Originally Posted by BimmerM3inGA

At the risk of sounding cocky and angering the car gods, I think I finally have my X5 4.6is timing sorted. Only took three tries! And, I think I know what I did wrong last time.

Anyone who's done this type of work on the M62 knows that when the crank is locked at TDC, the Bank 1 intake cam is under pressure from the valve springs and wants to rotate clockwise, advancing the timing. So you have to manually rotate the cam to the fully retarded position and hold it there when you align and tighten everything. I'm pretty sure that the last time I set the timing I forgot to retard the Bank 1 intake cam when I aligned the timing wheel. So, even though the cam itself was aligned okay, the timing wheel was advanced by a great many degrees.

The cam was out time a small amount and I probably could have let it be. But I went ahead and realigned it and then made sure to hold the cam in the fully retarded position while installing and aligning the timing wheel.

It seems to be running normally now, and is not throwing any more codes. So in a brazen act of hubris, i cleaned and put away my tools. I hope I don't regret that arrogant decision!