540i belt tensioner seized?

[Deadwake]

Hey guys, I'm trying to do my timing chain guides and I'm running into a couple problems. The first is my oil pan appears to be held on by what I hope is just a #%^@ ton of gasket maker, I've tried getting a plastic scraper in there to separate it with no luck, I'm thinking of trying a Razer blade but I'm worried about damaging the surfaces, any ideas on that? Another issue I discovered today is trying to remove the belt tensioner, the two 13mm bolts on top if it came out no problem but the the actual pulley won't budge at all. I used a t50 bit and a breaker bar and completely destroyed it, any tips on removing that would be great. Would the same tool used to remove stripped screws work? Thanks!

[Chedley]

Oil pan:
gasket maker holding it ? EEk...are you sure you removed all the bolts, and did not strip any. A metallic scraper should help separate it. Be careful as it can fall off.

belt pulley:
try some WD-40 or PB-Blaster on the bolts to loosen them a bit. Then Use the correct socket/screw size.

[geargrinder]

Hey guys, I'm trying to do my timing chain guides and I'm running into a couple problems. The first is my oil pan appears to be held on by what I hope is just a #%^@ ton of gasket maker, I've tried getting a plastic scraper in there to separate it with no luck, I'm thinking of trying a Razer blade but I'm worried about damaging the surfaces, any ideas on that? Another issue I discovered today is trying to remove the belt tensioner, the two 13mm bolts on top if it came out no problem but the the actual pulley won't budge at all. I used a t50 bit and a breaker bar and completely destroyed it, any tips on removing that would be great. Would the same tool used to remove stripped screws work? Thanks!

Your lower oil pan? Just the lower sheet metal one? As Ched says - you're sure you got all the bolts?

Re: the big pulley bolt. Yeah. That's not good. Stripping bolt heads often comes down to user error (not being a dick - I still do not infrequently myself) from either not seating the tool deeply and cleanly enough, and/or, not bracing it while you reef on the mofo. Was the dust-cover still there or was that missing? If it was missing not only could the head have been full of rust so the bit didn't seat all the way, but the 'teeth' could have been rusted and soft. Anyway - sometimes on a stripped socket head like that you can get a cheap set of Torx bits and use them as 'extractors' by hammering the next-larger size bit (ex: T55) into the bolt until its jammed in there. Otherwise you could drill the head out with a 90 degree drill, pull the pulley off, then a torch and some vicegrips on the shaft of the bolt shoudl get it out. I very much doubt theres enough anything there to get any kind of formal extractor into/on.