I'm getting a new motor and extra horsepower for practically nothing, and all I had to do was drive through a big puddle

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 08/10/2016 at 15:49 • Filed to: None

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(Not actually my connecting rod)

A few weeks ago, I got caught in a flash flood where my engine sucked up a bunch of water and died. I’ve been going through insurance claim hell since then, but now it’s finally sorted, and with the surplus money in the claim above the actual cost to fix my car, I’m getting fun stuff!

This was a total freak of nature coincidence. Right after I !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , it started raining like crazy, and I left my house to go to the gym. I was about halfway there when I had this thought in the back of my mind that maybe I forgot to close my garage door, and with all the rain I should head home and check just to be sure.

Around the block from my street, there was some not-very-deep standing water. Nothing scary, but noticeable. I got home, and of course the garage was closed. I decided to take a different route to the gym to avoid the standing water I had seen on my way home. Which was a good idea, except this new route had much deeper standing water that I didn’t see because of how hard the rain was coming down. Well, I saw it when it started splashing over my hood.

I just barely managed to make it through the water but not before my engine started misfiring, and “WARNING: REDUCED ENGINE POWER” started flashing on the iDrive screen.

I have a feeling this happened thanks to BMW’s cold air ducting from the kidney grilles to the airbox. Many aftermarket intakes reuse the cold air ducting, like for example this Burger Motorsports intake where they’ve conveniently drawn nice little arrows on the factory cold air duct.

The factory airbox is sealed on top, and I’m pretty confident this air duct allowed my engine to suck up a bunch of water. Yay.

My mind started racing to thoughts of hydrolock and bent connecting rods, but I limped the car to higher ground and shut it off. I had it flatbedded to my shop, and the next day my mechanic gave me the sad news that aside from a bunch of misfiring, he ran a compression test and cylinder #5 was 20% lower than the others. He recommended replacing, rather than rebuilding, the motor.

My thought process was:

FUCKING HELL

Time to file an insurance claim.

Since the motor’s going to be out anyway, I bet that’d cut down my labor cost to put in some go-fast parts.

I always try to make the best of bad situations.

After spending over 2 weeks jumping through innumerable hoops with my insurance company that don’t merit trying to explain, they finally got their shit together, and they’re paying me out a fair amount more than it’s actually going to cost for a fresh !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the labor to put it in.

Which means, in addition to the motor, I just ordered a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! & !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Since my mechanic is great, he says it’s no more labor to install all this stuff compared to what he’d be doing anyway to put the new motor in. I’m also having this guy who does BMW coding (normally stuff like making stupid warning chimes go away) flash the BMW Performance ECU tune for about 1/10 of what that would cost at a dealer.

Total cost: only a few hundred bucks above and beyond my deductible.

Vroom vroom, bitches!

Party-vi > Textured Soy Protein 08/10/2016 at 15:52

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Story time: When I got the 302 in the Willys taken apart for the rebuild one of the connecting rods looked like your picture above, except the fucking thing still ran! I wish I had kept it as a souvenir.

Textured Soy Protein > Party-vi 08/10/2016 at 15:56

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Yeah I don’t know how bent my rod really is. But the mechanic said by the time I paid for the work to tear the motor down to the point of finding out what shape the rods are in, and then get new rods (BMW sells them in sets of 6), send the crank out for machining, etc, might as well just get a whole new motor.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > Party-vi 08/10/2016 at 15:58

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I’m impressed.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Party-vi 08/10/2016 at 15:58

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Those 4.9s are pretty hardy.

AM3R shamefully returns > Textured Soy Protein 08/10/2016 at 16:06

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Reconsider the VRSF charge pipe. Quality/fitment isn’t the greatest. Also, make sure they work with stock diverter valves if you aren’t going the BOV route. I went with ER for not much more $$ after realizing how poor the quality on VRSF was.

Party-vi > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 08/10/2016 at 16:08

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I’m wondering if the good ol boys that had it before me hydrolocked it while swamp racing and rebuilt it while reusing the same rods.

Party-vi > Textured Soy Protein 08/10/2016 at 16:08

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Maaaaan you could have had them bore the block and off-set grind the crank for moar displacement.

E92M3 > Textured Soy Protein 08/10/2016 at 16:25

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I thought for sure it would cost too much, and they would just total it. Maybe I’m just sticker shocked by how much S65's cost from BMW.

BTW, have you seen the 800hp 335i Smoking Tire one take?

Textured Soy Protein > AM3R shamefully returns 08/10/2016 at 16:27

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Hmmm well my order is already placed. Was looking at them and BMS. VRSF has different flanges and whatnot for N55, and no BOV is needed.

Textured Soy Protein > E92M3 08/10/2016 at 16:30

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MSRP on a new N55 is $18k. MSRP on a reman N55 is $4400ish. I’m not paying MSRP. ;)

Before I found out the relatively reasonable cost on the BMW reman engine, the original plan was to get a motor salvaged from a crashed car. But this is a much better option.

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap 08/10/2016 at 16:30

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We had a crankshaft in a FJ60 that was sheared but because the angle it would catch when spinning and was still somewhat drivable.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars 08/10/2016 at 16:34

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I’d say the Toyota I6s are pretty durable. that’s the motor I want going into the apocalypse.

AM3R shamefully returns > Textured Soy Protein 08/10/2016 at 16:44

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You may have better luck than I did. I was really annoyed, because I wasn’t driving the car due to the cracked charge pipe, then after waiting for the VR part to come in the mail I noticed that the welds looked terrible and there was metal residue inside the pipe. Decided I'd rather just wait another week and get something else.

Textured Soy Protein > AM3R shamefully returns 08/10/2016 at 17:56

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My car is undriveable but has an intact charge pipe. ;)

If for some reason the mechanic thinks there’s an issue with the VRSF one, he can put the stock one on, and it’s pretty simple for me to do some other charge pipe in my garage.

Nauraushaun > Textured Soy Protein 08/13/2016 at 11:21

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This is best possible outcome

Stapleface > Textured Soy Protein 08/22/2016 at 15:06

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So, I have a question. Why is your insurance paying for a replacement engine? Not that I’m complaining, mind you, just curious. Every insurance I've ever had has only fixed collision damage, not mechanical failure.

Textured Soy Protein > Stapleface 08/22/2016 at 16:02

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I filed a comprehensive claim. Comprehensive wouldn’t pay for mechanical failure that happened on its own, but because this was a mechanical failure caused by adverse driving conditions (i.e. flash flood) that falls under comprehensive.

Stapleface > Textured Soy Protein 08/22/2016 at 16:16

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Huh, how about that. I wouldn’t even THINK of doing that. Nice going.