How do you gauge your engine's health?

Kinja'd!!! by "Klaus Schmoll" (klausschmoll)
Published 06/05/2017 at 18:44

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STARS: 1


I have a very simple metric. Can it reach it’s listed top speed? Living in Germany makes that relatively easy. Find an empty, unrestricted and flat stretch of Autobahn and floor it, have a GPS based app on your phone running to get a better idea of what speed you are actually doing. If it can reach or do more than what it should do, pretty much all the horses should be still in the barn, compression should be o.k.-ish, and so on.

My Honda did well in that compartment. Indicating that there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the eingine.

I was a little disappointed when the E61 didn’t fully deliver. Listed top speed is 241kph and on flat ground it didn’t really go past 230. Carbon build up from the one previous owner driving like an undertaker? Maybe a full service could do the trick? Well, as you might remember a little later the CEL came on and I now have a new coil for Bavarian boy number six (along with a spark plug aaaaaaand and injector),

This weekend, I had to attend a family function at the other end of a very empty stretch of Autobahn. 240+ kph on flat ground all day long!!!! So My guess is that all is good for this very moment.

How do you check if your engine is still healthy?

Kinja'd!!!


Replies (18)

Kinja'd!!! "Highlander-Datsuns are Forever" (jamesbowland)
06/05/2017 at 18:52, STARS: 1

Oil consumption and oil condition at time of changing is what I usually look at, if I get 5 qts back and it is not totally black and stinky then it’s doing good and didn’t overheat.

Kinja'd!!! "EL_ULY" (uly)
06/05/2017 at 18:54, STARS: 0

amount of pull from new to current

Kinja'd!!! "E90M3" (e90m3)
06/05/2017 at 19:01, STARS: 1

I had an oil analysis done on the M3. I wanted to make sure everything was alright.

Kinja'd!!! "jimz" (jimz)
06/05/2017 at 19:18, STARS: 1

the force from drag goes up by the square of your vehicle’s speed; i.e. if you want to go twice as fast, the drag force is four times higher (and required power goes up with the cube of speed, so you need 8x the power to go twice as fast!) the difference between 230 and 241 km/h could be down just to wind direction and temperature.

Kinja'd!!! "beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard" (beardsbynelly-Rikerbeard)
06/05/2017 at 19:25, STARS: 3

Have I recovered from liver disease? Better go on a 3 day bender to find out.

Kinja'd!!! "Klaus Schmoll" (klausschmoll)
06/05/2017 at 19:44, STARS: 0

Yes, and no. I totally understand what you are saying, I paid attention when we did that in school. Wheel and tire size/tread also can be a factor (stock wheels and tire size, so probably not in this case). The A/C feeds off the engine as well. 230 kph of 241 puts us into a margin slightly below 5%, so it could almost be negligible, right?

No! If they can’t do it (when stock) it is a sign that there might be something wrong.

Kinja'd!!! "Klaus Schmoll" (klausschmoll)
06/05/2017 at 20:00, STARS: 0

WUT? I see that a little differently. Nursing a half-broken Chevy to 500k miles is one thing, but we all must accept that attempting to do that with a BMW is a bad idea. They are almost digital, perfect or wait for a tow truck. One or zero.

Kinja'd!!! "DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti)
06/05/2017 at 20:13, STARS: 0

That’s not a good way to test your engine’s health. I hit 145mph in my old WRX and it had a cracked piston. I have a leaky, oil burning SBC 350 in my ‘66 GMC and that truck will still hit 100mph which is higher than its original top speed. Compression test is a quick and easy way to test engine health. It’s not comprehensive but a pretty good indicator. Mate it with a leak down test and you’re gtg.

Kinja'd!!! "Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap" (ddadragon)
06/05/2017 at 20:15, STARS: 2

It’s really a shame we don’t have unlimited sections in the States.

Kinja'd!!! "TorqueToYield" (torquetoyield)
06/05/2017 at 20:18, STARS: 0

I don’t necessarily agree with your methods from a strictly technical view but this is without a doubt the most fun way to test.

Kinja'd!!! "E92M3" (E46M3)
06/05/2017 at 20:26, STARS: 0

I just do a compression test. It’s very easy (if you can change a spark plug, you can do a compression test).

The problem with your test (besides being illegal here, and that it would result in arrest and license suspension), is my car is limited to 155mph by the ecu. It could easily reach that, even if it was down 2 cylinders.

Kinja'd!!! "beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard" (beardsbynelly-Rikerbeard)
06/05/2017 at 20:50, STARS: 0

I drove a 1st gen X5 recently that goes against that, vanos problems, electrical faults in the door locks and windows, weird gearbox kickdown issues.

But it worked. Drove 1400km’s in a day.. rather thirstily, but it did it.

Kinja'd!!! "Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen" (distraxi)
06/05/2017 at 20:54, STARS: 0

Well in the case of the Jag it was ‘is it leaking?”. If yes, all good.

Kinja'd!!! "Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo" (thetomselleck)
06/05/2017 at 21:08, STARS: 0

Its just a celebration for me every time they start.

Kinja'd!!! "Die-Trying" (die-trying)
06/05/2017 at 22:22, STARS: 0

oil pressure, coolant temp, ticks knocks and rattles. whether or not it is hitting on all 8. whether it can maintain sustained rpm......

Kinja'd!!! "DrScientist" (DrScientist)
06/05/2017 at 22:29, STARS: 0

likley you need to make sure youre on stock wheels/tires. or similar.

many of us may have upsized our wheels and inadvertantly increased the unsprung weights which could have an effect on top speed without indicating anything significantly wrong with the engine.

Kinja'd!!! "duurtlang" (duurtlang)
06/06/2017 at 02:21, STARS: 0

Given that my higher kilometerage (302k) car doesn’t like being started as much, despite having newish plugs and idling fine, I sometimes worry about engine health. Could be something clogged up in the gasoline system too, as it only starts on gasoline and then switches to LPG after a number of seconds.

I should do your test some time, on gasoline. Listed top speed is only 208.

Kinja'd!!! "TheBimmerGuyWhoNowOwnsAChevy" (thebimmerguy)
06/06/2017 at 17:01, STARS: 0

I would love them too, but I feel it would be instantly ruined because of a spike in accidents, sadly.