E46 Things
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Valve cover is off to check VANOS exhaust hub tabs , check cam bolts, and valve clearances.
I had to see what I am dealing with first before ordering parts. If an exhaust hub tab is broken its no less than $400 to get back in the game with a used one on Ebay, usually people opt to spend about $600 on a cyro treated hub and another $150 on a modified oil pump disk that prevents future failure.
Everything checks out good so far.
Broken tab shown below for reference (Not mine thankfully). The tab can dislodge, cause timing to jump and cause unexpected meetings between valves and pistons.
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The internet is full of forum posts of people with vanos hub failures, cam bolt failures, and rod bearing failures on engines with as low as ~36k miles as well as original engines over 100k without an issue.
General rule of thumb is to consider replacing rod bearings at 100k or sooner depending on use. Cam bolts are good once replaced, loctite applied, and torqued correctly. VANOS seals deteriorate fairly often. I hear that performance improvements can be felt in replacement where the seals were only a few years old.
I feel fortunate that this car is a 2005 as it seems to help the odds with some of the issues a bit. Unfortunately these S54 issues last well into the final years of Z4M production and the bulletproofing onky happens in the aftermarket world. That said, plenty of important improvements have been made after 2003.5 including the oil pump pickup screen (known to fatigue and cause oil starvation) as well as rod bearing and rod bolt diameter changes (11mm to 10mm) and bearing clearance changes.
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The “VANOS lockdown” has begun!
To-do:
-Replace problematic cam bolts with upgraded bolts + oil resistant loctite
-Replace VANOS seals with new/improved Viton seals
-Re-drill oil pump disk with smaller holes to prevent exhaust hub tab breakage
-Install anti-rattle kit with new diaphragm springs
-Install upgraded Nylatron upper timing chain guide
-Replace VANOS solenoid with rebuilt Beisan Systems unit (incorporates a few preventative fixes to eliminate failures)
I received most of the parts for this project today including the cam timing tools, crank lock pin and valve adjustment shims. I forgot a couple small items but I am in no hurry.
I had read that the Z4M cant use the same crank locking pin as the M3. Now I know why: the Z has an electric fan instead of a mechanical fan. My M has an electric puller fan in lieu of the mechanical fan and it is not easily removable without removing the radiator or condenser since it is mounted through the radiator fins with zip strips. Since the crank locking pin is too long to fit in the hole with the fan in the way, I opted to shorten it.
All aligned at TDC:
The solenoid was removed, I got it shipped off to get my core $ back
This is one reason I could never be a mechanic for a living. I blow a lot of time cleaning things as I go. Here is the valve cover with all the varnish on the inside removed
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B C said:
But honey! Its only the Christmas gifts that are coming in the mail!
One time when I bought a set of wheels she said “Why do you need new wheels? Whats wrong with your old ones? Are they broken or something?”
Very few significant others understand the automotive lifestyle.I certainly prefer to be the one that finds these large packages on the porch first.
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One time when I bought a set of wheels she said “Why do you need new wheels? Whats wrong with your old ones? Are they broken or something?”
Very few significant others understand the automotive lifestyle.I certainly prefer to be the one that finds these large packages on the porch first.
High performance wheels need to be replaced every 5 years. For the safety of the driver and passenger. It was about that time.
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VANOS unit off.
Oil pump disk removed. The tabs on the cam hub that often break off fit into the holes crossed off in red. It is the same design as the Euro S50B32 but the S50 has a tighter fit between the hole and the tab so the impact force is lower and tab breakage is not a problem there.
the options for preventing tab breakage are to buy a one of the aftermarket higher strength hubs with larger tabs. Buy a cyro treated stock hub. Buy a redrilled oil pump disk. Or, be friends with a machinist and have them drill it.
Mr. K Precision himself @Jeff will be adding the holes in blue above.
