Re: <'95 E36 M3> Piston slap.

[Mark Dadgar <mdadgar@xxxxxxxxx>]

Reji wrote:
> I have heard about the piston slap that occus on the E36 M3s, but I
> don't  know what a good solution to the problem is.

Piston slap occured on a small mid-'95 run of E36 M3's (plus mine,  
but that's a different story).

If you have piston slap, you'll know it.  Your car will sound like a  
diesel Suburban for the first 5 minutes or so after a cold start  
(after, say, sitting in the driveway all night).  Then the engine  
warms up and the sound goes away.

> I have heard that adding extra oil will solve the problem. I have
> done this, and it seems like this does not really solve the problem.

This is a TOTALLY different issue.  This is "valve tick," and it  
tends to happen after a hard autocross or track run, not normal (but  
spirited) driving.

Opinions differ, but the consensus seems to be that overfilling the  
oil by 1-2 quarts (MAX!) will solve the problem in most situations.   
Harder-core drivers (Hi Duane!) tend to opt for the M3 LTW oil pan  
with dual pickups.  This is a $1K+ solution, but it's the only sure  
fix.

> Has anyone taken the car in to the dealer, and if so, what did the
> dealer  do to fix it. And how much $$$ is involved.

The dealer swapped out my engine block under warranty for the piston  
slap problem.  I understand that this was about a $9K repair.

> Unfortunately, my warrenty has run out and any repairs will be a
> out-of-poket expense.

At first glance, it doesn't appear that you have a piston slap  
problem, which is good.  Valve tick is endemic to E36 M3's, and the  
real fix is fairly pricey.

- - Mark
  '95 M3, new longblock, sharked, x-braced, BLESSed
  '97 528i 5-spd, needs a bunch of stuff
- ---
Mark Dadgar
Product Manager
CoreOS, Mac OSX
Apple Computer	
mdadgar@domain.elided

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