No codes, oil pressure light or anything. Just made sure spark plugs were tight as well and they are good... Damn that would've been nice haha. Going to drop the pan next and I will let you know what I find.

I don't mind doing the work myself because it's a 3rd car but if it's a rod bearing it will basically be a brand new engine so I guess I'll decide from there...

Could be oil pump related. Look up the threads on oil pump sprocket coming loose. It would still require you to drop the upper pan (the painful one).

These engines are really good engines. I would be really surprised that it has a spun bearing. There are countless examples of these vehicles with over 200K miles. If the engine was abused and starved of oil then this would be neglect and very well could have severe engine problems.

Had a little bit of time to remove the passenger side valve cover (where all the noise was coming from). I noticed a lot of slack in the smaller chain as seen in the pictures (roughly 8mm of slack). It was difficult to tell how much slack was in the main timing chain but I was able to push the chain tensioner towards the chain about 2-3 mm then put tension on the chain with my finger and the tensioner would retract back to the original position.

I did find a surprise partially covering one of the rear oil passage ways. Must have been from the previous valve cover replacement and nobody bothered to remove it. Take a look below.

I do not know of a way to test the hydraulic lifters to see if they are collapsed so im not sure what to do there..

Here are some pictures:

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/q...psngymd7bq.jpg

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps6hdjh0mu.jpg

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/q...psho5mbkkf.jpg

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/q...psuqmaxvki.jpg

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/q...pslrixg6on.jpg

Can anyone guess what it is?

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/q...psqh8ap89r.jpg

If you guessed a washer from on of the valve cover bolts you are correct...

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/q...psvzmizwsz.jpg

Those tensioners use oil pressure so they will appear more slack with the engine off. But the oil pump has a check valve that should keep them at least partially pressurized. I continue to worry about your oil pump. You can put an oil pressure gauge on a port on the oil filter housing. I think the Bentley manual shows the procedure.

So I was looking around at the top of the timing chain today and it seemed like it was tensioned from the left side however, when I lifted up on the opposite side of the cam gear it was beyond loose. There were also scrape marks on the side of the timing chain cover. Also, I could see the plastic from the "U" shaped guide moving around when i shook the chain. Unless I'm mistaken i think its safe to assume this is whats making the noise... unless the tensioners really do loose this much tension without the engine running

Here is a video of how loose it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgyjGVpMPzg

That doesn't sound normal. They have a spring that works without any oil pressure. The oil pressure just keeps the chain tighter at higher rpm.

I think you are on to something!

Good day,

What you have here is the reversing rail (that U shaped rail) has lost all it's plastic and the chain is either working thru or has slid off the rail and rubbing the front timing chain cover... Thus, the tensioner is at it's limit with the increase in travel path... This happened to me to my 98 540i... Here are some pictures of that repair I did back then...

This is where it should sit (Obviously the one part in the other)...

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j4...PICT1830-1.jpg

This is where yours is, or worse... Mine was here... And I couldn't fix mine right away... So, I made a temporary fix to put more tension on the chain... I moved the body of the tensioner in towards the motor more by putting a washer in the bottom of the cup that seal everything...

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j4...PICT1831-1.jpg

This is what my reversing rail looked like...

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j4...r/PICT2412.jpg

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j4...r/PICT2416.jpg

And the almost finished project...

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j4...r/PICT2436.jpg

Okay, keep in mind that your M62 is newer than my 98 version... Your parts might be different... You have single VANOS and the timing job is a bit more intense... I have those tools if you need them... I had to rebuild my entire motor in the 2001 E39 in the signature block... But that rebuild was for a totally different reason... PO abuse!!

Cheers for now!!

You just need to do the new timing chain, tensioners, guide rail replacement as so many of X5s go through with the V8 engine. Not a terribly difficult job but tedious. You'll need the cam locking tool kit to make the repair.

Update #3

I appreciate all the input from everyone. I finally got some time to pull off the front timing covers and this is what I found.

-only one noticeable chip that fell off the u-shaped timing guide (side of the plastic guide seen in pictures)
-the plastic part of the guides were almost completely separated from the metal part of the timing guide but still in the correct location
-the lower timing cover was completely chewed up from the chain but I couldn't even get the timing chain into a position where it would do this unless the chain was very loose and drooped below the plastic guide walls.

One thing to note that is probably very important is that when i set the car to TDC and put the flywheel lock pin in I recall noticing that the passenger side camshafts did not seem to allign. The intake side camshaft looked off by about 20 degrees from the exhaust camshaft (the flat on this camshaft was aligned at the correct angle.) The driver side camshafts were aligned correctly. So possible one camshaft sproket has jumped? Or maybe the vanos was stuck advanced?

Thanks for looking! Here are the pictures:

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/q...psffjnvigx.jpg

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/q...psykovy4qb.jpg

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/q...psp1yesgog.jpg

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/q...psvbw1uzuw.jpg

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/q...pssqta2ask.jpg