Do you know if they skimmed your heads or just replaced the gaskets ?
i think i would be driving it around loads to make sure the second fix is good

We've done some long journeys up north and Devon

Cool, at least if mine have gone then it may be worth replacing them..

I did find this along the way....

might be worth trying

http://www.bmwlogicseven.com/?p=3829

Thank you for that, my problem was initially low oil pressure when the engine was hot but the temp never went past the middle of the gauge.

When I looked at the hidden menu the temp was getting up to around 108 i think which i thought was high considering I had the 80 degree mod which is when i managed to bleed the system much better by raising the front of the vehicle and then the bottom rad hose started to get warmer rather than cold indicating I had a an air lock.

i didn't test it any further as i wanted to change my oil and check for anything nasty as i have also had a relatively loud tapping as i slowly increased revs from idle to around 1000 to 1200 rpm and i thought i may have done something wronf when i replaced the timing chain and cam chains and guides.

When i drained the oil i found the light brown swirls running through it which I initially dismissed but then realised this could be the sign of a blown head gasket which is where i am now....

Thanks

How did you get on Andy?

howdy, i ordered a compression tester and leak down tester off ebay, now i admit that the compression tester was £15 but they had sold thousands so I thought i would be ok.
I read your link , thank you for sharing, regarding the overheating issues and that gave me some confidence that maybe my head gasket is ok and it is just the bleeding bleeding problem

Having re bled the system with the nose raised up and changed the oil and filter I had't seen my oil pressure light but it had mainly been parked up, anyway i digress.

I tried to do a compression test yesterday and the first cylinder came up as 60 psi , second cylinder same
Tried right bank, rear cylinder 70 psi

And so i thought i would try the left bank but it all seemed odd so i blew into the compression tester and air out of the quick release connector !
I tried the compression tester without the extension and i got 120 psi on the left bank cylinder 1 but i could still blow a bit down the tester so i aborted..

A mate of mine came round who has worked in F1 or motorsport all his life and he listened to the engine and said it sounded sweet. I had already done a sniff test with the CO2 detector fluid plugged into the expansion tank and that didn't show anything.
We looked at the oil and that still looked brand new and we looked at the old oil and it still has this weird sort of gold film to it and is dark brown but we began to wonder if it was the flushing fluid that was left in the system from when i did the timing chain and guides as I'd heated the oil up to around 150 degrees C and let it cool down and although the oil was very thin when warm, the swirl was still there which if it was water i would have thought it would have boiled away.

When i drove it previously before bleeding it again the temps were creeping up to around 108 degrees C even with the 80 degree stat so i thought it I will take it for a drive up the motorway and back through the lanes and the temp sat at around 96-98 degrees, idled fine with no oil pressure warning, oil still looks new, hasn't used any water and although it was a fairly short run, about 30 mins, it pulled like a train and sounded really sweet which in part i think is the new MAF.

So in short... I have sent the compression tester back and ordered a draper one which i think should be at least functional, i have a slight cam cover gasket leak which i am monitoring and have a new Febi seal if I need to change it, I still have the leak down tester, I am going to drive it and monitor coolant, oil and temp, i am going to get an oil analysis done out of interest and I am going to take it for a few decent runs and see what happens...

Regarding the heater pump, i do have a pump below the heater valve which looks old and nasty and doesn't make a noise so i will look at that at some point although i don't think it will cause too many problems but probably doesn't help it not working and i think it is worth investigating the heater valve seals as well
So that is where I am currently, potentially optimistic

Many thanks to you guys for the moral support and standby for an update

Good to hear.

When they rebuilt the engine they said that one of the cylinders was slightly deformed and we might notice it - however I've heard zero lumps or bumps despite several teething problems post rebuild.

I've read a bit about power flush getting absolutely slated ( more on transmissions than engines ) and it would make sense that a flush through of oil would clear it all out.

I know it is ropey Chinese but it is probably worth a punt to test if they are at fault:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HEATER-CONTROL-V...2198454072

Or lots of other cheaper salvages & repair kits

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40...mp;_sacat=

MAF is on my list at the moment so good to hear the difference it makes.

I wrote a reply and it disappeared but thank you for that, powerflushing a transmission can move a lot of clutch debris into the valve body and transmission so can cause problems so could be similar issue. The internals of my engine were coated with a goldey orange deposit so maybe that is what I am seeing.
I see there is a heater valve kit so will take a look at that and the motor
Stay tuned !
Cheers
Andy