My Turn, Probable TCG Failure 2000 540iT (Long Post)

[msvphoto]

The patient is a 2000 540iT we bought about 2 1/2 years ago to replace my wife's totaled Volvo 2001 S40. Long story short, it is my car now that she has an eGolf that accounts for probably around 80% of all our combined miles driven. I drive it to work a couple days a week and it is our "range extender" for going out of town. We are the second owners and the overall condition, except a couple small dents on the right rear corner, is really good for a 20 year old car. Thanks to doing well with the Volvo settlement we only have around $3-3.5k total in this car including all the work I have done to it over the past 2 1/2 years. Work I have done to date includes: all PS system hoses and reservoir, Rear Air Springs, Front Control and Thrust Arms, Tires, Trannie Juice change w/filter, plus a few minor things and routine maintenance. Overall it has been a good car and we love it. My wife is pretty insistent we fix it. The alternative is I sell my garage queen Audi UrQuattro to fund buying something newer but that car was supposed to be my coffin someday when I "had to have it" 16 years ago now. I am also not super enthused by recent offerings from Audi or BMW so there's that.

Pretty sure I experienced TCG fail yesterday on the way home from work. Not a huge surprise given the car has almost 176k miles, I knew this day would be here sooner or later. Of course, like anyone I hoped for later but here we are.

Car ran fine yesterday morning driving to work. No bad noises, smooth, normal. Started the engine to go home and was immediately greeted with a SES light and some roughness, somewhat like a misfire episode I went through a couple years ago. On the way home (~7 mile drive) I noticed the engine feeling rougher and staring to make less than wonderful noises. By the time I got home there was a fairly pronounced rattle in the front of the engine along with running bretty rough. Dragged out the old laptop to have a little chat with the DME via INPA and found the following error codes:

141, aux fan, has been throwing this code intermittently a while now but the fan runs most of the time and the car doesn't overheat. On my to-do list.

136, Throttle Emergency Operation. Hmmm, haven't seen that one before.

80, Aux Air bank 1. Seems to be a new development but probably not germain to this discussion.

81, same as above, bank 2.

213, Knock Sensor 4. Also have 210 Knock Sensor 1. Suspect disintegrating wire at connector, had the same issue on bank two not long ago. Could also be picking up the bad noises, but either way probably not the cause of what's going on now.

33, Inlet Cam Bank 1, aka the bad news based on what I have found so far from doctor google.

F6/Analog 3 shows "rough" (I didn't need a computer to tell me that) with the >1k (w/exclamation point) counters on cylinders 1, 5, and 2.

So, even though I have done a lot of reading on this and pretty much know what I'm in for, I still have questions.

1. What are the chances with the distance I drove (~7 miles) combined with the above analog 3 readings it is game over? (In other words could valves already have hit pistons in 1, 2, and 5?)

2. Can I still do compression testing semi safely w/fuel pump fuse pulled? (Anything else I need to know on that?)

3. How many hours on average should I plan for this endeavour? Planning to do top of motor stuff too such as valley pan, IM gaskets, CCV, cooling system stuff, etc. My wrenching skills are solid, having been doing most my own work for more than 40 years now. I have most everything I need tool-wise except the timing tools and the crank lock. The downside is my physical health isn't great. Mostly spine stuff combined with being 61 years old. I managed to do control and thrust arms a couple weeks back but it kicked my butt and took longer than it should have I think. I probably can't do more than 4-5 hours at a time. I thought about taking a week off work, but I think it best I stretch this out over several weeks. Also, my daughter is getting married in two weeks so this won't start until close to end of May.

First steps will be drop the oil pan and look for the inevitable. Assuming I can still get meaningful readings with reasonable safety of no further damage, do compression test to make sure I don't already have a dead engine. Do the soul searching of do I really want another lost summer of no time to sail, etc.? (Last summer was all about ankle surgery and recovery.)

I also will call my friend who owns a local BMW indy shop here in Santa Cruz to see what he would charge me and/or if I can maybe rent/borrow the timing and crank lock tools. I that doesn't pan out, anyone in the SF Bay Area with tools they would be willing to rent? If not I'll probably rent (or maybe buy) the G.A.S. tools.

[msvphoto]

Quick update...

Back from traveling to our daughter's wedding last week and started to dig deeper this past weekend. Confirmed guide debris in oil pan. Compression is good on all cylinders. Didn't bother with accuracy because readings were cold and my old Snap On compression test kit needs some new o-rings. None below 165psi so I think I'm okay there (car starts and runs, albeit not smooth like before). Spent a little while Sunday pulling off some hoses and the radiator. About 4 hours in so far all told.

Plans are to go for it and I will no doubt have questions along the way. Have read many threads and watched a lot of videos to build confidence and familiarity. Discovered my most accurate torque wrench (an old Snap On rebuilt recently by Precision Instruments who actually made it) only torques CW so add another new tool to the needs list.

