M54 main timing chain and sproket wont fit on cam

[bistromath42]

You guys have been amazing to me over the last few years. every problem this car could have you guys have had a post on it and how to fix it resulting in me never having to post cause you guys have had all the solutions. The knowldge I have gained her has changed my carrer as I am currently in school to be a auto service tech. I have now come to an issue that has stumped all my friends who happen to be professional techs, nor can I find any such post on her or in realtion to the m54 on any lesser model. So her is the story.

Its an 03 530i/5 with lets say 190k it devolped a massive water leak and although she never over heated once on me I am the 6th onwer on this car so I don't know about the past but I have owned since 125K. I tracked the leak down to the timing cover and since I didn't want to deal with no timing tools and I needed to fix the drain plug I took the pan off to get to the timing cover and thats when i realized that it was a head gasket. The next morning states began lock down and I was like well order a head gasket when I got word that there was no class to go home to. Well I took the head to the local small town machine shop and they said it was fine no need to take any thing off it they just cleaned it and left the valve stem job for me to do cause I sure as hell had noting better to do and was enjoying the experence. So finally got the head all back together with my lifters all clean and working everyone torqued down to the bently manual specs to the letter of the law! I go to do step 1 of timing putting the chain on the main sprocket then sliping that up onto the exhaust cam and its to short. I tried everything and a few things I do not want to admit to. I then remember I had bought the extra thich HG thinking I was getting the head scrapped got a proper OEM spec HG from fel pro new bolts and washers again, got it on torqued to the tee and the excat same issue. the chain tensioner is sitting on the workbench and the tension is to much to allow the sprocket over the exhasut cam shaft so WTF did I do wrong? do I just need to go make the machine shop shave my head? or light a match and find another e39? Which I do not want to do cause in the cronana down time I also redid the front and rear end jobs completly new and better suspension componets from bumper to bumper the only thing not sorted on this car will be oil rings and the drive shaft issues I haven't found yet. I got new non leaking steering parts and a refreshed cooling system hell I even repaired my pixels on my summer vacation but I cant get her timed. Would a bad set of timing guides cause this issue? I guess I am gonna tear down to the pan so I can see wtf the chain is doing but I have turned the crank a few times and the chains length has not changed. I got timing toolkit a complete one and nothing in there is going to stretch the timing chain so please either find me an r2 unit I can send to get a message to Genral kanobi cause I do not know where to turn other than tatooine and maybe a bong hit. Please help us you're our only hope.

[osc911]

Have you seen the stuff on YouTube by 50skid? I used this to reset timing after a vanos seal job on an M52TUB28 which is identical in this respect.

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[bistromath42]

yeah sure have watched it many times and I was devastated when he just slipped his sprocket righ over the cam with out a word of what to do if its difficult it was then that I had a feeling this was gonna be a big problem for me. Thanks for the thought.

[osc911]

Sorry to say this but the procedure was exactly the same for me. I can't see how the bottom sprocket would slip, but I think you need to go down there and check the guides ok the way. You have removed both tensioners right?

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[bistromath42]

By both you mean the one on the block above the ac condenser and the one in between the cams then yes if there is another tensioner that would be news to me.

[bistromath42]

The taller guide was busted at the stud leaving me a nice bolt to extract. Break out the emergency Ham it’s gonna be a fun night!

[osc911]

By both you mean the one on the block above the ac condenser and the one in between the cams then yes if there is another tensioner that would be news to me.

Correct

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[osc911]

The taller guide was busted at the stud leaving me a nice bolt to extract. Break out the emergency Ham it’s gonna be a fun night!

At least you found the problem. Good work.

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[bistromath42]

Now I fixed the problem also first time to takle the vanos timing.

[osc911]

Do you have the timing tool

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[effduration]

The taller guide was busted at the stud leaving me a nice bolt to extract. Break out the emergency Ham it’s gonna be a fun night!

Okay, so the left (exhaust) side timing guide which is plastic broke at the pin it sits on? Or did the pin itself break. Is that why the chain wouldn't fit? I wonder what it took to break the pin if that's what happened. I would have thought the timing guide would break long before the pin.

[bistromath42]

Both the timing chain guide and the stud that holds it in place broke as to why... my best guess is that the crank pin wasn’t installed when the Jesus bolt was removed by my well intentioned step dad while I was out looking for bits to make a ball joint removing tool. That’s my guess but I have no evidence to support that

[Slixk555]

Can you please send a pic, does this means i have to go deeper in the bottom part of engine??

[Slixk555]

The taller guide was busted at the stud leaving me a nice bolt to extract. Break out the emergency Ham it’s gonna be a fun night!

So Ive been reading this through my this for weeks now trying to figure out what i do wrong i did the same exact job as you and got the same issue knowing i didn’t do none wrong. My cam guides are flushed which means laying flat i even tried to sand down the cam guide because my timing chain is not hung up for sure because its the same length as i detached everything im lost here can you give some advice?