Back in the E38 Game. Transmission Issues. $500 2001 740il Ressurection.

[purplecty]

Attachment 651346

It it should give you plenty of room to install the engine. I wouldn’t do it like all of the videos or forums I’ve seen without the front end removed. It’s only like 6 bolts to the frame supports and a couple more above, the hood latches and a couple connectors. Move the latches to the side, keeping the cable attached without pulling them off. It really wasn’t much at all. The only tricky part was what you asked about the condenser support and getting that rail above the track without disconnecting anything.

You can put the hood in service mode too...

[red740is]

[QUOTE=capnmoench;30052207]Attachment 632618

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E38 Much better looking vehicle in this picture than the thing behind it.

[capnmoench]

[QUOTE=red740is;30257807]

Attachment 632618

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E38 Much better looking vehicle in this picture than the thing behind it.

Hey! I like that one too! You just have to imagine if there was never an E38. It’s a state of mind thing. LOL.

[clarkitect]

Hey! I like that one too! You just have to imagine if there was never an E38. It’s a state of mind thing. LOL.

[capnmoench]

Hahaha! Perfect!

[capnmoench]

Delayed today getting the boat ready for fishing. Not that I’ve been super hot on this project start to finish. Anyone that’s done timing chains, guides and the Beisan VANOS rebuild? I was wondering if you all changed your distribution piece on a newer than 1999 vehicle or just left the originals in there. I don’t think I’m going to do anything with mine since it’s a 00’ build date, and already supposedly has the updated part.

[clarkitect]

I did this twice on 2001 MY engines and didn’t change any of those parts. I really had an internal debate about whether or not to change at least the gaskets.

I did change the vanos check valves this most recent time but honestly they seemed perfectly fine. Probably could have cleaned, changed the O rings, and reinstalled.

[capnmoench]

I did this twice on 2001 MY engines and didn’t change any of those parts. I really had an internal debate about whether or not to change at least the gaskets.

I did change the vanos check valves this most recent time but honestly they seemed perfectly fine. Probably could have cleaned, changed the O rings, and reinstalled.

Thanks, man. Yeah, this is a bonus build on the cheap kind of thing. Maybe what you might call an “experiment”. Being a mechanic in aviation, I tend to go overboard and as soon as I start digging, the next thing you know I have a new motor or whatnot. I’m looking at cheap, but reliable and also it’s what I like doing. Fixing stuff. I do need boundaries on this one though. I’ve been putting off painting the house since last year. $500 car: I gotta keep that in mind. I already got my money out of it the couple weeks or so I drove it to work while I did the trans valve body, drive shaft bearing, CV joint and control arms on the E66. That was delayed when they sent the wrong upper rear guide arms and when they left a seal out of the trans kit.

[capnmoench]

Description search for a crank holder tool for this motor yielded me ordering the wrong one. Never trust search, look at the description. Duh.. No matter, helpful past forum threads showed me that a piece of angle iron should do it. It worked. I also did it with a 1/2” breaker bar and jack handle with only an hour soak with PB Blaster. I wouldn’t suggest using 1/2” but my 27 mm socket is 1/2” and I don’t think an adapter from a 3/4” breaker bar would have handled the torque. Unfortunately, I broke my coolant “junction” at the trans cooler. The plastic was brittle and when I tried to move the hose from the water pump out of the way, it snapped the bastard. Now the decision is whether to steal the one off of the donor car or order a new on at what seems to be the tune of close to $190. That’s a lot for a piece of plastic. The other one might be just as brittle though.



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[capnmoench]

Turns out it’s the coolant regulator. $105. I just ordered one. Add that to the tab.

[capnmoench]

Ok. All is accessed. Yes, it’s the timing chain guide making all of the ruckus. No plastic left at all on the center guide. It looks like someone already did the half gasket trick on this for the lower timing cover. I shall seal the crap out of it. My oil pump chain seems rather loose. Any clue how tight it should be? I really don’t want to replace it, but it’s a “Hey, since you’re in there.” sort of thing if it’s too loose. I would say it’s between 1/4” and 1/2” slack side to side.

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[clarkitect]

Oil pump chain tension is 10mm total side to side, not 10mm each way. It's seems really tight when you get it to spec.

To tension it take out the front passenger side mounting bolt for the oil pump and insert an 8mm allen head socket and turn until it's tight.



And I wouldn't replace the chain. It's perfectly fine.

[capnmoench]

Oil pump chain tension is 10mm total side to side, not 10mm each way. It's seems really tight when you get it to spec.

To tension it take out the front passenger side mounting bolt for the oil pump and insert an 8mm allen head socket and turn until it's tight.



