, these were the options provided by my mechanic, I have no intention of spending $25k on a Dinan 3.6.

PS. I get pissed spending $20 for a quart of oil ever couple of thousand miles, this is killing me.

[M5280RCR]

Originally Posted by GRUESOM3

What's the condition of the cylinder wall in that cylinder ?Also you need to check the engine see how far that chunk your talking about made it and take it from there, no need to spend 25k unless you absolutely have to.

I need to revisit this, initially they thought they might be able to just hone the walls. I'll check, but the mechanic did not feel that fixing one piston and honing was a good long term solution.

And regardless if I keep the car or sell it, I feel it should be done right. And no, to a previous poster, I am not of the mind to fix the piston and sell the car to someone, I would fully disclose what happened and what has been fixed, I do not want any bad juju coming back to me.

[M5280RCR]

Originally Posted by nthretourNAFTW

First eliminate bad options :
buying a used engine (too much risk),
buying an m4 that's a downgrade to a 3.0 liter engine block (If you want a proper bespoke turbo car go for a GT-R or Pturbo) and it's an ugly boring looking sedan car (even in coupe).

You safest path is a Dinan stroker. It might look expensive but think that if you replace the piston and sell car and SC it will be at a loss.

If you have deep pocket to upgrade to a porsche i would do.
I would also eliminate option of just replacing piston and keeping the car. It might be completely fine, so that just me.

This is great advice, process of elimination... buying a used engine seems like a bad option too much risk. Dinan 4.6 seems like a waste and I wouldn't spend money on that,

Rebuilding my engine, installing the 4.2 Dinan for $16k or the RD 4.6 stroker for about the same money (only if it comes with a warranty) are at the top of my list. If I don't like the result I can sell the car in good conscience and get the Pturbo....which I almost did when I picked up this car 5 years ago.

It is just such a bummer to spend all this money and lose that 625 HP and go back to 414, but I cant see reinstalling the SC'er either.

[BzsBimmer]

Warranty remaining?
if so, strip SC and tune and take to dealer for warranty or if 3rd party warranty, see if your mechanic can settle it with them.

I'd really be interested in knowing how a piece of piston broke off.

My other thought like others have posted is to first find out extent of damage, if fixable, spend the small amount to repair. If that doesn't work, buy used engine and replace bearings for peace of mind.

[heart_doctor]

Originally Posted by Tracyis300

If you have 25k to spend? Then fix the piston, sell the car & accessories, and buy a Porsche

+1

[Cidle]

Was the cylinder that had a blown coil the same one with the piston damage?

[mjposner]

Originally Posted by BzsBimmer

Warranty remaining?
if so, strip SC and tune and take to dealer for warranty or if 3rd party warranty, see if your mechanic can settle it with them.

I'd really be interested in knowing how a piece of piston broke off.

My other thought like others have posted is to first find out extent of damage, if fixable, spend the small amount to repair. If that doesn't work, buy used engine and replace bearings for peace of mind.

This is very poor advice, and besides being unethical, is probably illegal.

[rcracin]

Your motor was definitely detonating if a piece of the piston was missing. That isn't related to the coil because if the coil was dead, you wouldn't have any combustion and the piston would not have broken.

Have a machine shop take the motor apart, inspect, and if you can replace just that piston and maybe all the rings and bearings, you'll be fine. Motors are rebuilt all the time. Just need a good machine shop and builder.

It needs a good inspection though. If a piece of the piston is missing, it had to have gone somewhere and chewed up something else. I'm very doubtful that it didn't leave scarring anywhere else.

[regular guy]

Originally Posted by BzsBimmer

Warranty remaining?
if so, strip SC and tune and take to dealer for warranty or if 3rd party warranty, see if your mechanic can settle it with them.

Yeah, because recommending fraud is always a good piece of advice.

[regular guy]

Originally Posted by M5280RCR

Long story short, I have a bad piston in my E92 M3, and am trying to decide what to do.

Background, at 57k miles I installed an ESS 625 supercharger and mid-pipe (what a blast). Within a week I blew an ignition coil, and replaced all eight. 7k miles later I take my car to the track and after a glorious morning, I do two warm up laps after lunch and something seems wrong, sure enough on the third lap the check engine light comes on. I drive home 150 miles (with limp mode going in and out, but never exceeding 3.5k RPM's)

At the mechanic the car threw a code for one of the new coils, but after replacing that the car was still missing. Bummer. Now, the engine is out and my mechanic has found a chunk of the piston missing, I am wondering what others would do at this point.

I loved the power of the supercharger but obviously have a concern with the engines ability to handle the power. Anyway, my choices as I see it at this point are noted below. My question is, what are your opinions and have I overlooked any options?

Additionally I believe most of the options below entail $2-3k in labor as well.

•Replace the piston for $2-3k
•Rebuild my engine for $10-12k
•Dinan 4.2 Engine – Stoker, needs mine as a core, 20+ HP $15k + fresh rebuilt with warranty
•Dinan 4.6 Engine – Stroker, $25k (I assume this is warranted as well?)
•RD stroker 4.6 $16k (2+ months to build, uses my core) - May have warranty, need to check
•Used Engine $8-11k? No warranty, may have its own issues
•What about an exhaust and tune, with a used, or rebuilt engine? – any thoughts
on this?