If anyone in the SF Bay Area has timing tools and/or crank lock tool to loan it would be wonderful, PM me or reply to this message if you do.

Plans are now to try and have this wrapped up in a few weeks, time permitting.

[JimLev]

Subscribed.
165 PSI is fine seeing you probably have some leaks.
Post a few pics of your progress.
A crank holder can be fabricated from a 2+ foot long piece of angle iron. Drill some holes in it and bolt it to the crank flange once you remove the harmonic balancer.
I use a 3/4" breaker bar with my floor jack handle on it to remove and install the 27mm crank bolt. Some have used 1/2" drive, if your lucky it might not snap off at the joint.

[msvphoto]

Subscribed.
165 PSI is fine seeing you probably have some leaks.
Post a few pics of your progress.
A crank holder can be fabricated from a 2+ foot long piece of angle iron. Drill some holes in it and bolt it to the crank flange once you remove the harmonic balancer.
I use a 3/4" breaker bar with my floor jack handle on it to remove and install the 27mm crank bolt. Some have used 1/2" drive, if your lucky it might not snap off at the joint.

Thank you for weighing in Jim. I have watched your timing videos a couple of times in addition to reading many threads on this so I am feeling pretty confident. I will definitely take some pictures along the way and add to this thread. Hopefully all goes smoothly.

On compression, I was mostly checking to make sure there was no valve damage which I assumed would be a dead cylinder or close to zero psi. Between the leaks in my Snap On old test kit (I hadn't needed to run compression on an engine for years now), oil from VC leaks getting into the cylinders prior to testing, and a cold engine I was not expecting accurate results but here are the numbers I recorded (all in psi):

1 = 160
2 = 175
3 = 165
4 = 175
5 = 190
6 = 180
7 = 185
8 = 195

I would like to see less variance, but again this was not a super accurate test so I think I'm okay. I checked #1 twice and it refused to go any higher so a bit of a concern but I can't imagine it pumping up that high with valve damage.

I have done a several timing belt jobs on Audi I5s (among others) over the years which also have an ultra-tight crank bolt. On those I used a Snap On 1/2" drive breaker bar with a four foot pipe and haven't broken it yet. Fingers crossed. May also try air impact for removal, but I still want to properly torque the new bolt on reassembly so I feel a counterhold tool is still needed (wish it wasn't a stretch bolt). Good advice on fabricating one.

Plans are to have vanosman rebuild the Vanos gears. Your description of breaking a bench vice swayed my decision to farm that out. I'll probably be renting the G.A.S. tools from vanosman unless I can borrow timing tools from my friend who owns a local shop.

Working on a huge FCP order and getting my ducks in a row now.

[R Shaffner]

Sending PM about tools I have you might want to use.

[msvphoto]

Thank you R Shaffner for the tool use.

I made good progress over the weekend. Still need to remove timing chain covers but most all else is off and out of the way.

Waiting for tools to arrive later this week before removing the "jesus bolt" (JB) and removing the lower TC cover this coming weekend.

Questions on the JB removal and TDC locking work sequence:

I assume I do not set the engine to #1 TDC compression when initially loosening the JB?

Once the bolt is loosened I temporarily reinstall the harmonic balancer (HB), rotate engine (clockwise) to #1 TDC compression, install pin to lock the flex plate (slushbox car), install cam locks, and then remove the JB (which should not be very tight) and the HB?

That is what makes logical sense to me, but I wanted to verify I have that right.

Also, does the power steering pump need to be removed? It doesn't appear (yet) to be in the way but in some DIYs I see it removed. Same question for the AC compressor.

[dannyzabolotny]

Yes, that is correct. Loosen the crank bolt first, then set the engine to TDC and lock the crank/cams. You don't want to put much force on the crank locking pin, it will shear.

The power steering pump needs to be removed from the lower timing cover, which is very easy as it's just two bolts in the front (either 13mm or Allen bolts) and one 13mm nut in the back. You can then let it hang down without disconnecting the lines— no mess that way.

As for the AC compressor, it doesn't get in the way at all so just leave it where it is.

[msvphoto]

Thank you for the confirmation and clarification Danny.

I thought I was on the right track loosening JB first followed by setting TDC and locking everything but wanted a reality check. That is my workflow doing Audi timing belts but this is a different beast.

I wasn't sure about the PS pump because I didn't clean the grunge down there enough to confirm yet, but good to know for sure and a simple step. Good to know the AC compressor can stay put.

