E30 M52

[jc43089]

Sweet gloves.

[B C]

More unbelievable progress:

VANOS solenoid got a makeover and its o-ring replaced. WOW.

[KaiserRolls]

Get a new cam sensor oring. I forgot to replace mine. Healthy dose of rtv and way-too-small oring for the "fix"

[Jdesign]

Making lots of progress on something we all thought we wouldn't see. I really enjoy your posts, informative and yet hilarious.

[B C]

Primary cam sprockets have been removed. Chain tensioner guides are groovy and will be replaced. Lower chain guides are broken/ disintegrating and will be replaced.

Someone has been in here before and had the sprockets off. The vanos seals were brittle so it wasnt for a vanos rebuild, the guides are plenty worn so it wasnt for that. So I would assume the head gasket has been replaced or something.

I could be sitting on a fresh BMW head gasket.

or

the engine could have overheated, they slapped on a 284k mile head with a Fail-Pro gasket and reused the head bolts.

who really knows.

I need to get my oil pan and baffle dropped off for welding so it is ready to go on in the near future.

[KaiserRolls]

Crazy how the guides were blasted already.

[jc43089]

Can you see the corner of the head gasket?  It should stick out in one spot so you can see what it is if it isn't too crusty.

[B C]

Cams removed, they didnt break. Now to achieve the same success installing the S52 cams.

Probably Saturday

[Daggerty]

The first time is the worst. So the story goes.

[KaiserRolls]

Journals in good shape?

[B C]

KaiserRolls said:

Journals in good shape?

Yeah, nothing to see there

[B C]

Ball

Sacks

Intake cam is in but while torquing the bearing caps to 15 Nm two of the studs pulled out

I can only imagine the horror people feel as they torque head bolts into an aluminum block and feel it give way.

Not the end of the world at all but I will have to remove the cam and trays/lifters to helicoil them.

Minor annoyance. Not the progress I was hoping for today though

[Jeff]

Ouch man what a kick in the nuts

[B C]

1000x better than breaking a camshaft though. I'll take it.

[KaiserRolls]

Odd that the head-side went. You'd think the stud would be bottomed out and the nut wouldn't turn it anymore.

But as you said. 100000 times better than a cam

[Jeff]

Snap said:

1000x better than breaking a camshaft though. I'll take it.

But see now your doubling your chances at breaking it so that would be -1000x. We both know that will just cancel it self out now and create the crazy looking number "0"

Practice makes perfect?

[The Full Banana]

Helicoils are garbage. Get some keenserts from McMaster! 

says the guy who had to use them too many times on his all aluminum engine. 

[HipMF]

Times-sert is another option.

Don't have any experience with them, but my boss thinks they are great. Do have experience with heli-coils, mostly trying to fix ones that someone else has installed and have now failed. Not fun.

[B C]

Being a low torque application I will stick with heli-coils. If it were head bolt threads in an aluminum block id definitely consider the timesert. Thanks for the mentions though

[The Full Banana]

Good luck. If the helicoils give you trouble, keenserts (or timeserts) will be there for you. I had about 50% success rate with helicoils in the same application (aluminum head, low torque fasteners to secure the cams) before being shown the light by a friend.