Or, do I just scrap the car, know anyone who wants to buy a beautiful SSII M3 minus one piston?

Also, I am curious, would anyone be tempted to reinstall the supercharger and tune with a rebuilt engine or a used one?

Interesting Stroker thread

Dyno Shootout: Battle between Dinan and RD Sport for 4.6 Liter Stroker Motor Braggin

Seems like not a lot of gain for a fair amount of money.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/advice.

If you're in the bay area, you can always call me, come have coffee, dinner, or whatever. I probably have more experience and help more people out of this situation than anybody else on the forum. I'm helping people and have four engine builds going on at the moment, three of them from blown motors. Best of all, I'm not a business, so I have nothing ($$$) to gain by helping you weigh your options.

So let's start here: you can't replace the piston for $2-3k. You will need to tear down the block quite far to replace a single piston. You will have about $1k in gaskets alone.

If that cylinder needs to be honed, then don't trust the Alucil block to Joe's machine shop and engine builder. There's only a few places I would trust with it, and one of them is in the bay area (Dinan). I work with Dinan all the time to have them machine blocks for the projects I help with. To hone a single cylinder is probably about $500 because of the setup time. If you were to call Dinan, I'm not sure they would take the job (you can always call and ask). So if you need to hone the cylinder wall (almost guaranteed you do), then you're talking about a full rebuild on your engine (labor wise). Depending on who builds your motor, the labor alone (not counting to remove/replace the motor) will run between $2k - $6k. Parts will be about $3500, including the piston. You'll need to rebalance the rotating assembly: $300.

So let's say you go the cheapest route possible to fix the motor you have, you'll be looking at about $6500 - $7000 would be my best guess; plus the cost to remove and replace the motor from the chassis.

I was one of the original RD Sport stroker customers. I also wrote that stroker dyno shootout article you referenced. So if you need somebody to bounce off the ideas and weigh the pro's and con's, then shoot me a PM, we can exchange numbers, have coffee, lunch, dinner, whatever.

[M5280RCR]

Originally Posted by cidle323

Was the cylinder that had a blown coil the same one with the piston damage?

I believe they were both thr 7th cylinder. I'll confirm Monday

[BNBM3]

Originally Posted by regular guy

If you're in the bay area, you can always call me, come have coffee, dinner, or whatever. I probably have more experience and help more people out of this situation than anybody else on the forum. I'm helping people and have four engine builds going on at the moment, three of them from blown motors. Best of all, I'm not a business, so I have nothing ($$$) to gain by helping you weigh your options.

So let's start here: you can't replace the piston for $2-3k. You will need to tear down the block quite far to replace a single piston. You will have about $1k in gaskets alone.

If that cylinder needs to be honed, then don't trust the Alucil block to Joe's machine shop and engine builder. There's only a few places I would trust with it, and one of them is in the bay area (Dinan). I work with Dinan all the time to have them machine blocks for the projects I help with. To hone a single cylinder is probably about $500 because of the setup time. If you were to call Dinan, I'm not sure they would take the job (you can always call and ask). So if you need to hone the cylinder wall (almost guaranteed you do), then you're talking about a full rebuild on your engine (labor wise). Depending on who builds your motor, the labor alone (not counting to remove/replace the motor) will run between $2k - $6k. Parts will be about $3500, including the piston. You'll need to rebalance the rotating assembly: $300.

So let's say you go the cheapest route possible to fix the motor you have, you'll be looking at about $6500 - $7000 would be my best guess; plus the cost to remove and replace the motor from the chassis.

I was one of the original RD Sport stroker customers. I also wrote that stroker dyno shootout article you referenced. So if you need somebody to bounce off the ideas and weigh the pro's and con's, then shoot me a PM, we can exchange numbers, have coffee, lunch, dinner, whatever.

Call this guy. Thread, done.

[BzsBimmer]

Originally Posted by mjposner

This is very poor advice, and besides being unethical, is probably illegal.

How is this "illegal"? Unethical, maybe.
Aside from this specific piston damage case, how many other people remove tunes, etc. from M3's, 335's etc. and go to the dealer for repair using a 3rd party warranty or BMW warranty when their car doesn't start, have DME error etc?

How many of those people are taken to court, sued or brought up on fraud charges.
It's a game of chance. For a piston to be damaged, I'd imagine defect in workmanship or some type of lean condition (from FI). I may be the only one to say it but I'm sure others go through the same logic when their car goes kaput and have a warranty in place.

Either way, Regular Guy's offer is a stand up offer. I don't know many people who would offer to rebuild a motor for someone

[BNBM3]

Originally Posted by BzsBimmer

How is this "illegal"? Unethical, maybe.
Aside from this specific piston damage case, how many other people remove tunes, etc. from M3's, 335's etc. and go to the dealer for repair using a 3rd party warranty or BMW warranty when their car doesn't start, have DME error etc?

How many of those people are taken to court, sued or brought up on fraud charges.
It's a game of chance. For a piston to be damaged, I'd imagine defect in workmanship or some type of lean condition (from FI). I may be the only one to say it but I'm sure others go through the same logic when their car goes kaput and have a warranty in place.

Either way, Regular Guy's offer is a stand up offer. I don't know many people who would offer to rebuild a motor for someone

Fraud is illegal. Being convicted of it is a different story.