I got one for my b-day. 1992. There is a loud engine tick, localized. Pretty sure a rocker came off or a spring snapped/came out. Maybe even a clogged oiler hole. I am about 30 minutes of work from having the valve covers off to be sure. Just mentioning this in case its related to the issues I have a question on. The car does have plenty of power though.

When I opened up the oil fill cap, its white and there are drops of clear water on the lip inside. The dip stick is clean though. I have yet to drain the oil which will tell me for sure if there is coolant issues. But I was wondering were coolant could get into the oil besides head gaskets. On the Ford 4.6L, for example, the oil filter housing gasket can go bad and there can be cross contamination. As for the coolant, I did dip in a clean bright material and it was clean of any oil. No film floating on top at all visible either. So it appears if there is coolant in the oil, its a one-way leak.

Also the car has pretty much sat for over two year. Ran occasionally. The previous owner did add some SeaFoam to the oil to see if it wold clear up the tick. It did not and was thus parked and retired until now.

Any thoughts? The idea of pulling heads is not appealing.

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1991 560 SEL / 185k miles
1992 750il / 17k miles - project car