There are only two ways for it to get inside your engine. If you had your oil changed other than you doing it and it was dropped in the oil fill tube. If we go back further then it was dropped in at the batch plant of Mobil one and dropped into the bottle of oil either maliciously or accidentally.
Hey, just read the Blackstone email with the link to this. Wow, that's crazy! But I'm with the theory that a tech had it in his pocket, & when he leaned over it fell in. The pics you posted on Imgur are gone, but it would seem it was grinding against something. At least it didn't fire! Ranks right up there with a socket or screw or washer falling in somewhere. I did find a washer in the cooling jacket of a BBC head before, lol.
Hrm, interesting the photos don't show up on imgur anymore for you. Here's a link: i.imgur.com/2pqyAe2.jpg I bet it was grinding on the screen of the oil pickup.
Someone may have placed it deliberately during some service or third party oil change. But I have also seen them drop from coveralls or chest pockets. Though never inside an engine.
I immediately heard the BEASTIE BOYS slowly fade in 🎶 LISTEN UP YALL ITS A SABOTAGE 🎶!!! You might just have some 2 face neighbors…or even worse “friends”. Cause come on bro???? Ahh hell no are you??? Jokes ohhh HOW R U not ANGRY?
“Prank” isn’t the term I’d use. Most likely someone who was intentionally trying to sabotage your car. Maybe out of jealousy or something. Most likely at a car show when your hood was up. Otherwise maybe some guy on his last day at a dealership? Who knows.
Idk. I feel like someone sabotaging would put it in the oil fill cap to cause damage on the way down. This engine wasn't damaged so it could have maybe gone through the dip stick tube?
That's a wild story for sure! My guess would be at one of your track days someone dropped that bullet down your dip stick tube. But I'd hardly call that a "prank." I'd be pissed. But I'm glad it didn't seem to have caused any damage to your engine.
Prank isn’t how I would describe this either. With the expense of the tear down, felony vandalism is more like it as I can’t see any scenario where this was an accident. I’d be super pissed if this was my car.
Yeah, it took me 16hrs to take apart, inspect everything, replace rod bearings, and put all back together. I'd be SUPER pissed if I had to pay a shop full labor to do that... Taking the oil pan off on one of these xDrive cars isn't something I want to have to do again...
oh that is a crazy story. Glad everything was fine in the end. I'm also amazed that the bullet somehow managed to survive in that engine and your engine somehow came out unscathed. Time to check my M2C block...maybe that's what's causing my misfires? 😅
There are many instances of foreign objects ending up in products at manufacturing plants. Since lead showed up in your lab reports later in your engines life, the most logical explanation to me is that it was in a bottle of new oil. That would most likely be poured into the engine undetected. That’s my guess!
Haha wow man. Definitely a prank, figure it would be a safe one considering the bullet would keep to the bottom of the oil pan. Can't say I've ever seen that before.
@@FaRKle0079 isn’t possible from oil filter housing, because from there oil goes directly in a parallel crankshaft oil conduct to rod bearings. I think only possible port is the dipstick 🤔
Yep, I agree that it was via the dipstick tube. Someone at a "quick-change" oil pit got thoroughly pissed off at the owner of that nice car. (What????? An obnoxious BMW owner??????!!!) when they were very....er. particular....about how they wanted their service done. Not a mechanical genius here, but working at a "quick lube" place. Occam's Razor: Simplest explanation is most likely. Motive and opportunity only at an oil change.
This vehicle has only ever had oil changes at the dealership (during the free maint period), and doing them myself. That said, my chief suspect is a particular dealer tech that didn't really like me asking if he wouldn't mind filling an oil sample container during my last free oil change at around 35k, and then that same tech was later assigned around 10k mi later to do the trans fluid/pan service I paid for. That was still about 1-2 oil change intervals before I saw the lead show up though.
If it were someone playing a joke it would only work on someone that actually does oil analysis, probably well less than 1% of car owners. So that would mean someone that knows you for that to be believable. Wondering if it could have been in the oil pan all along and the copper plating on the bullet took that long to wear off and the lead to start eroding.
My chief suspect is a particular dealer tech that didn't really like me asking if he wouldn't mind filling an oil sample container during my last free oil change at around 35k, and then that same tech was later assigned around 10k mi later to do the trans fluid/pan service I paid for. That was still about 1-2 oil change intervals before I saw the lead show up though, but you're right if it takes time for the copper jacket to wear though it's likely.
