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catastrophic coolant loss Q (91 318)

Just had my 91 318is in for its 30K checkup at the local independent BMW 
shop. The car was fine but they told me about stories they had been hearing
about failure of a gasket (or did they say seal) between the head and the 
front cover of the engine block on the 16 valve 1.8 liter engine. When 
this goes there is the loss of coolant and you then can quickly lose the 
engine. Apparently this has only happened in 91s as there was a design 
change  with the 92 model year.  They told me one case of this happening at
49K miles and the engine was toast after the driver ignored the check
engine light (she was out in the middle of nowhere and was not about to stop).

I just talked with BMW customer relations and the person who talked to me
was not very helpful. She said there was no recall on this and she had 
heard nothing about it but that she would only hear about it if there 
was a recall. 

Does anyone out there now anything about this? 

Dave Mandersheid