[JimLev]

The crank flange has a key (don't loose it) in it so you may need to tap it a bit if it's stuck to the crank.
Don't forget about the bolts going up from the inside of the lower oil pan that go into the bottom of the lower timing cover (LTC), there is also one bolt on the outside of the oil pan too.
If your having trouble pulling the LTC off get on the lower back side and tap on it to move it forward and off the two lower alignment pins. Don't pull on it from the top.
There are a lot of bolts holding the LTC on, different lengths and sizes, it's helpful to get a piece of cardboard to draw the shape of the LTC, then just push the bolts thru the cardboard in the correct location.

[msvphoto]

Thank you Jim. All excellent advice, very much appreceated. I thought there might be a woodruff key on the crank (there is one on Audis also) so I'll be on the lookout for that to be sure not to loose it.

Mostly easy wrenching so far actually. These cars were obviously designed to be worked on (but so different from the BMW 2002s I learned how to work on cars with years ago). I know there will be some rough patches ahead but so far so good.

[dannyzabolotny]

As long as you stay organized and clean everything as you go, you'll be fine. The M62tu was the first engine I ever worked on, with chain guides literally being the first job I ever did on one. Thanks to Jim and the other friendly fellows on this forum, I was able to get it done despite having almost zero prior experience turning wrenches. At this point I've done 19 chain guide jobs, so it's been quite the rabbit hole indeed.

[msvphoto]

Progress update: Almost all torn down. Jesus Bolt was a challenge (see post in recent Jesus Bolt thread for the gory details). Let's just say a counterhold tool, 3/4" breaker bar, socket, and pipe are required (unless you have shop air flow and a really powerful air impact).

Everything is pinned and locked at TDC now. (Love the G.A.S. tools, thank you again RS!) Vanos gears removed and off in the mail to vanosman for rebuilding today. Still need to remove lower timing case and valley pan. A whole lot of parts cleaning ahead of me. Probably should have done more cleaning as I go but what's left in the engine bay is pretty clean now.

FCP order should be here later this week. Contemplating changing the radiator. Everything else in the cooling system will be new. Radiator is not original to the car (2000 model year). It has BMW logos and a 2004 date code, and appears to be in good shape, but it is older.

Probably will do final assembly weekend of 6/22 -23. I will get some pictures posted of progress eventually.

[MotorMouth93]

Might be good to do an 88C thermostat while everything is apart, it should improve the life of cooling components.

[adriankeith]

Bummer you're not in SoCal. I would have been more than happy to lend you a hand with it. I have a 2001 540i that I'm sure will need to have this done soon and I need to build up the knowledge to do so. Looking forward to the rest of this thread.

[msvphoto]

Bummer you're not in SoCal. I would have been more than happy to lend you a hand with it. I have a 2001 540i that I'm sure will need to have this done soon and I need to build up the knowledge to do so. Looking forward to the rest of this thread.

Thank you for the thought. I would not turn away help at this point but we are a few hundred miles apart. It has been very slow going because physically I am not able to wrench more than around 3 - 4 hours a day. Yesterday I turned the corner by installing the first new parts (valley pan). Just checking in and organizing the monster parts order from FCP took over an hour. Cleaning stuff is a large time suck with all the grunge from leaking oil from every crevice. Adding to the project are all the "while I'm there" things, the latest being it needs motor mounts and I may as well do the oil filter hose o-rings at the some time since I can see them so easily now.

Here is a pic from Saturday with everything apart and mostly cleaned up. Still have to clean a bunch of parts. Still have hopes of joy this coming weekend but next weekend is probably more realistic.

20190615_144246.jpg

[MotorMouth93]

Looks great so far! Cleaning is the most painful part of this process IMO, lots of gasket surfaces that need to be clean or else they'll leak.

Might be good to pull the VANOS oil distribution housings off to check for scoring if you aren't planning on it already.

[JimLev]

Yes, cleaning always seems to take longer than doing what you started off to do.
Looks nice and clean. What are your plans for that broken upper oil pan gasket?
Your Vanos distribution housings should be OK if you can see a black Teflon coating on the top outside of them. In '00 is when they started doing that.
Might be good to unscrew the vanos solenoids just to make sure the check valves behind them are clean.

Just looked at your pic again, had to tell if the upper part is coated due to the gold color from the oil.
What's your build date, maybe looking in RealOEM will show when the Teflon coated parts started.

[msvphoto]

Yes, cleaning always seems to take longer than doing what you started off to do.
Looks nice and clean. What are your plans for that broken upper oil pan gasket?
Your Vanos distribution housings should be OK if you can see a black Teflon coating on the top outside of them. In '00 is when they started doing that.
Might be good to unscrew the vanos solenoids just to make sure the check valves behind them are clean.

Just looked at your pic again, had to tell if the upper part is coated due to the gold color from the oil.
What's your build date, maybe looking in RealOEM will show when the Teflon coated parts started.

