camshaft replacement in place??

[koos]

Like the title, can a cam on a 325i be replaced in place? It looks like it but i wanna be sure before we go stripping away. Any help would be great!!!!!!!!!

[E30Mark]

I'm 99% sure you have to remove the head....

never tried it myself, but you might be able to raise the engine high enough to slip the cam out with the head in place...

[chu346]

The problem you'll have is not being able to get the rocker shafts out.

I tried this once and i had to take the head off in the end.

[lentec]

It is possible i have done it twice in the past month!

All i did was follow the guide in the Technical Articles on this site only you have to either drill a hole in the front of the rocker shafts then cut a thread to atach a slide hammer! so you have to remove the rad and front center grill!
then they both come out the front if you turn the camshaft 180deg with the belt on (make sure you mark it!) and you have to push the shaft back in when turning it
Hope this helps

[koos]

then they both come out the front if you turn the camshaft 180deg with the belt on (make sure you mark it!) and you have to push the shaft back in when turning it





thanks, could you elaborate a bit more? sounding good though!!!!!!!

[craigieeb]

It is possible i have done it twice in the past month!

All i did was follow the guide in the Technical Articles on this site only you have to either drill a hole in the front of the rocker shafts then cut a thread to atach a slide hammer! so you have to remove the rad and front center grill!
then they both come out the front if you turn the camshaft 180deg with the belt on (make sure you mark it!) and you have to push the shaft back in when turning it
Hope this helps

fek that for a laugh, i would just take off the head mate, drilling holes sounds good but to name one of the major probs, what about the metal filings that come off? they'll go straight in to the engine, they might or might not do damage but to keep it on the safe side just whip the head off take out the rocker shafts properly and remove the cam in the right mannor. it's realy not hard to do and it doesn't take that long
infact if the metal filings do get in to the engine they WILL do damage and im sure you dont want that for your new shiney cam do you????

[lentec]

Not if ur careful
I only did it that way as i had just re-fitted the head and found that i needed to replace the rockershafts anyway! the new ones had plugs in them so i didnt have to drill them.
And a new set of headbolts and gasket costs nearly Ԛ£50 a go that means my little cockup would have cost me nearly Ԛ£150 + cost of rockershafts etc

Glad i did take the plugs out the end tho as i found a dirty great lump of metal
floating around in the shaft and they was new!

[koos]

gonna buy a new one from GSF, gonna try it in place !!!!!!!
Hold thumbs......................

[Brianmoooore]

If you remove all the clips that locate the rockers and back off all the ecentric adjusters (or remove them completely), you should be able to pull the loose rockers to one side, turn the engine so that the tight ones become loose, pull them to one side, and so on untill the shafts are loose and can just be pulled out forwards.( Unless your head has been assembled by the "professionals" that assembled one I came across once. The rocker shafts had been hammered in so hard that the ends had belled out so much that they wouldnt go through the cut outs in the end of the head).
If you are going to do this with the cambelt off, turn the crank so that no pistons are at the top of their bores.

[lentec]

If you are going to do this with the cambelt off, turn the crank so that no pistons are at the top of their bores.

I never tried that one perhaps next time

Good luck be carefull!