m54b30 cams into m52 head

[luminmiller]

Will m54b30 cams fit into my m52b25 head or do i need the m54 trays and lifters. What should I use for exhaust cam?
I live in the netherlands/holland and getting cheap cams from germany is easy so short of paying a grand for schrick cams is there a better choice than the m54b30 intake unit?

I just bought a m54b30 block with crank and pistons 78,xxx km ($280):


Additionally I bought a 1994 525tu executive II 200,xxx km ($600) for the iron block and obd1 gear...Way cheaper buying car than parts individually

[AdamBath]

Pretty certain M54 cams are not interchangeable with the M52.

[luminmiller]

I know the m54b30 intake cam fits into a m52 with a 5mm trim to the vanos gear, and i was told the m52 trays will accommodate the cams ( I will have the head off this weekend pics of broken parts later). So my new question is will the s52 cams be better the zhp m54b30 cams as they both should fit?

[hakentt]

Both cams will fit with some minor modification. Intake cam will need trimming on the vanos gear, about 4mm minimum for single vanos actuator to work properly. Exhaust side needs dual vanos gear from the actuator welded on to the sprocket. Use all the sprocket hardware from M54 engine. But all M54 exhaust cam specs are same as M50/M52 so I don't see a point in doing the exhaust side at all. Search my posts I did this

Both cam trays with lifters will fit just fine.

[luminmiller]

Hakentt, I have read your posts and I got the m54 internals idea from you?
I will use the intake cam m54 with its tray and lifters, but I want to use something a little more aggressive and cheap on the exhaust side. I was told I can use the intake cam from a m50nv (520 or 525). Other tell me confusing (m52/m54) specs for exhaust cams which just do not make sense (why would exhaust lift be so much higher than intake????? Is the m50nv intake cam a good option to compliment the m54 unit or am i missing another cheap option source-able here in Europe?

[luminmiller]

I am going with m54b30 intake cam (Intake 240 duration 9.7 lift) 5mm cut off vanos gear reusing m52 exhaust cam. M50, M52, M54 exhaust cams appear to be the same (228 duration / 9 lift). The M50b25 intake came has a (Intake 240 duration 9.7 lift) which would definitely be a little closer to S50b30us S50US cam specs (252 / 10. intake and 240 / 9.7 exhaust) but I can't us vanos timing tool with this cam (anyone made a diagram). Keeping my eye out for an ebay steal on schrick units.

[luminmiller]

My Machine shop destroyed my exhaust cam (m52b25) while cleaning and I want to use a m50b25 (non vanos intake cam) instead as they are a dime a dozen here in the Netherlands and will match my 240 duration of the M54b30 unit.




My questions is has anyone modified a cam holder template with the correct clocking for the NV Cam?

[k,elnazer]

luminmiller , have you found a solution for the vanos and cam holder? What route have you done?
Tks

[luminmiller]

luminmiller , have you found a solution for the vanos and cam holder? What route have you done?
Tks

Yes.
I sourced an s50b30 Exhaust cam from the USA and a M50b25NV Intake cam from Germany. I will do measurements for a modified holder when I finish the install. I think using a modified holder will make this hot cam swap cheap and easy for our single vanos engines.

I will update when I have more.

[Rhyspaul]

I am going with m54b30 intake cam (Intake 240 duration 9.7 lift) 5mm cut off vanos gear reusing m52 exhaust cam. M50, M52, M54 exhaust cams appear to be the same (228 duration / 9 lift). The M50b25 intake came has a (Intake 240 duration 9.7 lift) which would definitely be a little closer to S50b30us S50US cam specs (252 / 10. intake and 240 / 9.7 exhaust) but I can't us vanos timing tool with this cam (anyone made a diagram). Keeping my eye out for an ebay steal on schrick units.

Maybe i'm missing something here, but what's the point of swapping the m50b25 (240/9.7) with the m54b30 (240/9.7) if they have the same lift and duration
Also would it be possible to use the s50b30 intake with the m50b25 (intake) in the exhaust side

[luminmiller]

Maybe i'm missing something here, but what's the point of swapping the m50b25 (240/9.7) with the m54b30 (240/9.7) if they have the same lift and duration
Also would it be possible to use the s50b30 intake with the m50b25 (intake) in the exhaust side

The m54b30 intake cam has the same specs as the intake cam on the m50b25 non vanos engine.
The single vanos engines have the milder cams installed for both intake and exhaust.
The m54 unit is an upgrade for single vanos engines not nv engines.

I ended up using the m54 intake cam and tray on my single vanos engine and bought a s50b30 US exhaust cam for my exhaust side. I could of used the nv intake cam on the exhaust but the cam locking tool would not work.