I checked the cam timing as it currently sits. The timing is not set correctly. The exhaust cam is about 2 degrees advanced, but it must have been within the acceptable range for adaptation since there were never any codes or issues. It will certainly not hurt anything to have a wider range of cam adjustment available once I reset it correctly.
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I installed the anti-rattle parts. There was no axial freeplay beforehand and no axial freeplay afterwards. Waste of money? Yes. The other piece of the anti-rattle solution is to use S62 diaphragm springs. They are stiffer. The only positive from this portion of the project was being able to clean the thrust bearings and housings. There was a little bit of crud built up.
ORIGINAL VANOS THRUST BEARING AXIAL FREEPLAY: JUST FINE
All but 1 of the VANOS seals have been replaced. I am not a fan of how the teflon seals need to be stretched to fit and don't feel satisfied with the fitment of one so I ordered another and will wait a few days to get that last seal in. Visually, the old rubber seals were in decent condition and the teflon seals were not that worn or brittle. The exhaust side appeared to be worn the most/was the only side that seems like the new seals will give an improvement.
ORIGINAL VANOS SEALS: DECENT CONDITION
Next I replaced the cam bolts. They were the original 8.8 bolts (shown on the exhaust side) with no Loctite and none of them were loose, but new 12.9 hardware and Loctite 243 (shown on the intake side) will provide some peace of mind despite the originals likely never having any issue in the future based on their current track record.
ORIGINAL CAM BOLTS: TIGHT AND UNBROKEN
Yet another reliability upgrade/“while you’re in there” piece, the upper timing chain guide. This guy is known to break and wear out fast. HEY! MINE IS BROKEN!
ORIGINAL TIMING CHAIN GUIDE: BUSTED!
Fishing out the broken piece without dropping it down the timing cover was a little nerve-racking. I even had a vacuum cleaner running to help try to catch the stray piece as i pulled it out with pliers
Here is the upgraded piece made from Nylatron, a material I use often in my engineering work. It has good friction properties and very good wear resistance for a plastic.
Everything should be buttoned together later this week as long as I get the parts I need.
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Did you make or buy that Nylatron guide?
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Did you make or buy that Nylatron guide?
purchased
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Two steps forward, two steps back.
+1) Replaced the belt idlers that were beginning to sound like a tiny elephant with a kazoo.
+1) Replacement o-ring and teflon seal arrived. VANOS rebuild is complete. Just waiting on oil pump disk to be machined before I continue re-assembly
-1) The idler pulley bolt is so long that I couldn’t remove it without removing the electric fan which required permanent removal (see also breakage) of the fin mounted zip strips. While I was investigating whether I could run longer ones through the condenser+radiator to make future removal easier (im not going to drain the coolant and remove the radiator when I want to remove the fan) I noticed the AC condenser fins are almost entirely Aluminum Oxide instead of Aluminum. They fall off when you touch them, so a new condenser is in my future. I have never seen them so brittle before. I may see how corroded and brittle the front side of the radiator tubes are and replace the radiator at the same time.
-1) I found a broken power steering line mounting bracket under the car. Very minor inconvenience. Looks like a transmission mount and is only sold with the hard line.
UPDATE: The part appears to be the same mount the secondary air pump uses so I have it on order.
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VANOS installed.
Cams are timed perfectly.
It took a few hours and some patience and a little bit of experimentation to make the timing perfect. I had it set within the acceptable range but it needs to be perfect because quite simply it’s an S54 and the S54 deserves it.
What I believe prevents some people from getting it perfect is a slight advancement of the cams while tightening the sprocket hub bolts and the slightest bit of timing chain slack. You can follow all the directions to the T but it can still be slightly off. There are plenty of forum threads where people had incorrect timing and error codes simply from using a non-BMW timing tool or by wrongly assuming they had it close enough. It is a fairly involved process and do not want to revisit this at a later time. It is as perfect as it can be. If by some chance it throws a code or is off, I will write myself off and quit working on cars.
Later today I should get around to the valve adjustment and get it all put back together.
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