Glad you at least have it figured out. Sucks about the chains though..

I would do a compression test just to see where you are. I think it's fie to just spin the engine over without running it to do the test. You do want to get as much of that plastic out as possible before running it anymore though. If you remove the lower oil pan and oil filter you'll likely find a good bit of it.

You shouldn't have to remove the lower oil pan. It is recommended but it can be done without. Just be very careful when sliding the lower cover back on and use a god quality sealant.

I have to commend you on taking on such a big job at home. I will add that it's even worse on an X due to the engine sitting so low in the car.

Let us know what happens!

-Ben

I got the car back from the mechanic on Friday. A very knowledgeable and honest guy but the quotes I got were 8k if he fixes my engine + two sway bars on the rear suspension and 10K if I go with a used 105k km engine...
Since none of these is an option for me I had to tow it back home.
I will try my best to fix it myself with a friend and with help from you guys. Without this forum I was driving a Honda by now. My friend who worked on cars before suggested to take the engine out and we replace everything much easier. The mechanic shop said the same thing. I remove all the hoses and tonight I will go underneath and check what need to be removed before attempting to take the engine out. One year ago I had the valley pan work done, so no need to visit that part again. I will keep you posted.
I need some tips on what to keep an eye on or do while I remove the engine and when it's out what should I look for to replace.

Sorry for the bad news.

I m curious what kinda mileage on your X5 (before that chain guide exploded)?

206000 km. I should have done this as part of the maintenance but I thought that wasn't going to happen to me :)
I am going to do the vanos as well.

Not sure it's your fault, this is the first time I heard that thing need to be replaced ala timing belt on "interfering" 4-cylinder engine like my Audi 1.8T.
Hope some of the people here can help you out, it's just out of my league when it comes to rebuilding engine.

just to update in case somebody would need to relate the sound with the problem. The problem was the timing chain guides, the middle part. So, consider replacing the guides as part of your high mileage maintenance for m62 engines.

Ive been reading these posts Im sorry to hear about that diagnosis, any idea if anyones had that problem on the E53 3.0i models, I called Dealer out here in the west coast of the US and a BMW replacement engine runs about $6900 plus tax and you need to use any old belt driven components that are not included, and to replace a timing chain on the inline 6 runs about $3500 in labor alone plus the cost of parts dealer charges about $120/hr so that comes out to a 29hour job Im sure you could haggle it down a bit if it came to that.

Hey fmugur,
How did it turn out for you?
I am about to start tearing things down.

It looks like I put 35k on it since. I am at a little above 240k km now.
I took the engine out and replaced all the gaskets, o-rings, vanos, hoses, chains, chain guides ...
I think the total parts cost me about $3500 or so. I probably didn't have to replace the vanos which were the most expensive but I didn't want to go through this again later on.

Did you have any timing complications while putting it together?