@@FaRKle0079 If that were the case then it certainly could have been tossed in the oil drain. At least in that case there was very little chance of it actually causing any damage in the engine.
pull the valve cover see if more than one was Installed, most likely chewed up there. If built in S.C. maybe someone did it there. sorry that happened with a otherwise healthy BMW could have been worse it could have been a N-54.
That is a crazy story. If you had the oil changes done at a shop, that's where I would be looking. If you change the oil yourself and you don't take the car to a shop, it must have been in the oil container. Since you get the oil tested every change, the bullet must have been dropped into the engine when the change where you saw the lead.
Is it possible to place it in through the drain plug? That would require someone to change your oil though, and you could figure out who since you normally service the engine.
That's the strange part. I'm the original owner of the car and I've done all my own oil changes since free maintenance ended at 36k miles. I would totally blame myself for this (originally I thought for some reason I had a .22 in my sleeve and it rolled out into the engine during an oil change), but then I saw that it was Remington, which I've never owned.
My guess is it was in the filter folds. Could be at the factory, could have got in at a store, especially if it was a return. If it got wedged in there good you wouldn't have noticed.
@@FaRKle0079 Thanks for the response! I love your channel, especially because I am getting an LCI 328d in Estoril at the end of the month! i followed you on the forum too! Love your build; do you have a complete list of all mods?
If you take this car to the range I’d have to say it ingested it somehow… but how? Only other explanation is the bullet was in a Mobil 1 quart which seems unlikely.
I wonder if some jealous asshole car shop put a bullet thru the oil fill to try and grenade your engine... I've had such crazy bad experiences with car shops in the Albany NY area which is why I wonder about this. No other real explanation as to how a bullet that you dont even own getting into the crankcase. Glad nothing got damaged and your bearings are in excellent condition. My dad had similar terrible experiences with car shops in Yonkers NY.... like totally BIZARRE things happening to our cars.
Yeah, my chief suspect is a dealer tech that I asked to take an oil sample for me during my last free BMW oil change at around 35k (and that same tech later did a transmission fluid/pan service about 10k later), but lead didn't show up till a couple oil changes later than he would've worked on the car. Unless it just took that long for the copper jacket on the .22 to get worn down and expose the lead.
Likely some scumbag at one of your track days did it. Many cars have hood opened after sessions to cool off engine bays.... nothing keeps some jerk to drop one in there in a matter of seconds. Considering the time in between oil labs when lead started to show, you may be able to find out the general time frame of when it was put in.
That's pretty nuts somebody carrying ammo with them at a track day! I'm definitely doing what you suggest and checking my log to see what places other than me worked on the car during the first oil change interval it showed up. Off the top of my head I brought it to the dealer then for the EGR cooler recall inspection.
@@FaRKle0079 oh wow. yea, once you narrow it down, check reviews of places its been, for deceptive practices, it can also been a tech doing it on purpose to have you come back for more work, etc etc... stuff people do these days its mind blowing
Bob's right. I took an oil sample before the oil change interval to see what it looked like (per Blackstone's recommendation when we were trying to diagnose). This shows that the lead concentration scaled with use.
@@FaRKle0079 I have a thought... the guy who changed your oil or valve cover gasket, had a 22 LR in his breast pocket. While leaning over the motor, it rolled right into the top.... if it wasn't a malicious doing. He may have noticed or not.
I'm kind of wondering if it was the oil filter too, although the origins of both give me a bit of doubt. The oil I had been using (Mobil 1 ESP Formula) was made in France (1L not qt bottles), and I only use Genuine BMW oil filters from FCP Euro (I believe they're made in Germany).
Could have only been the oil, because as noted, there's no way to get from the filter through the oil ports into the pan without massive destruction first.
@@FaRKle0079 Man, the head being turned down like that is pretty bizarre... You said it was in the pan, would the bullet fit in the pickup screen? I could make the argument that it was trying to get sucked up by the pump, but it wouldn't fit so it was spinning around in the pickup screen until either it moved with an oil change, or when you dropped the pan. Not familiar with this engine at all, how much clearance between the pickup and the pan is there?
@@kleetus92 I think you're the first person to analyze the shape of the head on the bullet. It hadn't really occurred to me that it could've been blunted by being ground down against something. I believe the round would've been able to fit in the oil pickup and held against the screen. You can see the pickup a bit in this pic: i.imgur.com/zTgd8a1.jpg
@@FaRKle0079 if it fits, well, that would likely explain how the lead was getting into the system even though it really wasn't hurting anything. Hopefully you're never in there again!
