DIY: S54 VANOS Hub + Bolts (M3Forum.com)

[fmcfad01]

I haven't seen this issue raised on this forum. Throw it onto the list of Kaboom items along with the Rod Bearings on our S54's.

http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=411224







I know someone who had this happen to them personally. The best part was, the chunk of metal that sheered off got stuck in his timing chain and royally screwed up his engine.

Anyone here observe this on their cars?

Looks like a fun DIY next time you're due for a valve adjustment.

[gmushial]

Uber painful to simply look at the pics.

[JWin]

Damn, that looks intense...

[gmushial]

Clearly one has to be impressed with the engineering feat that the S54 is - it's one bloody impressive motor. But the more one learns of all the failure modes, ones that are well outside of most all other motors; and given the prices one has to pay in $'s to own one... one has to wonder if a LSx Z isn't a more robust approach to that level of performance.

[fmcfad01]

Clearly one has to be impressed with the engineering feat that the S54 is - it's one bloody impressive motor. But the more one learns of all the failure modes, ones that are well outside of most all other motors; and given the prices one has to pay in $'s to own one... one has to wonder if a LSx Z isn't a more robust approach to that level of performance.

Appreciate the comment, but I'd really prefer this not turn into a S54 vs. S52 boondoggle again. I'm simply bringing this to the forum's attention as a topic I haven't seen posts about yet and that I'd like to hear any occurrences of!

Frankly, this really isn't that bad of a job. I just did something extremely similar on the e39 M5's S62 engine which has two VANOS units...lots of fun.

[CaliAgents]

I check in on the Vanos hub & bolts threads that crop up fairly frequently over on M3forum as well. What's scary is that there is no rhyme or reason with regards to the car that has broken exhaust hub tab(s). It happens to babied weekend cars with 30K miles while tracked cars with 120K+ miles are thus far exempt to this potentially catastrophic failure.

There are a couple of hub options with one or two more in the works by the way. Definitely have this on the short list of DIYs the next time I have to do some work in the engine compartment.

[fmcfad01]

I check in on the Vanos hub & bolts threads that crop up fairly frequently over on M3forum as well. What's scary is that there is no rhyme or reason with regards to the car that has broken exhaust hub tab(s). It happens to babied weekend cars with 30K miles while tracked cars with 120K+ miles are thus far exempt to this potentially catastrophic failure.

There are a couple of hub options with one or two more in the works by the way. Definitely have this on the short list of DIYs the next time I have to do some work in the engine compartment.

Let us know what the options are. It would be nice to have a condensed list and a single thread to come find this stuff in here vs. searching other forums.

[CaliAgents]

1.) TurboToy v3 Maraging 300 alloy hub - $700


2.) Dr. Vanos Cryo treated hub - $900


3.) Besian Systems (famous for their Vanos repair kits) will be releasing their solution in another half of a year or so.

[fmcfad01]

Cali,
Do you know the part number for just the OEM exhaust hub? Looks like it comes with a bunch of other stuff on realoem.com and can't be purchased separately. Let us know.

EDIT: Looks like a good price for OEM is about $765...ouch.

[turbotoy2791]

I haven't seen this issue raised on this forum. Throw it onto the list of Kaboom items along with the Rod Bearings on our S54's.

http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=411224







I know someone who had this happen to them personally. The best part was, the chunk of metal that sheered off got stuck in his timing chain and royally screwed up his engine.

Anyone here observe this on their cars?

Looks like a fun DIY next time you're due for a valve adjustment.

This was my first attempt at fixing the tab breakage problem, which failed but was useful because the tabs that broke off are much larger than OEM and could not get out of the pump do any damage to the engine. This is Shadows car and it now has the CNC C300 maraging hub in it. He has put 53,000 miles on the C300 hub and says it still looks like new.

[rf900rkw]

Yes, this has been mentioned several times here. For instance, from the S52 vs S54 thread last week"

"" Never mind the valve adjustments, look at the bearing issues, and now the VANOS pump drives are shearing off with increasing regularity.""


Yes, it's a known failure that's been happening for a while. It's just not well publicized as yet. I saw example broken ones and carnage almost two years ago when I visited Raj (Beisansystems). A fair amount of our visit was spent discussing root cause. The problem is not just the drive dogs. The pump sleeve gets hammered out and needs replacing for a permanent fix.