And I wouldn't replace the chain. It's perfectly fine.

Thanks, man. Yeah it’s way looser. I didn’t know I could pull the slack out by adjusting. Will do!

[capnmoench]

Also, anyone know about the effect of lifters on the chain guides? I saw the note in another thread that lifters could cause premature guide wear and it was suggested to remove and inspect them all for sticking. I mean, this car has 196K miles, so it just may have been time for them to go, but since there was no tearing of the upper pan gasket and it looked like it was cut and repaired, I don’t know if anyone did them already. I see no reason why they would remove the lower timing cover without doing them unless maybe a leak.

[capnmoench]

Dang it. I finished all of my VANOS gears, resealed and pressed. One full turn on the press does it perfectly. No real drama except fitting the shafts back in the seals. One kept wanting to pop out of the plastic retainer. I massaged and heated it and finally got it going in consistently. Next issue was I had marked the VANOS shaft placement for balance, but I didn’t remember if it was in the retarded or advanced position when I marked it. I had rotated them back and forth to squeeze the oil out before marking. After a bit of panic, I found an archived post reply from Raj somewhere hidden in e38.org. He mentioned to someone that had wiped their mark off, that the helical gears are not concentric throughout and to see which are worn. I marked the spaces between the missing teeth on the shaft, set the shaft on the gear in place at my mark at both the retarded and advanced positions. In the retarded position, I lined it up, then rotated to expose the gear. I was able to match up the worn teeth, see what teeth still had mill marks, and found that I had marked it in the advanced position. Another issue was my cheap solenoid socket. It was milled shitty and got stuck on the solenoid. When I tried to reverse it and unstick it, it rotated the housing of the solenoid separate of the body. Now I’ll have to steal one from the donor. Last issue and the reason this started with “Dang it.” is I started removing chain guides and wanted to replace them one at a time. I was stoked I was going back together with it. I hunted through my parts boxes and what do you know, No chain guides. No seals, no gaskets. Missing a kit that says it was delivered. I did some tracking and found out it was in fact delivered......to Kansas. Wrong state! Now I guess I have a lot of time on my hands to clean mating surfaces, strip and paint valve covers and stare at my German technical marvel while drinking beer. Despite the setbacks, I’m still feeling pretty good about it and appreciate the help. Thanks everyone!

[capnmoench]

Cost update is I’m about $1500 into the car. That includes both vehicles, parts, fluid, special tools. Still not too shabby since I could have easily spent $4K on another e38 and had these exact issues in as little as 10 miles after I bought it. Time counter working on it is about 24 hours total actual labor.

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I need to start parting out the donor for super cheap prices on everything. Undercut the competition and make some money back, but I’m not quite ready until I have everything I want from it. It even had PDC and the rebuild car doesn’t. I don’t know if I want to go through the hassle of retrofitting that though.

[clarkitect]

I’m sure you’ll find plenty of odds and ends to keep you busy. Cleaning greasy nasty parts is half the job!

[georgebest]

Cost update is I’m about $1500 into the car. That includes both vehicles, parts, fluid, special tools. Still not too shabby since I could have easily spent $4K on another e38 and had these exact issues in as little as 10 miles after I bought it. Time counter working on it is about 24 hours total actual labor.

That sounds about right for the job. I have replaced all sensors too (camshaft, crankshaft, knock) and the VANOS solenoids & some other stuff and it came out around $2,500 eventually. It's well worth the investment for me since I'm using it daily. You can probably do it anywhere between $800 & $4,000 depending on what you replace.

[capnmoench]

That sounds about right for the job. I have replaced all sensors too (camshaft, crankshaft, knock) and the VANOS solenoids & some other stuff and it came out around $2,500 eventually. It's well worth the investment for me since I'm using it daily. You can probably do it anywhere between $800 & $4,000 depending on what you replace.

That does include the cars too. Not just parts. That was a car with a good transmission and whatever else I break plus the $500 project.. The parts for the job were about $700.

[georgebest]

That does include the cars too. Not just parts. That was a car with a good transmission and whatever else I break plus the $500 project.. The parts for the job were about $700.

That is impressive, probably $700 is the bare minimum.

[capnmoench]

That is impressive, probably $700 is the bare minimum.

