I had a hose dramatically burst a couple of weeks ago in the parking lot of circuit (jerk-it) city. It was a tiny hose that makes up part of the oil/water cooler off of the oil filter. The hose was getting oil soaked from a valve cover leak that finally did the thing in. I was considering replacing the engine with a 94 B230FT as this one has, what I thought was slight piston slap (92 745TI w/ 108K). Now that I finally got it all back together I think the slapping noise is 2 things, a crappy alt belt that is splapping and a hole in the exhaust manifold gasket (I could be wrong). The idle is pretty smooth (not perfect) but now I notice fresh coolant seeping through the headgasket. So my ooverheat blew the head gasket and maybe warped the head, it still drives like a champ.


Should I bank on the crappy alt belt and manifold gasket, not piston slapp/rod knock, and replace the headgasket (should I go copper??) and have the head machined? What is the cost of machining the head? Or should I try and get a history unknown replacement 94 B230FT?