Inspect piston rings (remove head + piston) on M62 1997

[Jaaap]

It appears that cylinder 2 of my M62 (non-vanos) is leaking down into the crankcase.
(I'm going to do my own leakdown test to verify this, tools ordered)

- The car is RHD (UK car)
- It's on the right side of the car (bank 1)

I might attempt to inspect the piston myself, but some things are unclear:
- There is no video on YT for a non-vanos M62 head removal to be found. Does anybody have a video of this, i already have the TIS docs which is pretty good in itself.
- Can i remove the timing chain sprocket (on the inlet cam) from the head without touching any other cam sprocket? The TIS will have you loosen all sprocket bolts, even on bank 2??
- If #2 is a yes, can i later reinstall it without timing tools, with crank at 45°, if the chain is kept under tension the whole time and the sprocket is inserted in the same position in the chain?
- The upper oil pan can be removed with the engine stil in the car, if you lift the engine. Is this wise? Can i knock a piston out this way?

Please nourish me with your wisdom.

[ross1]

I can't answer your question as I'm unfamiliar with your engine. Have you tried chemicals to free stuck rings?
A lot of work to find carbon deposits.

[BimmerBreaker]

You will need timing tools to put it back together properly

TIS is 1000x better than any YT video. Follow the TIS procedure to a "T" and you will be fine. If you try to take shortcuts, it will cost you more time in the end

Personally I don't think its that hard to remove these engines and I'd do that before knocking out pistons with it in place. I'd be very worried about scratching the cylinder wall since the piston will have to come out at a slight angle to clear stuff in it's way. If you have the mechanical skill to do this job, you can probably remove the engine a lot easier than you'd think...

[Jaaap]

@ross1
That's a good one.
I haven't tried that (but the car has run 40k miles since the problem started).
Throw some Marvel Mystery Oil in there?

[mateo8]

Only can attest to the TU RHD m62 and I needed the timing tools to retime the car once I replaced the heads. When I replaced the heads I removed both cam chains, the VANOS and other accessories and pulled the head straight off, but since yours is not a TU engine I have no idea. Sorry to not really help here

[philly98540]

Best to pull engine out of the car IMO as its so much leaning over into the engine bay and parts are hard to set in place correctly etc. You can time the M62 without timing tools, but its harder to do this way. Get the tools to be safe.

- - - Updated - - -

First determine if your cylinder or piston is the actual problem

[Jaaap]

So the consensus is to pull the engine first.
Without gearbox?
The car was driven fairly hard the last 40k miles, with lots of WOT on the highway.
I will check and double check the compression loss before i open it up, if i open it up.

[JimLev]

I've only pulled heads off the non vanos with the engine on a stand.
While you can pull the head like to said your not going to be able to keep the cams from moving without the alignment tools.
The valve springs will be pushing on the lifters which will push on the cam lobes.
If you do pull the engine and intend on replacing the guides make sure you loosen the Jesus bolt before you pull the engine.

[bluptgm3]

While you can pull the head like to said your not going to be able to keep the cams from moving without the alignment tools.
The valve springs will be pushing on the lifters which will push on the cam lobes.
Has anyone thought to simply c-clamp two Cresent wrenches together to lock the cams or are there space constraint issues? ...and too many cams, proper tool are inexpensive?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JimLev]

Not much room to lock the cams. For a non tu engine you could get probably get away with just using the crank lock pin and the cam lock blocks.
Some peeps have bought the cheap $100 M62tu vanos timing kit on eBay to time their engine with success.

[edjack]

I have not read any reports of the M62 (nor -TU) suffering from piston ring sludge, esp on just one cylinder.

How did you determine that it's only #2?

[Jaaap]

I did a compression test (with a very cheap Chinese tester):
Bank 1:


Cylinder Pressure (bar) Notes
1 15.5
2 12.8
3 17.1 Lots of oil dropped down
4 17.5 Lots of oil dropped down

[ross1]

I did a compression test (with a very cheap Chinese tester):
Bank 1:


Cylinder Pressure (bar) Notes
1 15.5
2 12.8
3 17.1 Lots of oil dropped down
4 17.5 Lots of oil dropped down

Not too meaningful with half the cylinders oiled. A near 3 bar difference is huge between 1 & 2. What happens to those(1&2) when oiled? If #2 improves but still well behind the others I'd be looking at valve sealing.
What was the previous test or conditions that led to your assumption of rings in #2?
17.5 bar is 257 PSI, fabulous

[Jaaap]

Oh there's a whole history here.
I responded to edjack's question but this might not be relevant for this discusion, really.