And yes you could use a s50b30 intake cam with the intake cam from m50b25 nv on the exhaust side, but would still have the issue with the cam lock not working. If you search for hot caming the nv engine you will find more details about this swap. Don't hesitate to message me after doing a little more research.

kind regards
lumin

[munichmarauder]

T

I ended up using the m54 intake cam and tray on my single vanos engine and bought a s50b30 US exhaust cam for my exhaust side. I could of used the nv intake cam on the exhaust but the cam locking tool would not work.

kind regards
lumin

Luminmiller - I'm doing almost the same thing, using a M54B30 "ZHP" intake cam with a S50B30 (US) exhaust cam - got the S50 cams cheap because the intake had a chipped lobe and now my machinist says it's beyond his ability to repair, so I got stuck with just the S50 exhaust; using the ZHP intake gives a nicely streetable yet "sehr sportlich" duration/profile of 248/10.0 intake, 240/9.7 exhaust.
1) Will the OEM locking tool work on this combo to get my timing set?
2) What are you doing for your computer? What ECM are you using, and what sort of tune are you running (and how successfully?) I'm trying to find an ECM solution for what I want to do, and it's looking like a Miller WAR chip with a trip or two to the dyno and some EGR and A/f ratio gear to get her right. Ideas? Prior solutions? Anyone else have some ideas?

[luminmiller]

Luminmiller - I'm doing almost the same thing, using a M54B30 "ZHP" intake cam with a S50B30 (US) exhaust cam - got the S50 cams cheap because the intake had a chipped lobe and now my machinist says it's beyond his ability to repair, so I got stuck with just the S50 exhaust; using the ZHP intake gives a nicely streetable yet "sehr sportlich" duration/profile of 248/10.0 intake, 240/9.7 exhaust.
1) Will the OEM locking tool work on this combo to get my timing set?
2) What are you doing for your computer? What ECM are you using, and what sort of tune are you running (and how successfully?) I'm trying to find an ECM solution for what I want to do, and it's looking like a Miller WAR chip with a trip or two to the dyno and some EGR and A/f ratio gear to get her right. Ideas? Prior solutions? Anyone else have some ideas?

1) Yes the timing tools works well with this cam setup.
2) I started with using the siemens dme from a 528 (328) engine with re-synced Ews and pink top injectors.
This setup ran well and wasn't to lean or rich but didn't give full power gain. I assume you have a bosch dme which can be chipped but:
I highly recommend installing headers, exhaust, and highflow cats in addition to these cams. Once all is installed then spend a couple hours with a reputable dyno tuner...... for full transformation.

A dyno tuner can remove one oxygen sensor and use the port for tuning or when installing headers have an extra bung welded in the collector for tuning purposes (thats what I did). Independent tuning is always the best method for get every little bit of power out of these kind of mods.

If you need anything further or want picture don't hesitate to ask.

Kind regards
Lumin

[Squintles]

Hi Lumin

Did you ever clarify the angle required, or find a template for using the M50B25NV intake cam for M52B28 Exhaust? we have plenty of these cams in New Zealand and no US S50 parts down here.

Cheers
Brad

[MisterM52]

Bump from pos kiwi land.

[Nix328ti]

Thanks (6 yrs. later) for this post. I recently did this swap on my M52b28 and figured it may be worth while to post what I did to this thread:

It was fun but also a bit nerve-racking as I could only find a couple references to people that had swapped in the intake side (as in this thread) but I found no references to swapping in the exhaust side. I had to be the guinea pig for this one. Here's what I did:

In the OEM cam specs thread I outline the cam specs which is why I landed on attempting this swap. In short, the stock M52b28 cam specs are:

M52B28 // int: 230º(9.0mm) // open:1º close:49º // exh: 228º(9.0mm) // open:39º close:9º

While the M54b30 cams are:

M54b30 // int: 240º(9.7mm) // open:-6º close:66º // exh: 244º(9.0mm) // open:47º close:17º

I think the values speak for themselves. As part of my plan I also thought I should try to retain the opening cam timing of the M52b28 so I advanced the intake cam by 3.5º upon making the final vanos gear installation. I'll get to that later in the post.

For those who are new to this concept, there is a minor tweak to make to the inner vanos gear of the M54 intake cam so it will work well with the M52 vanos hub gear. Basically, it's necessary to cut ≈5mm of the end of the gear so it clears the inside of the vanos hub during vanos actuation. I've attached a pic of what I mean. On the left is the M54 cam with the clipped inner vanos gear; The left is the M52. Try to make it just a mm or two longer than the stock m52 gear. It's pretty easy.



Then all of the M52 cam gear assembly bolts directly onto the now modified M54 cam. Drop it in and done. Fits right into the same lifter tray.

With that done I moved to the exhaust cam. The challenge here is the M54 exhaust cam uses a vanos cam gear assembly with a clutch plate, just like the M52 intake vanos cam gear set. It uses 3 retention studs, also like the M52. The problem is the M52 exhaust cam and gear uses 4 bolts.

After a few sleepless nights of pondering I landed on a plan to attempt to simply lock the stack of gears that are part of the M54 cam gear assembly so it doesn't spin. That way it would act in a similar fashion to the single-vanos setup.

In the end I decided to lock the assembly together using the three, outer most retainer nuts. I discovered that I could do this by adding a simple hardened washer over the studs allowing the retainer nuts to clamp the whole stack together (without the clutch disc).

I eliminated the exhaust vanos hub so it was possible to install the intake vanos and make the appropriate adjustments to the cam timing as well.

