1st Gen Lunchtable Thread - General Discussion

Thanks!

I welded on super thick (1") welding tables professionally but never owned anyhing even half as nice myself

This was me finally making a table from that laser cut table top

 

I think you'll be fine with the 250° water temp given that it's all aluminum construction with MLS head gaskets. It's very unlikely you did any damage. To give you an idea a modern Mercedes or BMW runs at 230° all the time and around 240 on the economy programming for a BMW. Touching 250 for a moment isn't going to be a problem I don't think

 

It's starting to get into the danger zone but not deep into. The question is though, and maybe you already know this, is where that reading takes place. Remember that the fluid wasn't flowing so in the block I wonder if it could've been even hotter. I think if I did anything it's the head gasket and if that is the case, I can do that and I already have a machine shop. I was already there when I had the cams out. Just a lot of tedious work.

 

Fuck

I'm not familiar with that engine so here just hoping for the best

 

GM does/did this but specifically for power while meeting emissions; they don't leave much headroom after that though

Bimmer and Mercedes do that for the same reason? Or are you saying they can just handle much more heat in general...

 

The temp sensors are almost always in the heads and near to the water outlet. Heads get the hottest, in fact on drag racing engines to make smaller cooling systems to cut weight they'll only cool heads because the oil can cool the block fine. I doubt you did any real damage.

 

Bimmer and Mercedes do it for emissions. In fact if you really romp on a BMW it'll alter the thermostat set point lower (190 or so) to give you greater performance headroom and then when you start driving casually again it'll raise the temperature back up to 230 for economy. I had the tuner on my 135 set to keep it in the 190° range all the time for engine longevity. It's not so much the hard parts that wear with the higher engine temp it's all the rubber stuff that wears out exponentially faster with hotter oil touching it.

 

Aluminum block, aluminum heads, magnesium intake, it kinda an exotic V8 compared to the American stuff. When you dig I to it's details it's an absolute masterpiece. When EV's take over I think it'll have a very loyal cult following as it's basically the last NA V8 that made 500hp.

I hope so. I have seen oil temps hit 240s when really driving the piss out of it so it's not that far out of the envelope. Full disclosure is, I didn't even hear it fail. I got a big red warning on the LCD screen about the battery. I was like FUCK. I knew right away it was the belt. I then tested the steering to confirm it, sure enough that was gone too. My thinking was I just need to milk it to the next exit and I can do that without voltage or steering so I went to pick up the pace a bit and it had no power, engine and trans acted real odd and that's when I peeped the temp gauge fully in the red and the readout was 253. So idk I think the way the car acted there is what's messing with me. Felt pretty normal and idled fine when we moved it on and off the trailer. But it was hot enough it emptied the expansion tank, but I didn't leave any coolant under where I broke down. So it's either in the trays or it went somewhere. It is easy to sit here and speculate on all the fine details, I mean shit I did it for 11hrs yesterday but I'm hopeful it's an easy fix and I'm all good. Looks like $65 for a pulley and belt and I hope that's it. The power steering is very noisy but if I can push that off longer, the better. (Both C63 I have had have had PS pump issues oddly).

 

It's new enough to have had engine protection strategies in the computer too. It probably started bringing down your rev limit without you even noticing and use the trans to trap you in lower gears so you don't push it. Slowly richening up the mixture to cool it down... Etc If it didn't blow big puffs of white smoke when you started it up later in the day it's probably just fine and it needs an oil change and a fresh belt system. Oil temp sounds pretty normal these cars all have electronic thermostats to control when there's flow through the cooler. It is probably keeping it warm unless you were going hard on it because you get better economy that way.

 

Better watch out for Nivlac on YouTube haha... You just described the Cadillac Northstar and that man is determined to make power out of those things haha

 

Even Cadillac techs and service advisors suggest replacing a Northstar versus repairing it if their head gasket goes

 

Thanks Zane, your comments certainly help bring down my blood pressure over the whole thing. I hope your right. German engineering is a blessing and a curse, but more often than not they do seem to think of everything and they do their homework with FMEAs.

There is no Northstar making 500hp from the factory lol and yes I am well aware of some parallels between the two motors

 

@Sperrunner
@treyus30

The comments too though

 

Oh no

 

You know @Wulf would scoop that lil thing up and take it home right now

 

Didn't get the one we wanted but she's fine

 

Very cute dog... But we need to talk about that baseboard moulding and how the floor meets the cabinets.

 

That's PO shit and on the project list

 

she is waaaay too adorable

 

Takes us to 4 dogs rn