E30 M50 tear down kinda thing
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Snap Understeer said:
On my E30 I put the car in gear, applied the park brake and used a breaker bar with a cheater bar. On my Camry I let the breaker bar wedge against the ground and used the starter motor to spin it off. Obviously these options dont apply for you in this case but be creative. I personally would probably get a steel angle (decent size, maybe 1" by 1" with some good wall thickness and about 3ft length. and drill 2 holes in it to where you could put the flywheel bolts back through it and secure it to the tail end of the crankshaft. Then have a friend hold that as you remove the nut on the other side.
I would avoid wedging anything internally such as a block of wood between the crank and block since the wall of the block could break-out, and I would refrain from holding the crank still by anything that is applying force to the pistons or connecting rods (such as inserting a wood block in the cylinder, resting the block upside down on the floor and having an obese friend sit on the block). Torsional reaction loading on the crankshaft is the safest bet.
Every single post I have read says to "put the flywheel locking pin in at TDC to hold the crank in place" and I'm like -_____- I think Im going to go with the angle steel route because I think I have a bunch laying around somewhere. Not sure why. But if it works, it works. Does the crank need to stay at TDC while this comes off or is it fine if it spins a little bit? The last thing I need is to mess something up on this part of the motor.
And need4speed and Earl, thanks for you inputs!
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StewCrew said:
need4speed and Earl, thanks for you inputs!
You're welcome=) If you want full adjustable rear trailing arms, I know of a man who could make a set for $450 (with yours as cores). He is a fabricator who happens to have a Ti that he has been building=)
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Earl said:
You're welcome=) If you want full adjustable rear trailing arms, I know of a man who could make a set for $450 (with yours as cores). He is a fabricator who happens to have a Ti that he has been building=)
Ill have to keep this in mind! But for now Im putting my spare cash towards the m50 to try and finish it up as quick as I can. It has been about 4 days, and I already miss driving it
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StewCrew said:
Every single post I have read says to "put the flywheel locking pin in at TDC to hold the crank in place" and I'm like -_____- I think Im going to go with the angle steel route because I think I have a bunch laying around somewhere. Not sure why. But if it works, it works. Does the crank need to stay at TDC while this comes off or is it fine if it spins a little bit? The last thing I need is to mess something up on this part of the motor.
And need4speed and Earl, thanks for you inputs!
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
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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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