SkiNNeR wrote: ↑Tue May 01, 2018 9:40 am
BMW synter at Nottingham have just turned complete w**k, they telling me to go to my local dealer to get quotes... that's a joke! Twice before i've been to my local dealer to get parts and each time they ordered the incorrect parts which i had to end up paying for anyway for some STUPID reason because they wouldn't take them back, they are completely useless. I did however get a price from synter just now over the phone for only the head gasket..................................... £568.70 Inc vat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF!!!!!! are they insane?
That's just insane for the head gasket, you could buy a second hand M54 lump on fleabay for that!
At this point Id be doing as suggested and having a look into the combustion chamber with a camera to see exactly whats going on in there. Either yourself or get a garage/engine specialist to do it. It the only way your going to know (other than head off obviously). You may have bigger issues than a valve, such as piston damage or even a damaged cylinder/block. What you find is obviously going to have a huge bearing on how to proceed at this point.
If you need a piston for example maybe a good engine builder can match the existing part to a new one off manufacturer markings etc. As i said earlier I'm not well up on Alpina but I'm willing to bet the bespoke parts are being made for them by the mainstream suppliers rather than in house.
I had this situation years ago with a melted piston. The bespoke engine builder who originally built the engine wanted a fortune for the piston but a local engine builder used markings on the piston and measurements etc to work out what piston it was and got me one a lot cheaper direct from the actual manufacturer.
If you've damaged the block beyond repair you may have to start getting creative and think about trying to find a B3S engine from somewhere, god know where though. Alternative you may be able to source an E36 M3 engine and have it bored out, just like Alpina did in the first place.
Hopefully its something relatively painless like the valve and you get it sorted soon