Overall it looks super clean and I like what I see. HOWEVER, it is high mileage at 160k. Seller states headbolts were replaced at 120k probably by previous owner. But he doesn't have receipt for the job. How can I check by looking at the engine bay?

 

You would need to take the engine valve covers off and you may be able to see them past the cams.

 

You have to take the top of the head apart. Airboxes, wires, etc.. Once you are physically looking at the camshaft, you will be able to look deep into the top 4 holes. If you see that the top of the bolts are male (meaning you need a torx socket, not a torx bit to remove them) then that is usually verification that they have been replaced... Hope this helps..

 

my E63 has 152k of HARD driven miles. these engines are amazing if headbolts, lifter buckets, and cam adjusters have been replaced. i bet this engine could run another 150k without breaking a sweat.

but with anything european...if this is your first one. you better have 2-5k to drop on the thing per year to maintain it. otherwise you'll be in a money pit. nothing like a BMW or Jaguar though, those are like the IRS, they take all your hard earned money.

 

Real talk right here. I'm $6k deep this year (much more than usual) because I replaced the lifters and re-did the headbolts a 2nd time among a bunch of other things including the rear suspension at the beginning of the year. That said I don't have as much of a gas write off this year due the pandemic so I decided to shove more money into the car instead for deductible expenses.

 

Try to ensure those head bolts are changed if they stated it was. I’m in the midst of having a shop replace my head bolts. These are the two worst ones out. And one cam and lifter had some pitting going on.

 

Those photos should be posted in https://www.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/

Some of the photos posted there scare the heck out of me! Those cars are on the road?

 

They were definitely changed both times. Because the car overheated when the pully snapped my guy said to change the headbolts again even though I had already done them about 40k ago. He took them out and measured them and found that one had been slightly deformed and compressed. He told me that the M156 engines while sold are very susceptible to issues if they overheat.