e53 N62 removed and on a stand..what to do ??
 

Hi all, I recently had major issues with my N62B44. Have opted to for garage to remove it for me so i can do valve Stem Seals and oil leak around alternator bracket cover. Figured $1200 to remove and put back in , compared to NZ$14K of labour to access $250 worth of parts was a smart choice if i have the skills confidence and interest. Happy to do valve stem seals with my new AGA Valve stem seals tool kit and now easy access to alternator bracket.. .. I figured I needed a "project" anyway ..

Question is ..

Since i have engine out .... What else should i do also, short of a full rebuild?????

There is a guy here who pulled the M62 outta his 4.6is to fix all the leaks, you might want to search for that thread. He did lots of stuff and a lot of members chimed in on things to do. Lots of pics too. Neat multi page thread.

Not everything will carry over of course but a lot will be applicable.

Off the top of my head...

So yeah, alt bracket seal.. does the oil filter housing have a gasket that leaks like on the 6cyls?

The oil pan gaskets on the 6cyls are hard to do in situ, not sure with these engines.

Do these engines have the valley pan coolant leaks?

Rebuild VANOS unit with updated seals and the valve cover/spark plug gaskets along with it?

All new motor mounts and the tranny mount too, those are hard to change with the engine on.

Valley pan. Rear coolant connection passage by trans bellhousing. Hoses.

I did the alt bracket in 8 hours with a mechanic buddy with a lift. Wasn't that bad.

Rear main seal, and front main seal.

When we pull an N62 at the shop I work at there are a number of things we recommend the customer go ahead and do while the engine is out of the car and much easier to work. Keep in mind that we usually drop them to do either valve stem seals or cleaning of the secondary air ports in the heads but I will include those jobs in the list. We also do valve stem seals with the heads off the engine which will of course require you to set the timing on the engine Provided you have the right tools it isn't that hard to set timing on these engines. Our family also three different N62 vehicles so I've become fairly familiar with working on these engines and their quirks, fantastic engines and one of my favorites especially when they are running right.

List is as follows, I may have forgotten a couple things as it's late, keep in mind this list also includes the parts we replace when we do one of these bigger jobs, most of them as you will see are gaskets.

-Valve Stem Seals
-Clean Secondary Air System (Most effective with heads removed & disassembled but can be done with heads on the engine)
-Timing Chain Guides, Rails, & Tensioner (Pending condition of the engine this usually isn't necessary & isn't as common a failure point on the N62 as it is the M62 but we have seen failed guides on these engines.)
-Head Gaskets
-Rear Coolant Passage
-Valley Pan
-Coolant Transfer Pipe (Use the expanding kit that locks not the threaded one)
-Water Pump Gasket
-Thermostat O-Ring
-Thermostat Return Pipe
-Alternator Housing Bracket
-Oil Pressure Switch
-Upper Timing Cover Gasket
-Lower Timing Cover Gaskets (pending your removal of the lower timing cover)
-Valve Cover Gaskets & Grommets
-Spark Plug Tubes
-VANOS Gaskets
-VVT Gaskets (There are 2 of these per Bank)
-Pressure Regulators or Diaphragms (Located on top of the valve covers)
-Vacuum Pump Gasket
-Eccentric Shaft Senor Gaskets
-Lower Oil Pump Gasket
-Secondary Air Pump Hose (Pending Condition)
-Front & Rear Main Seals
-Engine & Transmission Mounts
-Intake Manifold Gaskets
-Exhaust Manifold Gaskets
-Throttle Body Gasket
-Drive Belts

I know that seems like long list and does get pretty close to doing a full rebuild. These engines like any BMW engines have their Achilles heel but having the engine out gives you an opportunity to take care of all of them. Having the engine out of the vehicle also makes a lot of these jobs a lot easier. If you're doing it yourself you can tackle most of it over the course of a weekend. A lot of this also depends on how deep into the engine you want to go. Never seen the upper oil pan gasket be a problem on these engines so I wouldn't say that it is necessary. If you do end up pulling the heads you have to remove the cam sprockets. Be sure you label which ones are for the intake and which are for the exhaust. The one for the vacuum pump cant be mixed up but the other three can, and the engine will not run right if they are. We've seen several come in where that was the case, someone did the job but got them mixed up because they look the same.

Sorry for the lengthy and possibly daunting post. We have done about a dozen N62s through the course of 2015, they are about an even split between Secondary Air and Valve Stem Seals. Some of them we pulled from the cars, usually 745s or 750s, and in some cases the engines are sent to us. I usually take pictures of my work because I like to make marks for timing despite having the tools at the shop to do it. Never written a DIY but there are some pretty good ones floating around online as well as some well versed individuals on the forums who can assist you if you need help.

X5 4.8is does not have the secondary air system that gets clogged up as on the 5,6 and 7ers thankfully.

This is true, BMW made some changes on N62B48s (4.8) that weren't seen on the N62B44 (4.4) so 4.8 owners don't have to deal with the secondary air problems. With that being said we usually see E65/66 and E60 vehicles for the secondary air problems, much less frequent in E53 & E63/64 vehicles.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5640/...c17d62af_z.jpg

That being said we have a lot of customers with N62 vehicles in different vehicles, with a variation of mileages, driven in different ways. The reoccurring theme we see, most commonly when it comes to valve stem seal failure, comes down to quality of oil and change frequency. I know some believe this has little effect on these engines but I will offer these two stories of customers I have seen and dealt with.

Customer with an 04 745i has 190,XXX miles on his vehicle. Never been apart for more resealing the top end of the engine: valve cover gaskets, timing cover gaskets, etc. Also had the coolant transfer pipe and valley pan done. He has religiously changed his oil between 5,000 and 7,000 miles with either Castrol or Mobil 1 full synthetic and an OEM filter. Valvetrain is very clean on the inside, no sludge or grime what so ever and the internals are a nice golden color. Car doesn't smoke a bit on startup.

Customer with an 03 745Li with around 125,XXX when he first brought the vehicle to us. Had the vehicle for about 60,000 miles, couldn't remember when his last oil change was so he wanted an oil change, Bank 2 Valve Cover Gasket because it was raining oil out of it, and a diagnosis of his smoky exhaust. Oil was pitch black, no translucency, and the filter had fallen apart in the canister, literally fell out in pieces, couldn't tell if it was OEM or not. Valve Cover gasket was hard as a rock but I was startled when I saw what was underneath and have attached a picture for your viewing pleasure. The car smoked like a chimney from the exhaust pipes. Can't recall seeing one quite this bad. When we quoted him a price he said he'd probably just sell it and move onto something else.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1700/...438d6ed5_b.jpg

Point being maintenance on any vehicle is key. With an engine that has the Achilles heels of the N62 it becomes paramount to longevity and performance. These two examples are at opposite ends of the spectrum, and there are some outliers but generally speaking this is the trend we have observed.

Oh God those pictures are illustrations of pure neglect. Its just painfull looking at them.

Exactly and the customer wondered why the car was smoking like a brush fire and running like crap. Probably had nothing done in terms of maintenance once it fell out of the original warranty/service period.

This is an example of a clean well maintained engine that we were tearing down and prepping for another independent shop. Secondary air was the main repair but since the heads were going to be removed and disassembled he went ahead and had valve stem seals done at the same time.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1710/...0137c6ce_b.jpg

Do the upper oil pan gasket. Its cheep, and will save you 25 hours of labor if it started leaking.