Thank you Jim. My plans for the upper oil pan gasket are glue it back with Permatex 85420 (Hylomar equivalent). I carefully saved the piece that broke off and it is bagged now. Question, do I leave the top surface of the gasket dry so the Lower Timing Cover will slide in place over the dowel pins?

The distribution housings do appear to have the Teflon coating. Agreed, hard to see in the pictures but it appears they have the darker color at the top indicating Teflon.

Solenoids are pulled now. I hadn't yet when I took this picture. They needed to come out anyway for the G.A.S. trigger wheel jigs. I will inspect/clean the check valves before putting the solenoids back in.

- - - Updated - - -

Looks great so far! Cleaning is the most painful part of this process IMO, lots of gasket surfaces that need to be clean or else they'll leak.

Might be good to pull the VANOS oil distribution housings off to check for scoring if you aren't planning on it already.

Thank you for the reminder. Picture was before I pulled that area apart so I guess not exactly all the way torn down (but close!).

Gasket surfaces are a major pain to get clean. Getting there...

[JimLev]

Thank you Jim. My plans for the upper oil pan gasket are glue it back with Permatex 85420 (Hylomar equivalent). I carefully saved the piece that broke off and it is bagged now. Question, do I leave the top surface of the gasket dry so the Lower Timing Cover will slide in place over the dowel pins?

Mine broke into 3 pieces.
I cleaned everything with acetone then put a very thin coat on the upper oil pan gasket area and another very thin coat on the bottom side of the gasket pieces. Also a big dab in the corners where the upper pan meets the block.
After the solvent flashed off I put the pieces in place.
A little later I did the same to the top surface of the gasket and bottom of the lower timing cover.
Next I started to slide the lower timing cover in place. One of my gasket pieces started to move in toward the engine.
With the lower oil pan off I could reach in and push the gasket back into place so the bolt holes would align.

With only one piece to put back you might not to do what I did.
Good luck with the rest of the job.

[msvphoto]

Mine broke into 3 pieces.
I cleaned everything with acetone then put a very thin coat on the upper oil pan gasket area and another very thin coat on the bottom side of the gasket pieces. Also a big dab in the corners where the upper pan meets the block.
After the solvent flashed off I put the pieces in place.
A little later I did the same to the top surface of the gasket and bottom of the lower timing cover.
Next I started to slide the lower timing cover in place. One of my gasket pieces started to move in toward the engine.
With the lower oil pan off I could reach in and push the gasket back into place so the bolt holes would align.

With only one piece to put back you might not to do what I did.
Good luck with the rest of the job.

Thank you for the added details Jim. Excellent advice!

I had some idea what to do from reading your previous posts and others who tore the gasket. Great tip to reach from the bottom to keep the piece(s) from sliding. I have some fresh clean acid brushes to apply the stuff thin as you described in the Hylomar thread.

[msvphoto]

Project update: Not there yet, but made good progress this past weekend. Engine is timed. Did it twice per G.A.S. instructions and it was dead on both times so I think it should be good. The G.A.S. tools are a dream to work with and their work sequence instructions (along with Jim Lev's videos) were very helpful. Lower timing case is back on as of yesterday. With a little luck I should be done this coming weekend.

Decided to bite the bullet and take the valve covers in for powder coating today. Project is already _way_ over budget but they are so janky looking. Only one place in town will do magnesium and they want an arm and a leg. My other thought was remove the paint and treat them with Gibbs Penetrant http://www.roadsters.com/gibbs/ but I think powder coated will look better in the long run.

Question of the day: Should I use the Permatex 85420 (amazing stuff, it was awesome on the upper oil pan-to-lower timing cover gasket) on the valve covers at the half moons and Upper TC-to-head junctions, or hi temp RTV? The 85420 seems a little thin for that application.

[JimLev]

Question of the day: Should I use the Permatex 85420 (amazing stuff, it was awesome on the upper oil pan-to-lower timing cover gasket) on the valve covers at the half moons and Upper TC-to-head junctions, or hi temp RTV? The 85420 seems a little thin for that application.

I'd use the 85420, I did it to all my gaskets, no leaks.
If you think it's too thin just put it on a little thicker. Let it flash off before assembly.

[msvphoto]

I'd use the 85420, I did it to all my gaskets, no leaks.
If you think it's too thin just put it on a little thicker. Let it flash off before assembly.

Thank you again Jim for all your help and advice, greatly appreceated!

[scubajim20]

I'd use the 85420, I did it to all my gaskets, no leaks.
If you think it's too thin just put it on a little thicker. Let it flash off before assembly.

Hey Jim, The videos msv spoke of, were they just on threads in this forum or compiled somewhere else?

[JimLev]

Hey Jim, The videos msv spoke of, were they just on threads in this forum or compiled somewhere else?

The 540tu timing video I made was posted here, not sure about any others mvphoto was referring too.