I just looked at the great pics again, It seems there is a missing/broken crank pulley bolt.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...psf2d26b02.jpg

Great thread and pics, engine looks much better! It's a shame that in the 21st Century, BMW can't make an engine that doesn't leak oil and power steering fluid all over your engine and driveway, simply inexcusable!!!

I don't think we need to gather the torches & pitchforks & attack the castle, it is a 12 year old vehicle with 135k & unknown maint. history, not a 2011 with 30k. Then it would be inexcusable

My '94 80 series Land Cruiser I maintained faithfully had small leaks here & there that were fixed as they happened (starting about 100k) so never got to this point and is close to perfect now at 250,xxx. All cars leak eventually.

His doing this now will likely mean it won't leak for 100k or more.

Here's a shot showing the CCV drain pipe.

http://www.cstone.net/~dk/x5_3_15_01.JPG

Removed from the engine. I blew out both pipes. It was not as bad as I thought. The debris I saw was only at the very top of the larger pipe.

http://www.cstone.net/~dk/x5_3_15_02.JPG

Main belt tensioner and alternator removed

http://www.cstone.net/~dk/x5_3_15_03.JPG

Crank pulley put back on get to TDC. I put the transmission in neutral and pulled the plugs before turning the crank.

http://www.cstone.net/~dk/x5_3_15_04.JPG

And this is how the cam lobes should point at TDC

http://www.cstone.net/~dk/x5_3_15_05.JPG

Next up was removing the chain tensioner (19mm)

http://www.cstone.net/~dk/x5_3_15_06.JPG

And the solenoid seals. I used a pick tool as seen laying in the valley in the shot below

http://www.cstone.net/~dk/x5_3_15_07.JPG

Top covers removed

http://www.cstone.net/~dk/x5_3_15_08.JPG

I then inspected the current chain guides, and they look to be in excellent condition

http://www.cstone.net/~dk/x5_3_15_09.JPG

http://www.cstone.net/~dk/x5_3_15_10.JPG

http://www.cstone.net/~dk/x5_3_15_11.JPG

That's pretty much all I can do until my cam locking tool set gets here.

Tomorrow I'll see if I can clean the oil out of the valley and remove the cover. And also do some general cleaning of the newly exposed areas.

Cool. Will do e30.

Great & I really appreciate you documenting so nicely.

I've been lurking this thread for a while now, but I have to post and thank you for taking all the pics, and posting them. They're great for reference, every time I've done a project on one of my BMW's I say, I'll take tons of great pics, and I never do. lol

simply an outstanding thread, thx for all the details and great pics!

Btw....

Let me put out what I've gathered about the timing chain guides on these motors, and you tell me, or anyone else in the conversation tell me what they think.

From what I've read, the guides fail do to a weak tensioner. When the tensioner get week, the chains slap the guides and break them into pieces. Its not that the guides all the sudden fall apart.

So as long as you keep a good tensioner in the motor you shouldn't have to worry about the guides going bad.


Otherwise where you have this motor town down to, you'd be stupid not to replace them. Right?

I wouldn't say stupid, but you'll be hating life if one breaks in the near future.