New 525iT owner! need help with misfire!

[geargrinder]

Bummer but agree it's not looking promising. Agree that DISA looks newish. I'd get the valve cover off and see if you can eyeball anything, plus as menched already - get a borescope/inspect camera in there and see if you see anyfink...

[auaq]

Yeah, as mentioned before, pull the valve cover and turn the crank over, and watch the action of exhaust valve lifters. It's possible a small gap between the cam lobe and the lifter might already be present, and if not, then suspect a burned exhaust valve. Also, good idea to check on intake side too.

[Poolman]

There are diy's on youtube showing how to retime the cams. That would be the toughest part of taking the head off. just watched one this morning and looks doable, even by my feeble brain. The jigs and special tools needed are really the only obstacle , again , may be able to rent those.

[auaq]

I don't think he has a timing issue here. Most likely a burnt exhaust valve.

[Poolman]

Hmm, should have tried to be a bit more clear then. The toughest part about making the fix for the exhaust valve that, is probably burnt, would be to time the cam sprockets back into phase. Have checked into cost for the tools, that would run you around 130 bucks from ebay, then you would need new head gasket and head bolts, the bolts are one time use only. If you didn't have any problems with the engine over heating, wouldn't be too big a job. If the engine has over heated, you might have to have timeserts installed into the block to accept the new head bolts;. Thes blocks are known for head bolts stripping out when being torqued down,,that may happen with a heat damaged block.

[s14brent]

okay, so today was the first day off I had and went to a local pick and pull yard. They had put out an 04 330i a few days ago (car got t-boned). front end was missing, hood looked undamaged though. Someone was there before me and pulling out the radiator and clutch fan (which looked undamaged) So i'm thinking the motor wasn't shifted or damaged in accident. Power steering pump was removed, alternator was loose, waterpump and pulley got destroyed by the guys trying to remove the clutch fan. :: At least the thing had a shiny new belt tensioner!!



I'm thinking about picking it up for my touring. I know it's not looking like much here. but most of the stuff missing will be swapped with 2.5L stuff anyways. I will probably do a manual compression test just to make sure the #'s are relatively the same across the board before deciding.

I plan to use the 2.5 intake manifold/throttle body/ injectors, and other essential sensors. The part where I need help is about the valve cover. does the 2.5 valve cover fit the 3.0? Reason being is that my 2.5 is wired for the old style coil packs and this 04 has the thin plastic clipped ones. I know the m50/m52 is interchangeable. I'm guessing this is the same thing? There is a m54b25 there that i might swap the valve cover throttle body and intake manifold from just so I have the right parts/sensors from the start.



here's one from the other side. oil cap was put on from another car after this pic was taken, but it was probably only open since they put the car out a few days ago. not super worried.

[geargrinder]

I hate yard vulture a-holez.

Take anything and everything but don't trash crap you don't need "just because uh no reason", you goddamn F@$&&$&$ers.

Happens all the time at our local yards.

Look they even took the PS res cap which has ZERO value, and you know they didn't need it, but I'm sure fell into the "stick it in your pocket / bag, and steal it when we pay for the 1 big part" category. I swear our yards overcharge you for stuff sometimes just assuming you're stealing 5 little things at the same time.

Sounds plausible swap to me. You never really know w a junkyard engine unless it's just arrived and you get it before the car goes out to the yard and stops being startable. But it looks clean engine bay, might have been a well loved 330 until misfortune.

I thought the dual vanos heads were roughly the same but can't authoritatively comment on M52TU -> M54 VC compatibility. Honestly if it's just coils that are the issue, I'd prob source a new set of M54 and run everything for the new engine.

[s14brent]

Sounds plausible swap to me. You never really know w a junkyard engine unless it's just arrived and you get it before the car goes out to the yard and stops being startable. But it looks clean engine bay, might have been a well loved 330 until misfortune.

