So I've been slowly making progress on my timing chain service project. I've been held up waiting for parts, and finding the time to work on it.

But I have the chains, guides, and tensioners installed, rebuilt the VANOS, and have finally begun reassembly. While I had it apart, I decided to have the valve covers powder coated. The shop I normally use wasn't able to do it because they're in the middle of moving to a bigger place, so I tried out a new shop. The price was good, and the results are pretty good. But, man, were they slow! It took nearly 3 weeks to get the covers back. And I'm at the point where I can't really do too much else without them. So I've just been waiting. But I finally picked them up yesterday and the plan is (hopefully) get it buttoned up and running this weekend.

Here are some photos of the valve covers before/after and the engine disassembly.

I'm not sure why they didn't paint the middle part of the bank 1 cover, but I guess it doesn't really matter since the unpainted part will be under the plastic acoustic panel.

Very, Very nice progress. Red valve covers..... I'm speechless.... I do like the powdercoated look. The main reason I stayed away from it was for the fact that it does show up the underlying imperfections on the covers. I went with wrinkle finish on my X5, E38 and soon the E39 because wrinkle is uneven by design. lol. That, and it's cheap as heck to do...

Can't wait to see it back up and running.

That's why when I tear something apart to fix it there's always the "While you're in there" stuff that needs to be done also. It would be cheaper in the long run since you don't need to buy another set of gasket and save a lot of time since it is already apart.

The irony of the situation is not lost on me…

UPDATE:
 

I spent essentially the entire weekend reassembling the X5 and finally was able to start it up late Sunday evening. And it runs like crap. :doh:

The idle is very rough and it stumbles and sputters while running. If I rev it up about 1,500-2,000RPM it does smooth out and seems to run better. I shut it off and restarted several times and it never really improved. I don't want to drive it too much because I haven't reinstalled the aluminum stiffening plate yet but I did take it around the block to get it warmed up a little more. That did seem to improve things slightly, but it idles very poorly. It almost feels like a couple of cylinders are misfiring. It has new coils and I put new spark plugs in it while doing this job.

Despite all this, there were no codes being stored and the CEL didn't come on. If it were a misfire, the CEL would come on immediately (and usually flashes if it's something like a non functioning injector).

But on the last restart, the CEL did finally come on and a code was thrown. Guess what it was? P0011 again.

My best guess right now is that despite quadruple checking the timing, I have a timing problem. I'm going to remove the plugs from the upper timing covers to see if the holes align with the ones in the timing wheels on the intake cams. If they don't, I'll know for sure I have a timing problem and that I have to open the engine back up.

That will be fun for me!

Sorry to hear man - hope you don't have to open her up again -

Summuma Bt... Sad to hear.

Don't be too hard on yourself. If these vehicles are just out a tooth on timing they will throw a code and give the rough idle.

Thanks! I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to open it back up. No way around it if I have the timing off. If I'm lucky, it'll only be one bank.

I spent the weekend retiming the engine, plus fixing a few other small issues I discovered along the way. It's a slow process and I'm really taking my time. The engine is mostly put back together, but I have not attempted starting it again. I still have some work to do before it's ready for that.

Hopefully I've got it right this time!