It's good to know your limitations - if that VANOS procedure seems painful, then definitely get someone to do it for you.

About the crank bolt - it has to come off if you want to replace the front main seal and/or the main timing chain. The Beisan guide shows you how to replace the guides, but leave the original main timing chain in place (I am saying "main" as there are also smaller chains on each head). Since the miles are adding up, I wasn't going to go so far as replace the timing guides and VANOS and not the main timing chain, and my front main seal was definitely leaking.

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David.X5
2001 X5 4.4i Sport
SOLD! at 160k miles