I did a lot of shopping around and research. Nothing really OEM, but a lot of OEM manufacturer except the timing chain guides are actual BMW. I don’t want to go back in there. The chains are IWIS, which it seems ECS and FCP seem to approve of. All of my gaskets are Reinz and the power steering hoses too. I don’t know if Reinz is the OEM for the hoses, but they are for a lot of other parts like the gaskets. i didn’t buy marked up parts though, just found them the cheapest. Probably why my chain and guide set is in Kansas. I will confess that I bought a cheap timing tool set too. If all goes to hell, I can get a “I told you so”. I think I did say that I wanted to use this as a test bed on here or maybe just to folks I know for aftermarket parts, not the cheap cheap shit, just what seems not Chinese bottom of the barrel. Just not in this case for inside the motor. Too much work. I’m already using Maxlife in the trans because what I pulled was red. From whenever whomever did what to it. It does shift and work like it’s supposed to though. No delay, no slop. FDNR, no bump, just squats. 200K: start the clock. Hoping the knock sound was just VANOS. Sounds like the lower engine though. It’s not bad, but I hear it.

[georgebest]

I did a lot of shopping around and research. Nothing really OEM, but a lot of OEM manufacturer except the timing chain guides are actual BMW. I don’t want to go back in there. The chains are IWIS, which it seems ECS and FCP seem to approve of. All of my gaskets are Reinz and the power steering hoses too. I don’t know if Reinz is the OEM for the hoses, but they are for a lot of other parts like the gaskets. i didn’t buy marked up parts though, just found them the cheapest. Probably why my chain and guide set is in Kansas. I will confess that I bought a cheap timing tool set too. If all goes to hell, I can get a “I told you so”. I think I did say that I wanted to use this as a test bed on here or maybe just to folks I know for aftermarket parts, not the cheap cheap shit, just what seems not Chinese bottom of the barrel. Just not in this case for inside the motor. Too much work. I’m already using Maxlife in the trans because what I pulled was red. From whenever whomever did what to it. It does shift and work like it’s supposed to though. No delay, no slop. FDNR, no bump, just squats. 200K: start the clock. Hoping the knock sound was just VANOS. Sounds like the lower engine though. It’s not bad, but I hear it.

IWIS is great for chain, I have bought original and "OEM" guides, I think the "OEM" was by FEBI but not sure. They were definitely not the same so I rather put in the original and sent back the "OEM". I have never had a leak with Reinz gaskets, put it everywhere on my engine.
I'd bet that all the timing tools are coming out from the same factory in Taiwan, have seen three different brands and they were all exactly the same, same package and everything.

[capnmoench]

IWIS is great for chain, I have bought original and "OEM" guides, I think the "OEM" was by FEBI but not sure. They were definitely not the same so I rather put in the original and sent back the "OEM". I have never had a leak with Reinz gaskets, put it everywhere on my engine.
I'd bet that all the timing tools are coming out from the same factory in Taiwan, have seen three different brands and they were all exactly the same, same package and everything.

Nice! If I get another 30K out of it it’ll be awesome. Backup vehicle and a commuter. Plus, good shape, new coil overs, radiator and the easy to reach hoses, overflow bottle and control arms from the previous owner. Worse case scenario, the motor in the other car has no noise other than the timing chain marbles. Stash that shortblock in the shed. Transfer everything over if things go awry. Still selling most of it. Keeping my headliner, engine, one VANOS solenoid and I have the slipping trans. I want to offload the beyrns (non staggered 18”) but want wheels so I can still roll it. Parts available now, but I don’t want to allocate labor to it too much until the other car is done.

[capnmoench]

Removed, washed and installed new seals on the intake manifold. I found the tube for the crank case vent valve cracked. The flex portion of the tube was shot too. Replaced all of that including the valve since there was a bit of oil in the intake. and cleaned the intake ports and and carbon or dirt that fell into the valves, changed coolant transfer pipe O-rings, stripped and painted the valve covers. All of the gasket sealing areas, oil pan, upper and lower, valve covers are clean. Oil pump chain was on its way before I could cancel, so I changed it. Cleaned all of the plastic out of the oil intake screen. Now on hold for parts. Not much else I can do unless anyone is aware of anything else I’m missing. Anyone have a part number for the little yellow retainers on the back of the intake manifold? I had one that wasn’t behaving and it’s a bit marred up. Thanks!

[capnmoench]

Guides and seal kit are sitting at a UPS hub 10 miles away that happens to be closed on Saturday. There’s no way I’m getting this stuff this weekend. Also, my Jesus bolt and alternator O-ring are lost in the mail. I replaced all of the filter baskets in the injectors and installed new O-rings and that’s about as far as I can go. Business these days is a joke sometimes. There used to be a thing called “customer service”. First place shipped my parts to the wrong state. When I asked them to expedite the replacement, they said, “Oh, we can do ground. Air would be expensive.” I said, “How is that my problem? I was supposed to have the parts a week ago. You made the mistake, mistakes hurt and that’s how you learn. Expedite it. I would like it before the weekend” Well, they shipped it regular ground.