Wow that was quick. Ty.



Do you have the part number for the keepers? I know myself, and I know I should buy about 20 spares. lol


Hows the SAV running after the big surgery?


Oh and the tool. Care to sell me yours?

Keepers are - 11341461405


And oh man am I super happy with the end result! - NO MORE SMOKE - want to watch netflix with the ac running at lunch, go ahead! Want to let it idle while you make eggs on the intake, go ahead! Feel like pissing everyone off behind you by sitting through two red light cycles, go ahead!


NO MORE SMOKE :rofl:


I absolutely love it - but wait - there's more!


As a side affect of replacing everything I remedied all of my oil leaks as well!! Whoot - Whoot!!


Tool unfortunately wasn't mine, I was able to borrow it from a fellow enthusiast myself, I'm actually packing things up now to ship back. That said, I would start a thread "Looking for AGA Tool" and see what pops up.

Sadly I just realized that I have never closed this thread out! Man I feel like an ass... I promised I would keep things in sync, let me grab the close out from my last thread and I will get this updated.


In a nutshell, I had everything back together but couldn't get it to idle - after EXTENSIVE diagnostic work I ended up taking it to my Indy only to find out that I had somehow swapped the vanos plugs on bank 2... he swapped them back (correctly) and the sucker ran like a beast!


OH - and the BEST PART - NO MORE SMOKE!!

Great thread! I'll be doing this in the fall on my 4.8is. Already changed the upper timing chain gasket and unfortunately the valve cover gaskets are less than one year old. Saw the parts list, but what tools are needed and where to buy? I apologize but it was hard to get the exact information.

Hi amancuso for tools, the item that you really need is the AGA Tool for BMW, sucker is pricey, about $900 but I think still available and there was another tool by Speed Works I believe it was, great tool, considerably less expensive than the AGA tool at I think $350 ish, but sadly doesn’t seem to be available any longer.

Aside from that as the primary “tool”, you’ll need a selection of extra long needle nose pliers, full metric socket set 1/4 through 1/2 inch drive for disassembly and assembly, I used everything from 6mm through 27mm on the job with a huge assortment of what I call male and femal torx sockets as well. Magnetic pickup tool, metric wrenches 6mm through 15mm I think I used and a BUNCH OF LIGHT [emoji106]

Best place to buy AGA or Speed Works is online and if you have a Harbor Freight close, grab everything else there or a local hardware store.

If you’ve already done upper timing gaskets you can tackle the VSS [emoji106]. It’s a pain in the ass for sure but “fulfilling” when your finished [emoji16]


Sent from my iPhone using Xoutpost.com

Lol. I am not at the "smoking a cloud" stage yet. So I won't get the same effect as you. I hope I never get to that stage before doing this job. But the oil leak annoying. I made a shopping cart in FCP with all the parts, and it looks like $450 gets me all the parts for this job. I may even buy the tool. Ty again.

The price of the tool hurts. about 900.00

Yes, the AGA tool is very pricey for sure. IF... you can find it, the Speed Work version is nearly the same tool for just about 1/3 the price...

That said, I can’t find it available for sale anywhere anymore unfortunately.


Sent from my iPhone using Xoutpost.com

That sounds about right, I had a credit with FCP and I spent about $370 with everything I did to mine, including the vacuum pump rebuild kit from Dorman.

I thought about buying the tool also but before I had a real chance to investigate I was able to borrow the kit. Check with your Indy, mine was open to the idea of allowing me to rent his AGA kit, but he wanted it back faster than I felt I could do the job.


Sent from my iPhone using Xoutpost.com

Oh, Slick, amancuso - for what it's worth, I installed about half of the keepers with a small dot of bearing grease on either my index or middle finger, whichever reached the best. I found this SIGNIFICANTLY easier than actually using the keeper installation tool on many of the valves.


I reached in and approximated where the valve keeper grooves met the tip of my finger (area on the tip of my finger and the angle, if that makes sense), applied a small dot of bearing grease, stuck the valve keeper to the tip of my finger and reached back in and stuck it on the valve. Once you have the keeper pressed against the valve just "slide" up on your finger and the keeper will stay in the grooves.