So......after looking more closely at the rubber seal underneath the upper guide covers I wasn't 100% happy with the way it was sat as looked squashed and misformed - I worked out that this was due to me fitting the vanos guide seals in place first and then having to pull the upper chain covers in using the bolts due to the tight fit around the Vanos solenoid, so the seals had obviously 'dragged' their way across the lower surface - I obviously couldn't bring myself to leave them like this - chances are they would have sealed fine since they are rubber but I really didn't want to take the risk.

So...off they came again....on removal I found this gasket sitting like this...


I had to come up with a solution to get the Vanos seals to line up with the mounting holes so that I could fit them after fitting the upper covers. So I did this....

Chopped a couple nuts up to make them into studs...


Which then enabled me to do this...


..then this...


....then I secured the seal down using the nuts as tight as I dared...


....then I removed the lower nut and stud which meant that the hole was nicely lined up...


I then repeated this for the top mounting bolt which also lined up a treat.

Was this worth the extra effort.....well I'll let you be the judge of that...here's how the seals were sat before...



....and here's how they sat after.....absolutely flat and perfect!



So then after this I plugged up all the intake ports and buzzed off the surfaces with a air powered wire wheel which brought them up perfect. I also pulled the breather pipe into it's proper place which you can see at the back of the LH bank.



I then remembered I had a couple more bits to paint that I'd forgotten about - the water pump and the other tensioner. So these were dug out and the mounting surfaces prepped.





I also got out my new 88 Degree thermostat - 88 degree I you ask...the standard thermostat is an electronically controlled 102 degree item which means the car usually runs at around 104-108degrees. This has always seemed far too excessive for me and I believe won't be helping longevity of various parts of the engine. From what I have read it was more to do with emission control. Either way it's unnerving so I wanted to lower the running temperature of the engine more to a normal more acceptable level. I'm hoping this thermostat will do the trick and allow it to run around 10 degrees cooler under normal operation. It should also mean the electric fan won't be kicking in and out as much as it used to either.



Next I got busy with the masking tape...




I also took this opportunity to remove those 2 rusty mounts I'd previously spotted - one is for the standard heater control valve (on the right) which I'll blast and paint and the other crude industrial looking one (on the left) is for the LPG vapouriser which I'll recreate out of aluminium and paint.





Unfortunately both of these brackets have left their mark on the paint in the engine bay - something which I'll probably deal with again at some point - BMW really seem to skimp out on engine bay paint in all the cars around this era - they either use a very flat basic paint or they paint it the same colour as the body but don't lacquer it - it's a real shame!

Anyway - that was it for the night. More updates over the weekend - perhaps even an engine running video clip!