It turned out that the M54 vanos gear stack was a tight fit but did have enough clearance when fully assembled so no modifications were necessary on the outer retainer plate. I've attached a pic to basically show what I did.



I installed the vanos (after rebuilding it with Beisan Systems' single vanos rebuild kit and rattle fix).

It was a lot tougher to get move the clutch without a tool to line up the vanos gear; As is the procedure. The up-shot was that the 2mm extra on the inner vanos gear made that whole 'make sure sprocket is spun all-the-way over' fiddling unnecessary as the gears were already lined up.

I made up for the fiddling issue with my new exhaust side modification. LOL.

I finished up by advancing the intake ≈3.5º to put the opening timing where I wanted it by removing cam retainer block from the intake and measuring it with a dial angle gauge on a long shaft wrench. Not super accurate but slightly advanced none-the-less. I tightened all the nuts with blue loctite. I torqued the retainer nuts to 15nm (vs. 10nm).

I then removed the timing block and pin and cycled the engine to make sure there wasn't any apparent binding. And installed the 3 torx retainer bolts on the exhaust gear/sprocket/shim stack. My hope was to lock together the main sprocket shims and give the retainer nuts less to do.

I buttoned everything back up with marginal confidence and put my hand on the ignition with a hair of trepidation. But I forged ahead and it started right up!

[janithdg]

Thanks (6 yrs. later) for this post. I recently did this swap on my M52b28 and figured it may be worth while to post what I did to this thread:

It was fun but also a bit nerve-racking as I could only find a couple references to people that had swapped in the intake side (as in this thread) but I found no references to swapping in the exhaust side. I had to be the guinea pig for this one. Here's what I did:

In the OEM cam specs thread I outline the cam specs which is why I landed on attempting this swap. In short, the stock M52b28 cam specs are:

M52B28 // int: 230º(9.0mm) // open:1º close:49º // exh: 228º(9.0mm) // open:39º close:9º

While the M54b30 cams are:

M54b30 // int: 240º(9.7mm) // open:-6º close:66º // exh: 244º(9.0mm) // open:47º close:17º

I think the values speak for themselves. As part of my plan I also thought I should try to retain the opening cam timing of the M52b28 so I advanced the intake cam by 3.5º upon making the final vanos gear installation. I'll get to that later in the post.

For those who are new to this concept, there is a minor tweak to make to the inner vanos gear of the M54 intake cam so it will work well with the M52 vanos hub gear. Basically, it's necessary to cut ≈5mm of the end of the gear so it clears the inside of the vanos hub during vanos actuation. I've attached a pic of what I mean. On the left is the M54 cam with the clipped inner vanos gear; The left is the M52. Try to make it just a mm or two longer than the stock m52 gear. It's pretty easy.



Then all of the M52 cam gear assembly bolts directly onto the now modified M54 cam. Drop it in and done. Fits right into the same lifter tray.

With that done I moved to the exhaust cam. The challenge here is the M54 exhaust cam uses a vanos cam gear assembly with a clutch plate, just like the M52 intake vanos cam gear set. It uses 3 retention studs, also like the M52. The problem is the M52 exhaust cam and gear uses 4 bolts.

After a few sleepless nights of pondering I landed on a plan to attempt to simply lock the stack of gears that are part of the M54 cam gear assembly so it doesn't spin. That way it would act in a similar fashion to the single-vanos setup.

In the end I decided to lock the assembly together using the three, outer most retainer nuts. I discovered that I could do this by adding a simple hardened washer over the studs allowing the retainer nuts to clamp the whole stack together (without the clutch disc).

I eliminated the exhaust vanos hub so it was possible to install the intake vanos and make the appropriate adjustments to the cam timing as well.

It turned out that the M54 vanos gear stack was a tight fit but did have enough clearance when fully assembled so no modifications were necessary on the outer retainer plate. I've attached a pic to basically show what I did.



I installed the vanos (after rebuilding it with Beisan Systems' single vanos rebuild kit and rattle fix).

It was a lot tougher to get move the clutch without a tool to line up the vanos gear; As is the procedure. The up-shot was that the 2mm extra on the inner vanos gear made that whole 'make sure sprocket is spun all-the-way over' fiddling unnecessary as the gears were already lined up.

I made up for the fiddling issue with my new exhaust side modification. LOL.

I finished up by advancing the intake ≈3.5º to put the opening timing where I wanted it by removing cam retainer block from the intake and measuring it with a dial angle gauge on a long shaft wrench. Not super accurate but slightly advanced none-the-less. I tightened all the nuts with blue loctite. I torqued the retainer nuts to 15nm (vs. 10nm).

I then removed the timing block and pin and cycled the engine to make sure there wasn't any apparent binding. And installed the 3 torx retainer bolts on the exhaust gear/sprocket/shim stack. My hope was to lock together the main sprocket shims and give the retainer nuts less to do.

I buttoned everything back up with marginal confidence and put my hand on the ignition with a hair of trepidation. But I forged ahead and it started right up!

are you certain about the m54b30 exhaust cam duration and rest of the specs,i did just the m54b30 intake cam swap, just by looking at the numbers it seems like by setting for stock cam positions, close to 60% reduction in valve overlap