I thought the dual vanos heads were roughly the same but can't authoritatively comment on M52TU -> M54 VC compatibility. Honestly if it's just coils that are the issue, I'd prob source a new set of M54 and run everything for the new engine.

Agreed! I hope the manual crank-compression test will be a good enough test. I mean as long as one cyl isn't drastically lower at the same # of revolutions on the compression stroke I think will be fine. I'll take off the valve cover after and try to inspect it as best as I can. I can do a leak down test it as soon as I get it home - hopefully not too late!

as for the valve covers - i was asking about m54b25 vs m54b30. I made that post earlier without checking realoem. Looks like I can swap my b25 valve cover over no problem!

I just hope I can get there friday morning and i'm not still in a food coma!

[geargrinder]

Cool.. Good luck always good to see a good motor rescued from rusting to crap in some yard...

[s14brent]

Well this is how I spent my day. woke up early so i could grab the motor in hopes no more parts were pulled/destroyed on the motor. I brought a couple quarts of oil with me to do a hand-crank compression test. I did one compression stroke on each cyl and it was about 58-60psi across. After pulling the auto trans off it was apparent the rear main seal and housing looked brand new, and the intake valves are super clean. Waterpump and thermostat cavity are also brand new looking on the inside! I'm wondering if the motor was refreshed slightly before the crash.





and after getting it home



turned out to be $270 after tax. I'm pretty excited.

-I've been reading mixed reviews and could use some clarification. I'll be using the 2.5 injectors, intake, throttlebody, and maf. Do I need a tune or will stock dme suffice.

[geargrinder]

Cool deal. I said before that engine bay looked well cared for., so signs of good maint arent surprising. Isnt the 3.0 intake a little improved over the 2.5? Or am i thinking pre-TU to TU?

[auaq]

You cannot use an M52tu manifold on a M54 engine. They are different. Also, M54B2x has a smaller size intake tube and Maf sensor while the M54B30 is bigger. Keep that in mind.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't recall when did BMW changed the valve cover for M54 engines. I'm thinking it was in 2001 when they switched to the later one. If you had the later style then I'm not sure how you would go about using the older style vc since the newer ones have different plugs/connectors for pencil style ignition coils.

[Poolman]

Your installing a 3 liter engine, use the intake manifold and all the parts that you can. Evey thing will plug into your connectors, just like from your old engine. You did have a drive by wire throottle body didn't you, along with a double vanos? If so, use the parts from the 3 engine on your install, then have the DME reflashed for the 3 liter engine, and enjoy the extra 40 HP.

[blarf]

2004 US market E46 is probably going to be MS45.1, I think the E39s stuck with MS43 through the end. 3.0 units got more aggressive cams, bigger intake, air box, MAF and throttle body. So, you could swap over all the 2.5L bits from the E39 or you could just swap the sensors and buy a new MAF + intake hoses.

[jduffett]

I did M54B30 zhp in my 525iT after I burned a valve. I opted to keep the new style valve cover and coils from the 3.0, but you will need the ignition harness from the 3.0 as well if you do this. E46 will work, but is super long. The one you want is a later 530 harness. In either case, in my experience you need to splice one of the connectors (just 2 wires) from your old harness on to the new harness. Since you've got both VCs and presumably good coils from the 2.5, I'd probably just swap those in. Poolman and blarf are spot-on - you really want all the 3.0 intake stuff. Either the MS43 vs MS45.1 thing doesn't matter, or my 3.0 came out of an MS43 car, because I had no issues with all the 3.0 parts [edit - now that I think about it, I think I had to get a 530 MAF because of the MS45.1 thing]. I think I was able to re-use the bottom half of the 2.5 airbox and just swap the top half, if that helps. I used ZUSB 7545695 for USA 530i to July 02 when I flashed the DME, though if I was to do it again I might have looked into what euro ones might have been appropriate and ditched the SAP.
As luck would have it, a year later I'm troubleshooting another misfire, though this time it is cold-start only and goes away within the first minute of starting (if I clear the code).
Good luck!

