E30 M50 tear down kinda thing
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Snap Understeer said:
It sounds like there is a spot in the block for a pin to be inserted and lock the whole thing at TDC? Thats a neat feature that I haven't heard of before. My guess is that the pin is inserted and crank is held at TDC for timing chain/cylinder head jobs where they want to leave everything timed @TDC so that there is less work/potential for screw-ups upon reinstallation. Re-timing the engine when the cam and crank are off by less than 5 degrees is easy. When they are off by more than that, you may cause a valve-piston collision trying to rotate things back to TDC
Well, theres a hole to put a "flywheel lock pin" through; which when the motor is at TDC it slides in place between two of the teeth holding the motor from rotating any more. My real concern is with the head. Im going to take it to Automotive Engine Rebuilders (because its literally 10 seconds away from my shop) and have them disassemble the head, clean it, lap the valves, check for cracks, ect. When they reassemble the head, do they put the cams back in already set up in TDC where the valves wont hit or is that my job to do that? I have no experience with head work so Im not sure what to expect, nor do I know how to reset the cams.
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They wont align the cams with their respective timing marks simply because the cams will rotate to wherever they want to be due to the valve spring tension (without the timing chain to keep them held in position). So its on you to remember to line everything up to TDC upon assembly, check it, rotate the engine 360 degrees, check it again, rotate the engine by hand a few more rotations, then check it yet again.
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Like I mentioned earlier, I have all the tools, including the flywheel locking pin. I got nervous when puting my head back on after MLS gasket and ARP stud install and had a bmw tech set my timing. Well worth the $100 for piece of mind knowing everything there's not going to be any piston to valve contact. I can get you his number if you need it. He came to me to do the work.
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Snap Understeer said:
They wont align the cams with their respective timing marks simply because the cams will rotate to wherever they want to be due to the valve spring tension (without the timing chain to keep them held in position). So its on you to remember to line everything up to TDC upon assembly, check it, rotate the engine 360 degrees, check it again, rotate the engine by hand a few more rotations, then check it yet again.
That's the part I'm worried about is setting the cams up right. I didn't use cam blocks (dumb.. I know) while taking the head off so I'm not sure how to set them. I'm sure it'll be fine and work itself out when I get there. All part if the learning process
wasnt m3 said:
Like I mentioned earlier, I have all the tools, including the flywheel locking pin. I got nervous when puting my head back on after MLS gasket and ARP stud install and had a bmw tech set my timing. Well worth the $100 for piece of mind knowing everything there's not going to be any piston to valve contact. I can get you his number if you need it. He came to me to do the work.
I like this idea a lot. Yeah, send his number my way. Does he let you watch? I know some mechanics/techs don't like that. I'm all for paying someone to come do it as long as I'm able to watch and learn how to do it properly. I never believed people when they said timing your first time was intimidating, but it definitely is.
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If you disassemble and reassemble your head, you can save money. Label and keep everything in order.
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List of things ordered:
Water pump
Valve cover gasket
Cam position sensor
Crank position sensor
Thermostat and thermostat housing
Vanos gasket
Left and right lower timing cover gasket
Things I still need to order are a MLS headgasket and a 1-piece timing chain tensioner. But I got a majority of the things checked off of my list
Im sure theres more things I notice while it is going back together, but thats okay. Im glad I got a good chunk of it ordered. -
Brian said:
This thing's coming along nicely Jacob!
keep up the work!Gracias Senior Rainey!
Snap Understeer said:
Between all the M50 and turbo related stuff on here I cant keep things straight. Are you eventually going turbo?
Rowleym said:
Yes he is
Hahaha I go back and forth on this every day. I just want to get it all together first and worry about boost later. There's a lot going on with the car right now and I'm going to hold off on overwhelming myself even more. But in the future a holset may be involved
wasnt m3 said:
Do yourself a favor and replace the knock sensors while you have everything apart. They're often cracked and are not fun to get to.
Ahh good call! I wouldn't want to go back and replace them when it's all said and done.. Added to the list.
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cool to see this motor come apart! was there something wrong with it, or did you just want to dive in? how many more miles did you put on it?
also, the bags of cheetos are in the transmission.
Dan
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straight6pwr said:
cool to see this motor come apart! was there something wrong with it, or did you just want to dive in? how many more miles did you put on it?
also, the bags of cheetos are in the transmission.
Nothing major was wrong at all man! The very first time driving it home with the swap I bottomed it out reeaally hard (with my skid plate on luckily). I live in the middle of nowhere so I should have known. But that caused the lower timing seal to drip oil. Not a lot, but still. And I honestly only put about 100 miles on it. The motor always ran strong, but it was always one thing or another with the car itself, but I definitely got to enjoy it. Anyway I figured while I'm changing the lower timing gasket, I would freshen up the rest of the motor since I've never done an actual rebuild before.
That explains why no fluid came out of the trans... Clogged with Cheetos... (Totally kidding, the trans fluid looked great lol)
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straight6pwr said:
cool to see this motor come apart! was there something wrong with it, or did you just want to dive in? how many more miles did you put on it?
also, the bags of cheetos are in the transmission.
Ever since Dan let me take a quick drive in his old car with that drivetrain I have wanted a nice shifting transmission. That thing is great!
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