E30 Zone

I have a M50B25 single vanos engine sitting on my work bench ready to be prepared to be fitted in my car, I'm currently planning on changing these parts before fitting -

Water pump, gasket and belt
sump gasket
rocker cover gasket
oil filter + oil etc
manifold gaskets
Injectors will be serviced/cleaned as well

Is there anything else i should do before fitting regarding the chain tensioner or vanos unit? It ran quietly before removal from the donor but would prefer to get it as it should be before putting it in the e30.

Cheers

I'd change the thermostat too for the 88 degree one makes a huge difference on running temperatures when its in the e30.

its part number is: 11 53 7 511 580

I presume that you will be changing the spark plugs too while you are at it?

if you are going change the water pump make sure you get one with a metal impeller . the stat i put in mine is 79 degree

what miles has the engine done?
you might want to replace the cam chains too while your in there.
I replaced them on mine and they were not expensive.

If your going to the trouble of changing chains you should be changing all the guides too, the main guide cannot be removed without taking the cylinder head off

Single vanos is not as problematic as double, but if you get fault codes it can be solved by changing the vanos seals, I believe there is a nice bloke on ebay that sells seal kits

Cheers for the advice, plugs and all other core service items will be changed. Will be changing the thermostat, cheers for the number

I had read about the metal impeller pump, where the best place to pick these up from or is it dealer only?

As for the chains the engine has a 140k on it is it necessary to do them and the guides now or can it wait till it gets pulled and built in to a 2.8 next year? Only planning to fit this for a shake down then fire in a m52 so I can rebuild the m50. Seems pointless but i need a project for the winter and the m50 will do for now

Seen your kit Dan, will it be worth while to do it now? If so, has anyone got and good guides for replacing the seal or is it straight forward enough?

Well its a lot easier to do while its out, the seals deteriorate over time anyway due to the crap material BMW made them from

Read this http://www.beisansystems.com/faq.html

My seals are made from Viton which is stable for oil temps up to 250°C and have just been competitively re-priced!

ECP sell a good water pump, KWP is the manufacturer and it costs around £40, I always use these

The vanos on my m50 is a bit noisey, would the new seal fix this?

If its rattling it will be the bearings in the piston, if its a grinding noise you need to change the shims/spring in the sprocket. Seals will help as the piston wont be flapping about as freely in the cylinder, there are a few vids on youtube that show the extra resistance created by changing the seals

Here are a couple of videos before and after

cheers for the links
On my car there is a growl as the engine returns to idle from higher revs
is it possible to get hold of all the parts you mention and replace the lot?

You can buy the shims/springs for the sprocket from the dealer but you cannot buy new roller bearings for the piston, you can buy a new/larger shim from a us company to take up the slack in the bearings but its a major operation and PITA to do, much easier to fit a better piston

DanThe wrote:Well its a lot easier to do while its out, the seals deteriorate over time anyway due to the crap material BMW made them from

Read this http://www.beisansystems.com/faq.html

My seals are made from Viton which is stable for oil temps up to 250°C and have just been competitively re-priced!

ECP sell a good water pump, KWP is the manufacturer and it costs around £40, I always use these

So whats contained in your kit Dan? The o-ring and seal and I source the vanos gasket from BMW?

Anything that's not shown on the beisansystems.com guide that i should look out for?

Wheres the best place to source the tools for this job?

You dont need any special tools, you can do the job with basic hand tools and a straight edge to set the cams, dafs has a nice way to lock the cams
The only other thing to check is the shims/spring are of the later type

Cheers Dan. Was planning on Dafs way to lock the cams, straight edge sounds good too, it was just the tool to wind the sprocket back and forth, what do you use for that?

You dont need a vanos spanner, the sprocket plates will turn freely with the vanos unit removed, I dont know how Dafs did it but I usually turn the inlet cam to wind the vanos gears into it then turn it back to check positioning, if your engine is built up already just paint mark the chain/sprocket etc and its easy to get it back in the same place.
The timing tools are only really needed if you have stripped the engine and are timing from scratch

BTW any zoners that want vanos seals qualify for an instant £5 discount