[blarf]

All 3.0 motors used larger MAFs. MS43 and MS45.1 used different MAFs. I believe that the E46 switched to MS45.1 partway through the 2003 model year.

[s14brent]

Awesome! Thanks for all the input guys'! Who would you recommend for the dme reflash?

[jduffett]

I'd recommend you get the software (winkfp and all the other bimmer stuff) and cable and do it yourself...

[geargrinder]

Depending on how computer comfy you are, it's not that hard to do yourself. Getting the first setup working is he hardest part. - the flashing after is easy.

Yeah would seem a shame to not use the bigger intake improvements of the 3.0 once you've gone this far...

[s14brent]

Instead of making another thread to keep progress on the car, I figured I'll just post updates here.

I've just been collecting parts and working a bunch during this downtime. Turns out touring license plate lenses need to be ordered from Germany, and took almost a month to get here!! I only needed one, but when I found out it'd be a while I decided to order both to have a clean pair.



I also changed out the rear wiper arm and blade since both needed replacement. I also ordered new shocks for the lift gate & glass since mine were DOA. Figured out why my stereo didn't work, (it was saying AMP FAILURE) on the Pioneer headunit....turns out PO taped the stereo harness using electrical tape and nothing else (no crimps or solder) and get this...he couldn't even match up the aftermarket harness' colored wires correctly!! I crimped the improperly wired pair and tested the stereo. The car now has sound, but could use some serious audio upgrades. I'm most likely changing the head unit out again, so I will hold off on crimping the rest or soldering the harness. Here's a pic showing the previous owners handy work ::cringe::



I finally started to work on the M54b30. I took off the hard coolant pipes and took off the oil filter housing. Put a fresh gasket for the housing and replaced the hard coolant lines with new since the old ones basically crumbled apart on removal.





Moving on to the oil pan....I looked on real oem, and the oil pickup part #'s are different between the 330i and 530i (530/525 shared the same pn). I got a new o-ring and replaced the pickup for the 525 spare I got along with the oil pan. but they looked identical to me. :dontknow:



checked the oil pump nut, when trying to check torque - it definitely wasn't at spec so I tacked the oil pump nut because apparently it's still a problem on the m54's. (had to do the same thing with my s52 swapped e30)



oil pan went on next. all the bolts were cleaned up on a bench mounted wire wheel first.



Put in a new waterpump/thermostat. Used new grade 8.8 bolts/nuts. Replaced brittle plastic pulley with ECS aluminum pulley.




I located a m54b30 disa valve (long story short, i had grabbed the wrong disa valve the first time around) and replaced the flapper with German Auto Solutions aluminum upgrade kit.



Back to the front main seal was seeping so I tried to get the crank pulley off with my IR 1/2" impact. I soaked it in penetrating lubricant and had no luck. I ended up ordering a 1" impact from HF with a 25%off coupon. i ordered an 1" 22mm socket from amazon because it's a small size for 1" apparently. This thing is so amazing. Heavy as shit, but it took off the bolt in under 2.5 seconds!! unreal. New front seal was put in place and reinstalled the crank pulley. I'll have to torque it when the flywheel is on there.



and after way too long of cleaning the rtv off the disa valve, it's finally ready to go back into m54b30 intake.



A friend told me an 02' 530i got put out at the local pick a part so I went first chance I had and got me a few things. I could have easily transferred the parts off the current motor in the car right now, but all this stuff is cheap at the yard and is nice to knock out prior to pulling out the original motor and doing it all beforehand. Also felt this was a solid progress to end out 2016.

