It must be hell in there!

[rustybin]

There seems to be a bit of trend recently of people replaing head gaskets. Me included on a 523i BMW. Having got into the oily bits today, I am quite amazed by the amount of mayonaise that has been produced and got to thinking how good this is long term for the engine. My intention is to clean as much of the crud out of the head as possible and change the oil and filter then after a brief period (1 week couple of hundred miles) change the oil and filter again. Is this the correct way to go about things or are there any specific components that will really abhor the mayonaise and should also be changed. Or will the remaining water in the system get boiled off pretty quickly once the oil is changed and the engine is running again?

[steve_D]

The mayo may have been there before the gasket went rather than being the result of it going.
All you can do for now is make sure all the breather pipes are clean and clear when you rebuild.
Then just hope nothing else got hurt.

Steve

[z_chromozone]

Any damage from water incursion would most likely be worse in the cylinder where the gasket failed. If the failure is really bad this can give the inside of the bore and the piston crown a nice steam cleaned look. This has obvious implications for the rings and other components in close proximity. If you have not seen this you should be ok.

The mayo is the result of oil emulsification with steam. Fortunately steamy mayo is quite volatile and is only (in my experience), found in the places volatiles tend to condensate (breather pipes, filler caps etc). In these places I would not expect it to damage the oils ability to lubricate the rest of the engine significantly.

I hope that puts your mind at rest. If you are worried then flush the engine with cheap oil, or ATF (this has good surfactant properties), before filling up with some decent stuff.

Z