My 525i valve cover has a small chip on one of the thin tabs on the top (not structural at all, just annoying to look at) and my donor motor has the different ignition coil style, and on top of that the damn 330i cam cover fell off my work bench and cracked, so I decided to pull the valve cover and cam cover off of the junkyard car. I would have pulled a few sensors to swap over, but someone beat me to it and instead stripped all the bolts and broke all the clips....oh well! I'll just grab those off the motor in the wagon. It felt nice to put the valve cover on and seal it up vs putting a garbage bag over it. All new gaskets/grommets were used, and toyota fipg was applied around the halfmoons front and back and by the vanos




I took off the PS pump & brackets from the junkyard car also since it looked like it was in great shape. The motor doesn't look so bald anymore! And I finally got to mount the ECS aluminum PS pulley



and the 525i (junkyard car that I got the oilpan from) was still there but the block was sitting in front of the car this time around. Probably the last time it will be there! So I grabbed the ac mount which has the same style tensioner that I had purchased (I guess they changed after 09/2002. I changed the alternator tensioner to the older style which is the same part number as my S52 has. The newer version looks like what's currently used for the AC. The AC bracket is soo much easier to remove when the motor is out of the car. I also grabbed the 5 series motor mount arms since the 330i ones would be useless.




All parts & hardware were immediately degreased, pressure washed, and then cleaned up on a bench grinder with a wire wheel before installation.

I also forgot to mention I picked up an AFE intake for a 528i (e39) off craigslist for cheap! The heat shield should bolt up the same, but the maf connection is definitely different.



It did not come this clean, I promise you. (filter pic was post cleaning and pre-oil)



and I think I found a solution to fitting the larger 530i maf



That's all for now!! Just excited for progress!!

[auaq]

Nice work.

[geargrinder]

tidy! looks like great work. that's the kind of long slow prep i did putting my M62TU back together last month, cleaning and tidying and finding extra things to do (wait for more parts..., find new thing, order parts, wait for parts...) and trying to get all the cracks and crannies clean while I could get at them.

why did you need the junkyard motor mount arms - couldn't you just swap off the old motor? or was that another "lets me fully dress the motor before pulling the 25" thing?

those CAI's lie somewhere on the line between zero and negative performance add mods (don't tell the mom's-basement innerwebz shoppers, they saw the marketing copy that says "adds 7.36hp!", so it must be true!) , but they do look cool, and will add some cool noise when you get on it.

[s14brent]

Nice work.

Thanks!

tidy! looks like great work. that's the kind of long slow prep i did putting my M62TU back together last month, cleaning and tidying and finding extra things to do (wait for more parts..., find new thing, order parts, wait for parts...) and trying to get all the cracks and crannies clean while I could get at them.

why did you need the junkyard motor mount arms - couldn't you just swap off the old motor? or was that another "lets me fully dress the motor before pulling the 25" thing?

those CAI's lie somewhere on the line between zero and negative performance add mods (don't tell the mom's-basement innerwebz shoppers, they saw the marketing copy that says "adds 7.36hp!", so it must be true!) , but they do look cool, and will add some cool noise when you get on it.

Thanks man! The motor mount arms were $6ea and sitting right in front of me....figured why not? I know my driver side mount was pretty caked up from a PS leak, clean up time would be a lot faster mid swap for $12 (was my logic). Unfortunately the motor won't be fully dressed, I will need the AC compressor and alternator. I'm not sure how I'm going to do the ac compressor install. I am trying to not evacuate the system if possible, and would like to keep it hooked up in the car, maybe hanging.....and the alternator looks fairly new on my 525i, so I'll swap that over then install belts with the cooling system all out.

As for the CAI, i believe the 530i uses a different airbox than the 525, and I haven't been able to source one, the junkyard 530 had one but it was cracked in multiple spots.... so when this came up it was an easy decision at the price paid.

[auaq]

The 530i intake box is slightly bigger than the 525i including the Maf sensor and the intake boot/tube all the way to the throttle body. RealOEM confirms this.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/part...58&series=E39s.

[s14brent]

Found this at m5 rep bumper at the local yard today



Not much progress due to work, but I got my intake manifold back together with a new oil separator valve and cleaned out iacv, and throttle body, and rebuilt G.A.S. Disa valve